Eric Kay

Position: CBSSports.com preditor (production editor) for hockey and golf
Where: Fort Lauderdale
Salary: Good
Benefits: Good ones


Job description: See this blog I'm writing in. It kinda sucks as far as blogs go, right? Not because my posts suck (well, they are kinda lame). But the blog platform itself is pretty weak. If you agree you're off to a good start. I'm looking for somebody who doesn't just recognize that but can help come up with ways to make it better.

That's what this job is. We're like BASF. My team doesn't make the content, we make the content better. Sure you may write an occasional thing here or there, but the goal is to formulate and execute a badass strategy to grow audience. Read: get more people to the site and give 'em reason to stay longer. And as far as this job goes, we're talking hockey and golf. And we're not talking thousands of users and minutes. We're talking millions. Big numbers. 'Cause big numbers are fun to try and attain.

How will you get there? That's the plan I'm looking for you to come up with. But it'll involve search, social and list-building tactics. It'll involve working with our writers, bloggers and TV people. It'll involve working with our development team. But mostly it will involve creativity and thoughtfulness. Can you come up with answers to the problems fans have?

The job is in Fort Lauderdale. I need you in the building. That way we can talk face to face. And drink beer together during Thirsty Thursdays in the cafeteria.

So if you get the web, love sports (I'm watching some day baseball from my cube as I type this), like being in a challenging environment and can't stand when websites aren't engaging and don't make sense you should email jobopening@cbsinteractive.com and tell me why you’re right for the position. You may not get a response. It's not personal.

- Eric Kay, assistant managing editor CBSSports.com
On Twitter: @ekaycbssports 

It's been a while since I've posted a blog here.

I've been busy.

What with mourning the end of Lost and awaiting Matt Chico's much-anticipated re-arrival to the Nats, blogging had to take a back seat.

But I've also been working behind the scenes. For the past year I've been on the hunt for the best and brightest bloggers out there. Yep, I'm sorta like Bob Parsons. Minus the whole killing pachyderms.

Moving on.  The past year has been spent bringing in 19 fresh faces to the CBSSports.com editorial family. What started off as the Facts & Rumors blog network quickly evolved to the Eye on Sports blog network. It's been a tremendous weapon in evolving CBSSports.com as an industry leader in breaking news, analysis and opinion. Hopefully you're familiar with it.

But now that we're approaching summer and with the NFL doing its rock-out-with-your-lockout thing, I figured now would be a good time to better get to know some of the contributors. So each Friday I'll be posting a new entry in my blog called, "Meet the Blogger." 

Since I've actually only met five of the bloggers I've hired, I figured this would be a good time to better get to know them. And while I'm getting to know them, I figured you could get to know them. Mi casa es su casa, ya know? And hopefully it inspires you to read more of the blog, contribute on the message boards, subscribe to their RSS feeds or follow 'em on Twitter. 
As always, I appreciate any feedback about Eye on Sports. We're here to create compelling, interesting content for you. If we're not meeting that goal, I want to hear about it.

But enough about me, and the blog. Our first Meet the Blogger is Evan Brunell. He's part of our Eye on Baseball blog, and here's what he told me. 

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Describe your job: As an Eye on Baseball blogger my responsibility is to monitor the baseball world while on shift. Primarily, we track news and report about it on the site, adding our own personal analysis and opinion to the story to function as one-stop shopping for baseball fanatics. We also help lead live chats, record video segments and contribute features to CBSSports.com, such as division previews.

What you like about your job: There are too many things to count about this job that make it fantastic. I enjoy working with and respect all of my co-workers, which makes it a fun environment. I also like the opportunity to be representing CBSSports.com. 

I am always challenging myself to be a better writer and knowing I have the confidence of CBSSports.com behind me makes me strive that much more to deliver. Oh, and the whole getting paid to watch baseball thing ain't too shabby.

What you sorta don't like about your job: Staying up until 2 a.m. on the night shifts can get old really fast, especially when you do a wide slate of these shifts. Since those shifts require working mostly late at night, sometimes it feels like the sun is never out and you never get to see or talk to any friends. Friday night back-to-back with working Saturday is rough.

At times, having to stay focused on the news angle is difficult because I am a man with plenty of opinions and the knowhow of how to research and do some deeper analysis than I currently do and I would love to be more focused on column-style articles. While the folks at CBS encourage us to plant opinion and analysis on articles -- and I certainly take advantage of that -- I always need to keep the primary focus of news reporting in the back of my head. That at times prevents me from writing pieces I may prefer to write over reporting the latest news, such as an injury. I do take advantage of the news in that regard, however, by taking a look at the fallout of the injury and things of that nature, so that helps.

