Learning the ropes

I moved from the Idaho Free Press in Nampa to the Idaho Statesman in Boise. It was only a 20-mile move in distance, but a mile in experience. While it nearly doubled my salary, the move was a dangerous one for me.

It was in the spring, and baseball season was just starting. My early major assignment was to cover Boise’s team and the Pioneer League. The Pioneer League was a Class C League and Boise was a Milwaukee minor league team.

The Pioneer League at the time was made up of Boise, Twin Falls, Pocatello, Billings, Missoula and Great Falls. It was a lot of bus rides for the team. I made a couple of these but found it uncomfortable riding with those I was writing about.

I was shocked that I had to keep score right along with the team scorer. I had never covered baseball like this. Everything that happens on the field ends up in the scorebook, so you can recreate a game by just looking at the book.

I connected with the team’s scorer to learn how to mark up the scorebook. It took some time before I could do it right.

All the games were played in the afternoon since there wasn’t lighting on the field. Then I had to hurry back to the office to write my story. When doubleheaders were played, the time was short. And there was always a ton of other stuff to do before deadline.

The newspaper started coming off the press, just after midnight, and after all the pages were checked I was free to leave. Usually several of us would end up at a late diner for breakfast.

That first year was the toughest, getting used to the scorecard and covering a professional team.