We travel to the Big Apple and beyond as New York Post sports columnist Mike Vaccaro shares tales from 35 years of living his childhood dream job. Isiah Thomas depicted in a tabloid clown suit. John Calipari’s colorful language in a full rant. A postseason run by the Yankees in the wake of 9/11. Badminton (yes, badminton) at the Olympics. Fifty-nine hockey columns in 61 days. Six newspapers on the daily beat of Arkansas sports. That time he was fired. Vac recounts all this and more. He also discusses returning to work since his left leg needed to be amputated below the knee in 2022 because of health issues. Welcome back Vac.

Vaccaro has been the lead sports columnist for the New York Post since 2002, and he has been named New York Sportswriter of the Year four times by the National Sports Media Association. He has covered the Olympics, World Cup soccer, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, World Series, Stanley Cup playoffs, Final Four and college football championship games numerous times. Vac not only writes about local, national, and international sports, he also writes a Sunday column called “Open Mike.”

The Associated Press Sports Editors, the New York State Publishers Association, the New York Press Club, and the Poynter Institute are among those that have awarded Vaccaro more than 100 journalism honors during his career, which began in 1989 at the Olean (N.Y) Times Herald. He became the sports editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times in 1991, then wrote sports columns for the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record, Kansas City Star, and Newark Star-Ledger before joining the New York Post in November 2002.

Vaccaro is the author of three books: “Emperors and Idiots” (about the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry); “1941 – The Greatest Year in Sports”; and “The First Fall Classic” (about the 1912 World Series).

A native of West Hempstead, N.Y., Vaccaro graduated in 1989 from St. Bonaventure University, where his name was added to the Jandoli School Wall of Distinguished Graduates in 2022.

You can read Vaccaro’s columns for the New York Post at this link: https://nypost.com/author/mike-vaccaro/ 

Here is Vac’s column about how past personal struggles helped make 2023 a glorious year: https://nypost.com/2023/12/23/sports/past-personal-struggles-helped-make-2023-a-glorious-year/ 

@MikeVacc

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices