Jeff Passan

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Jeff Passan
Jeff Passan (5oxS9zRebYI) (cropped).png
Passan at the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings in 2019
Born1980or1981(age 44–45) [1]
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Alma mater Syracuse University
Occupation(s)Sportswriter
Author

Jeff Passan is an American baseball columnist with ESPN and author of New York Times Best Seller The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports. He is also co-author of Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series. [2]

Contents

Career

After graduating from Solon High School near Cleveland, Ohio, Passan attended Syracuse University, where he wrote for The Daily Orange . [3] Passan covered Fresno State basketball. He began covering baseball in 2004 at The Kansas City Star , [4] before moving to Yahoo! two years later. After 13 years at Yahoo! (2006–18), he announced that he was joining ESPN's Baseball team in January 2019. In early 2022, Passan signed a four-year, $4 million contract with ESPN. [5] While working at ESPN, he makes guest appearances on SportsCenter , Get Up , The Rich Eisen Show , The Pat McAfee Show and other ESPN studio shows. [6]

In 2018, while working for Yahoo!, Passan refused to cast his ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame due to a letter that Joe Morgan wrote to the voters asking that steroid users be excluded. [7] He has voiced negative opinions of the Baseball Hall of Fame due to its exclusion of players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens that were involved in performance-enhancing drug scandals. [8]

Awards and recognition

Passan has been a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America since 2004, while he was at The Kansas City Star . [9] The National Sports Media Association named Passan as the 2021 National Sportswriter of the Year. [10] He won the award again in 2023. [11]

Passan received the 2022 Dan Jenkins medal for Excellence in Sportswriting for his ESPN article, "San Francisco Giants Outfielder Drew Robinson's Remarkable Second Act." [12]

Personal life

Passan's family is Jewish. [13] Passan graduated from Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 2002 with a degree in journalism. [14]

After a lull in posting in 2023, Passan announced via Twitter that he had been struck by a falling tree limb after a storm, fracturing his back. He retained the use of his limbs and extremities. [15]

References

  1. ↑ Sblendorio, Peter (July 17, 2023). "ESPN's Jeff Passan suffers broken back from fallen tree limb". New York Daily News . Retrieved August 21, 2025.
  2. ↑ Death to the BCS . Gotham. 2010. ISBN   978-1-59240-570-1 – via Archive.org.
  3. ↑ Grossman, Connor (April 15, 2016). "Newsmakers: Jeff Passan discusses release of 'The Arm'". The Daily Orange . Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  4. ↑ McGowin, Daniel (October 6, 2009). "Jeff Passan, Sports Media, and the Loss of Power". Bleacher Report . Retrieved May 2, 2023.
  5. ↑ Conway, Tyler (April 5, 2022). "Report: Adam Schefter, Adrian Wojnarowski's ESPN Contract Details, Salaries Revealed". Bleacher Report . Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Jeff Passan". ESPN Press Room U.S. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  7. ↑ Passan, Jeff (November 23, 2017). "I am giving up my Hall of Fame vote because of Joe Morgan's letter". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  8. ↑ Passan, Jeff (January 25, 2022). "Barry Bonds was shut out of Cooperstown -- and that's a Hall of Fame failure". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  9. ↑ "Jeff Passan – BBWAA". February 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  10. ↑ "National Awards | National Sports Media Association". National Sports Media Association. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  11. ↑ Kotuby, Jeff (January 9, 2024). "Joe Buck, Andrea Kremer Headline National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame Class". Barrett Sports Media. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  12. ↑ "Texas Moody Media". Texas Moody Media. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  13. ↑ Gurvis, Jacob (March 1, 2023). "ESPN's Jeff Passan on Hebrew school, Sandy Koufax and Jewish baseball history". The Times of Israel . ISSN   0040-7909 . Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  14. ↑ Jeff Passan (2017). "Still No Cheering in the Press Box: Jeff Passan". Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism (Interview). Interviewed by Scott Gelman. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  15. ↑ "BREAKING: My back". Twitter. Retrieved July 18, 2023.
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