BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
I used to think traveling around the country in the middle of the night was always an adventure to make time when I had to get projects done at their destinations.
But when you cover Spring Training, there are always new adventures every time you plan something so you better plan on your feet.
Over the years, I’ve always been able to do that and this spring tested my resolve. Add the World Baseball Classic and it was difficult to always utilize Plan A, so I had to have a Plan B and C.
During the weekend of March 21-22, this proved to be the case.
I was hoping to set-up the Atlanta Braves at the Boston Red Sox at JetBlue Park aka “Fenway South” but those credentials never came to fruition.
But the word that I’ve used a lot this spring is “Pivoted” and that’s what becomes the case as I applied for the Toronto Blue Jays at the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, Fla. I waited all night to see if we were going. I emailed the Pirates and never got an answer. But I never gave up.
In the middle of the night, I called Pirates City and as fate would have it, found a woman in security that knew the right Public Relations person to contact. She tracked his phone number and at 6 AM on Saturday March 21, I reached out to Dan Hart. I texted him and he quickly got back to me and was surprised that I never got the confirmation email that we were approved. He moved swiftly to get the approval and my photographer and I managed to get to the ballpark by 10 AM. Three hours before game time.
There would be no clubhouse access but I’ve always found a way to work around that situation.
As soon as we got to the Press Box, I ran into Pirates Radio Play By Play Announcer Joe Block. I asked Joe if he would like to be on the “Motor City Mad Mouth” Show and he said yes. Before I did the interview, Joe told me he was from the Metro Detroit Area and I could see that we were going to have a blast talking about the Pirates and Detroit Tigers. There is nothing better than a quick strike when you get to the ballpark and 15 minutes later, we accomplished one thing.
After eating a couple of hot dogs at the concession stand, I decided to go to the Toronto Blue Jays and see what I could get.
I hit the jackpot.
First, I interviewed Toronto Hitting Coach David Popkins and it was great talking to him. I learned a lot about hitting, his relationship with Don Mattingly and he told me after the interview that he had a good time talking to a person that knew a lot about baseball.
Second, Blue Jays Manager John Schneider had his Media Availability and it was great getting a few questions in with the skipper. He’s a super nice guy and is a person that you pull for hoping that he’ll win a World Series. Last year versus the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Jays came away one out short of accomplishing their goal.
Third, Blue Jays center fielder Myles Straw was great. He’s a Gold Glove winner and is extremely quick on the base paths. He fields his position very well and we also had an excellent conversation.
Before 11:30 AM, I hit the ultimate grand slam by snapping up a broadcaster, coach, manager and a player. I even took a photo with my good friend and Blue Jays Field Reporter Hazel Mae.
All of those videos are inside the story. We hope you enjoy them.
When I started working the game, I did sit next to Dan Hart and he saw where the issues occurred during the Major League Baseball Credentialing system. He apologized for the mixup, but I said no worries and now he’s a great contact for the future. He’s been with the Pirates for over 12 years and said that he was pleased that the security lady at Pirates City got me in touch with him.
I told him in the future, I would need clubhouse and he told me just to mention it in the notes. Hart is a class act and I told him that I would like to go to Pittsburgh and he said no problem.
I’ve actually shared this story on a couple of my podcasts, plus used the other interviews as well for topics. If there was ever a time where we won “Ugly” this was it. But nevertheless, we got the job done and that’s all that mattered.
We attempted to cover games the following day, but a couple of the requests never went through. The World Baseball Classic concluded so there was plenty of media in Florida with the regular players back.
But overall, I was extremely pleased with what we accomplished in Spring Training and the Only Plan A that came to fruition was a story that I wrote in Atlanta about their new ballpark, “CoolToday Park up I-75 in North Port. Otherwise, from the game selection and the interviews, we did tons of pivoting and that gave me an adrenaline rush.
Indeed, this was quite an adventure.
But that was fun with what we’ve added here at the South Florida Tribune Media Network.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at southfloridatribune@gmail.com and you can follow him on X @TribuneSouth. You can see his broadcasts by subscribing to the South Florida Tribune YouTube Channel.
He also wrote a book “Lessons From The Microphone” which you can purchase on Amazon/Kindle and Barnes And Noble. It’s also available in Audio Form.
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