Trevor Bayne/Daytona 500: Cheering in the Press Box

It's been a long day. I'm a little loopy. But not Loopy.

 

I'm really curious to know who would be cheering a move Trevor Bayne made at the end of the race, considering he didn't make a move. He inherited the lead and then more or less hugged the yellow line for two laps. Not that that's the easiest thing in the world to do, but, come on. It's not like he went from fifth place to first as they all came through the tri-oval.

 

Agreed. If you're covering NASCAR, golf or even high school sports, there's gonna be a moment or two in every game that just makes you go 'wow,' whether it's the team you usually cover or the other side. If there's not, you're not paying attention. When the game's over, I'm thinking of who I need to interview, how much time to I have, ect.

Outright cheering? A story I've shared on this board before: A cheerleader at one of the schools I cover died in her sleep overnight (coroner later ruled it a heart defect) and a week or so after the game, the team made a presentation to her parents. Don't care how many journalist man points I lost, as a human being, I had to applaud a family going through layers of hell I can't even imagine.

 

Absolutely. I was covering a basketball game between teams from Indonesia and the Philippines about a year ago. Some of the dozen or so Indonesian reporters were upset about what they saw as dirty play from the Filipino team and, after a particularly hard foul, they stood up almost in unison, cussing out the Filipinos and making like they were going to pick a fight.

In a soccer game between Burma and Singapore in Jakarta, the Burmese goalkeeper ran from his box to the center circle and punched the referee from behind, apparently in protest of a call. He received a standing ovation as he walked off, both from the fans and the assembled media.

 

The Andy Beyer legend goes like this: He hits the Pick Six, drops to his knees and shouts, "I'm King of the World!" Not at the Derby, mind you, I think it was at Saratoga.

 

This.

Besides the fact that the cheering turned my stomach, another reason I went to the Twitter was because ESPN News often broadcasts the winner's postrace interview. I was sure we were about to get skewered nationally, and I wanted to preempt suggestions that the behavior was met with tacit approval from all in attendance.

Reviewed the audio of the guy that DC noted asking that question. No name or affiliation given. Agreed with the above, the winning "move" was staying ahead while the field jockeyed for position.

 

NASCAR formed a "Citizen Journalist" brigade a couple years ago that was designed to help credential nontraditional media. The beat took a huge hit during the Great Recession; I could name at least two dozen newspapers that once covered 15-36 races annually and now cover a few, if any.

So yes, there are more bloggers in track deadline rooms than at any point in history. However, saying that's the problem conflates a current issue with a cardinal sin.

I don't embrace the view that if you're a blogger, your ethical standards are inherently negligible. Jay Busbee, for one, disproves that theory. It strikes me as elitist to say if you write for a website, you shouldn't be granted access. I have no problem with writers for lesser known Internet sites covering events -- provided they do it professionally.

There generally are two places to cover races: the press box and the infield media center. On Sunday, both were filled with raucous cheering at the race's conclusion. I was in the press box (which is mostly filled with newspaper writers), and I'm not going to single out any offenders, because it doesn't matter.

Regardless of who you are or what outlet you write for, you don't cheer. End of story.

 

Is cheering in the press box the worst thing in the world? No.

Does it make you look small-time to your peers? Yes.

 

For the record, the last cheering I've heard in the Masters media center was for whatever big European soccer event comes on during every Masters week. Now THAT'S some cheering.

 

When I saw the press area cheering, the top NASCAR writers in the country were participating and this was before every press box had bloggers in there.

Sadly, I think this was just par for the course.

I covered an Alabama-Auburn game once when a writer from a very small paper started flipping out and was either removed or left on his own. People can joke about SEC football, but it was an isolated incident and those in the press box who saw it were pretty embarrassed.

NASCAR is the only US sport where I saw the bulk of the group cheering. Olympics is a different story. Some of the international media clearly have never heard the saying "No cheering in the press box."