As a child he attended
St. Albert the Great Elementary School in Louisville. He then went on to attend
Ballard High School. He spent his freshman year at
Baylor University in Waco, Texas. In 1980, he received a
bachelor's degree in mass communications from
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where he was the sports editor for the school's paper, the
Alestle. Before joining the
Los Angeles Times, he worked as a reporter in Fort Lauderdale and Seattle. After joining the
Times, he mainly covered the
Los Angeles Dodgers. He became a columnist in 1996. He is also a regular panel member of
ESPN's sports-themed debate show,
Around the Horn. Fellow panelist and
Denver Post columnist and author
Woody Paige often refers to him as "Reverend Bill." Plaschke has been named National Sports Columnist of the Year by the
Associated Press four times. He had a cameo in the film
Ali as a sports reporter before the first fight against
Sonny Liston. Plaschke also had a recurring role in the
HBO series
Luck. Plaschke was the subject of controversy while serving as a correspondent for the
Los Angeles Times at the
2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics for a column that accused U.S. gymnast
Gabby Douglas of a lack of patriotism for failing to smile and place her hand over her heart during the playing of the
U.S. National Anthem; the column was in turn described as "a stunning display of superfluous concern-trolling," "rife with thinly-veiled racism and sexism" and attracted further widespread criticism. Douglas later tearfully apologized at a press conference even though the criticism was widely regarded as unfair. Plaschke, who had systematically criticized Douglas' demeanor during the games, stayed silent on the controversy. Plaschke wrote about his experience with
COVID-19 in the summer of 2020. He has written two books: ''I Live for This!: Baseball's Last True Believer
(with Tommy Lasorda) (2009), and Paradise Found: A High School Football Team’s Rise from the Ashes'' (2021), about how a high school football team inspired the people of
Paradise, California after the town was virtually destroyed in a wildfire. ==References==