Two MLB.com reporters robbed at gunpoint in Cincinnati

Kinda like those people who put stick figures of all their children and their names on the back of their mini-vans/SUVs. They're just asking to be targeted by child predators.

 

Old story of Jesse Outlar, Atlanta Constitution columnist, mugged and shot in the stomach as he walked to his car after a Braves game: Told paramedics, "For this I gave up smoking?" He survived for another 35, 40 years.

 

Scary thought. I have written a few stories lately on a scandal that involved some college athletes with local ties, and it pissed people off enough that I now for the first time have been wondering if anyone would do anything to harm me or vandalize my property.

 

Tweeting, I get.

Facebook, someone has to be your friend to see that. If a friend of mine robs me while I'm at a diner, then I have really bad friends.

 

This all assumes no one else lives in your house.

Or that you don't have a roommate or kids.

Or that you don't have a pit bull who'll bite 'em.

I'm not living my life based on the 1-1,000,000,000 fear that someone I know may rob my house when I'm out of town.

 

Anyone who leaves the Los Angeles Sports Arena more than an hour after a game has to be nervous. Back in the day you used to get escorted to your car, especially after SC games that drew about 1,500 and change.

Felt very uncomfortable several times leaving night football games at Fresno State too, pretty surly crowds thanks to all the beer they used to sell there after an entire day of tailgating in 90-degree weather.

 

Oakland is really bad, especially if you have to go out to a mostly-empty parking lot after dark.

I never really noticed it growing up going to football, baseball and basketball games there, but when I was leaving a game I covered around midnight, I definitely noticed.

 

Favorite story told by the vets at my last newspaper:

Lead sports columnist had quite the ego and insisted that the paper run a blurb on the front page of the sports section: "So-and-so is on vacation. His column will return when he does."

Predictably, he returned from vacation to find his home ransacked.

 

That is awesome.

 

What would the thieves get, a half-full bag of potato chips, books and maybe an out-of-date TV set?

 

Worked at a paper that ran the address of a local baseball hero's new mansion. The guy, normally placid, went ballistic because everyone knew (or could easily know) when he would be gone on road trips, with only wife/kiddies at home.

Paper was pretty damn stupid.

 

Not to make light of the situation, but did the robbers realize they were stalking journalists.

"Hey you, hands up and give me all the spare change in your pockets. Now, scribe!!!"