TG Writer

Desk work Nov. 7

2009-11-07T19:53:00.011-05:00

Paper trail: We're putting out the Sunday sports section, and it's been busy so far.

I've sent over an auto-racing notebook and started the college football and NHL roundups. I've also edited the Carolina Panthers advance and the N.C. State-Maryland game story, plus the golf story featuring Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

I've since done several other stories, including one on an East Forsyth runner winning the state Class 4-A cross-country title and another on Mount Airy and East Wilkes runners winning the 1-A titles. I battled to make the 2-A story fit. I couldn't get Wilkes Central in the headline, and I couldn't figure out a way to use Chase Miller's first name as a verb in the head. That head wound up Miller, now healthy, takes 12-second win.

I used NO HOME COOKIN' for the Carolina Panthers-New Orleans Saints headline, and RIGHT AT HOME for the main headline on the Reynolds Demons story. I guess our folks were right at home today. Actually, Jake Delhomme is returning to his home state, and the Demons will play at home throughout the playoffs until the state-championship game, assuming they win.

I plowed through the high-school football playoff pairings and found a few typos. At least one "vs." was left out, and they left out the "y" on West Montgomery. No big deal, just tedious.

The NHL roundup is done, but I have four games left in the college-football top-25 roundup.

The college-football roundup is done. I'm waiting for it to come into rim.

Ed grabbed the college roundup before I could. He's done. We're done.

We're outta here.

Friday night: I had a first last night in a high-school football game between Forsyth Country Day and Arden Christ School. Cooperative school officials ran an extension cord to the stands, and I sat in the stands with my laptop. I talked to fans while writing the story and trying to keep my hands warm.

Coach Mark Moroz was a good interview, we got the story in early, and it was the centerpiece for the sports section, so everyone was happy. Except the Arden folks, of course. They lost 36-7.

Desk work Oct. 31

2009-10-31T16:51:00.015-04:00

Happy Halloween! Yes, I'm working on the sports copy desk on the best day of the year. I've started the top-25 college-football roundup, and I'll pull out the best game for a separate story.

I've also edited a story on a former North Carolina player who is now with the New England Patriots, and stories on Florida State's win over N.C. State and Winston-Salem State's loss to Hampton. I also added two notes to the auto-racing rail. One of them said that North Wilkesboro Speedway will host a USARacing Pro Cup race in October of 2010.

It's been busy tonight. With the rain delay in Game 3 of the World Series, we won't get the game. We've already put in a filler story about small-market teams looking for ways to catch up with big-market teams like the Yankees and Phillies.

We pulled out the Tennessee-South Carolina game as a separate. And, frankly, the last half hour has been a monster (appropriate on Halloween night).

We're watching the World Series, 7-4 Yankees, in the seventh inning, and we'll soon be proofing our final pages.

We're done; we're outta here.

Remember the Titans

2009-10-24T20:23:00.003-04:00

I covered a high-school football game last night between the West Forsyth Titans and the Reagan Raiders. The Titans remained undefeated -- they're 9-0. The game was tight in the first half -- 14-11 at halftime -- but West pulled away at the end. Reagan played a great game against a tough team, and I made deadline for the Winston-Salem Journal.

It was a joy to talk to West coach Adrian Snow. I interviewed him last year for a feature for the Surry Messenger, but I'd never met him in person.

Thinking about the Duke

2009-10-18T02:51:00.009-04:00

My wife Holly and I often watch John Wayne movies, some of them pretty often. We watch Hatari and Donovan's Reef on a regular basis. If you ask what she wants to watch, Rio Lobo is usually mentioned. We've watched Rio Bravo and El Dorado twice each within the last month or two.

We'll watch Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon or perhaps Stagecoach. I often want to watch The Quiet Man or The Hellfighters, and we'll settle on McQ, The Sons of Katie Elder or Tall In The Saddle. We watch McLintock two or three times a year.

Holly never wants to watch The Searchers, Red River, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence or Hondo. Or The Cowboys. Perhaps she perceives them as violent. In the case of The Cowboys, maybe she doesn't want to watch Wayne's character die. I watch them alone, same with True Grit, when she's at work, although she did watch Hondo with me a few months ago.

