CHAPTER XIII
SPORTS
Interest in sports. One of the marked characteristics of American newspapers is the large amount of space, both absolutely and relatively, that they devote in every issue to news of sports. Although there is undoubtedly a healthy interest in athletic contests on the part of many readers, newspapers have greatly stimulated this interest and have created a considerable part of the present demand for sporting news and gossip. Hundreds of thousands of newspaper readers who have never seen a major league baseball game follow day by day the doings of the various teams and players, not merely during the playing season but throughout the greater part of the year. Newspapers have also assisted in developing intercollegiate football from a game in which students and alumni were primarily interested into a sport of big spectacular contests that attract the general public. Even after prize fighting was barred in most states, newspapers, by the space given to the contestants for months before every fight, were able to maintain wide-spread interest in the results. In order to furnish readers with a very large amount of reading matter concerning both major and minor sports, most papers have a special staff of sports writers under the direction of the sporting editor.
Type of story. Sporting news stories may be divided into three classes: (1) those that deal with the contestants and the conditions before the event, (2) those that report the contest itself, and (3) those that analyze the event and its results. Stories that discuss the relative merits of the contestants and forecast the results of the game are based on first hand observations of the writer or on the observations of others, regarding the showing made by the contestants in previous events and in practice. The general and the detailed accounts of a contest can, of course, be written only by writers who have witnessed it. The analysis of the event and of its results may be based either on the reporter’s own observations of the contest or on the reports of it printed in newspapers. In covering a big sporting event, a newspaper frequently assigns two men to report it, one to write a general account and one a detailed story. It is evident that all sporting news stories can best be written by men who are thoroughly familiar with the sport itself and with the contestants.
Purpose. The general aim of sporting news stories should be to satisfy a normal, healthy interest in legitimate sports. That newspapers have stimulated an excessive interest in professional baseball and intercollegiate football, as well as in prize fights, is a criticism deserving careful consideration. The evil effects on schoolboy athletes, and even on some college players, of undue newspaper publicity have been pointed out by educators and should also be considered by the sports writer. Accuracy and fairness are as vital to news stories of sports as to any other news stories. Although the interest that readers have in local contestants may warrant a writer in devoting considerable space to them, it does not justify him in slighting or treating unfairly their opponents in whom the readers have less interest. The spirit of fair play that is essential to sport is equally necessary to reports of sporting events.
Treatment. The handling of sporting news presents several problems. The review of conditions preceding the contest and the analysis of the game and its results require careful observation, clear thinking, and a good expository style. In some respects this kind of interpretation is not unlike editorial and critical writing. The account of the event itself demands spirited narrative and description that portrays not only the scenes but the spirit of the occasion. The contrast between the emotions of the victors and those of the vanquished may be used to good advantage. Because of the popular interest in individual players, many events give ample opportunity for developing the personal, or human interest, elements. The term “heroes” as often applied to athletes is not inappropriate, for it is the heroic qualities of the contestants that appeal to the spectators and the followers of the sport.
Style is also an important element in sporting news stories. The very popularity of a subject that demands much writing on the same or similar material day by day necessitates variety of presentation. Efforts to avoid constant repetition in reporting baseball games have resulted in some picturesque diction and some original figures of speech in the stories of the clever few, and in much more cheap humor and almost unintelligible jargon in the work of their mediocre imitators. That readable stories can be written in good English with as much originality of style as is to be found in other well written news stories, has been repeatedly demonstrated by a number of writers on sports.