Monthly Archives: August 2007
On Press Row- Connecticut Sun
Women’s sports deserve more press coverage than it gets. Really. The level of competition of women’s athletics is at a level comparable with men. So why do they get less media attention? I would think ESPN would be all over creating ESPN-W.
I gained added respect for women’s athletics by attending a game recently from the press area at Mohegan Sun Arena, home of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun.
Press inquiries for the Sun are handled by Media Relations Manager Bill Tavares. He gets help from Publicist Jennifer Hildebrad and three to four part-time employees who work on game days. Tavares and his staff were more than cooperative in granting me access to the team.
The game I attended took place on August 5th as the Sun battled the Indiana Fever. This late season game was significant, as both teams were jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference playoff chase. The teams were destined to meet in the first round of the playoffs with the one with the better record in line for home court advantage. (Note: At season’s end Indiana secured the second spot in the East and held home court advantage over the Sun in the opening round.)
The Mohegan Sun Arena is a perfect venue for basketball. It’s a medium sized arena with a seating capacity of around 10,000. Like new areas of its ilk, there’s not a bad seat in the house.
The media center at the arena is a bit off the beaten path. To access it, you need to make your way near the locker rooms, through the cafeteria to a room tucked behind it. The room itself is not that large. It consists of table space along two walls where reporters can power-up their laptops and gain access to high-speed Internet connections. About 10 to 12 reporters can fit comfortably within this space. Even though there is wireless Internet at the press tables near the court, surprisingly the press room is not within range, thus the need for the Cat 5 connections.
The media center is also where the press can access all the material about the game and the two teams. Pre-game materials include team notes, league information and statistics, and a packet of local news clippings previewing that day’s game from newspapers that cover the Sun.
The Sun establishes three primary press areas for game day. There are two press tables located on each end line near the team benches. Each of these tables holds up to 10 spaces for print media and representatives from other WNBA teams on hand to scout the game. There is another press area just behind section 27, along the walkway that separates the lower bowl of the arena and the balcony. This section is reserved for electronic media. Each area is equipped with telephones and small LCD monitors which display in-game statistics directly from the scorers’ table.
Tavares says press coverage of the team varies from game to game. He says the team receives consistent coverage from local papers out of Hartford, Norwich, New London, Waterbury, Manchester, and Willimantic. There’s also a representative from the Associated Press at each game. More high profile games often means coverage from papers out of the Providence and Boston media markets. The Sun will also receive coverage from basketball-specific journals. The local papers and wire services will also often send photographers to shoot the game..
Sun games are broadcast locally on radio over WXLM-FM out of Stonington, CT. Many home games are also telecast on the local Fox or CW affiliate. This game was telecast on CW with Boston Celtics play-by-play man Mike Gorman handling the call along side former UConn and Sun star Rebecca Lobo.
I was amazed to see that not one member of the electronic press was on hand to cover the game. Hartford is a little less than an hour from the arena, and with the Sun the only professional sports team located in Connecticut, you would think that there would be consistent coverage of the team, especially at home. I guess because the game was televised there was no need to be on hand to gather highlights of the game for the late local newscast. I still found it puzzling.
The Sun pre-game buffet consisted of chicken and rice, lasagna, and pizza. There was also a well stocked fridge with soft drinks and water. A platter consisting of a variety of cookies served as our desert.
One thing I noticed as the game began was that even through there was ample room and the availability of wireless Internet access, just about all of the print media decided to leave their laptops in the media room during the first half. At the break they retired to the media room to work on their stories. At the beginning of the second half, most of the reporters did choose to work on their stories from press row.
The game turned out to be uneventful as the Sun opened up a huge halftime lead, trouncing the Fever 84-59. The Fever played the game without star forward Tamika Catchings and the rest of the team could not overcome the fast start by the Sun.
The game was a sellout, the Sun’s first of the year. As much as the team would have liked to attribute the big crowd to their stellar play, the fact of the matter is that most were there to also take in a post game performance by teen recording artists, the Jonas Brothers. (If you have a young girl who watches the Disney Channel, you can understand the attraction.)
Sun head coach Mike Thibault held his post-game press conference in a dedicated interview room located near the locker rooms. Like all professional teams, the Sun’s interview room is equipped with a dedicated backdrop with the team logo sponsored by, who else but, Mohegan Sun. There are also audio hook-ups for the electronic media. There were about a dozen reporters in the room to get the coach’s comments. Because of the blowout, there was not much for Thibault to say other than the obvious…that the win was a total team effort.
