A Front-Row Seat with the Sportswriters Who Sat There
Sit down with host Todd Jones and other sportswriters who knew the greatest athletes and coaches, and experienced first-hand some of the biggest sports moments in the past 50 years. They’ll share stories behind the stories -- some they’ve only told to each other.
Thom Loverro: “You could just wander into camp and watch Ali train.”
Thom Loverro says boxing has the best stories, and he shares some favorites from many years inside the fight game. He takes us to Muhammad Ali’s training camp, puts us ringside for Mike Tyson’s ear chomp, and takes us behind the scenes on the day Riddick Bowe defends his heavyweight title. Hear about Las Vegas, George Foreman’s power and preaching, and the wisdom of trainer Eddie Futch. Thom also shares moments from other sports he has covered, including memorable baseball highs and lows involving Cal Ripken Jr. and Roberto Alomar.
In 2019, Loverro was honored with the Nat Fleischer Award for lifetime achievement in boxing journalism by the Boxing Writers Association of America. Three years earlier, he was inducted into the Washington, D.C. Boxing Hall of Fame. Thom has been featured on several HBO Legendary Nights programs and ESPN's Sports Classics about boxing. He has covered numerous world championship fights over the past three decades, as well as three Olympics, the World Series, the NFL, NBA, and NHL playoffs. In 2005, Thom was one of just three sportswriters to be invited to the Oval Office in The White House to interview President Bush about baseball.
Loverro has won more than 40 national, regional, and local journalism awards, including an honor from the Associated Press Sports Editors association for his 2014 article in which he revealed, through the Freedom of Information Act, that the FBI believed the first Sonny Liston-Cassius Clay fight was fixed. Thom was voted Maryland Sportswriter of the Year in 2009 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. His other honors include first place in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and being named best sports columnist in the Virginia Press Association competition three times.
Loverro’s journalism career began in 1977. After working for a couple of small newspapers in Pennsylvania, he a joined the Baltimore Sun in 1984. There, he spent eight years as a news editor and reporter, covering crime, politics, and government. Thom moved to sports in 1992 when The Washington Times hired him to cover the then-Redskins. A year later, he switched to baseball and served three seasons as the paper’s beat writer on the Baltimore Orioles. The Washington Examiner hired Thom as a sports columnist in 2009. Four years later, he returned to The Washington Times, where he remains the lead sports columnist. He is co-host of The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
Check out past episodes of Loverro’s “Cigars & Curveballs” podcast, which featured guests such as Ripken; Foreman, Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Theismann, Dusty Baker, and the creator of “The Wire,” David Simon.
Loverro is the author of 11 books:
· Washington Redskins: The Authorized History (1996)
· Home of the Game: The Story of Camden Yards (1999)
· Cammi Granato: Hockey Pioneer (2000)
· The Quotable Coach (2002)
· The Encyclopedia of Negro League Baseball (2003)
· The John Mackey Story, Blazing Trails: Coming of Age in Football's Golden Era (2003)
· Oriole Magic: The O's of '83 (2004)
· Hail Victory: An Oral History of the Washington Redskins (2006)
· The Rise and Fall of Extreme Championship Wrestling (2006)
· Eagles Essential (2006)
· Orioles Essential (2007)
Loverro received a Bachelor of Science degree in Liberal Studies from the University of Scranton and a master's degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University in Washington. He has taught journalism courses at Georgetown University, Towson State University, and American University.
Follow him on Twitter: @thomloverro
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Thom Loverro edited transcript
Todd Jones (00:03):
Hey Thom, it's always a pleasure to talk with you. Welcome to Press Box Access.
Thom Loverro (00:08):
Todd. I can't tell you how happy I am to be on, I've been waiting to get on this podcast for a long time now. I was glad you-
Todd Jones (00:14):
Well, it's a crowded bar. There's a lot of folks in this bar, but we got a seat for you. Hey Thom-
Thom Loverro (00:22):
I've been waiting to get served.
Todd Jones (00:24):
We got plenty to serve up, so here we go. Hey Thom, we go back to 2000, I think we met in Australia of all places.
Thom Loverro (00:34):
Yes.
Todd Jones (00:34):
At the Sydney Olympics. You were there for The Washington Times, and I was there for the Columbus Dispatch. And that was quite an experience, right?
Thom Loverro (00:46):
Yeah. You know what? One of the things I remember about Sydney just like a sportswriter kind of thing, is the exchange rate was unbelievable. You remember that?
Todd Jones (00:57):
Oh, yeah. Right. Oh, yeah.
Thom Loverro (00:59):
It was like clay money. I remember there were some people who had a certain amount in their expense account and were doing all they can to spend it out, because they couldn't do it. So, that made it a lot more fun.
Todd Jones (01:15):
Yeah. I think about that one. I wonder why the newspaper business crashed, sportswriters in Australia. I just remembered a whole three weeks or so, four weeks we were there, I just could never figure out what the hell time it was. We were in a different time, it's like, the time difference was incredible. Sometimes it was even a different day. I remember asking one Australian guy, "What time is it?" And he goes, "Beer o'clock."
Thom Loverro (01:41):
Well, I think about now, if this would happen now and with the 24-hour news cycle.
Todd Jones (01:50):
Oh, yeah.
Thom Loverro (01:50):
That wouldn't be as much fun, I don't think.
Todd Jones (01:54):
Well, the only time I knew it was exactly, was when it was like 3:00 AM in the media center. And you were like a table away from me. And you have a few beers in front of your computer. We all did.
Thom Loverro (02:05):
Yeah.
Todd Jones (02:06):
And we were all just sitting there getting ready to carve out some columns and stories. And that's the middle of the night. And what a memory as a writer.
