Derby credentials for the wife?

If you think a wife is just something to show off, sounds like a good idea.

 

I think the high school level would be fine, especially if you were behaved. I'm assuming this is the level you were at in your childhood.

Professional, probably not. Maybe, and I mean a big maybe, at a lower level minor league baseball park.

 

Speaking of wives at the game, "media member" Paul O'Neill got booted from watching the Yankees' indoor batting practice, and his wife was barred from the Yankees' wives' room because it is for current wives only:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2009/05/04/2009-05-04_yankees_put_squeeze_play_on_media_at_the_new_stadium.html

 

Yes. It was high school championships for my home state. I went to the championships from the time I was 2 until I was 24. My last year, I was actually doing some freelance work for the statewide news network.

And I don't remember doing anything not well-behaved, but I'm sure it happened. I mean, we were kids. I'm sure at some point, we walked on a wrestling mat when we weren't supposed to or something. In our later years, we were allowed to be in the PA booths with my dad if we wanted. Usually my mom and sister went shopping and I stayed at the stadium. I'm not really the shopping kind of girl.

 

Since the mouse did five hours of coverage on Saturday, they probably got a block of X number of credentials without providing names. From past experience, I know that every TV network builds in some extra passes for, shall we say, "guests."

 

Hell, what else would they be for (ducking)?

 

The penny ante shit they are pulling with the electronic types is just jaw-dropping...

 

The only time I've taken someone into a press box that didn't belong was when I took my brother one time. Peculiar set of circumstances. He'd driven over from out of state for the day after Thanksgiving, and he went with me to see So. Miss play East Carolina in the last game of the season. Neither team was going anywhere and it was pouring down rain; I mean an absolute fricken deluge. I think there were about 10 people in the stands by the second half. We sat under the upper deck through the first half, then said, "screw this, let's see if we can get out of the cold and rain." If push had come to shove, we might could have passed him off as a reporter, since he did have some experience as a stringer for preps at another paper a few years before. But at that point nobody really cared. The press box was less than half full and, like I said, it was cold and wet.

 

I used to know Reilly well. He had a healthy ego, but it was nothing compared to some in this business. From what I've heard, his divorce changed everything.

 

I have brought my kids into the press box on a couple occasions on days that I had brought them to the ballpark with tickets. Just wanted them to see where I work, have a few my colleagues to meet the kids they'd been hearing about, maybe snap of a photo of my daughter sitting in my seat, and then we left. The entire visits never lasted more than five minutes at a time, and if it wasn't between innings or before the game, we'd go way to the back or into an office so as not to disturb anyone.

The only time I think it would be acceptable for a kid to be in a press box for an extended time is if the kid was high-school aged and doing some sort of school project. Obviously for a game when there was plenty of extra seating and he/she wasn't taking up a seat that could have been filled by a working journalist.

 

It is never OK to bring your child, of any age, to the press box, media room or other work environment for more than a few minutes to look around and say HI. That I do find cute, but anything more is unprofessional.

Even if you think your precious is being quiet, even if you think you're not disturbing anyone, you never know. And trust me, I have more of a right to work in a professional environment than your child has a right to be there.

When I worked in media relations there was a reporter (who frequents this board, but I will not mention names) who brought his 7-year-old daughter to an event with the expectation she would stay in the media workroom the whole time. He brought nothing to keep her entertained or fed. I didn't get the impression this was an emergency situation that left him with no other option. So what happened? We ended up babysitting the kid while daddy was checking in at the event or in the press conference room, because there were a few of us who couldn't in good conscience let that little girl be there alone without food or toys in a room with a lot of laptops and personal belongings. But it took us away from our jobs. And when the media relations director tried to say something to the reporter, she was brushed off. That's not OK.