Sportswriting

Question: Are any of you familiar with a book that teaches the basics of sportswriting? I've got a publisher with two very green sportswriters and a professor about to teach a sportswriting class asking me for a recommendation. - John Hatcher, Center for Community Journalism, Oswego State University

At the risk of inviting the scorn of my Poynter colleagues who know the tragic story of my athletic career (I didn't get a complete uniform in Little League and no I don't want to talk about it!!) here's the section on sports beat reporting I assembled for my textbook. I don't know of a sports writing textbook. There is the annual Best Sports Writing anthology but I don't know how much information about process that includes.
Play Ball!

Beginner's beats: Covering sports
From Reporting and Writing: Basics for the 21st Century (Oxford University Press)
By Christopher Scanlan

In 1995, when the American Society of Newspaper Editors gave one of its Distinguished Writing Awards for the year's best sportswriting, judges described the beat as "not only a lot of fun, but illuminating of the human condition."

The advantages of writing about sports are obvious, Frank Deford, one of the nation's best sportswriters, once wrote. "The structure is heaven-sent. Every day, every game, every substitution, there is instant, well-formed drama: a beginning, plot development and climax."

For the sports fan, a seat in the press box might seem like a dream come true. But sportswriters know the reality: long workdays, impossible deadlines and the haunting realization that your audience may have seen the same game you're trying to write about. "Let's face it. You can log on your computer anytime, day or night, and get all the scores," says Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press. "And that's a lot easier to do than walk down your driveway in seven degree-below weather and get your newspaper, which had to be printed at 10:30 at night and doesn't even have the box score."

But as a teacher once told Boston Globe sportswriter Larry Whiteside: "A box score can say there was a line drive, but it doesn't say that a fan touched it or that it snaked around a wall. It doesn't say what anybody said or what anybody felt."

In the face of electronic competition, sportswriters have survived and thrived by relying on a combination that has always worked for reporters, whatever their beat: dogged reporting and stylish writing, fueled by hard work and passion.

"The main weapon is good reporting," says Lawrie Mifflin, who had to battle sexism in locker rooms as well as the demands of covering professional sports for The New York Times. "It's a matter of questioning and not taking people's words for things, being skeptical, pursuing it further, asking other people.

"Being a good reporter is as essential in sportswriting as in any kind of writing: getting both sides of an issue, verifying whether what somebody tells you is true, checking things with many sources."

Whatever the sport, there are three types of sports stories:
1. Game and event coverage
2. Human interest and feature stories
3. Columns

The game story is the most common sports assignment, especially for a beginner. Here is a list of tips for writing the game story, followed by an example of the form by an experienced sportswriter, Thomas Stinson of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who then discusses his methods in an interview.

• Sportswriters need to know the rules of the games they cover. "If you don't know the game you can't write a great sports story," said sportswriter Bob Ryan.
• Access to information. Use a scorekeeping system that you understand.
  
• Use a note-taking system.
  
• Start thinking about your leads as soon as the game begins.
  
• Write contingency leads before the game begins.
  
• Ideally, the lead is ready by the time the game is over, but it often comes from postgame interviews or even from an overheard remark.

How I Wrote the Story
An Interview with Thomas Stinson
Q. There's usually very little time between the end of a game and when your story is due, particularly if the Braves are playing out west. How do you go about collecting the news of the game, interviewing the relevant players and coaches and then writing a story on the edge of deadline?
A. I write two game stories--one a running play-by-play account for the four-star that I hope no one sees, the second a sub that should hold up for all other editions. Given most games run to three hours, that usually allows me to get to the clubhouse by 10:30. My sub is due at 11:30, which should give me plenty of time, barring extra innings or rain. I hate rain.
The farther west the team goes, the more complicated the process. With a 10 p.m. start, I will file a nongame news/feature story that will plug the hole on the front until the game ends. Usually, I'll send the first seven innings first, send a quick top with the last out and then write through as quickly as possible. Some nights, it all works. Some nights, it's angina.

Q. How do you keep your leads and your reporting approach fresh after covering games night after night and month after month? How do you plan your lead, particularly when the outcome of the game isn't known until the Braves' last bat?
A. Generally, a game will present a theme by the seventh inning. Of course, if something happens in the ninth, that theme is trashed. But last night (May 7), for instance, John Smoltz pitched poorly to start, drove in three runs to reclaim the lead and then pitched well after that. I love games like that.
It is helpful to work up some background each night--hitting streaks, pitching trends, personal vendettas--that might come into play. Tom Glavine hates pitching when Gary Darling is calling balls and strikes. Ryan Klesko still thinks he can hit left-handed pitching. A former Brave is in the other team's starting lineup. Any of these items could come into play any night. If you can recognize the situations as they come around, the reporting is easy. The preparation's a bitch.

Q. How do you manage a family life with the heavy demands of the beat?
A. You can't manage a family life. I have three kids (16, 15 and 10) who are very tolerant of what I'm doing. I try to be around for breakfast when they leave in the morning and try to drive carpool on my days off, just to show them I can still do it. But before I agreed to take on the beat, we had a family meeting about it, and they gave me their blessing. I wouldn't be doing this without that. I still made it to three of the girls' soccer games and have made three of George's 11 Little League games. I can even tell you what happened.