Todd Jones (02:16):
I think the one thing about Sydney, I don't know about you, but I just remember the Cathy Freeman race. Do you recall that, the Australian woman who won the 400 meters?
Thom Loverro (02:26):
Listen, I've covered three Olympics, two Winter Olympics in Nagano in '98, and Salt Lake City in 2002, and the Sydney Olympics in 2000. My top three moments covering the Olympics all involved women. And Cathy Freeman is one of them. Being in the stadium, winning that 400 meters was just really special.
Todd Jones (02:50):
Yeah. The backstory was she was an aboriginal.
Thom Loverro (02:52):
Yes.
Todd Jones (02:52):
Grew up in Australia and you had like 110,000 people there rooting for this woman.
Thom Loverro (02:59):
I know.
Todd Jones (03:00):
Very small in stature. And I just remember sitting literally in the front row at the track, right by the finish line. Incredible seat-
Thom Loverro (03:08):
Yeah. It was.
Todd Jones (03:08):
When she came around that final turn, it was the loudest crowd I've ever heard. How do you remember that as-
Thom Loverro (03:16):
It may have been the loudest crowd I ever heard, too. It was a special moment. So yeah, that's one of my fondest memories of Sydney.
Todd Jones (03:25):
Well, those are the kind of moments, the special moments that you've been part of for three decades now, as a columnist at The Washington Times, before that, The Washington Examiner. And then a previous stand at the Times when you first got into sports writing.
Todd Jones (03:37):
Your childhood dream was to be a sportswriter. You grew up in Brooklyn, four blocks from Ebbets Field, right?
Thom Loverro (03:44):
Yeah. I grew up on Washington Avenue. I used to read The Daily News and The Daily Mirror at the time.
Todd Jones (03:52):
Oh, wow.
Thom Loverro (03:53):
Sports section when I was a little kid. And I grew up wanting to be Dick Young.
Todd Jones (03:58):
Oh, yeah. The famous New York writer.
Todd Jones (06:01):
Right, right. Well, it's funny, wanting to be a sportswriter as a child, your career actually began a news. The first 15 years of your career, you weren't a sportswriter. You were on news side starting in 1977, a couple papers in Pennsylvania, and then The Baltimore Sun, where you were an editor and a reporter. You were covering everything but sports.
You went to the University of Miami for a brief time, right?
Thom Loverro (06:42):
Yeah. And I left when I burnt down half of my fraternity house.
Todd Jones (06:51):
How?
Thom Loverro (06:52):
With a cigar.
Todd Jones (06:56):
Of course, you did.
Thom Loverro (06:57):
And here's the bad part. I was president of the chapter.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Well, Mr. Blutarsky.
Thom Loverro (07:03):
Not setting a good example.
Todd Jones (07:06):
No, I don't think so.
Thom Loverro (07:08):
It was a Saturday afternoon and football was on. I'm sitting in my room watching it, and I was thirsty. So, I went across the street to the convenience store, which was a UtoteM. That's what they had back then, UtoteM, to get a couple of six packs.
Thom Loverro (07:24):
And I left my lit cigar in an ashtray on a coffee table that must have been made out of gasoline, because the cigar rolled out of the ashtray onto the table. And when I walked down the hall to come back to the room, my roommate is running out of the room with flames shooting after him saying, "You set the room on fire."
Todd Jones (07:49):
You have to be the only sportswriter we've had on this show whose career really kind of began with a cigar burning down a house.
Todd Jones (09:56):
So, for 15 years, you covered news, and actually worked as an editor also. How did that experience, especially at The Baltimore Sun of covering news, you're covering crime courts, all kinds of things. How did that inform your career as a sportswriter when you made the switch in 1992?
Thom Loverro (10:14):
Well, being an editor, I was an editor for six years, before I went back to reporting there. And being an editor made me a much better writer, when I went back to being a writer. I thought editors were pretty much useless when I was a reporter before. And I still do, actually. But-
Todd Jones (10:39):
It's different from a writer's perspective.
Thom Loverro (10:40):
Yeah. But it opened my eyes to how I should be as a reporter. And when I went back to it, I wanted to be the kind of reporter both in my writing and how I did my job, where the editor would give them an assignment and not have to worry about it until it was in.
Thom Loverro (11:02):
I didn't want to be one of the headaches, because I managed a lot of headaches as an editor. And it helped me then throughout my career.
Thom Loverro (11:12):
And then switching to sports, I know this sounds, and this frustrates a lot of sports writers. I don't mean it to be elitist, but it's just a lot easier to write a sports story than it is a news story.
Todd Jones (11:28):
In what ways?
Thom Loverro (11:29):
Well, gathering the information, information is more easily accessible in sports than it is in news. You have to dig it out a lot more on the news side than you did on the sports side.
Todd Jones (11:46):
Yeah. They're not handing you sheets of quotes and statistics and-
Thom Loverro (11:49):
Right. The building blocks of a story are a lot easier to put together, I found. And the requirements in those building blocks are just simpler. So, I found myself pretty prolific as a sportswriter, being able to put out a lot of copy because it just seemed a lot easier to me than writing the news stories.
Todd Jones (12:16):
Well, I think that showed many years later in 2014, a great example of your news instincts and your skills as a news reporter showed as a sports columnist when you had a column about the FBI files, showing that the FBI thought that Sonny Liston/Cassius Clay later Muhammad Ali, that the Liston/Clay fights were fixed.
Thom Loverro (12:39):
The first fight in particular, that was something — I learned how to use the Freedom of Information Act over my years as a reporter. And I had filed the Freedom of Information Act related to a mobster named Ash Resnick.
Todd Jones (13:04):
Ash.
Thom Loverro (13:04):
Yes.
Todd Jones (13:04):
Let me guess. His specialty was arson.
Thom Loverro (13:08):
That may be, I'm not sure.
