| Dan Le Batard | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 16, 1968 |
| Residence | Miami, Florida |
| Education | University of Miami |
| Employer | Miami Herald, 790 The Ticket, ESPN |
| Known for | Sports journalist, sports radio host, sports television personality |
Dan Le Batard (born December 16, 1968) is a Cuban-American newspaper sportswriter, radio host, and television reporter based out of Miami, Florida. He is best known for his work for his hometown paper, the Miami Herald, for whom he has worked since 1990. Since 2004, he has also hosted his own radio show, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, on a local Miami radio station. He is a frequent contributor to several ESPN programs, serving as a regular replacement host for Pardon the Interruption when one of the regular hosts is out. In 2011, he began hosting the ESPN2 show Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable with his father, Gonzalo Le Batard.
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Le Batard graduated from the University of Miami in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and politics.[1] During his college career, he was a sportswriter for the college newspaper, The Miami Hurricane. While at the University of Miami, he received criticism for helping to escalate the rancor in the UM versus University of Notre Dame rivalry by publishing Lou Holtz's personal phone number and by referring to coach Lou Holtz as Sir Lou, or Lou Sir (Loser). Dan requested his readers to call all through the week of the game to help distract the coach.
Le Batard began work at the Miami Herald in 1990 and is a columnist for its sports section. His first major work for The Herald was to investigate his former college's football team. In fact, he made his journalistic 'bones' by breaking the Miami Hurricanes Football Team Pell Grant scandal. LeBatard has also written for a number of magazines including Cosmopolitan, Maxim, and ESPN The Magazine.
In addition to his work for the Miami Herald, Le Batard hosts an afternoon radio show weekdays with Jon "Stugotz" Weiner on WAXY 790 The Ticket in Miami. Le Batard is known for his self-deprecating humor, which carries over onto the show through running jokes. LeBatard grants very few interviews about his own life, but in a rare one he did with Aventura Business Monthly in Miami in March, 2011, he revealed that Tony Kornheiser, who began a long-running radio career of his own in 1992 on Washington D.C.-based WTEM, strongly encouraged him to embark on a career in the same medium, telling him: "It will link [you] to [your] community in a different way [than newspapers]. That it will be more intimate, more fun. It's not as lonely as writing. Writing is just you and a computer, and that it's not communal in any way. Radio is much more intimate." [2]
Le Batard prides himself on being the "uncomfortable" sports journalist. He often writes about controversial topics, especially race. Guests on his radio program may be asked questions ranging from the racial undertones of the Michael Vick case to the effect that race has on how players are drafted into the NBA. After writing a column for The Herald on the former topic, Le Batard was featured on Fox News's Hannity & Colmes to discuss the issue.[3]
Le Batard is an outspoken critic of disciplinarian coaches, feeling that the disciplinarian style of coaching is ill-suited to the modern era of high player salaries and guaranteed contracts.
Le Batard is a frequent contributor to many programs on the ESPN television network. Among others, he is a recurring guest on Outside the Lines, The Sports Reporters, and College GameDay. He is also a regular guest host of Pardon the Interruption, where he has been christened "The Hateable Dan Le Batard" due to his sometimes controversial (and usually contrarian) opinions, as well as his unorthodox attire. Hosting duties on PTI have allowed Le Batard the implementation of the catch-phrase "Bam!", which he exclaims in various ways at the beginning of each show he guest hosts. Le Batard has a joking rivalry with PTI stat boy Tony Reali.
In 2011, he got his own ESPN show. The show, called "Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable", airs on ESPN2 as part of the afternoon "Sports Talk Block", and features Le Batard and his father Gonzalo (whom he calls "Papi") discussing current sports topics.[4]