Notes From Work...
I don't want to do my homework, therefore here are some short little things I've been thinking lately...
-What's going on with all these football players suddenly getting busted for drug use? The Ricky Williams thing was shocking, but didn't phase me all too much. But this Quincy Carter thing--I'm sorry, if he was stupid enough to be using drugs while being coached by Parcells, then he doesn't have enough brain capacity to be allowed to play football. That's like a 15 year old girl talking about having premartial sex in front of a old nun. You just don't do that.
-I honestly love the listing of all the At-Bat songs on ESPN's Page 3. I hate Page 3 usually, because it's just a silly concept most of the time. I mean, I don't read ESPN for entertainment news. I read it for sports news and commentary. If I want entertainment news, I'll go to Yahoo or something. Not ESPN.
But anyway, despite me not really being knowledgeable about any baseball besides the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Yankees and Orioles (you'd think I'd know the Devil Rays, but no, never made the connection that they were all in the same division until recently. They have no connection to me. All those teams do: I grew up in Rochester, where we were the farm team for the Orioles; I love all things Canada, therefore have always rooted for the Blue Jays; I went to school with all Yankees fans (except for Brian, the lone Mets fan I knew at Binghamton); and I currently live in Boston and therefore am obsessed with the Red Sox. Tampa Bay has no play into that theme whatsoever. But anyway, I'm saying, despite me not knowing a thing beyond those four teams, I find this list of at-bat music highly amusing. One person on every team has "Yeah" by Usher. Some teams have that token alternative Christian music person. Then you have your token country guy who plays Tim McGraw (who I'm guessing has got to be the country artist of choice for baseball players, seeing who his father was and all). Then you have the 70s rock dude. Every few teams has someone with obscure salsa music. The rest is all popular rap.
Why do I bring this up? Well, it got me thinking. I was explaining to Kit not too long ago that I had this thing where I listened to Ben Folds' "Rock This..." from his live album before I had to take a test or interview or something high pressure of that sort. It made me laugh hysterically that I was trying to get pumped up by listening to Ben Folds. I love the guy, he's second only to Barenaked Ladies on my favourite artist scale, but he is not pump up music. But this song was to me. I don't know. So I made Kit listen to it once, and she laughed. I don't think she added it to her pump up music repertoire, but maybe she did and just hasn't told me yet. I wouldn't say that that Ben Folds song would be my "at-bat" music, which led me to thinking--what would be my "at-bat" music?
I still don't know.
Here's where ya'll come in (all three of you left that actually read my blog.)
What would be your at-bat music? Or for those of you not as athletically-interested, what music would you have playing as you entered that big interview, that major test, that life-changing performance? E-mail me at katherinehas@yahoo.com and let me know, or IM me the rare times my computer in the apartment stays online. With Research Methods quickly coming to a close, I'll have time to write more, and therefore, will be able to post and comment on your choices. I'll also be asking everyone who doesn't read my blog, so we'll get some new names and faces as well.
Call it random audience participation time. I try to make this engaging. Whether or not I succeed is unknown.
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Later this weekend (because I didn't post the link to this entry till Sunday because I was hanging with cows and tractors while learning various drinking games. Long story. Definitely fun times though.)
So for some flashback fun, read this entry of my blog from last year. A year ago this weekend, I was in Boston, trying to decide if I should move here or not.
And here I am.
Things are 65 times different than I imagined them. As much as I loved BU, inside I thought it was a given that I'd be a Harvard-ite. I thought I'd be working as a RD to get through grad school. There's a couple more things that I won't go into that I thought would happen that didn't. Moving here was ten times harder than I thought--there were several times in the past three months that I've wanted to pack it all in and go home. But that's natural--you can't leave everything you know and not expect that to happen.
But I'm extremely happy. Busy, stressed out, overworked, insomnia-ridden--but happy. I have great jobs, I'm thisclose to being done with school forever, I have an awesome cat that sleeps with me at night, and while I don't have a lot of friends yet, the ones I do have are amazingly awesome (especially the one that dragged me out to tractor country this weekend). I get to watch the Red Sox on TV, pass Fenway Park on the way to work, and talk sports with everyone because everyone gets them.
It's amazing that a year has gone by, and I'm here.
I just thought I'd share.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Thursday, August 05, 2004
"Can I Get Some Information, Please?"
