<p>The name is Brady. I'll give you a little bit of background before I give you my problem. I am a devout St. Louis Cardinals fan. (-I even have a daily blog I update with opnions and information about the team and each game. I don't want to sound cocky, but I am smart, I took the ACT in the 7th grade and made a score high enough to get into quite a few D-1 colleges. I am only 15, soon to be 16 now, a sophmore in high school, but I already am pretty sure I want to go to a nice D-1 college and get a degree in sports journalism, go on and write sports somewhere, and possibly for the Cardinals organization. I would also not mind a degree in journalism with an emphasis in broadcasting, and be a sportscaster. But anyway, I need some advice on what college to go to to get the best education for this. Please give me some advice, and you can either post here or PM me.
Thank you all for the help.</p>
<p>Anyone have anything to help me with?</p>
<p>The best undergraduate journalism programs are at: University of North Carolina, University of Missouri and Northwestern. Other colleges with good journalism programs include University of Maryland, University of Florida. Boston University, and University of Arizona and University of Southern California. </p>
<p>To be a good sports journalism, it helps to get a thorough grounding in all aspects of regular journalism including learning how to cover the police beat, government beats, etc. It's also important to be a quick, accurate and elegant writer. Sports journalists have to cover all sorts of issues ranging from crime, business issues (such as when new stadiums are built), legal issues (such as union-related ones) as well as knowing how to cover the games.</p>
<p>They also have to be excellent writers because why should people watch the sports wrap-up on TV or read sports stories in the newspaper if they've already watched the game in person or on TV? </p>
<p>One of the country's best sports writers is Mitch Albom (author of "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "Five People You meet in Heaven.") He was a sociology or philosophy major at Brandeis, where he did his senior thesis on baseball and American culture. His solid liberal arts background and excellent writing skills are what put him at the top of his field.</p>
<p>Don't mistake being an avid fan for being an excellent aspiring sports journalist.</p>
<p>There also are some excellent books that include the best of sports journalism that you probably can get through Amazon.com. I can't remmeber the names, but try nosing around Amazon's site or other bookstores' sites.</p>
<p>Well, I do write extremelly well, or so I'm told. You are right though, it would help to basically just major in journalism. I am an avid fan, but I want to write sports long before I got into Cardinals baseball. I've been a Cardinals fan for 5 years and an aspiring writer for 7. I love to write, it comes very easy to me, and so does sports, and because I enjoy writing on my blog so much I think that this is what I want to do. I am still not leaving out the idea of Sports Broadcasting, which sounds alright too.</p>
<p>Here's a sample of one of my blog posts (everything is suitable for the site)
(Also, remember, this is not in professional fashion, although I mix a little bit of it in with my opinions)</p>
<p>It has finally happened. After an extremelly long wait, everyone can finally congratulate Albert Pujols on his 200th homerun of his career and his 40th of the season. Not only did Albert get a milestone, but he did it in amazing fashion, on a night where the Busch Stadium top plays were shown to the crowd, Albert Pujols created a new one that could have easily been added to the list. Homerun number 200 of his career came at just the right time, as he created a crooked score of 10-4 after the fourth grand slam of his career. That's right, Pujols crunked one over the left-field wall with the bases loaded, created a score that would easily last. (The final was 12-6)</p>
<p>"Sometimes you get what you deserve," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "For 40 to be [No.] 200 and to make it a grand slam, it's like it's from the movies."</p>
<p>Albert is the 3rd-youngest player ever to reach the 200 homerun milestone Just Mel Ott and Eddie Matthews did it sooner, and he did it in less time by far than anyone but Ralph Kiner. Pujols got to 200 in four seasons, 181 days, it took Kiner four years, 119 days. Pujols is also the first Cardinal in the 114-year history of the franchise to hit 40 home runs in three consecutive seasons.</p>
<p>"[Pujols has] been unbelievable this whole year," shortstop David Eckstein said. "I hope people don't take it for granted, the numbers he's putting up, because he definitely deserves the MVP."</p>
<p>Pujols definitely has the support of his teammates, but even more is Pujol's realization of the fan support.</p>
<p>"It's always nice to do something in front of your fans who support you all year long," Pujols said. "[There are] 47,000 people up there cheering for you and giving you a standing ovation -- it's great -- but you can't get caught up in that. You need to make sure you get ready to go, and I'm pretty sure they will be pretty happy if we bring them a World Series championship."</p>
<p>Of course, an MVP isn't on Pujols mind, he'd rather have a ring.
Again, though, Pujols is first to point out his teammates accomplishments before his own. Here's his comment on Al Reyes coming into the game and shutting things down.
"It's amazing," Pujols said. "He's a sneaky guy. He threw a couple of sliders then a fastball to surprise Jason LaRue there."</p>
<p>Now, this story isn't just about Pujols, even though he deserves a ton of credit for his newest feats.
David Eckstein tied a career high with four hits to go along with two runs scored and two RBIs. He is tied with Pujols for the club lead with 57 multi-hit games.
That's a great night all around for the Cardinals.</p>
<p>Today is the second-to-last regular season game in Busch Stadium history. Tomorrow is the last. A great day is ahead of us though, as the Cardinals take on the Reds for the second game of this 3 game series.</p>
<p>You might be able to help cover high school or local college sports for your local paper. You might get a foot in the door by calling a sports reporter or editor and asking if you can shadow a reporter or editor. </p>
<p>Make sure that you've been thoroughly reading the paper before you call because reporters and editors have no patience with people who aren't familiar with their product.</p>
<p>It's usually easier to hang out with newspaper folks than broadcast folks, and it's easier to get a foot in the door with newspapers because they have to cover all of the local sports, and so need stringers to do that for them. The pay is low for calling in sports scores and stats, but it can be a nice start -- if you make deadlines and are accurate.</p>
<p>Also check out Vanderbilt because they have a sports reporting scholarship. It's called the Grantland somethingorother scholarship. Sorry, can't remember the rest of its name.</p>
<p>It also would be good if you were covering sports for your h.s. paper.</p>
<p>"You might be able to help cover high school or local college sports for your local paper. You might get a foot in the door by calling a sports reporter or editor and asking if you can shadow a reporter or editor."</p>
<p>I plan on job shadowing my state's leading newspaper's sports editor in January. I have to be in the journalism class in my high school to even do ANYTHING with the local paper but they don't do the sports section. Bah. I'm interested in that Vanderbilt thing though, I'll check it out.</p>