Marlins to sports writers: Pay $3 for some pop

In my experience, almost nobody followed the guidelines. So I never covered games at their place. When people asked why, I told them. Never made a difference. They didn't care. But there were plenty of choices for me, and a lot of them put out very nice pregame spreads, with some adding a pizza or two afterward. All of them had stocked fridges in very nice press boxes.

In the playoffs things could get annoying as there would be four radio stations covering one game, usually at least one of them some web-based product that nobody actually listened to. Could make for some crowded boxes. Deep enough in to the playoffs, though, there was always room.

 

I would say 99% of the reporters in my state cover games from the sideline with the exception of the state finals, which are usually at an NFL or college stadium. But the state playoff guidelines suggest press box coverage and mandate a host school must provide a seat (with power) for every working member of the press that calls the home AD ahead of time. I always wondered what would happen if enough people called them on this one time.

 

Correction: A fetid bath of malodorous swill

 

There was one small school in our coverage area and everyone in the press box from the athletic secretary to the superintendent to the writer for the local weekly chipped in with the cooking/baking for whatever that week's theme was. I got up there on a pasta week one year.

 

Back in the day, Georgia Southern football games had BBQ from the local decades-old joint w/ chicken fingers and the various fixins' like mac and cheese, as well as doughnuts and fritters from a local doughnut place. Word is it was voted the best press box food in what was then Division I-AA football.

God knows how many calories I tacked on in my two years covering the beat for our school paper.

Was a lot more enjoyable those two years than it was the year I interned in the SID office and was the one who had to go GET the food.

 

At my last full-time gig, the Central Section basketball championships, held pre-Covid at Selland Arena, was the best for food, with a different local restaurant catering the press/hospitality room each night.

 

Oh man. That jogged by memory of state softball in Ohio. Same deal, hosted in Akron at Firestone Stadium. Different restaurant each meal of the day. Recall great Italian and great chicken, both from local places.

Also one of the most (if not the most) welcoming and well-organized of all state tournaments. Despite cramped quarters in an old stadium, they made sure you had power, internet, working space, the works. Volunteers have been awesome on both my trips there.

 

Someone mentioned the Outback Bowl spread, which I enjoyed a couple times, but I can almost guarantee I can top that -- and pretty much any other spread others have talked about.

For about maybe 10 years or so, New Hampshire Motor Speedway (usually the fall race around September) had sponsorship from Sylvania and they put out an incredible all-you-can-eat LOBSTER spread. And we're not talking little dingy shrimp-sized things. These typically were 1 1/2 to 2 pound big 'uns, straight from the Atlantic Ocean about 45 miles away. Plus they had all the fixin's, including potato salad, corn on the cob, shrimp (tons of it) and much more.

I admit I went back for seconds -- and thirds -- several times. How could you not be tempted?

 

The Sun Bowl is known as the Hospitality Bowl, but I really don't remember the food. If you're there to drink, though, wow. You couldn't get your credentials until you did a couple of tequila shooters. And it went on from there.

 

I covered the Sun Bowl one time, and they did have plenty of food and drink on hand -- not only on game day, but during the week preceding the game. One night, a bunch of us wanted to go out to dinner, and all of a sudden the volunteers turned borderline inhospitable: Look, we have all this food for you -- it's free, and it's already here! Why bother going out?

Apparently, they were happy to have you write about the game, not so happy to have you see and possibly write about El Paso.