Allen: Not like the old days

Recently one of this city’s top sports columnists engaged in a bit of navel gazing when he longed for the good old days when access to the athletes he writes about was easier.

He cited current Boston sports stars such as Josh Beckett and Kevin Garnett and the frustration at not being able to really know what type of men they are. He complained that when the players do talk to the media, it is in front of a group of reporters, not one-on-one.

I sort of saw his point. These days things certainly have changed in the relationship between athletes and the media. In fact, the average blogger sitting at home with his DVR could watch the coverage of the press conferences and write up a story, complete with quotes that would have everything that the reporter actually sitting in that room would have.

In fact, if something big happened, say a no-hitter, a columnist who is considered the top dog at a paper could write a front page story on the event without ever going to the park. Imagine that. You look at the front page of your paper, and you see  story about the big event, complete with quotes from the player, his teammates and coaches and opponent, and you’d think the writer was right there for the whole thing, when really, he did the whole thing at home in his bathrobe sipping box wine. 

Now, that would never fly in the real world.  Would it?

Getting back to the original point, things are different today, but not necessary in terms of what the reader gets to consume. While back in the “old days” the reporters had better access to the teams – they traveled with them, ate with them, caroused with them- none of that side of the equation was ever presented to the reader. We might’ve heard some tales presented years later, or merely alluded to vaguely as sort of industry gossip, but when you picked up the paper the next day, you pretty much got the same sort of cliché-filled quotes that you get now, along with a description of the game.

They never really shared their elevated insight with the readers, only among themselves. The reporters left the public out of that side of things, not wishing to betray the confidence they had with the athletes because of their shared experiences.

So when the columnist wrote his recent column revealing the things he missed from his experiences 20 years ago, it really was self-indulgent.  The column itself wasn’t that bad, in my opinion, it’s the type of information and anecdotes that are fun to read about and the sort of harmless tales that no one gets upset over when they are told to a larger audience. The problem was that for many people, it was their first time hearing the stories. When they originally happened, the reporters kept the tales to themselves and just fed the public the standard quotes and stories.

So when the old-school media complains about the lack of access to modern athletes it’s hard to have much sympathy for them. When they did have the access, they didn’t share it with the readers. So now when they don’t have what they want, we can’t tell.

Some reporters are able to connect with the athletes of today and get the type of story that the reader wants.

What it takes these days to get that sort of access is trust. If the athlete doesn’t trust the writer, they’re not going to open up to them, no matter how often they’re around, or what their standing in the media pecking order is. Some members of the current media contingent who have been around for a long time simply aren’t able to make that connection with the modern day athlete, at least not like they use to be able to do when they were traveling with them and sharing meals.

Those of that ilk may as well stay home and cover the games while watching television. They’re just going to get the same quotes as Joe blogger, and they’ll be saving the environment…less wasted fuel getting to the game, less press box food consumed at the game.

In other words, a win-win.
 

Bruce Allen is the creator of Boston Sports Media Watch, which has recently been recognized by SI.com as one of the best non-corporate sports web site's on the Internet.