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Overheard at Village Inn pie day: It's a tough season for sportswriters. Ryan Suchomel fired by Iowa City Press-Citizen, Mark Emmert dumped by Des Moines. Register.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Tweets
Vaclav Too
Cyclones Appear Twice On ESPN Big Monday Games
The Big 12 Conference has announced its
schedule on ESPN’s Big Monday platform for the 2014 conference season,
highlighting a slate that will include more than 100 games on the ESPN networks.
The continuation of the long-standing and popular arrangement with ESPN will tip off on Monday, January 13 with Kansas traveling to Iowa State for a rematch of one of last year’s top league matchups. The Jayhawks then host Baylor the next Monday, January 20.
Big Monday will showcase Bedlam on January 27, as Oklahoma State travels to face Oklahoma. The Cowboys will play back-to-back Big Monday games when they host the Cyclones on February 3.
A meeting in the Sunflower State Showdown will take place in Manhattan on February 10, followed by OSU traveling to Waco to face Baylor. The Sooners will make their annual trip to Allen Fieldhouse for a game with KU on February 24, while the Big Monday schedule wraps up on March 3 when K-State travels to Oklahoma State.
The Big 12 is the only conference in the nation where every coach has guided a team to the NCAA tournament. In addition, nine of 10 teams have been ranked in the top 25 since 2009, with seven squads welcoming incoming classes this season that rank among the top 40 of the ESPN.com recruiting rankings for the class of 2013.
2014 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Schedule On ESPN’s Big Monday
All games televised on ESPN and available on WatchESPN
The continuation of the long-standing and popular arrangement with ESPN will tip off on Monday, January 13 with Kansas traveling to Iowa State for a rematch of one of last year’s top league matchups. The Jayhawks then host Baylor the next Monday, January 20.
Big Monday will showcase Bedlam on January 27, as Oklahoma State travels to face Oklahoma. The Cowboys will play back-to-back Big Monday games when they host the Cyclones on February 3.
A meeting in the Sunflower State Showdown will take place in Manhattan on February 10, followed by OSU traveling to Waco to face Baylor. The Sooners will make their annual trip to Allen Fieldhouse for a game with KU on February 24, while the Big Monday schedule wraps up on March 3 when K-State travels to Oklahoma State.
The Big 12 is the only conference in the nation where every coach has guided a team to the NCAA tournament. In addition, nine of 10 teams have been ranked in the top 25 since 2009, with seven squads welcoming incoming classes this season that rank among the top 40 of the ESPN.com recruiting rankings for the class of 2013.
2014 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Schedule On ESPN’s Big Monday
All games televised on ESPN and available on WatchESPN
| Date | Game | Time (CT) |
| January 13 | Kansas at Iowa State | 8:00 p.m. |
| January 20 | Baylor at Kansas | 8:00 p.m. |
| January 27 | Oklahoma State at Oklahoma | 8:00 p.m. |
| February 3 | Iowa State at Oklahoma State | 8:00 p.m. |
| February 10 | Kansas at Kansas State | 8:00 p.m. |
| February 17 | Oklahoma State at Baylor | 8:00 p.m. |
| February 24 | Oklahoma at Kansas | 8:00 p.m. |
| March 3 | Kansas State at Oklahoma State | 8:00 p.m. |
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
This Is What the Newspaper Business Has Come Down To: Iowa City-Press Citizen Sportswriters Will No Longer Cover Hawkeye Sports, and Will Rely on D.M. Register Stories Instead. Veteran Writer Pat Harty Will Now Cover High School Sports
Iowa City radio station KCJJ reported Monday that the Iowa City Press-Citizen will stop covering University of Iowa Hawkeye sports and run stories from Des Moines Register sports reporters. (Both papers are owned by Gannett.) The Press-Citizen’s Pat Harty, who has covered the Hawkeyes for decades, will be reassigned to prep sports, according to the station’s report.
I called the Press-Citizen and was told by a newsroom leader who didn’t want to be identified — by name or title — that the paper will neither confirm nor deny the report.
KCJJ owner Steve Soboroff says the paper wants his report retracted, “but we have multiple sources confirming this.” (Harty also does work for the station, but he isn’t named as a source of the information.)