The locker rooms are available to the press for about 10 to 15 minutes after the game. Once the locker rooms closed, the press made its way back to the media room to finish their game stories. By that time the team had assembled a post-game packet, featuring complete and quarterly statistics and play-by-play. Tavares and his staff also compile game summaries and statistics for the league and team websites.
As part of the NBA, the WNBA runs its operation with the same professionalism as its male counterparts. Because of the male dominated nature of sports and sports media, it’s too bad that more people aren’t exposed to it.
Don’t Make Me Tell the Teacher
It’s been nearly three weeks since this post seeking your opinions on ESPN. Thanks to all of you who have responded.
I know there are many more of you who have opinions on the Worldwide Leader and ways to make it better. Let me know about them. Send your comments here. Please put “ESPN” in the subject line.
Your responses tell me one thing. Your lack of comments also tells me something.
Please help us with this constructive exercise. You don’t want detention do you?
SMJ Interview- Neil Best, Newsday
What’s it like to work in the sports media circus that is New York? Even better, what’s it like to write about those who cover sports in New York?
I was able to connect with Neil Best, sports media and business columnist for Newsday, Best has been on this beat for a couple of years, earning his stripes with over 2o years experience at the paper in covering high school sports, St. John’s Basketball, and serving as beat writer for the NY Giants.
Best joins a distinguished list of sports media columnists in New York. Richard Sandomir (NY Times), Phil Mushnick (NY Post), and Bob Raissman (NY Daily News) have been on the job for many an edition of thier newspapers. But as you will read in our interview, and through his column and his Watchdog blog, this relative “new kid” on the sports media beat rarely misses a step in his opinions and judgements of those he covers.
SMJ: Where did you grow up and how was sports a part of your upbringing? Who were your sports idols?
N.B.: I lived in Hillside, N.J., until I was 11, but spent my junior high school and high school years in East Northport, N.Y. So I’m basically a New York area guy, but it’s important for me to have spent my crucial teenage years on Long Island so I can have L.I. street cred with my readers, most of whom live there.
I’m not sure I had any sports “idols.” Tom Seaver I guess was the standard of sports greats for someone whose first sports memory was the doubleheader sweep of the Expos that put the Mets into first place for the first time in 1969. Other than him, I guess the 1969-70 Knicks.
SMJ: What do you remember about the sports media as a youngster? Did you follow any particular sports reporter, columnist or personality?
N.B.: What I remember is that when I was 10, 11, 12, 13, I basically could and did watch every single thing that was on. That obviously is a physical impossibility now. But because so little was on, each thing that was on seemed more important because everyone was watching it.
My newspaper heroes were everyone at Newsday. I think the main columnists in my youth were Bill Nack and Joe Gergen, with Steve Jacobson later replacing Nack. The fact I know all these guys now is kind of cool.
The most fascinating TV personality, of course, was Howard Cosell. He was so different from the normal, middle-American TV types, such as Curt Gowdy or Keith Jackson.
SMJ: What got you interested in pursuing journalism as a profession, and, specifically, sports journalism?
N.B.: I always was a better than average writer, and I always was a bigger than average sports fan. That, combined with my lack of any other marketable skills, drove me to this logical conclusion.
Until about 1986 I never intended to stick with this and applied for various p.r. type jobs even as I was working as a part-timer at Newsday and even after I had put in two years with The Anchorage Times, but I eventually threw in the towel and accepted my fate.
SMJ: Where did you study and where did you first work after college? How did these early experiences benefit you and develop your craft?
N.B.: I went to Cornell and worked at The Cornell Daily Sun. Then I worked as a part-timer taking high school scores at Newsday in the fall of 1982. Then I answered an ad in Editor and Publisher for a job at The Anchorage Times.
The late, great sports editor Dick Sandler advised I take the job the Times offered, even though I never had seen the place and been interviewed only via phone. What did I have to lose? I was 22 and single.
I took it and it was a great experience for two years. I can’t isolate any early experiences that helped develop me professionally. The process still is going on!
SMJ: You covered high school sports, St. John’s Basketball, and the NY Giants. How different were those three levels of coverage in terms of access to coaches and players, dealing with probably no team media departments (High School) to elaborate ones (St. John’s & Giants)?
N.B.: I thought covering high schools was by far the purist journalistic experience, especially in New York City, where there is less of a support structure for events than there is in the suburbs.