It's funny, but she mentioned last night that she liked Hondo because of Geraldine Page; they didn't pick an unrealistic beauty, like Grace Kelly in High Noon. Maybe she's warming to Hondo. Personally, I like John Wayne, Michael Pate (the Indian chief) and Ward Bond. Pate also played in McLintock, and he and Wayne referred to the "remembered fight" in Hondo. Pate was British, I think, but he made a wonderful Indian.

I have Trouble Along the Way with Donna Reed, Chisum, Big Jake and Islands in the Sky, an eclectic group of movies, although I don't have some of his better non-westerns.

No, I don't watch all of Wayne's movies. Some of his early movies were terrible, and I've never cared to see the Voyage Home or the Green Berets.

I wasn't a big John Wayne fan when I was a kid. Now, I watch his movies regularly. Now, I am a big fan.

Or maybe I just like watching a guy named Marion Morrison.

Trivia: John Havlicek of the Boston Celtics was nicknamed Hondo because of being a John Wayne fan.

Deskwork Oct. 17

2009-10-17T17:36:00.010-04:00

Putting out the paper: Yes, I'm helping put out the paper again today. I've started putting together the college-football roundup, and I'll have to find two separates to run alongside it. The Ohio State loss to Purdue is an obvious game to pull out. Southern Cal and Notre Dame is another possibility.

The Sprint Cup race is being run tonight at Charlotte, so we'll be late with that. If we have room, I'll put together a notebook or sidebar.

Otherwise, I've edited a few stories so far. The hapless Redskins are playing the even more hapless Chiefs tomorrow. Should be fun. I also edited the NFL notes -- former Ram Cullen Bryant died -- and Wake Forest's huge loss at Clemson.

The headline for the column on race-car owner Richard Childress was OFFTRACK: Childress battles downturn.

Since then, I've edited the Virginia Tech loss to Georgia Tech, the East Carolina victory and the NHL roundup. Plus the calendar. The college football top 25 is done, so we're waiting for the race story from Charlotte. We're not going to get the baseball game between the Yankees and Angels.

I just finished the last file, the race story. It took a few minutes to make it fit and to get the headlines right. They're looking over proofs now.

We're done. I'm outta here.

Putting out the paper

2009-10-10T17:34:00.004-04:00

Desk duty: Yes, I'm helping put out the sports section again tonight.

I've already started the auto-racing notebook and the college football top 25 roundup, and I have a lot more to do.

I just finished editing the auto-racing notebook and the racing roundup, plus a feature on the Redskins playing a winless opponent each of the first five weeks. The winless opponent this week is the Carolina Panthers (0-4).

I edited the story for the surprising Duke win over N.C. State, as well as the Appalachian State, Virginia Tech and East Carolina games. I also edited some baseball stories, including the one about the snowout in Denver.

I surprised at least one of my co-workers by being able to handle the tabs on the auto-racing rail. It's something I'd struggled with earlier, and I still occasionally have questions about tabs. I did, however, have to ask a co-worker to help with a baseball box. I still struggle with them.

We got our late college-football games, including a separate on the Florida-LSU game -- I'm glad Tebow's all right. We've read proofs, and we're done.

Yes, we're outta here.

I'm back...

2009-10-03T16:29:00.003-04:00

Desk work: I only work desk at the local newspaper once a week nowadays. I worked last Thursday, so that nine days feels like a lot more.

I'll put together roundups for auto racing, college football, the NHL and golf, and I'll do a notebook for auto racing. Looks like it'll be a busy night.

Appalachian State beat The Citadel, 30-27, and the ASU quarterback said the game was a dogfight. I couldn't get The Citadel's nickname (Bulldogs) in the headline, but it came out Mountaineers prevail in a 'dogfight'.

The last hour tonight was a whirlwind of college football, hockey, golf and other sports. There was little time to think, but we finished about 10 minutes before midnight, our deadline. I didn't have any great headlines, but I did get to use the verb succumb in a Carolina Hurricanes headline.

Yes, we're outta here.

Friday night: I covered the Reagan-Carrboro high school football game last night. I was a little upset when I realized just before gametime that it was homecoming (usually, a long homecoming halftime will make the game longer). I needn't have worried. They had a normal amount of time allotted, and they stuck to it. We were out of there in plenty of time.

