Your 'Ed Hinton in Fargo" Moment

My friend and I were talking about some of the best stories we've written and this one came up - how I covered my women's coaches jersey retirement while in all places, Emmettsville Maryland.

I said it was my Ed Hinton in Fargo moment -- when Van McKenzie assigned him to go to Roger Maris' funeral and he brought back an award-winning piece after getting drunk with the Yankees.

My point was that I was at that place at that time with those people at that event and that when universes collide like that -- things take care of themselves. I actually thought that this was my Ed Hinton moment during the day.

Have any of you good people had a similar experience? I'll listen.

Here was what I did. Far from what Ed did in Fargo, but a good day at the office nonetheless...

https://bcuathletics.com/news/2019/1/27/womens-basketball-going-home-again.aspx

 

I'm going to offer a photo category ... 2004 Vermont D-1 field hockey championship ... the team I covered was for decades the best program in the state ... the game's a minute or two from starting and I'm standing on the sideline at midfield to take a few shots ... not sure what or why but something spurred me to walk down the line toward the opposing team's cage ... and the game begins with my team getting the ball first ... and the state's top scorer zig zags the ball thru the defense like it didn't even exist ... the freshman goalie charged to make a play ... but Megan deked her pretty hard and rattled the cage ... all of this happening in 11 seconds ... and I got the shot of shots.



No one else scored over the final 59:49.

 

You ain't kidding.

 

When I saw the thread title, I confess my first thought was, “I didn’t know Ed Hinton was in ‘Fargo’.”

 

I couldn’t take much if any credit for my “best” work. There was a common thread in those pieces: The table was set for me because the story was so compelling. This isn’t false modesty, it’s the truth. Hinton is a great writer, but the Fargo story is more about the scene than Ed Hinton.

 

Same here. Duane Cross sent me a two-line PR release about some team nobody heard of trying to do a one-off at Talladega. They were out of Toccoa, which is only a 45-minute drive from the cabin. I really didn't expect much when I accepted the chance to just do a newser on them.

But the juxtaposition of this little team owned by the local scrap metal dealer in this little dying mill town trying to race with the Hendricks and Penskes of the world just turned into an awesome long-form piece that went way beyond NASCAR. I had to sort of hint to Duane that this story needed to be told in more than eight grafs, and once he started reading, he agreed. I don't know if NASCAR really approved, but I got over 1,500 e-mails from readers who actually read all the way through.

Sometimes you're just blessed with subject matter so interesting that the story writes itself.

 

I don't know the Hinton in Fargo story. Is there a link?

 

Hinton, he was at either the AJC or WaPo, went to Fargo for Roger Maris’ wake. Of course I can’t find a link.

 

The great Dave Kindred posted Hinton's story right here, in two takes, in 2007.

A prayer for Van McKenzie

 

Now I know how the optometrist felt.