“I’m a man…I’m 40!”
If you’re a sports fan, you’ve heard that one over and over. You probably have heard it even if you’re just a casual observer.
It’s Mike Gundy’s famous 2007 diatribe at Daily Oklahoman writer Jenni Carlson, after her article about Oklahoma State’s quarterback switch from Bobby Reid to Zac Robinson.
As a reporter, the thought of being verbally attacked by a coach is admittedly a scary one. The reporter’s job is to dig deep and pull out quotes that are not of the flowery, press release variety. But this too may be stuff the coach does not want dug up and printed in the newspaper.
It is not the reporter’s job to appease the coaching staff. But it is also not the reporter’s job to demean an amateur athlete. In the case of Jenni Carlson, Gundy had all the right to stand up and defend his player.
In her article, Carlson crosses the fine line between commenting on the athlete’s on the field play and off the field demeanor. The crux of Carlson’s piece focuses on Reid’s mother feeding him chicken. She tries to explain her argument of the connection between Reid being fed by his mother and the quarterback switch at Oklahoma State. Seems problematic, right?
She uses one quote about Reid’s pre-game nerves to justify her statement that Reid has the talent but not the toughness. Boundless accusations are made about Reid based on body language and unnamed “insiders.” Carlson comes off more like a psychoanalyst than a reporter.
And she goes way over the line in doing so. I do not have a problem with reporters judging college athletes for their play. They have put themselves into the limelight and although they are young, have become public figures. The problem I have with Carlson’s piece is that she criticizes Reid as a person. Carlson writes, “The scene in the parking lot last week had no bearing on the Cowboys changing quarterbacks, and yet, it said so much about Reid. A 21-yeard old letting his mother feed him in public? Most college kids, much less college football player, would just as soon be seen running naked across campus.”
This paragraph is unbelievable to me in two facets. One: When taking a statistics class, one of the first things you learn is that correlation does not equal causation. To even make a correlation between Reid’s being fed by his mother and play on the field is a reach. To imply that there is causation is borderline ridiculous.
Two: this is wholly personal and to me inappropriate. Why is it Carlson’s place to not only judge but put down Reid based on a family relationship and then say that he is not “tough” because of it?
Gundy’s outburst: over-the-top but still worthy.
A more recent coaching outburst (with less vitriol) comes from uber-successful Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer. In Jeremy Fowler’s notebook piece on Deonte Thompson, he says Thompson has not lived up to potential but is looking to do so in his third year. The source of controversy here is Thompson’s quote about playing with John Brantley rather than Tim Tebow.
In this case, I believe the outburst has more to do with Meyer’s feelings toward Tebow than Fowler’s article. Fowler simply quotes Thompson as saying Brantley is a real quarterback and explaining the differences between him and Tebow. Unlike the Carlson incident, Fowler is not personally attacking Tebow. He is simply quoting Thompson.
From all we know, Tebow and Meyer had a very close relationship at UF. It seems as if Meyer is still going to bat for his player but is doing so unnecessarily. Tebow is not even with the Gators anymore and Fowler does nothing to put down Tebow. He uses statistics to explain how Tebow did not spread the ball around, as a lead-in to Thompson’s and WRs coach Zach Azzanni’s quotes.
Meyer’s outburst: unworthy.
But a bigger question with these outbursts is...how do you handle them if you are the reporter at the center? In some cases (Carlson’s) it is a matter of accountability; in others (Fowler’s) it’s that of oversensitivity. Though I have not had to deal with this, I think it is important for reporters to not fall prey to the fear factor of a coach. It seems that a lot of college coaches want to control every aspect of their program and would like reporters to act as a mouthpiece for their regime.
But the reporter covering a team is there to find interesting angles. I think the best way to handle these situations is to keep yourself out of them and be careful what you write. The outbursts for good TV but to be the reporter in the middle of the controversy could be nightmarish.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Gamer 1: Moulton picks up first win in Bobcats' third straight
Didn't post this right after the game but here's my wrap of last Saturday's (April 10) Ohio/Western Michigan baseball battle.
It took more than two years but Jason ‘Boomer’ Moulton is back in the win column.
In his first victory since April 6, 2008, Moulton pitched six strong innings to lead Ohio (6-22 overall, 3-5 MAC) to a 15-3 victory over the Western Michigan Broncos (5-23 overall, 1-7 MAC).
