Buffalo Bisons - Website Reporter
The following is a journal kept by me, Adam Penale, during my internship as a website reporter for Bisons.com, working with the Buffalo Bisons from April to September 2016.
In October 2015, I sent an application for an internship with the Buffalo Bisons Minor League Baseball team, where I would hopefully work as a beat writer for Bisons.com. I received a phone call in early January to come in and interview for the position. On January 28, 2016, the day of the interview, I met with the public relations director of the Buffalo Bisons, Brad Bisbing. On February 4, I got a call from Brad saying that I got the internship. I awaited further instructions in the coming weeks via email.
On March 26, the intern orientation took place at Coca-Cola Field. I met with Brad, the other website intern, the three public relations interns, and several other interns for various other positions. We received identification badges, parking passes, media guides, and two Bisons shirts. After learning basic information about the organization, we get a tour of the stadium, clubhouse, press box and offices. We are told what our jobs will entail, and my main job will be to cover the select games, both home and road games. For home games, I should be at Coca-Cola Field at least an hour and a half before first pitch. For road games, I will watch them online via MiLB.TV, using a password I was given. I should take play-by-play notes, write a game summary of anywhere between 500 and 1000 words, utilizing quotes that I collect after home games I also must find appropriate pictures to goal with the article for the website, and post it to the website. I will also have the opportunity to write other types of articles, like features, or stories about upcoming promotions or events. We are told that we can go as far as we want at this job, as there is a lot of room for creativity. The orientation lasted about 2.5 hours, but seemed rushed, as there was a lot to get to, especially the tour.
On April 12, the Bisons played a double-header in Syracuse, and I am told to watch these games online, take notes, and send my boss a summary. He sends back some notes, like how he would have formatted some things differently, but he said it looked pretty good. In a few games, we will make our schedule for the rest of the year, and when schools finishes, one of the two writing interns should try to cover every game, when possible.
I showed up over two hours early for a 6:00 game on April 15. This is the second home game of the year for Buffalo, and my first home game. I meet my boss in his office, then go down with my boss and some of the PR interns to the dugout, after which I am told to go the pressbox, which took me a while to find, but I eventually settle in. We eat an hour before the game, and the food is fantastic. During the game, I take a seat in the first row, near the end, as I am told the middle seats are for people at the Buffalo News and other major news outlets. I take play by play notes, and jot down major moments of the game on both paper and Microsoft Word. I organize my summary with the most important stuff at the top, with other details following. After the game, my boss and the media immediately go down to ask questions, but my boss forgot to tell me, so I waited up in the press box until he remembered he forgot to tell me what to do. He was really apologetic, and felt bad that I missed post-game questions. I sent him my summary, without any quotes, and went home. He posted his own summary while reviewing mine.
On another home game on April 16, the interns are told that of us may have to watch the Bisons’ Hall of Fame room throughout the season for about a half hour before the game. I watched it for about 25 minutes before the game, but only a handful of people came in. It is a very easy thing to manage. When I got back to the press box, I continued to work on my summary. After the game, both me and the other writing intern went down with our digital audio recorders for post-game questions. I didn’t ask anything, but used some quotes to put in my article. Though we post wrote articles, my boss picked my article to demonstrate how to post our articles ourselves on Bisons.com, using a website called Homebase. He posted my article with pictures that are taken by the PR interns throughout the season. It appears on the website, with my name on it, something I was unsure would happen. We are told how to post on the site, and are given handouts with a step-by-step process on how to do it. I fill the pages with notes and suggestions. After every home game we should go back to the pressbox and write our summaries, post it, and text our boss when everything looks good. We are in charge of making a media wall for the homepage, which links to our articles. We also add it to the news feed.
On April 17, the other website intern and myself finalized our schedule for the year, with both of us working about the same number of games. For the most part, we will work several games in a row, then switch off. I made a printable version of our schedule, and sent it to the other intern, and our boss, who was impressed by our organizational skills. He said he’s never had two interns work out an entire season’s schedule so quickly before. After this game, only one of us will cover each game, with only three games all year not being covered by one of us. I learned that after every home game, our manager and at least one player are supposed to talk to the media. We record everything everyone says, and get to use other reporters’ questions and responses. The interns should not to ask the first few questions most of the time, and they should not be one-word responses. We again are taught how to post on the website.
My second road game is on April 21, and I take notes while watching on my home computer. The video feed is from the other team, but there is an option to mute that, and listen to the Bisons’ radio broadcast. However, this audio is delayed compared to the video feed. I write the summary and use the printouts to help me. The website was tricky and it even crashed at one point, but I texted my boss with questions, and it eventually posted. I used a trick that I have done in the past for reviewing my article for typos or mistakes. I copy all my text and put in a website that plays back an audio version of the text, which reads my article out loud while I too read it. This is great for catching many mistakes, and I plan to do it for every game. For April 22, it is an away game, but for the first time for me, it was actually on television, so I didn’t have to watch it online. I took notes and posted it to the website.
The first of several intern meetings to be held throughout the ear took place on April 26. I was unable to attend it. Each meeting will cover a different aspect of the Bisons organization. They are supposed to be mandatory, but our boss told us to attend as many as we can. The game went 14 innings, so my story was pretty much done by the 9th inning, with only the conclusion uncertain. Postgame, the Homebase website crashed, so I had to send my boss my story so he could post it himself.
