Your first time covering a "Big Four" professional sporting event

Similar thing happened to me with Jackie Sherrill at Mississippi State's media day.
After the main press conference was over, a bunch of guys were asking him follow-up questions. I needed to ask about one of our local players and the opportunity didn't come up earlier, so I make my way over once the crowd thins out. I wait my turn, one of the other guys finishes asking his stuff, and before I can sneak my question in there, Sherrill starts talking to someone else. Not a media member, just what appeared to be a booster.
So, I sit and wait. And wait. And wait some more. Ten minutes pass, with no let up in the conversation. The whole time I'm standing literally 2 feet from Sherrill and staring right at him.
Finally, there's a pause in the conversation. I seize the opportunity, get his attention and throw out my quick, simple question about the local hero so I can get the hell out of there.
Sherrill looks at me like I'd called his mother a whore, says, "This is a private conversation," and then goes back to talking to the other guy as if I wasn't even there.
You look up the definition of "cockbag" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Jackie Sherrill next to it.

 

For the life of me, I cannot remember what my first professional game was.

Albert, as brushoffs go, I guess that was pretty gentle. Brock struck me as a pretty cool cat.

Batman, I dealt with Sherrill several times. Like a lot of folks, he ran hot and cold.

 

I was 21 and on a summer internship and got assigned sidebar duty at an MLB game. The beat writer was a class act who did a good job preparing me for what I'd need to know.

When I turned the corner and walked into the clubhouse the first thing I saw was the team's paunchy third base coach walking right across my path, stark naked. I'm in the room 2 seconds. I look away, so as not to be turned to stone, and I see one of the team's starting pitchers walking across the room, smoke wafting behind him from the lit cigarette in his hand.

To say the least, my boyhood visions of the big-league locker room and big-league players evaporated quickly.

Other than that, it was a good experience. I did a story on a couple of young pitchers who were supposed to be middle of the rotation starters for the next several years. Neither of them ever amounted to anything, but they were good interviews.

 

Pistons-Bucks game in 1990. Pistons were on their way to a second-straight title, but lost to the Bucks. Brad Lohaus went 6-for-8 on threes for the Bucks, which I suppose was vaguely surreal.

 

I did the Dallas Cowboys training camp in Ontario, CA and arrived on scene and everything was cool and I was not nervous at all walking around on the field and taking everything in. But after the practice was over and I was able to interview players. I had Dez Bryant in front off me and was able to ask a few questions before all the other reporters surrounded us and I just froze and was not able to ask another question during the time we all Bryant in front of all of us until later on when I got Felix Jones one on one. It was one great learning experience for me and I don't get why I got this way as I had done lot's of interviews with celebs when I covered entertainment.

 

My first pro game was a Packers home game...but I have no clue who it was against. Looking at the schedule from the 1995 season, I would venture it was the Bears in the home opener. But I may not have covered any of the regular season games. I forget...I'm old and I hate the Packers since I'm a Niners fan and grew up near too many Green Bay fans. So it wasn't "OMG! OMG!" going there every weekend home game.
I do remember the playoff games since I actually was the reporter for those games and not just the videographer (this was my TV days, I was a freshman in college and doing look-lives for a pro station...I was King Shit in my mind and days away from the SportsCenter desk).
The Packers beat the Falcons and my Niners.
One of the games, I can't remember which, I got their early and was having breakfast in the Packers media room/workout area for players. Favre was in there with a few guys asked if he could sit at my table to eat. I loathed him, but said yeah and we had some small talk, he asked me my name...I told him. Mind you, I was 18 at the time and probably looked out of place.
After the game during the gang-bang interviews started in the lockerroom, he addressed me by name after I asked a VERY dumb and newbie question. It was nice of him to be nice...but I still hate the guy.