“If the paper ends up not doing this [outsourcing the coverage], it will only be because of the reaction to our report on Twitter and Facebook,” says Soboroff. “This is a Big Ten town! I think we’d be the only Big Ten town that doesn’t have the local newspaper covering college sports.”
I’ve also asked Des Moines Register sports editor Chad Leistikow about the radio station’s report.
--Jim Romenesko via Twitter.
Good Riddance
By Bill Savage
Chicago Side
Chicago Side
Paul Sullivan Talks About Leaving The Cubs Beat After Ten Years
Few jobs in sports journalism compare to being the beat writer
for a major league baseball team. From catchers and pitchers reporting
in February, through Spring Training, then a marathon 162-game season
across six months, then (for the lucky few) the playoffs and the World
Series. Unlike writers covering other sports, there’s no two or three or
seven days off between games: The relentless pace of baseball demands
writers who can get to know a team, turn out game and feature stories
day after day.
At the Chicago Tribune, Paul Sullivan has been on this job for almost two decades. After starting his career as a freelancer in 1981, he became a city reporter, and then legendary columnist Mike Royko’s legman in 1984, before moving to sports in 1987. From ’94 to ’96, and again from 2000 to 2002, Sullivan covered the White Sox. From ’97-’99, and from 2003 until today, he has been the Cubs beat writer.
Last week, while covering the suspense attendant upon the non-waiver trade deadline at 3 p.m., Sullivan sent some cryptic Tweets:
Well, there’s no place like the Internet to keep secrets. So I asked Paul what was up, and he agreed to an interview. We spoke by phone and over email, and what follows is a condensed and edited version of those conversations.
Bill Savage: So, what’s changing over by the Tower for local baseball coverage?
Paul Sullivan: Mark Gonzalez will be taking over the Cubs beat, and Colleen Kane will handle the White Sox, along with Fred Mitchell covering both when the regulars are off, and Phil Rogers still doing national stuff. I’ll be a baseball generalist, writing longer feature stories about both teams, baseball in general, the minors, the sort of thing we haven’t had since Dave Van Dyck retired. I won’t be a columnist, opining on whether to fire someone, I’ll be a baseball reporter, just not the beat guy.
BS: How do you understand the job of the beat writer, and how will your new job differ?
PS: A beat writer gives you daily information as quickly as possible via Twitter, blogs, print. My new role will allow me to take more time and hopefully give a longer, more detailed, analytic take on a story that may have fallen through the cracks otherwise. I won’t be involved in the daily reporting of the teams, as I have been for the last 20 seasons (since ’94). So I won’t be able to tweet in-game sarcasm and snark. Everything’s a trade-off.
BS: How has the beat writer’s job changed since ’94? As a reader, I’ve noticed the many shifts. Back in the day, a game story always had to have the two teams and the final score in the lede. A decade or more ago, that information was put in a subhead. Nowadays, it seems like the papers assume that readers already know the score via MLB.com or ESPN, and so beat writers really produce three feature stories, one of which will have the game story buried in it somewhere.
PS: True, the Internet has changed everything. The running game-story is long gone; you know the, “Then Sosa singled with two outs. Alou brought him around with a double into the left field corner before Ramirez struck out on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning. Then, in the top of the fifth…” et cetera. But styles for telling game stories have always been in flux. I’ve written in six or seven different styles. From the old-fashioned game story to the USA Today 8-inch front-pager, with a longer notebook inside the section.
BS: How have things changed in just the last few years, say since the Tribune Co. sold to the Ricketts family?
PS: There is less clubhouse access, but that was something negotiated between the Baseball Writers Association of America and MLB and is not a Cubs issue. Generally, the half hour after batting practice is gone so players can “focus” on the game. And there are more places for players to hide than the old days when they were stuck sitting at their lockers. Cubs players have been cooperative recently, though they are coached at a young age not to say anything controversial.
BS: Yeah, it’s like that “clichés” scene in Bull Durham is now the actual training film for ballplayers. But at least one player’s wife hasn’t gotten the memo. You frequently re-tweet Kim DeJesus. On trade deadline day, she tweeted images of herself drinking champagne out of the bottle, presumably to celebrate her husband, centerfielder David DeJesus, not being traded. What’s your take on her?
