Sports media and journalism are tough fields, but if you’re wondering how to get by, there are some excellent ways. It’s tough to write; everyone has writer’s block at least once in a while, but fortunately, there’s news everyday in sports: whether it’s the death of Jose Fernandez, the Patriots search for a starting quarterback, the Knicks praying that their new team will pull together, or the NHL preseason, there’s always something to follow. Fans who live in a Big 4 city, a city with a team in the MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL, can attest, for there’s almost always a good team around.
Boston, Detroit, Washington DC, and Phoenix are all incredible examples of how you always have a team to track. You’d probably think of New York, LA, or Chicago, but there are too many teams out there. In New York, you have the Jets and Giants in football, the Mets and Yankees in baseball, the Islanders and Rangers in hockey, and the Knicks and Nets in basketball. Fans are split; there’s no one hero team per sport. There, you run the risk of writing about a team that half the city hates! Boston, Phoenix, Washington DC, and Detroit there’s only one team per sport. Washington DC’s got the Wizards in basketball, the Nationals in baseball, the Capitals in hockey, and the Redskins in football; the city’s a sportswriter’s wonderland. In LA, if you write about how Adrian Gonzalez might be a better hitter than Mike Trout, you’ve made lots of Dodgers fans happy, but now there are lots of steamed Angels fans, however if in Phoenix, you talk about how Paul Goldschmidt might be a better hitter than Mike Trout, you’re only surrounded by happy Diamondbacks fans. Fans in cities with more than one team per sport don’t root for both teams, they choose one and stick to it. Cubs fans and White Sox fans in Chicago do not get along. That’s one of the tricks to succeeding at working in sports media and journalism, you have to know who your general audience is. You can make whoever you want happy by writing positive articles, but more people read the fearmongering ones because it piques their interest. If you saw two articles and you only had time to read one, you wouldn’t read “Sox Win Again,” you’d probably read “2 U’s, 2 K’s, and 2 Broken Legs: Bruins’ Goaltender, Tuukka Rask, Out For Season.” You have to grip the reader, surprise them, you have to know what’s going on in the sports world and what of it people will want to read. I am the head writer for Cincinnati sports. Considering that the Reds and Bengals aren’t the best teams, it’s hard to find what’ll make people read what I write. With teams like the Reds and Bengals you have to find which players people like. Every team has that big name that everybody knows, that’s who you write about. In the MLB, NHL, and NBA you have the minor league systems. In the NFL and NBA, as well, you also have big draft picks, people want to hear about that; it’s what gives their team hope for the future. In my case, I write about Andy Dalton, Tyler Eifert, and A.J. Green for the Bengals and Pete Rose, Billy Hamilton, and Adam Duvall for the Reds because those are the people know and want to hear about. If you’re in a city like Salt Lake City, Utah, you’re not in a big sports town, for they only have basketball in the Utah Jazz, but even they have their big names, you know Gordon Heyward, Karl Malone, and John Stockton. Stuff about those guys grips people out there, and before you know it, you’re everyone’s favorite writer! Another way to pique the reader’s interest is to talk about how the unknown players will rise up and become those big names. In cities where there’s only minor league teams, like Pawtucket, Rhode Island, you talk about those unknown players. Pawtucket is a gold mine for stories like that. They’re the Boston Red Sox’s highest level minor league affiliate, so a lot of Boston’s big names had to develop there. Jackie Bradley Jr. and Xander Bogaerts were American League Players Of The Month, Mookie Betts could be the American League MVP, Eduardo Rodriguez could be New England’s next pitching star, and Andrew Benintendi has made multiple highlight reel grabs. All of these players were big prospects and were followed throughout their minor league careers; writers in Pawtucket and its fellow minor league teams had a field day with all these great prospects to write about. Even if the major league team is doing poorly, or there isn’t one around, you can always write about the minor league, college, or even local high school teams. A great trick to succeeding at writing in this field is to always know what you have to work with. If you live in the middle of Iowa, you probably don’t have many professional sports teams around you, but you have the high school and college and minor league teams around to excite people about. It’s like making something out of next to nothing. If you do your research it’s really not that difficult to write good article. There are a few easy tricks to get by in the sports media and journalism field, but it’s not like “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying;” you do have to work hard. You have to know your audience, know what grips people, and know what’ll give people hope for their favorite team’s future. Sports media and journalism can seem like a scary, tough field of work, but if you know all the little tricks and idiosyncrasies, you’ll make off just fine. Jesse A. Cook “Sports Journalism: How To Get By” January 1, 2017
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