| John Canzano | |
|---|---|
| Show | The Bald-Faced Truth |
| Station(s) | 750AM Portland, OR |
| Time slot | 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. PST |
| Style | Sports radio |
| Country | United States |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Canzano |
John Canzano is an American sports columnist, radio talk show host on Portland's 750 AM "The Game" and sports columnist at The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon. He hosts a daily radio show called The Bald Faced Truth.
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In his career,[1] Canzano has worked at six daily newspapers including The San Jose Mercury News and The Fresno Bee. He covered University of Notre Dame football and Indiana University basketball as the beat writer during the tenure of coach Bob Knight.
Canzano currently serves as the lead sports columnist at The Oregonian. He also hosts a daily afternoon-drive radio show called "The Bald-Faced Truth" on Portland's 750 AM"The Game".
He is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America and the Professional Football Writers Association, and has made TV appearances on ESPN2, ESPN News and ESPN's SportsCenter. Canzano's work has also appeared in GQ magazine and The Sporting News, among other publications.
Canzano has won numerous Associated Press Sports Editors awards. In 2009, Canzano was voted America's No. 1 sports columnist by the APSE.[2] In 2007 and 2008, the Associated Press named Canzano the nation's No. 2 sports columnist among large-circulation newspapers, with Canzano finishing second to the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Plaschke both times.[3] Canzano was recognized by The Press Club of Atlantic City as national sportswriter of the year in 2004.[4]
In 2002, Canzano was named the nation's top investigative sports writer by the Associated Press News Executives Council[5] for his enterprise piece on Carlos Rodriguez,[6] a 21-year-old Dominican basketball star who was masquerading as a 17-year-old high school basketball player.
Canzano is a two-time Oregon Sportswriter of the Year winner.
On July 7, 2007, the Portland Beavers' Triple-A baseball team held "John Canzano Bobblehead Night."[7] Also, on Aug. 29, 2009, the LPGA Safeway Classic featured "John Canzano Bobblehead Day," as part of the tour event held at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Oregon.[8]
Canzano graduated from California State University, Chico in 1995 with a B.A. in English. [9]
During the 2003-04 National Basketball Association (NBA) season, Canzano wrote a column after the third marijuana-related arrest for Portland Trail Blazers guard Damon Stoudamire. Stoudamire had completed a 90-day rehabilitation, and publicly sworn off the use of marijuana, however, the columnist wrote[10] that he didn't believe Stoudamire was sincere. Stoudamire offered to take an unannounced urine test during the season to prove his sobriety. Midway through the season, Canzano appeared in the team locker room and produced a specimen bottle which Stoudamire filled; an independent testing laboratory reported back the result that he was indeed "clean".[11] The incident rehabilitated Stoudamire in the minds of many Portland fans, who had come to regard him as one of the "Jail Blazers". However, both men were widely criticized by the NBA Players Association for the drug test, which said that players may only submit to such tests as prescribed by the league's collective bargaining agreement.
In response, Canzano appeared on ESPN's SportsCenter where he offered, in an interview with Dan Patrick, to take a drug test to prove his own sobriety.
During the 2004-05 season, Canzano uncovered a secret settlement agreement between troubled Trail Blazers forward Darius Miles[12] and Blazers then-team president Steve Patterson. Miles had incurred a $150,000 fine for berating popular coach Maurice Cheeks in a film session. Under the proposed agreement crafted between Miles and Patterson, which was put together without the knowledge of the general manager John Nash and Cheeks, Miles fine was to be returned to the small-forward, "with interest,"[13] according to Canzano's report in The Oregonian.
Many of the Trail Blazers/Canzano tales are outlined in an interview Canzano did with a national blogger, available here: [1].
According to the Willamette Week newspaper, also during the 2004-05 season, a Portland Trail Blazers, Inc. department manager registered the domain name (www.johncanzano.com), possibly in an attempt to harass Canzano.[14] The website was later claimed as intellectual property, and Canzano used the site to raise funds for a Hurricane Katrina family.
In 2009, Canzano co-founded The Bald Faced Truth Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit, all-volunteer organization that aims to fund extracurricular activities for kids. The foundation offers grants to children who hope to participate in the areas of arts, music, drama, education, athletics and other enriching extra-curricular activities.
In July 2010, Canzano married Anna Song, weekend anchor for Portland television station KATU.[15] Song subsequently changed her name to Anna Canzano.