STF Q&A Jonathan Tannenwald: Philly.com and Soft Pretzel Logic

From time to time, we here at STF like to talk to college basketball writers who know a lot more about college basketball than we do. Today, we talk to Jonathan Tannenwald, a producer at Philly.com and author of Soft Pretzel Logic, a fantastic Big 5/College Basketball Blog on Philly.com. Yes, I'm as shocked as you are that a major media outlet has a good and reliable college hoops blog. But Jonathan gets it done with SPL. He was kind enough to sit down with me at an extremely crowded Borders in Center City for an interview.


STF Q&A - Jonathan Tannewald: Philly.com


STF: What was your inspiration for the Soft Pretzel Logic?

JT: I knew that were many college basketball fans in the area, but felt that the college hoops scene was being underserved by the Inquirer and Daily News. I mean, it gets covered well, but nothing like the collective coverage that you see for the Phillies and Eagles. I had a suspicion that there were plenty of college basketball fans that would enjoy something like this. I knew going in that it was going to be a niche audience, but I wanted to be smart and funny, not just bashing players and teams, something that is common in the Philly media.



STF: Anything that you would like to add to the Soft Pretzel Logic or plan on doing for the rest of the college basketball season?


JT: Yeah, I'd love to get more readers! I've been at this since December of last year. in that time, I've had 225 comments. The Phillies blog, going since March, has over 2900. But that's fine, because the Phillies are the Phillies. I know that I have a bit of niche audience and I know most of the people who read the blog on a regular basis. But I would like to get more readers, more traffic. I think that I have accomplish my biggest goal when I set out to start the Soft Pretzel Logic, and that was to be accepted by media for the Big 6 schools. But it's hard sometimes, because at Philly.com, you are not officially the newspaper. But they are understand that it's multimedia, and the press is good for them. but I don't want to be considered a "blogger". I like to consider this a beat reporter's blog without a beat.


STF: Did it take any convincing on your part to have Philly.com run a college hoops blog?

JT: They knew when I got hired that I had covered college hoops. I suspect that they felt that they were underserving the college sports readership on Philly.com . The Soft Pretzel Logic was something I wanted to do and they encouraged it. They had a podcast before this that I was involved in, but I offered to get the blog off the ground.

STF: You grew up in Washington DC, What was it like experiencing Big 5 basketball for the first time?

JT: When I got here, I had never even heard of the Big 5 or the Palestra. I was always a big soccer fan. I started going to the Palestra without really knowing anything about it. The game that really hooked me was the Penn-St. Joe's game in 2002-2003. After that, I was hooked. It was an atmosphere unlike anything I had ever seen before. Full house, split right down the middle. Everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs for the entire game. It was the closest thing I had seen to a soccer crowd at an American sporting event.

STF: How can you explain Big 5 basketball to people about the country who don't know much about it?

JT: There is nothing really quite like it. The only thing that is even close to it is the Triangle in North Carolina. Louisville-Kentucky doesn't compare because it's only one game. UCLA-USC is the same way. And the Triangle, as glorified as it is, still doesn't even compare because all the teams are in the same conference. What really makes the Big 5 different is that you have teams from three different conferences (four if you include Drexel) that need to agree to play each other every year. It's really quite remarkable. I would offer any fan of Carolina and Duke to come to the Palestra for a proper Big 5 game when the crowd is split down the middle.



STF: In your opinion, what is the best rivalry in the Big 5?

JT: The Holy War (Villanova-Saint Joseph’s) when it’s played at the Palestra. The best game that I can remember was in 2006. Both teams were 3-0 going into the game, so this was for the Big 5 championship. It was the 50th anniversary of the Big 5, the crowd was split right down the middle, both sides cheering and doing chants the entire game. It was a huge deal. And at the beginning of the second half, as the crowd was warming itself up, Dan Baker, who is the Phillies PA guy, was guesting on the mic that night. The you hear him start talking, and the moment you hear the first syllable come out of his mouth, the whole place goes silent. He announced that a set of car keys had been left at the scorer’s table. I’m like holy cow, because a) this whole place went silent because of the announcement of a set of lost car keys, and b) at what other gym of any consequence, where a Big East team was playing an Atlantic 10 team, could you have the kind of environment where you could go to the scorer’s table to pick up your car keys.


STF: Do you think that major media outlets do a good job in covering college basketball online?


JT: I think they rightly devout their resources to professional sports. Which is fine. There not many metropolitan newspapers that can cover college basketball extensively. The Chicago Tribune, LA Time, Washington Post, yeah, they have enough teams. Can the Boston Globe? No, they only have one team worth covering, and it’s not Harvard. Although I do think that Tommy Amaker can make it work there. Do we talk about LaSalle everyday? No. Do we talk about Temple, Villanova, Drexel, Saint Joe’s and Penn? Yes, because they are doing stuff. We try to cover everyone, but we can only do so much. We try to touch on the national scene when we can. If there is a team out there with a Philly guy like Virginia or North Carolina, we'll cover it.

That said, there are several blogs out there that I like to read and inspire me. First one is the DC Sports Bog. I happen to know Dan Steinberg, and I have no idea how he does what he does.The other ones are The Soccer Insider, the Washington Post's soccer blog, and the Nationals Journal. Those are tow blogs that i hold as examples of blogs have a community of readers that come to every post and comment on every post, and that's what I want to happen with this blog. Also Kyle and the Mid-Majority, I really have no idea what he does what he does.

Thanks Jonathan! And be sure to check out the Soft Pretzel Logic for Big 5 news.