Pearlman: 'Press conferences suck'

Yep. I had an idiotic brain fart moment at a prep football game this year when I kept calling out a coach's name and wondering why he didn't turn around. I think I kept calling him Jeff, and he turns around and says, "it's Greg."

Oops.

Covered him one more time that season. I kept calling him "Greg" compulsively, much like when Jerry remembers Mulva's name is Delores and calls her by name six times in every conversation.

 

interesting point on the older, esteemed 'retired' coach. i dunno how often many of those have 'pressers,' but i wouldn't think i'd have a problem if a reporter tried to get john wooden's attention at a presser by calling out, 'COACH WOODEN!! COACH WOODEN!!' still not 'coach,' though. and he was the only former coach so illustrious and so old to have earned that from me. heck, he'd be like talking to my granddad again.

but you know what? wooden was the only exception i could think of. the only coach i could agree deserved being treated as royalty.

can't think of any other exceptions, those. and what do all you 'coach' suckups do with baseball managers? they're not 'coach' and nobody calls them 'manager torre.' their players call them, 'skip.' if i ever heard a reporter call a manager 'skip,' i might have lost it...

again, the simplest solution is to address everyone with respect. 'coach wooden' would not have been offended if you called him 'john,' i'm sure. heck, why not even 'mr. wooden?' title is unimportant and unnecessary.

 

Shockey's posts on this thread should go on the list of SJ Required Reading.

 

Guy has a prodigious gift for whining. It's always one thing or another on that blog.

 

I don't have a problem with press conferences. I just have a problem with having to fight my way through the zips who ask retarded questions. 30 seconds of my life I'll never have back, bruh.

 

Agree with everythign Shockey wrote on the "coach" issue.

To me, I would never say "coach" because I didn't want to give the guy even the slightest crumb of feeling that he had authority over me. These coaches are arrogant enough as is, thinking that you should shape your coverage toward what's best for the program, especially in college.

By the way, if you ever call a big league manager "coach," you will be quickly outed as a clueless newbie.

 

Great post, Shockey.

That's the kind of thing that I point to whenever someone (including, well, me) bitches about this place.

 

Yeah, if you're going to complain, you might want to use an example of a coach that's not one of the most media friendly in the business. If Jay Wright sucks the soul out of you, it might be time to find another profession. (As an aside, I would like to know when Mr. Pearlman coated his body in cheese spread and unleashed 532 rats. Was that on the dreaded 7 train?)

As to your other point about needing an aside after a presser, I do it as a courtesy to my colleagues. If I have a question that I think the answer might interest everyone, I'll ask in the presser. But most of my questions are off-topic stuff that would waste the time of folks writing game stories on deadline. So I wait.

 

He kind of has, no? Wasn't teh point that this is why he prefers to write books and write one-on-one features for SI.com?

 

I don't know...I didn't get that as the point of the post. Seemed to me just like a run-of-the-mill rant of a sportswriter who hates pressers.

 

geez, you and '21' are making me blush. :-[

you're too kind.