Sports columnist Bill Simmons learned everything he knows about wine from his mother

Sports Mom Jan Corbo and her son, Sports Guy Bill Simmons.

When Bill Simmons lived under his parents' roof, the basement was his space. It was home to his pool table and his Ping-Pong table, and it's where he honored his Boston Celtics with posters all over the room.

Today, it's where his mother, Jan Corbo, houses her 2,600-bottle wine collection. "The Kevin McHale posters came down," she says, referring to the Celtics Hall-of-Famer.

All that time in the basement has paid off for Simmons, 31, who writes a column three times a week for ESPN.com's edgy "Page 2." He's better known to his readers as the Sports Guy -- a moniker borne out of the personal website where he first launched his column, in 1998. His writing, laden with both pop-culture references and obscure quotations, runs the sports gamut -- he's written about everything from his experience at the most recent Super Bowl (where his Patriots emerged victorious) to his fantasy baseball draft, which he covered in a minute-by-minute log that's quickly emerging as one of his trademarks.

"I've always played a second fiddle to sports," says Corbo, who manages a jewelry store in Greenwich, Conn. Her son will be skipping out on Mother's Day this year for the NBA playoffs, as the Celtics host the Detroit Pistons.

But when it comes to wine, not even Larry Bird could stand in Corbo's way.

In the late '90s, she went on a group trip to Bordeaux led by sommelier and wine author Andrea Immer. "After that trip," she says, "I was really hooked."

Quickly, a fledgling collection had expanded to 1,100 bottles and was "bursting out." So it was time for a new cellar, complete with a tasting room and redwood shelving.

In 1999, she toured the Tuscan wine country. "This is when she went over the edge," offers Simmons. "This is when the wheels came off."

But for all his jokes, Simmons, too, has been known to appreciate a nice bottle of wine. "Learning from her, I actually know a lot about wine now," he says, explaining that he can peruse a restaurant's wine list and spot the values -- which often takes the waiter by surprise, coming from someone "wearing some dopey shirt and jeans."

He lists wines from Flowers, Beringer and Caymus as his standbys, and is partial to California "because I can't remember any of the French names."

While Simmons is a fan of red wines, Corbo prefers whites, including Chardonnays from Kistler and Peter Michael. The Sports Mom also likes whites from Friuli and reds from Piedmont and Tuscany.

She and her husband dine out frequently with friends. The evenings often begin in her cellar, where she pours her "wine of the week" for everyone to discuss.

"She brings a notebook to dinner," her son interjects, "and that just pushes me over the edge."

Corbo recalls that her son was reading box scores at the age of 3. She remembers all the years of endless sports talk. And now, Simmons realizes, Mom has gotten him back.