(quote courtesy of Paula Abdul, who I wanted to be when I was 9)
What is the purpose of a sports journalist? To report given information and place it in its correct context, or to report what information isn't given and expand on it?
Wednesday, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle devoted two articles (http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sports/bills/0804DO54EOD_sports.shtml and http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sports/bills/0804DO54EO6_sports.shtml) to Bills tackle Mike Williams, a second year player who had missed most if not all of the offseason workouts due to a "personal situation." As per the information given by the Bills, a close member of his family died. Approaching the current training camp in good ol' Rochester, Williams was demoted to the second string by Mike Mularkey because he had missed so much work in the off season. This was big news--Williams has always been toted as one of GM Tom Donahoe's "good" draft picks (as opposed to Willis McGahee and the yet-to-be-determined pick of Losman as the new Jim Kelly, just several years removed.) Mularkey was making waves as a new coach by demoting such a player.
Williams was absent from practice on Tuesday, which incurs a fine from Mularkey. The Bills information said that he missed due to a "personal problem."
These two articles on Wednesday infer that although Williams has suffered personal tragedy and family hardship recently, his absence was due to a lack of work ethic and therefore an oversight by Donahoe. Williams is a "38 million dollar backup" now, it proclaimed. They should of drafted someone else, in particular Byant McKinnie, instead. Will Donahoe ever get anything right?
In my own opinion, no, Donahoe will never get anything right because he's highly overrated and worked only well with the defensive-obsessed Cowher-headed Steelers, who never ever had an offensive bright spot in the 90s (and yes, I remember Kordell Stewart.) But that's besides the point. Williams indeed was back on Wednesday, ready to work after having to attend to family business the day before. His work ethic still intact, he told reporters that everything was fine, and he understands why he was fined.
However, the reporters at the Democrat and Chronicle decided not to report solely the information the Bills were giving them, and hypothized that Williams has just become lazy and happy to sit on his laurels, much like the recently retired Ricky Williams, and it was just a mistake by Donahoe, who might actually be the weak spot on this oh-so-promising-over-the-past-three-years-franchise. And their two stories (not just one--two--one presented as opinion but not attributed to any author on the website, and the other as a training camp report) revolved around this non-information.
And I, being the doormat that I am, ate it up.
I mean, I was raised by a lifelong Steelers hater. You blame Donahoe for something, well, I'm right on board. He's from the Steelers, therefore he is evil. So I bought into this idea. I rely on the good ol' D&C for my Bills news. If they are saying that Mike Williams could be going the way of Ricky Williams, they must have good reason.
And then you find out all of the information by reading what the Boston Globe is saying, and what ESPN.com is saying, and then you realize that those two articles were based more on inference than information.
What is the job of a sports journalist? Is it to explain to us, the non-sports-journalist, those of us who would love to do that but got derailed upon the way, what is going on in that sport? Or is it to take advantage of us who trust the journalist to give us the facts by "explaining" a situation by inference? We, the average reader of the sports section (a demographic which is constantly changing), are not "in the know" or smart enough to place pieces together and come to our own conclusions, so the reporters at the D&C have decided that they are going to use the information not given and present it as the only information.
Bill Simmons, in one of his many loving tributes (sarcasm) to Nomar this week, said this about Boston sports journalists: "Many of the columnists care more about stirring things up than making sports more fun to follow, which is the whole reason you should be covering sports in the first place." These two articles were more about stirring up rumors about the "truth" the Bills were "hiding" from us, than the truth.
And you know this isn't that big of a deal. It's a fine line between the facts that are given and what is the truth and what needs to be shared and just overall ethics of giving thousands of readers information. Disputes like this happen often--this is why freedom of the press is an awesome idea. We need several different outlets so that we the reader can come up with our own conclusions. However, it's sad in this instance because it is obvious that Mike Williams suffered a catastrophic family event and now a couple hundred guys in Rochester who think that Bob Matthews is the be-all-end-all of all sports media (sorry, personal jab--I listen to his show when I'm at home, but it's only to argue with everything he says. My father always wants me to call in, but I'm too shy) think that he didn't show up to practices because he's just another Ricky Williams--a spoiled and free-spirited 20-something who got rich too quick and now wants to rest on his laurels. The guy, as per the actual information provided by him and the Bills, is going through a tough time and doesn't deserve us thinking he's a waste of space--physically and cap money wise.
I adore football season, but it's back to studying research methods...
