11.01.2002

 

SHOCKED does not begin to describe my feeling at this very moment. The Sports Guy is moving to Hollywood.

In my opinion, Bill Simmons is probably the closest thing to Mike Royko reincarnated as I'll ever read in my life. There have been times in the last year of reading his column where I have been brought to tears by the jokes and stories he wonderfully elucidates in his thrice-weekly column on Page 2. Like Royko, he manages to play the role of the everyman writer and still inject such intense personalization into his columns that everybody I know who reads Simmons fiercely adores the man. He says exactly what we're all thinking, but in ways we'd never manage to say it ourselves.

He'll be scaling back his writing for Page 2 once he makes the move out to my home town to start working on a TV show. This sucks for readers like me who make reading his column an almost daily ritual. On the other hand, as he's said many times, writing for TV has been his dream, and now he's there. Did I mention in my home town?

Sad day for us in some ways. But super for the Sports Guy. Good luck man.