PS: I retweet her because I follow her, which is what Twitter is all about. Seeing what other people think, engaging in conversation. I love her because she doesn’t care, which is unusual for a baseball wife. David clearly doesn’t mind. She’s a Hall of Famer, what can I say?
BS: Some people aren’t too fond of what you say and write, but you seem unfazed. You recently retweeted a Deadspin story where they solicited nominations for the “Worst Beat Writers” by baseball division. Some of the locals treated you the way the brutally loud Wrigley Field PA system treats my eardrums. What’s your take on the Cubs bloggers?
PS: Most of the bloggers hate me, but it’s hilarious to me and I enjoy it. They think they can do this job, but they can’t or they would. I read Desipio.com and HireJimEssian.com, mostly for their humorous take on the Cubs. Most of the other blogs blatantly copy and paste information/quotes provided by me and the other beat writers and then rewrite it with their own opinions. I’m not really interested in their opinions. I think Mark Twain once said 95 percent of Cubs fans are intelligent, rational people, and the other 5 percent write Cubs blogs.
BS: Did you grow up a Cubs fan? I know you’re a local guy, but what’s your baseball background?
PS: Well, I’ve been a Cubs fan since I was about 8 or 9. I was actually brought up in a Sox household. My grandmother was the original Charles Comiskey’s secretary in the 1920s and ’30s. She drank with Babe Ruth at McCuddy’s. My dad had season tickets to old Comiskey from the 1950s on. I came over to the Cubs side through games on Channel 9 and I went to a game with a friend in ’69, when I was nine, the day after Holtzman’s no-hitter. There was no turning back. I attended probably a few hundred games in the bleachers alone in ’70s and ’80s before becoming a sportswriter.
BS: What should Chicago baseball fans, Cubs or Sox, rational or bloggers, do for the rest of this dismal season?
PS: This is a really interesting time to be a Chicago baseball fan. Watching two teams try to rebuild, that’s fascinating.
BS: “Interesting time” as in the legendary Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”? Seems like that applies to your new job as much as to the general state of Chicago baseball.
PS: Yes. It’s gonna be weird, but I’m looking forward to it.
At the Chicago Tribune, Paul Sullivan has been on this job for almost two decades. After starting his career as a freelancer in 1981, he became a city reporter, and then legendary columnist Mike Royko’s legman in 1984, before moving to sports in 1987. From ’94 to ’96, and again from 2000 to 2002, Sullivan covered the White Sox. From ’97-’99, and from 2003 until today, he has been the Cubs beat writer.
Last week, while covering the suspense attendant upon the non-waiver trade deadline at 3 p.m., Sullivan sent some cryptic Tweets:
Well, there’s no place like the Internet to keep secrets. So I asked Paul what was up, and he agreed to an interview. We spoke by phone and over email, and what follows is a condensed and edited version of those conversations.
Bill Savage: So, what’s changing over by the Tower for local baseball coverage?
Paul Sullivan: Mark Gonzalez will be taking over the Cubs beat, and Colleen Kane will handle the White Sox, along with Fred Mitchell covering both when the regulars are off, and Phil Rogers still doing national stuff. I’ll be a baseball generalist, writing longer feature stories about both teams, baseball in general, the minors, the sort of thing we haven’t had since Dave Van Dyck retired. I won’t be a columnist, opining on whether to fire someone, I’ll be a baseball reporter, just not the beat guy.
BS: How do you understand the job of the beat writer, and how will your new job differ?
PS: A beat writer gives you daily information as quickly as possible via Twitter, blogs, print. My new role will allow me to take more time and hopefully give a longer, more detailed, analytic take on a story that may have fallen through the cracks otherwise. I won’t be involved in the daily reporting of the teams, as I have been for the last 20 seasons (since ’94). So I won’t be able to tweet in-game sarcasm and snark. Everything’s a trade-off.
BS: How has the beat writer’s job changed since ’94? As a reader, I’ve noticed the many shifts. Back in the day, a game story always had to have the two teams and the final score in the lede. A decade or more ago, that information was put in a subhead. Nowadays, it seems like the papers assume that readers already know the score via MLB.com or ESPN, and so beat writers really produce three feature stories, one of which will have the game story buried in it somewhere.
