Jayson Stark Thoughts

ESPN.com baseball writer Jayson Stark was up at Penn State recently. Here is my review of his speech:

As a fan of his already via ESPN.com, I greatly appreciated the insight that Jayson Stark was able to impart to us during both his class discussion and the Foster conference speech he gave.

The first thing that Mr. Stark mentioned was how much the Internet had changed the sports media landscape. He grew up wanting to be a newspaper writer, and in achieving that dream years ago, he had to become very proficient at writing stories very quickly to meet deadlines. While it is very possible to write great stories under this pressure, Mr. Stark happily notes how writing for the Internet has given him the ability to take his time to write a story the way it deserves to be written.

I must confess, since starting my foray into the study of sports journalism ethics for my honors thesis, I have fallen into the habit of evaluating each speaker’s own ethical model. Mr. Stark is very clearly cognizant of the ethical challenges facing someone in his position. He stressed in the speech that he is not a Phillies fan, but that he covers all teams in baseball with an objective eye. This is an important distinction between not only commentary and journalism, but between the average fan and journalists. If our prominent journalists are actually die-hard fans of a certain team, the only thing separating them from Joe Schmo writing an article is a more refined style and skill set.

Before he even started to read his first excerpt, it is obvious from Jayson’s demeanor and conversational style that he is a down-to-earth, likable guy. As he later alludes to, his speaking style mirrors his writing (or vice versa) in that it is extremely conversational, often funny, and easily digestible. You don’t need to be a Rhodes Scholar to dissect his prose, and this proves writers do not have to posture in this way to create effective, successful pieces. It’s about connecting emotionally with your reader, not about impressing them with your vocabulary.

I felt I could identify with Jayson in how he strives to find a unique angle to each story he attacks. This is the way that my mind works as well. I see that Garrett Jones has hit his 3^rdhomerun in his first six at-bats, and I wonder who the last Pirate was to approach that level. The fact that Mr. Stark often insists on figuring his numbers on his own time is further proof to his humble nature. With his job position, he could very easily delegate such menial chores to interns or low-level employees, but he instead does the leg-work on his own.

When he reads from his book, it is hard not to be swept up in the imagery and descriptive language he employs. He says his goal is to write a piece that makes people feel when they read it how they felt when they watched it. On this goal, I think he succeeds way more often than not.

Mr. Stark gave a great piece of advice near the end. He let us in the audience know that we should study the writers and broadcasters we look up to, and try to emulate them at first. I already do, and will continue to take this to heart.

I’ll end on this Stark quote, “What makes sports great is not the sports story, but the life story.” This is the sentiment I often go to when outsiders belittle my chosen profession.