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Ann Liguori and Tom Clavin host a special edition of "Sports Innerview" at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. Photos by Brett Mauser

Sag Harbor - Her job is her passion - always has been. It won't change either. Ann Liguori, a trailblazer for women in sports media, is quite literally living the dream.

"I'm doing exactly what I've always dreamed I would do since I was three years old," Ligouri said. "I look back and feel very blessed that I've had the opportunity to do what I've done."

Liguori, a Westhampton resident since 2002, has interviewed some of sport's all-time greats - Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Wayne Gretzky and Jim Brown are at the top of a long list of household names. She is one of two original members still on the WFAN airwaves since its inception. Liguori's television show, "Sports Innerview," was the longest running sports show hosted by a woman in television history, having greeted its fans weekly from 1989-2003, and her weekly radio show has aired every Saturday morning on WLIU 88.3 FM, a public radio station based in Southampton, as well as WLIU.org since 2007 (9 a.m. to 10 a.m.). She has done it all, and on Tuesday, Liguori hosted a special edition of the show live from Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theater.

Ann Liguori is one of two original WFAN broadcasters still on the air regularly.

In the one-hour segment, she sat down with Tom Clavin, a Hamptons.com contributor and co-author of "Roger Maris: The Life of Baseball's Reluctant Hero," which hits bookstores on March 16, 2010. Topics ranged from Pete Rose's potential reinstatement into baseball to Michael Vick's candidacy for an NFL job to celebrities' views on golf - including accounts from Peanuts comic strip creator Charles Schulz, shock rocker Alice Cooper and NFL legend Brett Favre, which are detailed in Liguori's recent release "A Passion For Golf: Celebrity Musings About The Game."

The tandem took questions from the theater audience and hit on topics both current and historic, from Pete Rose's Hall of Fame candidacy to that of Maris, the single season home run king in the minds of many. The crowd shared a laugh when Liguori recounted Schulz's golf analogy - "Golf is like women. Golf leads us on, you get a perfect drive, you hit the 3-wood right up there near the green and you're thinking birdie all the way up there, and then you take the approach shot and you get a bogey or a double. So you've been led on and then you're turned down again."

Clavin told of the tongue-in-cheek hatred between Maris and Mantle blown up by the media - "When they were out in the outfield and they were getting ready before the game, Mickey would get mischievous and would wait until a couple of reporters were nearby and then he'd shout at Roger 'I hate your guts.' They shared an apartment together in Queens and the next day they would pick up the papers and see who fell for it."

Even though she's a veteran of a quarter century, Liguori's zest has not wavered. She first linked up with CBS Sports in the mid-1980s. It was different then, she recalls. Women in sports media were scattered in the industry but not taken seriously. Cable television was new. A dish belonged on the dining room table long before it resided on the roofs of millions, bringing them thousands of hours of sports coverage. ESPN was an unknown acronym to the masses. Liguori, fresh out of the University of South Florida, got in early, first at CBS and then at Sports Radio 66, where "Hey Liguori, What's the Story?" was a part of the weekly line-up.

She was a four-sport athlete from Brecksville, OH, lettering in volleyball, basketball, tennis and track. From an athlete's and spectator's perspective, Liguori knew her subject matter. She had to for survival's sake. As a woman talking sports on the radio, she was wading in shark-infested waters. Thousands of listeners licked their chops, waiting for a misstep, but she proved to be the consummate pro.

"I fit in really well with the guys," she said. "It was a boys club; it still is a boys club. Because I was an athlete my whole life, I really feel like I fit in. The bottom line is you have to know sports. You can't get into it for the glamour. A lot of people do, guys and gals. You have to know sports and you have to have incredible determination and professionalism."

For all of her interviews and especially for those with sports legends, her name was on the line. She and other select women - Lesley Visser of television and The Boston Globe, The New York Times' Claire Smith, USA Today's Christine Brennan - laid the foundation for the influx of women in sports media that is seen on cable networks and in newspapers today.

"I did so much research; I worked so hard," she said. "I not only wanted to prove to my guests that I was well prepared for the interview and knew everything and then some, but being a woman, you had to be overprepared. You have to be overqualified. You had to be so much better than most of the guys, or at least their equal, because you were judged a lot more harshly. People were watching you and they still do today. They say 'A woman talking sports? Are you nuts?' You still get that attitude. There are still a lot of traditional thinkers out there as far as women talking sports. For those who are dedicated, they'll find their way."

Liguori certainly did. She has covered upward of 20 U.S. Open golf championships, 11 straight Masters golf tournaments, six Olympic Games, as well as several Super Bowls, World Series, World Cups, and next month will be WFAN's point person at the U.S. Open in Flushing, her 27th fortnight there. She founded her own company, Ann Liguori Productions, and her show "Conversations With Ann Liguori," aired daily on The Golf Channel.

The journey has taken her all over the world, put her face to face with sports legends, and landed her in Westhampton. Liguori moved there full-time seven years ago. Living in what she calls "paradise" for a golfer, Liguori, an 11 handicap, is a member at Hampton Hills Golf Club in Westhampton and carves out enough time during the week to squeeze in two or three rounds if she's lucky. She calls golf "like a tranquil walk in the woods" and "a four- or five-hour window into someone's soul," likening one's choices and temperament on the links to that in his day-to-day life.

Her schedule's plenty busy between her many media commitments through her own company, Ann Liguori Productions, her books - another is in the works - and the Ann Liguori Foundation Charity Golf Classic, which is set for Oct. 5 at Maidstone Golf Club. There's no need to ask - life is good for Ann Liguori.

"I personally feel like I'm 21," she said. "I feel like I'm a kid. Now, though, as I get older, I can smell the roses a little bit and appreciate the experiences that I've had."