Every Thursday in the Toy Department brings another installment of "From the Editor's Desk," a weekly dispatch from Tim Wheatley. To ask him questions, register complaints or recommend raises for the Toy Department staff, email him at tim.wheatley@baltsun.com. For previous installments of "From the Editor's Desk," click here.

The Preakness, Baltimore's highest-attended, one-day sporting event, is three weeks away. As we begin our preparations for the race, I can't help but wonder if people would miss it if it left town like the Colts. It is a possibility with Magna's bankruptcy, the demise of horse racing in general and the economic factors affecting every business.

Do I think it will happen? No. The Preakness has the tradition, the track record of delivering 100,000-plus spectators, and who's going to bid on something like that in this economy?

But I don't think people will miss it, either. We're three weeks away and there is no buzz. People are talking about the Ravens, the NFL Draft, the Orioles and even Maryland basketball. This will be my fourth Preakness and I know that even as it gets closer there's not much buzz.

It's a one-hit, one-day, two-minute wonder. The majority of the people go for several reasons: It's the place to be in Baltimore on the third Saturday in May, the drinking, the people watching and the hope that they can win a little money (not likely for once-a-year bettors).

Oh, and did I mention the drinking? It'll be interesting to see if the ban on bringing in alcohol supports my theory. I bet attendance will be down significantly.

Then there's the hard-core gamblers. The true horse racing fans? Hard to find. And even then, most of them have some type of connection to the horses or the industry in Maryland.

What do you think? If the Preakness leaves town, will you miss it? Will we still be talking about it 25 years later like we do the Colts? Leave your comments below.

Baltimore Sun photo by Monica Lopossay

Posted by Tim Wheatley at 3:01 PM in From the Editor's Desk | Permalink | Comments (8)
                       

Every Thursday in the Toy Department brings another installment of "From the Editor's Desk," a weekly dispatch from Tim Wheatley. To ask him questions, register complaints or recommend raises for the Toy Department staff, email him at tim.wheatley@baltsun.com. For previous installments of "From the Editor's Desk," click here.  

The NFL has the greatest marketing machine there is. Long ago they turned what used to be a fall sport into a year-round sport. The season expanded, the Super Bowl is later and later, there's free agency, franchise tagging and the scouting combine has become an event that gets nearly as much coverage as the upcoming NFL Draft. There are mini-camps, OTAs, rookie camps and, well, you get the picture. And then there's the NFL Network for around the clock NFL coverage and Thursday night games thrown in for good measure.

This week they turned another story into an "event.'' The release of the NFL schedule was shown live on the NFL Network at 7 Tuesday night. It was like a Selection Sunday show. And we already knew who the Ravens would play, this just gave the dates and the prime-time games.

Gotta hand it to the NFL brass. They're the best run pro league and they have the numbers to prove it, the most watched spectator sport in the country. There was a time that NASCAR was closing in, but they've dropped back in the pack.

The NFL is able to do this because they have the created a brand that the American people love and we all swallow it hook line and sinker. We see it on the Web, here at the Toy Department and baltimoresun.com. Ravens stories are consistently the highest-read stories on our site.

I still remember the day when I was the Sports Editor at the Indianapolis Star and Saddam Hussein was captured. One of our news editors suggested an "Extra" section that was printed that Sunday afternoon. Their reasoning was it was a HUGE news event and there was a Colts game so they could sell papers. I predicted that the next day the top story on our Web site was going to be the Colts game and not Hussein. I was right. It wasn't even close. And since the Colts beat the Falcons 38-3 most fans left early and we didn't get the papers to the stadium in time to sell many anyway. Oh, the power and draw of the NFL.

I feel sorry for Jamison Hensley, our excellent Ravens beat writer, because he never gets a break. The only down time is a few weeks in June when coaches take their vacations. Right now we're gearing up for extensive and expanded coverage of the NFL Draft. It will begin Sunday and continue throughout draft weekend. Look for coverage in The Baltimore Sun, baltimoresun.com and the Ravens Insider and Toy Department blogs.  

In case you missed it, click here for the schedule with opponent photos.  

And what do you think? Has the NFL reached a saturation point or would you like to see even more? Leave your comments below.

Photo: U.S. Army/Getty Images

Posted by Tim Wheatley at 4:10 PM in From the Editor's Desk | Permalink | Comments (0)
                       

Every Thursday in the Toy Department brings another installment of "From the Editor's Desk," a weekly dispatch from Tim Wheatley. To ask him questions, register complaints or recommend raises for the Toy Department staff, email him at tim.wheatley@baltsun.com.  

The Masters is under way and for the first time in my 27 years in sports, I don't have a dog in the hunt.

For each of the past 27 years, I've worked at a newspaper that has sent a reporter and/or at least a columnist to golf's first major. That's six different newspapers, some larger than this one, but others much smaller.

