Steve Wulf | |
---|---|
Born | Steven Ira Wulf December 4, 1950 New York City, New York, United States |
Alma mater | Hamilton College |
Occupation(s) | Magazine editor and book writer |
Steven Ira "Steve" Wulf (born December 4, 1950) is an American magazine journalist, editor, and book writer. A former executive editor at ESPN The Magazine , Wulf continues to write for ESPN The Magazine as well as ESPN.com. Before joining ESPN, Wulf worked for numerous publications, including The Evening Sun in Norwich, NY, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, The Economist, and Time. While working at SI as an associate writer, he met his wife, Jane Bachman Wulf, who was the magazine's chief of reporters. [1]
Wulf was born in New York City, New York, and raised in Troy, New York.
He attended high school at The Albany Academy, in Albany, New York; and graduated from Hamilton College, in Clinton, NY, with a degree in English. [1] After graduating from Hamilton, Wulf climbed into his '69 Chevy Malibu and visited every newspaper in the Northeast until he found a job. [2]
Wulf found his first job at The Evening Sun, a local newspaper in Norwich, NY. As Wulf once recalled in a story he wrote for Sports Illustrated, he spent "15 months as a—no—the sportswriter for The Evening Sun." In one particularly humorous moment during the slow summer months, Wulf once quoted himself in the recap of a local softball game. After a 29-5 victory, Wulf was the only player to go hitless and, having no choice but to interview the player, he "quoted" him as saying, "I went through a two-game batting slump in one night. But I think that I, more than anyone, was responsible for keeping the score down." [3]
After leaving Norwich, Wulf migrated south and worked for the Fort Lauderdale News as its horse-racing writer. He later did free-lance work for newspapers in Boston before becoming a fact-checker at Sports Illustrated. He worked his way up to becoming a staff writer, and then later moved to Time Magazine. When ESPN decided to start its own magazine, Wulf left Time to become one of ESPN The Magazine's original editors.
In addition to his forty years of newspaper and magazine writing, Wulf has published various books including:
Wulf consulted in the making of the documentary television series Baseball , directed by Ken Burns, and has appeared on numerous episodes of ESPN SportsCentury as well as ESPN's 30 for 30 series. [4]
In March 1994, Wulf wrote an article about Michael Jordan's minor-league-baseball career, which was featured on the cover with the headline "Bag It Michael". [5] Due to the incendiary headline, Jordan cut off official communication with Sports Illustrated and his silence continues to this day. [6]
Wulf also appeared numerous times in 30 for 30 , a documentary series on ESPN television. He was interviewed for Silly Little Game, a documentary about the genesis of rotisserie league baseball, as well as Jordan Rides the Bus. In Jordan, Wulf recounts his controversial Sports Illustrated article about Michael's attempt to play baseball. He admits to being too critical of Jordan, but also reveals that he visited the legendary basketball player a second time and wrote a story about how he was showing signs of major-league potential. Sports Illustrated did not run the second story.
Wulf has been married since October, 1984. He and his wife Jane have two sons, Bo and John, as well as twin daughters, Eve and Elizabeth. Wulf often writes about his children and boasts on his Twitter page that he is "the father of four pitchers." [7]
Michael Jeffrey Jordan, also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. He played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) between 1984 and 2003, winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. He was integral in popularizing basketball and the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a global cultural icon. His profile on the NBA website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."
Roger Angell was an American essayist known for his writing on sports, especially baseball. He was a regular contributor to The New Yorker and was its chief fiction editor for many years. He wrote numerous works of fiction, non-fiction, and criticism, and for many years wrote an annual Christmas poem for The New Yorker. Jane Leavy called him "the Babe Ruth of baseball writers."
Steven Norman Carlton is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher for six different teams from 1965 to 1988, most notably as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies with whom he won four Cy Young Awards as well as the 1980 World Series. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994.
The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) is a professional association for journalists writing about Major League Baseball for daily newspapers, magazines, and qualifying websites. The organization was founded in 1908 and is known for its annual awards and voting on membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Daniel Okrent is an American writer and editor. He is best known for having served as the first public editor of The New York Times newspaper, inventing Rotisserie League Baseball, and for writing several books. In November 2011, Last Call won the Albert J. Beveridge prize, awarded by the American Historical Association to the year's best book of American history. His most recent book, published May 2019, is The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America.
