Stat stealers

For years I covered a D-I school whose students have a rowdy reputation, and they didn't mind crowding right up into press row to stake out their territory. (Old arena, we were seated basically on the first row of the bleachers.) So I made a practice of bringing an extra box score back from the press room at halftime, which the students would circulate so they could check the stats and see I was an OK guy. "Thank you, Mr. Scribe," and they took care of me, i.e., nobody stood on my chair while I was gone, they watched my (and my colleague's stuff), pulled my chair out so I could sit down. Not a bad two-way street.

 

Oh. At first I thought you were talking about Duke. Hell, they always tried to steal my seat.

 

I always traded stats with print guys as needed. I also helped out the TV guys from time to time with one caveat -- they got nothing from me if they were calling for help on a game that they left blatantly early on order to go to another game.

I didn't mind helping if they left at 10 p.m. because the playoff doubleheader was running late and they had to get back to the studio to edit their stuff, but guys who left a 7 p.m. game after half an hour were obviously heading to another game. I had no desire to make their 11 p.m. telecast look better under those circumstances.

 

Oh, we'll trade boxes, etc. But they kept on calling and never bothered to staff any of these games. It evidently went on for a while. There is woring with one another, and then there is doing someone else's job for them.

And I let fans look at my stats. Hell, I'll show them my pics sometimes during halftime. Not in the Sean Salisbury sense of course.

 

Most of the papers around here help each other out with football and basketball editions on the conference roundup stuff, too. The last couple of days before they go out everyone is calling and emailing "Do you have anything on so-and-so?" "Do you need anything on so-and-so?"

Have emailed and had emailed to me entire stories with the instructions "use what you need."

I'm not talking about someone just cutting and pasting an entire story, but if I can give someone two or three key players' names and a coach's outlook for the season, for a little conference team capsule, have at it.

 

I've traded quotes. The way I look at it, by being cordial you might be doing yourself a small favor down the road, and a much bigger one a little farther (like one day getting a call about a job opening from the person you helped once he reached big state daily) down the road.

 

I never minded parents asking me for a stat, because it usually came at an appropriate time, like if one player was really smoking it that night.

"Hey, how many points does he have so far?"

Meh...no skin off my nose. Although they would have to wait a minute or two before I'd respond if the action was still ongoing.

 

Gee, what a concept..."do onto others."

I can't believe the jadedness of some of you people! Quit acting like you are a deity. The people at games (parents or not) are fans of sports. Supposedly, since you work in the sports media, they assume you like sports too. If you don't, get out and let people in that are. Sheesh.

If you are so sick of working in sports that you go out of your way to be Richards...go pull a Kevin Spacey in American Beauty.