Need help please planning my class

Moderator1 · Jun 2, 2008

Sweet, thanks.

PopeDirkBenedict · Jun 2, 2008

Your class should include something along the lines of "At a bare minimum, here is what we want from you. And here is the bare minimum you should expect from a journalist. If you are dealing with someone who doesn't work according to these basic precepts, you need to watch out." And talk about things like a devotion to accuracy -- which is different than always being accurate. We won't always be accurate. But a responsible journalist will want to be accurate and be told when they are not (politely of course). They should be told that a good journalist doesn't commit hit-and-run journalism. They give sources the chance to respond before going to press (except in extreme situations) and they show up the next day to take the heat. That kind of thing.

We want these admins/coaches to be good sources. I think part of being a good source is recognizing when you are dealing with a good journalist.

pseudo · Jun 2, 2008

imjustagirl said:

Moderator1 said:

Also, Hinton's story on Maris' funeral - I can't find that either.
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I know it's on the Van McKenzie thread that was brought back up the other day.
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Yup, page 11: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/36807/

Footballreporter · Jun 2, 2008

Hey Mr. Moderator#1 sir:

Besides being a Footballwriter/Scout and an Ex-H.S. Coach
I'm currently Teaching English Through Journalism in a Sp. Ed. H.S. in NYC

1) Find Marty Glickman's Book (I'll find it here in my storage space and FWD it to you)

2) Get Speakers!!!

3) Get More Speakers!!

4) Try and get them into a Working PressBox During a Game

When i taught 8th and 9th Grade TAG kids in the 90's I took them To a NY Jets Practice (they had to behave like real Writers, not starstruck fans, or i failed them!)
Then i had college Journalism students come in and speak.....

T&C · Jun 3, 2008

The correct title of the Stephen Brunt book is The Way It Looks From Here. The subtitle is Contemporary Canadian Writing on Sports and the writers include Chris Jones, Michael Farber, Guy Lawson, Christie Blatchford and Cam Cole. Be forewarned, the collection also includes fiction.

buckweaver · Jun 4, 2008

That Maris story ... my god. Chills, again.

And Kindred's story-behind-the-story ... chills to the bone.

Amazing.

Dave Kindred said:

So Roger Maris dies. It's Dec. 14, 1985. Van's at the height of his powers in Atlanta.

Ed Hinton is one of 3 AJC'ers assigned to a Georgia Southern national championship football game in Tacoma.

"Eddie, on your way to Tacoma," Van says, "stop in North Dakota for Maris's funeral."

On his way? "Van, Fargo's not on the way to anywhere."

Van says, "It's out there somewhere. Just go. Get me a prize-winner."

It's mid-December, the great plains, 20-below, -59 wind chill, snow 8' high along the road from the Fargo airport to the one Holiday Inn in town.

Fast Eddie's at the bar, looking for grizzled Yankees from 1961. Plays some $2 blackjack, legal in North Dakota. Sees Bob Allison. Who needs Bob Allison? Now he sees Whitey Ford, a sighting that sets off the newshound alarms in Eddie's brain while also reminding him, "Ford hates the media. Like to tell us, 'Go shit in your hat.'" But you can't fly from Atlanta to Fargo, see Whitey Ford in a bar the day before Roger Maris's funeral, and not move on him.

Only, when Eddie looks up, Ford's walking out of the bar. And now Eddie's in pursuit, 30 feet behind, trailing him "at detective distance." Sees Ford go into a big banquet room, dark, the door open. "And there was every Yankee from the '61 team. Maybe not Yogi. But every other one. Richardson, Duren. They're not drinking because Richardson's a Baptist preacher and Duren's a recovering alcholic. There's Mantle. He's swaying. "Serendipitously," Eddie says, "Clete Boyer's there. And I know Clete 'cause he ended his career in Atlanta. I shout at him and he says, 'Eddie, come on in.' Clete's with Mantle. My God. Ford wants me to shit in my hat, Mantle's swaying, and I'm hearing Van in my head, 'Bring me back a prize-winner.'"

"No, no, no," Mantle says to Hinton. Boyer intervenes. "C'mon, Mick, Ed's a good guy." Mantle reconsiders and says, "Before you take that notebook out, let me get one thing straight with you." Hinton nods to Mantle, who says, "I'sh am not drrrrrunk."

Boyer puts one condition on the interview. Hinton has to drink with them. Boyer: triple vodkas. Hinton: double Scotches. Boyer's comment on Hinton's doubles: "Pussy."

Stories galore. Maris, the great guy, great player, great teammate, misunderstood, terrible the way he died. Mantle says he sent Maris to the same cancer hospital in Dallas that treated his son. As they talk, Hinton notices a thick icy glaze on the banquet-room windows, dead-ass winter as dead-ass as winter gets, so he asks Mantle, "Those '61 Bronx Bombers -- you ever think Roger Maris would wind up in a place like this?" Mantle's expression doesn't change. Tears slide down his cheeks. "I want to go back to Commerce," he says. Boyer says, "I just took my brother Ken back to the Ozarks." Another round here, barkeep.

Prize-winning stuff -- if Hinton can remember any of it in the morning. Can he remember it? With the Gen. George S. Patton of Sports Editors waiting for the story -- that's what Eddie called Van, "Patton" -- damn straight he's going to remember it. Drinks 'til 4 a.m. starts writiing for the Journal's afternoon cycle. "We were in a 24-hour news cycle, and Van wanted it as soon as you had it."

Later that morning at the graveside, a school bus arrives. It delivers reporters from the Times and other New York media outlets. Here's what Van's hungover/done-writing/it's-in-the-paper prize-winning man in North Dakota thought of that moment: "All you New York sumbitches, your asses are beat."

On to Tacoma, but stuck in Denver, a blizzard. Hinton, exhausted, flu's coming, calls Van: "We got 2 other guys going to Tacoma, can I come home?"

Van says 1 guy is driving through Oregon in a snowstorm. Other guy is stuck in San Francisco fog. "You gotta go, Eddie," Van says. "I figure 1 of the 3 of you will get there, I just don't know which one."

Week later, after covering the funeral in North Dakota and the game in Tacoma, Hinton, with the flu, comes to the office.

"I hope you know what I went through," Hinton says to Van. "But I got you your prize-winner."

"See, Eddie," the big man says. "When you get good assignments, you get good stories."

Hinton's Maris coverage won first place in spot news in APSE judging that year.
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PopeDirkBenedict · Jun 4, 2008

buckweaver said:

That Maris story ... my god. Chills, again.

And Kindred's story-behind-the-story ... chills to the bone.

Amazing.
Click to expand...

Mantle with tears rolling down his cheeks talking about how he wants to be buried in Commerce....you couldn't make up stuff that good.

Moderator1 · Jun 4, 2008

I have two Ed Hinton pieces in my stack of articles to use. The piece he did on Bobby Allison in Sports Illustrated is as good as anything I've read. Ed is about as good as it gets. Exceptional writer.

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Need help please planning my class

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