This Very Column
Hear it here!
How long has it been since I started writing Stockton Says for the Thousand Islands Sun?
I had to ask the owner, who accepted my offer to write a column each week a long time ago.
It was October 12, 2016 to be precise. It all started when Jamie suggested I ask Craig Snow if I could submit something for his weekly newspaper.
He said yes and off we went.
It’s hard to believe it’ll be 9 years this October.
I knew I would find it enjoyable, but never to the extent it’s become.
It has been well chronicled that I first set out to become a sportswriter long before I evolved into a broadcaster. I wrote a monthly column for my high school paper, and attended Syracuse University to study journalism. The famed Newhouse School of Communications wasn’t even built until after I moved on from SU.
I wrote for the Daily Orange paper on campus early in my freshman year and worked part-time for the afternoon Herald-Journal in town.
That’s where I set my sights. Then announcing, starting with WAER, the campus FM station, took over. I am proud of my 55-year career, mostly as a network broadcaster.
But writing these columns has taken me back to my roots.
Being realistic about my work in both fields, I know I made the right decision for my life’s work. But what I’m about to say may be somewhat of a surprise.
Writing each week is a challenge that despite the vast difference in audience, is as rewarding as anything I achieved in the broadcast field.
Here’s why. When you’re on the air for a contest in any sport, there is a routine pattern that unfolds. The preparation, including learning the names, numbers, pertinent facts, and stories of the teams you cover. The broadcasts themselves follow the usual rhythm of describing the play by the players involved, keeping the viewers apprised of the story of the game, and working to allow your expert partner to inform the viewers of how and why things occur.
Writing is different. There has to be an idea, a subject, an approach, a plan, an effective vocabulary, and a way to make the subject something the reader enjoys enough to keep reading. It may be a subject that has little or no interest to the reader, but it’s my job to try to make it curious enough to hold their attention. Not easy, and not something that works every week
Some columns are better than others. Some subjects and ideas are better than others.
But then again, many of my broadcasts were better than others.
I try to offer my opinions without appearing pompous or arrogant.
I’m never concerned about those who disagree with my thoughts. As a matter of fact I kind of like when that happens. Much of what I think is a subjective kind of thing.
Then, there is the subject for the columns.
When there is a major sports event, such as a Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup, or NBA Finals, a golf or tennis major tournament, the topic is an easy one.
When there is none of those, the challenge intensifies.
The truth is, I do not follow sports as deeply as I once did. Once upon a time I could relate to the happenings of every major sport, knew every player in the game. Knew everything, actually.
Now I don’t. My interests are different. I keep up to an extent, but not to the point of being aware of every last detail of everything going on. I don’t think it’s necessary, because my columns are about putting the events in perspective, not performing the daily reporting of every key moment, and every pertinent statistic. I write them on Monday, they appear on the newsstands and on my website on Wednesday, days after the events are history.
As for my website, the columns I write for the Thousand Islands Sun are reprinted two ways which can be reached on Google. One is DStockton.com, and the other is Stockton Says. Recently I have begun to record them, which can be found by hitting ‘Hear it Here’, at the start of the complete column.
I urge readers to continue reading the newspaper which has so many other features to enjoy. It is a lost art that should never disappear.
My style of writing is tantamount to my talking to the reader. I know I break the rules of ‘proper journalism’ at times, but it is done so that the words appear as a conversation.
Now to the most difficult part of doing what I do. The subject matter when it’s not obvious. How do I choose a topic that I think might have interest to all the demographics? That means women, older and younger readers, and those who don’t follow sports. That’s where I think about dealing with things like the temperament, or mental approach athletes take, that may transcend the sports they play. The human element, perhaps. Choosing that kind of avenue following an event, or having an opinion about an individual or incident .
A common theme that surrounds my career are the events I covered, those who made them special, the inside workings of network television, and those executives and production personnel readers never heard about, but made it all come alive.
There are times I seek to avoid sports totally. I have attempted to offer my thoughts on everyday life, such as phrases people use that have become common but have no real meaning when taken literally. When I wrote a column on that subject, I was surprised more readers didn’t respond with ones they used or have heard. Apparently that one didn’t work so well.
When I complete my writing, I am done. I do not over-analyze or go over each word with a fine tooth comb. I’ve said it, and I’m done. But it takes me several hours and I concentrate fiercely.
I’ve been asked why I haven’t written a book. Actually I have if you check out things I have written over the years. I try to bring out personal experiences I’ve had in general, and with people of interest in telling a story. If you add them all up, there is my book.
What I would really like is for someone to read them all, pick out the columns that tell my story, and try to publish them as a book.
My very first column was about the late Arnold Palmer who had just been celebrated with a memorial service, after his passing in late September of 2016.
I combined that with stories of my experience with the legendary golfer who I got to know early in my career in Pittsburgh.
There is much about the inner workings of teams and players who have succeeded and even faltered over the years that I find useful in having a stance on issues and situations in sports. I have learned so much from so many over many decades of covering sports that I relish in sharing them when I write.
It’s a never ending challenge that I start to think about mid-week, and gets refined in my mind up to the time I write on Monday.
If it’s Sunday and I have no idea where I’m headed, the pressure is on.
Somehow I embrace that pressure.
My very first words of my very first column were ‘How pleased I am to be able to offer my columns to the Thousand Islands Sun.’
My final words this week are, ‘How grateful I’ve been on writing almost 9 years of columns for the Thousand Islands Sun. And thank you all for reading.’