The vigil

2009-09-24T22:46:00.002-04:00

Slow night: I started out busy tonight as I worked on the sports copy desk. I edited college and pro football stories, the briefs package (Wayne Gretzky resigned as Phoenix Coyotes coach; great player, lousy team) and various other things. And I took a high-school volleyball game.

Lately, I've been waiting for major-league baseball stories to come in. I have five games to finish the major-league roundup. We're also waiting for the South Carolina-Ole Miss game to end; the Gamecocks are up 16-10 with 8:29 left.

I just edited the calendar. I have three major-league games remaining, including one that's done (Phillies-Brewers).

We got the final games. We've read the proofs.

Yes, we're outta here.

Storybook life

2009-09-20T13:23:00.000-04:00

Little big man: I just found a story on Jim Leonhard, a 5-foot-8 safety for the NY Jets. It's called Where Big Talent Comes in a Small Package. Leonhard is a big man in the tiny town of Tony, Wis.

More later.

Earning her stripes

2009-09-19T18:55:00.007-04:00

Lady referee: The other day, my wife asked me if any woman refereed college or pro football. I thought not, but I just read a NY Times story called Earning Her Stripes in College Football. Obviously I was wrong.

Misbelievin': A copy editor friend of mine wrote this story for the Tampa Tribune.

Desk guy: Again I'm helping put out the sports section for the local newspaper. I'll be doing the race roundup and racing notebook, the college football top 25 roundup, the NFL notebook and golf roundup. I'll work on other stuff as needed.

I've already edited several stories, including the NASCAR notebook. I had a tough time with the headline. I couldn't use the word Chase in the headline since it was in another headline, so I settled for "Rules have Stewart feeling unappreciated." Underappreciated would have been better, but it was way too long.

The Journal recently underwent a makeover, and this is my first night with the new look. It's weird, but I'll get used to it. Most of the headlines are helvetica, so the look is a little bland.

I did a double-take when I edited the NFL notebook. It said "former Detroit Lions cornerback Dick LeBeau and former Detroit Broncos running back Floyd Little." The problem is that Little played for the Denver Broncos. Oops. I fixed it.

I did some major editing on the story about former Wake Forest University star Aaron Curry, now with the Seattle Seahawks. The last few paragraphs were more important than a lot of stuff in the middle. I never end-cut stories if I can avoid it.

We led the golf roundup with the North Carolina Mid-Amateur Championship (and not the LPGA tournament) because a local boy, Uly Grissette of Clemmons, N.C., is leading the tournament. He's the defending champion.

Similarly, we led the auto racing roundup with the NHRA race at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C. It's only 60 miles from here, while the truck race is in New Hampshire.

Another editor noticed that I didn't change TD to touchdown in the college football roundup, my final file. Fortunately, he fixed it. That's a Journal style rule, and it's something I'll have to watch out for next time.

We're finally done. And, yes, we're outta here.

Getting smart

2009-09-18T11:36:00.004-04:00

Solar winds: I'm a tremendous advocate of green living, particularly solar power. Here's a NY Times story, called Have a Nice Day, that talks about the solar movements in Germany and China and how solar technology is shipped from China to the U.S.

You'd think that Americans would be smarter with technology and power, but it hasn't happened. Maybe Germans and Chinese are just smarter than us.

Desk work: I'll help put out the sports section on Saturday night for Sunday's paper.

The Story Teller: I started a blog simply for stories, either my stories or those I've read. My first entry, on a dog named Reggie, is not my story. It may not even be true; I just enjoyed it and wanted to pass it along.

More later.

Expectations

2009-09-14T17:24:00.005-04:00

Blowup: Serena Williams' blowup at the end of her U.S. Open semifinal has drawn her a $10,000 fine, and she could be suspended. I understand a heat-of-the-moment meltdown, but it still bothers me. I expected more of her. I wouldn't be surprised if they bar her from certain grand-slam events, especially the U.S. Open.

Would you like fries with that? A teen reported that he received a loaded handgun and marijuana at a McDonald's drive-through in Charleston, S.C. The goods were meant for the people in the next car. Apparently they stopped him, and he handed the bag over.