PS: True, the Internet has changed everything. The running game-story is long gone; you know the, “Then Sosa singled with two outs. Alou brought him around with a double into the left field corner before Ramirez struck out on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning. Then, in the top of the fifth…” et cetera. But styles for telling game stories have always been in flux. I’ve written in six or seven different styles. From the old-fashioned game story to the USA Today 8-inch front-pager, with a longer notebook inside the section.
BS: How have things changed in just the last few years, say since the Tribune Co. sold to the Ricketts family?
PS: There is less clubhouse access, but that was something negotiated between the Baseball Writers Association of America and MLB and is not a Cubs issue. Generally, the half hour after batting practice is gone so players can “focus” on the game. And there are more places for players to hide than the old days when they were stuck sitting at their lockers. Cubs players have been cooperative recently, though they are coached at a young age not to say anything controversial.
BS: Yeah, it’s like that “clichés” scene in Bull Durham is now the actual training film for ballplayers. But at least one player’s wife hasn’t gotten the memo. You frequently re-tweet Kim DeJesus. On trade deadline day, she tweeted images of herself drinking champagne out of the bottle, presumably to celebrate her husband, centerfielder David DeJesus, not being traded. What’s your take on her?
PS: I retweet her because I follow her, which is what Twitter is all about. Seeing what other people think, engaging in conversation. I love her because she doesn’t care, which is unusual for a baseball wife. David clearly doesn’t mind. She’s a Hall of Famer, what can I say?
BS: Some people aren’t too fond of what you say and write, but you seem unfazed. You recently retweeted a Deadspin story where they solicited nominations for the “Worst Beat Writers” by baseball division. Some of the locals treated you the way the brutally loud Wrigley Field PA system treats my eardrums. What’s your take on the Cubs bloggers?
PS: Most of the bloggers hate me, but it’s hilarious to me and I enjoy it. They think they can do this job, but they can’t or they would. I read Desipio.com and HireJimEssian.com, mostly for their humorous take on the Cubs. Most of the other blogs blatantly copy and paste information/quotes provided by me and the other beat writers and then rewrite it with their own opinions. I’m not really interested in their opinions. I think Mark Twain once said 95 percent of Cubs fans are intelligent, rational people, and the other 5 percent write Cubs blogs.
BS: Did you grow up a Cubs fan? I know you’re a local guy, but what’s your baseball background?
PS: Well, I’ve been a Cubs fan since I was about 8 or 9. I was actually brought up in a Sox household. My grandmother was the original Charles Comiskey’s secretary in the 1920s and ’30s. She drank with Babe Ruth at McCuddy’s. My dad had season tickets to old Comiskey from the 1950s on. I came over to the Cubs side through games on Channel 9 and I went to a game with a friend in ’69, when I was nine, the day after Holtzman’s no-hitter. There was no turning back. I attended probably a few hundred games in the bleachers alone in ’70s and ’80s before becoming a sportswriter.
BS: What should Chicago baseball fans, Cubs or Sox, rational or bloggers, do for the rest of this dismal season?
PS: This is a really interesting time to be a Chicago baseball fan. Watching two teams try to rebuild, that’s fascinating.
BS: “Interesting time” as in the legendary Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”? Seems like that applies to your new job as much as to the general state of Chicago baseball.
PS: Yes. It’s gonna be weird, but I’m looking forward to it.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Cyclones Will Wear 1923-Style Uniforms Against Iowa
Iowa State will throw all the way back
to 1923 with its football uniforms for the rivalry game against Iowa, to
commemorate the man after whom their stadium is made.
Iowa State revealed some throwbacks that it'll wear for the
annual Cy-Hawk game against Iowa, commemorating the 80th anniversary of
the 1923 team, and oh boy, are they cool.
Here's a look at the unis, unveiled in a video on the team's website:
Old-timey football is the coolest, and these uniforms are just lovely. The colors are muted in comparison to Iowa State's sometimes garish gear, and the shirts do a pretty sweet job of mimicking the sweaters that used to get worn back in the day.
