Pressbox deadlines

This.

On the other side, once when I was an SID and radio guy in DI college baseball, the visiting team's beat writer was working on his story in the pressbox, and when I finished mine and my highlights I said "If you don't need anything else, I'm heading out. Door locks behind you, but you can get out. Stay as long as you need to." Stadium had no gates.

His serious response: "You're just going to leave me here?"

So I stuck around for another half hour with him while he finished writing, listening to him tell me how awesome the program was. I didn't mind - I just didn't think it was that big a deal to have to hang around - he had free run to do whatever.

 

The flip side of this is when I have to go on the road for football games in conference. There's one place where the SID won't stop flapping his gums when I'm trying to write. All I want to do is get done and get on the road, and he wants to have a long conversation. It's frustrating.

 

Agree with most of you here that the story should almost always be able to be finished within an hour. But having that as a drop-dead rule? Total bullshit. I'd take it to the editor or his boss and try to get this guy to back off.

 

Three hours to file a routine game story? I've NEVER taken anywhere close to that long. And, yes, both myself and almost everyone I've worked with come back to the office to file copy, unless distance and time prohibit. I normally collect my stuff when the game is over, then go the clubhouse, locker room and head straight to the car.

Even moreso in this day and age of staff cuts, there are plenty of things to do back at the office once I've finished writing.

 

Once upon a time, I was writing a HS gamer in the coach's office underneath the stadium. Got focused and someone forgot I was there. Filed, cleaned up my stuff and opened the dark into utter darkness and silence -- until I heard a dog bark somewhere. Never did that again. I've been told more than once to get the bleep out and go write somewhere else.

I understand that is pushing it. But, as a said earlier, the PR guys DO NOT work for you. Helping you is only part of their job (and a thankless job at that), and as more and more teams develop their own websites, I expect dealing with the print media will become less and less part of the job.

Honestly, I don't see why this is such a big deal. The guy may be being a little unreasonable and maybe there's a reason for it, but not all of this is so extreme, especially at the small minor league level.

 

I'm not saying it's routine to take 3 hours to file 12 inches from a Class A baseball game, but at say a Division I football game, it could take an hour to do interviews and transcribe tape. (If deadline permits.)


And if

 

I hear you there. I used to do that until a wise old reporter once asked me why the hell I was using a tape recorder in post-game interviews. He explained that most of the time there isn't going to be time to transcribe a tape before writing and that I needed to get in the habit of just scribbling on a note pad. So I did.

Now sometimes I will bring the recorder along if I want to get some material for follow up or features, but I wait till much later to transcribe stuff. For the live gamer stuff, I go with whatever I can scribble down.

Having spent plenty of time on the copy desk, I know how aggravating it is not to get copy on a game that ended at 4 p.m. until 10:30. I don't want to put someone else in that boat. I once had a writer tell me "Well, the game got over at 4 o'clock, so I went out to dinner and (something else) and then started to write." Blew a fuse over that one. Game over, get your stuff done and then go eat or do whatever.

 

When I was still writing I used a combination of scribbled notes and a digital recorder. Much easier to find quotes than a tape. And I've never understood the need to transcribe everything before writing. Take good notes so you can find the good quotes and you don't need to. Transcribe later so the desk can get your story. There are people in the office waiting for you.

 

Forget a bunch of waiting period to get into the clubhouse. I go down to the field and stand by the gate in the 9th inning and as soon as the final out is called I'm on the field dang near part of the handshake line, grab the first guy I see that I know speaks English and the manager and high tail it out there.

 

I dunno, I think given the choice I'd rather be locked up inside the Orange Bowl at night instead of stuck outside of it with no place to go.

 

That's usually what I do with the visiting team, since I don't know the faces very well. Visiting clubhouse is extremely cramped to begin with, and there usually are no nameplates on the lockers and the players have their jerseys off by then. Very tough to find them inside, though for the most part, someone will help you if you need to find somebody.

 

I've never understood that either. I've worked with several people who would do that. Spend hours transcribing and over time use how many of those quotes? Even more ridiculous to do it after a game when time is tight or you just want to get the hell out of there.