Todd Jones (13:10):
Or maybe it was your cigar, I don't know.
Thom Loverro (13:12):
But he had some connections to boxing, so I filed it, and he had been passed on. And once somebody has passed on, their FBI file is available for pretty much anybody to look at.
Todd Jones (13:26):
Right, right.
Thom Loverro (13:27):
So, I filed the FOI request to get that, and in that were the FBI documents that said that they had a reliable informant, they felt, so credible, it went up to all the way up to Hoover in terms of reading these documents, that they thought that the first Clay Liston fight was indeed fixed.
Todd Jones (13:52):
The one in Miami where-
Thom Loverro (13:54):
Yeah. A lot of-
Todd Jones (13:55):
Later Muhammad Ali upset Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight championship. And Ash Resnick was a close associate of Liston, right?
Thom Loverro (14:04):
Yes. Yeah, yeah. Everyone knew that Sonny was mobbed up at that point. And everyone always assumes that the second Clay Liston and fight, because of the way it happened with the Phantom Punch in the first round was fixed.
Thom Loverro (14:20):
But not many people ever considered that the first fight may have been fixed. And let's face it, when you look at the fight Clay clearly outclassed Liston in that, but still, Liston refused to get off his stool for, I think it was the seventh round, after the seventh round.
Thom Loverro (14:43):
So yeah, that's where the background helped me.
Todd Jones (17:53):
Well, this is the kind of background and news savvy that you brought to sports, and you brought it to that award-winning story that you did about the FBI files. Before I leave that, do you believe the first Sonny Liston/Cassius Clay fight was fixed?
Thom Loverro (18:10):
I don't want to believe it. Actually, when I was working for a weekly newspaper up in Strausberg, a different newspaper, weekly newspaper than the first one I talked about, it was in '78 when Ali was fighting the rematch with Spinks. His training camp was at Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, an hour away from me.
Thom Loverro (18:38):
And I went up to Deer Lake one time as a reporter for this weekly newspaper, no one ever heard of. And I met Gene Kilroy, who was Ali's kind of like camp advisor and one of his close advisors. And after Ali worked out, he would always go into his dressing room, and there'd be a bunch of reporters there, Dave Anderson, Pat Putnam, the heavyweights of the business.
Thom Loverro (19:08):
So, this guy, Gene Kilroy, let me into the room, the dressing room as a reporter. So, I'm there with all these heavyweights interviewing Ali. Then I started going up on a regular basis, and everyone got to know me there. Ali in particular got to know me.
Thom Loverro (19:28):
And actually, one time it was just him and I, and he gave me a tour of his camp, including the cabin where he slept with this big, giant handmade bed that was there. So, I had a real affinity for Ali. So, I still hope it wasn't fixed, but-
Todd Jones (19:47):
Do you have a favorite story from those days you were hanging around as a young reporter at Deer Lake?
Thom Loverro (19:52):
Well, that would be it. That would be the time that it was just ... actually in 1980, when Ali came back in that unfortunate fight with Larry Holmes, he was working out again that summer at Deer Lake. And my parents who lived in Florida were up visiting from there at the time. So, I took them to Deer Lake.
Thom Loverro (20:17):
My mom and dad were both boxing fans. And when I was growing up, my mom was not an Ali fan. Like most of her generation were not. She didn't like the big mouth. She didn't like the dancing in the ring the most. She didn't like that part.
Thom Loverro (20:35):
So, after Ali's workout and the workout’s open to everybody. It was remarkable back then that you could just wander in the camp and watch this guy train, and he would talk to the crowds and stuff.
Thom Loverro (20:53):
And so, after his workouts, sometimes he would come out and meet with people, and sometimes he wouldn't. So, my parents and I were all waiting outside his dressing room. We're a crowd of people, and nobody knows if he's coming out or not, and time is going on and on.
Thom Loverro (21:09):
So, my mom reaches into her pocketbook, pulls out this article that I had written about Ali from the previous couple years. I had no idea that she had it, but-
Todd Jones (21:23):
She carried it around in her purse. I love it.
Thom Loverro (21:24):
Like a lot of moms, she had like a scrapbook of everything I had written at that point. So, she starts yelling "Yuhoo, Mr. Ali. Yuhoo, Mr. Ali." And he comes out.
Todd Jones (21:37):
Mr. Ali.
Thom Loverro (21:38):
And she says, “My son wrote this story here about you.” And he recognized me right away. So, he's looking at the story and he says, "Did you write this?" He says, "You're not as dumb as you look, are you?"
Thom Loverro (21:56):
That's classic.
Thom Loverro (21:56):
So, and then he wound up taking pictures with my parents and stuff. So, I loved the guy after that. To know him was to love him. So, I sure hope it wasn't fixed. I'm going to operate on the premise that the FBI was wrong.
Todd Jones (22:12):
Right. Well, your reporting was in depth, award-winning, but let's hope that the FBI was wrong.
Todd Jones (22:21):
We're going to talk more boxing because you've covered so many major fights, but I wanted to talk briefly about the early days of your move to sports in 1992 when you left The Baltimore Sun and you went to The Washington Times, baseball has played a big role in your career, and it continued to do so as you went on to be a columnist.
Todd Jones (22:43):
But you were a baseball beat reporter for a few seasons covering the Baltimore Orioles and we've talked about this with other reporters who were there that night. But on September 6th, 1995, you were at Camden Yards covering the game when Cal Ripken Jr. broke the Lou Gehrig streak for consecutive games. What was that night like as a reporter and what does it mean to you looking back on it now?
Thom Loverro (23:11):
It's the greatest sports event. Greatest sports night I've ever been part of. Oh, yeah.
Todd Jones (23:18):
Really?
