Editor’s note: “As Told To Amy G,” presented by Toyota, will feature exclusive conversations with Giants staff, players and alums, as well as interesting figures around Major League Baseball, throughout the 2019 season. Today, Amy catches up with MLB journalist Ken Rosenthal.
I met Ken Rosenthal in 2004. I was a freelance producer picking up gigs with FOX SportsNet and FOX SportsNet Bay Area. I was asked to field produce an interview with Billy Beane, GM of the Oakland A’s, and a sports writer starting to make the jump to TV named Ken Rosenthal.
Did I mention I was pregnant? And not like a little preggers, but at the seven-month mark.
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I got everything set up, but was thrown a curveball that day when our interview room was snatched for reasons still unknown. We literally ended up in a broom closet, no joke. Two cameramen, Billy, Kenny and me (and baby to be) in quarters so tight I found a paint bucket to sit on and attempted to stay out of the shot. Not so easy with the belly I was rockin’!
Long story short, as in many trauma situations, Rosenthal and I became forever linked and forever-friends that day. I think he really thought I might give birth due to the stress of the situation. But Zachary (my son) hung in there and forever I will be grateful to Kenny for being so concerned and thoughtful. He’s a wonderful man with an incredible work ethic and it has been a pleasure to see him become one of -- if not the most -- respected journalists in Major League Baseball.
Of course, he was at every Giants World Series in 2010, 2012, and 2014 and I thought it would be fun and appropriate to start our interview on a Bruce Bochy note ...
He's a Hall of Famer for me and I know three World Series should make it automatic, but his longevity, his presence, the kind of person he's been in the sport and the leader he has been ... I love the guy. We all love the guy. He's just a very special man and he's always been incredible to me. Kinda the calm in the middle of the storm. What a career. It's just been an incredible journey for him going back to the Padres and his playing days, and of course what he's done with the Giants. Unmatched.
Rosenthal has obviously been to every ballpark, so I had to ask where Oracle Park ranked (at the time of this interview it was still called AT&T).
San Francisco Giants
Really high. It's not even a difficult question. Camden [Yards], I worked Camden as a writer in Baltimore for many years. I love Camden Yards. It's a beautiful park. It has some similarities to AT&T actually, but AT&T has the water and it's just a special feel and the fans make it special too. It's a different atmosphere than most places, so I've had so many great memories just working there. I would put it right at the top. Now it's a different category, AT&T, Camden and Pittsburgh from Wrigley [Field] and Fenway [Park]. They're special. They're historic, but when I'm at AT&T Park, it's a good day.
So how did Ken Rosenthal become “Ken Rosenthal”? Take us back to the beginning, Kenny.
I started in 1984 at the York Daily Record in York, Pennsylvania. Then I went to a paper in South Jersey, then to the Baltimore Sun. Actually, the first paper was the Evening Sun, which is now no longer with us, and then the Baltimore Sun until the year 2000. Then I went to the Sporting News, and then FOX, and then all of it just kind of happened from there. I never imagined doing anything more than covering a team for a newspaper. That was my goal and obviously, a lot more happened. The industry changed a lot, and that's why I had to change with it.
The road to the diamond wasn’t a clear-cut path for Rosenthal. He was a true sports nut and didn’t want to limit himself and be tied down to one sport. But when baseball brought opportunity, he grabbed it and never looked back.
For a lot of the top baseball writers, the answer to that is “yes” ... from the time they were a kid they knew that they wanted to cover baseball. I was not like that. I loved baseball, but I loved football, I loved hockey, I loved basketball. And to me, as I said, the goal was just to cover a professional sports team for a major paper.
So it could've been the Golden State Warriors for the San Jose paper. It could've been any team -- Seattle Seahawks, it didn't matter to me -- and it just so happened that my first big opportunity was baseball. And then when you start to cover it, you do fall more in love with it because the game is incredible. It has so many layers to it and from a writing perspective, it probably is the best sport.
Rosenthal is such a mentor to so many wanting to break into the business. That made me curious as to whom or what served as an influence or inspiration to him.