Basically, you were completely on your own for access, story ideas, stats and trying to get home alive from late-night games in rough neighborhoods. It was both challenging and freeing.
Is freeing a word?
Anyway, covering the NFL is a piece of cake in comparison: air-conditioned press boxes, free lunch, piles of stats.
On the other hand, in high school you stand on the sidelines and hear and see everything. At Giants Stadium we were so high we might as well have been in a blimp.
SMJ: You also spent time in Alaska. Was that a culture shock for you? Talk about that experience.
N.B.: Some of my friends there nicknamed me “Woody,” probably because they never had seen a Jewish guy from New York before and figured we all look alike. (That’s Woody as in Allen.)
It was a great place to pay your dues. I caught a salmon and cooked it for my mother when she visited. (I hadn’t fished before Alaska and haven’t since.) I went camping for two weeks in the Brooks Range. (Which for a non-camper is the equivalent of starting in centerfield for the Yankees after never playing baseball before.)
I dipped my toe in the Arctic Ocean off Point Barrow. (Actually my hand. It was too cold to take off my shoe.)
I covered the most important beat in town: University of Alaska at Anchorage hockey.
SMJ: How difficult or different was the transition from being a beat reporter to a columnist?
N.B.: The most difficult thing about being a columnist is coming up with ideas. Everything else about it is easier than being a beat writer.
The toughest thing about being a beat writer in New York is the constant fear of what the competition is doing. It’s a feeling most newspaper towns don’t have anymore. It’s mostly a healthy thing, but it also leads to some of our famous New York tabloid excesses.
SMJ: Did you have any previous experience in being a sports media/business reporter? How was that transition?
N.B.: No. The transition has been smooth. Generally speaking, access is much better than for athletes. There are all sorts of friendly, helpful p.r. people ready to help get people on the phone because it is their job to drum up publicity and generate ratings.
The Giants have one of the best p.r. staffs in sports, but theirs, like all major pro sports p.r. departments, mostly is about managing existing interest, not generating interest.
One thing I like about the beat is I usually am talking to people near my age (46) rather than pretending to have something in common with jocks young enough to be my sons.
SMJ: What topics do you cover in your columns?
N.B.: The easiest way to explain it to people is that my jurisdiction is everything that does not occur on the field.
Media, business, consumer advocacy. That sort of thing.
SMJ: What is it about your role as a sports media reporter do you enjoy? What do you least like about the job?
N.B.: The best thing is the freedom, both creatively and in terms of what topics I choose to cover. I also like the fact, as I mentioned above, that more so than in the past my subjects are people with whom I have stuff in common as a human.
The worst thing about my job is that I’m home too much and don’t travel anymore. I’ve gained 10 pounds sitting on my tush in the basement.
SMJ: How daunting is it to work, and cover, media news in the largest market in America?
N.B.: It’s daunting in the sense that New York is a tough town and there’s more competition on this beat here by far than in any other market and my stuff is read by all the movers and shakers in the media world, or at least I hope so.
The good part, though, is that there are an endless number of interesting stories to pursue every week of the year. All else being equal, I try to keep my stuff local, and this is a very big local.
SMJ: What do you read on a daily basis? Please include print and online material.
N.B.: Sandomir, Mushnick, Raissman, Futterman, Greenstein, Deitsch, Deadspin, The Big Lead, Awful Announcing, about 50 e-mails from p.r. people and others, reader comments on my e-mail, column and blog, various message boards, including sportsjournalists.com, mikefrancesa.com and bigblueinteractive.com, and . . . I have no idea how and when I get time to write my columns and blog items.
SMJ: Is it difficult at times being critical of an industry in which you also make a living? Is it difficult to write critical analysis of some of your New York colleagues? How cooperative are they? Are they any better or worse than the sports players/coaches you used to cover?
N.B.: It’s really weird and awkward to in some cases find myself interviewing and/or criticizing people I used to work with simply as fellow sports journalists. I don’t like it. But it is what it is.
In general people in sports media are much more accessible than athletes, but they also have much thinner skin.
I think it’s because athletes care less what journalists say and write about them; they assume we don’t know what we are talking about, never played the game, etc.
Media people are more inclined to think media critics’ opinions matter and/or that they are worth considering. Maybe so. I don’t know.
SMJ: How did Watchdog come about? What were your expectations?
N.B.: I volunteered to do the blog, with some prodding by my old football writer friend Bob Glauber. The beat writers have to do them but nobody ordered me to.