Thom Loverro (23:19):
And what made it so special was the spontaneity of his 22-minute run around the stadium in the middle of the game. They stopped the game after it became an official game after the middle of the fifth inning and they had a big ceremony, like for 10 days, 10 games leading up to that record breaking game after the middle of the fifth inning, they would drop a number from the warehouse out in right field and play this music, and Cal would get an ovation and stuff.
Thom Loverro (23:59):
But this time, this was the record-breaking game. And so, he came out of the dugout, waved to people they were playing the California Angels, the Angels came out of the dugout. Everyone's giving him a standing ovation. And he's not comfortable with this. He goes back in the dugout and his teammates, particularly Raphael Palmeiro and Bobby Bonilla push him back out on the field. Like they're not going to stop, so you got to get back out there.
Thom Loverro (24:29):
So, he does. And then he takes off from the dugout and runs around slow trot around the entire stadium, reaching out to people in the stands, slapping fives, shaking hands, like for 22 minutes in the middle of the game. That was not staged. That was spontaneous.
Thom Loverro (24:49):
And you don't get many moments like that, when you're covering an event where everything was staged, everyone knew what was going to happen that night, you know?
Todd Jones (25:00):
Right.
Thom Loverro (25:01):
No one knew that was going to happen. So, that's I think what made it particularly memorable for me.
And remember, this is after the baseball strike.
Todd Jones (25:55):
Right. A year later.
Thom Loverro (25:56):
I know McGwire and Sosa get a lot of credit, misguided credit for '98, saving the game. But it was Cal Ripken who that year, and he felt an obligation to do this, I'd say for about six weeks, seven weeks before he broke the record, after every home game, he came out of the clubhouse after the game, people had lined up throughout the stadium after the game, and he came out and he signed every autograph. He'd be there for 90 minutes sometime after a game signing autographs. Yes.
Todd Jones (26:37):
So, he understood the importance of being an ambassador in that moment.
Thom Loverro (26:40):
Yes. Yes, he did. And yeah, the other thing about him that made it so special was, I knew how he didn't set this up. He didn't treat himself like he needed to break this record. I watched this guy wrestle teammates in the clubhouse where he could have easily ... I mean, wrestle teammates, not — I mean serious wrestle matches.
Thom Loverro (27:10):
And Cal was really strong, and nobody liked it when he grabbed them, and he would wrestle them. But he would do it all the time, could have easily gotten hurt doing that.
I don't know if you've ever been in a Metrodome, but they have the clubhouse to the field, there's this long mountain of steps at different levels, must be 12 different levels, and he would race teammates. They have races up to the top of those steps, could have easily twisted an ankle, done anything to him.
Thom Loverro (28:20):
So, now he did not live his life based on, I'm going to break this record. I know it's a cliché and people have grown tired of hearing it over the years, but he really did live it in the sense that he felt an obligation to be out there for his team for every game.
Todd Jones (28:39):
Right. How did having access and being around him on a daily basis in those years ... how did that give you a better understanding of what this was all about?
Thom Loverro (28:49):
Well, he was not the easiest guy to deal with. He wasn't mean, but when you would talk to him for a story, he would ask you, "Well, what's your angle? What's the point? Why you doing this kind of thing?" And he wasn't real open.
Thom Loverro (29:08):
So, by that time, he had been a pretty public figure and was wary of it. So, and plus I don't think he was that comfortable then around people.
Thom Loverro (29:25):
What's interesting was in '92 when Camden Yards opened, Rick Sutcliffe was a free agent who had signed with the Orioles. And this was near the end of Sut's career. And Rick Sutcliffe was a tremendous clubhouse leader. It's rare for a pitcher to be a leader because they don't play the game every day.
Thom Loverro (29:47):
But Sutcliffe was, he was a tremendous personality and figure, and he was a leader of that Orioles team. He’d only been there for two years. And Cal would, I think, look at him as an admirer, but also envious, wishing that he could be like that too. I think he wished that he could be more like that. And he wound up becoming more like that near the end of his career.
Thom Loverro (30:12):
But he was just a reserved person. So, he never really got a lot. But I'll tell you one time I think it was coming back from the All-Star break. They were going up to Boston to play a series and I was on a plane and Cal was on the same plane with me flying up to Boston. And this was when I first started on the beat. I'd only been on the beat for a year, maybe.
Thom Loverro (30:39):
And so, I get my bag at baggage claim, and he happens to be there too because we're on the same flight. And he says to me, he says, "You want a ride to your hotel?" So, he offers I ride to my hotel with him. That was his initial move, to offer that to me. So, that that's kind of who he was.
Todd Jones (31:05):
Right. He knew how it played.
Thom Loverro (31:07):
Yeah.
Todd Jones (31:07):
Right. He knew what the machine was like.
Thom Loverro (31:09):
And now, I haven't seen him much in retirement of late but he's much more open and accessible now than he used to be.
Todd Jones (31:24):
Right. Well, that night in 1995 was certainly special to you and special to any baseball fan when you think about it. Those are the type of moments that live forever and certainly did help save baseball after that ugly strike. And it was a beautiful moment.
Todd Jones (31:41):
But speaking of the word ugly, you were also there for an ugly moment in baseball history.
Thom Loverro (31:46):
Oh yeah.
Todd Jones (31:47):
You were there in 1996 when the Orioles second baseman, Roberto Alomar spit into the face of umpire John Hirschbeck. You were there for the whole thing that night.
Thom Loverro (32:01):
Yeah. It was-
Todd Jones (32:02):
How did that play out and take us through what it was like to be there as a reporter.
Thom Loverro (32:07):
Well, it was '96. The Orioles had hired Davey Johnson as their manager that year. They had spent a lot of money on free agents, including bringing Roberto Alomar in that year. And they had very talented team that underachieved most of the year.
