Baseball writer, Orange County Register

We’re looking for a writer to cover the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim with enthusiasm, humor and a knack for the off-the-field stories. The job would involve covering a couple of Angels games per week. This writer will also need skills in photo, video and blogging. We’re looking for someone who is equally as comfortable interviewing manager Mike Scioscia as the bat boy for the day. We are looking for fan-friendly stories about the National Anthem singer, the pilot from the pre-game flyover and the guy who proposes to his girlfriend in the sixth inning. We are looking for a writer who will cover Angels/celebrity golf tournaments, speeches at elementary schools and charity events. If Kate Hudson shows up to cheer on A-Rod, we want a quote from her – then a quote from A-Rod. This position will be more about Facebook and Twitter than it will be about who won last night’s game. The writer should enjoy speculating on what the Angels will do in the off season, suggesting moves they should make and writing about what fans are saying about the Angels. We are a web-first sports department, but many of the stories will run on the web and in the newspaper.



Contact:

Angels editor

Keith Sharon

ksharon@ocregister.com



No phone calls please.

 

Interesting new-fangled position.

I take it that this is not the primary beat writer we are talking about, but some sort of second person on the beat responsible for the off-the-wall stuff.

 

the new wave of sports journalism ...

 

I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that K-Hud and A-Rod are no longer a couple.

 

I don't know what I think about this. It's an interesting idea and whomever get this job obviously will be very well read. But is it sports writing? Is it sports journalism? Let's say you do this for a few seasons and then apply for an actual baseball beat job at another paper. Will you be taken seriously? Or will SEs look at you as some sort of society blogger who happens to operate from press boxes?

I have answer to absolutely none of my questions. If this is the future of our business I can probably get behind it.

 

I'm sure Mike Scioscia will be just delighted to field questions about the national-anthem singer and Kate Hudson.

How is this a full-time job? 'Cover' a couple games a week? What the hell happens in the offseason? You can only write so many anthem-singer tryout stories.

And, no, it's not journalism. It's nothing even remotely resembling journalism. The Angels should be signing this writer's check, because it's a PR position.

 

Are stories about the national anthem singer and bat boy REALLY fan-friendly? Because I'm a sports fan, and I could give two shits about the national anthem singer or the bat boy. And I've never found myself thinking "That would be a great story, I wonder where they got that national anthem singer."

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I never, ever, ever read those stories. Those are stories you put in the program for the spouses of sports fans to read while they're bored at the game.

 

Can you Twitter, because if you can, I'm applying.

 

I agree. Unless the story is about Kate Hudson blowing the "bat boy for a day" under the stands, I'm not reading it.

 

I think it's the responsibility of the writer to make it interesting to the reader. If you mail in a profile on the 10th grade choir that sang the national anthem on a Tuesday night, you might not do so well. But if you find the interesting off-beat story, it can be interesting. I'm not against it. But I would have a problem if they are hiring for this position while not going on the KC-Minnesota six-game roadie.

 

To a degree, this job will be what the hiree makes of it. A talented writer with a nose for both news and the absurd could create something good out of it, if he/she is allowed to. But it could also be a disaster.