Detroit Free Press sportswriter John Lowe will be in town this weekend and he's giving a half-hour talk at 3 p.m. Friday (tomorrow). He will be in The Miami Student newsroom (17 MacMillan Hall). The topic of his speech is the importance of listening during interviews. Anyone who is interested is welcome to come hear him speak and have a discussion afterward. It's a great opportunity for students to learn from someone who's been reporting for 30 years, and for juniors and seniors to network.

We hope to see you there!

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BACKGROUND

John Lowe, 49, has been a sportswriter for 30 years. He has covered 143 World Series games, including the last 121 in a row. He has covered 27 baseball All-Star Games. In other realms, he's covered six Rose Bowls, three Stanley Cup Finals and one NBA Finals -- the '85 series in which the Lakers for the first time beat the Celtics for the championship.

He's covered Fernando Valeznuela's 8-0, shutout-filled launch as a rookie with the '81 Dodgers, Nolan Ryan's fifth no-hitter (which broke the all-time record held by Sandy Koufax), Kirk Gibson's and Joe Carter's epic World Series homers, Cal Ripken's shattering the consecutive-games mark of Lou Gehrig, the Sosa-McGwire home-run chase and the Bonds chase of the McGwire record. He did columns on Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Harry Caray and Jack Buck when they departed the scene (Caray and Buck were the Cardinals announcers when Lowe first heard baseball on the radio -- it was like having Williams and DiMaggio in the same lineup).

He's gotten to interview most of the top players in baseball in the last 30 years -- some of them many times, such as Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Ken Griffey Jr., Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken, Mark McGwire, George Brett, Mike Mussina, Robin Yount and Dennis Eckserley. Lowe is honored that so many top managers have spent hours teaching him the game, starting with Whitey Herzog, Bobby Cox, Chuck Tanner, Tony La Russa and Tom Kelly. Sparky Anderson and Jim Leyland had already spent a lot of time with Lowe before he got to cover them in their terms as Tigers manager. He has enjoyed how those two continually work big-picture perspective and insight into their daily briefings with the Tigers midea.

This past season, Lowe was thrilled to interview two of the rising stars: Cy Young winner Tim Linceum of the Giants and Ian Kinsler of Texas. The Linceum interview was a favorite -- they talked about how Koufax is Lincecum's favorite pitcher.

After working part-time in Long Beach, Calif., Lowe began his full-time career with the Los Angeles Daily News in 1979. He covered the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1981 through May of 1984, when he took a job at the Philadelphia Inquirer. In Philly, Lowe served as the national NBA writer and then the national NHL writer. In May of 1986, he became the Tigers beat writer for the Detroit Free Press, which as you can see from the above also sends Lowe to big events.

Lowe graduated from USC.