Man, covering this year’s Jax College Baseball Classic turned into one helluva wild ride. Started prepping weeks ago – begged my editor at Coastal Sports Network for credentials. He finally caved Tuesday morning, email just said “Credentials attached. Don’t screw up.” Felt like winning the lottery, sorta.
Getting There Was Half the Battle
Woke up way too early Friday. Threw my gear bag together: old DSLR body, two decent lenses borrowed from Mike (owes me big time), spare batteries, notebook soaked in coffee stains. Hit I-95 South thinking traffic would be light. Dead wrong. Semi-truck overturned near St. Augustine. Sat baking in my ’08 Corolla for two hours, A/C wheezing like a dying man. Checked stadium temp on my phone – 92 degrees. Felt hotter.
Finally rolled into Jax Stadium parking. Lot was packed solid. Circled for 40 minutes like a vulture, finally squeezed into a spot meant for compact cars. Walked half a mile hauling gear, sweat soaking through my “Lucky Reporting Shirt.” Stupid name. Not lucky.
Setup Nightmares
Got my field-level media pass slapped on. Sweet spot down the third base line. Set up my tripod next to this college kid from Florida State’s paper. He had gear worth more than my car. Felt kinda old. Tried syncing my audio recorder to the camera. Nothing. Zip. Batteries were fresh. Tore it apart in the press box. Found a loose wire jiggling loose inside. Jammed a folded gum wrapper in there to hold it. Worked. Shaky, but worked. Total hack job.
Game Time Chaos:
- Top 3rd inning: LSU’s shortstop snagged a line drive that looked gone. Leapt like Spiderman. Snapped like crazy. My camera buffer filled up. Missed him actually landing with the ball. Just got blurry air shots. Cursed quietly.
- Bottom 7th: Vanderbilt had bases loaded. Their cleanup hitter skies one deep right-center. You knew right away. Both outfielders scrambled, smacked the wall hard at the same second the ball cleared the fence. Insane noise. Got the swing clean, lost the ball in the sun flare messing up my exposure.
- Postgame: Tried grabbing LSU’s pitcher for a quick word. Ducked into the dugout tunnel after interviews. Security guy blocked me. “Press window closed, pal.” Waved my pass like a flag. No dice. Could hear them laughing inside. Rubbed me wrong.
Getting it Uploaded
Stayed late at the empty press box Saturday night. Old laptop fan sounded like a jet engine cutting through the quiet. Uploading video clips took forever on the stadium Wi-Fi – slower than dial-up. Needed five different angles of that grand slam because my camera kept overheating and skipping frames. Nearly chucked it into the Gulf. Edited raw footage on this free software that kept crashing. Saved after EVERY cut. Learned that lesson ages ago.
Finally hit publish Sunday afternoon back at my kitchen table. Dead tired. Ate cold pizza. Checked analytics Monday – clips blew up way more than expected. Comments filled with “Didn’t catch that wall crash on TV!” and “That pitcher interview was gold!” Felt good. But mostly just felt like sleeping for a week straight.
Next year? Maybe getting some gear that doesn’t need gum wrappers holding it together. But hey, it worked.