On Sept. 18, 2002, my first column for The Herald's sports section ran. It was a response to a column that had run previously, written by Adam Stern '06 - no, I don't think he's related to the Red Sox outfielder - that suggested Major League Baseball would be better off contracting teams.
Eight semesters and approximately 85 bylines later - not including the four or five briefs I wrote as "Herald Staff Reports" during my two semesters on the editorial board - I'm officially done. This is, if I've counted correctly, my 86th and final bylined story, and since I've got all kinds of favors left to call in, I can put whatever I please in here. It's good to have five semesters' worth of editing under your belt.
I came to Providence a timid first-year with a crazy love for sports; I'm leaving an egomaniac with a somehow more intense love of sports, mostly thanks to what I've experienced as a Brown Bears fan. I've had the pleasure to see some truly great players pass through College Hill, including Earl Hunt '03 and Alai Nuualiitia '03 of the men's basketball team, Yann Danis '04 of the men's ice hockey team, Adom Crew '04 of men's soccer, Nick Hartigan '06 of the football team and Sarah Hayes '06 of the women's basketball team, to name a few off the top of my head.
I've witnessed some fantastic games: the Brown-Penn men's basketball tilts in 2003 and 2004, the Brown-Harvard men's tennis matches during the past two years and countless games that Danis single-handedly stole from superior teams like Harvard or Cornell.
To be perfectly honest, I would have followed all of these teams anyway. I may have been more inclined to skip the occasional game and do my coursework had I not been writing or editing (apologies to all my professors while we're on the subject), but I'm just a fan at heart. This gig just got me a lot closer to the action in exchange for relaying information to The Herald's readers.
Seeing the football team win the Ivy League Championship honestly ranks up there for me with the Red Sox World Series win and the last two Patriots Super Bowl wins, and that's saying something. (Nothing comes close to the American League Championship Series wins over the Yankees or the first Super Bowl. But I digress.)
The best part of the whole experience has been talking with the people on both sides of the pendulum that is the newspaper. There are few things more satisfying than having someone recognize you from the column you wrote in that day's paper or having an athlete thank you for giving them a good, honest write-up about the previous night's game.
My favorite such memory involves the legendary DJ Lefty, who now works at the Gate during lunch but who used to be the world's greatest omelet chef at the Ratty. One morning, as I waited for my pepper-onion-mushroom-tomato-cheese, he recognized me from a column I'd written about the NBA Playoffs that day. He's not as big a campus celebrity now, but back then, the only step above DJ Lefty in terms of campus personality was probably Ruth Simmons. That's when I knew I was on to something.
On the other side is the athletes, who have proven to fill the same wide spectrum of personalities one finds in any cross-section of Brown students. Most have been among the classiest people I've met here. Some have proven to either be not quite so gracious or just miserable in terms of talking about their sport, making excuses and complaining about their coverage. Strangely enough, it's almost always the teams who don't perform well who do this. We here at The Herald apologize if we can't make all of you out to be all-stars, but then again, that's not our job. We're here to report what's happening, not give you clips to show the folks at home.
But again, nearly all of my experiences with Brown's athletes and coaches have been positive. The ones I've dealt with for my stories have almost always been unfailingly accommodating, available for even the most time-consuming interviews for features and even stories for my journalism classes. There are too many people to name to thank all of them, but just know that your time and insight were much appreciated.
In fact, they've been disarmingly willing to chat at times. The first time I interviewed women's basketball coach Jean Marie Burr, she asked me if I was planning to go into journalism as a career. I was prepared to go into the whole spiel I'd given to various people over and over about what internships I'd done and where I was looking before I realized I was, in fact, there to interview her.
Unsung in this whole process are the good folks in the Office of Sports Information. Whenever we needed press passes, information, pictures or anything related, the good folks of sports info were there for us. Chris Humm, Jeanne Carhart and Kristen DiChiaro, keep up the good work.
So, thanks to all of you for reading. Extra special thanks to everyone who has written for me; the layout, photo and copy editing folks who are the backbone of this publication; and all the editors who've cleaned up my often rushed copy.
But now, I've got to catch a cannon ball to take me down the line. My bag is sinkin' low, and I do believe it's time.
Chris Hatfield '06 has covered baseball, men's basketball, men's crew, fencing, field hockey, football, women's ice hockey, men's soccer, men's and women's squash, Tae Kwon Do and volleyball; written columns about Brown sports and national sports; covered the odd Campus News story; and written a captivating review of Legs and Eggs at the Foxy Lady during his eight semesters writing for The Herald. He also did not notice the coincidence of going out on his 86th byline - the same as the number of years between Red Sox World Series wins.
