Pressbox deadlines

I've written plenty of gamers on the fly and hit the SEND button right as the final gun sounded. When you are dealing with late starts and early deadlines, you learn how to do it. It's an occupational hazard.

 

When I was doing radio and we had a newspaper guy alongside I always gave them a couple of free plugs .... "for a complete recap of tonight's contest, news from around the league and the rest of the day in sports, pick a copy of tomorrow's Podunk Press or log onto www.podunkpress.com"

 

I understand you have minor league coverage experience. Did you not treat it like one of the more important coverage items in the town in which you were working?

If you did, I'm a little puzzled why just about every one of your posts in this thread has the taste of "it's only a minor league game..." I thought you try to do the best job possible for the market you're in.

 

I never said I had problems with getting my story done within an hour time frame. The question, mixed with a bitch session on the PR guy, was whether this was common practice.

I've written running gamers before when we have a rain delay or an extra-inning game. I've been in the business for 10-plus years, I know how to write a running gamer when necessary, but when at all possible, I try to avoid it. The radio station that broadcasts the games is separate from the team and they give us a lot of plugs when we help out on game broadcasts or their studio shows.

Games here generally end about 10 p.m., I have to have my story in by 11:15 at the latest. PR guy requires a 10-minute cooling off period before we can go in the clubhouse. On a night where everyone is readily available in the clubhouse I can be out of there in 15 minutes. It's another 10-15 minutes of transcribing interviews then I do my best to be done by 11. So on a perfect night then hour rule is pushing it, but I can usually get it done. It's the less-than-perfect nights that concern me.

Yes, I take covering this team seriously, probably moreso than most people who would be covering a short-season minor league club. But I have aspirations of covering baseball beyond a short-season league, and I don't think telling future employers that it was only a short-season team so I covered it like one would really fly.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

You sound like a real pro. Well done.

 

If this is being done in the early or middle innings, what's the problem? Most nights, how many games are settled to the point where one starts writing in the middle innings?

 

And really, why should he have to prove something to this guy?

 

There's no set rule of when the pressbox closes with our Class A team.

Usually the grounds crew is still working on the field when my reporter gets done, or they're still cleaning the grandstands. If they're done before she's done, usually they leave the gate open so she can leave. In the couple of times they didn't, the clubhouse guy let her out.

 

It's not at all unusual for a writer to take three hours or more to finish filing, especially if it's a day game. No writer wants to go back to the office to file a game story.

 

In my case, I have a lot of Twitter followers who are fans of the parent club and love to get updates on how certain prospects are doing during games. I tweet judiciously during games, but if a major prospect does something noteworthy, I'll post it.

 

I knew where the team fit into coverage priorities. I also didn't want to spend several hours at the game when there was time to start cranking out a story in the latter innings. I also didn't spend a lot of time transcribing interviews. I knew what quotes were going in the story, and could hone in those without transcribing the whole interview. You don't need to make the job harder than it needs to be.

 

I cover a High-A team and the PR guy (who doubles as the radio PxP as is the case with most clubs) doesn't have any real ground rules. Clubhouse is usually open within five minutes, and batting practice is wide open, as is pre-game clubhouse access.