Format Update-Jon Dolezar (MLB.com) Interview Part I

Thank you to the loyal followers of my Daily Game Plan For Victory Blog. In keeping up with efforts to provide fresher and different content I am adding a couple of features. I will be resuming the traditional format once a week starting next week and also adding 2 new features. I will do more 'mini blogs' that will focus on just one aspect (personal, professional, financial) that reflect daily events and also posting interviews with members of the sports world.

Today I have an interview from Jon Dolezar, an editorial producer for The Official Website of Major League Baseball, MLB.com. Jon is a former colleague of mine and has lived and worked in the sports media for more than 10 years with previous stops at CNN Sports, CNNSI and SI.com. Please enjoy part one of my two part interview with Jon.

1. When/how did you develop your passion for sports?

I've been a sports fan for as long as I can remember. I would say that my passion was developed at the first pro sporting event I ever attended -- a Milwaukee Bucks game against the New Orleans Jazz (dating myself, clearly, with that mere fact) on March 14, 1979, which the Bucks won 158-102, their highest-scoring regulation game ever and largest margin of victory ever. My father likes to recall that I spent most of the game asking (I was 4 1/2) "What's the score now, Daddy?" Just his luck that it would be the highest-scoring Bucks game ever! Seeing the speed, grace and fluidity of an NBA game (words that were applicable to the late-1970s NBA that surely wouldn't be used to describe today's version of pro basketball) just captivated me so much, and I pretty much worshipped all things Bucks during most of the 1980s, as they were on their run on nine straight Central Division titles.

Even before I had attended a game, though, I enjoyed listening to them on the radio. In fact, when my parents asked me when I was 3 years old what i wanted to be when I grew up, I replied: "Jim Irwin." Mr. Irwin was the play-by-play announcer for the Packers and Bucks games on WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee, and even by age 3, I was already obsessed with sports. Most 3-year-olds played with blocks and balls, I listened to sporting events on the radio. So from as early as I can remember, I've followed sports and wanted to be somehow involved in it. That led to me majoring in journalism in college and working toward becoming a journalist, which was the best way that I could stay involved in the game given my inability to hit a curveball, knock down an open 3-pointer from the wing, outrun a linebacker or skate with a speedy goal-scoring forward.

Additionally, growing up in Wisconsin in the late 1970s and early '80s, I saw some pretty awful football, but witnessing the dedication of Packers fans -- even through those terrible David Whitehurst/Lynn Dickey years -- made me realize that the passion and the camaraderie of sports were almost as important as the outcome itself. Note I said almost, since once your team starts to get decent, your mind-set changes a bit. It turned out to be a heck of a lot more fun when the Packers got decent in the late '80s and early '90s, but at the time, we didn't know any better back when they stunk every year, so we still cheered our hearts out for those terrible Packers teams anyways!

2. Is there something or someone from pro or college that you draw inspiration from on a regular basis?

I draw inspiration from any athlete who is passionate about what they do and goes about their business in the right way. Having covered sports for 14 years now dating back to my college newspaper days, you begin to get a bit jaded about the games/results after awhile, and the stories and the personalities begin to shine through. So I'd much rather watch a great Tom Rinaldi piece (shoutout to a former CNN/SI co-worker of ours) on some no-name athlete with a great backstory than to watch a puff piece about a famous athlete that most sports fans already know plenty about.

ESPN ran a piece the other day (http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3696478&categoryId=3060647) on D.J. Gregory, a man who has cerebral palsy and had a dream to walk every hole of every PGA golf tournament this season. Stories like that are the essence of sports to me, as great or likely even greater than watching what Tiger Woods did on Sunday at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines this past June. You can clearly draw inspiration from watching an amazing once-in-a-generation athlete like Tiger perform his craft at the highest level, but seeing someone like D.J. Gregory achieve a dream of his own and overcome some serious physical limitations is a much more inspirational story to me.

I still love to watch the games, obviously, but as I get older (and now that I have two boys of my own), the backstories of athletes intrigue me much more, both from a personal or a professional standpoint. I guess I'm getting soft in my old age.

(Part II to be continued on Friday)