Zander Freund (Senior Writer)

Joined over 2 years ago

  • 41 articles written
  • 780 comments posted
  • 1 articles of the day

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Zander's Bio

Hey guys—I'm Zander, Bleacher Report's Community Director.

I started the site back in 2005 along with three of my best friends from high school: Dave Finocchio, Bryan Goldberg, and Dave Nemetz. From the get go, our mission has been to legitimize the "fan-expert," offering aspiring sports writers, bloggers, and die-hard debaters a place to publish their commentary in a highly professional and collaborative manner.

The four of us have always been sports freaks. We spent many of our Friday nights discussing and debating a wide range of sports topics, and by the time we graduated high school I'm pretty sure we knew just as much about the games we watched as the media personalities who were paid to cover them.

We were positive there were more fans out there like us; millions more. We'd seen them posting on message boards since we were in our internet diapers, using AOL grandstand as a means of connecting with like-minded people.

Three years ago we decided to act on our vision of giving these fans a centralized voice in the world of sports media. With a lot of hard work and invaluable assistance from our loyal base of contributors, Bleacher Report has quickly become the premiere destination for citizen sports journalism on the web.

We work out of an office in San Francisco. The two Daves handle sales and marketing, while Bryan manages our team of world class web engineers.

And me? I'm all Community, all the time.

Ken Armer, Alan Bass, Erick Blasco, Sean Crowe, Ron Johnson, Andrew Kneeland, Tim Pollock, Andrew McNair, Salaar Shamsi, J.J. Stankevitz, Bryan Thiel, David Williams, Michael Whittenberg, and the rest of the talented and passionate Bleacher Creatures have given me the best job in the world. They continue to amaze me every day.

For those of you newbies who aspire to be like these studs: there's no such thing as a free lunch, and Bleacher Report is no exception. The site's top contributors did not become masters of the network by accident.

They studied the games they enjoyed like a Rhodes scholar studies school books.

They learned from their mistakes and listened to the advice of those who tried to help them improve their work.

They practiced their craft—over and over again—then practiced some more.

They never gave up in the face of criticism.

You, aspiring Bleacher Creature, will not get to the Top Writers list if you don't give 110%.

Fully digest the Writer's Tips on our company blog. Work with the editors who are there to help fine tune your skills. Seek the wisdom of those who came before you and cemented a legacy for themselves here.

Most importantly: lean on me whenever you need help. I'm always available to show you the ropes and answer any questions you may have. I can be reached at zander@bleacherreport.com, or you can just post a note on my bulletin board.

Thanks again to all of you who have made this Community what it is today. We're just getting started baby.

Zander Writes About

The Short List facts and information about Zander Freund

Favorite Athletes

Tony Gwynn, Steve Young, Larry Bird, Joe Montana, Ozzie Smith, Dominick Hasek, Hakeem Olajawon, Barry Sanders, Greg Maddux, Magic Johnson, Brett Favre, Roger Federer, Michael Jordan, Kirby Puckett, Ronnie Lott, Fred Couples, Bryant Young, Andre Agassi, Pavel Bure, Lawrence Taylor, Pudge Rodriguez, Reggie Miller, Brent Jones, Tim Duncan, Pedro Martinez, Allen Iverson, Jerry Rice, Ken Caminiti, Ray Borque, Andre Agassi, Clyde Drexler, Peyton Manning, Mark McGwire, Ray Lewis, Ray Allen, Arturs Irbe, Bruce Smith, Steve Yzerman, Deion Sanders, Trevor Hoffman, Garrison Hearst, Hersey Hawkins, Wayne Gretzky, Darrell Green, Don Mattingly, Tim Hardaway, Jim Edmonds, Mike Alstott, Dave Stewart, Igor Larionov, Reggie Roby, Mario Lemieux, Steve Kerr, Tom Rathman

Favorite Sports Teams

SF 49ers (88'-present), Oakland Athletics (89'-93', 97'-01'), Golden State Warriors (89'-95', 05'-present), San Jose Sharks (93'-99'), Atlanta Braves (97'-01'), San Antonio Spurs (98'-present), San Diego Padres (98'), Dallas Mavericks (01'-03'), New York Yankees (83'-88'), Green Bay Packers (08'), Houston Rockets (95'-98')

All Time Sports Moment

Owens! Owens! Owens!

Most Memorable Game Attended

Michigan vs. Michigan State, 3 OT, 2004

Most Unbreakable Sports Record

511 wins (Cy Young)

Ruth or Mays?

Mays is more well rounded, but no one ever dominated quite like Ruth

Unitas or Montana?

Joe

Jordan or Russell?

MJ

Gretzky or Orr?

Tossup

Pele or Maradona?

Pele

Federer or Sampras?

Roger—though Rod Laver won the grand slam as both an amateur and professional, and is thus surely the best male tennis player of all time

Tiger or Nicklaus?

The Golden Bear—Tiger will probably be the best when he retires

Petty or Earnhardt?

Earnhardt—With all due respect to The King, The Intimidator faced fiercer competition

Schumacher or Senna?

Schumacher

Pac 10, Big 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, or Big East?

