SWINGING FOR THE FENCES

The Ins and Outs of Becoming a Good Sports Writer

By Michael A. Casano

Dan Pompei and Mark Herrmann have no chance of beating Tiger Woods in a golf tournament. Or hitting a Pedro Martinez fastball for that matter. Yet, you'll still find their names featured prominently in sports magazines or in the sports section of your local newspaper. That's because Pompei and Herrmann are responsible for making the exploits of your favorite player and team come to life; they are sports writers.

Sports writers have a tremendous job, although a difficult one. Sure, as sports fans, we envy the life of any reporter who can attend the world's major sporting events and speak with some of the greatest athletes of our time. But in return, sports writers are faced with the daily challenge of conveying that excitement objectively. It's not enough to report the score. You have to make the reader feel like they're actually watching the event come to life on the printed page - and make sure it doesn't sound like you're favoring one individual or squad over another.

For Dan Pompei, the foundation of a good sports story starts literally at the first sentence. "I am always drawn in by a good lead," Pompei said. "In sports writing, it's important to transmit some of what makes the event or athlete special."

Now Senior Writer for The Sporting News, Pompei first started writing about sports while still in school. "First, I worked for my school papers," Pompei said. "I studied journalism in college. But I also worked for several local newspapers before I graduated, covering high schools, typing in scores or answering the phones. I also did some public relations work. All were very beneficial."

In Mark Herrmann's case, a love of sports was combined with recognizing early on how sports touched emotional cords with many people. He admired how good sports writing secured that connection. So, the two interests meshed nicely as he pursued his sports writing career.

As a sports reporter for Newsday, Herrmann has been the daily beat writer for baseball's New York Mets and hockey's New York Islanders. Now, as general assignment reporter, he's had the opportunity to cover events including the Summer and Winter Olympics, the U.S. Opens for both golf and tennis, The Rose Bowl, and a number of World Series. He's also the Vice Chairman of the New York Chapter of the Professional Baseball Writers Association.

Like any sports writer, Herrmann's constant focus remains a tight deadline. "There are stories during the World Series this year where I only had 15 minutes to write them," he said. "You have incredible time constraints when you're covering sports because most of the games are played when people are off. So, they are mostly at night. That just leads to a different kind of writing."

With experience as a news reporter, Herrmann also sees a bit of a stylistic difference in the way sports writers approach stories as opposed to their news room colleagues.

"I think the style of the sports writer takes into account the familiarity of the readers," Herrmann added. "When you're covering the Brookhaven Town Board, for example, generally you won't find many people who are aware of all the issues in front of the Board. But if you say a right-handed batter is a left-handed batter in your story, you'll get dozens of phone calls the next day."

The Web also poses a new challenge, with sports fans monitoring Web sites for the latest information. Nowadays, reporters will be asked to post a breaking story on the Web fairly quickly. It probably won't be the same story you'll find published in the newspaper the following day. But it does serve the readers of the Web site to tell them what's happening.

That said, the ability to break stories strongly depends on the relationship a sports writer develops with players and management. How does a good reporter develop that rapport? According to Herrmann, it comes down to two words: availability and integrity.

"It's just a matter of being around all the time," Herrmann explained. "It's important not to appear uninformed, and making sure everyone knows that you are asking intelligent, fair questions. If you meet all of those criteria, people will tell you things." Over the years, Herrmann has found himself faced with some ethical choices. At one point, he was privy to some information on the trade demands of former New York Islander Pat LaFontaine, but did not feel comfortable reporting the story until it was officially confirmed by the player and his agent. In Herrmann's mind, he wanted to make sure the story was right and didn't want to burn a source. "I always feel that I'll do whatever I feel is the right thing in any situation," Herrmann said. "That's always going to be how I approach this business -- whether it helps with that particular story, another story or some other phase of my professional life. Maybe it means that one particular day out of 10 years doesn't work well for me. But I think I hold myself to pretty high standard ethically." Herrmann's ethics also carry over to not showing any partisanship for a team or player. "Essentially, I root for me," Herrmann explained. "By that, I mean I root for something interesting to happen - in essence, a good story for our readers. But there is a real delicate balance, because you can't get drawn up in the excitement of an event; otherwise, you just lose your composure and professionalism. On the other hand, you have to acknowledge the event and that has to get into your writing." Still, does Herrmann have one event that stands out among the others? For him, it's the first regular season meeting between the New York Mets and New York Yankees in 1997.

"There was just such incredible electricity," Herrmann said. "After all these years, the two teams were finally meeting in a game that counted for something. And to see that, I felt I was really covering something momentous."

To break into sports writing, Herrmann suggests doing whatever you can to write that first story. If you're in school, seek out the sports editor on your high school or college paper. If you're out of school, try your local paper. Basically, the more experience you can get, the more impact it will have for you to go further.

"I just know that the experience I've been able to accumulate has really helped me whenever I did get a chance," Herrmann said. "Talent and energy is something. But experience really means a lot. Go do a job and go up the ladder."

Pompei, who echoes Herrmann's sentiments, added: "Don't be afraid to start at the bottom. Do the grunt work. Work hard. Get published. Eventually, if you're talented, it will pay off."

Copyright (C)2000 Michael Casano