Mike Pesca
Mike Pesca first reached the airwaves as a 10-year-old caller to a New York Jets-themed radio show and has since been able to parlay his interests in sports coverage as a National Desk correspondent for NPR based in New York City.
Pesca enjoys training his microphone on anything that occurs at a track, arena, stadium, park, fronton, velodrome or air strip (i.e. the plane drag during the World's Strongest Man competition). He has reported from Los Angeles, Cleveland and Gary. He has also interviewed former Los Angeles Ram Cleveland Gary. Pesca is a panelist on the weekly Slate podcast "Hang up and Listen".
In 1997, Pesca began his work in radio as a producer at WNYC. He worked on the NPR and WNYC program On The Media. Later he became the New York correspondent for NPR's midday newsmagazine Day to Day, a job that has brought him to the campaign trail, political conventions, hurricane zones and the Manolo Blahnik shoe sale. Pesca was the first NPR reporter to have his own podcast, a weekly look at gambling cleverly titled "On Gambling with Mike Pesca."
Pesca, whose writing has appeared in Slate and The Washington Post, is the winner of two Edward R. Murrow awards for radio reporting and, in1993, was named Emory University Softball Official of the Year.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife Robin, sons Milo and Emmett and their dog Rumsfeld. A believer in full disclosure, Pesca rates his favorite teams as the Jets, Mets, St. Johns Red Storm and Knicks, teams he has covered fairly and without favor despite the fact that they have given him a combined one championship during his lifetime as a fully cognizant human.
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In last night's game one of the World Series, umpires changed an out call at second base. Instead of a possible inning-ending double play, the Boston Red Sox went on to score three runs and eventually beat the St. Louis Cardinals.
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The Red Sox won the World Series opener in Boston on Wednesday night, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 8-1.
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The play Fetch Clay, Make Man explores the sense of identity through the eyes of two significant figures in black history — Stepin Fetchit (Lincoln Perry) and Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). -
This was the final season for New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. His number is being retired by the only team he has ever played for during his 19-year Major League Baseball career. Rivera with his signature pitch, the cut fastball, was one of the most successful closers in baseball history.
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Controversy is heating up over the selection of Qatar to host the World Cup in 2022. Soccer's governing body is deciding whether to move the series from summer to winter because of the high temperatures during Qatar's summer months.
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The International Olympic committee (IOC) has elected a new president, Thomas Bach of Germany. He assumes leadership of an organization that faces criticism over politics, costs and what some view as its insular approach to which sports are offered during the games. The new president succeeds Jacques Rogge, who lead the IOC for 12 years.
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The college football season got under way Thursday night. In one game, Presbyterian College lost to Wake Forest 31-7. That result was not a surprise. Presbyterian is the smallest football school in Division I. Every year, lower-level Division I schools make a lot of money losing to larger and richer schools.
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By the standard of normal golfing mortals, Tiger Woods has had an incredible summer. He's won multiple tournaments and millions of dollars in prize money. What he didn't do was win any of golf's four major championships. And those major wins are his measure of success. -
For years, ESPN has been the dominant name in sports broadcasting, not to mention the most profitable bundle of channels on cable television. But it will face its first serious challenge when Fox launches its 24-hour national sports network.
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Jason Dufner has won his first major golf title with a two-stroke victory over Jim Furyk at the PGA Championship. Dufner bogeyed the final two holes Sunday for a 2-under 68 that was good enough to hold off the 2003 U.S. Open champion. The winning score was 10-under 270.