SEC—college football was made to be played down south!

Bulletin Board (558) Post a note »

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  1. by Alan
    16 minutes ago

    Hey Zander!
    The new site looks great!!! And i love the new tagging system that prevents people from making a million tags that don't even apply to their article. Keep up the great work!!

  2. by Saraswathi
    about 9 hours ago

    Z,

    The new UI looks fantabulous. Kudos to Team Bleacher.

    Bests,
    Sarah

  3. by Saraswathi
    about 10 hours ago

    Captain Zzzzz,

    Good Morning from India!

    I was standing dumbstruck reading your hi-praise, if Tom Sherill (a guy who posted in the Heikki article that has 170 odd comments :-) trashing me for writing that article) has anything do about it, I am clueless on F1 and quite the village idiot :-)

    I am just getting a hang of MLB though I'd seen a few Yankees games and Twins games live. Also, some Wilds games in NHL and Timberwolves and Spurs games in Basketball. I am yet to understand the rules of NFL though... I used to love watching some of the American Athletes though such as Carl Lewis, Michael Jordan etc.,

    I've started the Editing Internship on B/R and hope to learn the craft. Honest to God, it is you guys who keep the site so fluid. Emily Fowler and Ryan Alberti are great mentors and your Open Mic series/ideas are really imaginative. You guys all are well deserving of praise and accolades.

    There are some who try to call this a blog(Tom Sherill did in that post) not understanding the spirit of open source communication. It saddens me, but negative comments only show how much popular B/R is becoming. I hope and am sure that one day B/R will be as solid as Sourceforge.

    It is fans that make sport what it is and I am sure CBS Sports and Fox realize this and that is why they pick topics from here.

    Best Wishes,
    Sarah

    PS: Sorry for the longish note

  4. by Andrew
    about 14 hours ago

    Hey Zander,

    This is the first time I have solicited reads, but I am pretty proud of my latest work. I have ranked every American League baseball team's logo, and separated them by division.

    If you find the time, I would be thrilled if you would stop by and offer your opinions!

    Thanks!

    -AK

  5. by Tosten
    about 14 hours ago

    Also the Bleacher Report logo in the upper left hand corner is now cut off. Although I'm sure you guys have already noticed that.

  6. by Tosten
    about 14 hours ago

    Hey just a heads up. Ever since there's been the modified layout with the bar at the top, every time I go to an article a box pops up that says, "You must supply an ID." I click ok in the box and it goes away.

    It's harmless and goes away with the click of a button, but it's just a bit annoying in all honesty. It takes up time that I could spend reading other Bleacher Report stuff...

  7. by Ryan
    about 18 hours ago

    Hey Zander,
    Just wanted to give you a head's up about a guy named "Josh not telling". You can see his handy work here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/40237-cm-punks-days-as-wwe-raw-world-champion-are-numbered

    Thanks,
    Ryan

  8. by Joseph
    about 20 hours ago

    Hey Zander,
    Thanks for all of the work you do for Bleacher Report. I really enjoy writing articles for the website! Quick question: Would you mind reading a few of my articles and offering some tips and constructive criticism when you have a chance? I know you're probably very busy, but I though that it wouldn't hurt to ask. Thanks for all you do! Hope all is well!

    - Joseph Morgan

  9. by Brett
    about 21 hours ago

    just curious if there is a way to credit multiple authors on an article? was thinking of doing one as a roundtable discussion.

  10. by Saraswathi
    1 day ago

    Captain Z,

    Good morning from India!

    Now that I am beginning to read your work, let me just get a hang of the games that you cover. You write damn (sorry for the swear word :-) good mate.

    Wow!
    Sarah

  11. by Long
    1 day ago

    Cap

    Just shot you a email -

  12. by L. J.
    1 day ago

    S**t, I just commented on the introduction before you posted me. I have done a Gary Maddux search every day since I joined and yours just popped up.

    But I shouldn't have read it dammit, I'm trying to boycott you and extract myself from 'roid battles at the same time so that I can get some FRICKIN' sleep...there's two other writers and me fighting like a******s in my Bulletin Board for the last 48 hours...you may have NOTICED.

    Hmmm...I wonder if any CF's did 'roids?

    Regardless, a wonderful piece and a wonderful series concept. I look forward to not reading it and not leaving comments and if you DO see a comment with my name attached...it's not me, my 6 year old niece has hijacked my account from Carolina and she's very, very opinionated...in a bad way.

    You suck,

    Joe ... (yeah, for you and me it can be Joe, anyone else, it's Mr. Burgess, Chef or Gary Maddux.)

  13. by Andrew
    1 day ago

    No, not Jimmy Traina. Mallory Rubin.

    My bad.

  14. by Andrew
    1 day ago

    Haha, thanks Zander.

    The main and obvious reason it is getting so much attention, though, is because Jimmy Traina featured it on SI Campus Clicks.

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/sioncampus/07/22/ralphie-versus-uga/index.html

  15. by mark
    1 day ago

    Hey Z

    ive sent you an Email , but ive sent it from my live acount instead of my standard account which i use for BR , just thought id let you know because you may not of known who the email was from .

    M Andrew .