A long, strange trip
I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. As you know, we just passed the 25-year mark since the attacks of 9/11/2001. Which means I’m also closing in on the 25th anniversary of my first assignment for the Associated Press. And I consider that as the date when I launched my freelance writing career.
Before I got my first AP assignment, I had of course written for the New Ulm Daily Journal, back when I was in high school and college. And starting in 1999, I began scoring press passes to “cover” games for Channel 4000, which was the website for WCCO-TV, and then Internet Broadcasting Systems, which was C4K’s parent company. I say “cover,” because I was essentially gathering content for columns, not game stories. Ever since I was 16 (or probably earlier) I could write an AP-style gamer in my sleep, but those columns were a fun and rewarding challenge and really helped make me the writer I am today.
But those were basically unpaid side hustles -- I did those on my own time, for my own benefit, because there’s nothing that helps you more as a writer than getting more and more reps. When I was working for IBS (yeah, unfortunate acronym huh?) I could’ve just put in my 9 to 5 and then gone home to my family. But I knew I didn’t want a desk job forever, so the more I got my face and byline out there and the more practice I got writing columns the better.
And sure enough, while covering those local games (Twins, mostly, I believe) I met Dave Campbell, who was and still is the sports editor at the AP’s Minneapolis bureau. Dave soon figured out that I had the desire to write more, and he needed more writers to help cover all the sporting events around the Twin Cities that the AP wanted covered. I showed him some writing samples and asked him if I could join the pool of freelancers he assigned to cover games, and as he told me recently, "I was not in any position to say no to you!"
So what was my first AP assignment? September 29, 2001, was the 100th anniversary of the first St. Thomas-St. John’s football game. (Note: not the 100th game in the rivalry -- they took a few years off along the way.) That rivalry has famously gone by the wayside, thanks to Carleton and St. Olaf deciding they didn’t mind losing to St. John’s 77-0 but losing to St. Thomas 78-0 was just a bridge too far. But that day, in the shadow of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon and the plane that was brought down in the Pennsylvania countryside, just getting back to normal felt like a dream we dared not hope for.
Of course, the country did get back to some semblance of “normal,” and sporting events were some of the early steps in that direction. A week earlier I covered the first Twins game after the attacks and wrote a pretty good piece (as I recall) for IBS about it. I even spent 15 minutes chatting with the great Ernie Harwell – legendary radio announcer for the Detroit Tigers, who were the Twins’ opponents that night – about how baseball helped the United States and its people get through WWII on the homefront. I’ll have to post that one here if I can find it.
But in terms of picking up an extra check for my writing, that UST-SJU game in Collegeville was my maiden voyage. My memory -- confirmed by a box score, thank you SJU for keeping thorough archives -- tells me that Johnnies QB Ryan Keating (Minnetonka HS grad and former Gophers football and basketball player) led the home team to a close victory. The Johnnies led 27-7 in the third quarter, but the Tommies scored two TDs and were pressing hard until a guy named Charlie Carr bailed out the Johnnies with an epic punt and St. John’s held on for a 27-21 victory.
After the game, I talked with some of the players on the field. Then the Johnnies coaches were hanging out in their office at the field and I was granted an audience with the legendary John Gagliardi, the sainted head coach of the St. John’s football team. As I recall, Gags was feeling a bit reflective on the big picture, but he was mostly focused on the day’s results. And that’s cool. That was his job, after all -- beat St. Thomas, then on to Macalester Week (they won that one 56-7).
And I went on with my job -- getting more assignments from the AP for starters, then branching out during various stretches of underemployment and full employment in other gigs (all of which approved of my moonlighting, which I made sure of in advance). And now, 25 years later, it’s a career. Along the way, I’ve freelanced for major daily newspapers as well as smaller, niche publications and websites. These days, most of my reporting is still done for the Associated Press, with MLB.com coming on strong the last three years. And I am incredibly grateful for all of them.
I recently went down memory lane, trying to grasp the breadth and width of my career – in other words, what makes me The Generalist. Believe it or not, publishers have actually paid me real American dollars to report on these sports at these levels:
Baseball – MLB, Division I college, amateur (town team), high school
Basketball – NBA, WNBA, men’s Division I college, women’s Division I college, high school boys and girls
Football – NFL, Division I college, Division III college, high school
Hockey – NHL, US Women’s National Team, men’s Division I, women’s Division I, high school boys and girls
Soccer – US Women’s National Team, US Men’s National Team (OK, my first USMNT match is coming up on 10/6 vs. Canada but it’s on the books!), international summer tour (Manchester City vs. Olympiakos)
Softball – high school
Wrestling – US Men’s and Women’s Olympic Trials, Division I college, high school
Track and Field – high school
Volleyball – high school
Golf – Senior Tour
Auto Racing – NASCAR (Las Vegas)
Poker – World Series of Poker, profiles of celebrity players Shannon Elizabeth and Jennifer Tilly (seriously, living in Vegas was weird)
MMA – profile of Dana White (see above)
I’ve also been paid to write about fantasy football and sports betting. And these are just the sports topics I’ve written about. I could do another post on other topics I’ve covered – Las Vegas shows, new music, political rallies, labor negotiations (those were sports-related, I guess), air travel while your name is on the no-fly list (oh boy, do I have a doozy for you there) ... it’s been quite a ride. An amazing ride. And I’m glad to still be in the game.
I'm wrapping up my summer by covering two of the three Twins games vs. Texas this weekend. And, lo and behold, I just might find myself in the midst of another champagne celebration thanks to the tied-for-first-place Rangers. Then it's on to more Wild and Timberwolves coverage, along with a new gig that will allow me to focus on a different beat (more on that later). In the meantime, thank you all for your support and interest. I hope my coverage reflects just how much fun I'm having doing the job I dreamed about when I was 16.
