I love this stuff

I had been in press boxes before this, but the first time I was at Yankee Stadium as a reporter was nearly a religious experience, especially when I got down to the field after the game with the place completely empty. I was there working on a feature, so I was lucky enough to really take it all in so I don't look & act like a dope when I'm back there again (hopefully on a regular basis... OK, I'm done going through the entire Rosary. Twice).

 

spud: College equestrian beat? Yikes.

Anyway, sorry if I pissed on your parade. Not my intention. My first assignment at the college paper was sidebar duty on the big Tech-West Virginia Thursday night game. They needed someone because all of the staffers wanted to get drunk. There was a certain feeling of wow involved, mostly because I'd never even been in a situation where I was interviewing people before. So I know where you're coming from.

 

I wouldn't know where to begin if I had to cover horse jumping. Yep, methinks you've seen the ugly side already.

 

It got to the point where, as I was walking back from the press conference in the bowels of the stadium to the box, I just had to stand at the 50 yard line and do a quick 360 of the empty stadium. Honestly, even with all of the BS politicking and everything else that goes hand in hand with this job, the actual dirty work makes up for it.

After having tasted the big time I can take the womens soccer and the softball. Just so long as I know where I'm working towards after college ends, I'm good.

 

Standing in an empty stadium or arena and just taking it all in is one of the greatest perks of this job. I remember standing on the edge of the floor of an empty Assembly Hall (IU version) and staring at the banners and taking a deep breath with a smile on my face that stretched from end line to end line. Soak up that feeling, son. Not many people get to experience it.

 

RFK locker room after a Monday Night Football game suggested to me that I needed to dial it down a couple of notches. What a cluster-f*ck.

 

Think he can work at the Plain Dealer?

 

I did one better, I think.

Covering Virginia Tech football game two years out of college, I went down to Blacksburg and stayed with some friends the night before. At 6 am on gameday, four of us went down to Lane Stadium, because they knew the gate would be unlocked. And we kicked field goals for an hour. Nobody ever said a word to us.

Doubt you could do that today.

 

god bless ya spud. hope you're enjoying the hell out of it.

 

When I was in school, shot, it seemed like couples were ... uh ... kind of "enamored" with the 50-yard-line at Lane.

This was in the B.C. era of Tech football (pre-Michael Vick), so yeah, I think things have changed a little.

 

Go for it, Spud. Yeah, there's BS and politics and pricks in this job, just like in any job. But no job I know of can give you goose bumps like 20 minutes before The Huge Game, probably a Rival Game, when a packed stadium is so loud your ears ring until Thursday. Accounting can't do that.