And I’m not going to say I don’t know why, because I do know why. I mean, all those division championships add up to something, right?
Whatever you say, Ted.
This is funny.
Category: Uncategorized
Did the Wizards win last night?
It’s so simple yet so succinct. So large, yet so minimalist. And in the end, you get the answer you were searching for. Without frills, without unnecessary analysis. Without clutter.
Go ahead, my friends in the DMV, ask the question: Did the Wizards win last night?
Or, better yet,
Click on it. You’ll get your answer.
One of my favorite television shows from the mid-1990s, “Boston Common,” once said that “the key to good communication is brevity.”
This site hits it on the head.
(Thank you, @dcsportsbog)
Pancakes?
Dustin Penner. You hurt your back eating pancakes? No, reaching for pancakes? I’m not about to make fat jokes, because it’s crass and hurtful, … but for an NHL player who has historically struggled with weight and conditioning issues, this will not look good on your resume.
But when it comes to unusual injuries, I cannot wait to hear the trash-talking that emerges from this instance. Somewhere, Rick DiPietro is laughing in the team doctor’s office.
Yet, consider that strange sports injuries have happened before. Others can relate:
- Brent Sopel, who injured his back while picking up his daughter at home.
- Glenn Healy, who cut himself while cleaning bagpipes. (Did not know he played bagpipes, but you can watch video on YouTube.)
- Kevin Mitchell, who strained rib muscles as a result of vomiting.
- Sammy Sosa, who suffered back spasms after a violent sneezing episode.
On some strange level, I can relate.
Nine years ago, while laughing hysterically in my chair at work, I felt a sudden, stabbing pain in the middle of my lower back, right below my waistline. I thought the pain would go away with a yoga session and some heating pads. No. It stayed for the next two days, until I finally took myself to the urgent care clinic and was diagnosed with a muscle strain. Or muscle strains. Whatever it was, it hurt to walk. Or sit. Or sleep.
For the next three days, I was home on my back. On muscle relaxers. Watching too much bad daytime television. Quickly going out of my mind.
It will get better, trust me. Just follow the doctor’s orders and go easy on the muscle relaxers.
But pancakes? Come on, Dustin Penner. I really thought you were an eggs Benedict kind of guy.
Mob Wives, you have drawn me in
I first met you all on a one-hour flight, thanks to the perks of technology. Then we got better acquainted in my living room, downing diet cokes and popcorn. I even considered taking you out to the balcony – another perk of technology – but then I saw last season’s finale and figured we’d keep our weekly get-togethers in-house.
Now, you are my weekly therapy. My release. My drama. Renee, Drita, Karen, Carla, Ramona and Big Ang, your bloodlines, handbags, confrontations and Staten Island chic are part of my post-Sunday dinner routine.
Granted, I’m gonna take some flack for falling for you ladies. As Italian-Americans, we find we’re not portrayed or treated in the best light. Even Meadow Soprano said it, to a certain degree. (Hell, I had a former coworker tell me that all Italians were “pasta eaters.”)
And I’ll admit, Mob Wives isn’t necessarily an accurate description of Italian-American women – I’ve known more than enough, including a few who belie the stereotype that the Mob Wives are portraying. A few who have adopted it. A few who have been embarrassed by it. A few who have owned it, without exploiting it. Some of them are my best friends and family members, too.
And it’s probably not even the best representation of “the mob.” (Or, as one of the Mob Wives once asked … “what mob?”)
But in a way, your personalities – and sometimes your behavior, save for that whole plate-throwing incident at Renee’s birthday party – encapsulate some of the things we want to be, or some of the things we want our daughters and sisters and best girlfriends to be.
Tough. Fearless. Feared. Respected. There’s a certain diva machismo to the Mob Wives, one that, historically, has been assigned to their male counterparts.
“I’m just going to carry a wrench with me next time because I don’t even want to get my hands dirty.” – Drita
The Mob Wives, they tell it like it is. They talk behind their backs. Then they say it to each other’s faces. They stand behind their man. Until their man goes behind their back. Then, they stand up to him.
And we want to be friends with these women, because they’ll either have our back or stab us in the back with one of their thigh-high stainless steel stiletto boots. No, actually, they’d come at us from the front.
And in a way, I’m starting to get this whole Real Housewives phenomenon – one that, in all its Buckhead, Short Hills and Upper East Side iterations, I have avoided like a man in a dark suit, carrying a violin case. A man whom I might be related to.
Yet I don’t think Camille Grammer would be able to properly swing a wrench. That’s one of the reasons why I keep coming back to these Mob Wives.
Just a hypothetical question …
Strictly hypothetical …
What if newspapers, for one day, shut down or didn’t update their websites? Would it force readers to seek out other ways to get their news – especially local news? – or would people actually go out and buy a paper?
