I'm covering a little league coach, who has been voluntary giving his time to five, six, and seven year olds. Jimmy Marron of Oak Park has coached Tee-ball, Mustang, Jr. Bronco and Bronco for the past 20 years.
I plan to go out and sit-in on one of his practices. Not only to write a better paper, but i'm also interested in seeing how these kids react to him as a coach. I wan't to know what drives this coach to work for free.
Besides interviewing this coach, i've already talked to a parent who had his son coached by Marron for two-years.
It was a very interesting interview. His wife screened me over the phone and i eventually was able to get to him. The first thing he asked me was about baseball. It was a question dealing with the Yankees. My first thought was this guy is serious about this sport.
After a few statements about the Yankees giving up 22 runs in their loss to Cleveland on saturday. The interview quickly got on its way. It lasted maybe for about 30 minutes with small breaks in between discussing the Major Leagues.
I was also looking at interviewing an umpire, who knows Marron, but I was unable to get a hold of him. As a repoter I will not stop there, until I eventually get a hold of him or another reliable source. Because in my world, I need them more than they need me.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Trading or Blowing Wind
As the season continues to play on in the NBA, the trade deadline is here for the 2009 NBA season. The pressure is on for teams to either get something in return for a potential free agent, play with what you have and just make a run for the playoffs.
Most of the trades are coming from teams that are at the bottom of the playoff picture, or teams that are trying to rebuild for the future. Another reason General Managers are moving players with big contracts in hopes of clearing up salary cap for the players that are heading into free agency.
One big trade that bothered me is the Chicago Bulls recieving John Salmons and Brad Miller and the Sacramento Kings recieve Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden, and two scrubs not even worth mentioning. Now ESPN analysis Avery Johnson thinks it's a good trade for the Bulls. He called it "a win win situation," because they received more than what they gave away.
I think even with the scrubs the Bulls gave away too much. I mean Brad Miller is a solid player if he doesn't hang out at the three point line all the time and John Salmons has a percentage just above being a scrub.
So this is the last move that John Paxson is going to make before resigning. He should have done that when he used his lottery pick to pick up Joakim Noah. That's like a Greg Oden, "a waste of a pick.
Most of the trades are coming from teams that are at the bottom of the playoff picture, or teams that are trying to rebuild for the future. Another reason General Managers are moving players with big contracts in hopes of clearing up salary cap for the players that are heading into free agency.
One big trade that bothered me is the Chicago Bulls recieving John Salmons and Brad Miller and the Sacramento Kings recieve Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden, and two scrubs not even worth mentioning. Now ESPN analysis Avery Johnson thinks it's a good trade for the Bulls. He called it "a win win situation," because they received more than what they gave away.
I think even with the scrubs the Bulls gave away too much. I mean Brad Miller is a solid player if he doesn't hang out at the three point line all the time and John Salmons has a percentage just above being a scrub.
So this is the last move that John Paxson is going to make before resigning. He should have done that when he used his lottery pick to pick up Joakim Noah. That's like a Greg Oden, "a waste of a pick.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
NBA All- Stars or Big Names
Johnny Jackson lll
The NBA All-Star game is approaching and with that brings the All-Stars of the first half. Are they really All- Stars having a break out first half or do fans just want to see them?
Well my opinion is not only do the fans want to see them, but the league does too. I mean who would pay to see a bunch of players who are not celebrities. I know I probably wouldn't even go for free, well maybe for free.
I just don't like the fact that the big names are struggling, but for some odd reason their in the starting line up of the All-Star game. About two seasons ago when Shaq played for Miami in 06 he only played 40 games all season. Besides that he only played a couple of games in the first half and was announced as the starting center for the East. How is that possible? You have players who actually go hard evey night and put up good numbers, but don't go.
This year it's Allen Iverson, he's a great player and I even have his Pistons jersey, but his season is mediocre. I know other point guards who should be starting, like Devin Harris and Mo Williams. Their both going but Harris is going as a back-up and Williams is now going because Chrish Bosh won't be able to make it. I guess being a good players on a bad team don't get recognized for their talent since their team is in last place.
The NBA All-Star game is approaching and with that brings the All-Stars of the first half. Are they really All- Stars having a break out first half or do fans just want to see them?
Well my opinion is not only do the fans want to see them, but the league does too. I mean who would pay to see a bunch of players who are not celebrities. I know I probably wouldn't even go for free, well maybe for free.
I just don't like the fact that the big names are struggling, but for some odd reason their in the starting line up of the All-Star game. About two seasons ago when Shaq played for Miami in 06 he only played 40 games all season. Besides that he only played a couple of games in the first half and was announced as the starting center for the East. How is that possible? You have players who actually go hard evey night and put up good numbers, but don't go.
This year it's Allen Iverson, he's a great player and I even have his Pistons jersey, but his season is mediocre. I know other point guards who should be starting, like Devin Harris and Mo Williams. Their both going but Harris is going as a back-up and Williams is now going because Chrish Bosh won't be able to make it. I guess being a good players on a bad team don't get recognized for their talent since their team is in last place.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Second Entry
Johnny Jackson
2-4-09
The second week of my Sports Reporting class got even better. My teacher told his famous Packer story, where this guy put his favorite die-hard football team before his wife. After the story Mr. Schlossberg went on to say in so many words that sports come before your significant other. He does have a point because girlfriends come and go and my favorite teams keep finding space in my room. Cool Theory!
