PUBLISHED 04/01/2008
Has running helped your heart condition?
My cardiologist, who is wonderful, has laid the claim at my feet that he never expects to see me again because of a heart-related incident. All the training that has occurred subsequently has put me, in his opinion, in the elite athlete class. That the heart is in such great shape he doesn't anticipate seeing me again. I will say this, for somebody who's had a heart attack, it's wonderful to be in the shape I'm in and great to hear from people that you look fit, and it's encouraging to hear from doctors that you're never expected to be seen again. But it's not like a pulled calf muscle or a broken ankle. No one knows what's really going on inside there. So there's a level of fear that propels you to continue to run and exercise as well.
It must have been a pretty scary experience?
It's eye opening. It's like anything that people don't expect to happen. When it happens, you sit there and say to yourself, I can't believe it happened to me. It shakes you up. You have two ways to go: you either do everything you can to make sure it doesn't happen again or you ignore it and, God forbid, it happens a second time.
Do heart attacks run in your family?
My grandfather had several of them beginning at a fairly young age but with the exception of him there's no evidence of heart disease in the family. Most people contribute it to genetics, others contribute it to stress, lack of sleep. The work hours are such that I'm home at 1 a.m. and up at 6 o'clock, 6:30, to be with the kids. I've also learned the beauty of an afternoon nap, if necessary.
How did your colleagues at ESPN take your heart attack?
I think it probably scared a lot of people. I've had many people come up to me and say they're inspired in some way by what happened to me. Most of the people there, because they're on television, they take care of themselves because it's a visual medium and you need to be in some ways appealing to the audience. Most of them are in decent shape. Clearly it was a wake-up call that was heard around the ESPN campus.
Do your colleagues tease you for your workout routine or for being so health conscious?
I was 35 pounds heavier then than I am now. I've heard several people say I didn't even recognize you. That is the greatest reference to what I once looked like versus now. I think people are conditioned to what I look like now. They don't necessarily remember. I do carry my ABC/ESPN ID in my wallet with me as motivation because that was taken literally in 1998, the year of the heart attack. And it's almost an unfamiliar face I'm looking at. I carry it with me in my wallet all the time. It's not as if I need a reminder, because a heart attack is a great reminder, but I do take it out every now and then and I can't believe that was me. My 8-year-old son, who is unedited because he's 8, looked at it and said, "Oh my, God, you were fat."
Is there a big running culture at ESPN?
ESPN is a health conscious company. There's no question about it. There's a full gym there. Because most of the people there were involved with sports at some level they generally take good care of themselves. There really is a high percentage of people that are in good to very good shape.
Is hard to get in the running with your hectic schedule?
It's never been ... I argue with my 13-year-old all the time. He doesn't really have a great penchant for going to school. He doesn't like it. I've always argued with him about the fact that, look it's not as if laying in bed or sleeping will cause school to go away. You have to get up and you may as well embrace it.
I have the same philosophy about running. I do embrace it. I do look forward to it. If I were to get four or five hours sleep, I'm still getting up to exercise because I know later in the day I could probably take a nap. If I miss a day of exercise, I miss it begrudgingly.
I know a lot of GMs and agents run on hotel treadmills. Do you ever get any info from them while you're working out?
I've definitely run next to executives for either teams or Major League Baseball and tried in the moment of sweat and weakness to get some information out of them. They generally have their wits about them. They're not as forthcoming as you would hope they would be, like 'Ouch, I don't know if I can go any more. Yes, we're about to trade this guy. Oh, I need some water.' I haven't had that fall in my lap yet.
In your mind who is the best baseball runner?
I'm a big fan of the guys that are playing today. Jimmy Rollins, who plays for the Philadelphia Phillies, is a stolen base waiting to happen. Curtis Granderson of the Detroit Tigers is another one of those guys who could steal 30 bases in a season if he wants to.