I figured it would be a fun outlet for opinions that didn’t fit in the newspaper and more importantly a place to put all the stuff that didn’t physically fit in my newspaper columns, of which there always has been a lot.
The column originally was going to be called WatchDog at the suggestion of a friend at a competing paper. But the sports editor at the time preferred SportsWatch. So when the blog started, I went back to the name I had wanted for the newspaper column.
SMJ: What about blogging was/is of interest to you? How have you utilized the blog and how has it evolved in the few months after its launch?
N.B.: I like the freedom to be all over the place, from random opinions to links to interesting stories elsewhere to original reporting.
I think I’m trying to strike a balance between traditional newspaper reporting and a blog such as Deadspin that mostly links to other places. The goal is to make the blog the best of both new and old media worlds, I guess.
SMJ: Are you amazed at the level of success the blog has attained? Why?
N.B.: I am amazed. Since I don’t get paid for it, my inflated ego is the only way I benefit from this thing. I’m happy some people out there are enjoying it. I enjoy doing it.
I certainly didn’t anticipate becoming this addicted to blog posts.
My two concerns are whether it will negatively affect my newspaper column – I’m starting to think it has – and what the heck I’m going to do when I’m off about 10 days from now and suddenly the blog goes dark and all this momentum I’ve worked so hard to build up goes kaput.
SMJ: When it comes to newspapers, do you feel there will still a be futurefor print versions of the paper?
N.B.: How far in the future are you looking? My goal is to get to age 65. I think the print version will exist in some form in the New York market. But I also think a news gathering entity known as Newsday will exist on Long Island indefinitely. We have a very strong brand name on our home turf. I hope.
SMJ: What is your opinion of the sports blogger? Is the stereotype “living in mom’s basement” accurate?
N.B.: I know it isn’t and that most of the top sports bloggers are smart and social and do not live in their mothers’ basements.
On the other hand, I spend most of my day in my wife’s basement. And Will Leitch works and lives in a basement apartment in Brooklyn. So there you have it.
SMJ: New York is the home of the first sports radio station WFAN. What type of influence, if any, do you feel they have in the sports media culture of New York?
N.B.: Massive and multi-faceted, in ways too complicated to go into here. One thing I noticed right away in the late 1980s is that it improved the relationship between writers and athletes in a way, because for the first time athletes were confronted with the reality that fans and sports talk hosts were much meaner and angrier and irrational than we ever were.
SMJ: With ESPN and the Internet being the forces they are, do you feel the local television sports report is on its last legs? Why or why not?
N.B.: Yes, definitely. I wrote a piece in January talking to some local broadcast TV sports guys in which I mentioned that I never had referred to any of them in a column before that point.
And I haven’t again since that column.
When I was a kid they were the second most important source for sports information after the newspapers. Now, I’m not sure what the point is.
SMJ: If you could look into a crystal ball ahead 25 years, how will sports be covered?
N.B.: Let’s put it this way, if I had told you 25 years ago – assuming you were alive then – that on Aug. 9, 2007, you could watch the PGA Championship live on a computer while sitting in a park because the video would be floating around in the air ready to be captured wirelessly on your computer screen, you would have had me committed.
So I have no friggin’ idea.
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Best relies quite a bit on his New York roots in shapng his opinions of the local sports media landscape. That has gotten him quite a following with Newsday readers. He has also received some big time attention from those in the blogsphere. With all this publicity, let’s hope Best stays true to his roots. If he does, more and more people will make Neil Best a ”must read” when it comes to sports media columnists.
On Press Row- Pawtucket Red Sox
This is the first is in what we hope will be many first-hand accounts of the atmosphere in the press box of a sporting event.
PAWTUCKET, RI- Growing up in southern New England, I often spent many a night at McCoy Stadium taking in a game of the Pawtucket Red Sox, the Triple A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Living in Rhode Island today my family and I take in nearly ten games a year. Like other minor league operations, the Pawsox know how to put together a fun family experience. The Pawsox are traditionally one of the most popular draws in minor league baseball, being at or near the top of minor league attendance figures each year.
In the late 1980′s and early 1990′s I covered the team for a local radio station. In my new role at Sports Media Journal I thought it was time to take in a game once again from the press box. I got in touch with longtime Pawsox Vice President of Public Relations Bill Wanless (who fortunately remembered me) and secured a press pass. The game I attended was a double header between the Pawsox and the Rochester Red Wings. In the minor leagues double headers consist of two, seven inning games. This was a true twin bill, not the separate admission affairs we see on the major league level.
