It's almost less about the quality of the people he interviews than it is about the quality of his questions (and the answers they elicit). I'm talking about Alex Belth, whose latest thoughtful interview, with Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated, can be found here.

A worthwhile excerpt, which conforms with my experience in the sportswriting world:

BB: You mentioned earlier that in a perfect world, yeah you would have loved to have been a ballplayer. Do you find that a lot of sports journalists are frustrated jocks?

Verducci: I don't think so. A lot of times I take exception to the clichŽ of the frustrated jock. If you can't do, therefore you write. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but from what I've seen that is a very tiny fraction of the writing population. I think people get into writing because they like to write. In some cases the writers like sports more than the people playing the games. I know peopleÑand I'm sure you know this with fansÑwho are more passionate about their sports than the athletes themselves. I can't say I know many writers who are frustrated [jocks] and are trying to live out their fantasies by just being around that culture and writing about it.