Thom Loverro (32:27):
But near the end of the season, they started to turn it on. And the last weekend of the year in Toronto, they needed to win, I think two out of three to make the wild card. Or they needed to win one out of the three to make the wild card.
Thom Loverro (32:47):
So, I go up with them for the Toronto that weekend. And on a Friday night game Roberto Alomar gets called out on stripes and gets into an argument with John Hirschbeck, a very heated argument with the home plate umpire.
Thom Loverro (33:02):
And he spits in Hirschbeck's face and got thrown out of the game. And it all of a sudden became a huge story. A big story. And it only grew bigger after the game.
. So, after the game.
Thom Loverro (33:37):
We're all around Robbie's locker and he's saying that Hirschbeck has been bitter ever since one of his children died of a serious illness. And he said that his other child has the same illness. Now, this is not territory he should be walking into, you know?
Todd Jones (34:01):
No.
Thom Loverro (34:01):
And what was stunning was all these leaders, like Cal and Bobby Bonilla and Eddie Murray was on that team then, they're all letting Robbie hang himself here. It was a disaster. And finally, Bobby Bonilla pulled him out when he heard what he was saying. And we were done, but the damage was done.
Thom Loverro (34:26):
So, everyone writes stories about what he said about Hirschbeck's children. The next day, the Orioles had planned an apology ceremony where Robby was going to apologize to Hirschbeck in the visitors’ dugout. They were going to have lots of media there. They were going to make it into a big deal.
Thom Loverro (34:53):
And Hirschbeck might have been on board with that. But when Hirschbeck got to the stadium, someone handed him a copy of the Toronto newspaper with the stories about Robbie and his comments about Hirschbeck's children. And I'm waiting in the Orioles clubhouse for this apology ceremony. Me and I think Buster only may have been the only other reporter there who was covering the team for the Orioles then.
Thom Loverro (35:24):
And we went down to the umpire's dressing room, and Hirschbeck comes tearing out of the dressing room screaming, eyes crying, his face red, and he's, "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him." And he's running down the hall, heads into the Orioles clubhouse. We follow him, and he lunges after Robbie Alomar, and they had to separate him. And he's screaming, "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you." It's just chaos.
Thom Loverro (35:57):
So, any apology now is right out the door. And this thing has escalated beyond anything anyone could imagine. And it just turned into a real train wreck. The umpires threatened to boycott the lead championship series playoffs.
Thom Loverro (36:16):
Baseball had actually brought in replacement umpires into Camden Yards for game one of the ALCS because they didn't know if the regular umpires would be out there or not. And it wasn't until about a half hour before game time that they got assurances that the umpires would be there. So, that was quite an ugly thing, something I had a front row seat to that I've never seen before.
Todd Jones (36:42):
Was that out of character for Alomar to say that? Obviously, you don't spit into an umpire's face, but then to escalate it the way he did? I don't know how he was dealing with the media.
Thom Loverro (36:52):
He was kind of prickly. I don't think he realized the impact of what he said. I just think he was kind of oblivious to what he said. He was always real sensitive about Cal Ripken's place on the team.
Thom Loverro (37:08):
Look, Robbie Alomar may have been the greatest baseball player I've ever seen day in and day out. He could do everything and everything great.
Thom Loverro (37:18):
So, he was a little bit sensitive about Cal's stature on the team. And if you go back and listen to his interviews, he almost referred to him as Carl, not Cal, and we're not sure if he did that by accident or on purpose.
Todd Jones (37:34):
Wow. And that had played out. He served a five-game suspension, and then like years later, didn't he and Hirschbeck actually become friendly?
Thom Loverro (37:43):
I think they did. I think they did on that point. Well, what was interesting and ironic was the Orioles beat the Indians in that series, and Robbie Alomar hit the big home run to decide the series. And then I'm in the locker room where his brother Sandy, who played for the Indians, comes over to the Orioles clubhouse to congratulate Robbie. And Robbie burst out in tears and they hug each other. It was quite the playoffs, that's for sure.
Todd Jones (38:16):
Wow, wow. Like you said, front row seat to see something like that. Well, that was an ugly, ugly fight. You've been around sanction fighting for many, many years. You started covering boxing when you made the switch to sports in '92. And you actually, as we alluded to, wrote about boxing as a young reporter, hanging around with Ali up in the mountains of Pennsylvania.
Todd Jones (38:40):
In 2019, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored you with the Nat Fleischer Award for Lifetime Achievement in Boxing Journalism. Thom, why has boxing been so special to you as a reporter and a writer?
Thom Loverro (38:53):
Well, I'll give you what I said when I got the award that night. There was a bank robber in the early 20th century named Willie Sutton. And he was very well known, very prominent figure. And reporters asked him once, "Why do you rob banks so much?" And he said, "Because that's where the money is."
Thom Loverro (39:17):
And I said, "I covered boxing because that's where the stories were." The best stories in sports. It's no coincidence that more than half the sports movies that are out there are about boxing.
Todd Jones (39:33):
Why do you think the best stories were always in boxing?
Thom Loverro (39:36):
Well, because you don't have kids from the suburbs. You usually have the last wave of immigrants that came through the difficult system of adjusting to life in America, usually have poor minorities who have fought their ways from the street. There's not a lot of prep boys in boxing. People who have suffered, and suffering makes for great stories. It just does.
Thom Loverro (40:10):
And boxers, they have an air of confidence about them that either they don't know, or they don't care about what they say can hurt them. They're not particularly interested in usually that kind of image. There have been ones, obviously, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, guys like that were very image conscious.
Thom Loverro (40:35):
But mostly your fighters off the street would sit there and tell you stories and not worry about the ramifications of what that story could mean, once it hit the press.
Thom Loverro (40:50):
So, the most dramatic stories in sports usually come from boxing.