On April 29, April 30, and May 5, I worked two road games and a home game. Each were uneventful. On May 6, I got to the game an hour and half early to ask a question about posting and to get a bank of photos to use for the beginning of the year so I don’t have to email my boss asking for photos every game. Some of the people in the press box, including me, had Wi-Fi problems, so we had to connect to a slower internet source. I was without internet for a half hour, which was difficult, as I constantly look up stats and facts throughout the games. I asked the manager and our starting pitcher about the game, and used their quotes. The Wi-Fi was out when I got back to the pressbox, so I was told to post from home, which took a half-hour to get there. On May 7, my digital audio recorder stopped working postgame, because it was full of memory. I didn’t prepare for that, so I only had a few clips to use for postgame.
On May 8, I told my boss that me and the other intern switched some shifts around, and asked if I could have two days off in July for a trip I had planned, and the other intern couldn’t work it. He said absolutely, because we have done such a great job this year. I have begun to feel more comfortable around the people in the pressbox, taking with people from the Buffalo News, the Blue Jays, and the Bisons’ broadcasters. May 3, 14, and 15 were each uneventful games. I went to my first intern meeting on May 17. I wasn’t scheduled for this game, but I went for the meeting and the free food, and even volunteered to watch the HOF room because it is something that I find interesting. I left after the third inning.
For May 19, the pressbox was jammed because a MLB player was on rehab in Buffalo, so I had to find another seat. I didn’t ask any questions because of the large number of media there. My boss asked me postgame if I could write an article on a Memorial Day Picnic at the ballpark tomorrow. I will work on the article tomorrow. The next day, I sent my boss the article, and he liked it. I looked at past articles of that nature on both Bisons.com and around the internet as a reference. Once at the game, my boss told me that he wants his writing interns to start writing weekly notebooks for the site, summarizing weekly happenings and storylines. These would use both quotes we get postgame, and interviews conducted by our broadcaster for pre-game interviews, available online at Soundcloud.com. I talked to a longtime major league player postgame on May 22, the most famous person I had interviewed yet. I also met the curator for the HOF room, and we talked for a while.
I wrote my first notebook about a few different topics on May 24. My boss loved it, and said it was exactly what he was looking for. That made me feel very confident. I had no issues May 25 or 26. On May 30, I stumbled while asking a question, as I didn’t want to cutoff someone else’s question. On May 31, I made up edited more pictures for our website for an hour before the game, because I wanted more pics to choose from. I wrote my second notebook on June 1. I also wrote postgame summary for a road game on the 1st and 4th. My boss text me before the June 5 game to let me know that the game was rained out. On June 8, my boss told me that I accidentally referred to the wrong team a few times in my article from June 4, so I just have to watch out for easily correctible mistakes like that. After a normal game on June 9, I wrote a notebook on my off day.
I talked to three people on June 14, so I obtained a lot of quotes. During the game, my boss found out I had some friends in the stands, and he told me to go sit with them for a few innings, which was cool and unexpected. On June 17, I asked my boss if he wanted his interns to do anything for the upcoming All-Star game in Charlotte, NC. He said I could write a Bisons-centric article for it, by watching it on TV. For June 20, I posted a notebook in addition to the game summary. There was nothing out of the ordinary on June 27, 28, and 29, which were all road games. I used from Soundcloud to write another notebook on June 30.
It is now July 8, and it’s difficult to follow the team during long breaks off, especially when I have another job. Had to watch the HOF room for an hour and a half because they were short on PR interns. There were no issues on July 9 and 10. On July 13, I watched the All-Star game on MLB Network. I asked my boss if I could use a picture I saw he made up of the three Bisons’ players all in one picture for my article, which he thought was a good idea. This was followed by uneventful road games on July 14, 15, and 17, and a home game July 21.
A huge MLB star is playing on rehab on July 22. I got to the stadium really early and joined about 50 media members on field for batting practice questions with him. I didn’t ask him anything, but I got on TV for standing next to him. I wrote an article about him using the quotes he told other reporters, and posted it on the site before the game. I accidently had a line of text in the story that I didn’t want in there, and although I posted it, I never put it anywhere on the website, so no one could see it. I simply redid the article and posted the new one where it needed to go, instead of waiting for the old one to update, which could take forever. The star left the game after the 7th inning, and media went down to ask him more questions, I didn’t ask anything again, but used them for postgame story, which I wrote after running back up to the pressbox the watch the rest of the game, and catchup on what I missed while talking to the player. I followed this by three road games and three home games, during which I wrote another notebook and the final intern meeting. Postgame on August 12, the media interviewed a foreign player down on rehab who can’t speak English very well. I didn’t ask him anything, and didn’t use any of his quotes, because I couldn’t understand them, and it wasn’t necessary. The game got rained out after an hour delay on Aug. 13. During the delay, I took it upon myself to Photoshop some more photos for about an hour, just to keep busy.
I had no major issues on a home game on August 14, and road games on Aug. 23, 24, and 25, during which there was a double header. I did make a mistake on the Aug. 24 summary, but I corrected it after it was published. I covered a home game on August 26 for the other intern, and my boss gave me a $25.00 gift card for all my hard work throughout the season. He told me that in July, we set a record for most page views for our website, and outshined every other team’s site by 20%. I worked the last three home games, on Aug 29, Aug 30, and September 1. I had no issues, and did not interview many people, because the team was far out of contention, and was losing practically every night, so only the manager was talking to the media postgame. My boss told me that I could have free tickets whenever I wanted them, and come up in the pressbox throughout the year. I said goodbye to all the people I met throughout the year, and connected with a bunch of them on LinkedIn. Finally, I watched and covered the last three road games, which were boring because the team was eliminated from the playoffs weeks ago, and many key players were called up to the major leagues.
I posted my last summary on September 4, thanked my boss for everything all season long, and finished my internship. It was a tremendous experience, and I am happy with the way it turned out. I wrote 74 articles, all published on Bisons.com with my name credited at the top, which is something that I take great pride it. I learned an incalculable number of things, and hope to apply them in the future.