Obviously, they can't rock leather helmets like they did in the 20s, but the helmets with jersey numbers on the side are pretty decent:
They eventually went out on the field to take some very staged pictures:
1923 was the year Jack Trice played for the Cyclones. The namesake of Iowa State's stadium, Trice was the first black player in Iowa State's history, but passed away after injuries suffered in his second college game against Minnesota after spending the night at a racially segregated hotel.
Incidentally, Iowa and Iowa State didn't play that year, but they have played every year since 1977 after a gap of over 40 years. Although the Hawkeyes lead the series 39-21, including a 15-year run of wins from 1983 to 1997, the Cyclones have taken two in a row. They play Week 3 this year in Ames.
Things introduced in the Iowa series are not always received well. (Yes, they got rid of that trophy.)
Here's a look at the unis, unveiled in a video on the team's website:
Old-timey football is the coolest, and these uniforms are just lovely. The colors are muted in comparison to Iowa State's sometimes garish gear, and the shirts do a pretty sweet job of mimicking the sweaters that used to get worn back in the day.
Obviously, they can't rock leather helmets like they did in the 20s, but the helmets with jersey numbers on the side are pretty decent:
They eventually went out on the field to take some very staged pictures:
1923 was the year Jack Trice played for the Cyclones. The namesake of Iowa State's stadium, Trice was the first black player in Iowa State's history, but passed away after injuries suffered in his second college game against Minnesota after spending the night at a racially segregated hotel.
Incidentally, Iowa and Iowa State didn't play that year, but they have played every year since 1977 after a gap of over 40 years. Although the Hawkeyes lead the series 39-21, including a 15-year run of wins from 1983 to 1997, the Cyclones have taken two in a row. They play Week 3 this year in Ames.
Things introduced in the Iowa series are not always received well. (Yes, they got rid of that trophy.)
Friday, August 2, 2013
'Junk All Over the Place'
The Chicago Cubs are worse than lousy these days. They've got rookie outfielder Junior Lake and that's about it. Oh, yes, they also have Jim Deshaies, a first-year commentator on their telecasts. Deshaies tells it like it is. Thank God somebody does. The Cubs are rotten and so are their games. Today, in a horrible 6-2 loss to the Dodgers, Deshaies [pictured] said, 'This game is like a yard sale--junk all over the place."
Drake Women Play Iowa, Iowa State, Creighton
Drake's women’s basketball program has released its 2013-14 non-conference schedule, coach
Jennie Baranczyk said today. The challenging 11-game slate
features dates with 2013 NCAA tournament qualifiers Creighton,
Iowa and Iowa State
Drake, which returns nine letterwinners from last year’s squad, welcomes former
Missouri Valley Conference rival Creighton
to the Knapp Center on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7:05 p.m. for its regular
season opener. Following the matchup against the Bluejays, the Bulldogs
hit the road for their next three contests with matchups at Wisconsin on
Sunday, Nov. 10 and at Colorado State on Saturday,
Nov. 16, before closing the road swing at South Dakota on Thursday,
Nov. 21.
“I
think it’s a great, challenging non-conference schedule for us,” said
Baranczyk. “We made it a priority to continue
to schedule games against Creighton and it’s important to continue
playing the in-state schools. All three made the tournament last year
and will be good again this season.”
Drake
returns to the Knapp Center to host owa State on Sunday,
Nov. 24 before traveling to the Seattle
University Thanksgiving tournament Nov. 29-30. The Bulldogs play
Cornell University Friday night (11/29) then face either Seattle or
Coastal Carolina the following day (11/30).
Drake
has four games scheduled for the month of December with all four taking
place in-state as the Bulldogs host
Idaho State and SIU-Edwardsville on Thursday, Dec. 5 and Tuesday, Dec.
17, respectively. Their lone road contest is a trip to Iowa City to take
on the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday, Dec. 21 before wrapping up
non-conference play with a home game against Milwaukee
on Sunday, Dec. 29.
“I’m excited for our senior class to have the opportunity to play these non-conference games,” said Baranczyk. “We
have had a strong summer and we are excited for the season to start.”
The Bulldogs will play a single exhibition contest on Friday, Dec. 1 against the University of Dubuque at the Knapp
Center starting at 7:05 p.m.[This story was written for Ron Maly by John Meyer of Drake's sports information staff].
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