Your biggest moment in this profession...

Once did a story on a kid who was one of the state's top football recruit and ranked as one of the top 2 or 3 WRs in the country the year he came out. It was a follow up story on the kid while he was at a JC in another state "getting his grades up." Anyway, the day after the story came out our paper got calls from two papers in my state, one paper in the state where the JC is, a in state college football magazine and a recruiting website, all asking to reprint the story. The story was also picked up by the AP. I was pumped up for days.

 

The day I got hired by the P-D [/ace]

 

Two cover stories in The Sporting News, back in the days when it really was The Sporting News. Beating a major metro to a big story (we ran it on A1) when I was working at a midsize daily -- and laughing when the competition chased the story two days later. Having ESPN report a story I broke when I was working at a small suburban daily. I couldn't stop grinning after hearing them say, ``The Podunk Press reported ...''

 

On my seven-byline, four dateline story came during my first season covering baseball. I was 23 and at spring training getting ready for my first year as a real beat writer. I had just spent a few days at the home of one of the top players on the team and the 70-inch Sunday feature was on him. I also had a sidebar from his college, which was in our circulation area. From spring training I had a gamer and a notebook as well and then I was sent a few towns over to cover the opening round of the NCAA Tournament where I wrote two gamers and a notebook.

It wasn't my best day in this business... That would be reserved for the handful of times when I've broken significant news... But it was the moment when I felt pretty good about my standing in this business...

 

Look, it's the chairman of the Department of Redundancy Department!

J/K. Congrats Fly! Hope it works out for you.

 

I exposed a Title IX investigation against my alma mater that the school administration was trying its damnedest to keep out of the media.

Led to a major overhaul of the athletic department - including having the men's basketball team tip off BEFORE the women several times a year.

School provost at first told me I was basically full of shit ... until I told him details of my conversation with the Office of Civil Rights about the complaint.

Good times.

 

That's the tops, isn't it? Had that happen a couple of times -- ESPN and back when CNN has that CNN/SI channel. I don't see it done much any more, but my paper back then used to copyright the really big scoops. They did that for one of mine, which ran at the top of the main section.

Even better, this was a time when we had two papers in the market. I was at the AM, and after my scoop came out in the AM, the PM still had "Reports say XXXXXX ... " for their early edition before the team I cover confirmed my scoop.

ADD ON: Also, although this one is much more modest ... I got my start in the business doing box scores for the AP at a major-league park. Luck (meeting the right person at the right time) got me the job when I was still 18, still a couple months short of turning 19. The main AP sports writer for the bureau tested me during games to see if I could write a game story when he had to be at something else, and I apparently passed. Long story short, I had a major-league baseball game story over the AP wire before I turned 19. Had to pick up a national paper the next day because my local of course had their own guy there and didn't use the AP story, but it was a pretty good thrill at 18 (now more than 28 years ago).

 

Hello Mr. Mouth...Hello Mr. Foot...Nice to meet you

 

In May 2002 I did a 120-inch package of stories about steroids in major league baseball. I was quite proud of the work and it got some nice play elsewhere, including a couple of days on ESPN.com.

Then several weeks later SI did it's Ken Caminiti story and the whole steroids thing exploded.

I like to tell myself that Tom Verducci was reading my little 100K circ paper one day and said: "Steroids in baseball? I'd better work on that!"

(As a sidebar, one of my most frustrating days was the day I realized that my story had somehow not been entered properly the APSE competition. I can never get that back. I did win a state award, though.)

 

1. Standing in GM Place and interviewing members of the North American squad, following the NHL All-star Game in 1998.
2. Realizing my life dream and getting a call from Cal-Sun Sports, offering a job.

 

*AHEM*

Read again. You used "to this point" twice in the same sentence.

And if I were intending to be snarky, I sure as hell wouldn't have included congratulations in the very next sentence. AND I also wouldn't have typed J/K.