Your First Time

[Gator]

First time I rocked credentials for a Big 3 game was an NBA game between two also-rans, one of whom happened to have a local player, and because of my proximity to the area (I was on an assignment there anyway), I covered it.

if i ever use the term "rocked credentials" please slit my throat.

 

[Songbird]

That's funny, Gator. Reminds me of the time I interviewed Pete Rose shortly after he got out of prison. It was a 2-on-1 with a radio lady, on a dark veranda. I grew up enamored of the guy because he was, well, Pete Rose. Know exactly where I was when he slapped the ball into shallow left field off Eric Show for No. 4,192. But I didn't want to sully his greatness and asked, "So what was it like in the ... facility?" He looked at me and said "Facility?! Is that what you guys are calling it these days?"

 

[Tom Petty]

I had (and have) spent most of my career covering mainly basketball and football. About a million years ago I had to do some MLB stuff and felt like a cub reporter again. I wasn't sure of the protocol, and didn't know much about the players. So I tentatively walked up to a well-known (at the time) player in the dugout during BP and asked if we could talk.

It was Bobby Bonds. He seemed to sense my awkwardness and invited me to sit down. He gave me 30 minutes of one-on-one time and probably was the nicest gentleman I've ever met in this business. A total class act. Too bad it didn't rub off on his son. Man, the apple fell far from that tree.

Anyway, that encounter was more than 30 years ago and I've never forgotten it.

met and interviewed bobby bonds at a triple-A park in, or about in, 2000.

much like your experience, i walked away believing he was a true class act and that barry must not be his biological son or maybe was raised by wolves.

anybody here interview willie mays? if so, tell us about your experience.

 

[Songbird]

Tom, I asked Mays if I could interview him -- the same celebrity gathering Rose was at -- so I approached him and extended my hand, introduced myself and asked if I could ask him a few questions. He looked at me and said "No" and walked away.

 

[Tom Petty]

Tom, I asked Mays if I could interview him -- the same celebrity gathering Rose was at -- so I approached him and extended my hand, introduced myself and asked if I could ask him a few questions. He looked at me and said "No" and walked away.

i was afraid it was like that Xan.

as a fan, i HATE the giants, both NY and SF, but i believe willie mays not only is the greatest player ever to strap on cleats, but might have been the best thing ever to happen to baseball. while his career was spent alongside some awesome players, he was THE guy who made baseball fun.

i've heard grumblings from other folks ... and really never have heard a sportswriter say one nice thing about him.

thats a shame.

 

[Songbird]

I just took it as a sign that I was some 21-year-old whitebread honky with a bad hairdo. Either that or Rose told him I called prison a "facility" and warned him to stay away. No biggie, though, because I got to interview Paul Gleason (RIP) and that guy could talk up a storm. He called me for weeks asking me to send him the article.

 

[ballscribe]

Don't Don't Don't Don't Don't You Forget About him

 

[playthrough]

First pro football game I covered, I was in the mob around Warren Sapp in the locker room. Warren, in his postgame half-naked splendor, sits at his locker and spreads a white towel in front of his feet to catch his tobacco spit (it's quite a useful boundary, you quickly learn to stand off to the side). Any dumb questions or ones he doesn't want to answer are greeted with a spit and a terse "next question." I asked one that I worried wouldn't make the cut, but it did and he answered. I said thank you and he winked. Maybe he suspected I was the rookie in the room. Or I just got really lucky. Probably the latter.

 

[Football_Bat]

One of our interns accompanied our then-SE to a Rangers game a few years ago.

I'm sure it was an experience he'll never forget: He saw A-Rod naked.

"I saw the million-dollar tool," he marveled when he got back.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

First time I rocked credentials for a Big 3 game was an NBA game between two also-rans, one of whom happened to have a local player, and because of my proximity to the area (I was on an assignment there anyway), I covered it.

if i ever use the term "rocked credentials" please slit my throat.

Only if you cut mine when I start menstrating about people's casual use of English in a message board.

 

[outofplace]

I fought to overcome a shy nature early in my career, but there was only one person I was flat-out too intimidated to ask a single question. That was Chuck Noll. I was 20 at the time. I just sat there and took notes at a post-game presser.

A few years later, I pissed off Bill Cowher after a training camp practice early in his head coaching career, the first time I'd had at he chance to interview him. I pressed him for an answer on something he had already avoided, and he gave me a hard look and firmly reminded me that the season opener was weeks away.

One that didn't happen to me was with former Pitt basketball coach Paul Evans. I was interviewing him after a practice along with a very inexperienced reporter at the college paper. The other reporter asked him something and Evans just looked at him and said, "Who the hell writes your questions?"

 

[Tom Petty]

First time I rocked credentials for a Big 3 game was an NBA game between two also-rans, one of whom happened to have a local player, and because of my proximity to the area (I was on an assignment there anyway), I covered it.

if i ever use the term "rocked credentials" please slit my throat.

Only if you cut mine when I start menstrating about people's casual use of English in a message board.

one more phrase i will work into my vernacular.

thanks meat.