Thursday, May 21, 1998
Writer’s first time doesn’t measure up to expectations
COLUMN Anticipation dashed with problems on road trip, story’s
coverage
Woo-hoo, I am now a member of the mile-high club. This is my
first time doing it in a plane. It’s kind of difficult though,
considering all the people crammed around me. Ahh, my first column
written in the air.
It’s 2:30 a.m. on my red-eye to Notre Dame for the NCAA women’s
tennis Championships. And what a glorious trip it is. Sitting to my
right is a man who, for the politically correct, is
slenderly-challenged. He should really pay me for 1/4 of my seat,
since he is in that much of it right now.
This is risky. If he looks at the screen, he might eat me. Those
mini-bags of mini-pretzels aren’t too filling, and that O.J. in a
can (too bad they didn’t can O.J.) doesn’t do the trick either.
Anyway, this man is pushing me toward my neighbor on the left,
named Tim. He’s already told me his talk-show-type life story, and
how he’s heading off to shag his now-married ex-girlfriend in a
hotel room. And he’s inebriated, listening to Backstreet Boys on
those $4 headphones. I know this because he is singing "As Long as
You Love Me" loudly and emphatically. The old ladies behind me are
as thrilled as I am. Don’t you wish you could be a sports writer
like me. This is my first road trip for The Bruin, and it’s not as
glamourous as I expected.
I set out to write about "The Trade" involving Mike Piazza, but
I’m too far out on my tangent, so I’ll stick with this.
Everyone should see what a sports writer goes through to get the
best coverage possible for a story. Hold a sec, the drunkard is
tapping me again. He’s showing me the arches of St. Louis (I have a
stopover here). Cool, there’s Busch stadium, and there’s a baseball
out the window. Damn, McGwire has no respect for air traffic (good,
a sports tie-in). Well, at least this flight from hell is almost
over.
Tray-table’s gotta go in upright-position; I am now at the South
Bend airport. The reason I couldn’t type on my connecting flight
was because the laptop couldn’t fit on it. I had to fly in a Trans
World Express, a 16-seat toy-looking plane that I thought was being
flown by a guy on the ground with a remote control. It was like
having an MRI in the clouds, with the deafening noises and tight
quarters. After 80 minutes of miserable stillness, the plane
touched down (another sports term), and all 11 of us stepped off. I
went to go pick up my luggage, and of course, it wasn’t there.
Traveling solo is so much fun. I went to the desk and got an
apology. That’s really all I wanted anyway. The guy said it will be
put on another plane and sent to my hotel ASAP. And that brings me
to now, luggageless and sleep-deprived, waiting for my limo – er,
shuttle – to take me to my hotel.
After an hour of waiting for my room, I finally receive my key.
It’s actually quite nice. Too bad nobody is here to share it with
me. But I still don’t have luggage, because the flight it was
supposed to come on was canceled. Neat. It’s 1 p.m. and I have to
start my trek to Notre Dame University for a press conference.
I’m back. Another fun outing for me. I assumed I would walk to
campus, see a thousand people and be directed to the press
conference. But what I found was trees and grass. And more trees
and grass, and some shrubbery too. I walked on a dirt road for 10
minutes before finding a human being. He gave me some vague
directions and I went on my way. Thirty minutes later I was back
where I began. I kept walking, but the only people I saw were
statues of saints. With only five minutes until the press
conference, I found somebody. And he actually walked me the 25
minutes to my destination. That was the highlight of my trip.
But of course, the conference had ended by the time I arrived. I
found coach Stella Sampras, and she graciously drove me back to my
hotel. Still no luggage.
This really isn’t the type of trip I imagined. I now realize
there is more to sports-writing than sports writing. Gotta write my
NCAA preview. I’ll be back later.
Eureka, my luggage is here, only eight hours after I landed.
Time to go take a shower and wrap this thing up. So there you have
it, a taste of a writer’s journey for a story.
Oh yeah, I think the trade is great for the Dodgers and will
lead them to the top of the NL West.
E-mail me at [email protected]. If I like it, I’ll write back from
Notre Dame.