Off the road, ready to cover baseball

Blog by: Aaliyah English

Finally, we are off the road. After two days of travel, it feels good to be in Sarasota, Florida. Today we are finally out of the car and doing what we came here to do, cover baseball.  

We started our week reporting in familiar territory, covering Ball State Baseball during the Snow Bird Classic. I must say, it was nice to be surrounded by fellow Cardinals. It was a change of pace being able to cover a Ball State game and tell stories about more than just a player or the game itself.

We were able go out into the crowd and find multiple stories from multiple people.  We were able to get a cool story about a die-hard Ball State fan, associate professor Kourtland Koch. He shared his story with us, talking about how he had been a Cardinals fan and friend to head coach Rich Maloney for 20 years.

Overall, I feel that covering Ball State was a good first stop for us.  In a way, it was like a practice run. We were easily able to get access to the players at the facility and the fans were more than willing to talk to us. It gave us a chance to think about stories and trying new things like 360-degree video, GoPro video and other equipment we could potentially use at the stadiums we will eventually travel to. We were able to try new things and find stories without the pressure we will feel at the professional stadiums.  

It wasn’t easy, we had to think on our feet to come up with stories, adjust to the equipment we were using and get used to the heat. Overall, I feel that it was a very productive day and I can’t wait to see all of the stories that will come out of today’s experience and the rest of the week.