I took a train into NYC this morning and then walked to the Grace Building where I took part in an interview with Matt Iseman, who was in NY to promote his new Versus television show Sports Soup, which debuts this week on October 14th at 10:00 pm EST...

Grace Building - Historical Facts...

...The W.R. Grace Building, construction completed in 1971, designed by Gordon Bunshaft on the W.R Grace Corporation's dime, 50 stories tall, the 61st tallest building in NYC, but the only one with a concave facade, which was seriously vandalized by a visiting herald in a recent feature film, but showed no effects of the damage this afternoon...

Also present at the interview were...

...Nicholas Doblick from PSAMP, which is an amusing acronym you'll have to click on to decode, as well as Mike Silva from the NY Baseball Digest, and participating via e-lectronic mail, Frank D from the SB Nation’s Pittsburgh Penguins blog Pensburgh, whose questions I read to Mr. Iseman...

My first question for Mr. Iseman, and the first of the interview: (ed. note - "Paraphrasing because I forgot to read directly from the page.")

"One of the big complaints about bloggers is that we hide behind the anonymity of the internet while taking shots at players, since you'll be right out in the open making fun of athletes/coaches/announcers etc., are you worried about running into someone you've embarrassed on the show."

Mr. Iseman, somewhat jokingly it seemed, said that he hadn’t really considered the idea, but he hoped that anyone who takes a beating on the show would understand where it's coming from, but more importantly, he made a point of noting that the show is going to feature clips from broadcasts, so if the player did or said something funny, stupid or if they've otherwise embarrassed themselves, it wasn’t the show’s fault, it was their’s...and after all it's comedy. (ed. note - "I'm paraphrasing of course, the full interview should be available next week so you can see the complete discussion, and hear Mr. Iseman's complete responses.")

The interview lasted 40-50 minutes...there was some discussion after each bloggers' questions...before and after the interview they had each of the bloggers doing line readings introducing themselves and reading some copy with biographical information on Mr. Iseman and the particulars on the soon-to-debut show...I’m more than willing to admit that I have no ability to act, or to seem natural reading lines for the camera, and after a few tries at reading through a two-paragraph block of introductory text I was more than a little relieved when the crew asked Mike Silva, who has experience in radio, to read an introduction that will serve as a voiceover when the final clips are edited together. 

There will be a lot of promotional tie-ins in the next couple of weeks as the show debuts and airs its first few episodes, and I know everyone involved would like as much feedback as possible, so if you can watch Sports Soup, do, and leave comments here or on the show’s site.