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Press Box Dave Reardon |
Vet anchors may make
‘Dream Job’ a nightmareROOKIES are to be seen and not heard in most work environments, whether the venues be construction sites, offices or ballclubs. In general, it's for their own safety.
But that's impossible now on the set of ESPN, where being loquacious, loud and clever is part of the job description.
For at least the coming year, the shouting heads at the worldwide leader are stuck with baby-faced Mike Hall, the "Dream Job" winner whose fear factor will be tested for as long as it takes the kings and queens of sports broadcasting as we know it to warm up to the kid from Missouri.
It might take some time. In the meanwhile, may I suggest Hall bring an extra sweater to work.
Sometimes it's hard to tell if it is an act or not, but Dan Patrick has been at his whiny best/worst since faced with the inevitability of sharing some of the spotlight with a guy who got a job by winning a contest.
Would it have been any better if the lawyer closing in on 40 had won? Or the girl from Brown? Or "Quigs," the William Hung equivalent who failed in miserably charming fashion?
Not even.
Anyone who has his first salary augmented quite handsomely by a trivia contest on national TV is not going to be greeted with open arms right away. Not by veterans who made their way to Bristol by interviewing high school sophomores and lugging camera equipment through Oshkosh, Butte, Sioux City ... and yes, Honolulu.
Neil Everett is one of the friendliest guys I know, but as of Tuesday he had yet to go out of his way to slap the new guy's back and welcome him aboard with a big "Howzit, brah."
"I haven't met him yet," Everett said, sounding like he wasn't in any particular hurry.
Everett's interview process with ESPN lasted more than a year before he was hired in 2000. The former KGMB-9 sports director's climb has been steady if not spectacular since, and he is a regular on SportsCenter. And the opportunity to anchor SportsCenter is why most of the people who are there are there, including the assistant producers who make six bucks an hour.
"What this is like is the Mets having an open tryout for their fifth starter," Everett said. "And then Tyler Yates ends up in the minors all year."
Or, dare we say, Michelle Wie taking those sponsor exemptions?
Julie Buehler, another college student, made it to the final 35 of more than 10,000 "Dream Job" applicants.
"I was one audition away from turning my dream into a reality without having to work my way up any ladder, without having to spend a year getting someone coffee, without having to navigate through middle-management," she wrote in the Northern Arizona University school paper.
Later in the piece Buehler seems to realize that the ladder is where you learn the craft, and achieving the dream too quickly can be a curse.
Freddy Adu might not agree, but David Clyde ($50K more to your salary if you know who he is) would.
Mike Hall has been rushed to the show.
Now he has to prove to his teammates -- not to mention Cable Nation -- that he belongs there.
"It kind of trivializes reaching the pinnacle," Everett said. "But if I was that age, I might have tried it."
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii from 1977 to 1998,
moved to the the Gainesville Sun, then returned to
the Star-Bulletin in Jan. 2000.
E-mail him at dreardon@starbulletin.com