Coming back to campus

The end of the school year is fast approaching -- which in part explains the lack of activity on this blog in the last week or so. There's a lot going on and most of my spare minutes have been devoted to academic duties.

So a year which started with with a unique and unforgettable fall semester in London is wrapping up the way most of them do. Which is not a bad thing at all -- I'm a creature of habit and I enjoy the rituals, routines and just the rhythm of the school calendar.

And this time of year, I enjoy the feeling of closure you get from doing some things for the final time -- similar to the feeling I get in my newspaper businees of having met a deadline and relaxing because the work is done. (In my academic job, this is pretty much the only time I get that, and it lasts only until summer school starts back up.

One of my routines during the school year is involvement in Wednesday night "paper night," the production time for The Weekly Triangle, the university's student newspaper. (If you're new to this blog, I should explain that I'm the faculty adviser.) We had our last one this past Wednesday, a newsy edition that wrapped up a good year.

I made a comment to this effect in my "status update" on my Facebook page and immediately saw the ability of the social networking site to create community. Almost immediately, four or five former editors of the paper made comments on my status with some memories of their Wednesday nights in charge. These folks were located in states from Virginia to Minnesota -- some comments were directed to me, and two of them started talking to each other. I just got out of the way and enjoyed it.

From this virtual meeting of former staff members, I hosted an actual one today. Four former editors of the paper who have become accomplished young professional communicators, and who are all friends, came to campus. I had asked two of them to come and speak to my News Writing class, and the group just grew. They're pictured below.



In front are Kelly Hinchcliffe and Justin Quesinberry, class of 2004 and married to each other since May 2007. Both were editor for a semester during the 2003-2004 school year. And both are now in television, Kelly as a web editor for WRAL-TV in Raleigh and Justin as a reporter and photographer for WFMY-TV in Greensboro.

In back are, at left, Misty Ebel, class of 2001 and Triangle editor in 2000-2001. She works in development and membership services for the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer. On the right is Randi Davis, class of 2004 and editor of the paper for two years, 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. She works in public relations/international communications for the IT department of Mecklenburg County government.

All four spoke to some of our students for a meeting of our chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the national communications fraternity. I asked them to have an informal chat with the students about working in communications-related fields, how to prepare for the job market and how to look for jobs.

The students asked good questions and my former students gave good advice -- get as much experience as you can and make yourself stand out in internships; be proactive in looking for possible jobs by researching the type of job you want and the location where you want to work, then calling and sending a resume. And be tenacious and persistent!

It was good to see them and it's one of the biggest rewards of being a professor to have these continuing relationships with the people you've taught. We'll be sending some more out soon.

A quick note from the ballpark

Tonight's game between the Charlotte Knights and Norfolk Tides looks like too many of the Knights games have looked so far in this young season.

Charlotte trails 9-0 in the sixth. The Knights' pitching staff has -- obviously -- been hit hard, and Charlotte batters have had their problems, too. Just two hits and one serious scoring threat so far.

It has been fun to watch former Georgia Tech catcher Matt Wieters play for Norfolk in the two games of the series that I've seen. He hit a monster home run to left in the first inning and doubled in the third, but has struck out his last two times up.

The Knights have made a couple of roster moves in the two days that I've been away from the ballpark. Outfielder Jerry Owens, the former UCLA wide receiver who has been up and down between Charlotte and the Chicago White Sox for the last four seasons, is back up again.

Taking his spot on the roster is a familiar name to White Sox fans, outfielder Scott Podsednik, who played in Chicago for three seasons before being released at the end of 2007. Podsednik, 33, played for Colorado last season, but was released by the Rockies near the end of spring training.

He's in uniform here for the first time tonight, and I'm anticipating my story in tomorrow's paper will be about him -- whatever he does -- if the game doesn't improve.

A totally random footnote: Podsednik is from West, Texas. No, the punctuation is correct. The town of West is a little outpost on Interstate 35 between Waco and Dallas. Like many places in central Texas, it was settled by folks from Eastern Europe. West's heritage is Czech, and there's a convenience store/gas station/truck stop just off the interstate called the Czech Stop which sells delicious Czech pastries called kolaches.

A sad day in baseball

It's a chilly night at the ballpark tonight, the end of a tough day in baseball.

Former major league pitcher Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, 54, was found dead today on his farm, under a pickup truck which he apparently had been trying to repair. Fidrych had a short, but memorable major league career in the late 1970s with the Detroit Tigers.

Fidrych, a tall, gangly left-hander, was the American League's Rookie of the Year in 1976, posting a 19-9 record with a 2.34 earned run average. His nickname came from the "Sesame Street" character Big Bird, whom he resembled a little bit when in full wind-up. His wacky mannerisms added to his charisma, as he would sometimes appear to talk to the ball and would get down on his hands and knees between pitches to smooth out the dirt on the mound.

But injuries cut short his career and he won only 10 more major league games before retiring in 1980.

Baseball's other loss today was a person I'm less familiar with, but whom Philadelphia Phillies fans revere. Broadcaster Harry Kalas, 73, suffered a fatal heat attack in the broadcast booth a couple of hours before the Phillies' game in Washington with the Nationals.

"Outta here!" was the signature home run call for Kalas, who had been on the team's broadcast crew since 1971. He was also a broadcaster for the Houston Astros before coming to Philadelphia.

