Overheard in the press box

We had a Keli in our neck of the woods. Ended up going D-I, too.

 

I had a day off once and sent a non-sports colleague to a charity golf tournament in memory of a local coach who had passed away. I was astounded to hear that "Gary Player", "Johnathon Daly", and "Mark O'Meara" stopped by our little town and took the time to pose for her. Good thing I saw the story and photos before they ran.

Back to funny pressbox things, I was covering a playoff junior hockey game that was a sellout so we had a bunch of bus drivers - not sure if they were with the visiting team and its fans or whomever - seated in the back row of the pressbox. Now, the guy who ran the pressbox was a tough old guy you didn't want to mess with. He warned them repeatedly before the game that we're working and there'd be hell to pay if they made noise.

Well, in the first period, the old boy had a lot of complaints about the noise, but it wasn't the bus drivers. There was a guy who was sitting up with the assistant coach of the visiting team, clapping, yelling words of encouragement and scorn at the players, etc. The two of them seem to be chatting, etc. We told him several times to quiet down.

Anyway, while the boss proceeds to give the bus drivers shit, I calmly explain to him it wasn't them and the two of us search out the coach. We say "coach, we need you to keep your partner quiet." He looks at us straight-faced, and says "I've never seen that man in my entire life." We didn't see him again either, who knows where he wandered to next.

 

I was told by my SE. Perhaps he was dreaming when he heard this. It's very possible.

 

For clarity's sake, my rant was directed at the school system, not at the PA guy or any media members. Make the coach write down the name and jersey number of every player on his team. Shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.

OK, I'm done with the roster topic here. Back to our regularly scheduled thread ...

 

Serious question here.

Was the talk/shouting annoying, distracting, unprofessional?

I thing it's wrong for writers to cheer or boo or do the hokey pokey.

But if you are in the press box and are a coach or bus driver, who cares if you cheer?

Noise itself doesn't bother me.

I have written many game stories with Ray Charles, Beach Boys and Air Supply concerts going on in the stadium after the game.

I do know writers who get distracted if someone is whispering five rows back. Never got that.

 

Kelly, Keli, Kelli, Kellie (maybe Kelley). She told the coach each year.

I think those were mixed in with Greene and Green, depending on who you talked to.

 

Serious question here.

Was the talk/shouting annoying, distracting, unprofessional?

I thing it's wrong for writers to cheer or boo or do the hokey pokey.

But if you are in the press box and are a coach or bus driver, who cares if you cheer?

Noise itself doesn't bother me.

I have written many game stories with Ray Charles, Beach Boys and Air Supply concerts going on in the stadium after the game.

I do know writers who get distracted if someone is whispering five rows back. Never got that.


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Air Supply?!?!? Now that would bother me ....

 

This post is brought to you by Woody Harrelson and the cast of Cheers.

 

Ditto. If you can't write with noise going on around you, you need to do something besides sportswriting. Because there's going to be noise. Ever been in a college or NFL press box? You can't hear yourself think most of the time in there.

Wow, I'm coming off as a little bossy on this thread. Sorry 'bout that.

So yeah, I'll be back Saturday morning with whatever I hear Friday night ...

 

I have a kid in my area who has had different first and last names throughout his high school career. He started on varsity as a freshman, and is a junior. I'm just waiting on the next change. I've asked him, and have gotten different answers, taken my questions up the ladder all the way up to the principal twice, to no avail on anything concrete. It seems he's been shuttled between three different homes in the last two years. Dad is gone, and mom is a waste of space. Even with all this, he's a pretty good kid, and he apparently has decent grades. He's living with his grandmother now, in what I hear is a very substandard house. I've gone from being frustrated to just admiring the kid for staying with it. I just go with the flow, now. He's more than half my age, and clearly has twice the problems.

 

My head hurts just thinking about it.