fshorr's blog

I sit here trying to write something scholarly about Rob King‘s visit to the B-U sports journalism seminar series and all I can think about it watching Steph Curry’s Saturday night performance against Oklahoma City AGAIN!!… I mean, i loved Oscar Robertson and still think he was one of the top ten all time players but c’mon Big O, you couldn’t stop this guy,  you didn’t have guys that could shoot from 35 at a 47% clip!… It’s a different game!…..be right back(gotta watch that again)…Curry had a better field goal percentage from 3 point land than he did from 2! (75% vs 58%)…That’s why we watch SportsCenter  religiously…

The Senior Vice President of News and SportsCenter rails against the critics who say they are not about highlights…Too much this (taking heads), not enough that (hockey)…If Curry keeps throwing up games like this, King won’t have to worry about people watching…

E-S-P-N’s coverage of Tom Brady the last year hasn’t made them very popular here in New England but let’s be honest, they do a lot of things right…”We were way out front on mobile publishing” said King “What you do, what you think, the way you wake up in the morning, what you want to consume, drives our business, not the other way around”…On the flip side, King recognizes some of their shortcomings, “Our mission is so big, that by definition, we’re constantly pushing up against the edges”…

So why didn’t Durant call a timeout?

That doesn’t excuse being wrong and inaccurate reporting…”Some of our biggest problems come from sources”,  King told the group…

And then there was being called out by a local sports talk radio show for allegedly telling their anchors NOT to report on Peyton Manning and his problems at the University of Tennessee…”What we said was we’re not just going to report this story until we can verify some of the material in it and those guys(WEEI) got a call from somebody in our group who has a relationship with them saying we just got told not to report on Peyton Manning…And nothing sets people’s teeth on edge here(New England) like the notion that we would treat Peyton Manning differently than we would treat Tom Brady”…Was that not reporting a story?…..I don’t think so…

And why did Durant foul Andre Iguodala?

It started with a lot of Austrailan Rules football back some thirty seven years ago, weaved its way through college basketball, NFL football and Major League Baseball and yes it IS the “Entertainment Sports and Programming Network” but face it, we all watch and cant wait to see what the Top 10 plays are…Hey, B-U made it twice!…Go Terriers!

I’d love to write more but i gotta go watch those highlights again….Cue the music! – do do do, do do do 

It may be the greatest western ever made but working in sports journalism can sometimes be just like the 1966 spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...There are highs, there are lows and there are things about it that are just plain awful....Sure you might get to a Super Bowl, a World Series, a Stanley Cup or even an Olympics but all those won't come without long, long hours and sacrifices along the way...

When we chose to talk beat reporting at the Boston University sports journalism seminar series recently,  we were lucky enough to have three reporters who have experienced all three facets of the business...

Doug Kyed of NESN.com just came back from covering his second Super Bowl...That might seem like a plum assignment and while it's the ultimate game each year, the team Doug covers on a regular basis, the New England Patriots, had lost two weeks earlier and the job just wasn't the same...Tim Britton, Boston Red Sox beat writer from the Providence Journal is getting ready to cover a season that could very well last nine months...And Adam Himmelsbachof the Boston Globe is in the throes of a Boston Celtics playoff push that might see him travel to exotic cities like Indianapolis, Toronto, Cleveland and Oakland ,perhaps, before his season ends....

Decide for yourself what part of all that is the good, the bad and the ugly but beat reporting is the staple of any media outlet...Fans can't get enough of their local team and the reporters that follow them are widely read...

Working during the game is a required skill now...One can't just sit back and watch the game, get locker room quotes and file...As Himmelsbach pointed out "Live tweeting is something you can tell a follower they might not have known.  Keep them engaged with you. This encourages readers who actually want to read your stories."... Kyed works long hours and sometimes is the last one out of the building, "I don't want to leave until they're(other reporters) leaving because I feel like I haven't done enough."...Britton tweets the entire (baseball) game and while his counterparts cover sports where there are definite time limits, he knows he always has time to recoup, "Baseball always gives you the bottom of the 9th"...Many a story has been re-written in those final three outs...

