Gonzo Online   

Hunter S. Thompson joins ESPN.com as a weekly columnist.

H UNTER S. THOMPSON joins ESPN.com as a weekly columnist. The Doctor of Hilarious and Pungent Prose is a rabid sports fan and an old pal of ESPN Executive Editor John A. Walsh 's, who was managing editor of Rolling Stone in the early 1970s when Thompson was its national affairs editor. "Hunter will call me and rail at me and want to know how he can watch an obscure basketball game that he's having trouble getting on the satellite," Walsh says. He successfully pitched Thompson the idea of writing for ESPN.com's new Page 2, which he describes as featuring "a variety of interesting perspectives on sports." Thompson's weekly column, "Hey Rube," debuted in November with a list of ways to shorten baseball games ("ELIMINATE THE PITCHERS, and they won't be missed. Pitchers, as a group, are pampered little swine...."). Thompson began his career as a sportswriter in Florida. "There's a million people in sports who have read Hunter and just love him," Walsh says, "so they're gonna be really interested in what his take is."