Real Sports Journalist, Sort of

Since the end of May the Dodgers have been more than generous to give me and LAist media access to games. So that means I get to set up shop in the press box, go down in the clubhouse and interview players, coaches and Joe Torre and walk along the field during batting practice. I can’t explain how much fun it’s been.

During this time I’ve seen players get brought up from the minor leagues and sent back down. I’ve seen players go on the disabled list. I’ve seen victories and losses. Extra inning games. I’ve seen a 500-pound vegetarian try and break into the Dodger clubhouse in anger after a game. I’ve waited around aimlessly with the other journalists until a player of note was available to be interviewed.

It’s been an amazing experience, and I’ve learned so much. But as fun as it is, there is work involved. For a 7:10 pm game, I get to the park at around 3:30 to check in and set up shop in the press box. Then around 3:45 I go down to the clubhouse and hope the players I want to interview for my game preview story are around and want to talk. After mostly standing around waiting, at 4:30 I go out to the dugout for Torre’s media gathering. By 5:00 I go back up to the press box, transcribe the interviews and write my preview piece. The game starts at 7:10 and goes on for however long until the final out is made.

On a good day the game ends around 10:15. We all then go downstairs to get postgame reaction. After about 30 minutes I come back upstairs and get to writing the recap. Depending on the action of the game, this could take anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour. Basically everyone in the box prays we can get out by midnight especially if the next game is an afternoon game since then we have to get there by 10 am.

It can be a grind, but hell I get to watch a baseball game for free, write about it and talk to the players involved in it. How fucking awesome is that?

Anyhow that’s it. That’s what I’ve been up to the last several months.