maly, too: I Am Overwhelmed With Excitement

Saturday, January 25, 2014

I Am Overwhelmed With Excitement

By RON MALY

I see the paper has a new editor.

Her name is Amalie Nash, she's 37 years of age and she describes herself as a runner and a Detroit Tigers fan.

I am overwhelmed with excitement.

New editor, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press

Easy now.

I'm being facetious, of course.

However, I'll bet Mike Mahon is doing handsprings now that he knows Nash is coming to town.

Mahon is the former standout sports information guy at Drake, and he's the only other Detroit Tigers fan from metropolitan Des Moines of whom I am aware.

The people who make the decisions down there at the paper thought it was front-page news that Nash was coming onboard, but evidently no one else regarded it as a big deal.

The paper likes to get readers' thoughts on what it publishes and, naturally, pleasant thoughts are preferred.

But nobody has pleasant thoughts about newspapers in this day and age.

The only written comment I could find about Nash's hiring was from someone who wrote, "I have a very innovative way to present the news paper, how about telling the truth. You could try investigative reporting also. I got tired of reading the paper because the story was reported as was dictated as told to the reporter. Ben said a half truth is the same as a lie."

Somehow, I don't think that reader is doing cartwheels down the middle of Locust Street in celebration of Nash being named the paper's editor, effective Feb. 3.

Maybe it's because the paper changes editors at about the same rate as Younkers has 20-percent-off sales.

It doesn't make any difference who sits in the editor's chair, of course.

The paper's circulation keeps dwindling.

I'm trying to think positively about this thing, and I really hope Nash becomes a heavyweight editor in the Ken McDonald and Geneva Overholser category, and I sure hope she doesn't wind up in the lightweight group that includes Mike Gartner, Jim Gannon, Dennis Ryerson, Paul Anger, Carolyn Washburn and Rick Green.

But I have my doubts.

The paper has so many problems that no one who works there--especially the editor--has time to be attending minor league baseball games or, as reporter Joel Aschbrenner wrote in his story in the paper, "explore Des Moines' trail system."

Actually, Nash will likely want to give more thought to actually going to Sec Taylor Stadium for any baseball games.

Evidently, she hasn't done her homework, or else no one has informed her that the little clown who runs the minor league baseball operation in Des Moines is a constant critic of the paper.

But Nash will learn.

Maybe.

Time will tell if she's got what it takes.

As interested in sports as she appears to be, maybe she can assign someone to cover the football and basketball games played by Valley High School.

It's the biggest school in the state, but the paper can't seem to find a way to get stories [sometimes not even the scores] about the Tigers in the paper.

Things have gotten so bad down there that the paper doesn't even send a reporter to Drake's women's basketball games anymore.

Not even the home games at the Knapp Center.

It relies on the same stuff many of us get via email from the university's sports information department.

I guess I'm wondering just how eager Nash was to be named the editor here.

I'm asking myself if she said, "Des Moines? Why Des Moines?" when she was told she was being sent here.

Maybe her boss in Detroit said, "Relax. Do like everyone else does these days in the newspaper business, especially those in the Gannett Co. chain. Rent, don't buy. Go to Des Moines for 18 months and we'll bring you back to Detroit with a promotion, a pay raise and a season pass to the Tigers' games."

It's good that Nash is quick on her feet.

Obviously, she knows about all of the horrible things going on in the newspaper business because she's been in the middle of it.

I did some research and found that, when she worked for a news operation in Ann Arbor, Mich., she beat the posse out of town.

The place was dumping folks about like the way the paper here has been ruining careers.

Some people think that if Nash hadn't bailed out of Ann Arbor in favor of Detroit, she'd have been told to go.

Maybe that was the case anyway.

All I know is, people in charge at the paper here evidently didn't think there was anyone in the newsroom who could handle the job of editor.

Someone named Carol Hunter, who had been the interim editor, was passed over, and no one else was thought to have enough savvy to handle the job.

Newsroom folks down there had better watch out.

My advice is to never bring your lunch to work because you might not be there long enough to eat it.

Recent layoffs at the paper have resulted in the sports columnist and an assistant sports editor who covered the Olympics being fired.

Numerous other writers and photographers, the cartoonist [some of them talented people] have been shown the door.

I'm told that the national news in the paper will soon be handled in a section put out by USA Today, the biggest paper in the Gannett chain.

Count on it that more layoffs at the paper here will lose their jobs when that happens.

And they will likely include all departments.

For all I know, the entire Des Moines news operation may soon be handled in the newsroom at USA Today.

Anyway, Amalie, welcome to town.

Maybe you can join Mike Mahon and me at free pie day at Village Inn later this winter, and we can talk about the Tigers--from both Detroit and Valley.

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.