Michael Lupica (; born May 11, 1952) is an author and former American newspaper columnist, best known for his provocative commentary on sports in the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' and his appearances on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Biography

Lupica was born in

Oneida, New York Oneida (, one, kanaˀalóhaleˀ) is a city in Madison County located west of Oneida Castle (in Oneida County) and east of Wampsville, New York, United States. The population was 11,390 at the 2010 census. The city, like both Oneida County an ...

, where he spent his pre-adolescent years, having attended St. Patrick's Elementary School through the sixth grade. In 1964, he moved with his family to

Nashua, New Hampshire Nashua is a city in southern New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 91,322, the second-largest in northern New England after nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, Manchester. Along with Manc ...

, where he attended middle school and subsequently

Bishop Guertin High School Bishop Guertin (BG) is a college preparatory independent private Roman Catholic high school in Nashua, New Hampshire. Named for Bishop George Albert Guertin (1869-1931), it was founded by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in 1963. Scholastics ...

, graduating in 1970. In 1974 he graduated from

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

. He first came to prominence as a sportswriter in

Pottstown, Pennsylvania Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the incorporation as a borough in 1815. In 1888 ...

. Lupica wrote "The Sporting Life" column at ''

Esquire magazine ''Esquire'' is an American men's magazine. Currently published in the United States by Hearst Communications, it also has more than 20 international editions. Founded in 1933, it flourished during the Great Depression and World War II under t ...

'' for ten years beginning in the late 1980s, and currently writes a regular column for ''

Travel + Leisure Golf ''Travel + Leisure Golf'' was a bimonthly American magazine published by American Express. Unlike other golf magazines, ''Travel + Leisure Golf'' focused less on the sport than on the affluent golf lifestyle, with regular features on cars, resorts ...

''. He has also written for ''

Golf Digest ''Golf Digest'' is a monthly golf magazine published by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit under its Warner Bros. Discovery Golf division. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competiti ...

'', ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

'', ''

ESPN The Magazine ''ESPN The Magazine'' was an American monthly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998. Initially published every other week, it scaled back to 24 issues a year i ...

'', and ''

Men’s Journal ''Men's Journal'' is an American monthly men's lifestyle magazine focused on outdoor recreation and comprising editorials on the outdoors, environmental issues, health and fitness, style and fashion, and gear. It was founded in 1992 by Jann Wenne ...

'', and has received numerous awards including, in 2003, the Jim Murray Award from the

National Football Foundation The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a non-profit organization to promote and develop amateur American football on all levels throughout the United States and "developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the dr ...

.Speaker Page: Mike Lupica
from ''Greater Talent Network.''

''Daily News'' columnist

Lupica wrote several sports columns during the week for the ''Daily News'', as well as a signature Sunday column, "Shooting from the Lip," which featured a traditional column followed by a series of short, acerbic observations from the week in sports. Later in his career he began writing a regular political column entitled "Mondays with Mike," which is strongly

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

in orientation. He left the ''Daily News'' in July 2018. Favorite Lupica targets include the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

, (and will often state their massive payroll in most of his articles)

James L. Dolan James Lawrence Dolan (born May 11, 1955) is an American businessman who serves as executive chairman and CEO of Madison Square Garden Sports and Madison Square Garden Entertainment and executive chairman of MSG Networks. As the companies' cha ...

, Isiah Thomas,

Notre Dame football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the campus' Notre Dame ...

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

, former President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, and former Vice President

Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...

. Lupica has also been a harsh critic of the new

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...

and was a vehement opponent of the proposed

West Side Stadium West Side Stadium (also known as the New York Sports and Convention Center) was a proposed football and Olympic stadium to be built on a platform over the rail yards on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The stadium would have been ...

. He has likewise been highly critical of the Atlantic Yards project and the attendant construction of the

Barclays Center Barclays Center is a multi-purpose list of indoor arenas, indoor arena in the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Brooklyn. The arena is home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Liberty o ...

in Brooklyn.

Author

Lupica co-wrote autobiographies with

Reggie Jackson Reginald Martinez Jackson (born May 18, 1946) is an American former professional baseball right fielder who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, and Cali ...

and

Bill Parcells Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells (born August 22, 1941) is an American former football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons. He rose to prominence as the head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 ...

and collaborated with screenwriter

William Goldman William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays '' ...

on ''Wait Till Next Year'' and ''Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away From the Fans and How We Get It Back.'' Lupica also wrote '' Summer of ’98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America'', which detailed how the 1998 and the

Mark McGwire Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963), nicknamed "Big Mac", is an American former professional baseball first baseman who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1986 to 2001 for the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Card ...

