No, you CAN'T root in the damn press box

[exmediahack]

Maybe I'm confused, but what WAS covered in sports?

We don't even do sports unless something big happens and then they overcompensate — as I try to make it fit the reality.

 

[Liut]

I honestly don't know if readers even noticed at that time, other than my family. Was definitely strange writing in the third person but also quite fun. Luckily I wasn't a star or anything on the team so didn't often have to write about myself. And the only time I ever choked--missing 2 free throws when up 1 with 6 seconds left against the team that went on to win the JUCO national title--I redeemed myself by stealing it from the guy who rebounded it and then flinging the ball toward the ceiling to run out the clock in my homage to Magic against Portland in Game 6 of the 1991 WCF Finals (didn't add that Magic detail in the gamer).

But the first few months at the junior college set me on my life path, such as it was. Walked into the paper a few weeks into school to see if they needed help. Learned a ton in those first two years, from the sports editor, the news editor, the two other full-timers in sports, their part-timer who had been the longtime sports editor and the whole night crew on the news side. And at school, the JUCO journalism prof was the former news editor at the daily paper, who'd been there when it was considered one of the finest small-town papers in the country (by the time I got there it was a Thomson paper and wasn't what it once was). Learned so much from him and he was also my English prof so he influenced my life and changed it for the better. Me and three other kids in the journalism class and the other three probably had never read a newspaper in their life unless it was to check if one of their arrests had made it into the sheriff's log. The school actually had a school paper where I served as the editor, sports editor, news reporter, sportswriter, photographer, designer, copy editor and circulation manager. A one-man shop for two years while getting to cover high school and college games for the daily paper.

Invaluable experience, which translated into a cool 18K-a-year gig when they hired me full-time a few years later after I graduated from my four-year.

One other fun story from those years: When I worked part-time at the paper while going to school, the night editor was this awesome girl fresh out of college. Super fun, smart, funny and kindly bought me beers at the company Christmas party. She's now a top editor at the New York Times and her and her family live 10 minutes from us and we're great friends again, 30 years after first working together in rural Minnesota.

Awesome stuff. Thanks.
There's a soft spot in my heart for JUCO athletics. It became my beat when transitioning from all-broadcast to all-multimedia. Fortunately, that was in a state with its own highly-competitive JUCO conference.

 

[maumann]

Another NASCAR.com story.

For the final two years of Turner's involvement with the website, we went from an old-school print managing editor to a fresh-faced MBA graduate from UNC who had a little bit of experience doing lifestyle for the Charlotte Observer before going back to college. But her main strategy was to track SEO and boost pageviews from year to year.

So every week, she'd point out how stories about Danica and Dale Jr. would amass huge pageviews and was it possible to somehow write about them again? I hated to explain to her that we were there to chronicle the race and not really just push out puff pieces for being celebrities.

As a compromise, I got to the point where I'd add a throwaway graf "Danica Patrick finished 30th, three laps behind Johnson, and two places in front of Dale Earnhardt Jr." just to satisfy her need to have that in the SEO tag.

I have no idea why Turner decided at some point that every manager had to hold an MBA rather than be an experienced veteran of the industry. They did the same thing for the PGA and NCAA sites, too, which meant adding people who liked making workflow spreadsheets and coverage calendars instead of having news judgment.

Again, great for them to put in the effort to get the diploma but what made that more important than you know, knowing what makes for great content?

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I try and get to a few Brooklyn Cyclones games a year. There are a few diehards for sure--the old guy with his scorebook, folks checking out Mets prospects (hey, they sometimes exist), the insane Italian family we sat behind once who knew the details of every player on the team and were booing the opposition for nine innings while also complaining that one of the between-inning contests wasn't fair to the white kid competitor because it involved a sprint against a black kid--but otherwise I don't think anyone's real worried about the outcome. They did draw a ridiculous crowd for Seinfeld bobblehead night though.

Yeah, this all tracks for Brooklyn.

 

[PaperDoll]

Some day I will figure out how to get most things at least on that consistent level. Editorially, though, I figure if I just keep getting quality content up it will all trickle down. I have seen that impact as slow as it sometimes goes.

I am trying very hard to believe readers care about or seek out quality stories, not just photos of kittens and cheerleaders.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I am trying very hard to believe readers care about or seek out quality stories, not just photos of kittens and cheerleaders.

Well, just write quality stories about kittens with cheerleaders!

 

[Azrael]

Yeah, this all tracks for Brooklyn.

Love the Cyclones, but very much miss the Staten Island Yankees.

Have not yet seen the Ferryhawks.*




*(The outcome of a fan naming contest - the Boaty McBoatface face of the Atlantic League.)

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Love the Cyclones, but very much miss the Staten Island Yankees.

Have not yet seen the Ferryhawks.*




*(The outcome of a fan naming contest - the Boaty McBoatface face of the Atlantic League.)

Saw them once last year. They were remarkably scattershot even by indy league standards. Heard some hilarious tales of roster difficulties.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Some of the sports stories I most thought people should care about, not enough did.

Which makes me glad that I don't have to make the decisions anymore.

Except it irritates me when my successors don't cover things that I care about.

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

 

[Azrael]

Saw them once last year. They were remarkably scattershot even by indy league standards. Heard some hilarious tales of roster difficulties.

Most beautiful ballpark in America.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Most beautiful ballpark in America.

View attachment 16366

I was stunned when MLB forked them with contraction. Fairly new park, gigantic market and in the shadow of the parent club. Any idea why they drew a short straw?

 

[Flip Wilson]

I try and get to a few Brooklyn Cyclones games a year. There are a few diehards for sure--the old guy with his scorebook, folks checking out Mets prospects (hey, they sometimes exist), the insane Italian family we sat behind once who knew the details of every player on the team and were booing the opposition for nine innings while also complaining that one of the between-inning contests wasn't fair to the white kid competitor because it involved a sprint against a black kid--but otherwise I don't think anyone's real worried about the outcome. They did draw a ridiculous crowd for Seinfeld bobblehead night though.

The Arkansas Travelers always drew a huge crowd for clunker car night. Fans could win a car; they gave away several. Sometimes it would be a working car, sometimes it would be a clunker, but if you were a mechanical sort, you could get it running and have a car. This was at the old Ray Winder Field (RIP) just off the highway in Little Rock. The Travs now play in a pretty new stadium in North Little Rock.