Eight USF St. Petersburg students got a behind the scenes look of the sports journalism world at the Tampa Bay Rays vs. Cleavland Indians game Sept. 10. Courtesy of Wikipedia
By Alec Arroyo
Coming out of the tunnel behind home plate, only one thought crossed my mind: “This is my first step to becoming a sports journalist.”
Tony Silvia’s sports journalism class consists of eight people, including myself, and we had the opportunity to not only observe batting practice from the field and interview players during warmups, but also watch the game from the press box.
“Students learn better from experiences,” Silvia said of the trip to Tropicana Field. “It’s about working connections and relationships.”
The trip allowed us to do exactly that. We met writers from different media outlets who cover the Rays on a daily basis, and we got to pick their brains and see the way they go about their jobs.
“(I) got insight into how the business works,” said Michael Moore, a senior journalism and digital communication major, of his experience Sept. 10.
Before the first pitch, we made our way into the press box directly behind home plate.
Because of the class size, we were given the opportunity to not only experience the game from the press box, but from the broadcast booth as well.
Silvia spoke to Rays’ broadcaster Dewayne Staats, a longtime friend of his, and he was gracious enough to allow us to come into the booth. We went in groups of three and experienced a live broadcast with our peers.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be as thorough as it was,” said Coleman Barber, a senior journalism and digital communication major.
Getting the chance to sit in the broadcast booth with Staats and his co-host, Brian Anderson during the game was such a unique experience, one that we will remember for a lifetime.
“This was an instance where class size mattered,” Silvia said.
The trip wasn’t just about the experience, however. We were on a deadline set by Silvia to write a story about the game, and we had to finish it that night before leaving.
Toward the end of the game, most of us felt good about the directions of our stories until Ji-Man Choi, 27-year-old Rays first baseman, hit a walkoff home run to end the game at 6-5.
“It was a pivotal moment,” Silvia said of the late game heroics. “(As writers) you have to adapt; you have to change.”
That lesson sunk in as we were forced to adjust as quickly as the ball left the park, it helped us understand the flexibility needed to become sports journalists.
“This was one of the more challenging assignments,” Barber said.
It forced us to think on our toes. We had a blueprint for our stories and then, in an instant, all of our story ideas went out the window and we now had to rethink our angles.
That type of hands-on experience was something you cannot get in a classroom. It can only be experienced from being in the right place at the right time and that night we were in the right place.
“To go to this was very meaningful,” Moore said. “When you’re at Tropicana Field, anything can happen.”
