Would you decline an interview opportunity?

More to the point: how did you get a major league beat?

 

Is that how they do it at the Plai.....oops, never mind.

 

Before you all rip me, if you look in my original post I said my inclination was to go. Also, some of the players I would happily go talk to, but I didn't feel the need to talk to each one.

Some of these are players that I've talked to plenty of times on my years on the beat. They are players I will be looking at every day once spring training begins. They are are not very significant players on the team. They have not had anything significant to them happen over the offseason (change in position, change in status on the team, etc.) or I would have talked to them already. It's not like I'm some fawning kid who can't wait to sit with a real live major league player.

To me this whole thing is a little like the PR guy calling you and saying "Joe Blow is going to the children's hospital today. Do you want to come?" I'd rather get stories on my terms, when they are timely, and not "just because the PR guy brought him to me." I actually believe the PR guys are doing this mostly for the benefit of the local TV folks who are NOT going to spring training.

 

That's the thing. If any of these guys were particularly newsworthy, I could have just called them on my own anytime over the past three months. This isn't college where the SIDs control the access. But now I'm supposed to jump up because the PR staff says: "You are going to write a story about Player A on this day, Player B on this day, etc."

 

*** sigh ***

 

You can pretty much make anybody newsworthy. If you're doing your beat right, you should be able to. The scrubs you denigrate are the stories that are the freshest, the sources most eager for someone to finally be interested in them. How long did the story about the Braves reliever who's a handyman in the offseason go untold? Get off the starfuck track.

 

BB,

I would go and if there is nothing newsy worth writing about, maybe you can do a "5 questions with" or something for the paper or the website.

 

Ace,
What about going and giving a couple of "hot foots?"
Apparently, in baseball, those never get old.

 

I think you'd need to alternate it with the Icy-Hot in the jock to keep it from getting stale, though.

 

Sirs, Madames,

Not to be snarky ... okay, being thoroughly and sadly snarky ... if a beat guy declined the opportunity, it wouldn't likely be much of a loss. If he declined, he likely wouldn't have asked decent questions or possessed the imagination to make the most of it. And if his interview subject was later hit by a meteor, said beat guy wouldn't be able to find his notes.

YD&OHS, etc

 

Yeah. I make it a habit of telling our beat guys:
"You have availability tomorrow? Go ahead. Blow it off. Probably not much will come of it. Go speed-walk at the fucking mall, instead."

 

I like a boss who is interested in keeping health insurance costs down. Bravo!