Not going on the road

Why is travel a problem now but not a problem in the past? Bob Hammel traveled with Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers team and still was one of the best sports journalists in Indiana. No one questioned him.

 

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the big metros cut out a lot of baseball travel in the near future. That said, you could probably justify at least driving to a lot of the divisional games for the Chicago teams. Most of them are within four or five hours.

 

Other than Milwaukee, and possibly Detroit, which divisional cities are 4-5 hours from Chicago??

 

St. Louis is about 5. Cincinnati is about 5. Cleveland is 5 1/2. Minneapolis is about 7.

 

Which leaves most of the cities out of driving range.

Either way, the cost of driving versus flying is almost irrelevant, you're still paying for hotel and expenses and gas, etc.

 

Oh, I agree. I was just answering your question. Frankly, what pro beat writer would even want to drive 4-5 hours?

 

A bit of helpful information: When posting, you have the option to change the color of the words. Here at SportsJournalists.com, it has been decided that blue is the color for posts meant to display sarcasm.

If you were serious . . . then of course no one in Indiana questioned Hammel. He was an excellent PR man for Knight and his Hoosiers (and later, Knight and his Red Raiders).

 

In the age of sharing, wonder if the Herald will work out a deal with the Sun Times or the Tribune on covering the teams on the road. I could see it with the Sun Times because the paper doesn't circulate that much in the suburbs.

 

Second point has pretty much gone out the window with blogs, regular radio and TV appearances, and beat writers issuing midseason and end-season report cards for players.

If the beat guy is on Sports Ranch 1140 screaming that Joe Fastball should be released, does it matter that his newspaper coverage is devoid of his opinions?

 

Nobody cares what the beat writer wants, evidenced by that thread a few weeks ago on four people in one hotel room.
Driving on baseball trips is really impractical and it'd pretty much kill these poor writers who cover all those fucking games. I respect baseball beat writers. Wow, what a grind.

 

Not going on the road?

Somewhere, Willie Nelson is stoned, sad and doesn't know why.

 

Disagree. For my blog and when I'm asked to do radio, I make sure nothing that I report upon is analysis. If I say that a team stunk because the point guard's jump shot was off, that's not opining - that's fact. If I say that a quarterback's repeated poor decisions are costing the team wins, that's not an opinion - I'm providing factual basis. (It's basic, but you get the point).

Hell, you can even be colorful and personable when writing a blog, which usually cuts into the voice of a columnist. But it can be done without taking a stance, making an opinion known or interjecting oneself into the subject.