Preferred Beats

I've never done another pro beat, but I can tell you, covering NASCAR can consume your life if you let it.

 

I enjoyed my time on the baseball beat, but two years was enough. There's a reason those press box lifers start to look like statues, complete with the pigeon-shit glaze.

I have to say, too, that I am much less of a sports fan now than I was ten years ago. I've just grown to hate athletes too much. Golf is about the only sport I'll sit down and watch and root about. I used to live and breathe baseball, but I watched the First 48 off my PVR tonight rather than tune in the Yankees-Jays game. It's weird how that happens. It's like seeing the kitchen of your favorite restaurant and all of a sudden losing your appetite.

If I had to do a beat now, I think I'd like to write hockey. Summers off, generally decent guys, good access, a schedule (except for the playoffs, which are a death march) not nearly as hellish as baseball's.

But even that would be a stretch, because I am less and less interested in writing about sports every day.

Not long ago, I sat in a boardroom in the Pentagon and got ninety minutes with a two-star general. I've had long flights alone with John McCain, drinking beer and reading the paper. I've spent hours sitting in a space-station mockup with astronauts who have seen and done things you and I can't even dream about.

Two weeks ago, I got fifteen minutes (in a gaggle) with a ballplayer for a feature profile -- and the guy has hit ten home runs, lifetime.

I don't know when it happened, exactly, but somewhere along the way, sports got stupid.

 

damn interesting post

 

I went on to work at USA Today, but I treasure 4 or 5 seasons spent covering the Ohio Valley Conference in Nashville. It was a good gig, with decent road trips, and every once in a while I could file a basketball gamer from my parents' kitchen table, then shoot the shit with them for a while before I headed back to the city. Looking back now, that was priceless.

 

Agreed, Stone Cane

 

I've never done the beat, but one thing I'm surprised to see not mentioned re: baseball is the absence of a clock. Most games are going to go longer than your typical NBA or NHL game, and even though NFL games drag on with all the commercials at least there's the clock guiding you towards deadline.

 

Couple thoughts/responses:

- I have found hockey players to be, hands down, the most down-to-earth among professional athletes. No. 2? NHRA drivers. John Force, a god among men, alone makes covering the drags a pleasant experience.

- I have found football writers -- and worse, football support personnel, especially in the NFL -- to be the most insufferable and entitled among professional beats. I've never been treated worse by peers than I was in my first NFL press box. Then, Wilbon introduced himself (as if I didn't know!), acted as if I were his equal, and it made my day.

 

Mr. M. turned his nose up at me coming off the elevator at my first football game.

 

I've covered each of the big 3 (NBA, MLB and NFL) and loved the NBA and MLB and hated the NFL. I love games. I hate off-day shit. And I hated how the NFL PR depts. basically think their job is to protect the players and coaches from you. Access in the NBA and MLB was fantastic comparatively.. NBA is better because you show up at 5:15 for a 7:00 game and the locker room is open from 5:30 to 6:15, giving you 45 minutes to write your notes. Baseball, you have to be there at 3:00 for a 7:00 game. Still, access is great.

Another great thing about the NBA back in the day was covering the Finals and the All-Star Game. Brian McIntyre is the absolute greatest and really ran an incredible media hospitality room in the media hotel. We absolutely ruled at Pop-A-Shot during the Finals back in the late 80s and early 90s.

I'd give my left nut to be back on the MLB or NBA beats.

 

Very solid post Rosie! Another recovering sportswriter over in news here as well, happily sitting here with the shop to myself uploading election results in the predawn hours ... it's helped to be away from sports, and I'd happily road trip a tour of minor-league baseball parks and games for shiggles and gits, but I'll still agree with what Mizzou and I said earlier yesterday about the MLB. I wouldn't walk across the street to watch a game. That beat can roast the best of us.

Thank God I never touched the NHL outside a couple of exhibitions long ago. That's at least kept the NY Ranger fanboy looser in me alive....1994 forever!!!!!!!!!! ;D

 

Hey, easy on the football writers. I'm heading into my fourth season covering the NFL on a full-time basis and I don't think I'm "insufferable" or "entitled." In fact, I'd love to take you - or any cool person for that matter - out for a frosty beverage (or 9) after a game. I do know what you mean, though. There are a few self-absorbed jerks covering the league. But there are just as many really nice people doing it. In my opinion, it's like anything else - kind of cliq-ish. Seems like the older, well-known writers tend to congregate in their little corner. The younger, "up-and-coming" reporters tend to do the same. As for the PR staffs, I've had both extremes: horrible (two NFC East teams) and decent (two AFC teams).