Time Out with Bob Padecky (Long time Bay Area sports reporter)

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

Bob Padecky: Athletics has provided: Exhilaration – no, screaming I've heard matches the scream of a winning home run, basket or touchdown. Vanity - they feel special, are treated special and feel slighted if not angry when they are not treated special. Perspective - all at the same time a pro sport feels like a game also life and death. Dedication: No one prepares more or better than a true superstar. Character - Sports doesn't build character at the pro level; it reveals it.  Personalities - I have seen the gamut, from humble to egotistical, from shy to extroverted. Ballet - nothing is more beautiful than a gifted physical specimen soaring, swinging, running, catching.

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

I played basketball, baseball and football in high school, and baseball in college at Palm Beach Junior College and the University of Florida.

D’Adamo: Even with the declining state of the newspaper industry, what keeps you coming back every year?

Padecky: The immediacy for one thing. Well-rounded news coverage. No TV screamers. Detailed and thoughtful opinion or analysis. Newspapers feel more thorough and satisfying than the quick 30-second live TV shot.

D’Adamo: You cover such a wide range of sports from college to pro to high school? Do you enjoy each for different reasons?

Padecky: Yes, they all have their pleasures for me. Pros, because of the superb athletic gifts that are watched by millions, College, for the alumni raves and comparative innocence to the pros. High school, don't need lawyers or handlers to talk to the athletes; they are fresh and curious and not spoiled or worn out from interviews or TV cameras. My goal in the last 20-30 years was to interview someone who has never been interviewed before. That was much easier with high school kids or coaches or parents.

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?

Padecky: In sports, in order of importance: Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Jim Thorpe (I've met everyone else). Outside of sports: Nelson Mandela, Shakespeare,  Einstein, Jesus if He existed. For all of them I'd start with the same question: When and where and why did you first realize you were going to make a difference?