TV choices: I was just watching TV news, and they ran the story on the Yale student killed and hidden in a building. The next story was about how violent crime has gone down in this country. It seemed an odd pairing of stories. ... On another channel, this guy kept talking about someone "secreting" the girl's body in the building. It was a strange choice of words. "Hiding" might have been better. Frankly, secretions have a different meaning to me.

More later.

Barry pickin'

2009-09-13T13:57:00.004-04:00

Down home: I lived a long time in South Carolina, and I find this NY Times column disturbing. Unfortunately, "Boy, O, Boy" hits home as it talks about President Obama and reaction from the South.

Doggy brain: I love dogs -- you may have noticed -- so the NY Times story "Grrr, Sniff, Arf" is interesting to me. It talks about the world from a dog's-eye-view. Bacon, bacon, bacon!

More later.

Cool cats

2009-09-12T11:29:00.018-04:00

Bengal brothers: I have known about Carson Palmer since before he won the Heisman Trophy at Southern California. Then last week I noticed there was also a Jordan Palmer on the Cincinnati Bengals. Cool. Finally, I just read a story about the Palmers being the only brothers during the Super Bowl era to play for the same team (Ty Detmer played for the Philadelphia Eagles while brother Koy Detmer was on injured reserve and didn't play.).

Rookie of the sneer: I found an eye-opening story about what a rookie wide receiver faces in the NFL. I never heard this before -- During minicamps a year ago, the 49ers assigned assistant coach Adam Gase to shadow wide-eyed rookie Josh Morgan downfield and point the way to the correct route. "I had my own personal assistant," Morgan said. "That's how lost I was."

As a writer, I love the end of the story:

Yes, Crabtree can catch.

But can he catch up?

Seeing red: I noticed Friday night that my favorite baseball team was wearing red caps rather than its normal black and orange. Cool. Then I noticed that every team was wearing red caps, even the blue-blooded L.A. Dodgers. The red caps were in honor of the anniversary of 9/11.

Desk set: I'm helping put out the sports section tonight for the local newspaper. I missed a couple of things in the paper last night, so I'm being extra careful tonight. At least they caught my misses last night.

I'm putting together the roundups for top 25 college football, the National League, auto racing and golf. I'll also put together a racing notebook. The NASCAR truck race is over, and I'm waiting on a story; I already have a Formula One qualifying story.

I just edited the Duke-Army football story and the Wake Forest-Duke field-hockey story. The Virginia Tech-Marshall story had this headline -- Hokies, needing big win, stomp Thundering Herd.

I just sailed through college football, baseball, auto racing and various other stories, and, yes, the last hour has been wild. There wasn't much time to ponder better headlines.

The proofs have been read. We're outta here.

Try not to blink

2009-09-11T20:22:00.024-04:00

Pursuing trivia: Here's something useless -- Women blink nearly twice as often as men. Are they blinkin', or are they winkin'? ... Here's another one -- "stewardesses" is the longest word that can be typed with just the left hand. The longest word you can type with just your right hand? Lollipop. Try it.

Apples and oranges: I was watching ESPN (or ESPN2) yesterday when they were arguing who was bigger, Michael Jordan or the Beatles. The guy who claimed his parents were British picked Michael Jordan. The woman picked the Beatles. It's hard to compare a basketball player and a rock group, but I'd have picked the Beatles. They had a world-wide influence that has lasted for 45 years.

Besides, I'm a Lakers fan.

On the desk: I'm helping out in the sports department tonight. The football calls haven't started coming in yet, so I edited the briefs package to have some way to be helpful. I had a devil of a time writing a safe headline that fit; it's about the champion female runner whose sex was questioned. The ruling is that she has internal male organs, and they're still talking it over.

I've also edited the briefs package, the NFL notebook, the Sprint Cup pole story, the Nationwide race story (Carl Edwards started last but finished first) and the golf roundup. The basketball hall of fame story had this headine: Jordan makes big jump to Hall: He joins Robinson, Stockton and others. Michael Jordan, who grew up in Wilmington, N.C., is big around here.

A guy called and asked if Winston-Salem State is returning to the CIAA. After asking another editor, I told him that WSSU is returning to NCAA Division II and likely will rejoin the CIAA. You learn something every day.

The golf story has a strange head because the leader is named Gal -- I think she's German -- and it's the P&G Beauty tournament.

I just edited the Winston-Salem Dash story (their season is over) and two high-school game stories. We're close.