My former employer’s website crashed/got hacked a few years ago, and a coworker walked around waving that day’s edition of the paper – information that, obviously, could not be obtained via the Internet.
“See this?” he asked as he waved it in the middle of our department. “This never crashes!”
A new coverage conundrum
With expansion … comes limitations. That’s becoming evident in the changing geography of college hockey.
After last summer’s conference realignments – the founding of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, the imminent end of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, the naissance of the Big Ten Hockey Conference, the expansion of Hockey East – it helped the sport create a stronger geographic reach. But more geography brings more travel … which, in all likelihood, will hinder newspaper coverage of a handful of college hockey teams by a handful of local newspapers. Because it costs money to travel. And in the world of newspapers, which is pinching more and more pennies, it’s difficult for some editors to justify traveling to a college town when reporters are better used on local assignments or doing desk work on a weekend.
Several newspapers have already slashed their travel budgets – even my former employer didn’t send a reporter to Maine hockey’s away games during the first three months of the season – yet consider that the University of Maine, in Orono, is 140 miles from the newsroom. Still, one thing that’s worked in Hockey East’s favor for so long? Proximity. From its most central location in Boston, road trips are a maximum five hours (barring weather/highway conditions), either to Orono, Maine, or Burlington, Vt. That will change when Notre Dame joins the league in the fall of 2013.
Anyhow.
With today’s announcement naming Jim Scherr as the new commissioner of the NCHC – which starts play in the fall of 2013 – it also drew some speculation as to what local newspapers who cover each of the league’s eight teams will do. How they will strategize in the future to cover these teams on the road.
But it also exhibited the collision of an area of growth and the continuous shrinking of budgets in newspapers. With the debut of the NCHC, it means that fewer smaller papers will be able to adequately and properly cover their local programs. Because it costs a lot of money to travel from Duluth, Minnesota, to Colorado Springs, Colorado, or Oxford, Ohio, to Grand Forks, North Dakota.
In an exchange Wednesday on Twitter, a pair of college hockey beat writers – whose schools will join the NCHC – discussed what all these changes might mean to the future of their beat:
What solutions do newspapers – who may not be able to afford to send their reporters to properly and adequately cover teams – have in order to communicate and to deliver the message in this arena?
Editors can establish and/or maintain a network of freelancers across the country (shameless self-promotion: hey, I’m good for the money if anyone needs coverage of Maine hockey. Or Portland’s AHL team). Because there’s still a need for readable, editable and timely copy.
Or reporters can stay in the office and rely on technology – watch a webcast and make a post-game phone call for interviews, which is what’s happening at a few newspapers already – and as you and I know, technology may not always be reliable.
It’s a conundrum, and it’s indicative of what’s happening at newspapers, and not just in the sports departments. Less resources for more things to cover.
What’s your dream? And what does it mean?
I had a dream last night that one of my good friends from college, who now lives in Connecticut – only a few hours from here – came to visit me. He brought his wife and two children, and they were at the door when I opened it. So was a shiny black pickup truck, parked less than 10 feet from my front door.
“Why did you park your truck right in front of my house?” I asked him, pointing at the Chevy. “At my door?”
He turned, looked at the truck and shrugged. “Because there’s nowhere else to park. This was the easiest place to park it.”
He always had the most simple, direct logic. Probably a reflection of his upbringing in a small town.
But after I woke up, I thought a lot about the dream for the rest of the day. And about dreams, in general.
One of my recurring dreams was that I’d go to a huge event, get to my spot on press row and realize I had left my laptop at home. Fortunately, that never happened. (Though there were times I’d reach into my bag while driving somewhere, just to make sure my laptop was there.)
Dreams are messages. They tell us something about our lives. They’re manifestations of a lot of things that we may not want to admit to ourselves but of the things that are buried in the back of our minds. Anxieties. Hopes. Feelings of the conscious and subconscious. They come to us as these vivid visions. Or they’re terrifying sensations – have you ever been jolted awake because of a dream where you felt like you were falling or losing control of your car? It might be a parallel to something that’s happening in your life.
Of course, when I woke up, there was no black pickup truck parked right in front of my house.
Chances are, I miss my friend.
Another reason why they probably hate the media …
Columbus Blue Jackets coach Scott Arniel was pissed that he lost. Again. This time, as a result of a 4-on-4 goal.
Then, he got even more pissed that someone reminded him – with empirical evidence handy – of how his team lost before he could remind himself of it. In response, he walked away from the podium during the post-game press conference.
They probably hate the media because they think members of the media think they have all the answers.
From BlueJacketsXtra.com:
After the game, Blue Jackets coach Arniel acknowledged the 4-on-4 goals hurt, but seemed unaware of his team’s poor record in such situations.
