Pressbox deadlines

If a sports PR guy expects be home an hour after his game is over I would submit he's in the wrong profession.

 

Meh, I dunno. Once again, this isn't the major leagues. At both of the places I've worked, the PR guy was gone by the time I had returned from the lockerroom. One guy had his intern close up shop, the other let the custodial crew do it.

If this guy is working all day for what I'm guessing is an unglamorous salary, I'm not going to fault him for not wanting to stick around for more than an hour after the game. The guy could probably be less of a jerk about it but there also shouldn't be a single journalist out there that can't get his work done in less than an hour.

 

The radio guy should pitch in and write two-ninths of the gamer.

Isn't the radio guy usually the PR guy for most minor league teams?

 

What happens if there are hour-long rain delays and the game goes 15 innings and ends at 2 a.m.? Do you still get an hour after final pitch?

You could also sit down with the guy and say something along the lines of, "Hey, my deadline is 11:15-20. Most games end around 9:45. Can you give me an extra 15 or 20 minutes from your hour deadline?" That way, he'll feel as if he's in "power," by granting you the 15-20 minutes that'll take you up to your deadline, the time you have to be out of there by anyway, and you'll get the time you need to write the story. Might be a win-win with no trouble of going to his boss.

 

I covered a Pioneer League championship for two papers (the home paper arranged a gig with the out-of-town paper) and I had less than an hour to write two different gamers of the deciding game.

This is a case of needing to work faster. Yes, the PR guy needs to show some patience, but the OP needs to show some hustle as well.

 

How are they about opening the clubhouse in a timely manner after the game? Yeah, it takes less than an hour to write a gamer, but he's saying the clock starts ticking the minute the final out is recorded. if half of that is spent waiting for them to open the clubhouse door so you can get quotes, that clock runs out pretty fast. I've covered some teams that take their sweet time with post-game player and coach avails. Perhaps if you compromise on one hour from the time the clubhouse opens, you still get time to write and he'll be faster about opening that door.

 

Write a quoteless gamer with an editor's note explaining that due to the club's pressbox policy you didn't have time to get them and vacate in one hour.

 

When I was at the Herald, colleagues of mine and reporters for rival papers wound up locked inside the Big House and the old Orange Bowl respectively because it took them a long time to write. The latter was an ESPECIALLY bad place to alone at night.

 

Again, I think a compromise can be reached. Because our office was a 10-minute drive from the park, I would almost always go back to the office to write, so it was never an issue. But I can certainly see how in other situations it could be.

It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where I can't get a story done in an hour after a game, but I suppose there could be exceptions.

Again, I think the rule is just common sense and usually a print deadline will dictate what time things wrap up.

When I wrote a (newspaper) story on the life of an SID last year, my lede was "They are the first to arrive at the stadium and the last to leave."

Just as an aside, with all the late starts on NBA and MLB games now, I wonder what time the media relations guys for those teams leave the building?

 

Surely the PR guy has stuff to keep him busy after the game. I assume his team's Facebook and Twitter pages could use updates, and if I was him I'd be writing my own story on the game for the website. No matter how long it takes you to write the story, it seems like he could spend that time being productive as well.

 

I think it has to be a common sense thing. There are times when it's possible to get a gamer done easily within an hour. And when that's possible, do it. One of my pet peeves when working the desk was having a writer who for every single game he covered, would get us his story 20 minutes before page deadline - no matter when that deadline was. Write the story and be done with it.

But there are times when it can go beyond an hour, through no fault of the writer: What if the star of the game is in the shower or eating or getting treatment when the clubhouse opens and you have to wait for him? What if the manager holds a postgame meeting that runs late and forces the clubhouse to be closed longer than usual? What if you find through the course of postgame interviews something that merits a sidebar you didn't plan on?

It's like virtually every other hard-and-fast rule I ever encountered in the newspaper world - not a good idea.

I probably would stop doing the radio stuff, though. If nothing else, it gives the appearance that you've got free time on your hands during the game and surely led to this one-hour rule.

By the same token, I don't have any sympathy for this media relations guy ... a person who works media relations for a minor-league baseball team and expects to get out of the stadium at a reasonable hour and not have to hang around is about as clueless as a newspaper person who acts surprised they have to work some nights and weekends.

 

^^^ This is a good idea.

Write during the game and wrap it up when it's over. No quotes and an editor's note.


I also don't see why you're spending time helping them on the radio. Is it beneficial to your publication or giving you a boost in the community? Are they broadcasting the number to call to subscribe or your website several times? If not, fuck them. You're assisting the team you're covering and potentially taking away from your job.

It's minor league. It should be handled as professionally as necessary but not with a little dictator running roughshod. Talk with PR guy or get your SE to sit in on a meeting with PR and GM guys.