Baseball writer, Orange County Register

[ksharon]

We’re looking for a writer to cover the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim with enthusiasm, humor and a knack for the off-the-field stories. The job would involve covering a couple of Angels games per week. This writer will also need skills in photo, video and blogging. We’re looking for someone who is equally as comfortable interviewing manager Mike Scioscia as the bat boy for the day. We are looking for fan-friendly stories about the National Anthem singer, the pilot from the pre-game flyover and the guy who proposes to his girlfriend in the sixth inning. We are looking for a writer who will cover Angels/celebrity golf tournaments, speeches at elementary schools and charity events. If Kate Hudson shows up to cheer on A-Rod, we want a quote from her – then a quote from A-Rod. This position will be more about Facebook and Twitter than it will be about who won last night’s game. The writer should enjoy speculating on what the Angels will do in the off season, suggesting moves they should make and writing about what fans are saying about the Angels. We are a web-first sports department, but many of the stories will run on the web and in the newspaper.

 

Contact:

Angels editor

Keith Sharon

ksharon@ocregister.com

 

No phone calls please.

[BrianGriffin]

Interesting new-fangled position.

I take it that this is not the primary beat writer we are talking about, but some sort of second person on the beat responsible for the off-the-wall stuff.

[playthrough]

Agree. I like it. Not for everyone, nor should it be. But good to see a newspaper embrace this kind of role.

[WSKY]

the new wave of sports journalism ...

[Den1983]

I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that K-Hud and A-Rod are no longer a couple.

[Harry Doyle]

I don't know what I think about this. It's an interesting idea and whomever get this job obviously will be very well read. But is it sports writing? Is it sports journalism? Let's say you do this for a few seasons and then apply for an actual baseball beat job at another paper. Will you be taken seriously? Or will SEs look at you as some sort of society blogger who happens to operate from press boxes?

I have answer to absolutely none of my questions. If this is the future of our business I can probably get behind it.

[deskslave]

I'm sure Mike Scioscia will be just delighted to field questions about the national-anthem singer and Kate Hudson.

How is this a full-time job? 'Cover' a couple games a week? What the hell happens in the offseason? You can only write so many anthem-singer tryout stories.

And, no, it's not journalism. It's nothing even remotely resembling journalism. The Angels should be signing this writer's check, because it's a PR position.

[StaggerLee]

Are stories about the national anthem singer and bat boy REALLY fan-friendly? Because I'm a sports fan, and I could give two shits about the national anthem singer or the bat boy. And I've never found myself thinking "That would be a great story, I wonder where they got that national anthem singer."

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I never, ever, ever read those stories. Those are stories you put in the program for the spouses of sports fans to read while they're bored at the game.

[Stitch]

Can you Twitter, because if you can, I'm applying.

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Are stories about the national anthem singer and bat boy REALLY fan-friendly? Because I'm a sports fan, and I could give two shits about the national anthem singer or the bat boy. And I've never found myself thinking "That would be a great story, I wonder where they got that national anthem singer."

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I never, ever, ever read those stories. Those are stories you put in the program for the spouses of sports fans to read while they're bored at the game.

I agree. Unless the story is about Kate Hudson blowing the "bat boy for a day" under the stands, I'm not reading it.

[BrianGriffin]

I think it's the responsibility of the writer to make it interesting to the reader. If you mail in a profile on the 10th grade choir that sang the national anthem on a Tuesday night, you might not do so well. But if you find the interesting off-beat story, it can be interesting. I'm not against it. But I would have a problem if they are hiring for this position while not going on the KC-Minnesota six-game roadie.

[Michael_ Gee]

To a degree, this job will be what the hiree makes of it. A talented writer with a nose for both news and the absurd could create something good out of it, if he/she is allowed to. But it could also be a disaster.

[playthrough]

I'd agree with that. I think the majority of the regulars here wouldn't be a great fit for this (me included), and that's not a knock. Just takes a certain type to be excited for these stories day after day, and it's not going to be a battle-tested beat guy.

