Years ago, I was covering a Charleston (S.C .) Riverdogs baseball game, but I also needed to write a racing column for the next day. It was NASCAR Night, so I went early and interviewed local short-track driver Charles Powell III and wrote the racing column while keeping an eye on the baseball game.
When I'd finished and sent the column via computer to the newspaper, I asked the guys working there about what happened, and I kept up with the rest of the game, a good one. When the Riverdogs won 4-3, I asked the Riverdogs guys in the pressbox if I should mention Richard Petty, whose number was 43. One of the guys said, "If you don't, we will." So I did.
My lead was something like, "Richard Petty would have been proud. On NASCAR Night, the Charleston Riverdogs matched the King of NASCAR's car number with a 4-3 win over (Somebody)."
The next day, my boss said he was angry when he saw the Richard Petty mention; then from reading on, he realized it was NASCAR Night. He wasn't even aware of NASCAR Night, and my going that Tuesday was pure luck.
I was happy with the way it worked out, but I couldn't tell if he was happy.
EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com TWITTER: EDITORatWORK
More entries from TARJ
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
EDITOR@WORK blog entries
Entries from The Dog Blog
More blog entries by Tom Gillispie
Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie
No comments:
Post a Comment