What other sites do you contribute to: I started a Red Sox blog in late 2003 that I still contribute to but it's largely as a behind-the-scenes editor where I help run the schedule of writers, handle advertising and things of that nature. I also score some games for MLB.com at Fenway Park when the Red Sox play and am president of a public charity for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

A trend in your sport we should care about: Part of the reason the AL East is so competitive is because the Yankees have forced every other team to pony up. The excessive financial capabilities and intelligence of the front office required other teams -- Boston, initially -- to increase its financial output and own brainpower to match wits. Since then, other teams have joined in the fray. While Tampa Bay and Baltimore are constrained by finances, they've brought in some very intelligent minds to help combat the financial might of New York and Boston. Toronto, meanwhile, has an impressive stable of minds and also intends to push payroll over $100 million in the not-too-distant future.

You can see trends like this playing out elsewhere, especially in the AL Central. The Tigers stepped up their game after the 119-loss debacle of 2003 and increased their financial outlay, which in turn has caused the White Sox and Twins to step up. The Twins, for their part, are no longer the miserly, Carl Pohlad-owned, contraction-threatened Twinkies we once knew. These Twins have a payroll over $100 million. And this is beginning to sweep the NL, which could help narrow the disparity between the two leagues that we have commented on for a decade. Some of the more compelling teams, in fact, currently reside in the NL and more and more elite free agents are making their way to the senior circuit.

Part of this is because these players believe they'll have an easier path to the playoffs, but a bigger part has to do with the Mets trying to keep toe-to-toe with the Yankees. They failed spectacularly, but will still be able to pay exorbitant fees for players and now have a wizard by the name of Sandy Alderson guiding the front office. The Phillies were a down-and-out team with a terrible ballpark and no funds and now trail only the Yankees in payroll. The Braves have stepped up their game after a few seasons to forget and while the Marlins don't have many fans in the player's union, the braintrust constantly keeps them competitive. And now we see Washington stepping up to the plate, so that division will become extremely difficult soon, if not already. And much like the trend filtered to the AL Central and dug its claws in the AL West, this trend will sweep the NL as well.

This is good news for the NL, which will attract more stars, improve the quality of its game both on the field and in the front office and be able to go toe-to-toe with the AL in interleague and the World Series.

Where do you live: Worcester, Massachusetts. A former home of a major-league team (go, Blue Sox! ... yes, really) with its own place in baseball history. The very first perfect game in baseball was thrown in Worcester, for example.

The best thing about working from home is ____: I'm not constrained to one specific spot to work. I can work in any room where I live and can also go different places outside my townhouse and work there. I like to take trips down to Cape Cod during the summer and can work from the house I stay at.

A blogger who gets it: Peter Abraham from the Boston Globe springs to mind as a mainstream media member who takes advantage of all the tools at his disposal and clearly understands what it means to run a successful blog.

Chicks dig bloggers because _____: Living in the mother's basement is hot.

Favorite WWE wrestler of all-time: I'd have to parrot every other kid from the '80s and early '90s and say Hulk Hogan. (I also loved his TV show Thunder in Paradise) As a kid, he was my hero and his exploits against Andre the Giant were incredible. I enjoyed Macho Man Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Mr. Perfect and Shawn Michaels and plenty more.   The one wrestling match I will always remember is Bret Hart and Michaels' epic Ironman battle at Wrestlemania XII in which Michaels won the championship belt in overtime for the first time. I switched to the WCW when Hogan did and became a fan of Goldberg and Jeff Jarrett most notably, although a lot of old-school WWF wrestlers I knew wrestled in WCW at that time as well. I stopped watching wrestling entirely when WCW folded as I wasn't really interested in what the WWE was doing at the time, but every several months I'll check out what's happening in that world although it happens more infrequently now that I recognize less people.

What's your favorite non-sports site: When I'm online, I'm generally doing one of four things. Baseball, talking to friends, reading the news or checking out a few comics. My favorite comic to read online is Cyanide and Happiness.

Tell me something interesting about you: I've had one near-death experience. I went parasailing at Cape Cod when I was a young teenand didn't get strapped in right. I went up with my brother and his friend and I started slipping out of the strap, but at the same time as the strap was inching up and I was slipping down, it was constricting my upper body making it difficult to breathe. We were waving valiantly to be taken down but they thought we were just waving -- why we would bother to wave for 10 straight minutes is beyond me, but I was able to hold on until they brought us back down. When my feet finally hit the deck I blacked out for a couple seconds but was fine after that.

If you weren't a sports blogger you'd be: A baseball player. Wait, already tried that. Probably would be in a baseball front office somewhere, a lawyer or writing fiction.

