Game note-taking

I write during games as much as necessary given the deadline situation. If you can't file a gamer within two minutes of game's end, you will be in trouble at some point in this biz.

A couple of things I've learned from wise scribes about brutal deadline situations. 1. Have two tops working if the game is going down to the wire. 2. Don't worry too much about flow -- write blocks of text you think you might need during the game and organize as you see fit in the final minutes before deadline. It's easier to be deleting text than writing it in those situations.

Having said that, I try to avoid writing a lot during the game when I don't have a tough deadline. I've left the parking lot too many times wishing I wouldn't have gone with the lead I came up with in the third quarter.

 

I take a lot of stats during games - not just stuff for the boxes, but other things such as rebounds, turnovers, time-of-possesion, pitch counts, etc. That forces me to watch everything, and if there is any semblance of a big play, I scribble it down.

That said, I echo one of the posters who said it's what you leave out, as well. A gamer, unless you're covering a championship game or milestone, should be no longer than 15 inches.

Not to threadjack, but if you keep that in mind, you won't go nutty taking notes.

 

More than anything, taking pxp notes let me pick out key plays and trends that helped me craft better questions when talking to coaches and players afterwards. I usually found that if I could sound halfway intelligent on strategies or turning points, I got better quotes than with "So describe your team's effort tonight."

 

some people have these things called deadlines and can't wait for the postgame notes

 

It's hard to wait for the post-game notes when your deadline is 3 minutes after the time reads 0:00

 

Dude, you ever hear of a high school game? Most of those places have a PA announcer and 99.5 percent DO NOT have postgame notes.

 

This has been helpful! Thank you to all the responders.

 

I take copious notes on basketball, football, somewhat less in baseball since
i keep score and have a scorekeeper help me as well. I write like hell during the game, then cut much if not most of it down for the final product, due out about a minute after the game ends, if not sooner.

 

It's crucial to have some kind of shorthand. In most cases, there's just too much going on. Problem is, sometimes I'm scribbling so fast, the stuff is nearly unreadable. :

I haven't had much trouble taking baseball and football notes. Basketball, for me at least, is too fast for detailed notes and pbp. After some issues early last season, I began only tracking shooting stats (along with notes). I got other stuff (rebounds, turnovers, etc.) from the official scorer.

 

Basketball isn't that hard really.

I have two clipboards, one has a legal pad for pbp, the other my scoresheet (which is broken up into quarters, fouls, total points and rebounds).

On the pbp sheet, I'll break into three columns visiting team, time, home team. When home player makes a basket, i put 21-j (No. 21 jumper) or 52-li (lay in), 44-dunk. And the time in the middle column.

If it's a missed shot, you put an X. If the team with possession of the ball, fails to get a shot, I draw a line.

I keep track of team shooting, turnovers, rebounds, steals.




To the newbie who started this thread (i forgot the name), the main thing is making sure you get the basics and are comfortable with that. Then once you are comfortable donig just scoring, try keeping track of rebounds, then try team shooting, etc, etc.

 

Dude, what does your point have to do with mine about how ridiculous people in the box look when the ATT is read?

 

dude's gotta point -- it does look really stupid when people are doing their job. suckas

you know what else is really funny? how stupid people in the press box look when they write down a guy hit a home run or scored a touchdown. idiots. all that will be in the post-game notes