I’m exhausted. I don’t really know what to say. That was an emotional Game 7 between the Cardinals and Mets in the National League Championship Series. I love Jeff Suppan. I love Yadier Molina. I love Jeff Weaver. Ditto for Adam Wainwright and So Taguchi. Who would have thought those five players would have been the keys for the Cardinals in the series against the Mets?
Now, on to the World Series. I don’t know how much more emotion I have left.
One of the things journalists are taught is that it’s not a good thing to become too close to the people you write about. Impartiality is a major tenant of what we do. Any appearance of favoritism, then, can throw off the balance all journalists strive for.
In my nearly 35 years in this business _ including almost 32 now with The Eagle _ I have gotten to know a lot of the people I have written about. I like and respect many of them. But only two have become close personal friends.
One is Weston Schartz, the football coach at Northwest. I have spent the past two Thanksgivings with him and his family. I first met Weston when he was playing junior varsity basketball for Southeast back in the late 1970s. I arrived early for a varsity game at Campus and saw Schartz making one long shot after another. So I said something to him after the JV game and we’ve been close ever since. He’s a great guy.
The other is Wichita State pitching coach Brent Kemnitz. If you listen to Sports Daily on Thursdays, when Brent co-hosts with Bruce Haertl and me, it probably sounds as if we despise one another. Not the case. Brent is a highly intelligent, very funny and deeply loyal friend. Through the years, I have written about several controversies that have involved the Shockers’ baseball team and Brent. When we disagree, which is more than occasionally, we air our concerns to one another, get them on the table and move on. Not once has our friendship ever been threatened because of our jobs.
I agree with the notion that journalists maintain an arm’s distance from the people they cover. And I believe I have done so, with two exceptions. But I try not to allow even those friendships to interfere with the fairness and integrity of my reporting or column writing.