Baseball writer, Orange County Register

While doesn't seem like the kind of stuff you'd see an Gammons, Olney or Verducci churning out, it's a way in (or back in) for a lot of people. I agree with Michael_Gee on this, in that this gig could be as good or as bad as the writer makes it out to be.

 

So if I read this correctly, the thread slug's a fib. The OCR isn't really looking for a baseball writer.

 

I had another response prepared until I saw this post (particularly the last sentence) and just about fell out of my chair laughing. Great line, and point well-taken.

... Now, my real point: I could give a shit about K-Hud and A-Rod and honestly don't believe many others do either.

 

I would argue that more people care about A-Rod and Kate Hudson than they do about whether the Angels win or lose.

This job is basically a cross between TMZ and what Simers does for the LAT.

 

It could be a fun job for a season. Follow a beer vendor through the stands, find out what constitutes a good day/bad day on the job for they guy; spend a game with the grounds crew; or the game ops people to find out how they choose what music to play.
I see local cable outlest doing a lot of this stuff on their weekly "Mariners/A's/Giants" weekly shows.

 

No one reads most of those stories. As someone who used to really enjoy trying to find interesting localized or offbeat stories, because it required some digging behind the scenes and off-the-beaten-path reporting, I realized that nobody reads them. And I've heard all the ready responses, which boil down to, "Well, if you find good stories, people will read them!"

Nope. Not true. You could write a story about the wheelchair-bound World War II veteran who sang the national anthem after vocal chord surgery that restored his voice after seven decades, and it will receive 1/1,000th of the readership as a story about why Kendry Morales is slumping. If that. Just how it is. As someone who loves stories as much as he loves sports, I don't like it, either. But it's how it is.

 

This is the job that Mark Saxon had before goign to ESPN LA.

Saxon, who is a friend of mine, did some offbeat stuff, but my impression was it wasn't quite as out-of-the-box as this ad makes it seem. Maybe they want to stretch it with the next person, but my guess is that they are just highlighting the offbeat parts of the job because that's what's different.

If you wanted someone to write baseball stories 60 percent of the time and offbeat stuff 40 percent, just hypothetically, you'd probably advertise looking for someone who could do offbeat, because a lot of people can do the other 60 percent.

This is all just speculation on my part.

Point is, I wouldn't hesitate to apply for fear that it's too wacky. If they like you, you'll talk to them and find out the real story.

 

Those who do care about these stories more likely read the society page. It's interesting. Tiger Woods' affair is only a sports story in how it affects his career and the tour. The rest is society/celebrity gossip stuff, IMO. But I don't necessarily think the story should be dismissed to Page Six because all those juicy details help paint the picture of where his career may head (the endorsements, the time away from the game, etc.), so there is grey area.

I think that is where the battle is fought for this writer. If he can take those grey area stories and make them "belong" on the sports page, then he's done his job and the OCR has found something. If the stories seem like out-of-place society stuff, then it will cause resentment among sports fans and get lost to the audience that would otherwise look for that kind of stuff next to the story about how many drugs Brittany Murphy took.

 

BB Bobcat:

The hire will cover two games a week, presumably to give the beat writer his two days off. The rest is offbeat.

And note this quote: "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."

No reporting, just speculation. Frankly, it's an ad for an Angels blogger. Maybe they ought to hire a blogger from one of the fan sites.

 

Screwball, I read the ad. I'm just saying I'm familiar with the person who had this job before, and he didn't do it quite as the ad describes. Not saying they aren't changing the job. Just saying I wouldn't make any assumptions that precluded me from applying if I were interested. That's all.

 

I agree with BB Bobcat on this.

Besides, if you are covering the actual games a couple days a week in order to give somebody else a day off, isn't that a legitimate role, and pretty good for somebody looking for actual baseball-writing experience?

What you do with the rest of the job will, to a certain extent, probably up to the writer, and any day of work is still a chance to find/break real, baseball related news, write smart, analytical blogs, come up with story ideas, and yes, do some speculation. It could even be some speculation of the kind that writers/columnists do all the time, that may be based on something, whether it's what you may know, or may find out, if you're a good reporter, make connections, or just happen to stumble over things once in a while simply because you're there a lot and talking to all kinds of different people.

Just because you're the society-related baseball reporter, I'm sure the Register wouldn't turn down that kind of stuff if you can produce it, and make it your business to do so. In fact, I'm sure that's what it wants. It takes effort, talent and good instincts to produce good off-beat stuff, just as it does to do good beat work, and those skills and traits are/should be valued in this industry no matter what the job.

This kind of job probably is the direction that the industry is evolving, for better and/or worse. And complaining/digging our heels in about whether it's a real baseball job is pointless.