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Minor league baseball beat writer

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Brookerton, Sep 9, 2008.

  1. I Digress

    I Digress Guest

    minor league baseball, even at the top levels, makes for a long, long summer
     
  2. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    Matt Wieters hit seven home runs in nine games against the Hillcats this year. Yeah, brilliant choice there, Pirates.
     
  3. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    How many papers have a minor league baseball beat? At most papers, isn't it staffed by whomever can do it because of vacations?
     
  4. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    Our shop has one person covering the team with some backup help ... he handles Sunday notebooks and most of the game coverage.
     
  5. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    We have a beat writer who covers minor league baseball. She does all of the home games and the meaningful road games (if they're in the playoff hunt).

    I did the beat for two years. It was a lot of fun. I really learned a lot about the player-development side of the game. Plus, you're the only one covering the team, so you get to know the people you're covering and you get more access than you get on a major-league beat.

    The second year I covered baseball, Alex Rodriguez was in the league — he was 18 or 19 at the time. Sat down with him one afternoon and talked for about an hour. Great interview. A few months later, he was up with the Mariners.

    It does get to be a tedious season, though, if the team is out of the playoff race in August. The players want to go home, and you're tired of dealing with them.
     
  6. -Scoop-

    -Scoop- Member

    I cover a local minor league team as the beat writer. This year, the season was 95 days. It's a 90-game season. There's 45 home games, and I covered each one but didn't travel. I did notebooks, advances and a couple of features but it's hard since there's a game almost every day. Pretty much gamers are the bulk of the beat, at least for me. But the players are great to be around, honest and open, and I've never had as much access as with that team (in regard to management and knowing the in's and out's of the organization). I could get whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. But it is a loooooooooooooong summer, and thankfully the team was in contention for the playoffs up until the last week or else it would have been a major drag.
     
  7. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Not really. Papers in towns with minor league teams, especially lower than Class AAA, generally take those beats seriously enough to have a writer devoted to it.

    But yes, there's usually a backup writer or stringer help available since there's a lot of travel involved and every road game isn't worth the expense. That said, if you're the minor league beat writer, you're not going to schedule too many vacations during the summer. Most SEs will figure out a way to give you some extra time off in the offseason.
     
  8. Learn Spanish.
     
  9. anson2995

    anson2995 New Member

    There's a big difference between covering preps and covering a beat, and I think the beat work will help you become a better writer and a better reporter. (Based on my experience, anyway.)

    Working the beat puts you in the same place with the same people everyday, and forces you to develop a different kind of working relationship with those folks. And unless you're only writing gamers, it can be a challenge to come up with new story ideas as the summer drags on.

    I know a couple of guys who cover the beat for AAA teams full time. Is it really that unusual?
     
  10. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    I second that.

    Or find a translator on the team.
     
  11. Reacher

    Reacher Member

    Preps plus minor league baseball is a great way to spend your year. I've been doing it that way for a really long time and still like all of it.
     
  12. In a lot of cases I think a college baseball beat would be more fun than the minors. There are still some great features there and you get to see the future stars develop before your eyes. Plus the season is shorter and the games actually mean something.

    Also, college fans are great. The heckling is ingenious and can make a dull game go by like that.
     
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