A few other "memorable" pro game moments I recall:
- Covering LeBron's exhibition opener as a rookie and cut underneath the stands only to find the mascot's hangout room, that creeped me out for some reason. You should never see Hooper with his head off...and drinking a beer and swearing.
- Going into a women's locker room for the first time. WNBA Finals for the Shock....just felt weird. But yes, I did try to check out Ruth Riley.
- Planning on going to cover a random Pacers/Pistons game and at the last minute saying "Meh, not worth the drive." Then kicking myself for not going the night Ron Artest goes bezerk.
- Being in an elevator after a Lions loss (I think to the Bears) and my co-worker talking shit about how bad Joey Harrington was in the game just to make small talk...he wasn't ranting really. We realize behind someone holding a camera on their shoulder was the said Mr. Harrington. He was just glancing down at his watch the whole time, then stepped off on the next floor.

 

Like a number of people on here, I worked on the newspaper staff at a major college, so by the time I turned pro, I had already covered Division I football and basketball, including bowl games and the NCAA tournament. Doing a pro game wasn't really a big deal at that point. In fact, I've tried but for the life of me, I can't remember the first "big four" pro event I covered. I'm thinking it was a major league baseball game, but it could have been NFL -- I'm really not sure.

 

Two pages, and this is the first thing that's caught my interest. What was going on there? Were they slathering lotion on each other's taut bodies? Playfully snapping towels? Tottering around in high-heeled shower shoes?

 

My first one was July 4, 2003, went to Philadelphia to do a story on the Marlins bench coach who was from our area. Had only been with the Marlins for about a month after Jack McKeon was hired mid-season. Had never covered anything bigger than a Division I wrestling match before and was a little awestruck with the whole thing. I didn't understand about the beat writers' daily meeting with McKeon and stupidly asked a question to McKeon about the bench coach. He politely told me he'd talk to me when he was done with the beat guys. I was sitting out in the dugout and McKeon came out and found me and we talked for about 2 minutes about Doug Davis, the bench coach, and for about 30 minutes about how kids don't throw enough and pitch too much and that's why there's so many injuries and why guys can't go 8 or 9 innings anymore. Talked to Dontrelle Willis and Mike Lowell who were both really cool. I talked with Andre Dawson who I'm pretty sure had no idea who Doug Davis was. I asked Josh Beckett to talk and he blew me off saying he was a pitcher and I didn't want to talk to him anyway.

I went back again the next year to do another story on Doug and walked up to McKeon after he was done with the beat writers and said "I know you won't remember me" and he said, "sure I do, we talked in the dugout last year about Doug Davis." I was absolutely floored, he didn't remember my name, but I didn't really care.

The thing I remember the most was standing on the field at the Vet watching Jim Thome take BP. I had never been around pro baseball players, let alone a future hall of famer like him and I couldn't believe the sound of the ball off the bat. For a baseball junkie like me it was all just so surreal. One of the best days I've had in this business.

 

I was more enamored by the people I was rubbing elbows with in the press box than I was in the locker rooms. One of the best experiences was talking with a Big Name Columnist for about an hour while in a rain delay.

 

I gotta believe a Boog Powell fart is something you never forget!

My first major league event was a Pistons game back in about 1985. Isiah went crazy and had something like 20 assists. But for the life of me I don't remember the locker room experience.

I covered a high school game before that Pistons game and the assistant coach for the team I covered saw one of the Bulls big men (I think it was Dave Corzine) walk toward the court for warm-ups and says "He'd look good for us on the JV!"

Corzine looked at him like he was an idiot that he wanted to squash like a bug. I was embarrassed to be standing with him.

 

My first was an Orioles-Rangers game at Camden Yards as a college junior. Went up to do a story on Johnny Oates since he went to Virginia Tech, and I had no fucking clue what I was doing. Tried to interview him way too close to the start of the game. Was fairly awestruck in the clubhouse. I had covered major college football, but this was way out of my comfort zone and I was just kind of thrown into it. I still cringe thinking about it.

My first real Big 4 experience as a pro was Arizona Cardinals training camp and the whole Cardinals home schedule my first year out of college. Also covered the Tampa Bay-Arizona expansion draft that year, which was a really cool experience. That was where they announced the Pedro Martinez to Boston deal. Had one-on-ones with Mike Piazza, Joe Morgan, Jerry Colangelo and others.