SENIOR COLUMN: An asinine ending to a 'big time' career

SANTIAGO, Chile -- I have had the occasion to write several hundred articles and edit thousands more since that afternoon in September 1995 when I first entered the office that was really my home for 2 1/2 years. But in all the work I did for the DP, I always kept one thing out: myself. For my last appearance, I am going to be indulgent. I think I deserve that just one time. I don't remember what I was expecting or even doing when I got my first beat and began work for DPOSTM. What I got was countless sleepless nights, alarm clocks set at 5:30 in order to do some early work on the Weekly, as well as a laundry list of people I offended in some way or another. I wouldn't change a thing. Why I, why anyone, would love working on the DP as much as I did is a difficult question. There isn't any glory and precious little money. God knows the quality of the beer is low. For me, I think the answer lies in the relationships I created with certain people. Not lifelong friends. I haven't spoken to many of the most influential people in my development as a DPOSTMite in years. Perhaps that is the key. These people, my ex-editors Jed Walentas and Nick Hut and senior staffers like Jeff Wieland and Luke DeCock did not encourage me, help me, yell at me -- whatever was necessary -- because I was their friend. They didn't allow me to go on road trips to the Poultry Palestra (Chicken Hutch, N.H.) because they had something to gain. They did it because this institution of DPOSTM is a band that ties everyone who truly understands why sports at the DP is special. When Scott Miller and I were elected sports editors for 1997, we tried to foster that sense. Although we were responsible for assigning, editing -- a million different tasks -- this was probably our most important. DPOSTM has tradition. That makes it unique from all other staffs at the DP. So young writers, some of whom I have never met, think about what you are doing as you sit in the windowless office on the campus' western edge. If you think you are just plugging away, "filling space," you are in the wrong place, because I and 100 years of DP Sports are out there somewhere, counting on you to do better.

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