There are certain sporting events that inspire people. These games show the greatness of human emotion and the drama produced encourages great things from the community that watch them.
For the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro, the Yankee vs. Red Sox rivalry from the last two seasons drove him to write his first book.
“It’s called Emperors and Idiots and it’s a history of the rivalry going back to 1903, which is told through (the eyes of) the last two years,” Vaccaro told NY Sports Day. “The 2003 ALCS with the Yankees and Red Sox captured my imagination.”
So when Aaron Boone’s homer went out of the park, Vaccaro sat down and started writing the story. He worked hard on the manuscript, which is due out in March and interviewed numerous people from both sides. He said that the book was a “kick to do” and hopes that this endeavor would help him start another career.
But he is not leaving the Post anytime soon. Vaccaro truly loves being the lead columnist for the New York tabloid. It’s the everyday experience of telling a story that the writer enjoys, while being able to watch his favorite subject.
“It’s hard to fathom what a gift (my career) is,” he said “I loved writing all the way back to when I was seven or eight years-old; it was something I enjoyed doing as a past-time. And to be able to inject my opinions every day, it’s great.”
Vaccaro’s main duty at the Post is to write his opinion on the lead story of the day. Be it baseball, football or basketball, the 37 year-old needs to have knowledge of all New York sports in order to do his job. Even though he covers all of them with the same technical skill, he finds one sport better to cover than all the others.
“I find baseball to be the best writing sport ever invented,” Vaccaro explained. “There are so many stories and personalities that I find appealing, so it’s like a mini novel unfolding in front of your face.”
It helps that he has been a fan of the game all his life and grew up loving the New York Mets, which he says gives him a different slant on covering the Amazins.
“I tend to be hypocritical about the Mets,” Vaccaro explained. “I guess it’s because in my heart of hearts, I am a 10 year-old kid going to Met games and watching Tom Seaver with my father.”
That love for the game and his love for writing led Vaccaro to major in journalism at St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York. After writing for the school paper and freelancing, the columnist started covering the school’s basketball team for a local paper after graduation.
It didn’t take him long for him to move up the ladder with jobs in Arkansas, Middletown, NY and Kansas City. Finally, Vaccaro came back to the New York area with the Star Ledger in 1998.
“They hired me first as a baseball columnist, so I spent the 1998 Yankees playoff run in that role,” he said. “Then I was promoted to a general columnist in 1999.”
There he stayed until the end of 2002, when the Post signed him up at his current position.
So, Vaccaro is very content with his career so far. With a new book and a successful column, what else can the writer want?
“If you can tell me that I could be writing for a newspaper for the next 20 years and a book every other year, that would be a good story of my career,” he added.
Now all Vaccaro needs is a few more events like Yankees vs. Red Sox.
Read Mike Vaccaro at www.nypost.com.