“Have you noticed that we’ve been beaten up 4 on 4, goals against?” Arniel asked in response to a reporter’s question. “I don’t think so. I’ll go and show you the stats on that. That hasn’t been a problem for us. It was tonight.”
When a reporter pointed out that the Blue Jackets have been outscored 8-1 in 4-on-4 situations, Arniel said “Is that what it is? Oh, OK. I guess you guys have all the answers and you’re just waiting to jump. I guess we’ll have to work on that.”
“And be more aware of what’s not gettin’ airplay …”
So beware what’s on the airwaves
And be more aware of what’s not gettin’ airplay
Independent spirit, you can barely hear what they’re sayin’
Truth ain’t getting on like shampoo on an airplane
Propaganda’s everywhere, constantly on replay
All the hits, all the time, back-to-back on relay
– “State Run Radio,” Lupe Fiasco
***
One thing you learn, early on, in journalism is how to suss out and/or dig deeper into the information, and how to find out the whole story – or at least more of the story, as it’s told by all the facts and evidence.
As my friend Philip used to say, “Don’t just buy what they sell you.” It’s another reason why journalism is necessary – to tell each side of the story and to help maintain accountability in our community and in our society.
A former coworker covered the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and came back with two copies of the China Daily, the national English daily newspaper.
There was plenty of coverage of the Summer Games. Lots of color photos splashed across the front pages of Michael Phelps, who was on his way to becoming one of the world’s most decorated Olympians. Yet neither issue of the China Daily mentioned the stabbing death of an American – the father-in-law of an Olympic volleyball coach and father of a former Olympian – in front of the Drum Tower in Beijing.
The China Daily is a state-run publication. Given the state of affairs in communist China, the publication typically follows the government’s agenda.
You don’t write for the paper. The paper writes for you. (Or something like that.)
Because of that, some information is shielded from the public … and it’s not something that’s unique to a nation under an authoritarian-socialist-communist regime.
There’s so much information that’s out there, but how much of it is spoon-fed to us by organizations, who are directing their own message? How much else are we filtering in or out? And are we only consuming what’s fed to us, or are we also seeking out further information to support – or discredit – those spoon-fed nuggets and claims?
A story recently ran on sportsjournalism.org about how college and professional sports organizations aren’t just covering the media anymore. They’re becoming the media.
Major-league sports organizations are turning to online and social media to direct – and sometimes to control – their messages. We’re consuming it, too, though it should come with some skepticism. One example: when Vanderbilt announced the hiring of football coach James Franklin on its official Facebook page.
From sportsjournalism.org, on the announcement:
It created a bit of a stir with the media … John Taylor, who writes for the now NBC-owned College Football Talk website, ridiculed the announcement: “We’re assuming that Franklin will announce his offensive and defensive coordinators via Twitter, while he’ll name the remainder of his coaching staff during a private CoverItLive chat.”
Vanderbilt leveraged the one thing it had – information – and disseminated it on its terms, on its platforms, to its audience.
The other major “news” commodity that leagues and teams have figured out they can leverage is exclusive access. While professional leagues, most notably Major League Baseball, have centralized and controlled game highlights, there is so much more content that can be leveraged if teams and colleges are willing to share it.
Another instance – the Pittsburgh Penguins announced Sidney Crosby’s latest concussion-related absence on its official team website.
“I just want to be smart with this,” Crosby said to pittsburghpenguins.com. “It’s been a long road back and we want to err on the side of caution.”
But what happens when something newsworthy – yet casts the organization or institution in a less-than-stellar light – goes down?
Will any major-league organization post a Facebook status update about a player’s arrest for alleged domestic violence or suspicion of drunk driving?
Or will a team owner break the news of a coach’s firing on his personal website?
Do college programs post player suspensions on a Tumblr or a Twitter account?
Are we, the readers and the public, being spoon-fed that information? Most likely, we aren’t.
Sometimes, those stories are given exclusively to certain media outlets, though with the constant news cycle, the “exclusive” is going the way of the dinosaur and the AMC Pacer. Other times, they emerge after careful combing of the police blotters … or of an athlete’s Twitter or public Facebook account. Or information may emerge after the fact, through phone conversations, emails or face-to-face exchanges.
Otherwise, sussing out the facts is a vital part of being a journalist. Because some organizations are only giving you half the story. In a way, it’s akin to state-run media.
That certain song …
There’s got to be one song, or that certain set of songs, that takes you to “a good place.”
Here’s mine – I first heard it in December of 1990, sitting in the Baltimore Armory during an indoor track meet, listening to my Walkman (remember those?) …
And, surprisingly, I still know all the words to it today.
"Where we're going, we don't need roads." 