Looking into the future for an afternoon
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jan 28, 2008 
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The pinch hitter on the blog this morning was Rebecca, a student at Syracuse. As you can tell by her prose, there’s plenty of writing talent out there.
I had a chance to meet some other students today when I was invited to participate in a forum sponsored by the Center For Sports Journalism at Penn State.
The event was held at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center on the campus of Montclair State.
The center’s director is Malcolm Moran, a former sportswriter with the Times, the Chicago Tribune and USA Today. He was a mentor of mine when I was just out of school.
They’re doing good work in Happy Valley. The students we spoke to were sharp and seemed to have a genuine interest in the field. There are so many ways to go in this business (print, web, television, radio, etc.) and so many ways to go about it. They asked good questions.
I was on a panel with Tom Verducci (Sports Illustrated), Jack Curry (Times), Claire Smith (ESPN.com) and the great Dave Anderson (Times). It was educational for me to hear Dave talk about covering the Brooklyn Dodgers. Imagine having covered Jackie Robinson and Derek Jeter.
Our guest blogger program finishes up Thursday. It’s something I want to try again next winter and hopefully we’ll have more college students participating. There were five or six this month.
————
If you haven’t been to Yogi’s Museum, get yourself out there. The exhibits are great, especially Yogi’s collection of World Series rings.
The New Jersey SABR conference is there on March 1 and Baseball Prospectus is having a roundtable the next day hosted by Steven Goldman.
The man himself, Mr. Berra, was on hand today. He’ll be going down to spring training on Feb. 27. “I need to talk to Girardi,” he said. “Somebody has to pick me up at the airport.”
Somehow, I’m guessing that won’t be a problem for Yogi.
penn state pride
I’d fly down to Tampa just to pick Yogi up, and no, I am so not joking.
Awww. Yogi’s the best. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Jeter may be the last.
If Yogi wants to wait until the 29Th,Ill take him over to Legends Field!!
People are ripping Cashman for saying this about Bernie “Got into music, and I thought it took a lot away from his play.” I think thats not that bad. I mean Bernie was signed to a hefty contract. Gave us all he had, but in the final 3 years or so was not worth the money. Instead of retiring he put Cashman in a bad position. I dont think it was fair for Cashman to be the bad guy. Bernie could have just taken the hint that we’re in a youth movement and gracefully retired. If and when he got another offer from another team. Then unretire. Keep in mind he did invite him to spring training but he didnt show up.
Yogi, you bring the sfogliatelle, i’ll bring the espresso. it’ll be a quick drive.
Dammit Angelos. It looks like Beddard is staying with the O’s. Here i thought Peter would finally pull the trigger and help us Yankees. I was already moving on to who can take Halliday off our hands.
SoS: Thing is, the Orioles are so bad that even with Bedard, I still think they’re going to finish behind Tampa. (And Toronto, Boston, New York…)
Don’t underestimate the Rays, they have a really good core of young talented position players as well as pitchers.
If the Bedard deal goes through & it still may, then Roberts goes to the Cubs for Pie & Gallagher. Not much left besides Markakis.
Yankees don’t need a Bedard deal done either way.
Oh I see, now all of the sudden Angelos may sign Bedard to a five year deal, maybe the Mariners jump back in to get Johan.
I know the O’s suck. But Beddard always seems to shut us down. It would be nice to see less of him and Halliday yearly.IMO
Buddy,
I agree with you on the Rays. They might end up in third this year.
I’m worried about 1 team: Boston.
Really early BASEBALL picks:
AL East: Red Sox (sorry!)
AL Central: Tigers
AL West: Mariners
AL Wild Card: Yankees
NL: coming up
Rebecca-
Great post today. You’ve got talent! The Stadium will always have a place in our hearts and in history. My first game was a double header against Baltimore in ’66. I was nine years old, and I was hooked. Still, I would follow the Yanks anywhere- Manhattan, Jersey, or McCombs Dam Park. I’ll love the new park and give it all the respect it’s going to command. The Yankees are the Yankees, and I’m still hooked- womb to tomb.
oh btw, any one else notice this today?
http://thebaseballoutsider.blo.....-york.html
Jim: Thank you!
Jay: Pete blogged about it this morning =D
Yogi once snapped at me at the museum
Makes for a great story.
i missed it. sorry ms. internet savy
So apparently we all eat dinner at the same time.
testing
Pete,
Was there any discussions of how blogging is changing the landscape of sports journalism?
It’s gotten to the point where your blog and a few others have gotten so good that as a reader I’m going to them before I got to the usual suspects (cnnsi.com, espn.com, etc) for the scoop on my team. I’m sure it has to have changed the way you and others work.
As always its a pleasure reading. Keep it going.
Marc
Auh, Yogi if I was going down I’d give you a ride.
Who is Claire Smith and why did they take away Yogi’s driving license?
Yawn
Sorry Jeawon but don’t count on the Socks repeating. They haven’t done it since 1916.
Also, don’t count on them coming out of the gate like last year and seeing the Yankees start with a 21-29 record.
Is Phil Hughes still being offered for Johan?
