Where No Sports Nut Has Gone Before

Mark Shapiro, the 32-year-old executive remaking ESPN, may seem like a boy wonder. But in fact, he has had opinions about how to present sports to the public since third grade.

Shapiro's parents divorced when he was young, and although he lived with his father in Chicago, he would frequently visit his mom, Judith, an office administrator for Time-Life Inc. in New York. Young Mark especially liked accompanying her to work, where the hallways bustled with editors putting out magazines. "I grew up arguing with [former Executive Editor] Ray Cave about there being too many ads in Sports Illustrated," says Shapiro.