You've covered a long list of major championship fights, many of them in Las Vegas. Have you ever thought about like — how much time have you spent in Las Vegas, Thom?
Thom Loverro (41:25):
I counted up.
Todd Jones (41:28):
Really?
Thom Loverro (41:29):
It's nine months and 20 days. It really is. That's a rough estimate.
Todd Jones (41:35):
Just covering major championship fights.
Thom Loverro (41:37):
Yeah. Really, I should have applied for resonance status there. Sometimes I'd be in Vegas three or four times a year. Again, that's another reason. Why did you cover boxing? I said, because they sent me to Las Vegas on their dime, all the time.
Todd Jones (41:54):
They should have put you on the marquis of the hotels, Thom Loverro, back in town.
Thom Loverro (41:58):
So yeah. I spent a lot of time in Vegas. My first fight was when Evander Holyfield defended his title against Larry Holmes, and that was in June of '92, at the outdoor stadium that they would set up for fights outside of Caesar's Palace.
Todd Jones (42:18):
Right there in the parking lot.
Thom Loverro (42:19):
Pretty wild.
Todd Jones (42:22):
Wow. So, tell us this, for somebody who's never had the privilege of going to Las Vegas for a major championship fight, what is the atmosphere like in the days leading up to the fight and then on fight day?
Thom Loverro (42:33):
Well, what's interesting, the atmosphere is all the high rollers from all around the country, all around the world come to town. They always have marquis performers for that week for shows in Vegas. In addition to the casino hotel that's hosting the event, the other casinos, hotels will have closed circuit TV.
Thom Loverro (43:01):
So, it's a big deal for everybody. It's my fondest memory of covering boxing was being with the boxing writers. It was a real special bunch of guys. I'll never forget that fight I covered with Holmes and Holyfield. There was a restaurant in Vegas called The Flame. It's a legendary restaurant. It has been gone for a long time.
Thom Loverro (43:31):
But it's where all the boxers, writers and sometimes mobsters would hang out. And I had heard about it for years. So, went there one night. I didn't know anybody in boxing writing at that point. I went there one night, at the end of the bar is Ed Schuyler, Pat Putnam and Mike Katz. This is like walking into a bar, if you're a rookie baseball player in New York in the 50s, and seeing Willie Mays, Duke Snider, and Mickey Mantle at the end of the bar.
Todd Jones (44:06):
Exactly.
Thom Loverro (44:07):
So, I sit at the bar by myself, and one of them recognizes me from the press conferences, and they invite me down to sit with them, and I hang out with them. And they wound up becoming lifelong friends, particularly Schuyler.
Thom Loverro (44:21):
And to hang out with that crew and also, like the British writers, the Brits who had unlimited expense accounts, they would always send their writers over to cover the big fights. And to go out with the Brits one night a week was always a lot of fun.
Todd Jones (44:42):
Alright. Give us a favorite sportswriter story from Vegas covering a fight.
Thom Loverro (44:47):
Well, there was this ... I don't know if you know the Colonel, Bob Sheridan. He announced a lot of international fights. He wasn't the voice. He wasn't Jim Lampley or Larry Merchant, but on the international feed, that's who you would hear. And he was a character.
Thom Loverro (45:11):
And I remember drinking with him one night with his crew and we're in a mob restaurant. And the Colonel’s had a few. And we go out to get the car that we came in, one of the cars that we came in, and they have them all on this like board with all the keys on hooks. And so, the valet's not getting this car quick enough for the Colonel.
Thom Loverro (45:43):
So, he goes to the board, picks it up and starts shaking it. And all these keys, now remember the keys are on specific space numbers, so they know which car is there.
Todd Jones (45:59):
Right.
Thom Loverro (45:59):
And so, the keys go flying all over the parking lot. And it turns out that there were a few mobsters who apparently were a little bit upset that they couldn't find their cars later that night. So, that was the kind of stuff that would happen in Vegas.
Todd Jones (46:20):
Did the Colonel ever find his car?
Thom Loverro (46:23):
You know what? I think we got in a cab after that. I think we got the cab.
Todd Jones (46:27):
I think you probably should have; from way it sounds.
Thom Loverro (46:30):
The Colonel had suffered seven heart attacks over his-
Todd Jones (46:35):
Seven? What is he? Dick Cheney?
Thom Loverro (46:38):
Life. And for one of them, I think it was the — I forget what fight it was. It was the second Tyson/Holyfield fight of all fights. He had been in the hospital after suffering a heart attack the week before. He checked himself out of the hospital with an IV at ringside to announce the fight.
Todd Jones (47:01):
Come on.
Thom Loverro (47:04):
And what a fight that was.
Todd Jones (47:07):
Yeah. That was the famous ear fight.
Thom Loverro (47:09):
I was ranked side for that. And-
Todd Jones (47:13):
So, what was your view of that, Thom?
Thom Loverro (47:14):
Well, we're probably-
Todd Jones (47:15):
Tyson chomps on Holyfield's ear. What was your view?
Thom Loverro (47:20):
Well, I didn't know that's what happened. Nobody at the press … word spread; did he bite his ear? Nobody knew for sure from where we were sitting what happened. We knew that they were locked up together. But we didn't know that he had actually bit his ear off at that particular moment. But again-
Todd Jones (47:49):
No, no. Wait a minute. Think about this. You're also on deadline.
Thom Loverro (47:52):
Well, that's the thing I wanted explain to you, working at The Washington Times was a bit of a challenge. It wasn't The Washington Post. We had limited resources and limited personnel.
Thom Loverro (48:03):
So, my deadline situation was more dire than other papers. We had one deadline and that was it. And they only had like one editor in the office left to read the story. So, what I would do because of that, because these fights would happen late at night was, I would write 12 to 13 inches that day as if one guy won. And I'd write 12 to 13 inches as if the other guy won.