The proofs have been checked for first edition; I'm outta here.

Jeter and more

2009-09-10T08:46:00.020-04:00

Apparently a good guy: Although I root for the Orioles, not the Yankees, I've always admired the way Derek Jeter comports himself. Here's a story about Jeter tying Lou Gehrig for the Yankees' career hit record. Gehrig was another player who comported himself well.

Psyched-out: I just found this provocative question -- Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"? It makes you wonder. You'd think that a psychic could get the numbers right.

Spaced out: Here are some outstanding photos from the refitted Hubble Telescope. I especially like No. 6, which looks like a delicate butterfly.

Ford man: Richard Petty Motorsports is switching to Fords. I don't know what to think, but I always rooted for Petty in Dodges, Plymouths, Pontiacs. I'll have to get used to it. I love old Ford trucks, so I suppose I can handle it.

History lesson: This probably wasn't the smartest sports column of all time. In fact, you have to wonder what he was thinking.

Junk car: Powered by chocolate, and made from waste and recycled products including wing mirrors of potato and a steering wheel of carrot, the world's first high-speed sports car made from sustainable materials has been unveiled in Britain.

Pale Rider: I was just watching the end of the Clint Eastwood movie Pale Rider, and the end reminds me of Alan Ladd and Shane. The girl hollers as Eastwood rides into the mountains, echoing Shane. She just doesn't get tiresome about it, as Brandon De Wilde does. Shane, come back. Shane.

Run away: I turned on the Georgia Tech-Clemson game on ESPN because I wanted to watch Paul Johnson's running attack. I haven't seen the Yellow Jackets yet. They just returned a Clemson punt for a touchdown, and the Tigers' offense will be back on the field. Sigh.

Desk man: I'm not helping put out the sports section tonight. I'm sharing desk duties with another man, so I'll be working one day a week for a while. I'll help answer phones on Friday, then work desk on Saturday.

More later.

More sports

2009-09-09T10:42:00.001-04:00

More sports: The story Why Patriots acted quickly on Seymour trade; top five teams of '09 covers a little bit of everything in the NFL.

More later.

Talking sports

2009-09-08T07:13:00.007-04:00

Reverse psychology: This blogger suggests starting the backups in NFL preseason games and bringing in the "starters" for the second half. A Modest Proposal to Improve Football is an interesting idea, but it'll never go anywhere. Too good a chance to get regulars hurt.

Playoff, schmayoff: The essayist for Few Are Cheerleading for a College Football Playoff obviously doesn't think a college football playoff will happen anytime soon, if ever. I concur.

Thanks, Yanks: Yes, I read a lot of stuff on NYTimes.com. Lou Gehrig is one of my favorite players of all time, and Derek Jeter is about to pass him as the N.Y. Yankees' career hit leader. Here's an essay called Did Gehrig Care About Records? Of Course He Did. I think Gehrig and Jeter would have gotten along well; I just hope for a better ending for Jeter.

Looking forward: I found a story on Bleacher Report called 100 Predictions for the 2009 NFL Season. Some of them are interesting. I hope he's wrong about the Dolphins.

More later.

Putting out the paper

2009-09-05T18:05:00.010-04:00

We're putting out the sports section again tonight, and I'm putting together the roundups. I'm doing the top-25 college-football roundup, the auto-racing notebook, the American League and National League baseball roundups, and the golf roundup. I'll handle the Nationwide race story when it comes in (7 p.m. start in Hampton, Ga.).

We don't have a ton to do right now. I've started the top 25 and baseball roundups, and someone started the auto-racing notebook for me. I have gotten all of the college games that started before 7 o'clock.

I did, however, edit a college-football notebook, the briefs package, the Appalachian State-East Carolina game story, the PGA golf story, and the Sprint Cup race advance.

The NFL cuts roundup didn't have the Oakland Raiders cutting Jeff Garcia, a fairly big deal, so I went back to the wire and added that to the story. I also shortened the story, then went back and got a paragraph or two on the New England Patriots' moves. Then I tightened the story again to fit. It made the package much better.

The last hour was a mess. Baseball and football games were late. I finished the baseball roundups and the top 25 roundup. I edited the Winston-Salem State, Virginia and North Carolina, and, naturally, I had the last file, on Virginia Tech.