Length of season plays a part in both the reporters mental health and ease of establishing relationships...So too does roster size interestingly...The Celtics carry 15 players but not everyone takes off their sweats...So, you're talking to the same people every night..."It's really bad, says Himmelsbach, you're always focusing on only the people who actually play in the game."...Kyed finds a different set of circumstances at Patriots camp...Only a handful of players are available and then there's Bill Belichick...Britton and Himmelsbach admitted to watching their brethren try to elicit information.  "I like to hear creative ways journalists try to get stuff out of him", said Himmelsbach...

Learning the tools to work your way through the beat reporting minefield is certainly essential and important....But that first job, that first spot sets the tone for what kind of a reporter you eventually will be..."Everyone should cover high schools", said Himmelsbach, to which Kyed heartily agreed...Britton added, "It helps you develop relationships"...Imagine, as Himmelsbach drew from his memory bank, "You have to find players who cost his team the game and he's crying!  You have to talk to him by yourself"...We can't teach that particular skill at the seminar series...

It's not always fancy hotels and five star restaurants on the road or popcorn eating hours in the Fenway/Gillette/TD Garden press box...It's a grind...When people would ask me what it was like to work in Boston television sports I would remember red eye flights crossing the country in a seven game Celtics - Lakers series or working thirty straight days at the Atlanta Olympics from seven in the morning until one at night..."It sucked while it was happening but I wouldn't have missed it for the world" I would tell them...Kyed said it succinctly, "I'm only friends with my friends for six months of the year"...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly....

The truth is, you just never know what you're going to get when you interview an athlete...Whether it be in the locker room or from the podium, you always need to be on your toes...With all due respect to Dionne Warwick, making eye contact is never dull....

As a journalist, the way you get along  with the athletes you cover is the measure of your success... You never know what kind and just how much access you'll have when you cover a team and if you can't manage the relationship, you'll get beat on stories and never have their trust...

Sean Mcadam of ComcastSportsnet New England joined us at the Boston University sports journalism seminar series along with Boston Celtics players R.J. Hunter and Jordan Mickey as well as Providence Bruins forward Austin Czarnik and it was clear that they have spent time defining their brand(s)...

Between the three of them, Mickey, Czarnik and Hunter have only two and a half seasons of pro experience...They're still learning but saying the right things as they learn to deal with the New England Media....They've been through league media training and in Mickey's case, extensive training at L-S-U, a high profile collegiate program..."Put the team before yourself, says Mickey, never mention the "I".  Always praise your school, your coaches, whatever organization you're under at that time."...Austin is in his second year with the Baby B's and while the team doesn't have the tradition post game locker room access he's up front about agreeing with Mickey..."You throw out your linemates names, like "they're a huge part of my success, dishing it out" you're not just taking the credit."

But let's be clear, much of this can lead to pretty boring stuff, making your job, of entertaining as well as informing your audience even harder...Unless of, course your coach happens to be someone like John Tortarella....Having a media savvy person on the team you cover can be a godsend...Even in a negative way...Just ask Larry Brooks of the New York Post...

McAdam understands that all too well, having dealt with any number of players and coaches while covering the Boston Red Sox...Accepted almost universally as the hardest athletes to deal with, McAdam says it's complicated..."A lot of it depends on how the team is doing.  My experience is that , not surprisingly, the better the team is performing, the happier the athletes usually are and more likely to open up a bit."...And as a whole the landscape has changed, says McAdam, "Players are less accessible, everything is a little more managed now.  There's less opportunity to talk to athletes on a one on one basis."

And that doesn't even take into account player's own websites, sites like The Players' Tribune...We'll deal with that as the semester goes along...

It's a unique experience going into any locker room for the first time...Being star struck is very common but besides learning the proper etiquette young reporters may literally come face to face with uncomfortable experiences...Hunter said, "You might walk in and see like 4 or 5 naked people so you kind of have to brace for that but other than that it's (the Celtics locker room) pretty relaxing...Indeed...

Hunter gave us one of 2015's memorable media moments...Not only did his three pointer beat Baylor last year in the first round of the N-C-A-A tournament but it set up a dramatic podium post game speech by his coach and father Ron Hunter...  If you were lucky enough to be covering that game, he pretty much did your job for you...And that not often the case...

Go slowly, tread lightly, learn the rules and remember, they are people too, talented athletically yes, but they were once rookies too...

"You don't really need us"...Us, according to Kevin Gregg of the Boston Red Sox,  happens to be the media relations people associated with any sports team...It says here nothing could be further from the truth...But while twitter and other social media sites have opened access to athletes, the P.R. types are still your best source of contact with the players...