Thom Loverro (48:39):
So, I could top it off with four or five paragraphs right on deadline and they could plug in and it's a story. I didn't write any background for someone biting another guy's ear off and being disqualified. There was no preparation for that.
Todd Jones (49:00):
Yeah. That's got to be the only time in the history of sports writing on deadline, where somebody had to ask, "Did he bite his ear?"
Thom Loverro (49:07):
Yes. That was it. That was it. Look, usually we joke around on press row that the most asked question on press row is, what was that punch? Because covering boxing is fun, but covering a live boxing event is a real challenge. Because these things happen pretty quickly, these punches, and you certainly want to make sure you got the right punch.
Thom Loverro (49:33):
So yeah. Next to, what was that punch? The most memorable question was did he actually bite his ear?
Todd Jones (49:44):
Well, the challenge of covering a life fight was there in November of '94. And you're sitting ringside, George Foreman is 45-years-old and he knocks out Michael Moorer to regain the heavyweight title. What the hell was that like to be there?
Thom Loverro (50:02):
Now that's the greatest single sports moment I've ever covered. Oh, my God.
Todd Jones (50:07):
Really?
Thom Loverro (50:07):
You want to talk about loud? I thought the arena, the Grand Garden arena at the MGM was literally going to lift off the ground when Moorer hit the canvas. This never happened to me before. When I started typing, my hands were shaking. It was just a remarkable moment.
Thom Loverro (50:27):
I can remember vividly Foreman kneeling in his corner as he was declared the winner praying, while Angelo Dundee, who was his trainer then, and his brother Roy are like slapping him on the back. It was such a vivid moment for me.
Thom Loverro (50:44):
And because Foreman was getting beat, he had water around for the entire fight. And that short right hand, it was such a thing of beauty. It may have traveled six inches, but it landed right on Moorer's chin. And they always say in boxing, the last thing to go is power. Your speed goes, your reflexes go, but power can last a long time.
Thom Loverro (51:11):
And George had that power, and he had that savvy too. He was a much smarter fighter, the second time around. In addition to being one of the greatest sports figures in the history of this country, there's not many comeback stories better than George Foreman's.
Todd Jones (51:30):
Right. You mentioned Dundee. Dundee was in the corner for Ali all those years, was there that night in Africa in 1974 when Ali pulled the upset of Foreman to regain the championship. And now you go all these years later when George is 45-years-old, and there's Angelo in the corner working for George now, and he's an old fat guy at this point, right? How can he win a heavyweight championship fight and he pulls it off-
Thom Loverro (51:59):
Well, it was interesting and one of the stories I did before the fight, I covered Riddick Bowe because he lived in Washington, and when Bowe was heavyweight champion. And I got to know Bowe well and I really got to know his trainer, Eddie Futch. Eddie Futch is probably the greatest trainer in the history of boxing.
Todd Jones (52:19):
Yeah. I think he trained like 18-
Thom Loverro (52:19):
18 world champions.
Todd Jones (52:20):
World champions. Right, right.
Thom Loverro (52:21):
And I spent a lot of time with Eddie. I've got hours of interviews I did with Eddie. I've transcribed them all. And I talked to him before the Foreman fight. He was the only one who gave George a chance to win. He was the only one who said, "I think George has a chance to win this fight."
Thom Loverro (52:40):
And what's interesting was many years later for a couple years I did my own podcast called Cigars and Curve Balls, which was basically an interview podcast of sports and entertainment figures. And I had George on the podcast, and I read him what Eddie had said to me before the Moorer fight.
Thom Loverro (53:07):
And he thought that was interesting because Eddie Futch had Ali's number, he trained Norton who broke Ali's jaw. And he trained Frazier who beat Ali in that first fight and almost won the third fight that they fought.
Thom Loverro (53:26):
But Foreman had Eddie Futch's number. Eddie couldn't get past Foreman. Foreman knocked out Frazier in three rounds. He knocked out Norton, in two rounds in Venezuela. But George got a kick out of hearing that from Eddie Futch, that he actually picked him to win.
Todd Jones (53:47):
What made Futch so great as a trainer?
Thom Loverro (53:48):
This is a guy who used to spa with Joe Lewis, he was this brilliant walking history of boxing who never lost his cool, was just always composed in the corner. You never saw a crazy corner with Eddie Futch in it. And he may have been like the wisest man I've ever — if America had had named a national wiseman, like they do a national poet, it would've been Eddie Futch.
Todd Jones (54:25):
Well, Futch was wise enough in the corner in Manila in '75 after 14th round to say to Joe Frazier, "You've done enough here, son," at the end of the fight with Ali, that stopped the fight when Frazier just would've gone back out there not being able to see. But it was Eddie Futch who said no, he cared more about him as a person.
Thom Loverro (54:47):
Here's what Eddie Futch did. When Larry Holmes was going to fight Michael Spinks, Michael Spinks was moving up in weight, to heavyweight to fight for the heavyweight title. Well, Eddie traded both of them. Rather than picking one of them, he bowed out of the fight totally. As a result, lost maybe a $250,000 payday in the process because he didn't want to pick between both fighters. That's who Eddie Futch was.
Todd Jones (55:20):
Right. Well, I think that a special person like that is, in a business that's so-
Thom Loverro (55:27):
Oh God.
Todd Jones (55:27):
It's so violent. There's so many layers of corruption, things going on behind the scenes. To have a person who stands up for somebody in the moment is so special.
Thom Loverro (55:40):
Yeah. Most people boxing get around by crawling on their bellies. Eddie Futch always walks off.
Todd Jones (55:50):
Right. You mentioned earlier Riddick Bowe, and I wanted to ask you about one particular column before we wrap this up. And this shows you for boxing writers why the sport is also special. And that's the type of access that you would have to these guys. You actually spent an entire day with Riddick Bowe on the day he was going to defend his title for the first time from morning to final.