The large gap between wins can be attributed to Moulton redshirting in 2009 while recovering from offseason elbow surgery. Working through the injury continues to be an ongoing process.
“Not exactly knowing how it’s going to feel everyday is kind of a tease on your brain. It’s kind of like a rollercoaster. Some days it feels good and other days it doesn’t feel great at all,” Moulton said.
Saturday was one of the good days. Still rehabbing the injured elbow, Moulton gave up just three hits and one run, while striking out four in his third start of the season. Even more important for head coach Joe Carbone was Moulton’s game management while on a pitch count.
“He’s throwing free and easy with good stuff. He gave us a real shot in the arm by the 70 pitches, which was going to be his limit. I thought he did a great job on that, limiting himself to about 10 pitches an inning,” Carbone said.
And for Moulton it’s all about getting comfortable and finding a groove.
“It felt great to be back out on the mound. I think it was just attacking the zone. I just went in there and threw strikes and they got themselves out a lot,” Moulton said.
Moulton’s strong pitching performance was not the only impressive part of the day. After scoring 25 runs in Friday night’s win over the Broncos, the Bobcats again provided an offensive onslaught.
Through the first three innings, Western Michigan pitcher Eric Heckaman allowed just two hits. In the 4th, he had trouble recording just two outs. Robert Maddox III led off the inning with a double that kicked up the warning track dirt in the right/center-field gap. That kicked off a tear of four consecutive hits, before Zach Keen flew out to finally record the inning’s first out.
It looked as if Heckaman might finally be out of trouble in the inning when Seth Streich sailed the ball into left field with two outs. However, Western Michigan leftfielder Jamie Simpson misjudged the ball and it went over his head, falling in front of the wall. Jerod Yakubik scored on the play but more importantly it meant the continuance of Ohio’s inning.
The Bobcats capitalized on that opportunity. Maddox III popped a two-run shot over the left field wall, ending Heckaman’s day. Then two batters later, Adam Gecewich hit another two-run home run, this time off of Casey Hall. Tyler Backstrom’s groundout ended the scoring but 13 batters and 10 runs later, the scoreboard had gone from 1-0 to 11-0 Ohio.
The long inning gave Moulton plenty of run support but also a challenge.
“I was a little worried about my elbow after that, sitting that long, and I went down to the bullpen and threw to keep it loose,” Moulton said.
Western Michigan head coach Randy Ford called the bottom of the 4th “the turning point.”
“We catch a few fly balls, it probably cuts the inning off. But you gotta keep the ball out of the center of the plate. When you give up that many runs, it’s a real struggle to come back from that kind of deficit and the way we’ve been playing, it has not been a good brand of baseball,” Ford said.
Ohio’s hitting attack was led by Yakubik, who finished 3 for 5 with 5 RBI. Streich scored Ohio’s 15th and final run with an 8th inning home run to cap his afternoon with 3 RBI. The Bobcats tallied six doubles, three off the bat of Yakubik, and 16 hits for the day. All of this was done without the team’s leading hitter, Gauntlett Eldemire, whom Coach Carbone says is “day-to-day.”
The win marks Ohio’s third in a row, a streak that has been fueled by potent offense, with a .452 team average in the three victories. While the wins feel good, Coach Carbone is keeping it in perspective.
“It’s exciting and all that but you get to the next game and somebody’s blowing you away and momentum stops in a hurry. But hopefully the players see that their abilities are good and that what they do is good enough to win. That’s the big thing; not so much the momentum but the confidence they get in what they’re doing,” Carbone said.
It took more than two years but Jason ‘Boomer’ Moulton is back in the win column.In his first victory since April 6, 2008, Moulton pitched six strong innings to lead Ohio (6-22 overall, 3-5 MAC) to a 15-3 victory over the Western Michigan Broncos (5-23 overall, 1-7 MAC).
The large gap between wins can be attributed to Moulton redshirting in 2009 while recovering from offseason elbow surgery. Working through the injury continues to be an ongoing process.
“Not exactly knowing how it’s going to feel everyday is kind of a tease on your brain. It’s kind of like a rollercoaster. Some days it feels good and other days it doesn’t feel great at all,” Moulton said.
Saturday was one of the good days. Still rehabbing the injured elbow, Moulton gave up just three hits and one run, while striking out four in his third start of the season. Even more important for head coach Joe Carbone was Moulton’s game management while on a pitch count.
