Journalism Lessons

It's an understatement to say I've learned a lot during my short time at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Not to mention that getting to cover spring training is kind of swell (even more of an understatement). But some of the most important things I've learned are things I've picked up myself outside of the classroom and actually shooting, writing, interviewing, editing - all that practical stuff. I realized early on that these were things that needed to be written down somewhere and preserved for the future. Some are universal, while some are tailored more to myself. As I come up with more in the future, they'll each get their own post and be put into the master list in this post. So without further ado, I give you Sean's Journalism Lessons:

Hot off the Cuff

You might've noticed I've been a little lax about updating this blog lately. And I regrettably have been. Call it a function of not having enough time to write down the lengthy posts for ideas that I've had. Maybe I'll just pop on more often with shorter things and see how that works. Either way, the reason I'm writing today is shameless self-promotion. A couple of friends and I have started a radio show on ASU's campus radio station (cleverly titled The Blaze, in keeping somewhat with the Sun Devils motif) called Hot off the Cuff, which airs live every Friday from 11 AM to noon. There's no archived section on the station's website for our show, so I've taken to simply archiving them myself. Because I'm recording them with a handheld recorder in the studio, the soundbites unfortunately don't come through. But all the important stuff is there, and if you're so inclined, check out our first two shows from last week and today. And while you're at it, follow us on Twitter @hotoffthecuff.

The ACC Has TWO Teams In BCS Bowls?

Please explain this to me, because I'm at a loss to understand how this makes any kind of logical sense within its presumed context:

Team A: Ranked 5th prior to its conference championship game, gets shellacked by 28 to a team ranked 20th, all while playing in a very mediocre conference.

Team B: Ranked 13th prior to its conference championship game, loses a squeaker by 3 to a team ranked 15th, all while playing in a better conference.

Game 3 Live Blog

So I've decided to do this again, except for a sport not quite as fast-paced as football - yep, I'm live-blogging Game 3 of the World Series. Enjoy.

World Series Preview

So it's all come down to this. For all the talk during the offseason, preseason and regular season about the Phillies and Red Sox, we're left with the Rangers and the Cardinals playing each other for the World Championship. Whoever wins, we're likely going to see quite a bit of offense in this series. Outside of C.J. Wilson and my boy Chris Carpenter, neither team has a shutdown pitcher - though both have solid staffs, and Tony La Russa has looked like a genius managing his bullpen. That said, here's my preview/prediction:

My Theory Was Right! Or At Least Not Wrong!

Incredibly, after overcoming not only my February tweet that they would be missing the playoffs because of Adam Wainwright's Tommy John surgery, not only being out 10 1/2 games at the end of August, but also me picking against them in BOTH the NLDS and NLCS, the St. Louis Cardinals are going to the World Series. And in a surprise to no one, least of all myself, my theory again held in Game 6, which the Cards won 12-6 - although, in the interest of full disclosure, I once again blew the pick (Brew Crew in 7). Sunday night's stats are below.

STL: 9-24 (.375), 7 runs, 8 RBIs (plus 1 that Yadier Molina brought around on a fielder's choice error)
MIL: 7-26 (.269), 6 runs, 5 RBIs

5-5

Another day, another instance of my NLCS theory not being proven wrong. The Cardinals won Game 5, 7-1, and here are the rest-of-lineup stats:

STL: 5-22 (.227), 6 runs, 2 RBIs (Jaime Garcia also brought in 2 on a 2-out error by Jerry Hairston Jr.)
MIL: 8-25 (.320), 1 run, 1 RBI

So again, it's something of a wash - while the rest of the Brewers hit better, they had nowhere near the run production of the rest of the Cardinals. And again, I can at least say that my theory hasn't been proven wrong.

The Eags are on a bye this week. Maybe that will give Gene some time to think - and then promptly realize he has to fire Spaz.