Just curious, I am a twins fan.
I believe he is but i figured I would get some Yankee Insite.
Thanks
Joba may very well start in the bullpen:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....id=3219462
Touchdown
Your guess is as good as ours. We’ve heard he’s off the table, than we heard there was never really a deal on the table. Personally I’d rather have Phil. I don’t want to see him traded.
Hughes is off the table, but who knows officially. If the Twins want to send Johan to the Yanks, it will be w/o Hughes.
alright.. thanks
guess we have to continue to wait and see..
Rebecca, fantastic job this morning. Sorry did not have the opp to write earlier. I will never forget the first time I went to the Stadium.
Still we can put a much better package together then the Mets
As we’ve gone over a number if times, we shouldn’t have to trade the moon and stars when we have to give a 20 million a year contract. The Twins need to realize that and take it into consideration when they are asking for packages.
SI should can that hack Verducci & hire Rebecca, who is obviously an excellent writer.
Since Verducci and “journalism” came up in the same context, is it just me, or does anyone else think this guy is an incredibly overrated piece of work?
For example, it’s hard to write sillier article than this, even if one tried to do so:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....index.html
The weirdest passage is Verducci’s idea that “the Mitchell Report, as an institutional vehicle, worked”. Which, since the aftermath has been a bloody mess, is a passage that can best be explained as follows: either Verducci is 1000 degrees of fried, or Verducci likes access to people he can quote in his articles, and you get access to power by brown-nosing power…. Typical problem with “journalists”.
So SI, can Verducci and bring on Rebecca. That would be a first step towards making something other than the swimsuit issue readable.
Larry: Thank you!
George: Hah, you got me blushing. I *totally* misread that last line…so I kind of just fell out of my chair laughing.
yeah,
i guess we gotta wait and see what the deal is if one ever happens.
then i will be open to judge the offers.
I got my tix today for 3/9 Twins and Yanks in Ft. Meyers. I am a happy boy!
Kudos for participating in the journalism thing, Peter. Though print newspapers are having tough times, you’ve shown that savvy reporters who interact with readers will succeed. I’m astonished that it doesn’t happen more often, but you’ve certainly shown the way.
That’s the future!
I got my tickets Saturday for Yankees vs Baltimore in Baltimore!
“Joba may very well start in the bullpen:”
Wow, that was just a rehash of stuff we’ve heard a hundred times.
whozat
tell that to the newspaper writers.
Don’t know if anyone saw it on ESPN, but there is a
nonstory about Joba possibly starting the season in the pen.This is basically old news, but the article has some very good quotes from Eiland. The part about Hughes especially seems to prove the idea that the Yankees will hold onto Phil in spite of any Santana offer.
http://bronx-bomberz.blogspot......n-pen.html
“Joba may very well start in the bullpen:â€
Wow, that was just a rehash of stuff we’ve heard a hundred times.
———————————————————–
True, but now it’s coming from Dave Eiland, before it was Hank etc…
“The part about Hughes especially seems to prove the idea that the Yankees will hold onto Phil in spite of any Santana offer.”
i didn’t get that from the quote. he can still be traded. all he is saying that Phil Hughes, IF he isn’t traded, will start the season in the Yankees’ rotation. he doesn’t have to worry about “making the team”.
but Hank can and may still trade him.
Hmmm
Obviously Hank can still turn around and trade him. But this is the first time I’ve heard any Yankee coaching staff talking about Hughes pitching in ST. Sure the possibility is there, but the fact that the pitching coach refers to Hughes as an intricate member of the team going into camp is a departure from the more vague references only weeks ago.
I wasn’t saying “Oh, Hughes is untradeable,” but I did think it is a more explicit implication that he won’t be traded. In the end, I agree Hank (believes) he holds all the cards and a trade can still go down. But this leads one to think otherwise, IMO
The Yankees didn’t do a whole lot to rehash their bullpen this offseason, did they?
“The Yankees didn’t do a whole lot to rehash their bullpen this offseason, did they?”
i guess you were napping when they replaced Joe Torre with Joe Girardi, huh?
just kidding folks.
kindof.
Any of these “sharp minds” at PSU ask Jack Curry and Dave Anderson how exactly their rag could ignore facts and responsible journalism by trying to put three Duke students jail on rape charges because of the color of their skin? Did Verducci say anything on how his SI colleague Jon Heyman reported last October 23 that Torre in spring wanted a one year $4.5 million extension, which makes those who thought the one year $5 million offer not an “insult” but actually a raise?
Jim, excellent questions.
following is a generalization – of course there are exceptions in the print media – however i think this is largely correct: all the journalists who puzzle over the decline of print media need to look in the mirror: why would anyone in their right mind pay to read the NY Times or SI when the quality of information is so dismal, as these examples show? why is the quality of info so dismal? why aren’t the journalists more investigative & free-thinking, instead of falling into group-think?
this blog is excellent – Pete’s posts kick off good discussions, and the people commenting are far more insightful & knowledgeable than what you get in the print media. i don’t see how the print media can compete long-term with such new media if it doesn’t up its standards dramatically.