[Michael Echan]

While doesn't seem like the kind of stuff you'd see an Gammons, Olney or Verducci churning out, it's a way in (or back in) for a lot of people. I agree with Michael_Gee on this, in that this gig could be as good or as bad as the writer makes it out to be.

[2muchcoffeeman]

So if I read this correctly, the thread slug's a fib. The OCR isn't really looking for a baseball writer.

[bpoindexter]

Are stories about the national anthem singer and bat boy REALLY fan-friendly? Because I'm a sports fan, and I could give two shits about the national anthem singer or the bat boy. And I've never found myself thinking "That would be a great story, I wonder where they got that national anthem singer."

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I never, ever, ever read those stories. Those are stories you put in the program for the spouses of sports fans to read while they're bored at the game.

I agree. Unless the story is about Kate Hudson blowing the "bat boy for a day" under the stands, I'm not reading it.

I had another response prepared until I saw this post (particularly the last sentence) and just about fell out of my chair laughing. Great line, and point well-taken.

... Now, my real point: I could give a shit about K-Hud and A-Rod and honestly don't believe many others do either.

[Mizzougrad96]

Are stories about the national anthem singer and bat boy REALLY fan-friendly? Because I'm a sports fan, and I could give two shits about the national anthem singer or the bat boy. And I've never found myself thinking "That would be a great story, I wonder where they got that national anthem singer."

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I never, ever, ever read those stories. Those are stories you put in the program for the spouses of sports fans to read while they're bored at the game.

I agree. Unless the story is about Kate Hudson blowing the "bat boy for a day" under the stands, I'm not reading it.

I had another response prepared until I saw this post (particularly the last sentence) and just about fell out of my chair laughing. Great line, and point well-taken.

... Now, my real point: I could give a shit about K-Hud and A-Rod and honestly don't believe many others do either.

I would argue that more people care about A-Rod and Kate Hudson than they do about whether the Angels win or lose.

This job is basically a cross between TMZ and what Simers does for the LAT.

[DanOregon]

It could be a fun job for a season. Follow a beer vendor through the stands, find out what constitutes a good day/bad day on the job for they guy; spend a game with the grounds crew;  or the game ops people to find out how they choose what music to play.
I see local cable outlest doing a lot of this stuff on their weekly "Mariners/A's/Giants" weekly shows.

[WaylonJennings]

No one reads most of those stories. As someone who used to really enjoy trying to find interesting localized or offbeat stories, because it required some digging behind the scenes and off-the-beaten-path reporting, I realized that nobody reads them. And I've heard all the ready responses, which boil down to, "Well, if you find good stories, people will read them!"

Nope. Not true. You could write a story about the wheelchair-bound World War II veteran who sang the national anthem after vocal chord surgery that restored his voice after seven decades, and it will receive 1/1,000th of the readership as a story about why Kendry Morales is slumping. If that. Just how it is. As someone who loves stories as much as he loves sports, I don't like it, either. But it's how it is.

[BB Bobcat]

This is the job that Mark Saxon had before goign to ESPN LA.

Saxon, who is a friend of mine, did some offbeat stuff, but my impression was it wasn't quite as out-of-the-box as this ad makes it seem. Maybe they want to stretch it with the next person, but my guess is that they are just highlighting the offbeat parts of the job because that's what's different.

If you wanted someone to write baseball stories 60 percent of the time and offbeat stuff 40 percent, just hypothetically, you'd probably advertise looking for someone who could do offbeat, because a lot of people can do the other 60 percent.

This is all just speculation on my part.

Point is, I wouldn't hesitate to apply for fear that it's too wacky. If they like you, you'll talk to them and find out the real story.

[BrianGriffin]

Are stories about the national anthem singer and bat boy REALLY fan-friendly? Because I'm a sports fan, and I could give two shits about the national anthem singer or the bat boy. And I've never found myself thinking "That would be a great story, I wonder where they got that national anthem singer."

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I never, ever, ever read those stories. Those are stories you put in the program for the spouses of sports fans to read while they're bored at the game.

