Mike Lupica
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Michael Lupica (born 1952 in Oneida, New York) is an American newspaper columnist, best known for his provocative commentary on sports in the New York Daily News and his appearances on ESPN.
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[edit] Biography
Lupica spent his childhood in New Hampshire and graduated from Boston College. He first came to prominence as a sportswriter in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Lupica wrote “The Sporting Life” column at Esquire magazine for ten years beginning in the late 1980s, and is currently writing a regular column for Travel + Leisure Golf. He has also written for Golf Digest, Parade, ESPN The Magazine, and Men’s Journal, and has received numerous awards, including, in 2003, the Jim Murray Award from the National Football Foundation.[1]
[edit] Daily News columnist
Lupica writes several sports columns during the week for the Daily News, as well as a signature Sunday column, "Shooting from the Lip." "Shooting from the Lip" features a traditional column on half the page, followed by a series of short, acerbic observations from the week in sports. He recently began writing a regular political column entitled "Mondays with Mike," which is strongly liberal in orientation.
Favorite Lupica targets include the New York Yankees, James Dolan, Isiah Thomas, Notre Dame football, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, former President George W. Bush, and former Vice President Dick Cheney. Lupica has also been a harsh critic of the new Yankee Stadium and was a vehement opponent of the proposed West Side Stadium. He has likewise been highly critical of the Atlantic Yards project and the attendant construction of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
[edit] Author
In addition to his newspaper work, Lupica has authored several books. He co-wrote autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells and collaborated with screenwriter William Goldman on Wait Till Next Year, and Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away From the Fans and How We Get It Back.[2] Lupica also wrote The Summer of ’98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America, which detailed how the 1998 Yankees and the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run chase had allowed him to share a love for baseball with his son.[3] Lupica has been listed a vocal critic of the steroid era.[citation needed]
Lupica is also a novelist; his work includes mysteries involving fictional NYC television reporter "Peter Finley." One of them, Dead Air, was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Mystery and adapted into a television movie called Money, Power, Murder.[1]He has written a novel for younger audiences called Travel Team. Lupica’s Bump and Run and Wild Pitch were best sellers. 2003 saw a sequel to Bump and Run, entitled Red Zone. In April 2006, his second children's book, Heat, was published by Philomel. Heat is a fictional story based on the Danny Almonte scandal in the South Bronx Little League. In October 2006, Lupica's third children's novel, Miracle on 49th Street, was published. Summer Ball, a sequel to Travel Team, was released in 2007. Lupica plans to release a new novel called Backhand in 2009 about a boy named Jon who learns to play tennis.
[edit] Television & radio work
In addition to his printed work, since 1988 Lupica has been one of the rotating pundits on The Sports Reporters on ESPN.[4] He also briefly hosted an unsuccessful television chat program, The Mike Lupica Show, on ESPN2, as well as a short-lived radio show on WFAN in New York City in the mid-1990s. He has been a recurring guest on the CBS Morning News, Good Morning America and The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. Lupica has made frequent radio appearances on Imus in the Morning since the early 1980s.[5]
[edit] Personal life
Lupica is a self-described "serial Little League coach" with his three sons and a daughter. He and his family live in New Canaan, Connecticut. (He is not the same Mike Lupica who hosts a radio program on WFMU.) Lupica described his fundamental approach to sportswriting in a press release:
| “ | My whole deal on sports is that I still go to the ballpark to celebrate sports.[6] | ” |
[edit] Criticism
Lupica has been criticized by several peers for adopting a morally indignant attitude toward steroid use in baseball after having authored Summer of '98, which glorified the epic Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase now widely regarded as tainted due to the suspected PED use of both players.[7][8] Will Leitch, writing for The New York Times, accused Lupica of "hypocrisy" on this point,[9] a charge echoed by ESPN.com's Bill Simmons.[10]
Lupica has also been involved in a number of high-profile controversies with co-workers. Columnist Jason Whitlock, a former regular on ESPN's The Sports Reporters, accused Lupica of getting him kicked off the show for refusing to participate in a "Barry Bonds witch hunt" and labeled Lupica "an insecure, mean-spirited busybody" who "doesn't like to be disagreed with."[11] In 2008, Lupica was reportedly responsible for Daily News colleague Lisa Olson quitting the paper after he appropriated her assigned topic at the NFC Championship Game, causing her to miss her deadline and be passed over for an assignment to Super Bowl XLII.[12]
[edit] Bibliography
- Reggie! (1984)
- Dead Air (1986)
- Parcells: An Autobiography of the Biggest Giant of Them All (1987)
- Wait 'Till Next Year, (with William Goldman, 1988)
- Shooting From The Lip: Essays, Columns, Quips, and Gripes in the Grand Tradition of Dyspeptic Sports Writing (1988)
- Extra Credits (1990)
- Limited Partner (1990)
- Jump! (1995)
- Mad As Hell: How Sports Got Away From the Fans and How We Get It Back (1996)
- Summer of '98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America (1999)
- Bump and Run (2000)
- Full Court Press (2001)
- Wild Pitch (2002)
- Red Zone (2003)
- Too Far (2004)
- Travel Team (2004)
- Heat (2005)
- Miracle on 49th Street (2006)
- Hot Hand (2007)
- Two-Minute Drill (2007)
- Summer Ball (2007)
- Safe at Home (2008)
- The Big Field (2008)
- Yankees '98: Best Ever! (a compendium of Daily News coverage, 1999)
- Best American Sports Writing 2005 (2005)
- Fathers & Sons & Sports: An Anthology of Great American Sports Writing (2008)
[edit] Trivia
Lupica is mentioned as George Costanza's favorite writer in the third season Seinfeld episode "The Red Dot."
[edit] References
- ^ a b Speaker Page: Mike Lupica from Greater Talent Network.
- ^ Wait Till Next Year from Amazon.com (listing).
- ^ Summer of ’98 from Amazon.com (listing).
- ^ The Sports Reporters on TV.com.
- ^ "Press release" from Boats, Books, and Brushes, 19 May 2003
- ^ "Mike Lupica" from the Lavin Agency.
- ^ Wetzel, Dan (2007-08-09). "People's Voice: Bonds polarizes". YahooSports.com. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=dw-bondsletters080907&prov=yhoo&type=lgns. Retrieved on 2009-06-09.
- ^ "Animal Droppings: The Times' Horse Sense". New York Press. 2007-02-14. http://www.newyorkpress.com/20/6/news&columns/russsmith.cfm. Retrieved on 2009-06-09.
- ^ Leitch, Will (2007-01-11). "Big Mac's Big Night". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/opinion/11leitch.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-10.
- ^ Simmons, Bill (2007-01-15). "A Hall of Justice". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070103&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos2. Retrieved on 2009-06-09.
- ^ "Oh Damn, Did Whitlock Really Say That? A Q&A With Jason Whitlock". TheBigLead.com. 2006-09-22. http://thebiglead.com/?p=1038. Retrieved on 2009-06-09.
- ^ Kelly, Keith J. (2008-02-01). "News' Super Brawl: Female Scribe Quits Over Lupica's 'Ego Trip'". New York Post. http://www.nypost.com/seven/02012008/business/news_super_brawl_843311.htm?page=0. Retrieved on 2009-06-09.
