Early Season Beat Writer Change at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette?

My wife: "Hey, what are you up to?"

Me: "Nothing important. Just reading SportsJournalists.com. BYH is slamming this kid for being arrogant."

The wife: "Well, is he arrogant?"

Me: "I can see why he might be perceived that way, yes. Youngster out to conquer the world, and all that."

Wife: "Ha! What year did he graduate from Missouri?"





(Sorry, Missouri friends. We understand its quality)

 

OK, I admit it: I laughed.

And I like Mizzou just fine.

 

That's funny...

 

Wow. The part I bolded, if SportsJournalists.com existed 18 years ago I would have bet money on me being the person who wrote it. Sure wish I could go back to those easy times when I knew everything about everyone at any time ever: what they should be feeling, what they should do, etc. etc. I guess I have just gotten dumber and more wishy-washy in my old age. Life experience can suck that way.

So, to threadjack this back to the subject of the thread: Congratulations, man. As I have found new employment that allows me to be home every weekend and fit my schedule around my kids' activities, I have gained a new enjoyment of life. My only advice is this: Get in shape, dude, because the playground moms are gonna be checkin' you out.

 

Errors? We don't keep track of errors. Let's just give the visiting team two errors, and we didn't have any.

 

When this job is announced, I will be very disappointed if the writer who gets the position does not have decades of experience writing about the Pirates.

 

Colin, best wishes. I join the others here in congratulating you on choosing what you think is best for your family.

 

>>>I just saw myself headed toward being one of those miserable, divorced, cholesterol-through-the-roof, chain-smoking, curmudgeons that all of us come across in press boxes ... and I wanted to jump off now.<<<


And, of course, there are none of those types in real estate or insurance or education or retail or government or any other walk of life, right?

Aside from sportswriters, all other Americans come into the workplace daily turning cartwheels and tossing daisies.

 

As a general rule, people in most other walks of life do not have such an emotional attachment to their job that it will gnaw at their gut or cause them to sit bolt upright in bed at 3 a.m. wondering if they misspelled somebody's name. Note I said "general rule," and I understand there are other jobs that carry as much angst and people within every job who carry that angst because they're just anxious people. But writers, who chose the work because of their love and passion for it, are as a general rule a different lot from people who chose a line of work primarily for its moneymaking possibilities and the way it fits into other parts of their life.

 

I hear surgeons take their mistakes pretty hard, too. I'm guessing cops and fire fighters don't forget about their work as soon as they punch out. Maybe a teacher worries about a kid with potential who's being dragged down by a terrible home life.

Covering baseball isn't easy, and it's certainly time consuming. But let's not get carried away.

 

OK, as long as you realize that. :