The Masters and Tiger Woods will be one of the biggest sports stories of the weekend and we won't be there. 

It's a decision that I willingly made because it makes sense in these tough economic times, but it still doesn't feel good. As our resources shrink, we need to focus on local stories. For The Sun, that's the Ravens, Orioles, University of Maryland, the Preakness and local colleges and high schools. We can get most national stories from other sources.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune will cover the event for us and many other Tribune papers, who also won't be sending reporters.  Teddy is a fine writer and will do a great job, but it's just not the same. It's not the same as being in the office in Columbus, Ga., when Jack Nicklaus won The Masters at age 46. I still remember watching him sink the birdie putt on 17 to take the lead and walking up the 18th fairway and the crowd going nuts. And then I was on the phone with our golf writer/columnist Steve Adamek talking about what he was going to write and how we were going to handle the historic event.

What do you think? Is it important for The Baltimore Sun to have a local reporter or columnist at The Masters and other big national events? Please leave your comments below. 

AP photo

Posted by Tim Wheatley at 2:00 PM in From the Editor's Desk | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Every Thursday in the Toy Department brings another installment of "From the Editor's Desk," a weekly dispatch from Tim Wheatley. To ask him questions, register complaints or recommend raises for the Toy Department staff, email him at tim.wheatley@baltsun.com.  

Tuesday morning, I pulled the Sports section out of the bag and winced when I saw the headline.

TEAR-JERKER was splashed in huge display type across the entire front of the sports section. Most days I see the Sports cover and read most of the stories before I leave the night before. But because this was a late Maryland women's basketball game, I viewed the headline in print just like our other readers. 

The reason I had that reaction was I questioned whether that was a fair headline on Maryland's surprising 77-60 loss to Louisville in the Elite Eight of the women's NCAA tournament.The Louisville men were upset by Michigan State in the men's tourney and some of them cried. We didn't use TEAR-JERKER as the headline on that game and I can't imagine that any other publication wrote that headline either. Part of my job as the editor is to make sure we're fair and balanced and I just thought this one didn't work.

I had no problem running the photo of Marissa Coleman crying and being consoled by teammates. I had no problem mentioning the crying in the game story and the lead to Rick Maese's column. If you saw the game, clearly the crying aspect was very visible. I always tell my reporters that I want them to capture the entire event, not just want happens between the lines. I want them to paint a picture and bring the readers to the game with their words. That's what we did with the story and the photo. I just wish we hadn't made it the focus of the headline. 

Now, of course, I could be wrong so I asked Dr. Mary Jo Kane what she thought.  

Continue reading "Tear-Jerker headline and Monday Morning Quarterbacking" »

Posted by Tim Wheatley at 4:01 PM in From the Editor's Desk | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Every Thursday in the Toy Department brings another installment of "From the Editor's Desk," a weekly dispatch from Tim Wheatley. For the record, this feature has been mandated from management and there's not a whole lot we can do about it. We're not even sure what he does. We suspect he has photos of the publisher or something. To ask him questions, register complaints or recommend raises for the Toy Department staff, email him at tim.wheatley@baltsun.com.  

My title is Assistant Managing Editor/Sports. It’s kind of a confusing title, but in essence, I’m king of the Toy Department. My Toy Department colleagues don’t always -- OK, never -- show me that kind of respect, but they have allowed me to have a weekly spot in their space. Even though we have been referred to as the Toy Department, we deal with serious stories every day. Jeff Barker’s exclusive story on Maryland being on the hook for a $1 million payment to offensive coordinator James Franklin is an example of using public records requests. Barker also broke the story that the Feds were investigating Miguel Tejada for perjury. Sports is not all fun and games. Sports is also about money, drugs, sex, lies and videotape (thank you, Bill Belichick). And we report on all aspects of it.

What I’d like to do in this space is answer your questions and tell you how and why we do some things in the sports department and the Toy Department. I want to answer critics and discuss some of the difficult coverage decisions we’ve been forced to make as the economy, technology and changing times have depressed the media business, but not us. I want to engage you in the debate as well.

Please send questions, suggestions, complaints or suggested topics for discussion to tim.wheatley@baltsun.com.  

So what does an Assistant Managing Editor/Sports do? I tell people all the time that I have a great job. I have a TV in my office and it’s on sports channels all day. And they pay me for it. In reality, I manage people and content -- and go to a lot of meetings. I’m responsible for all the Sports content in The Baltimore Sun and on baltimoresun.com. I’m also responsible for managing the sports staff. Take a guess which is the easiest part of my job.

Since I don’t have any questions from you yet, I’ll fill you in on some of the topics that I’ve fielded from readers the past two weeks.

Continue reading "Toy Department King weighs in" »

Posted by Tim Wheatley at 2:30 PM in From the Editor's Desk | Permalink | Comments (0)