Royals revoke credentials - UPDATED AGAIN

Re: Royals revoke credentials

How about all Revenue Sharing is spent on player development and signing bonuses for draft picks and a quality GM and manager(How about NOT Buddy Bell?) instead of old geezers who suck ass like Joe Mays, Benito Santiago, Juan Gone..ect?

I'd like to see how many Royals draftees are on the 25 man roster compared to how many Yankee draft picks are on theirs?

 

Re: Royals revoke credentials

jason is fast becoming one of my favorite contributors to this site.  (Just a thought--at the end of the column, where it tells the reader how to get in touch with whitlock, call this number or email, maybe they should add, 'You can also PM him at sportsjournalists.com).  

We always say 'we are not the story,' but in this case we are....yet he managed to still make the story about 'them,' not 'us.'  Well done.

Lugzie--I don't see anyone here celebrating the death of radio access....we all know that a team can make it difficult on anyone, print or electronic, without revoking credentials.  There are plenty of lousy print guys who shouldn't be credentialed, just as there are plenty of lousy radio/tv guys who shouldn't be credentialed.

 

Re: Royals revoke credentials

Ah come on! Joe Mays was a decent player. I'd sure like to know what the hell happened to him.

As for the others... right on. You don't come off a solid 2003 season and sign players like that, and expect to climb upward in the standings.  

 

Re: Royals revoke credentials

And you probably won't see anyone celebrating, but there are a few who are thinking it.  

You know that because you're a smart, fair person who sees reality for what it is.  But I've been around long enough to know that on every beat, there are those who think:  "Print good, broadcast bad"-- and there's no deviating from that mantra.

 

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I'm 100% sure you are correct.  Same people who see young women showing up in the locker room and think, 'another idiot who didn't deserve the job.'  Their problem, not ours.  8)

 

Re: Royals revoke credentials

you weren't already?

 

Re: Royals revoke credentials


Warning:  This is going to me a bit of a me, me, me tirade.  I apologize in advance.  Please skip if you're not interested.

I'm a little bitter right now.  Last week my station sent me on a daytrip to a park I don't usually visit to do a specific feature about a specific person with a local tie.

Now....... I've been around ML parks in various cities off-and-on for-- GEEZ!-- 10 years now.  I've been on the rightsholder team, but more often, on the non-rightsholder team.  And what I'm noticing is that access for non-rightsholding TV is getting much tighter.  

So the photog and I go into the clubhouse before the game... do a couple of interviews... then it's time for the manager's 'mini-presser.'  I call it a mini-presser because it's him at his desk in his office talking to reporters, right?  So I walk in, and I notice my photog hasn't followed.  He's been stopped at the door by a flack.

I go back out and hear the flack saying, "No filming."  (OK, FIRST OF ALL IT'S NOT FUCKING FILM, IT'S TAPE, OK?)... (Blood pressure rising...)  But I calmly ask the flack why.  And he tells me, "You're lucky to even be here at all.  Over half the ML teams don't allow cameras in the clubhouse before the game.")   I calmly explain that my 6 pm deadline is such that I won't be able to talk to the manager after the game.  He tells me, "Again, you're lucky to be here.  I hope you get something you can use."  Then the asshole PUTS HIS HAND ON MY ARM AS IF TO FEIGN CONCERN, THEN WALKS OFF.  I was so close to TELLING THE FUCKER NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN, but my photog grabbed me and told me to remain calm.   ;D

My point:  Access is tightening.  We TV scum are just the beginning.

Thanks for letting me rant about something on a thread that has much more important things to discuss.  That was therapeutic.

 

Re: Royals revoke credentials

Let him know how lucky he is he can touch you and still have a job. Then ask him for better access next time.

 

Re: Royals revoke credentials

great column by whitlock.

even though these radio folks aren't in the BBWAA, the BBWAA can still get involved. it's in the interests of all reporters to get these credentials back -- if these two really are legitimate reporters, which it sounds like they are (although it's rare that a mid-size city has one, let alone two actual reporters on radio as opposed to talking heads). the local chapter president should be going to bat for these two radio people. i hope he or she is doing so. of course they have no authority but the BBWAA should be interested in protecting the creds of all legitimate journalists regardless of the medium.

 

Re: Royals revoke credentials

As a print person, I actually have no issue with no cameras in the clubhouse before the game (sorry Luggie).
That's the way it was when I was on the beat for 7 years. And no one seemed to really have an issue with it.

The new rash of stadiums is changing things, but so many clubhouses are jammed to begin with. People whacking their heads on the cameras (no rear-view mirrors on those puppies) are a common occurence after the game (see Field, Wrigley or Park, Fenway and many others, especially the visitors' clubhouse).

The players spend more than two hours on the field before games. Should be easy enough to get people out there. That's where I get most of my people even though I'm allowed in the clubhouse.

Plus, aren't the visuals a whole lot better out on the field?

Could you have asked the manager (assuming he doesn't already spend some time out on the field during BP) if he could step out to answer two questions on camera?

 

Re: Royals revoke credentials

Lugs is right. The organizations have been nibbling around the edges of this for a while (like the NASCAR and LPGA attempts to restrict photo use). If I were a baseball writer, I'd be scared shitless by MLB.com. Soon MLB will figure they don't NEED print or broadcast (other than the suck-up rightsholders).

It's getting to be the same as the White House. All administrations have sought to limit access -- "Go over the head of the media" -- to deliver their "message" to the electorate. It's harder and harder for the reporters on their beats to do their jobs.

The only way to stop this shit is to band together. White House reporters have been too wimpy to do this. If the Royals ban those radio stations from the press box, the Star and other papers should move the Royals inside and have minimal coverage until the team relents.