Ask me about being a sports writer!

[MurphNKY]

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I saw that St. Xavier team play football on ESPN today. Is everyone in ohio thinking they will win state?

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Sick, ABSOLUTELY sick..Cincinnati high school football has dominated in games they weren't supposed to do so this season.

Elder High School ended a team with a 109 game winning streak, Highlands (Ky) beat a team no one thought they would in Trotwood-Madison and - the topper - Xavier (without their star running back no less) embarrassed DeMatha.

Everyone - yes - expects it..but, they have to get out of Cincinnati first. No easy task..ever.

[ChuckyB]

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Great story...my editor tells me I have to do a sidebar on Larkin just breaking the longest AB streak without a grand slam.

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Is this the dumbest/most pointless story you've ever had to write? (I'm still in the business and I can't imagine anyone being interested in this.)

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In a sport filled with useless stats, that is an interesting useless stat. If it happened to be some guy with a sense of humor who had broken the record, it would've been a chuckle-inducing sidebar.

[ChuckyB]

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I really don't know if negative records and statistics like that are appropriate to ask.
Some pitcher gives up 4 conseuctive home-runs to tie or break a record or whatever. Are you really going to run up to him and jam a tape-recorder into his face and ask him how he feels?

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Yes.

One day I had to get TV clips from 14-year-old kids about their feelings on a schoolmate who fell to his death at the football stadium. He and a buddy were goofind around, trying to climb to the top. Kid fell 80 feet to his death. Larkin's a cakewalk compared to having a 14-year-old girl tell you to "go f--- yourself".

Here's the thing. While athletes take their jobs very seriously, sports are not life-and-death. Larkin needs a sense of humor.

That said, if Larkin wants to be pissed off/a jerk, that's totally within his right. But he shouldn't expect the media to go out of its way to hump his leg when things are going great.

[ChuckyB]

Murph...full props for doing this thread. Sports guys always take [censored] from wannabe sports guys. Sorry that you fell out of love with it.

I have a question...how jealous are you of TV sports guys? Seriously...free clothes and makeup...that's pretty solid.

[Astyanax]

Hi op, I havent read all the replies in this thread so just tell me if I have repeated a question.

I have just graduated in Classics from uni in England and am looking to get into journalism. I have done bits and pieces for the Guardian and the Racing Post but haven't been offered anything long term. I am looking to write sports features and not just report. How long into a journalism career do you get to write sports features as it seems to be pretty competitive?

Also have you written any sports novels and do you think you have the talent? Harlan Coben is a must read for me, combining generic thriller with sports...

Many thanks

[ChuckyB]

Hey Astyanax:

I don't write but I can tell you how to get the kind of job you want. Keep writing. Write, write, write. Doesn't matter how big or small the paper is, people want to see you write on a daily basis. To paraphrase what one of the broadcasters at TSN (the Canadian equivalent of ESPN) told me when I was coming up: "If you want to write for a newspaper, you have to write for a newspaper".

If you're good and creative, you'll get a job. When you get a job, if you're good and creative, you'll get to write longer-form stuff (like the features you want to do).

[Kaj]

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Murph,

I am going to defend Barry Larkin here and say you should have known better than to try to talk to him at that time. It couldn't wait a day? Anyone that has any heart for the game is probably not gonna answer a question like that at that time.

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Understand why you would think that...and it's natural unless you know the business...however, we were an afternoon paper and we would like like a**clown idiots if we sat on that for a day bc it would be printed two days later.

Plus, you can't sit on something that happens for a day...it's not the nature of the business. Good, bad, or indifferent, you have to get the story after it happens and get it printed. People want the information at their fingertips ... not 2-3 days later.

Honestly, Barry - being as established with the media as he was - should have known that was coming and should have handled it with more class. Bottom line, he was pissed bc they lost and he knew I was new, so he took it out on me.

These guys get lauded constantly when they are doing great things...they need to be men when they do something not great and get asked about it. See Sean Casey.

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I think the point is that sportswriters should be able to write about an event without needing stupid quotes from players that have no impact on the piece. Really, what did you expect to get from Larkin there that would enhance your story? This need for a player quote on every inane event related to the game merely proves how unimaginative and lazy sportwriters have gotten today. Frank DeFord doesn't need player quotes to write the most insightful sports stories around.

"Larkin now has more ABs without a grand slam ever. "Yeah, it's true but oh well", said Larkin." WOW, freaking awesome amalysis -- thanks for insights, Mr. Sportswriterman!

[MicroBob]

ChuckyB - I also think it is inappropriate for you to try to get clips from 14-year-olds after a death of a classmate.
Just because a kid died at the school doesn't mean that a little tact can't be observed. Running around with a camera and microphone and trying to grab the kid's classmates to show their shock on the evening news probably doesn't qualify imo.

In Memphis there was a stretch on the ABC affiliate where they would do "Bad Memphis drivers" or something. They promoted the crap out of it.
The reporter would come running up to the window of some car and say, "You don't have a handicap placard. Do you know you aren't supposed to park there?" or "You didn't stop at that stop-sign? How can you do that?"

Just everyday run-of-the-mill traffic violations and she would go running up to the window and stick a microphone in their face and then show all the appalled, confused and annoyed looks that she would get on the evening news.

Well, some producer must have been telling her to do this or agreeing that it could make for entertaining TV somehow.

Just because someone tells you to do it or even just because another station is doing it doesn't make it appropriate or news-worthy.


In Larkin's situation, yes he could have had a sense of humor about it and it isn't a life-or-death situation.
That's not a license to be rude to someone and stick a tape-recorder in their face right after they essentially lost the game.

"Hey, it's not like someone died" is a pretty pathetic excuse to not use tact (if indeed there was a lack of tact involved which I am unsure of since I wasn't there).

If you have to ask the Q to Larkin in the first place then do it carefully and don't be surprised if he reacts badly.

[ChuckyB]

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In Larkin's situation, yes he could have had a sense of humor about it and it isn't a life-or-death situation.
That's not a license to be rude to someone and <u>stick a tape-recorder in their face right after they essentially lost the game</u>

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MicroBob...

Forgive me if I'm confusing you with another long-time poster, but weren't you a sports broadcaster for some time? You know that talking to the media is part of Larkin's job. It might not be the most fun some nights. But without radio/TV/newspapers/internet, Larkin wouldn't have taken home $9 mil a year.

And asking an athlete questions after a game isn't "rude". I've certainly seen it done in rude fashion. But asking questions, in itself, isn't rude.

[ChuckyB]

HIJACK...

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ChuckyB - I also think it is inappropriate for you to try to get clips from 14-year-olds after a death of a classmate.

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Me too. But if you're a young reporter new to a big market, when the boss says "jump"...

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Just because a kid died at the school doesn't mean that a little tact can't be observed. Running around with a camera and microphone and trying to grab the kid's classmates to show their shock on the evening news probably doesn't qualify imo.

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Canadian news is significantly different from American news...thank goodness because it saved my sanity. I asked as politely as possible, and took "no" on the first answer.

The type of reporter you mentioned doesn't really exist up here. And that Memphis lady is every bit of why I wanted to get out of news as fast as I could.

I remember one day, the price of cigarettes was going up again. My news director "suggested" I phone the police and stores to find out if robberies were going to increase because smokes were now more valuable/costly.