Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

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gogogogogogogogogogo...(be nice)

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How will you survive on your salary? Are you just out of school?

Are you already an alky like most sportswriters? Or does that come with incessant late games and deadlines? One of my best friends used to be one in Virginia...he had serious drinking issues for years before he quit.

Quit his job, not drinking.

Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

Seriously question, and try to be honest: Do you think you are bias towards teams from Cincinnati, or do you consider yourself to be completely objective?

Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

In general terms, how much do entry level sports writers make? And as a follow up, do you think Amalie Benjamin is hot? And as a second follow up, do you think she would be into a hairy fat guy like me? Oh and as another follow up, if she's not making much money could you tell her I'll send her a fiver if she flashes her junk on NESN? kthanks.

Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

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What kind of sports writer are you? Do you write the high-school wrap-ups or are you a columnist? Do you aspire to be a big-time columnust someday?

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Great question...here's the short summary:

Started as a stringer (answering office calls, office work, answering calls from high school coaches with game summaries)

Moved to a larger stringer role where my office duties increased and I was sent to cover high school football games and various sporting events that needed a small amount of coverage.

From there, whenst I showed I could write, and write well, I was given the role of a all-around coverage reporter. Here, my main responsibilities became covering a major local Division II program, covering lesser major league sporting events (IHL, Arena Football, Olympic Trials, etc), and training new stringers.

Also,at this time, I was given the responsibility several nights a week of doing the agate page in the paper. For those of you who don't know, this is teh page with odds, tv/radio listings, etc.

After this, I was granted a prestigious summer internship (keep in mind, during these years I was in college) where I was basically granted aa job for several months. Here, I covered MLB, NFL, NBA, WTA, ATP, PGA, LPGA and was assigned columnist duties as well. Got to write features and really get a comprehensive look at the industry from an insiders view.

So, in summary, I definitely wasn't a super sports writer or some established columnist. Basically, just a college kid who kicked ass in the industry as a freelancer for 5 years, got a taste for a summer of what it was like to be a staff writer and then, accordingly, said....sianora!

Keep the questions coming...

Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

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What makes you worthy to start this post? Where are you published?

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Perhaps I'm not worthy...but, I will say that I worked in the business for five years on various levels, from the bottom to the top.

I was published daily in a major market newspaper and many of my tomes were distributed to major east and west coast newspapers.

Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

Thread is nonsense until you link to some of your work.

Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

Dids,

If he posts actual articles, the whole thread will get sidetracked by nitty specifics and non-sequitors. If he says, "I was a weekly column in Cincy's biggest newspaper," I'll believe him and then he can get down to specific inside info.

Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

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Why aren't you on ATH or PTI? Seriously. There are thousands of high school writers, and thousands of college writers. Why did JA Adande or Michael Wilbon make the jump from that to writing for a large circulation city paper to writing for ESPN to being on TV? Why didn't you do the same?

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Great question...to be fair, I backed out of the business, of my own accord, before these shows exploded in popularity. My take on those guys:

Basically, most sportswriters are - as a consequence of the job and the toll it takes - bitter, odd, cranky, no personality dorks. I know that sounds like I'm throwing a blanket generalization..but, it's true. More often than not, most guys in the industry for that long, resort to the above descriptor.

Those guys - Adande, Smith - are the following:

- Outstanding at their job
- Amazingly charismatic and eloquent
- Major market columnists who have major market money behind them.

While you're right, the field is overwhelmingly large..these guys are most definitely needles in a very big haystack.

Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

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do you suck like most sports writers?

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Suck as in..suck at life? NO

Suck as in..suck your Mom's teats? INDEED

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Will your tenure at 2p2 exceed that of blackjack777?

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I know I'm going to get killed for this..but who is Blackjack777?

Re: Ask me about being a sports writer!
 

Are you blackjack777, the worst sportswriter in the history of sportswriting?