For students who've never been in that locker room setting Gregg and Eric Tosi of the Boston Bruins had valuable advice at the just recent Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar...."If you've been given the opportunity to cover a team, you have a lot of talent, said Tosi, also the Executive Producer of the Bruins television show "Behind the B"... That's pretty high praise at any point in your career...

Media Relations types were, for a very long time, the sole source of team and player information...What these very same teams found out was that they could "break" the news themselves without first dishing it to the local media outlets...It started with faxes but as much as that spread the news, the teams didn't have direct access to the fans....Enter the website, enter Twitter...And make no mistake, it had an affect on the local stations (radio and t-v) who found themselves being scooped..."What you're seeing now is that more teams are controlling their own news and they are becoming their own news outlet", said Tosi...Maybe that opening line should be reversed, at least as far as disseminating information goes, "We don't really need YOU!".....

But of course they do...Teams still need to get the story out ...They rely on the people who cover the team to keep them in the public's attention....

At some point in every sports journalist's career there comes the point where you're want to cover a game, a game perhaps outside our regular beat...And you'll need the access to do it... Gaining that access means calling the "keepers of the gate"...As you might imagine, Gregg gets many calls to cover the Olde Town team and it's not always possible for him to say yes, especially for people he's never met, "I would do some research on my own to see what they have written, check any references that are available.  I would be protective of the clubhouse (however).  I may arrange for something away from the clubhouse, you want to avoid people being in there who are unfamiliar so the players are uncomfortable.  And, oh yes, no pictures with the players!"...

Tosi and Gregg can be your best friends, your worst nightmares..."Be approachable, if you build a relationship based on trust with these guys, that's the main way to succeed", advised Gregg...Tosi added, "You don't want it ever to be adversarial.  There are going to be times when we tell you no.  But that's just the reality of it"...

We spent a lot of time this semester introducing you to issues and situations you've perhaps never experienced, never thought of...hopefully your "media relation-ship" is a good one....

The best part about teaching, I've come to find out, is learning new things myself...And I have my students to thank for that...I never knew what a "digital native" was until last week...Don't get me started on "foodporn!"...Who coined that one?...My computer doesn't even recognize it as a word!...But luckily I can still teach a few things every now and then that these very same students will be able to use as they enter the workforce as first time sports journalists....  (When that's not the case, you'll find me elsewhere)...

It's spring and another class is getting ready to graduate...And they're scared...Four years has gone by way too quickly and the reality is here...I need a job...Well, you're in luck...Because sports jobs are there for the taking and anyone who tells you otherwise simply doesn't understand the landscape...Maybe not in Boston and New York and Los Angeles but as we've hammered away, Jackson, MS and Tyler, TX are the price you have to be willing to pay...

News Director Mike Redding of WCSH TV in Portland, Maine put it this way, "Sports will always have a rabid fan base, always.  The sports industry will always exist so there will be jobs for you.  You're in a really good field that will always exist."...  What more do you want to hear?...ESPN isn't coming to Elkhart, Indiana to cover sports...But WSVJ TV is and that won't ever change...You might be a "one man/woman band" but those jobs will always exist...

And if that doesn't convince you, listen to Boston Herald Editor Sean Leahy wax poetic about your readiness..."Most editors will glance at it (video) and not really absorb it but they'll say he/she does video.  So yeah, I want to see that.  I want to see multimedia skills.  I want to see(hear) you're good on the radio,  good on TV.  We need people who can do more things and do them well."  Talented people will always find a place...

Which bring us to the issue of appearance...Television is notorious for hiring only good looking, spray tanned, coiffed, constantly smiling Barbies and Kens...Maybe, not so much anymore however, says Redding.  "I want people to be critical thinkers.  I don't need beauty queens or movie stars.  You don't want people to get lost in what you look like because they're not listening to what you are telling them.   We're supposed to look like regular humans and comb our hair and know how to put on TV makeup sure.  Sports is the the place that best accomplishes that.  Sports reporters in every television station are the best (on) camera people we have.  News people are boring and stale and formulaic.  And you just want to stab them in the eyeball!"

Reading that ought to get you "pumped and jacked"... Bit do yourselves a favor, don't go calling a pass play on second and goal from the one!,,,You can do this, you're ready!