Additionally, he was a frequent contributor to several ESPN programs, serving as a regular replacement host for Pardon the Interruption.
Le Batard was born to Cuban exile parents,[1] Gonzalo and Lourdes, who moved the family to Central Islip, New York, before settling in Miramar, Florida.
During the 2016 exhibition Major League Baseball game in Cuba, Le Batard talked on his radio show about how his family had risked everything to come to the U.S. On September 13, 2018, Miami Herald reporter and Le Batard's longtime friend Greg "Scoops" Cote published an article announcing that Dan had become engaged to his girlfriend of two years, Valerie Scheide.
[2] The article was published without the couple's consent, which caused great embarrassment for Le Batard as he was on the air at the time the news broke.
He also was a regular guest host of Pardon the Interruption, where he was christened "The Hateable Dan Le Batard" due to his sometimes controversial (and usually contrarian) opinions, as well as his unorthodox attire.
Le Batard grants very few interviews about his own life, but in a rare one he did with Aventura Business Monthly in Miami in March 2011, he revealed that Tony Kornheiser, who began a long-running radio career of his own in 1992 on Washington D.C.–based WTEM, strongly encouraged him to embark on a career in the same medium, telling him: "It will link [you] to [your] community in a different way [from that of newspapers].
Guests on his radio program may be asked questions ranging from the racial undertones of the Michael Vick case to the effect that race has on how players are drafted into the NBA.
After writing a column for The Herald on the former topic, Le Batard was featured on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes to discuss the issue and immediately called out the hosts for only inviting non-black people to speak on the subject.
[17] In January 2014, it was revealed that Le Batard was the member of the BBWAA who gave his baseball Hall of Fame vote away to sports news site Deadspin[18] allowing them to use it as a public opinion poll.
[19] His ESPN colleagues were mixed in their reactions, which ranged from support to condemnation, with some wondering why Le Batard did not use ESPN.com to conduct the vote.
[20] On August 7, 2014, Le Batard was suspended for two days from his duties at ESPN for allegedly taking out a billboard in Akron, Ohio, which read "You're Welcome, Lebron.
In October 2018 Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill, aka "The Velvet Buzzsaw", suggested naming a baby hippo as part of a fundraiser.
[25][26] On July 18, 2019, on his radio show Le Batard criticized then-President Donald Trump's "go back" to the "crime-infested places from which they came" tweets about four minority congresswomen and called ESPN's policy of avoiding politics on its broadcasts "cowardly".