Sports, anyone? Here are two great stories to comment on.
1. Tiger Woods was back at Torrey Pines, but this time as a caddie. While the topic of this piece is quite feel good, the writing is solid and the intention is well stated. In the current news atmosphere, do you think pieces like this will increase in popularity or decrease? As people tire of the economic situation and presidential fight, they will increasingly turn to news outlets for sources of inspiration and relief. Is this the role of the media in a time of crisis? Or, will pieces like this fall to the background even more? Is there a sports piece in here with an MA twist?
2. Ah, the Rays. Sweet Tampa Bay. Slayer of the evil Red Sox. Winner of the ALCS. Awesome. Here is a great analytical article on the make up of the team that is now headed to the World Series. Not only is this a great example of division/analysis style writing, but it's also quite creative at times. Does this style work? Do you find this article interesting even, if say, you hate baseball or sports in general? What kind of Voice piece might you be able to model after this one? Is this a good way to cover a sports team at MA?
Share yourinsights, brilliance, amazingness and more. Honestly, the comments from the last few weeks have been awesome. Keep up the great work!
7 comments:
The Tiger piece, for me, was a lot of fun to read. Beyond the fact that I like golf, the article made the sport accessible to everyone. I feel like this kind of article would be more popular than our basic sports wrap-ups and previews because there's a features/human interest piece to it. The story of a 59 year old guy being humbled by his god-like caddie is funny enough, but throw in a 5-putt on the 10th hole for a quadruple bogey and it's even more enjoyable.
As far as media roles, I don't think that this is the "job" of the media - to steer people away as they get tired of the "issues" towards light sports stories. With that said, I think that this piece is timeless, meaning it doesn't matter that we're in recession, we could be in the GREATEST economic boom ever, and I'd still read it.
Unfortunately, I don't think this kind of piece fits in the Voice, and for a few reasons. First, our publishing schedule makes it incredibly difficult to publish a story in a timely fashion, as well as before the whole community already knows about it. Also, we don't have a celebrity like Tiger Woods who just shows up, and I don't think it'd be right to exploit the students at MA with celebrity parents just for a story. With THAT said, I think our Sports section needs a kick of human interest that we don't always find because it's not easy to implement.
I love this article on Tiger. I think all too often dominant athletes, like Tiger and Roger Federer, are painted in a light that makes them seem robotic, winning machines. It is really nice to see an article that doesn't try to portray Tiger as the dominant athlete he really is, but just a guy with great golf knowledge helping out another guy who loves golf (yes I know its all part of an advertising stunt, but still). This article is something that brings the confusing world of golf right back to the heart; it is really a very accessible article.
I think that the media shouldn't really have a "job" when it comes to reporting stories like this. I think there is always going to be a certain amount of human interest in "uplifting" stories like this one, but I don't think that the media should attempt to try and steer itself more towards these stories in a time of hardship. Yes it is true we are in a time of hardship, and Conference on Democracy speaker Orville Schell's speech served to highlight this. However, another thing that Mr. Schell talked about in his speech was the idea that it is the job and the obligation of the media to keep the people educated about world-wide topics, grave or not, especially in times of crisis. Thus, while articles such as these are refreshing and uplifting, the media should be focusing on educating the people about the conflict we are currently facing around the world, as it should be our number one priority in present times.
With regards to the Voice, I believe that there is a place for an article like this one. In sports announcing, there are two primary roles: the play-by-play announcer and the color commentator. The play-by-play announcer focuses on the facts of the game, while the color commentator is there to provide personality, insight, and character. Sports writing, in general, should be a combination of both. However, with our publishing cycle, I think that our sports page should lean more on the side of color than on the side of play-by-play, which is something I have been trying to implement with the Wildcats of the Issue and more in-depth team articles. That said, providing in-depth color commentary is a difficult goal to attain, as it requires a multitude of time and effort to dig deep and find the story. This article represents a reporters effort to find Tiger at a relatively low-key advertising stunt and find the story that goes along with it. While the reporter may have gone with the intention of writing a straight-up news piece regarding the event, the reporter was able to find the underlying story and turn it into an article that is truly unique. This is something that we should strive for at the Voice as well.