Q. Right after the May 4 game with Los Angeles, I wondered how Bobby Cox would feel after being ejected for arguing with an ump. You talked with Cox and reported in the next morning's story that he was sorry he hadn't just let it go. Do you consciously try to spin your stories ahead and go beyond mere play-by-play coverage?
A. With the average game story running 12--14 inches, if the morning lead doesn't get away from play-by-play, it's not worth reading. We feel that with a "How They Scored" segment on the inside Braves page as well as a detailed game report on isolated big plays, the lead should have elements beyond how the score got to be 4-4 in the third.
An ejection like Cox's or a hit batter like Michael Tucker last night, those had better be played up in the lead quickly. Most fans know the score by the time the paper comes. You better have something more to get them into the story.

Q. In what way(s) does the baseball beat differ from other beats, sports or otherwise? How important is it to develop contacts on the team/in the organization, gain the confidence of players/coaches, etc.?
A. Baseball is different because it's bigger--162 games, 30 teams, a six-month season and a voracious appetite by the public for information. I don't work harder than Len Pasquarelli (our NFL man) or Jeff Denberg (our NBA man), but I do a hell of a lot more games with the worst deadline problems in our industry. Getting inside with management helps, but gaining confidences is not as important as maintaining them. Baseball is a very closed society--the players don't trust the front office, the front office doesn't trust the agents, the agents don't trust the leagues. But the longer you're around, the more questions you ask, the easier it is to maneuver your way into stories. I'm not saying I understand it all. But I'm finding more of the people who really do.

Readings
Zinnser, William. "The Sports Beat. "Speaking of Journalism: 12 Writers and Editors Talk About Their Work. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.

Hotlist

• http://www.sportsjones.com/sportswriting.htm Sportsjones, an online magazine, recommends examples of good sportswriting that appear in other publications.
  
• http://www.reporter.org/beat/sports.html/ The sports beat page at reporter.org., maintained by Investigative Reporters and Editors. Includes Web links by sports category.
• http://www.sportspages.com/ Sportspages.com. The best way to learn how to write sports is to study how others do it. This page, maintained by Rich Jones, includes links to major newspaper sports sections in the United States and Canada, magazines and online sports publications.
• http://www.sportseditor.com/ SportsEditor.com calls itself "the Web's home for online sports editors, producers and writers." It features information about jobs, seminars and an online forum.
  

Chip Scanlan
The Poynter Institute

Chip's suggestions are right on point. Let me add that it is nearly impossible, from most game stories, to prove that the writer attended the game. Writers say that what they can give us is more than the box score, more than what we get by watching the game on TV, but usually the minimum is all they give us.

A challenge: Count how many game stories in your daily paper include anything that proves the writer was at the game. Almost all of the content is the count, the score, the stats, the quotes from the players -- all material that the fan with an Internet connection already has.

One thing that may help is to get out of the press box, where one is guaranteed to see no more than any other reporter. Many sports writers might do better to watch each game from a different vantage point: the bleachers, or with the Dominican fans, or in the players' wives section, or sitting with the father whose son is playing his first major league inning at third base.
Bill Dedman
Power Reporting newsroom training

Chip's chapter on sportswriting is excellent. I taught a sportswriting class for grad students and undergrads for three years at Northwestern. The syllabus for the class is online at http://www.geocities.com/mike_reilley_2000/sports/syllabus.html. (Keep in mind we covered everything from the preps to the pros in this class).

Help yourselves to any of the resources there. Also, there are many online sports resources at my site, www.journaliststoolbox.com.

The best way to teach the fundamentals of sports reporting is to talk about the basics -- scoring, interviewing, developing a first-day, result-based story as well as a feature lead. Show them how to write game stories, features, etc.

Then take them out and DO IT. Have them keep score off a local high school baseball game, soccer, etc. If the teacher doesn't understand the basic strategies of the sport, bring in a coach to talk to the class.

I spent 13 years as a sports reporter (10 at the LA Times and Chicago Tribune) and found that the fundamentals got me through the toughest sports stories.

Mike Reilley
www.journaliststoolbox.com

Another thing you can do is get some really excellent game clips from some really excellent writers and take them apart. I recommend Buster Olney, who covered the New York Yankees for the Times for several years. (He switched to the Giants this year.) His stories are wonderfully written, with theme, drama, a key moment of the game, etc. he spoke to our newsroom in December and I have a newsletter that sums up how he does it, if you're interested.
Laurie Hertzel
Star Tribune

Check out "The Sports Writing Handbook." It was written by Thomas Fensch from the University of Texas at Austin in 1988. Our sports editor has it on his desk and I have found it to be a very useful tool, not only for the sports writers but also the copy editor so that she is accustomed to the styles as well.
Karl Kling
Milford Times

You can't do better than the new Associated Press Sportswriting Handbook by Steve Wilstein. Copies available through the AP's Norm Goldstein (ngoldstein@ap.org). I believe the price is $24.95
Bruce DeSilva
AP