The "Homer" sports writer

[Kevin Morales]

I think I've told this story before: I covered a state wrestling tournament within the past few years. For the finals, I'm on press row. Next to me is a woman wearing a tye-dyed wrestling T-shirt featuring a particular school.

The finals start, and she starts yelling. Cheering for every one of the kids she was covering. I held it for about three matches.

"Ma'am?" Didn't hear me. Too busy screaming.

"Ma'am!" Ditto.

"MA'AM!" Finally, she perks up. "This is a working press area. There should be no cheering!"

"Well, I'm sorry, I just get excited for the kids," she says, rather snottily.

"Ma'am, we may be excited for the kids we cover too. But look up and down - none of the rest of us is screaming."

[muttering]

Us and our high-fallutin' rules.

The thing with wrestling is a lot of the people that shoot photos or cover meets for the local paper are just parents or youth coaches who happen to be there.

A lot of papers probably don't cover far away tournaments or meets, so they just ask whatever parent is there taking pictures if they can send a few over and maybe write something up.

Those parents don't know any better and end up cheering for their kids' team. It annoys me, but I cut them some slack because they just don't know.

 

[sgaleadfoot]

we had a team from our coverage area in the LLWS...the local tv reporter asked the team's manager if he could have one of the jerseys the coaches are given.

 

[maumann]

Several folks have already commented about a certain individual who works Down East as being the poster boy for homerism.

His alma mater has been a girls' basketball powerhouse for many years -- and it was always a matter of gritting your teeth when you had to cover one of their games.

They made the NCHSAA 3-A championship one season back in the mid-'90s, and this guy actually sat on the bench as "ashistant coach." Then after they lost, he came to the interview room, greeted each player by their nickname and gave them each a consoling hug.

Yep, that did wonders to prove that small-town newspapers on that side of the state were professional. I fought that perception the entire time I was there.

But he's not the only one. That area is rife with sportswriter "wannabes."

 

[JakeandElwood]

Saw an SE at a small-town paper who was a notorious fan boy ask a former NBA All-Star in the locker room for his shoes after a game. He actually got them then asked for them to be signed. When that request was granted, he said "Thanks Mr. So-and-So" and walked away with a big grin on his face.

Jesus. How does it even enter someone's head to just up and ask for another person's pair of shoes. What an embarrashment. And didn't a Japanese reporter just get busted for asking Roger Clemens for an autograph?

 

[MrWrite]

If you had shown them the tattoo on your ash, that would have been the real giveaway.

I wear sky blue shirts just about every time I put on a tie. I'm partially color blind, it goes with everything. Sure enough, I wore it to a UNC game once and heard a bunch of ship about that. I claimed the pink polo pony let me off the hook and then someone reminded me the Ralph Lauren did the Heels' uniforms. Cripes.

Actually, I think it's Alexander Julian, Moddy, so you're okay.

 

[ChillyWilly]

RE: Team colors

During my first season on the MLB beat, my team was playing host to St. Louis and I wore a red polo shirt to the game. I didn't think anything of the colors I was wearing until I stopped in to the office before the game and got chewed out by my SE. Now, I try to avoid anything that closely resembles the colors of either team I'm covering.

 

[Moderator1]

If you had shown them the tattoo on your ash, that would have been the real giveaway.

I wear sky blue shirts just about every time I put on a tie. I'm partially color blind, it goes with everything. Sure enough, I wore it to a UNC game once and heard a bunch of ship about that. I claimed the pink polo pony let me off the hook and then someone reminded me the Ralph Lauren did the Heels' uniforms. Cripes.

Actually, I think it's Alexander Julian, Moddy, so you're okay.

Yeah, my bad. Thanks. The Colours dude?
Saved by Ralph Lauren indeed.

 

[TheMethod]

Wishing people "good luck" is not homerism. "Congratulations" is not homerism. The former is politeness. The latter is acknowledging one's interview subject is happy for an accomplishment. I swear there are people in this business who think it's being the clergy of some sect with a particularly large stick up its ash.

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[joe_schmoe]

I got no prob with congrats, or good lucks or whatevers. And if coaches/players, whatever initiate a hug or whatever, yeah it's akward, but it's a hell of a lot more akward to try to avoid it. Many times these coaches and players know you so much, that even if you know your job and hold your professionalism, by the end of a big win, they are too excited they see you breifly as part of the team. Roll with it you freaks. Don't initiate, just go with it.
Last week I got a wedding invitation from a girl who i used to cover when she played college hoops. That was different. As a hypothetical let me ask you what you would do?

As for radio, i got no problem with their homerism. Usually, the radio and the team have a contract...something newspapers usually don't. Radio folk are as annoying as you'll find, but they pretty much are part of the team.

And as for homers...there isn't enough room to write all the stories I've heard about one particular guy. I ran into this guy at a Texas state championship HS football game last year. He (and wife and daughter) was openly rooting for the team (which lost). Even at one point said something about one of the players being his neighbor.
I'd love to tell stories about this guy but most everything i have was from other people at this game explaining what a moronic homer he really is. But if even half of these stories are true...he has every other homer beat.
I hope someone here knows him so they can share some of the stories about him.

 

[Keystone]

Covered the CAA men's basketball tournament 10 or so years ago and one of the East Carolina beat writers showed up wearing an ECU sweat shirt and ball cap. He brought his buddy along, who was also dressed in purple and gold, but just sat there with his arms folded. And, no, it's not the one we've been talking about. :

During my time traveling around the CAA, covered a game at JMU in which one of that team's beat writers was berating the officials from press row the entire game. No, the guy wasn't from the Daily News Record, but one of the smaller papers in the Valley.

As for Hustle's story of a parent sneaking onto press row, wrestling is probably the worst sport for that. It's also amazing the number of parents who sneak onto the pool deck at state swimming. Apparently having a video camera is enough to get waved through the door.

 

[Your Huckleberry]

I know a guy who was such a homer that when covering a state championship game, he was so distraught when the team he covered didn't win that he couldn't write the story.

He was all set up to write it there courtside, and watch the other games and yuck it up with everyone because he was so confident they would win. But when they lost, he packed his stuff up and almost sobbingly went home.

Lucky for him, he worked for a weekly or I dont think he could have forced it out by deadline.

Oh, and for the record, he wore the team's colors to the game as well. You couldn't tell him apart from a fan, parent or any of the officials from the school but you would have never thought he was in the media.

 

[schiezainc]

I've been accused of being a homer before, and let me tell you it's not always intentional

The football team I happened to be covering last year was doing well, so anytime i wrote a gamer or feature, it seemed positive. I mean, when a team wins by a score of 38-0, you're article is going to tend to sound like you're praising them and it should if you're telling what actually happened.

Fast forward to this year, they're playing like crap, and woah, the articles aren't as shiny as they were last year. Turns out coaches don't like it when you talk about errors and mistakes that make the difference in a game.

So, in conclusion, I couldn't give two poops what people think.

My policy is "I don't care who you are, what you're trying to do, the only thing I'm rooting for is that I have something I can turn into a good story so our section looks good and maybe we can sell ads in the future."