Warrior by Lisa Guerrero

Author:Lisa Guerrero [Guerrero, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2023-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

Barry Bonds and Boogers

Barry Bonds’s hatred for the media was palpable when I met with him in a conference room at Pac Bell Park, the Giants stadium (now called Oracle Park). I could feel the tension, and I could sense that he was questioning why he had agreed to the sit-down. His demeanor was making me nervous. There is nothing worse than conducting an interview with someone who clearly doesn’t want to be there. I had to defuse the tension or I’d blow it.

“You have twenty minutes,” Rachel said.

I thought, How can I get this guy to loosen up even a little bit? How can I get his guard down?

As a journalist, I’ve learned that humor is often a great way to cut the tension. If you can get your subject to laugh, you’ve established a rapport before the interview begins.

Then I thought, Boogers.

“Let’s do a booger check,” I said.

“A what?”

“Put your head back.”

He laughed. “Nobody has ever checked me for boogers before.”

“Well, that’s why I’m a good journalist,” I quipped.

He laughed hard. “Okay.” He put his head back. “So, am I clean?”

“Yup!” I put my head back. “Am I?”

He laughed again. I relaxed—and got the most incredible interview of my life. This led to several more exclusives with him.

I was the first journalist to ask Barry on camera if he used steroids to enhance his performance (he denied it). He did admit to using creatine, a controversial substance used to bulk up, which was picked up by hundreds of news outlets. But what I loved most about our interviews were that they captured the guy off the field. At times, he seemed like any other dad bragging about his three kids. He also divulged that his animosity toward the media stemmed from his childhood. As a little boy learning to read, he felt like his dad, Bobby Bonds, also a major league ballplayer, was portrayed as a villain by the press. When he spoke of his parents’ alcoholism, he was close to tears.

After the twenty minutes were up during that first interview, Rachel told me to wrap it up. But Barry smiled. “That’s okay. I’ll do more.” We talked for another hour.

When the interview aired on Best Damn, I could tell the guys were blown away. John Salley turned to the camera.

“Lisa Guerrero’s going to win an Emmy for that.”

After the Bonds interview, other athletes agreed to be interviewed by me. I did sit-downs with stars like Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Kobe Bryant, Mia Hamm, and Nomar Garciaparra.

“I want to have my own show,” I told George. “I want a spinoff where I can do in-depth sit-down interviews with star athletes.”

This time, he didn’t okay, honey me. He said it sounded like a great idea. I felt that I was a lot closer to making my Barbara Walters of sports dream a reality.

So what is Guerrero, a sports reporter or a sex symbol?

A Los Angeles Times sports media columnist posed this question after he discovered a photo of me braless in an orange shirt tied at my belly on the Fox website.

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