We were so busy that I had little time to write.

It wasn't great, but it's done. Typical college football night. We're outta here.

Working in the office

2009-09-04T21:39:00.003-04:00

Normally I cover a high-school football game this time of year, but tonight I'm in the office. I'm working as a copy editor and phone answerer, if needed.

I've spent a lot of time tonight talking to the phone answerers, answering questions and showing one of them around the system.

I've already put together the golf roundup, and I'm putting together American League and National League roundups. I'm waiting for games to finish. The golf came in earlier than I could have expected.

I wound up editing several files, including a filler file that will hold a space for first edition. It's a shame it can't stay; it's a story about a football coach being in trouble because he worked a sophomore too hard, and the boy died. That story is on the JournalNow site at http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/sep/05/coach-is-on-trial-in-death-of-player/sports-highschool/.

I got all but one of the baseball games (at least the ones I could get) in for first edition. One National League game finished just after deadline, so I added it for final edition. I edited two high-school games, including the West Forsyth-North Forsyth game for first edition. For final, I edited the last file, the Mount Tabor high-school game.

I was one of the last ones to leave. But, as always, I'm outta here.

Desk set

2009-09-03T16:27:00.011-04:00

Yes, I'm helping put out the sports section again tonight. We haven't decided what I'll do yet, so you'll have to wait. But here's what I normally do:

I edit local and wire copy at the local newspaper; I write headlines; I write cutlines (they're called captions by non-newspaper folk). We have a guy who takes stories off the wire and gets a first look at local copy; he's the "slot man" at most papers; here, he's the night editor. We have a guy who handles "agate," the tiny type that takes up a lot of space in sports sections. Another guy puts together baseball roundups and reads stories.

I'm always a rim man, which means I sometimes put together or edit roundups, and I edit stories. I might edit the briefs package or stories about football, baseball, tennis, golf, auto racing, whatever. I might edit agate to fix errors and to make it fit.

I battle dull copy, trying to spiff it up. I look for a good headline that will set a story off. In the last half hour every night, I fight the clock. I "hear" a timer in my head as I race to meet deadline. Often I do more stories in the last 45 minutes than I do in the five hours leading up.

Sometimes, I can take my time and leisurely edit copy; other times, I have to just plow through stories. We'll have to wait to see if there's any plowing being done tonight.

So far, I've edited auto-racing stories and a high-school football advance. I'm also putting together the American League and National League roundups, and we have a bunch of NFL preseason games being played tonight. I had to edit the local-racing notebook twice; more information was added after I edited it the first time.

I just got the White Sox-Cubs game, an interleague game that was postponed earlier in the year, and we put it in the National League roundup. Why? The Cubs are the home team, of course.

I just edited the story on Carl Edwards being able to race with a broken foot. The headline: Edwards to put pedal to metal despite newly broken right foot. I've edited the briefs package, plus baseball and college football stories.

No one would spell-check the super-long calendar, but I just did. I found two typos, including a shutgun start in golf. I changed it to shotgun.

The American League, National League and NFL roundups are done. I edited the baseball notebook. And, naturally, I did the final file, N.C. State losing to South Carolina. The headline: Wolfpack sacked.

When news side is done, I'll be be outta here.

Busy night

2009-08-29T18:27:00.020-04:00

Yes, I'm working on the sports copy desk tonight, again helping put out the sports section. I've already edited a U.S. Open tennis story and the background information on the men and women. We have a whole page devoted to tennis.

I'm putting together the American League and National League baseball roundups tonight. One game -- the Yankees won big -- was played at 1 o'clock, and I've gotten three 4 o'clock games. I have eight games that start at 6 o'clock or later.

I edited a story on the Washington Redskins. We have a bunch of NFL preseason games tonight (the Raiders got clobbered 45-7), and the local minor-league baseball team, the Winston-Salem Dash, started a doubleheader at 6 o'clock.

I just edited Ray Glier's story on the Bowden football family resisting adversity and criticism; in fact, I read it yesterday's on the NY Times' web site. My headline echoed (read, stole) Dylan Thomas: "Bowden family won't go gently into that good night."

I worked a long time on the Wake Forest University football feature to get the headlines just right, and I read the story carefully for little mistakes. The story is about a defensive back who has gotten on a lot of negative lists during his career, so the big headline was "List Frye as a starter."

