The Kid Who Conned the Sports World

EPISODE 116: The son also disguises.

Something you should know up top here is that Sports Illustrated for Kids was an actual magazine that was staffed entirely by… adults. (I know. Crazy.)

Issues had features and perforated trading cards and cartoon characters and stuff — shoutout to Buzz Beamer — but all of it was put there by grown-ups.

And occasionally, I was one of them.

In my twenties, as you may know, I worked at Sports Illustrated. But we shared an office inside the Time & Life Building, in midtown Manhattan, with a sibling: SI Kids.

SI Kids would send me on assignments — like to interview Ken Griffey Jr. and his son — and the reporting always felt easier than it should have. Because it turns out that athletes loved talking to an audience of, you know, kids.

Which is all to say that I have an unusual connection to the insane scam at the heart of today’s episode.

Which you will hear, in detail, from the perspective of its young protagonist: Gary Vider, who grew up to be a terrific stand-up comic. One who is finally ready to own up to everything he and his father did — and didn’t.

DKN/YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Parentally,

Pablo