“He’s throwing free and easy with good stuff. He gave us a real shot in the arm by the 70 pitches, which was going to be his limit. I thought he did a great job on that, limiting himself to about 10 pitches an inning,” Carbone said.
And for Moulton it’s all about getting comfortable and finding a groove.
“It felt great to be back out on the mound. I think it was just attacking the zone. I just went in there and threw strikes and they got themselves out a lot,” Moulton said.
Moulton’s strong pitching performance was not the only impressive part of the day. After scoring 25 runs in Friday night’s win over the Broncos, the Bobcats again provided an offensive onslaught.
Through the first three innings, Western Michigan pitcher Eric Heckaman allowed just two hits. In the 4th, he had trouble recording just two outs. Robert Maddox III led off the inning with a double that kicked up the warning track dirt in the right/center-field gap. That kicked off a tear of four consecutive hits, before Zach Keen flew out to finally record the inning’s first out.
It looked as if Heckaman might finally be out of trouble in the inning when Seth Streich sailed the ball into left field with two outs. However, Western Michigan leftfielder Jamie Simpson misjudged the ball and it went over his head, falling in front of the wall. Jerod Yakubik scored on the play but more importantly it meant the continuance of Ohio’s inning.
The Bobcats capitalized on that opportunity. Maddox III popped a two-run shot over the left field wall, ending Heckaman’s day. Then two batters later, Adam Gecewich hit another two-run home run, this time off of Casey Hall. Tyler Backstrom’s groundout ended the scoring but 13 batters and 10 runs later, the scoreboard had gone from 1-0 to 11-0 Ohio.
The long inning gave Moulton plenty of run support but also a challenge.
“I was a little worried about my elbow after that, sitting that long, and I went down to the bullpen and threw to keep it loose,” Moulton said.
Western Michigan head coach Randy Ford called the bottom of the 4th “the turning point.”
“We catch a few fly balls, it probably cuts the inning off. But you gotta keep the ball out of the center of the plate. When you give up that many runs, it’s a real struggle to come back from that kind of deficit and the way we’ve been playing, it has not been a good brand of baseball,” Ford said.
Ohio’s hitting attack was led by Yakubik, who finished 3 for 5 with 5 RBI. Streich scored Ohio’s 15th and final run with an 8th inning home run to cap his afternoon with 3 RBI. The Bobcats tallied six doubles, three off the bat of Yakubik, and 16 hits for the day. All of this was done without the team’s leading hitter, Gauntlett Eldemire, whom Coach Carbone says is “day-to-day.”
The win marks Ohio’s third in a row, a streak that has been fueled by potent offense, with a .452 team average in the three victories. While the wins feel good, Coach Carbone is keeping it in perspective.
“It’s exciting and all that but you get to the next game and somebody’s blowing you away and momentum stops in a hurry. But hopefully the players see that their abilities are good and that what they do is good enough to win. That’s the big thing; not so much the momentum but the confidence they get in what they’re doing,” Carbone said.
J470: The Good and Bad of Gamers
While “gamers” may not appear to have the pizzazz of features or columns, they are one of the fundamental elements of sports journalism. At its core, sport revolves around the games that occur on football fields, basketball courts and baseball diamonds around the world. While game recaps may seem like boring, grunt work, when done well, they can tell not just about the details of a game but the story that is encapsulated within each game’s action.
There is a lot that can be learned on how to write a good game story from the article ‘A Plea for a Fading Form…’ by Daniel Kindred. The most significant tips I take away are that ones he includes from Jeff D’Alessio, editor-in-chief of Sporting News Magazine and Sporting News Today. D’Alessio gives five ways to separate a bland gamer from an interesting one. A big key I agree with is his first description of good game stories, that they “treat the season as if it were a novel, each game a chapter.” It is important to find the story within each game rather than just recite facts. Capturing the drama of the game through words paints a picture of it for readers who were not there.
Another description according to D’Alessio is “do single-topic ideas, more sidebars than traditional gamers.” In a sport like baseball, the grind of a full season of 162 traditional gamers would most likely get monotonous for both the beat writer and readers. However, finding the player who the game turned on or a sequence of events or some attention-grabbing storyline can break that monotony.
I agree that objectivity, analysis and details that an outsider could not get are also pieces that make up a strong gamer. In the examples of good gamers, these elements are all present. I think one of the most significant parts of the gamer (as well as most written stories) is the lead. This can immediately turn off a reader or make them want to read more. I think Molly’s UW Volleyball lead, “A record home crowd. Near-perfect serving. An answer for seemingly everything,” is a good one in that it is simple yet sets the scene of the game’s atmosphere and for what is to come in the article. She incorporates Courtney Thompson’s feelings about the record crowd. Then she explains the serving success and Washington answers. It is well done in that Molly uses setup sentences and then lets the players fill in the emotions and details.