/ Sammy Sosa home run chase had allowed him to share a love for baseball with his son. Lupica has been listed a vocal critic of the steroid era. Lupica is also a novelist; his work includes mysteries involving fictional NYC television reporter Peter Finley. One of them, ''Dead Air'', was nominated for the

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

Award for Best First Mystery and the 1987 Anthony Award in the same category; and was also adapted into a television movie called ''Money, Power, Murder.'' He has written a novel for younger audiences called ''Travel Team.'' Lupica’s ''Bump and Run'' and ''Wild Pitch'' were best sellers. 2003 saw a sequel to ''Bump and Run,'' entitled ''Red Zone.''In April 2006, his second children's book, ''Heat,'' was published by

Philomel Philomel is another name for Philomela, a character from Greek mythology. It may refer to: Nature * A nightingale Arts and Letters * An abbreviated form of the name Philomela, a figure in Greek mythology often invoked as a symbol in literature. * ...

. ''Heat'' is a fictional story based on the

Danny Almonte Danny Almonte Rojas (born April 7, 1987) is a Dominican-American former baseball player who is currently an assistant baseball coach at Cardinal Hayes High School in New York City. Born in Moca in the Dominican Republic, Almonte was a Little Le ...

scandal in the

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

Little League Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization The Sports Reporters ''The Sports Reporters'' was a sports talk show that aired on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning (and replayed at 10:30 a.m. ET the same day on ESPN2 and 11:30 AM on ESPNews). It featured a roundtable discussion among four spor ...

'' on ESPN. He also briefly hosted an unsuccessful television chat program, ''The Mike Lupica Show,'' on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

, as well as a short-lived radio show on

WFAN WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area while ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in the mid-1990s. He has been a recurring guest on the ''

CBS Morning News The ''CBS Morning News'' is an American early-morning news broadcast presented weekdays on the CBS television network. The program features late-breaking news stories, national weather forecasts and sports highlights. Since 2013, it has been anc ...

'', ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'', and '' The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour''. Lupica has made frequent radio appearances on ''

Imus in the Morning ''Imus in the Morning'' was a long-running radio show hosted by Don Imus. The show originated on June 2, 1968, on various stations in the Western United States and Cleveland, Ohio before settling on WNBC radio in New York City in 1971. In Octob ...

'' since the early 1980s. Lupica hosted a daily radio show on

WEPN-FM WEPN-FM (98.7 MHz) branded as ''ESPN New York'', is an all-sports radio station licensed to New York City. The station is owned by Emmis Communications and its operations are controlled by Good Karma Brands, under a local marketing agreeme ...

from May 9, 2011 until August 21, 2015.

Works

Non-series books

Adult books

* ''Reggie!'' (with

, 1984) * ''Parcells: An Autobiography of the Biggest Giant of Them All'' (with Bill Parcells, 1987) * ''Wait 'till Next Year: The Story of a Season When What Should've Happened Didn't and What Could've Gone Wrong Did'' (with William Goldman, 1988) * ''Shooting From The Lip: Essays, Columns, Quips, and Gripes in the Grand Tradition of Dyspeptic Sports Writing'' (1988) * ''Jump!'' (1995) * ''Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away from the Fans and How We Get It Back'' (1996) * '' Summer of '98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America'' (1999) * ''Yankees '98: Best Ever!'' (a compendium of ''Daily News'' coverage, 1999) * ''Bump and Run'' (2000) * ''Full Court Press'' (2001) * ''Wild Pitch'' (2002) * ''Red Zone'' (2003) * ''Too Far'' (2004) * ''Best American Sports Writing 2005'' (edited by; 2005) * ''Fathers & Sons & Sports: An Anthology of Great American Sports Writing'' (2008)

Young adult books

* ''

Heat In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

'' (2005) * '' Miracle on 49th Street'' (2006) * '' The Big Field'' (2008) * '' Million-Dollar Throw'' (2009) * '' The Batboy'' (2010) * ''Hero'' (2010) * ''Underdogs'' (2011) * ''True Legend'' (2012) * ''QB 1'' (2013) * ''Fantasy League'' (2014) * ''The Only Game'' (2015) * ''Fast Break'' (2015) * ''The Extra Yard'' (2017)

Series

Adult series

;''Peter Finley'' series * ''Dead Air'' (1986) * ''Extra Credits'' (1990) * ''Limited Partner'' (1990)

Young adult series

;''Comeback Kids'' series * '' Two-Minute Drill'' (2007) * ''Hot Hand'' (2007) * ''Safe at Home (novel)'' (2008) * ''Long Shot'' (2008) * ''Shoot-Out'' (2010) ;''Game Changers'' series * ''Game Changers'' (2012) * ''Play Makers'' (2013) * ''Heavy Hitters'' (2014) Zach and Zoe mystery series * ''The Hockey Rink Hunt'' ;''Related books'' * ''

Travel Team ''Travel Team'' is a young adult novel by columnist Mike Lupica, about a boy named Danny Walker who is cut from his travel basketball team because of his short stature, so his father Richie responds by forming a new travel team made up of players ...

'' (2004) * ''Summer Ball'' (2007)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lupica, Mike 1952 births 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists American children's writers American columnists American people of Italian descent Bishop Guertin High School alumni Boston College alumni ESPN people Esquire (magazine) people Living people Major League Baseball broadcasters New York Daily News people People from Nashua, New Hampshire People from Oneida, New York Sportswriters from New York (state) Writers from New York City