Ted Miller of ESPN Gets It

It was a sad day in the Pacific Northwest when Ted Miller hitched up the U-Haul to the back of the SUV and headed to Scottsdale to begin working for ESPN. What is the Seattle PI's and the Pacific Northwest's loss is the Pac Ten's, and the entire nations gain. Ted Miller is the best Pac Ten writer in the business, and he may just be its best college football writer.

I have to say I am a little jealous because Scottsdale isn't a bad place to live nine months out of the year when you are working from home. Take away the scorching summer months and you pretty much have paradise.

What sets Ted apart is that he knows what he is writing about. Miller is a keen evaluator of talent, he can gaze across the practice field and figure out who has been working out over the Summer, and who is just doing the usual posturing. In his time at the PI he never was wrong either, all his predictions pretty much were solidly nailed.

You can't put anything over on Miller because he knows the game as well as the coaches do. That being said he doesn't come off with a superior attitude, he just tells it like it is day, after day. If you email Ted with a question chances are pretty good he is going to get back to you on it. you have to like a guy that is in touch with the fans.

Most writers upon moving to Scottsdale would be spending most of their time on the golf course submitting articles from their Blackberry, not Ted, he is cranking out story, after story on his blog at a pace that is just frightening to the other writers who are trying to keep up with him. He wrote more the first week on the job than Molly Yanity of the PI has written during the entire off season. Ted is simply an animal, and it is obvious he has a passion for what he is doing.

The WSU Blog ran a pretty funny column on him the other day showing various photo's of Ted through the years with some hilarious comments on where they thought he was in life when the pictures were taken. The good boys over there were unabashed in explaining the man crush they have on Teddy Ballgame.

The most important thing about Ted is he has taken the time to understand the sports blogosphere. While most sportswriters ignore this section of the sports universe Ted has embraced it. Every day Ted gives out links to the credible stories being written on the West coast by veteran bloggers. It was just the other day that my friend Nestor at the UCLA Blog commented that most of the local sportswriters don't get it as far as blogs are concerned, but Ted on the other hand takes the time to peruse what is out there each day and gives us all a little credit when we write something decent.

Enjoy Ted while he is still assigned to the Pac Ten. A guy with his talent is going to keep climbing at a place like ESPN which has the ample ceiling he deserves.

If you haven't checked out Ted's blog yet just click on this line and you will be magically transported to his fantastic Pac Ten blog, it is a must read every single day.