The Smartest Team in Baseball
How the Rays beat the Red Sox.
For baseball neophytes like me, this article was very educational. Did I recognize any of the names of baseball players mentioned in the article? No. But at least I can now participate a little bit in conversations about baseball with other sports nuts. The writer stays away from excessive technical jargon, and keeps the article understandable yet deeply analytical. Everything is so clear, so precise, laid out so much like a mathematical proof justifying the Rays’ superiority.
There is definitely a place for sports articles like this one in the Voice, even though they would probably appear sparingly; there are probably only a few people on the staff of the Voice knowledgeable enough about sports to write a similar article. In addition, this article focused very heavily on the distinct weaknesses and strengths of the two teams. Sports teams at Marin Academy are high school teams, and probably do not have enough depth to allow for long, detailed analysis (I could be very, very wrong here…). For me at least, it would be very difficult to analyze players that aren’t the “star” players, and to analyze MA sports plays without being overly generic. In that respect, I agree with Nish (even though he was talking about a different article); sports writing for the Voice should tightly integrate not only news, but also color together in one piece.
In the Voice however, this style of writing should not only be limited to sports writing, it would work for any topic that merits analysis. Take the upcoming school play for example. It would be interesting to anatomize the various roles of the behind-the-scenes tech workers and how their work translates into what the audience sees when watching the actors. The students controlling the light board, the ones who have to memorize where to move chairs and what cues to look out for—these are all roles that are often overlooked by the common audience member. Instead of delving into the content of the play and extolling the efforts of the theater staff, we could look at the operation of the play. That in my opinion would be truly unique.
-Tiras Lin
Like Tiras, I am totally oblivious to the baseball world. (And for that matter, the world of virtually all other professional sports as well.) I agree that the article was easier to read for someone who is not dedicated to following the season because there was not too much "excessive technical jargon" (quoting Tiras). However, to be honest, the article still managed to lose my interest once it began to go into rankings and hitting averages of players I have never heard of.
I think the first few paragraphs of this article were the strongest, and would be good to mimic in Voice articles. The writer certainly has a quirky voice already, and makes the article even more interesting by making unique points about his subjects.
I like the idea of covering MA sports teams and performing ensembles in a similar manner. Articles with unique angles are always more interesting to read, and I think pieces highlighting the quirks and behind-the-scenes aspects of a group of people are much more likely to be read and enjoyed by the community as a whole.
I don't watch golf or play the sport beyond an occasional mini-golfing expedition so to read an article like this was kinda fun. I think sports is a tough section, particularly because in high school everyone just wants to read about their own sport, so I agree with Josh that more human-interest pieces would be great. I think if we can start really looking into teams, listening for issues teams are dealing with, issues athletes in general deal with, fun tournaments etc. we could really spice up our sports section. The article was also nice because it didn't get too silly -- it had nice quotes from both Woods and Abel and let story carry itself. Made for a pleasant and easy read.
It really is fun to root for a team like the rays. Whether it be because of their weird math (joe madden, the manager, made shirts that said 9=8, meaning that 9 guys working together would gain them one of the 8 playoff spots) or their child-like giddyness in their dogpile, they have truly been enjoyable. Despite the fact that they did not win the world series, it is impossible to not consider this season a sucess. Not only were they the worst team in the league last year, but they had only won more than 70 games once in their team's history. To gain any kind of fan base, you have to have some sucesss in your team's history. The rays no have that, and their fan base will continue to be loyal.
sorry, i couldnt figure out how to change the author, that was zeke how made the post under tonsoffun97531. It is my aim screen name, I made it in 5th grade, give me abreak.
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