Zander Freund (Senior Writer)

Joined over 2 years ago

  • 37 articles written
  • 745 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, Erick Blasco, Sean Crowe, John Fennelly, Ron Johnson, Tim Pollock, Andrew McNair, 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 passionate fans who have made this Community what it is today. We're just getting started baby.

Zander Writes About

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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 Robby, 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—The Intimidator faced fiercer competition than the King

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 (453) Post a note »

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  1. by Spenser
    about 15 hours ago

    With all due respect I second the thoughts of Uncle Rico.

  2. by Uncle Rico
    about 23 hours ago

    Zander, Please reconsider the rating system. You have what potentially a great thing here, but some f what you have rated as "Top Writers" consistently put up garbage that wouldn't pass even a basic journalism class.

    Granted, I'm no Pulitzer candidate, though I don't claim to be a top writer. Given some of those who have earned your top spot, I don't want to be included in that crowd either!.

    I hope you'll accept my comments in the manner in which they were intended.

    All the Best!

  3. by Ben
    1 day ago

    Hey Zander ... The main page for F1 is well knackered ... The new articles are not getting any exposure due to old articles being stuck on there ... Right now we have 3 articles from Michael Griffin and 2 articles from Sheib Shak and if you write a new article it is being relegated to the archive straight away ... The majority of articles are not getting the exposure they deserve due to this problem ... Not one of my last 4 articles have even been close to the main page its not on really ... We any closer to having this problem resolved ?

  4. by Salaar
    1 day ago

    Hey Alex,

    Could you get the FIFA page update for me?

    Cheers,
    SS

  5. by Keith
    1 day ago

    Hey Zander, I know Im probably fighting a useless battle here but I spent a long part of the day writing an article named "Why Manchester United Should Not Fear Chelsea Next Season" I clicked on publish and WHAMMO! Its not published and I lost all the writing.

    Do you know can it be got back? Or what can i do to prevent this happening again.

    Thanking You,
    Keith Griffin

  6. by TJ
    1 day ago

    Hey Zander, It isn't a big deal, but I was just wondering why for some reason on all of my older articles it says there aren't any comments. Not on any of my recent ones, but on a lot of my ollder ones for some reason all of the comments have just been erased.

    TJ

  7. by M
    2 days ago

    It's not just my articles. Is it a regular purge? I checked Jen Conway's archive, and it is the same pattern.

    Take 'er easy

  8. by M
    2 days ago

    Hey Z,

    All the comments for my older articles have fanished from the face of the Earth. My front page stats still list 171 comments recieved, but they have been wiped from all of my articles (before the Bettman one) Can this be fixed? Please? I had some great responses, reviews, debate, etc, not to mention it adds to the page's value as a CV when there is positive public feedback visible. If you could forward this to Ryan or whomever may fix it, I would be eternally grateful!

    Meanwhile, I've been adding more articles all the time (check out my latest) but again am looking to possibly move forward (professionally). I know I write long articles, but any advice on advancing? Also, could you email me the B/R internship guy's email address again... I think you just gave me his name.

    Anyhoo, thanks as always for all your help, and drop me a line if there is anything I can do. Take care and Happy 4th!

    M

    PS - Also, have you guys changed the POD routine at all?

  9. by Michael
    3 days ago

    Zander,
    How do you become a "Community Leader", I see that I am ranked #1 for the New York Giants writers..

  10. by Chris
    3 days ago

    Hey Zander, Maybe try again?
    cougar1028@hotmail.com
    Thanks,
    Chris Allen

  11. by Long
    3 days ago

    zander

    just saw it - thanks for taking my comments (federer sampras, schumacher senna)... and implementing them, completely appreciate it

  12. by Dorothy
    3 days ago

    Im not sure where it came from. Computers are still miraculous and mysterious contraptions to me.

  13. by Chris
    3 days ago

    Looks Great Zander, thanks for the help.

  14. by Shyam
    3 days ago

    Zander,

    The "Arsenal Page" has been missing from this website for 2-3 days.. All the other football clubs' web pages seem appear, but not Arsenal - what exactly is happening? Can you please do something about his asap?

    Shyam.

  15. by KP
    3 days ago

    Zander, I'm sure I'll get slammed for this, but I've put this out there anyway. Feel free to weigh in:

    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/34234-johnson-vs-bonds-shouldnt-the-big-unit-get-the-same-criticisms