RUGator

Here’s the New York Daily News perspective on last night’s ALCS game. For those who don’t live in the NY Metro area, the News has always been my “go to” sports section when it comes to the Yanks.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2009/10/17/2009-10-17_new_york_yankees_los_angeles_angels.html

One of my favorite sports writers is Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. He “gets it.”

In the following column, he continues his verbal assault on baseball’s ills.

Please go to: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AqmkYeBr583jGfAuLzh5Zek5nYcB?slug=jp-manny050709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

He rightfully calls for an immediate and complete banishment from baseball for all those who test positive for performance enhancing drugs.

Throw ‘em out! All of them. A-Rod, Ramirez, Clemens, Tejada. All of ‘em. Out!

Can’t take it anymore.

While New York sports are important to its fans, baseball still reigns supreme.

The New York Times article below is a terrific overview of the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, the new home of the Mets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/arts/design/03stadia.html?_r=1&ref=sports

Panoramic views of new Yankee Stadium via today’s New York Times.

Please go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/02/sports/20090402-yankees-pano.html?hp

While I was scrounging around for another quarter to buy a Diet Coke, this was what he was doing.

He wasn’t alone either.

http://www.nysportsday.com/2009/03/24/another-a-bomb-from-a-rod/

And I’m sick and tired of hearing that sports fans are willing accomplices to this type of behavior.

Tired of it.

Can’t take it anymore.

Why can’t I be a fan and enjoy sports and the role it’s played in my life without having to apologize for this crap?

Hey A-Rod (and whoever else), I’m sick and tired of you. This isn’t good enough for me. As a fan, I’m not going away. I’m not bailing out on the sports and teams I love.

But I am bailing on you.

George Costanza “living the dream.”

Bet you didn’t know that some of the world’s most intriguing icebergs are located, not in the Yukon, but instead, in the Caribbean. You heard me right.

The Caribbean.

Just off the coast of the Dominican Republic in fact.

You see, the tip of one of those very icebergs was uncovered by the New York Times in an article today.

Read about it below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/sports/baseball/02bowden.html?_r=1

I don’t know what made me do it.

Never thought I had much in the cajones department. But I picked up the phone. A few times.

Goodman Stadium the home field of the Lehigh University Mountain Hawks (nee “Engineers”) and I’m reminded of a past life I had as a self-invented sports reporter. I thought I’d talk a little about this as a way to inspire some of you out there who want to do this sort of thing for a living.

For some time (a long time ago), I wrote and published my own college football newsletter. Because I couldn’t get anyone to actually pay for a subscription, I sent it out to anyone I could think of who I thought was even remotely interested in college football. Many of these folks were sports information directors at various universities and colleges. I was hoping to “get discovered.”

Well I was never actually “discovered,” but it did lead to some interesting and important relationships. Two of the individuals I “met” were the SIDs at both Lehigh and Lafayette College, located in Bethlehem, PA and Easton, PA respectively. These two gentlemen gave me the idea of requesting “press credentials” so I could attend games. I was dumbfounded. These guys were taking me seriously. I was legit in their eyes!

And so I did ask and I got them. Now what did this mean? What does it mean to have “press credentials?”

Guess I sort of had an old story on my mind. Goes like this: a baseball broadcaster calls the last out on his team’s unsuccessful season and breaks down crying. A colleague tries to comfort him. “It’s o.k. There’s always next year.” To which he replies, “Yeah, but what am I gonna do now? I  have to go home to my wife?”

“Hello, may I please speak to Bruce Johnson?” I asked the receptionist. For years I had listened to his calls of Rutgers football and basketball. RU had taken me in after I left my heart in Gainesville years earlier. He connected me.

An interview was set up. I was writing a college football newsletter and I wanted to learn about his game day preparation. “This was too easy.”
Speaking to him in his office that day reminded me that people are behind what we see on television and hear on the radio.

I’ll always remember him telling me, “Well it’s not brain surgery, but I won’t go antiquing with my wife on the day of a game.” “The best way to describe what it’s like in the booth is that you have to experience it first hand. Would you like to watch me do a game?”

You had to pinch me.

So there I was, in the pressbox for Rutgers against Virginia Tech on a rainy Saturday years before Rutgers became Greg Schiano’s Rutgers. In a dreadful downpour I watched and listened over Bruce’s shoulder as he broadcast that game. I learned that a “spotter” was a guy standing behind him pointing to the name’s of players making tackles and running plays so he could readily bring that information so smoothly to the listening fans. It gave me some ideas.

Press credentials are basically tickets to games which allow the recipient access to the “press box,” the sidelines (in the case of football), and the post-game press conferences. So once approved, the press credentials would arrive via mail along with a parking pass. This was house money, dawg!

Upon arrival at the game, I would make my way “into” the press box. THE press box. Talk about primo seats. There’d be a seat for me along with a name tag, boxed lunch, and whatever materials I needed to “cover” the game. I was in flipping sports nirvana! People get “paid” to do this?

These were experiences I’ll obviously never forget. But more importantly, they helped me build self-confidence (always a struggle for me), legitimized my writing ability (and perhaps myself?), and allowed me to develop a professional portfolio which I used as part of my teaching/writing resume.

“I am writing to people I respect and admire for advice,” so went my introduction years ago in a series of letters which changed my life.

Now I am asking readers of this blog to respond in kind to the following:

“If you could offer me the one piece of advice that you have found to be most instrumental to your success, what would that be?”

I am proposing a blog series entitled “The Golden Rules.” This series will focus on fellow writers who want to share their best ideas with others in the belief that in order to be successful, one must first help others succeed.

Please respond via this blog or email me at “gatorgolfmike@yahoo.com” with your thoughts.

Thank you,

RUGator