There are also bad tactics to take note of which I will not employ in gamers. In Paul Zeise’s recap of West Virginia’s defeat of Kentucky, he uses absolutely no quotes. There is barely any information you could not have gained from reading a box score or watching the game on television. This does nothing to tell you the game’s story. The lead about the country roads is corny and cliché. Within the story are pieces that would have been better themes for the article, such as the three-point shooting discrepancy or West Virginia’s return to the Final Four for the first time in 51 years. The NCAA Tournament is all about emotion but this gamer does nothing to convey that emotion and almost sucks out it out of the game.
The high school article exhibits some of these same problems. Most noticeable is the cliché-laden lead. “At the brink of elimination,” “pulled it all together,” and a “push over the edge” are all sport clichés synthesized into a lead. The quotes from Coach Pepple are generic and do not give you much insight into the game.
From reading these articles, I will try to incorporate into my gamers the good elements of finding a hook and using that to tell the story of the game, as well as utilizing quotes that give the outsider an inside perspective. I will also try to avoid clichés and gamers overly full of straight play-by-play.
Articles discussed:
UW one win shy of third straight Final Four trip
West Virginia beats top-seeded Kentucky 73-66
M.I. heads to districts
There is a lot that can be learned on how to write a good game story from the article ‘A Plea for a Fading Form…’ by Daniel Kindred. The most significant tips I take away are that ones he includes from Jeff D’Alessio, editor-in-chief of Sporting News Magazine and Sporting News Today. D’Alessio gives five ways to separate a bland gamer from an interesting one. A big key I agree with is his first description of good game stories, that they “treat the season as if it were a novel, each game a chapter.” It is important to find the story within each game rather than just recite facts. Capturing the drama of the game through words paints a picture of it for readers who were not there.
Another description according to D’Alessio is “do single-topic ideas, more sidebars than traditional gamers.” In a sport like baseball, the grind of a full season of 162 traditional gamers would most likely get monotonous for both the beat writer and readers. However, finding the player who the game turned on or a sequence of events or some attention-grabbing storyline can break that monotony.
I agree that objectivity, analysis and details that an outsider could not get are also pieces that make up a strong gamer. In the examples of good gamers, these elements are all present. I think one of the most significant parts of the gamer (as well as most written stories) is the lead. This can immediately turn off a reader or make them want to read more. I think Molly’s UW Volleyball lead, “A record home crowd. Near-perfect serving. An answer for seemingly everything,” is a good one in that it is simple yet sets the scene of the game’s atmosphere and for what is to come in the article. She incorporates Courtney Thompson’s feelings about the record crowd. Then she explains the serving success and Washington answers. It is well done in that Molly uses setup sentences and then lets the players fill in the emotions and details.
There are also bad tactics to take note of which I will not employ in gamers. In Paul Zeise’s recap of West Virginia’s defeat of Kentucky, he uses absolutely no quotes. There is barely any information you could not have gained from reading a box score or watching the game on television. This does nothing to tell you the game’s story. The lead about the country roads is corny and cliché. Within the story are pieces that would have been better themes for the article, such as the three-point shooting discrepancy or West Virginia’s return to the Final Four for the first time in 51 years. The NCAA Tournament is all about emotion but this gamer does nothing to convey that emotion and almost sucks out it out of the game.
The high school article exhibits some of these same problems. Most noticeable is the cliché-laden lead. “At the brink of elimination,” “pulled it all together,” and a “push over the edge” are all sport clichés synthesized into a lead. The quotes from Coach Pepple are generic and do not give you much insight into the game.
From reading these articles, I will try to incorporate into my gamers the good elements of finding a hook and using that to tell the story of the game, as well as utilizing quotes that give the outsider an inside perspective. I will also try to avoid clichés and gamers overly full of straight play-by-play.