Anyway the class had an assignment to look up different story-telling techniques that other people have done. Some of the links were cool like the Indianaopolis Star has a link where you can compare Manning to single season games to Playoff games. Also it look like you can tell who he threw to the first time and last time in his rookie year; lets say any game! Here is the link: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articles%20AID=/99999999/SPORTS0301/80409049
Another site was USA Today: Finding NFL Talent. The site featured every college football player going back to 88. You click on the state where they're from or played at in High School and it tells you a little about that person. Here is the link
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/draft-history-graphic.htm
Another site featured a profile of a 100k ultra-running competition. It was more of a profile technique, about who the person is and where they came from. Here is the link
http://www.roanoke.com/multimedia/hellgate/interactive.html
In short I knew it was different ways of telling a story because of all the publications in the world. In class we discussed about everybody doing the same-story, but how is yours going to be different from others? What's your angle going to be? You never know who your audience is? Like profile, pictures,diagr So being a Journalist may and should require a reporter to have more than one technique...I mean thats if you want to get out your corner at work.
Remind me of this funny CarrerBuilder commercial that I saw doing the Super Bowl about people not liking their job. I'll save that for another time.
2-4-09
The second week of my Sports Reporting class got even better. My teacher told his famous Packer story, where this guy put his favorite die-hard football team before his wife. After the story Mr. Schlossberg went on to say in so many words that sports come before your significant other. He does have a point because girlfriends come and go and my favorite teams keep finding space in my room. Cool Theory!
Anyway the class had an assignment to look up different story-telling techniques that other people have done. Some of the links were cool like the Indianaopolis Star has a link where you can compare Manning to single season games to Playoff games. Also it look like you can tell who he threw to the first time and last time in his rookie year; lets say any game! Here is the link: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articles%20AID=/99999999/SPORTS0301/80409049
Another site was USA Today: Finding NFL Talent. The site featured every college football player going back to 88. You click on the state where they're from or played at in High School and it tells you a little about that person. Here is the link
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/draft-history-graphic.htm
Another site featured a profile of a 100k ultra-running competition. It was more of a profile technique, about who the person is and where they came from. Here is the link
http://www.roanoke.com/multimedia/hellgate/interactive.html
In short I knew it was different ways of telling a story because of all the publications in the world. In class we discussed about everybody doing the same-story, but how is yours going to be different from others? What's your angle going to be? You never know who your audience is? Like profile, pictures,diagr So being a Journalist may and should require a reporter to have more than one technique...I mean thats if you want to get out your corner at work.
Remind me of this funny CarrerBuilder commercial that I saw doing the Super Bowl about people not liking their job. I'll save that for another time.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
First Entry
On Monday Jan 26, 2008 my Sports Reporting class from last semester simply turned into a newer and more advanced class of just simply talking about a part of my life. My teacher from last semester always finds something to say in class that makes talking about Sports better than making money.
In this particular class I saw an old video clip of Mike Tyson threatening a reporter, along with Allen Iverson proudly wearing the Sixers on his jersey. A video that didn't scare me but I'm looking forward to being a reporter. That way when players get mad at me for certain questions I ask I can say it louder to get my answer. That's not why I want to be a reporter, but I have to be ready for anything. My editor is just going to tell me to make the answer come out.
Mike Reilly a graduate in Journalism was introduced to helping teach the class. It looks like i might need another notebook from all the knowledge that's coming my way.
He helped the class set up their own personal blogs. I'm like yea my own words on the net. My own thoughts with the power to show others. Excited isn't the word...it's more like my thoughts are now finally going to be heard. I guess i should clean my mailbox for all the fans that's going to be e-mailing me.
I like the fact that I'm apart of two classes experimenting on a project. Print and Broadcast together equals one tuition for double the knowledge. I mean I heard stories of people starting out having to know more thanjust writing stories. Learning about broadcast can help me in the long run for having the facts and data of the editing process of T.V.
The only thing that is going to be difficult to chew is being able to write about what we want to in class and entering the real world and receiving stories from your editor that might not be important to me.
In this particular class I saw an old video clip of Mike Tyson threatening a reporter, along with Allen Iverson proudly wearing the Sixers on his jersey. A video that didn't scare me but I'm looking forward to being a reporter. That way when players get mad at me for certain questions I ask I can say it louder to get my answer. That's not why I want to be a reporter, but I have to be ready for anything. My editor is just going to tell me to make the answer come out.
Mike Reilly a graduate in Journalism was introduced to helping teach the class. It looks like i might need another notebook from all the knowledge that's coming my way.
He helped the class set up their own personal blogs. I'm like yea my own words on the net. My own thoughts with the power to show others. Excited isn't the word...it's more like my thoughts are now finally going to be heard. I guess i should clean my mailbox for all the fans that's going to be e-mailing me.
I like the fact that I'm apart of two classes experimenting on a project. Print and Broadcast together equals one tuition for double the knowledge. I mean I heard stories of people starting out having to know more thanjust writing stories. Learning about broadcast can help me in the long run for having the facts and data of the editing process of T.V.
The only thing that is going to be difficult to chew is being able to write about what we want to in class and entering the real world and receiving stories from your editor that might not be important to me.
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