Sidd Finch is a fictional baseball player, the subject of the notorious April Fools' Day hoax article "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch" written by George Plimpton and first published in the April 1, 1985, issue of Sports Illustrated. According to Plimpton, Finch was raised in an English orphanage, learned yoga in Tibet, and could throw a fastball as fast as 168 miles per hour (270 km/h).
John William Henry II is an American businessman and the founder of John W. Henry & Company, an investment management firm. He is the principal owner of Liverpool Football Club, the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins, The Boston Globe, and co-owner of RFK Racing. As of August 2023, Forbes estimated his net worth to be US$4 billion.
Steve Rushin is an American journalist, sportswriter and novelist. He was named the 2005 National Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, and is a four-time finalist for the National Magazine Award.
Steven Patrick Garvey is an American former professional baseball player and candidate in the upcoming 2024 United States Senate election in California. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1987.
Benigno Ayala Felix is a Puerto Rican former Major League Baseball player who had a 10-season career from 1974 to 1985. He played outfield, first base, and designated hitter. He played for the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals both of the National League and the Baltimore Orioles and Cleveland Indians both of the American League.
Joshua Holt Hamilton is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 2007 to 2015, most prominently as a member of the Texas Rangers teams that won consecutive American League pennants in 2010 and 2011. A five-time All-Star, Hamilton won three Silver Slugger Awards and was named the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2010. He also won an AL batting championship along with an AL RBI title. During his major league tenure, he also played for the Cincinnati Reds and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Steve Javie is an American retired professional basketball referee who refereed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from the 1986–87 NBA season to the 2010–11 season and is currently an analyst with ESPN and a Catholic permanent deacon. Javie officiated 1,514 regular season, 243 playoff, and 23 NBA Finals games and is one of few NBA referees to officiate 1,000 games. According to Referee magazine, Javie was a highly regarded referee in the NBA, and he was respected within the officiating community for his game management skills. He was also notable during his NBA officiating career for his quickness in assessing technical fouls.
Joe Posnanski, nicknamed "Poz" and "Joe Po", is an American sports journalist. A former senior columnist for Sports Illustrated and columnist for The Kansas City Star, he currently writes for his personal blog JoeBlogs.
Steve Bartelstein is an American former television journalist. He was previously a news anchor in New York City, first at WABC-TV (1999–2007), a flagship station of the ABC television network, WCBS-TV (2007–2009), a flagship station of CBS and later in Chicago at WBBM-TV (2010–2011), a television station owned and operated by the television network CBS.
A rookie card is a trading card that is the first to feature an athlete after that athlete has participated in the highest level of competition within their sport. Collectors may value these first appearances more than subsequent card issues. Athletes are often commemorated on trading cards which are highly collected based on the popularity of the athlete. Prices for rookie cards fluctuate based on consumer interest, supply and demand and other factors, but can surpass thousands of dollars.
Steven Clark Worster was an American professional football player who was a fullback for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Following his prep career in Texas, he played college football for the Texas Longhorns under coach Darrell Royal. A two-time All-American, Worster was the inspiration for the team's wishbone formation, and won two national championships with the Longhorns.
Sport was an American sports magazine. Launched in September 1946 by New York–based publisher Macfadden Publications, Sport pioneered the generous use of color photography – it carried eight full-color plates in its first edition.
Norman Edgar "Peter" Hardy was a Canadian brewer and one of the founding baseball executives of the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Jon Heyman is an American baseball columnist for the New York Post, a baseball insider for MLB Network and WFAN Radio and co-host with Joel Sherman of the baseball podcast The Show.
The Last Dance is a 2020 American sports television documentary miniseries co-produced by ESPN Films and Netflix. Directed by Jason Hehir, the series revolves around the career of Michael Jordan, with particular focus on the 1997–98 season, his final season with the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The series features exclusive footage from a film crew that had an all-access pass to the Bulls, as well as interviews of many NBA personalities, including Jordan's teammates and then-Bulls head coach Phil Jackson.