Articles discussed:
UW one win shy of third straight Final Four trip
West Virginia beats top-seeded Kentucky 73-66
M.I. heads to districts
J470: Beat Writer Breakdown- Erik Boland
One of my favorite beat writers is Erik Boland, who writes for Newsday, a Long Island newspaper. This is the newspaper for which we have always had a subscription at home, so I would be reading the work of the New York sports teams’ beat writers on a daily basis. Boland has worked at Newsday since 2002, first covering high school sports, such as girls soccer, basketball and lacrosse. Now, in 2010, Boland covers the New York Yankees. This shows the progression that can occur in the sports writing business. You have to pay your dues at the beginning, but Boland’s career trajectory shows that it is possible to go from high school stadiums to Yankee Stadium in less than a decade.
I originally started reading Boland when he took over Newsday’s New York Jets beat from Tom Rock for the 2008-9 season. As a big Jets fan, I am always eager for Jets news or features and look for links to different Jets-related content on message boards and forums. This leaves me reading a bunch of Jets beat writers from the New York tri-state area newspapers.
There were some I thought did okay but the one I continually enjoyed was Boland. He mixed objectivity with humor. While he obviously took his job seriously, it was also apparent that he didn’t take it too seriously, which I think is important. Boland showed this when at Super Bowl XLIII Media Day he posted in his blog that he did a brief Q&A with Aztec TV reporter and former Miss Spain Ines Sainz because “well, she’s kind of hot.” There are many examples of him reporting Jets news and writing good stories, however, little funny injections like that made Boland really fun to read. He portrayed an attitude of really enjoying the job, unlike another Jets beat writer, The New York Daily News’ Rich Cimini, who I feel crosses the line from realism to negativity and also writes speculation as if it is fact.
Boland is a really good writer and not only covers the nuts and bolts well but also is good at finding different story angles. A recent example of this is an article entitled ‘Yankees’ Granderson feels linked to Tigers’ Damon.’ Boland took a spring training game between the Yankees and Tigers and found the hook, the connection between the two players who were not traded for each other but were essentially swapped between the two teams.
Rather than just doing a typical story on how Damon feels about playing against his old team, Boland hooks you in with the Granderson arc and quotes from Granderson about the differences between him and Damon. He then incorporates quotes from Damon regarding how he feels about no longer being a Yankee. As a reader, this technique definitely drew me into the article, as the connection between incoming and outgoing Yankees is an interesting hook.
Another more subtle but also important asset that Boland has comes in the ‘Notes and Quotes’ section at the end of this article. I think a good beat writer has to be able to choose the right quotes for an article. Boland does this by writing in the notes and quotes sections, “Two others involved in the Granderson deal, LHP Phil Coke and OF Austin Jackson, played. ‘I was very upset," Coke said of the trade. "I mean, it's a funny thing. You get brought up with a specific team, you spend your whole career there, and you feel like you got kicked to the curb.’" This supplementary material really adds to the article because it gets the smaller-name perspective, ties into the Granderson/Damon story and is a strong quote.
As both a Jets and Yankees fan, I have read a lot of Erik Boland’s work over the past couple of seasons. Though I was disappointed to see him leave the Jets beat, I was glad that he picked up another of my favorite teams’ beats. The beat writer is a fundamental piece of sports journalism. He/she is the person closest to the team and as a fan of a team, and outsider, a strong beat writer, like Boland, is a real asset.
J470 Reaction: Balancing Sports Coverage
This quarter, I'm taking J470, Sports Writing, a class offered here in Scripps. It is taught by Molly Yanity, who covered the University of Washington football beat for four seasons and worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 2001-2009. We're learning a lot about covering sports from Molly's professional experience and what's better than a class devoted to sports and writing, two of my favorite things. Through the next couple of months, I'll be posting here reaction papers written for the class as well as field work I complete. Enjoy! Here is my first reaction paper:
Though the panel discussion from this reading is from 1997, much of the same issues are still prevalent more than a decade later in 2010. No longer are newspapers just facing television coverage but a greater and ever-expanding outlet in Internet sports media. The industry professionals in this reading have some interesting insights and opinions into the balance of covering issues in sports.
I think John Walsh of ESPN brings up a few good observations. The first is simplicity. I think it is something that we forget all too often trying to come up with the next great innovation or ground-breaking story. Yes, we should be striving to uncover interesting stories and break new ground but getting too caught up in that can lead to an over-immersion and forgetting of the fundamentals. Sometimes the best stories can be the most simple, a feature on an athlete or team’s unique set of circumstances or struggles.
