Press Box ejections

Once upon a time as young summer intern, I was in the press box covering a minor-league baseball game in the now-defunct Texas-Louisiana League. There was a close play that didn't go the home team's way, and the PA guy played the Bob Uecker quote Major League (Personally, I think we got hosed on that one!) over the stadium speakers. And the home plate umpire drops his mask, turns around, points to the press box and gives the guy the hook.

The same thing happened in another independent league about 10 years ago and they made the guy ump third base the next game as punishment.

I didn't even know that umps could boot stadium workers until then. But the real fun part was after the game, trying to write up my game recap with the ump crew and the team officials having a screaming argument in the tiny press box.

 

Interesting. There are a couple of schools in the area where the janitors let me stay and write. If they're done before I am, they just tell me which door to use on my way out once I'm finished.

 

I was covering (writing and shooting) a girls basketball game at this small school whose ancient gym was this little box where the fans sitting in the front row of the bleachers literally had their feet in bounds.

Normally, I would stay behind the end line and shoot. But the gym was so damn small that there was maybe three feet between the line and the wall. If I stayed there, I'd practically be in bounds.

But there was a small dark hallway each on opposite sides of the gym that would lead to each team's locker room. It would give me enough room to stand, so I'd shoot from there. I did it for a couple of years with no problems.

Until one night, when local big school came to play. After the first quarter, the coach calls over to the refs, waves over the home team coach and leads the delegation over to me and complained that the flash from my camera from the dark background of the hallway was distracting his players.

I knew the visiting coach pretty well; we were professional with each other usually. But I told them that there was no other place to stand, and my pics needed the flash or they would end up blurry. Home coach stands there without saying anything, and the refs finally tell me I either have to sit in the stands (small bleachers really), shoot without the flash, or leave.

I ended up in the stands, shot a few shitty pictures, and covered the rest of the game. Visiting coach semi-apologized afterward, but said the dark hallway where I was standing had made my flash brighter. I'd covered a bunch of his games in the past in his big gym and in other gyms and he'd never had a problem with where I stood before, so I figured it must have bothered him. Home coach and the AD both apologized, and the AD said he'd explain to the refs in the future that there was no real place for me to stand.

 

A lot of schools bring in a crew to sweep the floors and vacuum the bleachers following games in my neck of the woods. When I've asked them about staying to write, they don't have a problem. Most of them are night crew, as it is, so their hours extend into the morning.

 

Many moons ago, the guy who covered the local low-level Class A minor league baseball team was a rabid homer. A rabid homer. One night when the umpires made a call against the home team that he didn't like, he went on a rage up and down the press box. About the time he got into the cubicle where the PA announcer sat, the PA guy flipped the switch to his mike on so the whole stadium got to hear "you blind sonuvabitch, go f*** yourself" through the speakers. I don't recall exactly what his punishment was, but the league, the team and the sports editor were all involved.

 

Once in Daytona, the PA guy got tossed after playing "three blind mice" after a call....story went national.

I WANTED to toss a belligerent TV photographer once for calling me out because the lighting for the post game conference wasn't going to work. He was right but he was being a jerk about it. So afterwards I had security escort him back to the main press box floor and we had a professional discussion. I made my, he apologized and it was over then and there.

 

Good column by Bob Brookover, defending the reporter with evidence and removing the entrails of the Eagles VP, Anne Gordon, a former managing editor at The Inquirer:
Brookover: How an Eagles VP turned a minor issue into a crisis

Also, there is no "declined comment." There is only "declined to comment."
"Declined comment" sounds like the person was offered some comment but declined to accept any.

 

When I was covering preps, I had some good relationships with facilities guys and some bad ones.

Some just would not budge. It was time for them to punch out, so get the fuck out.

 

How were they allowed to sit in the first row? First time the opposing team lost the ball out of the bounds on that side coach should've demanded they be moved or the refs call a tech.

 

The comments are, uh, not empathetic to the media.

 

That's standard. I count it as a win if I don't get locked in the stadium.

 

This used to be a strict rule in the better newsrooms. Now it appears to be lost in the madness.