I agree. Unless the story is about Kate Hudson blowing the "bat boy for a day" under the stands, I'm not reading it.

I had another response prepared until I saw this post (particularly the last sentence) and just about fell out of my chair laughing. Great line, and point well-taken.

... Now, my real point: I could give a shit about K-Hud and A-Rod and honestly don't believe many others do either.

Those who do care about these stories more likely read the society page. It's interesting. Tiger Woods' affair is only a sports story in how it affects his career and the tour. The rest is society/celebrity gossip stuff, IMO. But I don't necessarily think the story should be dismissed to Page Six because all those juicy details help paint the picture of where his career may head (the endorsements, the time away from the game, etc.), so there is grey area.

I think that is where the battle is fought for this writer. If he can take those grey area stories and make them "belong" on the sports page, then he's done his job and the OCR has found something. If the stories seem like out-of-place society stuff, then it will cause resentment among sports fans and get lost to the audience that would otherwise look for that kind of stuff next to the story about how many drugs Brittany Murphy took.

[Screwball]

BB Bobcat:

The hire will cover two games a week, presumably to give the beat writer his two days off. The rest is offbeat.

And note this quote: "The writer should enjoy speculating on what the Angels will do in the off season, suggesting moves they should make and writing about what fans are saying about the Angels."

No reporting, just speculation. Frankly, it's an ad for an Angels blogger. Maybe they ought to hire a blogger from one of the fan sites.

[BB Bobcat]

Screwball, I read the ad. I'm just saying I'm familiar with the person who had this job before, and he didn't do it quite as the ad describes. Not saying they aren't changing the job. Just saying I wouldn't make any assumptions that precluded me from applying if I were interested. That's all.

[WriteThinking]

I agree with BB Bobcat on this.

Besides, if you are covering the actual games a couple days a week in order to give somebody else a day off, isn't that a legitimate role, and pretty good for somebody looking for actual baseball-writing experience?

What you do with the rest of the job will, to a certain extent, probably up to the writer, and any day of work is still a chance to find/break real, baseball related news, write smart, analytical blogs, come up with story ideas, and yes, do some speculation. It could even be some speculation of the kind that writers/columnists do all the time, that may be based on something, whether it's what you may know, or may find out, if you're a good reporter, make connections, or just happen to stumble over things once in a while simply because you're there a lot and talking to all kinds of different people.

Just because you're the society-related baseball reporter, I'm sure the Register wouldn't turn down that kind of stuff if you can produce it, and make it your business to do so. In fact, I'm sure that's what it wants. It takes effort, talent and good instincts to produce good off-beat stuff, just as it does to do good beat work, and those skills and traits are/should be valued in this industry no matter what the job.

This kind of job probably is the direction that the industry is evolving, for better and/or worse. And complaining/digging our heels in about whether it's a real baseball job is pointless.

[Roving_Gambler]

I keep thinken, daley, that there are people out there desperate enough to apply for this awful job. Nice effort on the breezy, "fun" job description Keith.

This position is a recipe for disaster. It's actually a backup reporter who covers games when the primary reporter is off -- but then this backup beat reporter must also write the idiotic crap when the primary beat writer is covering games? "Hey, nice job busting your ass on that manager firing yesterday while I was off ... now go do a feature on the kid selling snow cones today because I'm back at the ballpark."

First, no primary writer on an MLB beat takes a day off during the season. A day off for that man or woman is being able to work on a project or special package instead of having to do every gamer. Second, how much credibility is the backup writer going to have in that clubhouse on the few days they are doing "real" reporting? Zero. None. Nada. Zilch.

Your MLB content/product is going to suck if you're dedicating one real reporter and one part-time reporter/oddball story writer to the beat.

I don't disagree that I love trailer-park-trash-tabloid-Tiger-is-screwing-everything-that-moves stories as much as the next person, but hire someone else entirely to track that crap while you hire the best baseball writers who can provide real insight and analysis for your readers.