Joe Gisondi
About Me
I covered sports and worked as a sports copy editor for more than 20 years at several newspapers in Florida, including the Fort Myers News-Press, Clearwater Sun, Florida Today and Orlando Sentinel. I started writing for a weekly sports publication in Coral Springs, Fla., at age 15. I have been hooked on sports journalism ever since. I was fortunate to have worked with some amazing editors along the way, journalists who took the time to help me even when my copy was not top-notch. (Perhaps, that is why I now teach journalism at Eastern Illinois University.) I created this blog so I can help others in the same manner.
Favorite Movies
- A League of Their Own
- Field of Dreams
- Groundhog Dog
- Braveheart
- French Kiss
- but I also love sports classics like Bull Durham
- Pride of the Yankees
- Rocky
- Bang The Drum Slowly
- and Cinderella Man. For the record
- I hate The Natural
- a cheap
- cleaned up version of the great book by Bernard Malamud. You might want to check out these two TV miniseries -- Band of Brothers and Lonesome Dove.
Favorite Music
- Eagles
- Beatles
- Green Day
- but I also love any blues music
- especially when I can listen live in places like New Orleans and Chicago.
Favorite Books
- My all-time fave is Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (hey
- he's a journalist too); however
- a close second is John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. There is no better sports book than Seabiscuit
- but check out The Greatest Game Ever Played
- Friday Night Lights
- In These Girls
- Hope Is A Muscle
- The Old Ball Game and anything by John Feinstein.