McCoy Stadium was completely renovated in 1999 but the press box had been given an initial face-lift in the early 1990′s. The box is dual level with seating for about 20 members of the working press. It also has five private suites for radio and television broadcasts as well as stadium audio/visual operations.
The Pawsox provide the press with plenty of game material. Upon picking up my press pass I was given a team media guide and game program. In the press box the Pawsox fill a file tote with starting line-ups, notes and stats from both teams, and information from around the rest of the International League.
The Pawsox press box is staffed by a much larger crew than 15 years ago. Back then, Wanless had a PA announcer, an official scorer, and someone to handle the balls and strikes on the scoreboard. Wanless handled everything else, from player displays on the scoreboard to the playing musical selections over the PA to incite the crowd. He now has staff specifically to handle stadium video, audio, and multiple scoreboard functions. There are 7 in all. For the second straight season, Wanless also has an employee who handles stats for MiLB.com Gameday, the in-game live, multimedia account of the contest.
Media coverage of the Pawsox varies from game to game. Because of the team’s relevance to the Red Sox, both in distance (46 miles from Fenway Park) and fan interest, there are times that the press box is full (especially when a member of the parent club is in town on a rehab stint). On this night the game was covered by three local newspapers, the Providence Journal, the Pawtucket Times, and the Attleboro Sun Chronicle. There was also an appearance by a reporter and videographer from a local Providence television station grabbing highlights for that night’s late local news.
On this night local radio play by play was handled by WHJJ for the Pawsox and WHTK in Rochester. The Pawsox radio crew broadcasts every game, home and away. There are also a handful of television broadcasts of the Pawsox each season provided through NESN and Cox Communications. This game was not televised.
Even though the number of reporters may seem small by Major League standards, Wanless says that the Pawsox media contingent is consistently one of the largest in the minor leagues. Most clubs have one local reporter covering the team at home on a consistent basis. The Pawsox have at least three each and every night. There is also sometimes representation by the Associated Press. He also says that many homestands reporters from the Boston Globe and Boston Herald will make the short drive to McCoy to write about a member of the Red Sox farm system.
Advances in technology have also made its way into the Pawsox press box. The last time I was here, print reporters had ”laptops 1.0″ and filed their reports via 14.4 baud telephone modems. Now the McCoy press box has a wireless Internet connection, allowing for fast, instant filing.
We can’t talk about a press box without talking about the food. When I covered the team years ago I remember the food being of high quality with varied offerings from night to night. This night was Chinese night, featuring General Tso’ Chicken and Lo Mein. Beverages were available all night and there was even a large plate of nachos available for a between-games snack.
The two games saw the teams split the double header with the Red Wings coming from behind to win game one and the Pawsox rallying to take the nightcap.
The highlight of the night, and what would dominate news reprots of the games the next morning, were two calls by the umpiring crew in the top of the sixth inning of game one. With one out, two on, and a run already across for the Red Wings, shortstop Gil Velazquez hit a long shot down the left field line and out of the park. Home plate umpire Pete Pederson ruled the play a home run, to the objection of most of the Pawsox team and Manager Ron Johnson. As is the case now a days, the umpires held a meeting around the mound and first base umpire Andy Vincent overruled Pederson and declared the ball foul. That raised the ire of Red Wings Manager Stan Cliburn.
But that was only the beginning. Once the commotion died down, Velasquez laced another pitch into the gap in left center scoring one run and Cliburn attempting to send home third basemen Tommy Watkins from first. The Pawsox, relay was perfect to the plate, with the throw in plenty of time to nail Watkins. Vincent saw the play otherwise, calling Watkins safe and causing Johnson to make another appearance from the dugout. The Red Wings would score three more times in the inning blowing the game open.
During the game updates were provided to the press by the official scorer or Wanless, who will often offer tidbits of note from his over 20 years of record keeping for the team. Within minutes of the end of the game, the Pawsox staff had a complete box score available for all members of the press.
Post game coverage at McCoy is traditional in that the managers speak from their offices and the players from their lockers. The discussion this night centered around the umpiring calls in game one and a complete game effort by Pawsox starter John Barnes in game two.
That Pawtucket Red Sox have always put the interest of fans first, and they are one of the most respected organizations in minor league baseball. Their treatment of the press is always professional. They may be a minor league baseball team, but their operation is anything but.
