Baseball beat writing jobs

Hi,
I will be graduating soon, and I'm looking to get into the baseball beat writing business. I was wondering which level (Single-A, Double-A, Triple-A?) of baseball newspapers usually trust fresh graduates to cover as a beat.
Also, I saw the Fredericksburg opening for a Washington Nationals beat writer position in the "Jobs" section. One of the posts mentions papers in suburbs like Potomac and Richmond also cover the Nationals, but only the home games. This sounds like a great gig. Would a fresh graduate stand any chance at all of landing such a job?
Also, I wouldn't mind relocating after I graduate. Really, I would move anywhere in the country if I could land a job I'm happy with. How would I go about finding out which "suburban" papers cover Major League teams, just like the Fredericksburg situation?
Thanks!

 

You're hired!!!

 

Anything is possible. The only thing they can tell you is no and you are no worse off than you are now.
For the most part, suburban papers cover major league teams. Just look at the area you want to live in and draw a 60-100 mile radius around it. Nearly every paper with a sizeable sports staff covers a pro team at home. I know that's a generalization but it's basically true.

 

I would say small papers that cover Single-A or Rookie ball may give you a shot. But don't a lot of smaller papers just rotate reporters covering the games because of vacation during the slow months?

To be honest though, if you need the help of this board to find out what papers cover an area, your job search will be difficult.

But to give a tip, two sites should help in a search.
http://www.newslink.org/statnews.html
http://www.usnpl.com/

Also, do an Internet search for various state press organizations.

 

It'll be tough getting a job where you just cover one baseball team right out of college. Most of us have had to spend our time in the prep ranks covering multiple schools before getting to a more specialized position. If it were to happen, it would probably be a small paper at a A or AA team.

But if you really want to get into sports writing, you'll probably have to start out covering stuff you dont want to.

 

I saw the title of this thread, knew exactly what it was going to be about, and thought, “You poor bastard. You're about to get verbally eviscerated.”

So, what happened? Y'all were rather civil. 8)

 

We took the blue pills today.

Very few newbie, right out of school journalists get jobs where they cover only one sport. It just doesn't happen. You can look for jobs in towns with minor league teams, but most of the ones that hire right out of school probably rotate coverage. Least all the towns I've been in with college and/or low level minor league teams have done it that way.

 

Actually, there's no better time than right now to be a college graduate wanting to cover MLB.

You'll work cheap, so you've got a shot.

As for minor league beats, it's been my experience that most papers don't have minor league beat writers. Most of them rotate the work around. If you end up at a smaller paper covering the minors, it will almost surely be just one of many things you do.

 

Dear all,
Thanks for the advice. Thanks, boots, for the 60-100 mile guideline.
And if anything I say deserves verbal evisceration, please don't hesitate. I'd rather suffer that here than to leave school with an overly rosy picture of what it's going to be like looking for a job.
I have some experience paginating and will be interning this fall semester at my local paper doing copy-editing/page layout, so hopefully that will be attractive to a smaller paper. Also, I have experience from past internships and from my campus paper covering college basketball, lacrosse, soccer etc and high school football, soccer, ice hockey etc, so by no means am I looking to cover only baseball and then sit around all winter sipping tea. But still, it's hard not to get discouraged reading about buyouts all the time.

 

It is a very disturbing time in the industry. Even the strongest of jedi journalists are worried about its future. Good Luck.

 

I have to say, I like your approach so far soontobegrad. It suggests humility. We like that around here.

I would also have to agree with the comments that you probably are going to start out covering multiple sports. If you start out at a community paper, you may have to include covering news among your duties.

I'm the editor at my shop, but I also cover sports. It's what I want to do, even if I may be taking somewhat of a circuitous route to get there.