I also spent a good bit of time cutting the briefs package. I also edited the Nationwide Series pole story and the PGA story.

The worst thing tonight was that several high-school football games were rained out Friday night and are being played tonight. We're covering one game, and the rest had to be taken by phone. I think we've gotten all of the games but one, and that will be emailed in.

The American League roundup is done. I sent the National League because the Braves game was being delayed. A few minutes later, they called the game in the eighth inning, and I went back and led the NL roundup with the Braves. Always good to get the "home" team in there.

We got the Dash and the Mount Tabor games in the paper, but it's going to be close as we come down to deadline.

We're done, finally, and, yes, we're outta here.

Lightning's flashing -- boom

2009-08-29T01:34:00.001-04:00

I was supposed to cover the East Forsyth at Reagan game Friday night, but we had a lightning storm instead. It was raining when I left the football stadium, but the weather got even worse down the road. I think they made a good decision.

They'll play the game at 7 on Saturday.

And Friday night? I did some shopping and watched a John Wayne movie.

Yo.

Putting out the sports section

2009-08-27T18:34:00.013-04:00

I'm helping put out the sports section again tonight, as we have a night editor (the guy in charge), the paginator (who lays out the section), the rim guy (me) and the agate guy (does the fine print).

I was looking at the high-school football advance stuff for tomorrow and noticed that it has last week's schedule. So we'll have to find this week's schedule and sub it out.

I've edited two national auto-racing stories and one local racing story. In the national notebook, it mentioned that former race-team owner Ray Evernham married race-car driver Erin Crocker. I edited the story so the reader would know that Crocker had been a developmental driver for Evernham before they became romantically entangled.

I also made sure I finished the race agate so we can go ahead and send that page to the printer.

I was just reading a wire story about animal rights groups concentrating on the animals rather than on Michael Vick, who lost two years and a bunch of money for leading a dogfighting ring. Vick was playing last night in his first game back. I'd like to write a headline saying "Animal-rights groups not dogging Vick." We didn't use the story, so the headline will have to wait.

I'm putting together the American League and National League roundups tonight; six of my 10 games were played earlier. I'm doing the NFL notebook tonight, and I've also edited NFL (Carolina Panthers), golf and college-football stories.

Our big picture on the sports front has a shot of a Philadelphia Eagles linebacker going airborne -- he's upside down -- as he chases the Jacksonville Jaguars' quarterback. The overline for the standalone picture has a basketball flavor: AIR BALL: LINEBACKER TRIES TO DUNK QUARTERBACK.

I finished putting together the baseball roundups and the NFL notebook -- we got two of the three NFL preseason games -- and I edited the Winston-Salem Dash minor-league baseball story. We're close.

No, we're done. I'm outta here.

Misspelled headline, purely on purpose

2009-08-23T11:59:00.003-04:00

I helped put out the sports section last night, and I quickly broke a rule about headlines. The story was about two former Heisman Trophy winners, Sam Bradford of Oklahoma and Tim Tebow of Florida, returning this year and making it hard for Colt McCoy of Texas in the Heisman race.

The paper calls this kind of headline a sidebonker. In honor of the two former Heisman winners, the headline was FORMER HEISMEN: Bradford, Tebow put McCoy in shadows. I hope someone gets it.

I edited a story on a soccer player, Oguchi Onyewu, and I used his nickname in the sidebonker -- GOOOOCH! Onyewu takes his game abroad.

I also edited a story on Brett Favre, and the headline is self-explanatory: IN SCHOOL Favre still has plenty to learn about his team as he gets ready to lead Vikings.

I edited a story on Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics, and I wanted to use a headline that reflected Patrick Ryan's quest. I wanted to use Go, Chicago, but the allotted area was too small. I mentioned that to the paginator (page designer), and he widened the headline area to take in Go, Chicago. Thanks, Rick.

We were busy, as I also edited college football, tennis, golf and baseball stories.

I put the American League roundup together, and I helped with the National League roundup.

While writing the cutline (caption) for the Sprint Cup race, I noticed that Mark Martin's name was listed twice in the lineup agate. They fixed it.

Finally, deadline (midnight) struck, and we were looking at proofs.

And, as always, we're outta here.