CSNchicago.com - 5 Questions with...Tribune's Teddy Greenstein
BIO: Teddy Greenstein covers golf, college football and college hoops for the Chicago Tribune. He enjoys sparring with host David Kaplan on Comcast SportsNet's "Chicago Tribune Live," he pinch-hits on the Score's "Danny Mac Show" and he will appear on the Big Ten Network's "Big Ten and Beyond" show this fall.
A native of New York City, he earned a bachelor's degree from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism in 1994. After stints at the New York Daily News and Sports Illustrated, he joined the Tribune in 1996. He has covered Notre Dame, the Cubs and the White Sox and wrote a sports media column from 2004-08. He votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame and Heisman Trophy, but not the Tony Awards.
He lives in Lakeview with his wife, Nori, and their young daughter.
1) CSNChicago.com: Teddy, there’s no doubt the debate on a college football "playoff format" vs. the current BCS system set-up will continue for a very long time (even President Obama at one point expressed his desire to see the current format changed). Realistically, with the enormous amount of sponsorship money in play for all the bowl games, do you think the BCS system will ever go away?
Greenstein: Absolutely. I’d bet the BCS will be toast in the next 15 years. Why? Because of this symbol: $. Scholarships aren’t getting any cheaper. Neither are lacrosse sticks, batting helmets or shoulder pads. I always find it amusing when pro-playoff guys say the BCS system subsists because of greed. Actually, it’s the opposite. ESPN would mortgage half of its Bristol campus to get university presidents to agree to a playoff. And eventually they will, and then college football, unfortunately, will become like every other sport during a regular season that’s entertaining, but doesn’t really matter. Games like USC-Ohio State will become glorified exhibitions because teams know that they’ll be able to make the playoffs by winning their conference. OK, let me jump off the soap box now before I get a nudge from President Playoffs.
2) CSNChicago.com: Speaking of college football, locally, is there any other coach in the Big Ten that has more "passion" about his team than Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald and...can that passion motivate his players enough to beat extremely difficult Big Ten opponents such as Michigan State and Penn State this season?
Greenstein: I’d like to be around the next time Fitz gets a paper cut just to see if purple would ooze from his fingertip. If there’s a better coach/school fit in this country, I’d like to see it (OK, JoePa could father a Nittany Lion if he really put his mind to it, but the man actually played collegiately at Brown). So to answer the question: No, although JoePa and Ohio-born and-bred Jim Tressel are also in the class picture. Does Fitz’ passion motivate his players to beat top-flight opponents? It certainly helps him recruit the players he needs to win.
3) CSNChicago.com: As a native New Yorker who has lived life in both the Big Apple and now in our fine city, what advice do you have for Chicago sports fans who still hold on to the old "I hate New York teams" mentality?
Greenstein: Well, there’s nothing wrong with a little hatred (sorry, Milton Bradley), as long as Chicagoans can accept a few truths: New York will always have better bagels, tastier thin-crust pizza and an unmatched tradition of baseball excellence (and I’m not talking about the hard-partying Mets of the 1980s). Now that I’ve spent almost half of my life in Chicago, I know we can brag about Wrigley Field, Italian beef, an unmatched lakefront, friendly folks who hold the door open and a certain No. 23 (for the most part) who could beat Patrick Ewing with his eyes closed.
4) CSNChicago.com: Who is your all-time favorite Chicago athlete and, let's throw this one out there, name your all-time favorite Chicago media personality?
Greenstein: Tough call. Is it Albert Belle, Wil Cordero, Sammy Sosa or Kyle Farnsworth? OK, those guys wouldn’t rank in my top 1000. My faves were the guys who could fill up my notebook (Cubs: Mark Grace, Eric Young, Flash Gordon and Jeff Huson...Sox: Scott Eyre, Kelly Wunsch and Greg Norton). I think Grace provided my all-time favorite moment. After Don Baylor named him a captain before the 2000 season, we asked him what it meant. Grace pulled out a cigarette from his locker, pretended to take a drag and said: "Lead by example." My favorite media personality is Hawk Harrelson. If you don’t like it, grab some bench.
5) CSNChicago.com: You have golfed and wrote about your outings with a number of Chicago-area celebs this summer; some terrific stories which fans have enjoyed reading about in the Sunday edition of the Tribune all summer long. One of those outings included CSN’s Pat Boyle, Chuck Garfien and David Kaplan. Be honest, are Kap and Garfien really that good and is there hope for Boyle (he had a great line about being "consistently inconsistent")?
Greenstein: It’s weird with Kap. He said he was a 12-handicap when we played at Olympia Fields, but he shot an 83 with a four-footer for eagle on the first hole (which he flubbed, by the way). Last week, he says he’s a 9-handicap, but shoots 98 at Dubsdread. So when he says he’s a 9, he plays like a 12. And vice-versa. His golf wardrobe also fluctuates between a scratch and a 30, depending on your opinion of pink pants. Garfien’s very solid, but we must disqualify him because he was born and raised in the caddyshack at Olympia Fields. Boyle’s better than the 101 he put up that day. Apparently he gets nervous when the little red light comes on.
BONUS QUESTION...CSNChicago.com: Anything you want to let your fans know about TG? Tell us...
Greenstein: My Tribune "18 Holes with" series will indeed live on in 2010. If anyone wants to nominate someone for me to play with or is tight with Bill Murray, Michael Jordan or Natalie Gulbis, e-mail me at
tgreenstein@tribune.com. Many thanks. Hit ‘em straight.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
