Dugout Diary by Joe Boesch

By JOE BOESCH  Baseball or Politics? That's the question I've been asked many times. As a young struggling sportswriter, I had the opportunity to cover some of the 1992 Presidential Election and the race to The White House. As a young reporter, and a young struggling writer, interviewing former Second Lady Marilyn Quayle was the chance of a lifetime. I, must say, it was quite amazing as her appearance, and my mug shot, appeared on almost every local and national television network. There's one thing that sticks out in my mind: "Never ask someone close to the President about his/her feelings and what he does?" I was an inexperienced writer and asked the former Second Lady something about President George H.W. Bush (the father) and her response was: "I don't speak for the President." So, all the talk about the Balanced Budget Amendment and slinging of mud, ended my political writing career. I decided to continue my focus on sports, especially baseball....

It all began at NYIT back in 1988 when I was a freshman ready to learn and become the next Red Smith. NYIT taught me the importance of hard work, the ability to communicate clearly, concisely and not to give up on my dream of being a sportswriter. When I was a young teenager, my late Grandmother put together a scrapbook of sports articles and told me that "you can do this." I read the articles with great interest and the idea came into my mind of  writing a better story – my own story. Today I have my own scrapbook of 500-plus authored articles, my own book Game Notes: A Collection of Sports Stories, contributed to the book  Baseball  Stories for the Soul (which is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame) and my own baseball radio show. Without the backing of NYIT and the Communication Arts department, my path to a  sportswriting  career would have been more difficult to achieve and less gratifying. The NYIT faculty of Bernie Bard, John Hanc and Dr. Edward Guilia...

Press Release   |  February 15th, 2017 As pitchers and catchers report this week, the ninth season of MLB Network's Spring Training series  30 Clubs in 30 Days  returns on Monday with comprehensive analysis and discussion of each club's roster. From February 20 through March 25,  30 Clubs in 30 Days will air as daily installments within  MLB Tonight  with coverage from camps throughout Arizona and Florida. Hosts  Greg Amsinger, Fran Charles, Robert Flores, Brian Kenny  and  Lauren Shehadi  will join analysts  Sean Casey, Mark DeRosa, Al Leiter, Kevin Millar, Dan Plesac, Harold Reynolds  and  Hall of Famer John Smoltz  at each camp to conduct on-field demonstrations and interviews with players, managers and coaches from each club and provide analysis and predictions on the coming season.  MLBPipeline.com  prospect experts  Jonathan Mayo, Jim Callis  and  Mike Rosenbaum  will join 30 C...