Sports Bloggers in the Press Box

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't teams and/or leagues control press box access? If a team or event thinks the bloggers they credential can help reach its fans, then why would it give a flying fuck what any "legitimate" journalists think? After all, don't we "legitimate" journalists get credentials because teams, in their heart of hearts, believe we're giving them free publicity, even if it isn't exactly what they would write?

 

As a credentialed reporter for a paper/web site, I also blog during games for our site. I've gotten a lot of feedback that people like to go back later and re-read what I was writing during the game as they process what happened. But I don't consider myself a blogger; I consider myself a sports writer who also happens to blog during games.

 

Paid by whom? What if a blog has enough traffic to turn a profit through online advertising - isn't that "getting paid for blogging?"

Look, I'm not saying there aren't some bloggers that shouldn't be in the press box, because what they do doesn't warrant that kind of access -- it's all digest, review, media watch and that sort of thing. I think Royko's got it right -- deem them worthy if their particular brand of journalism needs gameday coverage of events, even if that coverage will not apprear the following morning.

Oh, and as far as "wasting our time with questions" goes, I've muttered that to myself numerous times in locker rooms, and it's never bloggers asking the most inane questions of the evening...

 

Because there are rules as written by the football writers or basketball writers or baseball writers associations that stipulate how you should act in the press box and in the locker room not too mention guidelines from organizations like COSIDA.

And contrary to the beliefs of the fan boys on here, the more the merrier doesn't make our jobs easier, they just get in the fucking way.

If teams want to start filling their locker rooms with fan boys, well, that's their choice but it certainly isn't going to get them any more publicity than if they don't allow the "bloggers" in because the only people who read most blogs are fan boys and they read them regardless if the blogger has access or not.

Further, I would like to know one example of an independent "blogger" who needs access to do his job because it is actually his job.

Remember, these are WORKING press boxes. Period.

 

Ok, I think that some bloggers who are professional like let me use the guy over at LAObserved.com he does real work and does some investigative articles and should be given access like the cities newspapers.

Now laobserved.com/sports is the url if I am not mistaken is not a bad site and if they did more game coverage could and probably should be let in.

Now the entertainment industry has bloggers like gawker.com and perezhilton.com and if I am not mistaken they don't let into events like the Oscars and press junkets for movies. So if the million visitors that gawker.com and perezhilton.com don't get access why should dodgersrule.com get access to sports games?

But if John Does is a sports writer for i.e. LA Times and writers for the paper but also writers a blog about i.e. the Lakers let him in to do his thing.

The thing is the question is always what does the team allow? As journalists we don't get to approve of anyone that gets a seat in the press box and the team/league is not going to listen to us anyways so why bitch?

 

Perez Hilton is a great site.

And he does get invites to a LOT of events.

 

Probably true.

And who is that reads MOST of what is written in any sports pages?

 

This is my opinion. As a guy who works for 20,000 circ paper, two hours from our nearest pro town. So needless to say, we're a prep heavy area. Two or three years ago we had a local boy who had a cup of coffee in the bigs and was now coming into said big city as a coach for a big league team. I got sent down to do a number of features on this guy.

I felt awkward because I felt like I might be getting in the way of the daily guys who were doing their daily interviews pregame. I asked if it was OK if I sat in on the meeting with the manager and I made sure to do as little "hanging around" the clubhouse as possible. I talked to my guy, talked to the manager when he had a free moment. Talked to a player or two for about five minutes and stood on the field for a little while to watch how the coach I was there to talk to interacted with the guys for color in my story.

I told the media relations guy that I didn't want to take anyone's spot in the press box because I wasn't doing game related stuff and if he needed my seat for someone doing game-related stories, I'd gladly just walk the concourse during the game and watch the game there.

Point of this rant being I know how awkward I felt interacting with the daily guy as a paid member of a media organization. I couldn't imagine being a fanboy blogger thinking I actually belonged in the press box or the clubhouse. That just blows me away. Let people who have a job to do do their job. Let fanboys buy a ticket and watch the postgame news conference on ESPNnews.

My $0.02

 

He absolutely did. But I just wanted him to know that if it should get full — thought it probably wouldn't for a fourth of july game — that I'd gladly give up my seat because the game meant little to me other than watching a quality major league game.

 

why would a blogger want to sit in a press box?

 

Might want to make a change there. That's pretty glaring.