(quote courtesy of Paula Abdul, who I wanted to be when I was 9)
What is the purpose of a sports journalist? To report given information and place it in its correct context, or to report what information isn't given and expand on it?
Wednesday, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle devoted two articles (http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sports/bills/0804DO54EOD_sports.shtml and http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sports/bills/0804DO54EO6_sports.shtml) to Bills tackle Mike Williams, a second year player who had missed most if not all of the offseason workouts due to a "personal situation." As per the information given by the Bills, a close member of his family died. Approaching the current training camp in good ol' Rochester, Williams was demoted to the second string by Mike Mularkey because he had missed so much work in the off season. This was big news--Williams has always been toted as one of GM Tom Donahoe's "good" draft picks (as opposed to Willis McGahee and the yet-to-be-determined pick of Losman as the new Jim Kelly, just several years removed.) Mularkey was making waves as a new coach by demoting such a player.
Williams was absent from practice on Tuesday, which incurs a fine from Mularkey. The Bills information said that he missed due to a "personal problem."
These two articles on Wednesday infer that although Williams has suffered personal tragedy and family hardship recently, his absence was due to a lack of work ethic and therefore an oversight by Donahoe. Williams is a "38 million dollar backup" now, it proclaimed. They should of drafted someone else, in particular Byant McKinnie, instead. Will Donahoe ever get anything right?
In my own opinion, no, Donahoe will never get anything right because he's highly overrated and worked only well with the defensive-obsessed Cowher-headed Steelers, who never ever had an offensive bright spot in the 90s (and yes, I remember Kordell Stewart.) But that's besides the point. Williams indeed was back on Wednesday, ready to work after having to attend to family business the day before. His work ethic still intact, he told reporters that everything was fine, and he understands why he was fined.
However, the reporters at the Democrat and Chronicle decided not to report solely the information the Bills were giving them, and hypothized that Williams has just become lazy and happy to sit on his laurels, much like the recently retired Ricky Williams, and it was just a mistake by Donahoe, who might actually be the weak spot on this oh-so-promising-over-the-past-three-years-franchise. And their two stories (not just one--two--one presented as opinion but not attributed to any author on the website, and the other as a training camp report) revolved around this non-information.
And I, being the doormat that I am, ate it up.
I mean, I was raised by a lifelong Steelers hater. You blame Donahoe for something, well, I'm right on board. He's from the Steelers, therefore he is evil. So I bought into this idea. I rely on the good ol' D&C for my Bills news. If they are saying that Mike Williams could be going the way of Ricky Williams, they must have good reason.
And then you find out all of the information by reading what the Boston Globe is saying, and what ESPN.com is saying, and then you realize that those two articles were based more on inference than information.
What is the job of a sports journalist? Is it to explain to us, the non-sports-journalist, those of us who would love to do that but got derailed upon the way, what is going on in that sport? Or is it to take advantage of us who trust the journalist to give us the facts by "explaining" a situation by inference? We, the average reader of the sports section (a demographic which is constantly changing), are not "in the know" or smart enough to place pieces together and come to our own conclusions, so the reporters at the D&C have decided that they are going to use the information not given and present it as the only information.
Bill Simmons, in one of his many loving tributes (sarcasm) to Nomar this week, said this about Boston sports journalists: "Many of the columnists care more about stirring things up than making sports more fun to follow, which is the whole reason you should be covering sports in the first place." These two articles were more about stirring up rumors about the "truth" the Bills were "hiding" from us, than the truth.
And you know this isn't that big of a deal. It's a fine line between the facts that are given and what is the truth and what needs to be shared and just overall ethics of giving thousands of readers information. Disputes like this happen often--this is why freedom of the press is an awesome idea. We need several different outlets so that we the reader can come up with our own conclusions. However, it's sad in this instance because it is obvious that Mike Williams suffered a catastrophic family event and now a couple hundred guys in Rochester who think that Bob Matthews is the be-all-end-all of all sports media (sorry, personal jab--I listen to his show when I'm at home, but it's only to argue with everything he says. My father always wants me to call in, but I'm too shy) think that he didn't show up to practices because he's just another Ricky Williams--a spoiled and free-spirited 20-something who got rich too quick and now wants to rest on his laurels. The guy, as per the actual information provided by him and the Bills, is going through a tough time and doesn't deserve us thinking he's a waste of space--physically and cap money wise.
I adore football season, but it's back to studying research methods...
