Jim Callis (born October 15, 1967) is a baseball writer who currently covers the MLB Draft and prospects for MLB Pipeline and MLB.com. He was formerly the executive editor of the

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

-based magazine ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

'' and its website BaseballAmerica.com, where his contributions included weekly updates to their website and major contributions to their signature publications, ''The Baseball America Almanac'' and ''The Baseball America Prospect Handbook''.

Education

Callis grew up in Northern Virginia, mainly in Oakton. He attended the University of Georgia, where he covered the baseball team for the school paper. He graduated in 1988 with a degree in journalism.

Career

Callis began working for ''

'' directly out of college in 1988. In 1997 he moved to Chicago to go work for STATS, Inc. In 2000, Callis was lured back to ''Baseball America''. Callis remains in the Chicago area, where he works as ''Baseball America''s executive editor.

Work with ESPN

Callis moderated a weekly ''Baseball America'' themed online chat on the sports website Espn.com. His chats on ESPN were always concluded by his signature

lightning round A lightning round is a round of a game or contest in which the duration of the round is a pre-determined length of time, and the goal is typically to accomplish as much as possible within that period. The most common format of a lightning round is ...

, where he answered a high number of questions in a rapid fire style. Jim would frequently follow up his answers given during the lightning round in his weekly "Ask BA Column" on the Baseballamerica.com website. In addition to providing baseball themed information during his chats, Callis often shared his views on popular culture topics, including Madden NFL video games, television shows such as '' 24'', and actresses Jessica Alba and Anne Hathaway.

Television work

Callis was a major contributor of ESPN's television coverage of the

2008 MLB Draft The 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft continued Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, and was held on June 5 and 6, 2008. First round selections ;Key Supplemental first rou ...

, along with Keith Law, Peter Gammons,

Steve Phillips Stephen Francis Phillips (born May 18, 1963) is an American baseball analyst and former baseball executive. He served as the general manager of the New York Mets from 1997 through 2003. He worked as a baseball analyst for ESPN from 2005 until h ...

, Chris Singleton, and Karl Ravech.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Callis, Jim 1967 births Living people American sportswriters People from Falls Church, Virginia People from Oakton, Virginia