A story I'm very proud of

For the last week and a half I avoided blogging about a story I was working on because when you puff up your chest and warn readers to be prepared to read quality work, one of three things inevitably happens: a) the story completely falls through, b) sources aren't very good talkers, you have an off-day at the keyboard; basically the story turns out to be crap, or c) giant talking lizards come out of hiding to start singing the greatest hits of Quiet Riot (don't ask me why).

I can handle the humiliation of a subpar story, but the lizards scare me. 

But now I'm safe. Since last Thursday, I've been working on a story with a reporter named Kevin Robbins. Kevin is one of the best writers at the Statesman and is designated as the sports features guy. Pretty plum job if you ask me. 

Together we wrote a story about a team of homeless soccer players who this weekend are competing in Washington, D.C.

A lot of the writing ultimately is Kevin's. We each wrote sections and then  fused them together, trying to find a common voice. But it's less important to me who wrote it than the fact it got written. I think this was a very good story to tell and I'm proud to have been a part of it.

Also, Statesman photographer Jay Janner did an outstanding job with the photo and video on this story. Highly recommend it to all. Sometimes not even the best writing can capture an atmosphere, attitude or moment as well as an image or sound clip. 

As I write this, the whole package is the lead story on Statesman.com, check it out. 

Quick hitters:

• Last night I downloaded Full Tilt Poker in preparation for a big tournament I'm playing in tonight with some guys from work. I could think of no better way to royally flush my money down the toilet. 
  
• Last night, post-Full Tilt Poker downloading, I went downtown for the second phase of Carlyle's send-off. Danny Davis was there with his digital camera. I leave it up to you to decide whether to click. 
• The Ball Bustas, my super-social league softball team, debuted Thursday, falling in our season opener by a margin of 19 to -3. Don't ask me how. But hey, at least we still look good. And if I look surprisingly tall in this picture, it's because I was standing on my toes in order to give the impression I am surprisingly tall.