NEWBERG REPORT PLUS: HAMILTON INTERVIEW

There’s a longtime reader of my baseball stuff whoseabsolute favorite thing about the Newberg Report is when I write about former Ranger farmhands signing with independent league teams. Seriously.

My favorite thing about the Hardline is when Mike Rhyner and Corby Davidson interview someone with an interesting background.

Say what you will about the Ticket. If you’re not a fan, it’s probably because they don’t spend enough time talking sports. On the other hand, if you’re a turbo-P1, your list of the reasons you listen to the Hardline probably goes a couple dozen deep before you get to “Interviews.” I’m a Hardline P1 and dig a lot of what the show offers. But when Rhyner and/or Corby interview someone with some standing in the sports or entertainment world, it’s an automatic stopdown for me.

When Rhynes interviews a ballplayer, particularly one from The Great Game, he never resorts to cliché. When Corby interviews anybody, he consistently gets the best out of them because he’s real. Never sounds like he’s doing a job.

What those two have in common is that they ask good questions. They ask questions that we may or may not have thought of ourselves, but always ones we want the answers to. You can tell that most athletes that do a segment with those guys actually enjoy it, not beaten down by yet another turn in front of a microphone or notepad where they have to fight through the same queries over and over.

I hope you were able to hear the segment they did with Josh Hamilton this afternoon. Very solid 15 minutes.

One exchange, paraphrased:

Q: “Everybody knows your story, and we didn’t bring you up here to tell it again stem to stern. But there are a couple things I want to touch on. [First was a really cool discussion about how much Johnny and Jerry Narron mean to him. Then this . . . ]  So in the dark years, did you just tune baseball out altogether, or did you try to stay up on what was going on in the game, check the box scores, that sort of thing?”

A: “I don’t even read box scores now. I don’t watch ESPN, I don’t watch baseball on TV. I’ll get shot down for saying this, but baseball is really boring to watch. But it’s awesome to play. I love playing the game.”

Q: “What sports do you watch?”

A: “I’m a big college football guy.”

Q: “Who’s your team?”

A: “I don’t really have a favorite team. I usually root for the underdog.”

It was a great, revealing answer, coming from who it came from. Nice job by Rhynes and Corby getting him there, even if not fully by design.

Here's the complete interview.  Enjoy it.

Download hamilton.mp3

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.