Sports Illustrated, for sure. I wanted to work there. We all did. That was our goal, every young writer, I believe. I grew up in the New York area so I read the New York Post, the New York Daily News at the time when Mike Lupica was really coming on and becoming a star.
And then when I went to school in Philadelphia, there was a guy named Rich Hoffman and he became a columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News. But he was a few years ahead of me at Penn and he went to the Daily News right outta college which was unheard of back then. You had to take the path that I took, kind of journey, so he was sort of not a mentor, but an inspiration to all of us at the paper and to this day he's one of my professional heroes.
Rosenthal is hands down the busiest man in baseball. He has his finger on the pulse of every team in the major leagues and his phone is his lifeline. Certain times of the year are crazier than others. Trade deadlines and the offseason hot-stove month of December can be brutal. To say he lives and breathes the game… is completely accurate.
Texts … tweets … you know the whole deal. It's non stop. There are other times that are quieter. August. There are waiver deals but it's not as bad. I like August. I like April and May. I like spring training, although the offseason starts to drag into spring training. But it is cyclical to some degree. But really, I'm always on. There are always stories worth pursuing even in August, even in April ... and I don't know if it ever turns off but the intensity level in July toward the deadline and in the month of December -- that's higher for sure.
Rosenthal is one of the best in the business and knows the work never really stops (Photo by USA Today Sports Images).
Oh, did I mention Kenny is also a husband and father? Needless to say, his wife is a saint. He knows it.
Yeah, it's not great and I wish it was better, but I really wasn't doing this job when [the kids] were younger. I was still running around. I was a columnist for a newspaper, and then I started the Sporting News, but it wasn't at this level of intensity. So fortunately, my kids grew up before I really was in this crazy mode. They knew me to be crazy and they know my schedule was all over the place and my wife, obviously, has held down the whole thing for all these years. And I will say this: It takes a special person to be married to one of us -- husband or a wife. She's been independent and she's guided the kids so well. My kids, this is all they know too so ...
But there was a time a couple of years ago -- and I'm not proud of this -- but it happened. We were on vacation, and it was actually right before I started with The Athletic so I was kinda uneasy. I knew I had to start this new job and I was sorta just paying attention to work a little too much on the trip and then my son spoke up. He's the oldest one (27). He told my wife. My wife will tell me about twice a year, “Cool it.” When I hear that it’s like a dagger to my heart. People I know think I have an incredibly fun and glamorous job but that side of it is very difficult.
Just like a baseball team needs depth, Rosenthal has an incredibly deep list of sources. It’s taken years to build and his reputation is stellar. But even “the man” has gone with a source he probably shouldn’t have. So what’s the key to his long-lasting career? And while we’re at it, what advice would he bestow upon future sports journalists? I mean, he’s “the man,” so listen up kids.
Amy, you know this it's really difficult and I have been burned and I've made mistakes. We all do. And with Twitter and social media and the instant gratification people are seeking, it's more difficult. You can really fall into a trap. I try not to. I hope I'm right many, many, many more times than I'm wrong -- I don't ever wanna be wrong. I think it's almost a sin in our business to be wrong, but it is going to happen from time to time. It takes a long time to build up a network of people, but I've heard Theo Epstein say this about baseball people -- you have to dominate the job you're in.
To me, it's really a lot about work ethic. I do know that I'm not the most talented writer, and I hopefully have overcome that in some respects with work and reporting. But there are all kinds of ways to do it. And you see in our business, in your business, everybody has different strengths and different weaknesses, so I would just advise that person to follow your passion. If you have the passion, then you can do it. But if you're not passionate about this, forget it. Because all the things we just discussed about -- family and personal life -- well, that's gonna suffer. So you better like what you do.
Now for a Toyota fan question from True North Writers:
Place where he personally (not MLB itself) wants the next two expansion MLB franchises?
I would like to see teams in Nashville and Montreal. Nashville is booming, a place that seems natural for a Major League team. Montreal is more questionable, but the romantic in me wants to see the sport return to that great city.
Follow Amy G on Twitter @AmyGGiants, on Instagram @amyg, on Facebook, and, of course, watch her on NBC Sports Bay Area’s Giants coverage all season.