Jack Bauer or John McClane: Gotta go with Bauer power here. Both of them are pretty similar, but Bauer is far less patient -- probably because he's RUNNING OUT OF TIME!  We can find you on Twitter here: @evanbrunell

Baseball quick hits 'cause he's a baseball blogger:

Team grew up rooting for: Boston Red Sox

Favorite baseball player (current): Dustin Pedroia
Favorite player (overall): Ted Williams
Best baseball game attended: 2004 ALCS, Game 4, the Dave Roberts steal
 
Bonus time:

Another favorite memory of mine from when I played baseball was that one day, I literally could do no wrong when I was pitching. I had awful control but on the days I had it, it was difficult for others to get a hit off me. I flirted with a few no-hitters. My calling card was neither control -- which I never could get past -- or velocity, it was movement. One day, I threw a two-seamer to a lefty (I pitched right-handed) that started on the inside corner and ended up two feet off the outside plate. The batter swung so hard and tried to adjust mid-swing to catch the fastball but just ended up spinning like a top and stumbling. Then I unleashed a slider/sinker that started on the middle outside of the plate, slid over to the inside corner and then sunk to his feet. He had no chance on that swing as well. That's how good my pitches used to be, but what sticks out from that particular game is the umpire came over to the bench after the inning was over and asked if I had actually meant to throw the two-seamer and slider/sinker like that. He was absolutely flabbergasted when I said yes. They were truly two major-league caliber pitches that Roy Halladay would have been proud of.

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Follow me on Twitter at @ekaycbssports

The Miami RedHawks needed 10 quarters to put their first points on the board this season. The local paper was apparently caught a little off guard when Miami finally found paydirt.

So while Eugene Harris hauling in a 14-yard pass from Daniel Raudabaugh in the third quarter of a 48-26 pounding by the Western Michigan Broncos was big news for first-year head coaching disaster Mike Haywood, it led to incorrect news in the hometown paper.

The Oxford Press , the town paper (not the student paper), ran this photo for an extended period after the historical loss.

That's a fantastic fail, just like Miami's program.

They were MAC gods in the mid-200s. Now they're fighting for the No. 3 quarterback position in the NFL wasteland that is Oakland.

Charlie Frye and Bruce Gradkowski, according to the Contra-Costa Times , are in a "dead heat" to hold the clipboard behind JaMarcus Russell and Jeff Garcia.

"On one day it's one guy, on one day it's the next," Cable said. "The next two games might decide it." That was two-plus weeks ago.

The battle hasn't eased up since. Here's what our RapidReports correspondent Eric Gilmore posted Tuesday .

"Raiders QB Charlie Frye, who's in a tight battle with Bruce Gradkowski for the No. 3 job, said he learned a lesson two years ago when he was in a three-way camp fight at Cleveland with Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn. 'It taught me to keep my head down and just keep working. You can't worry about that stuff, because it takes your mind to places you don't want to go.'"

Frye, a sixth-round pick in 2005 of the Browns and Gradkowski, a sixth-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2006 were the heir apparents to Ben Roethlisberger and Byron Leftwich. Now they're fighting for arguably the worst quarterbacking job in football.

Why this matters? Well, there was a time when Frye was actually deemed a potential NFL starting quarterback. And there was a time when Gradkowski was managing a few wins for the Bucs.

But now their fates are where most expected them to be, hanging on by a thread just a few years into their careers.

My guess is Frye gets the job, if only because he has started 20 games in his career.

Follow me on Twitter: @EKayCBSSports

I'm on the prowl for funny/interesting/witty/stupid sports attire.

What's smarter than a Raiders fan? This shirt explains . (Hint: Everything)

Thanks to MMA writer and admitted Raiders fan Denny Burkholder for the link.

Have a piece of clothing worth sharing? Shoot me an email or find me on Twitter here .

Earlier this month Gary Parrish dropped one of the biggest summer sports stories on the Interwebs: LeBron James got dunked on. By a freshman Xavier hoopster.

That's big news. But then big news became huge news when Nike confiscated the tape.

Sites like Deadspin and Hoopsdoctor circulated the news.

Sites like the Sporting News may have found the tape .

Good ol' Skip Bayless (video) chimed in on it , calling "LeBrique" a "Nike puppet."

And of course, the cameraman even got in on the story .

At some point in this madness, a college buddy of mine sent me a link to a New York Daily News article on the controversy and said, "check out the photo caption."

It was the company he works for, Zazzle.com , and the T-shirt we all knew was inevitably coming had finally arrived.

If the Internet has brought anything to the table outside of porn and ordering paper towels , it's the put-funny-things-on-T-shirt industry that's probably profited the most.

Just a few weeks before LeBronsficate, the headlines involved LeBron's "LBJ MVP" T-shirts .

This is what our forefathers fought for, after all. The right to express one's self via a T-shirt, no? So for the next day or so until I ship this out to Scoop Parrish, I can claim to have dunked on LeBron. If these things take off, we could have a serious authenticity problem on our hands. Or we could all storm Nike HQ V for Vendetta -style clad in these shirts and really scare the crap out of Phil Knight. I digress.

