Tuesday March 13, 2007

Sources

Sources
In yesterday's blog I gave the readers a couple of quotes from some people inside the football office and a comment about that procedure got a me a little upset and on the defensive side. Rarely would I spend time in defense mode but I want to clear up the issue for those that did not read my response. Also I think it is important to clear the issue for the direction of future blogs.

Dave Littlefield is one of my mentors and a role model for me. I met Dave in 1986 when he was the assistant baseball coach at Clemson and I was a student assistant in the Sports Information Office. Some of my fondest memories of was the hard time we used to give each other about not working late enough. During those days it was almost like a contest among all of the graduate assistants and other low end personnel about who could work the longest. In the football office it was graduate assistants like Gene Chizik (Head Coach at Iowa State), David Bennett (Head Coach at Coastal Carolina), Barney Farrar (Long-time assistant at Rice), Robert McFarland (former head coach at Stephen F. Austin) and several other guys who have gone on to be very successful in football, and business. Littlefield was the hardest working guy in the building though. Former Clemson assistant basketball coach Maury Hanks would try to outlast Littlefield but Dave had an energy that was unmatched. Track and Field assistant Ron Gardner tried to match Littlefield but he could not do it either. Sam Blackman of the sports information office was the only person I knew that could even hang with Littlefield's hours.

It hurt me terribly the day Littlefield left Clemson to become a scout in Major League Baseball but our friendship never changed. He worked his way up through the ranks with the Montréal Expos then the Detroit Tigers. Littlefield became the scouting director of the Florida Marlins and eventually moved up to the assistant general manager with the club. The next big promotion came about five years ago when he was named the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, a position he still holds today.

I learned a lot of things from Littlefield but really learned a huge lesson from him in recent years. A conversation between Littlefield and me is usually me interrupting his football questions with my baseball questions. I usually find a way to get in a few New York Yankee questions as well. But almost every time we talk I ask him about the media at the major league baseball level.

Littlefield said he has known Peter Gammons for about 30 years. Gammons is the lead baseball expert on ESPN and a hall of fame columnist with ESPN and the Boston Globe. Littlefield says Gammons gets the information he does because of relationships and trust. He said if you gain the trust of your sources you get so much more information. Littlefield said he never worries about his name being attached to something that would hurt him or his organization.

If you are like me and read a lot of baseball columns and articles, you will notice that no one has to give up their sources when it comes to sensitive information. On player evaluations you will often read a quote followed by...said one American League scout. You will also see phrases like, "according to one national League general manager..."

This kind of reporting has its place and I do not need to know which general manager said it or which scout believes it. I trust Gammons and the rest of the ESPN crew.

This leads me back to yesterday. Let me say that I think it OK to have a dissenting point of view. I welcome those and think that is healthy. It is OK to question anything in our society and you have that right. But let me point out some defenses of the use of these unnamed sources:
1. It is a blog. It is fairly informal (as you can tell by the grammar and bad spelling and typing). I am not subjected to an editor telling me I have to have a certain number of sources that will go on the record.

2. Most of the time when I use an unnamed source it is to protect either the source of the subject. Yesterday's blog could have been viewed as sensitive in that it deal with Billy Napier getting a promotion and others could have seen it as a demotion to David Blackwell. In terms of promotions, titles and raises they can be very sensitive subjects. Therefore it is necessary to use unnamed sources. I will also do that if I am talking about evaluations of players or teams. Most of the time a coach will not tell you a player has not performed well if his name is attached to it.

3. You are only as good as your sources. I began to build some of these relationships in 1986 and I have worked too hard to let them go. It makes my job so much easier knowing that I can pick up the phone and get the information I am looking for most of the time. The reason for this is that I have and will continue to protect these sources who are in some cases good friends. This is the case with many writers, newspaper, radio, TV and website people. Sources have to learn who they can trust and who they cannot. Please understand that most of the writers at rivals.com, scout.com or any other recruiting site have daily contact with the staffs of the schools they cover. It is against NCAA rules for coaches to give recruiting information to websites but it happens at Clemson, USC, Georgia and every other national power out there. Information gets out when the sources want it out. If the folks at rivals or scout ever gave up their sources their sites would be down in a matter of weeks.

4. Clemson is a small town. Many people that work at the university and in the athletic department read this blog and all of the Clemson websites. Imagine the tension in Jervey or McFadden if everyone named their sources from the inside? Some would never speak to each other ever again. Almost every time I go to eat or go to the grocery store or gas station in Clemson I will see someone I know. Many times it is a coach, administrator or spouse of a Clemson employee. I like the fact that they feel comfortable enough with me and don't have to worry about their name being read by 30,000 people the next day. It makes my life easier and continues the information flow.

In summary, I will continue to use unnamed sources in this blog. In many cases the blogs are editorials by me but when I use quotes from unnamed sources I can promise you that those are legit and informed. Again, it is your choice to believe the blogs or not.

My recruiting newsletters, magazine and eventual websites date back to 1993 and have had a radio show the last nine years and I have never had to take a phone call from a source that was disappointed that I printed something I should not have. That will hopefully remain that way.

I love writing the blog every day and hope to do it for a long time. Thanks for allowing me to clear up the questioned policy on past and future blogs. I can stand the ones that involve me and would rather write more about Clemson but I felt this needed clearing up. Thanks again for your time and support.

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