Eight years ago, Drew Bogs watched Jose Contreras pitch game one in the 2005 World Series for the White Sox. This past week while covering the Pittsburgh Pirates spring training, Bogs got to shake Contreras’ hand, something he said he never imagined he would get to do.
The telecommunications and news major was a part of the special topics immersion class that ditched the 5-inches of snow that carpeted Indiana and headed to Florida, where the temperatures were in the 60s and they had to worry about sunburns, not frostbite. But they were there for the baseball diamond, not the beach.
The 16 students and two instructors embarked on the 17-hour drive to Florida for the Grapefruit League 2013 baseball spring training — a trip that was equal parts camaraderie and tailing professional athletes.
“It’s a relationship, an experience, that only those 16 kids will have,” said Suzy Smith, assistant professor of telecommunications.
They were there for the common goal of bringing Florida spring training to Indiana through multi-media reporting, whether it was to get one-on-one with players or spend time with the die-hard fans on the stands. Smith said the trip was about making the transformation from fan to journalist and pure perseverance.
“The trip created a situation that pushed boundaries, where everyone’s learning something new,” Smith said. “It’s about expanding the boundaries in each person’s craft.”
The students came from different backgrounds such as photography, public relations, journalism, history and actuarial science. Smith and instructor of telecommunications Tim Underhill guided the students. For many, this was their first time entering the professional sports world. Bogs said when he received his first media pass in Pittsburgh, it was a pivotal moment. He was a professional journalist.
“The most memorable thing is that I didn’t feel like a student,” Bogs said. “I felt like a working, paid journalist, like I graduated and worked for ESPN.”
Bogs interviewed infielder and Indiana-native Clint Barmes, who played baseball at Indiana State University. One thing that surprised Bogs is how many Hoosiers were in the fore-front of baseball.
This is the second year that Ball State has done the spring training immersive learning experience. Senior telecommunications major Brad Huber went on the first trip and got to see some of his favorite Red Sox players, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, and he met a man who owns a baseball museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, and donates artifacts to the Baseball Hall of Fame. When Huber went, the students had to pay all of their expenses, but because of the $20,000 Provost Immersive Learning Grant this year students didn’t need to carry the bulk of the finances themselves.
“I make fun of Drew [Bogs] by telling him ‘You better thank us who went on the trip last year, because this year you got to go for free,’” Huber said.
The past year the students worked with five teams; however, this year they had only three teams: the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays and the Houston Astros. This was because of packed schedules and the World Baseball Classic, which was happening at the same time.
“It’s about building good relationships,” Smith said. “This year we built up the relationships we have with the Astros, the Rays and the Pirates. As we go along, we’ll get more and more teams to work with us.”
The group stopped in Atlanta and toured CNN’s news headquarters, where three Ball State alumni currently work. From there they headed to Pittsburgh and then to Florida, zigzagging from training camp to training camp while hitting up journalist havens such as Poynter Institute and the CBS Channel 10 Tampa Bay newsroom. The group also got to see the Baltimore Orioles play Spain in the World Baseball Classic.
Smith said this trip is also a way to get Ball State’s name out there and has actually helped a student get an interview with a Toronto Blue Jays player whose hometown was Anderson.
For Smith, this was a way to revisit her field without immersing herself back into her 19-year career as a CNN sportscaster. She said she wants to see change in the sports reporting world. This opportunity teaches students how to enter the field on the right foot.
“There are a lot of people out there that don’t do [sports reporting] in a journalistic fashion,” Smith said. “I want to make sure these students do it right... We need to be transparent about the way things are presented.”
Bogs ultimately described the trip as “a dream come true.” He is a fan across the board; there isn’t a season when he isn’t following some type of sport. He said the trip confirmed that he is in the right profession.
“This for me, is the ‘I don’t want to grow up job,’” Bogs said. “You get to be a kid and an adult at the same time. What’s more like that than being able to watch sports for a living?”
