H&F Interview: Jim Moore

Constable Echelon

Seattle PI columnist Jim Moore (The Go 2 Guy) is something of a lightning rod in the local media scene. As much as he is reviled in Husky circles for his delight in and amplification of recent UW ineptitude, Moore is surely equally celebrated by his Cougar brethren. It may surprise you to know that we at Hotdog & Friends actually enjoy a lot of his work. UW bashing aside, Jim Moore writes consistently interesting and exceedingly readable columns. I recently contacted him to see if he would agree to do an interview for our site. To my delight, he was game.

After the jump I ask Jim Moore about Andy Roof, Paul Wulff, blogs, and the state of newspapers. My questions are in bold and his answers follow. Enjoy.

How did you get started in writing? Where have you worked? How did you get your current gig?

I got started in sportswriting in junior high, at Redmond Junior High. Wrote for the school newspaper, then also at the school newspaper in high school. Then when I got to WSU, just figured it would be a fun job. And it has been. The biggest downside is that you don’t get rich doing this, but that’s ok I guess. I’d rather enjoy my job than make a lot of money and hate it.
I worked at two papers before getting the job at the P-I 26 years ago, jesus, can’t believe it’s been that long. Ketchikan Daily News sports editor when I first got out of college in ’79, then a sportswriter at the Anchorage Daily News from ’80 to ’82. The best thing about having jobs in Alaska? The bars were open until 5 a.m. and I was in my 20s. A great combination.
I got this column five and a half years ago. Not sure how it came about exactly. My then-boss, Ron Matthews, who now works with the Thunder in Oklahoma City, asked if I wanted to do it, and I thought, “Ok, why not?” I’d covered the Sonics and had other beats and thought it was the next step to take for a writer. But I had no idea what he wanted me to do with it, so I asked. He told me to just be myself, and that’s basically what i’ve done. I’m a Coug who likes to golf and likes dogs and likes to drink beer. Guess that about sums it up.

When you sit down to write, who do you imagine to be your reader? Or does it matter?

I don’t imagine being anything to the reader, other than myself. I try to write something on the lighter side. I’d rather have it be an easy read than deep and insightful. Maybe I say that because I don’t know if I do deep and insightful very well. I don’t have deep and insightful down like Art Thiel does. Nor do I have his vocabulary or grasp of the language. So I just try to do what I do as well as I can, if that makes sense.

What’s reader feedback like for you writing in UW’s backyard? Do you take particular delight in writing columns that cause Husky fans to lose their shit over issues ultimately irrelevant, like your column about Jake Locker’s baseball prospects?

Reader feedback varies, good and bad. Mostly bad when it comes to Husky columns. I’ve been called a lot of names, etc. I write back to everyone, or try to, and the interesting thing is, I don’t get confrontation. I just say something like, sorry you didn’t like the column but thanks for writing. More often than not, they’ll write back and have calmed down by then, occasionally apologizing. People seem to be generally nice after they’ve been jerks.
I didn’t take particular delight in the Locker columns about his baseball ability. I just thought it was a definite possibility for him based on what the scouts said about him. What I got a kick out of most – as if he’s going to read a column by some yahoo in Seattle and say, “You know, that guy in Seattle is right, maybe i should sign with the Orioles.” I can’t even get my dog to do what I tell him to do.

The state of newspapers is pretty terrible. Do you worry about the increasing scarcity of newspaper jobs, or are you just focusing on what you can control? Do you see the industry ever recovering its footing?

I do worry about the future of our industry and my own job security. But having said that, have I done anything about it? No. I guess I should be more proactive in that regard, and look into website opportunities as other guys I know have done, but I haven’t. Maybe it’s laziness. Maybe it’s just blind hope that I’ll keep my job until I retire.
If the industry recovers its footing, it will be on-line. As for how the industry accomplishes that, I’m not sure. That’s the big question. It appears we’re not generating enough revenue on line to this point, but i know it’s a big focus of ours, getting things on line. In fact, I’m starting a blog this week…I think.
I don’t necessarily want to do a blog becasue it’s more work and we’re not getting extra money to do it. But then again, I don’t want to be some dumb-ass dinosaur who’s oblivious to what’s going on. I’m going to get it going. As far as the nature of it, I have no idea, probably more mindless ramblings about stuff.

Do you read any blogs? Do you read any message boards? Which ones? How do you feel about non newspaper blogs like Deadspin, USS Mariner?

I do read blogs, but not many. Mostly those on the P-I and Times website, just to keep up on what’s going on with local teams. I also look at the Spokesman-Review’s blog on the Cougars, and Ted Miller’s blog on the Pac-10 on ESPN. That’s about it. I’m not very computer savvy to be honest. I’d rather be golfing or hanging out with my kids and/or dog than sitting at a computer reading.
Message board? From time to time, I do read them at dawgman.com and cougfan.com. I especially enjoy the Husky comments after big losses. But there’s not much positive happening with my team either. USS Mariner I look at from time to time. I’ve definitely heard about that one. And this season, I talked to the guy behind it. Sounds like it’s a pretty popular one with Mariner fans.

