If you're reading this, I should preface this article by saying that I'm not a sports journalist in any capacity. At best, I'm a shortstop with a bachelor's degree, but some people would argue that I'm more of a 2nd baseman. Those are the breaks, I guess.
With that said, our baseball club's president came to me this morning with an assignment, asking me to interview a coach or scout from each team at this week's 18U European Championships (which are at our home stadium in Ostrava, Czech Republic) and then write an article about their national team. Without being given any real direction or any time to negotiate my new job’s perks, I accepted and walked away hoping that he would at least give me a voucher for a hamburger at the team's restaurant each night for my efforts (please feed me, Radim).
I walked back to my apartment that I share with Czech baseball legend Petr Čech to grab my laptop, but found that it wasn't charged, so I promptly plugged it in and took an hour-long nap before completing my daily mission... I work better on a deadline, so what difference does that hour make, anyway?
So, with only a few hours left before having to hand in my first piece on 18-year-old's playing baseball in Europe, I Googled some questions to ask in an interview, returned to the field with a fake press pass, and asked questions to anyone who looked like a baseball coach. Check back in tomorrow and you can read bits and pieces of what I've transcribed from these interviews. Our head coach, Vladimir Chlup (whom I affectionately refer to as “Skip”), has to translate this article into Czech, so I don’t want to put too much on his plate for one day, or make him upset by writing a long article and forcing him to use Google Translate to spit out an article into hilariously broken Czech.
See you guys again tomorrow, same time. I'll be the guy that looks like me with a fake microphone.
Alex Lee is not a Sports Journalist, but is is selling David Sunflower Seeds out of a backpack for 3 Euros per bag. This is his first year playing with Arrows Ostrava of the Czech Extraliga, and, after the publishing of these articles, probably his last.