Time Out with Dave Albee (former Marin Independent Journal sports reporter)

Vince D’Adamo: What have you enjoyed most about being connected with athletics throughout your life either as an athlete or journalist?

Memories created and friendships made. I've covered Super Bowls and Rose Bowls. World Series and playoff series. I've covered some of the biggest events everyone knows yet enjoyed just as much other events few have seen. Like a six-man high school football game on the plains of Colorado or a snowmobile jumping contest -- into a pond in the summer in Illinois. Last summer I went to my hometown of Dover-Foxcroft to attend the 40th reunion of the 1975 Maine State Class B champion Foxcroft Academy Ponies, the first championship team I ever covered in 35 years of sports writing. The best thing about sporting events is as much as we think we know who might win and who might lose the way the game plays out can't be predicted. Like Lyle Alzado nearly beating Muhammad Ali in an exhibition heavyweight bout in the middle of Mile High Stadium. I learned to go to any ballpark or arena prepared to see something I never anticipated.

D’Adamo: Which sports did you play competitively in high school?

Albee: I was a four-year starter at second base in baseball and played quarterback and safety in football for four years in high school, leading the Little Ten Conference in concussions my senior year. I played JV basketball for one year and eventually worked part-time for the local radio station my junior and senior years doing color commentary of my high school's varsity basketball games. Once played a baseball doubleheader in a snowstorm when you couldn't see the batter's box, home plate, the bases or even the foul lines.

D’Adamo: Even with the declining state of the newspaper industry, what kept you 

coming back every year?

Albee: Well, I was a casualty of the newspaper industry in 2009, after I was unexpectedly and unceremoniously laid off after 23 years as the award-winning sports columnist at the Marin Independent Journal. I remained a Heisman Trophy balloter for a few years afterward until the Heisman people thought it was a conflict of interest that I worked for an NCAA school (Dominican University of California) even though the school doesn't have a football program. I have continued to be an honorary member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, which allows me to go to the ballpark when I have time and maintains my honor and privilege to vote on induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

D’Adamo: What have you enjoyed most about covering athletics in Marin throughout the years?

Albee: Meeting people with Marin ties and following their careers. For example, I first met Pete Carroll when he was a defensive backs coach with the Minnesota Vikings. Had the good fortune to interview him in his office in Foxborough, MA when he was the Patriots head coach. Met Steve Lavin when he was an assistant coach at UCLA and, when he became the Bruins head coach, he allowed me an all-access glimpse into the UCLA program for an award-winning series. And I first met Jared Goff when it was an infant as I was doing a story on his dad, Jerry, a former major league baseball player. My connection to former Marin athletes continues to this day and I am proud to call many of them my friends.

D’Adamo: Within your family who have been the most influential people?

Albee: I acquired the work ethic of my late father, Earl the Pearl, who always found time to play catch with me in the driveway when he came home from work exhausted. His children were his pride and joy and I have grasped the same concept. I have devoted my free time to following my daughter (cheerleading) and sons (soccer, baseball, cross country) in their competitions. Their passion for athletics fuels mine.

D’Adamo: Name a historical figure, dead or alive, in or out of sports, that you would most like to meet. What would intrigue you about meeting him or her?

Albee: I am a lifelong Boston sports fan so I would love to meet Ted Williams, Bobby Orr, Bill Russell and Tom Brady. That's sort of like the Mt. Rushmore of New England sports. We could talk about everything from superstars to supermodels.