Any thoughts on Buzz Bissinger’s blowup at Will Leitch on Costas Now earlier this year? Any insight as to your colleagues potential thoughts on the matter (that incident/blogs in general)?

I watched that Costas show and thought Bissinger was an idiot. He came across just like I wouldn’t want to come across: like some unenlightened, clueless oldster idiot. Plus it was unprovoked. If I’d been there and the Deadspin guy was so inclined, I would have helped him gang-tackle Bissinger and blown him off the stage. Colleagues seem to think blogs are a necessary evil and don’t want to do them. The ones that are really good, I admire and respect those who do them. And if I’m a fan of the team, I’d love it. But if I was the guy’s wife or kid, I’d hate it. It takes too much time to do a good one, and at my age, 51, I don’t want to cut into my personal time any more than I have to. But I’d probably say that if I were 41, 31 or 21 too.

Sportswriters have a reputation as an exceedingly bitter crowd. You don’t seem so jaded, probably because as you said you don’t expect to get rich doing this. I remember it seemed like before Ted Miller left, four out of five of his columns were depressing/cynical and left me wondering, “Why does this guy do this if he doesn’t like sports?” So, is this reputation deserved among your peers?

In answer to your question, yes, the reputation is deserved. We are a bitter, cynical lot. Not sure why exactly. We don’t necessarily care if the home team wins or loses the game. In fact, sometimes a loss is a better story. Personally, I generally root for the Seahawks to win because I like Holmgren and Hasselbeck so much, and to a lesser extent, Kerney. The rest of them, I don’t know very well. And I hate to say it, but it didn’t bother me that the Sonics left town. Keep in mind, I don’t want to feel this way about the Sonics because I used to love that team. Sam Farmer of the L.A. Times, I believe he said this, or someone told me he did…”Being a sportswriter takes the fan out of you.” That happens because you grow weary of the salaries and the holdouts and the dicks you have to deal with in the locker room from time to time. There’s also a repetitiveness to the questions and the answers. I find myself asking the same questions and getting the same answers, only the athletes change. I aspired to cover pro sports and now I wonder why that was important to me. It’s almost more fun now to cover high school kids. When I get cynical, I try to think of the 10-year-old kid I used to be, and how much I loved all of the local teams, and how crushed I’d be if the Sonics left. The predecessors to the Mariners, the Seattle Pilots, were here for one season in 1969. I was 12 and crushed to the point of tears when they left for Milwaukee.
Let me be clear about it, I still love what I do. and we only gripe to each other. I’m very fortunate to have this job. VERY fortunate, in many ways. I don’t have to go to the office very often. Don’t have to dress up. Don’t have to carry a briefcase. Don’t have to punch a time clock. I can, and do, write at a Mercer Island park from a chaise lounge while my dog chases tennis balls in Lake Washington. And I go to games and write about them. So no complaints, really.

Alright, let’s move on to the Cougars. Is Paul Wulff the answer?

I don’t know if Paul Wulff is the answer. I hope so. Before the season started I would have said yes. Now I’m not so sure. I know the players are crummy, but there seems to be more going on than that. The way they get blown out suggests there are some intangibles at work. Maybe the players can’t stand him. I don’t know. I’m trying to find out though.

What’s Bill Doba’s legacy? I realize that’s probably tough to frame under current circumstances, but are there positives to be taken away from his tenure?

Bill Doba? I can’t say anything negative about him. I like him and respect him. But I do think the talent level dropped during his time there.

Looking back, how do you feel about the Andy Roof saga? You wrote a handful of columns on the subject that one of my fellow Hotdog & Friends writers pretty much despised. That’s on the basis of you passionately defending a troubled Cougar where elsewhere joking about hoping for Husky arrests. Should we just read that as “In general I’m delighted by Husky arrests because they’re bad for the program, but if pressed I actually care about the individuals.” How would you have treated the Andy Roof story had he been a Husky?

I screwed up with Andy Roof. Like other writers, I’m a sucker at times for stories of redemption, and Roof’s seemed to be a good one: recovering from booze to play again. So I wrote that, then two weeks later he was in a big scuffle. Still not sure if he drank or not, but it sure appears that he might have. Whatever the case, he was thrown out of school. Again. I goofed with him.
If Roof had been a Husky, I would have been all over him. And the kid, Xavier Hicks, who put rubbing alcohol in a teammate’s contact lens case. That’s just part of the column being Cougar-slanted. I’m sure it affects my credibility, but the way I look at it, my credibility was probably shot long ago. Basically I just don’t want the column to be boring.

How does WSU keep nabbing talents like Marcus Trufant and Brandon Gibson from UW’s backyard? As a Husky fan I should be furious about this, right?

I still think the Huskies get mostly whomever they want, and the Gibsons and Trufants are the exception for WSU, unfortunately.

Does a terrible and potentially winless UW team stand a chance against an equally terrible WSU team this year?

The Huskies have a great chance in the Apple Cup. They’re bad, but we’ve redefined terrible. Even at Martin Stadium, I’d bet the Huskies will be 3 or 4 point favorites over the Cougs.

Check out our Pac-10 Football Podcast! Updated every Tuesday during the season and available on ITunes. Search: “Pac-10 Football”

Tags: Interview, Jim Moore, Media