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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Baseball's All-Star game is being played in New York Tuesday night. The winner gets home field advantage during the World Series.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers shocked the basketball world with their first pick in last night's NBA draft. The team chose Canadian by-way-of-UNLV Anthony Bennett number one overall.
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The Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs 95-to-88 in Game 7 of the series Thursday night in Miami. LeBron James, who was chosen MVP, had 37 points and 12 rebounds.
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Every time you think you got a handle on this year's NBA Finals, you realize, you have no idea what's going to happen next. Case in point: Before last night's game five against the Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili was slumping and supposedly washed up. Instead he put on a vintage performance and led the Spurs to a ten-point victory over the defending champs.
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The Chicago Blackhawks were on the verge of elimination from the National Hockey League playoffs. But in overtime Wednesday night, they came back to beat the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series.
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In New York's Grand Central Terminal Wednesday, wrestlers from Iran, Russia and the United States faced off in what was dubbed "Rumble on the Rails." This meet was more than just a show of diplomacy and sportsmanship. The athletes want to rally support for their sport which could be excluded from upcoming Olympic games.
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There have been a slew of bad calls in Major League Baseball recently, including one that was made despite the advantage of instant replay.
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Marathons are among the most open sporting events. Crowds can press right up against the route as runners wind there way through city streets. But two explosions at the Boston Marathon have raised questions about whether that openness can last.
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Syracuse is the only college team that relies exclusively on a 2-3 zone defense. They've been unstoppable so far in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, but on Saturday night, Michigan will try to break through Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim's winning strategy. -
The NCAA men's basketball tournament is down to the Final Four. Louisville will play Wichita State and Syracuse faces Michigan. Why does college basketball celebrate the semifinalist teams almost as much as the finalists?
