Who Should Cover the World Series?

Honestly, I don't see what the point of covering it if you don't have any type of connection is. Obviously, the newspapers that cover the two competing teams should have someone there. If, for example, the Columbus Dispatch wanted someone there to do a story or two on local boy Nick Swisher, that's also worthwhile.

But I don't see the point of sending someone to cover a World Series that you have no team in and have no players that either grew up in your area or played in your area. Just use the wire for that. It's not worth it if you have no reason to be there.

 

When the Stanley Cup playoffs were in Detroit (maybe other places; I don't know), there were hoards of reporters who didn't "make" the main, auxilary or makeshift boxes. They were put into another area downstairs with a couple of TVs.

The pressbox announcements were piped in, but that was it.

The writers, which included league writers, had locker room access but basically that amounts to news conferences. And those quote sheets are handed out -- even available online.

Not arguing for or against, just saying a lot of people are essentially covering off TV these days already.

 

I wouldn't send anybody to a major event.
I'd let our citizen journalists handle it and send the beat guys to cover the local soccer and swim meets.

 

Who is Jason Fry?

 

The dirty little secret is that, in some parks, the out-of-town papers are seated in a "TV room" outside of view from the ballpark-proper. They end up watching the entire game on TV anyway-- and the dirtier secret is that some prefer it that way.

 

Nice to know Jason Fry has set himself up as the proxy guardian of everybody's travel budget, because god knows publishers are notoriously slack in that department.

We certainly need more race-to-the-bottom advocates telling newspapers to quit covering the World Series and work up another story on the goddamn junior varsity volleyball team. You betcha.

 

But the "alternate box" scribes have access to the main box and the locker room, right?

The cost of doing business should not include "covering" games via television from your den couch in Podunk.

If Fry's argument holds water, why not "cover" high school football games via radio at the office and keep reporters indoors? That would save mileage costs and the reporter would be able to multi-task during the game. Why not "cover" city council meetings from the cable access feed and not leave the newsroom? For that matter, why have a newsroom? Everyone should work at home. If an editor needs to contact a reporter, use the phone or email.

Financially, those are not the same as the expense of WS travel but the theory is the same.

 

Generally, no. Not everyone gets a clubhouse pass.

 

That's right. Out-of-town writers whose team is not in the series are often asked to pool quotes, and TV folks are asked to pool video.

Yes, you have "access" to the main box, but what good does that do when there's nowhere to sit and view the game? Sometimes the main box is so crowded during a World Series that you couldn't stand, either, without blocking someone's view.

The pisser is when the guy from the LA Times is kept out of the locker room and left to pool quotes while the 22-year-old from mlb.tv.blog is in the clubhouse interviewing players. That's some funny shit.

 

WIN.

(Me too.)

 

I have to agree with him...

Way back when I was covering baseball, I covered two World Series where there were no local teams, no local angles and we had a columnist and two writers there... The second year they told us we didn't need to write on the off-days, which we were happy about, but at the same time we're were like, "Why are we covering this?" and this was back in the days when papers loved to spend money.

These days, if you don't have a local team playing or a big local angle, no regional or local paper really has any business spending the money to send more than a single person to the game.

 

This is an interesting point. More of a meritocracy is going to be good for the profession in the long run but there's short-term pain involved for those who are being "winnowed."

With some notable exceptions, there just hasn't been enough of a meritocracy in the industry the past couple of decades. The newspaper industry consistently betrayed the consumer by pushing out experienced people when they reached top scale in favor of inexperienced people who invariably cost less.