However, Walsh also follows that by saying that the second thing to think about is curiosity. I think we must be able to find a balance between simplicity and curiosity in our coverage. As a sports fan, I am always constantly curious of why certain things happen, why an offensive coordinator calls a certain play, why a coach starts a certain player over or another or off the playing field, why an athlete acts the way they do. As a sports journalist, and a journalist in general, I feel it is part of my responsibility to “ask the right questions,” as Walsh says. If we do our job well, we can be a real asset as an intermediary between athletes and coaches and the fans.
The discussion further branches out into how we cover these athletes and if we as journalists are indeed asking tough enough questions. Some of the journalists talk about how we have to find a way to probe athletes more, which I do agree with, as they are public figures. However, I think Jason Whitlock makes a good point. He says “I think in order to get these types of stories, you’re going to have to get these guys outside these controlled locker room environments.” I definitely agree with this. Inside an athlete’s comfort zone or with team media relations people around them, it is going to be very difficult for a reporter to dig deep.
The balance between game coverage and off-the-field stories is another interesting relationship at play. As a huge sports fan, I am most invested in the action that is occurring on the playing surfaces. However, as a journalist, I know there is a lot more to it and that sports fans are not one-dimensional. There are the diehards but there are also casual ones who are drawn in by human-interest pieces on athletes. There is also crossover as a diehard can definitely appreciate a really well-done piece that delves into an issue in sports.
However, sometimes it feels that sports coverage becomes more about pre-packaged, network agenda-driven stories. We incessantly hear about indiscretion, scandal and strife among athletes. Then whatever actual sports content we do get goes through the network media filter. As in, ever since the NHL has been on Versus, not ESPN, and NASCAR coverage has been on ESPN, there has seemed to be less hockey highlights and more NASCAR on SportsCenter. It can sometimes be hard to sift through the excess to find a well-done story or some actual sound game analysis. This balance in content is a difficult conundrum and one that definitely persists now.
Though the panel discussion from this reading is from 1997, much of the same issues are still prevalent more than a decade later in 2010. No longer are newspapers just facing television coverage but a greater and ever-expanding outlet in Internet sports media. The industry professionals in this reading have some interesting insights and opinions into the balance of covering issues in sports.
I think John Walsh of ESPN brings up a few good observations. The first is simplicity. I think it is something that we forget all too often trying to come up with the next great innovation or ground-breaking story. Yes, we should be striving to uncover interesting stories and break new ground but getting too caught up in that can lead to an over-immersion and forgetting of the fundamentals. Sometimes the best stories can be the most simple, a feature on an athlete or team’s unique set of circumstances or struggles.
However, Walsh also follows that by saying that the second thing to think about is curiosity. I think we must be able to find a balance between simplicity and curiosity in our coverage. As a sports fan, I am always constantly curious of why certain things happen, why an offensive coordinator calls a certain play, why a coach starts a certain player over or another or off the playing field, why an athlete acts the way they do. As a sports journalist, and a journalist in general, I feel it is part of my responsibility to “ask the right questions,” as Walsh says. If we do our job well, we can be a real asset as an intermediary between athletes and coaches and the fans.
The discussion further branches out into how we cover these athletes and if we as journalists are indeed asking tough enough questions. Some of the journalists talk about how we have to find a way to probe athletes more, which I do agree with, as they are public figures. However, I think Jason Whitlock makes a good point. He says “I think in order to get these types of stories, you’re going to have to get these guys outside these controlled locker room environments.” I definitely agree with this. Inside an athlete’s comfort zone or with team media relations people around them, it is going to be very difficult for a reporter to dig deep.
The balance between game coverage and off-the-field stories is another interesting relationship at play. As a huge sports fan, I am most invested in the action that is occurring on the playing surfaces. However, as a journalist, I know there is a lot more to it and that sports fans are not one-dimensional. There are the diehards but there are also casual ones who are drawn in by human-interest pieces on athletes. There is also crossover as a diehard can definitely appreciate a really well-done piece that delves into an issue in sports.
However, sometimes it feels that sports coverage becomes more about pre-packaged, network agenda-driven stories. We incessantly hear about indiscretion, scandal and strife among athletes. Then whatever actual sports content we do get goes through the network media filter. As in, ever since the NHL has been on Versus, not ESPN, and NASCAR coverage has been on ESPN, there has seemed to be less hockey highlights and more NASCAR on SportsCenter. It can sometimes be hard to sift through the excess to find a well-done story or some actual sound game analysis. This balance in content is a difficult conundrum and one that definitely persists now.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Hayward's Halfcourt Heave
One bounce.