The small point of this is, if you see a funny/clever/witty/awful T-shirt involving sports, shoot me a link at the email above and we'll play it up. Because sports and T-shirts go together like lamb and tunafish.

Or spaghetti and meatballs.

Email Eric T-shirt links by clicking here

If one must have a favorite Cowboy, worse can be had than second-year player Martellus Bennett. He's a solid tight end, an often hilarious Twitterer , and now a stadium tour guide.

This week on Marty B TV is a tour of JerryWorld , the Cowboys' new still-under-construction facility set to make Yankee Stadium seem more like Ozzie Guillen's take on Wrigley Field .

While the ostrich-leather seats are impressive, it's the concession stand menu that screams nouveau-Texas bbq. 

There's the dry aged beef sandwich for $14, the Texas catfish po'boy is available for $10 and the steel cut fries for $5 (I thought "hand cut" was still the in-fry making slicing, but who knows). A draft beer will set you back $9. But it's the four Kobe items that either represent a culinary revolution in stadium food, or one helluva marketing push.

They are:

• Green chile Kobe burger for $13
• Kobe BBQ burger for $13
• Cowboys Kobe nacho dog for $7.50
• Kobe Texas dog for $7.50

Quite the Asian influence in the land of barbecue. There are also, as Marty B says, "sesame seed hot dog buns, which you don't see (elsewhere)." So that's a nice touch.

After eating all the Kobe goodness, it's important to have a nice throne to plant one's backend on. The restrooms are marble-encrusted and featuring stainless steel doors (not just for fridges anymore) on the stalls. Oh, and the latrines? They're made from "elephant tusk," according to Bennett, which would be highly unethical, and not to mention a wee bit illegal.

So yeah, it seems to be shaping up to be quite the dandy Dallas palace for Tony Romo and friends to play eight games each season.

The price of a car can often be determined by one thing -- it's eventual re-sale cost. In simplified terms it's a large part of what makes a Toyota worth more than a Ford and a BMW more valuable than a Cadillac.

We heard Sunday evening the rumors of Shaquille O'Neal potentially heading to Cleveland . We're going to hear alot more of this. That's because after 16 seasons where he was beaten up in the paint, and at the junkyard NBA age of 37, Shaq is still a hot commodity. Not too long ago he was still a missing piece to a title in Phoenix, possibly, and now in Cleveland, hopefully. He's been responsible, according to the media, for the titles of men under 6-6, whether it be Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade. Just last season, he averaged 17.8 ppg, 8.4 rpg while shooting nearly 61 percent from the field.

The big man still has it.

But some brilliant minds claim Kobe's four rings are a bigger deal than Shaq's four rings . This, until No. 5 comes around, is simply not true. When Kobe's 37 years old, if teams are still picking up the phone to inquire about his availability as that proverbial missing piece, then we'll talk. But Shaq still has the perception of the guy who can help lead a team to a title -- at 37. That's silly to think about. A 37-year-old center (talk about the annals of history being littered with wasted vertically gifted human beings) as the guy who can help propel a superb talent like LeBron James to a title.

Yet Kobe's fourth title is more impressive.

That's like saying a 12-year-old BMW is more impressive than a 16-year-old BMW. Well, yes, it usually is. There's less mileage and wear-n-tear. But what if we're downplaying that four/five-year window? Alot happens in a basketball player's 30s. A lot of cars make it to 150,000 miles. But between 150,000 and 200K a lot of things can happen. Seals, belts and hoses all need replacing and that costs money, lots of money depending on the job. Newer models come and draw one's eyes toward them. Keeping a car running and in good shape up until 200K isn't always that easy. The Shaq era has withstood those challenges. Yet, some don't want to reward that. It's because those don't realize the difficulty of those key years.

Take Hall of Famer David Robinson , for example. Between 33-37 his production dropped to an average of 13.7 ppg despite the infusion of Tim Dunca to help ease the load. Those years are tough on all basketball players, and in particular big men. Yet Shaq has maintained a high level of play. So high, in fact, the Cavs want to dust him off for one more time around the track. Yet it's Kobe, whose fourth ring is more impressive. Kobe, who's lost as many NBA Finals series as Shaq (two). Kobe who's won every title with the same coach. It's Kobe, who needed not just one big man to win a title, but two in Pau Gasol and a healthy Andrew Bynum. And it's Kobe, who had the pleasure of defeating the third-seeded Magic, a team whose best player (well, not according to Shaq) is just 23.

What Kobe's accomplished is greatness, no doubt. But his legacy, at this stage, is still not more impressive than Shaq's. If people are considering Kobe the key to a title run in 2015, then I'll hit the brakes on this debate.

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And for those who remember the good ol' days: Klick of the Day

A talent-show audition gone bad