Thom Loverro (56:17):
That's remarkable, isn't it? And all it was I got to know his manager, Rock Newman a little bit. And we were in New York for the fight. So, I just said to Rock, I said, "Well, why not let me spend the day with Bowe, the whole day?"
Thom Loverro (56:35):
There might be some parts that I can't be with him, but pretty much … and Rock agreed with it. Rock wanted a lot of attention for Bowe, so he agreed to it. So, for the most part, I spent the day with Bowe even in his dressing room, like up until about 10 minutes before he walked out into that arena.
Todd Jones (56:58):
Okay. Put us in that dressing room. We never get to experience something like that. You're in the dressing room-
Thom Loverro (57:03):
Yeah, at The Garden.
Todd Jones (57:03):
This is at The Garden in New York. You're in the dressing room 10 minutes before a heavyweight championship fight. What is it like in that room?
Thom Loverro (57:10):
Bowe was such a character at the time. That was Bowe right after he had beaten Holyfield to win the title in November. That was the best Bowe ever was. And he was fighting Michael Dokes. And it was one of those things where Dokes was way past it. He was out of shape. This was one of those, the champion gets to have an easy fight in front of his hometown kind of fights.
Thom Loverro (57:38):
So, Riddick was very relaxed, making jokes. At one point I'm in there when the referee comes in to give the instructions like they do, people see the referee talk to fighters in the ring. Well, the referee goes into each dressing room before the fight and goes over all the instructions and details.
Thom Loverro (58:01):
And the ref, I forget who it was at the time, he walked in and he's talking to Bowe and Bowe puts his hand on the referee's shoulder. He says, "I just want to know one thing." He says, "Can you count to 10?
Thom Loverro (58:19):
But what was also interesting that night is that's the night that Arthur Ashe passed away. And Rock made an announcement in the dressing room that Arthur Ashe had passed away. And so, that kind of put a pull over the atmosphere as well.
Thom Loverro (58:38):
But I was there for all that. And then I wound up writing this Yankees follow up story, about my day with Bowe. And yeah, that's like, imagine being in an NFL locker room, before a playoff game with the coach. That just doesn't happen.
Todd Jones (58:58):
Why did they let you do that?
Thom Loverro (58:59):
Because there's no rules in boxing. This is why boxers are the way they are. There's no rules. Rock was a confident guy. Riddick was a confident guy. They were going to beat Michael Dokes and not like they were fighting the rematch with Holyfield. They weren't worried about that, so-
Todd Jones (59:22):
Well, this is the kind of moment that writers used to always get that type of access.
Thom Loverro (59:27):
Yes.
Todd Jones (59:27):
Especially in boxing. And when you think about all those years covering sports, we hit on several different things. Is there one favorite boxing moment that you have as a reporter and a columnist?
Thom Loverro (59:40):
In 2004 at the Major League All-Star Game in Houston, I went out on a Sunday, the games played on a Tuesday. I flew out early Sunday, and I found the small little obscure church where George Foreman does Sunday Services.
Thom Loverro (01:00:34):
George Foreman was still-
Todd Jones (01:00:35):
Oh wow.
Thom Loverro (01:00:36):
I don't know if he still practices, but back then he was still a practicing minister. And he had a congregation that he did a morning mass and an evening mass, and I attended the evening mass. There were about 35 people in there.
Thom Loverro (01:00:55):
And all his kids took part in the services. They were up there on the altar with him. And George was a very good preacher. And it was a very nice service. And then I spent an hour with George after that, interviewing him. And we were talking about his fight with Moorer and all the other stuff.
Thom Loverro (01:01:20):
So, while that's not boxing, it's connected to boxing, the only reason I was there listening to this Houston minister was because of what happened in boxing 10 years earlier when he fought Michael Moorer.
Thom Loverro (01:01:36):
So, I've talked to George over the years. When Tom Brady won the Super Bowl a couple years ago, I called George up and talked to him about accomplishing that and what it means when you're that age to do something like that. And it all goes back to that knockout of Foreman over Moorer. It was an electric moment, the best I've ever experienced.
Todd Jones (01:02:07):
Your hands were shaking.
Thom Loverro (01:02:08):
Yes.
Todd Jones (01:02:08):
As you were trying to type.
Thom Loverro (01:02:09):
Yeah.
Todd Jones (01:02:12):
Did you write a good one that night, Thom?
Thom Loverro (01:02:14):
It was okay. It was hard to write a bad one.
Todd Jones (01:02:17):
Oh, I'm sure it was better than okay.
Thom Loverro (01:02:19):
It was hard to write a bad one. Look, when I look back on it, I hate the fact that I used the words further time. I can't believe I did that, but I did.
Todd Jones (01:02:28):
Well, further time was ticking on you with deadline and your hands were shaking, so hey, it's quite alright.
Todd Jones (01:02:35):
Well, I got to say the stories that you've shared with us have been fantastic. The access that you had going to front row seats at ringside and to Ali's camp as a young reporter and George Foreman preaching and there the tonight of Alomar with an ugly night in baseball and a beautiful night in baseball with Ripken and on and on. This has been such a treasure trove of great stories. I really appreciate your time, Thom. It's so good to reconnect-
Thom Loverro (01:03:04):
Well, let me tell you, some of my favorite memories are drinking with you guys and Sydney. Okay?
Todd Jones (01:03:14):
I wasn't there. That was not me, Thom. I think we did have a few-
Thom Loverro (01:03:20):
Yes, we did.
Todd Jones (01:03:20):
Victoria Bitters. Yes, we did. Well, thanks a lot, Tom. It's been great to share this time with you.
Thom Loverro (01:03:26):
Thanks for having me.
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