A softer bounce off the backboard and it’s the greatest shot in college basketball history. And that's not even hyperbole.
Gordon Hayward heaving up a three at the buzzer for the title. The Hoosier coming up just short.
A desperation heave that bounced the wrong way for Butler and the right way for Duke.
Hayward that close to being the night’s hero, from taking the big dog Blue Devils down with one amazing shot.
It was the shot you will remember from this game. The one that finished this year’s ‘One Shining Moment.’
But in all its infinitely close glory, it’s just that...close. Butler deserves all the credit in the world for proving a lot of people wrong throughout this tournament. But this is one of those games that goes on the ’Empty Feeling That Sits in Your Stomach For 15 Minutes After the Game’ list.
A recent example: Canada/USA Gold Medal game after Crosby’s game-winner in overtime. It’s when you just sit in front of your TV for a while speechless, thinking how one split second decided the entire outcome.
That was the feeling tonight. Rooting for the underdog for two plus hours, becoming invested. Seeing them have a chance at the end, not once but twice.
It would have been like Boise State’s hook and ladder coming up a few yards short, or the Statue of Liberty in overtime getting stuffed. The non-BCS school that not only played its heart out and gave a good fight but was in contention. They just didn’t get the one or two breaks.
But don’t get me wrong; while Butler didn’t have the One Shining Moment, its program certainly had its shining moment tonight and throughout these three weeks. This championship game will be remembered for the performance of Kyle Singler and Brian Zoubek’s key rebounds. But the indelible image will be Hayward’s heave at the buzzer.
The shot I keep watching over and over again. I’m not even a Butler fan. I just can’t help thinking about how close that was. A half court shot for a championship that bounced just a little too far for Butler.
One bounce. March Madness at its finest.
Monday, April 5, 2010
A Monday of Transition
Today was the first real day of Spring.
It’s the first Monday after April Fools and there’s no fooling around with the excitement that this day brings.
You can see it with the flurry of sports apparel around campus. Indians jerseys, Reds shirts, Cubs and Yankees hats. I even saw an old-school Diamondbacks hat. The college basketball fans getting their last wears of the season out of Duke jerseys. No Butler jerseys around the green but those are not quite readily worn...yet.
This Spring Monday represents another one of those seasonal sports transitions. And it so seamlessly moves from the fast-paced, frenetic action of college basketball to the plodding, outdoor action of baseball.
And they both have fun stories worth following. Baseball marks a new beginning. One where the Pirates are 1-0 and the Yankees are 0-1, where the standard order is flipped upside down if only for a day.
In basketball, there's the great underdog, the smallest school to reach the National Championship game since tournament expansion dueling with the perennial powerhouse. The 33-year old first-time coach against the legend.
Tonight will be culminated with ‘One Shining Moment’ for basketball, while moments of day one optimism paint the baseball landscape. Just one team will be left standing on the hardwood. All 30 still have a chance at the end of the day on the diamond.
80 degree weather, sun shining, baseball hats and jerseys all around. You know that means it’s a good time of year. The basketball beast of March Madness ushers in the summer pastime. Let’s hope this transition has some oomph.
It’s the first Monday after April Fools and there’s no fooling around with the excitement that this day brings.
You can see it with the flurry of sports apparel around campus. Indians jerseys, Reds shirts, Cubs and Yankees hats. I even saw an old-school Diamondbacks hat. The college basketball fans getting their last wears of the season out of Duke jerseys. No Butler jerseys around the green but those are not quite readily worn...yet.
This Spring Monday represents another one of those seasonal sports transitions. And it so seamlessly moves from the fast-paced, frenetic action of college basketball to the plodding, outdoor action of baseball.
And they both have fun stories worth following. Baseball marks a new beginning. One where the Pirates are 1-0 and the Yankees are 0-1, where the standard order is flipped upside down if only for a day.
In basketball, there's the great underdog, the smallest school to reach the National Championship game since tournament expansion dueling with the perennial powerhouse. The 33-year old first-time coach against the legend.
Tonight will be culminated with ‘One Shining Moment’ for basketball, while moments of day one optimism paint the baseball landscape. Just one team will be left standing on the hardwood. All 30 still have a chance at the end of the day on the diamond.
80 degree weather, sun shining, baseball hats and jerseys all around. You know that means it’s a good time of year. The basketball beast of March Madness ushers in the summer pastime. Let’s hope this transition has some oomph.
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