These two tragedies come just days after Los Angeles Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart's death in a traffic accident, a fact noted up here in the press box earlier this evening. Sad stuff.

I'll be doing some more baseball material in the coming weeks, as the season cranks up. Baseball's pace, and the fact that it's a daily enterprise, gives me more opportunities to explore some aspects of the game with coaches and players that don't end up the in game stories because of space. I try to use those as learning opportunities, and I'll try to pass along the stuff that seems of most interest.

An Easter message

Easter is almost over as I write this evening, and as I usually do on this holy day for Christians, I've been thinking some about what it all means.

I heard a sermon quite a few years back which said it better than most anything I've ever heard -- and apologies to the minister who said this, as I can't remember who it was and where we were living at the time. But I think he would appreciate the fact that I at least remember the thought.

It dealt with the connection between Christmas and Easter, the two most significant days for Christianity. In a lot of ways, Christmas is easy to celebrate -- it's about an arrival, a beginning, the birth of a baby, the coming of a Messiah who would save his people from their sins and give them hope.

By contrast, the minister said, "Easter is messy," with a wider, more complex range of emotions and human experience. The end of Jesus Christ's life on Earth encompasses doubt, betrayal and suffering and culminates in His agonizing death on a cruel cross.

But fortunately for all humanity, that's not the end of the story. After all, in Easter's story there's hope at the end -- which is actually a beginning, too, a resurrection and re-birth.

That's the takeaway for me at Easter. It's a time to remember those who have gone on before us, which always brings emotions of sadness. But it's also a time to renew in joy one's own faith and hope, which we need more than ever.

Easter is also the renewal of one meaningful personal tradition. On the day before each Easter Sunday, Jayne and I go to Winston-Salem and meet other members of her family at God's Acre, the cemetery near Home Moravian Church. Jayne was once a member there, and my mother-in-law, Emma Gordon, still is. Jayne and I were married there in 1985.

Along with dozens of other people, our family brings flowers to put by the graves of loved ones and we clean and polish their gravestones. Jayne took this picture of me removing a year's worth of dirt and dust from her father's gravestone.

If you're ever in Winston-Salem, especially around Easter, it's worth visiting this Moravian resting place near Old Salem. There's meaningful symbolism in this place, where each gravestone is the same size, representing our equality in God's eyes. And there's also a beauty in the arrangement of the markers row-on-row in the order in which each person died.

Whatever your faith, and whatever your notion of the hereafter might be, it's a moving sight. Happy Easter to all.

A blast from the past

Creature of habit that I am, I enjoy all the beginnings that are a part of my two professions, whether it's the start of a school year or a sports season.

Another season of Charlotte Knights baseball began for me tonight, and that always means interviewing new people. The Knights, the Class AAA affiiliate of the Chicago White Sox, have a new manager for the first time in three years.

Chris Chambliss, who played 17 major league seasons (1971-1988) for the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and Atlanta Braves, is the new skipper for the Knights. In covering the team, it's not unusual for me to encounter people whom I remember well as players back in the day.

But my introduction to Chambliss was particularly unusual. After a rain-shortened 5-3 Knights victory over the Gwinnett Braves tonight, Knights staff member Patrick Stark took me down to the manager's office for my first post-game interview with the new manager.

He said a brief hello, then before I could ask a question, he said, "Wait a minute. I'm up."

I must have looked puzzled, as he then pointed to the television in his office, which was tuned to ESPN Classic. Sure enough, Chris Chambliss was on the screen, up at bat for the Yankees in a World Series game from either 1977 or 1978 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"That was when I was a lot skinnier," he said. We asked him if he knew what the 31-years-younger version of himself was about to do in this particular at bat. He said no.

It was just a quirky moment, and to me, an example of what makes covering baseball so much fun.

The Final Four story

I’m sure the best team won Monday night, but did the best story win?
Depends on whom you were rooting for, possibly, but as I do in most big sporting events, I was watching the media-related undercurrents in North Carolina’s systematic 89-72 dismantling of Michigan State in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship game.

For me, it was a good example of the national news media “falling in love” with a story that just didn’t happen. The story line, as I followed it on a number of news websites where analysts predicted an MSU victory,was:

Here’s underdog Michigan State, scrappy and tenacious, with a roster filled with players who grew up in difficult circumstances – from the urban Midwest to mine-studded Sarajevo. They were bringing some much-needed good news to economically-depressed Michigan (although I didn’t see anyone ask U. of Michigan fans if they were happy about the Spartans, it seems) with their run through the tournament. That included wins over two No. 1 seeds. No. 1 North Carolina, the more talented team, wouldn’t be tough enough to beat the bruising Spartans -- despite the fact that UNC beat a tired, short-handed Michigan State team 98-63 back on Dec. 3. The Tar Heels would be the third top seed to fall in the upset to this year’s team of destiny.

Turns out the Tar Heels had their own story and their own destiny. In the first half last night, they did to Michigan State what Kansas had done to them in the semifinals last year, effectively putting the game away before halftime. Leading the charge were senior center Tyler Hansbrough and juniors Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson, the top three players from last year’s team. They had all passed up the opportunity to jump to the NBA so they could erase last year’s Final Four embarrassment and take another shot at the championship. Not as much human interest as the Michigan State story, but -- at least to the North Carolina media – a story nevertheless.