Writing Samples
Here you will find a collection of articles I wrote while working as a freelance sports journalist covering the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles (San Diego) Chargers for Bleacher Report.
Also, during my four years as a Senior Producer at UCTV, I wrote several blog posts for our website that featured programming content I produced.
San Diego Padres: New Ownership Group to Assume Control of Team Early Next Week
Out with the old, and in with the new—that is what the future holds for the San Diego Padres.
After months of waiting, the sale of the Padres to a group headed by former Los Angeles Dodgers President and CEO Peter O’Malley has been completed and will head for a vote by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and the other 29 owners to approve and finalize the transaction.
The vote is scheduled to take place on Aug. 16 at the owners’ meeting in Denver.
According to a report from Fox 5 San Diego, NBC 7 San Diego, and The San Diego Union-Tribune; the Padres will be sold for $800 million. The purchase price includes $200 million in upfront money the team received in a $1.2 billion, 20-year television deal from Fox Sports San Diego.
Fox Sports San Diego is a new regional sports network that launched in March 2012 after Fox Entertainment Group (a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation) acquired the broadcast rights from Cox Communications. The Padres hold a 21 percent stake in the new network.
The new ownership groups consists of Peter O’Malley, (son of former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley) his two sons Kevin and Brian, his nephews Peter and Tom Seidler and professional golfer Phil Mickelson who is a San Diego native and local resident.
Ron Fowler, CEO of Liquid Investments, is also part of the ownership group. Fowler is a San Diego civic and business leader.
Mickelson, the four-time major championship winner is ready to invest more than $50 million.
There have been conflicting reports on which members of the new ownership team will handle the day-to-day baseball operations of the franchise.
Fox 5 San Diego reported that Kevin and Brian O’Malley were expected to become the “hands-on” owners, while NBC 7 San Diego reported that Kevin O’Malley and his cousin Tom Seidler would be involved in running the Padres.
While there has been no mention of any changes on the baseball operation side of the club as of yet, Padres’ CEO Tom Garfinkel will remain in his position, as will general manager Josh Byrnes.
Peter O’Malley is no stranger when it comes to being involved with a Major League franchise.
His father Walter O’Malley is widely considered as one of the most influential owners of baseball’s early expansion era. He was instrumental in bringing the Brooklyn Dodgers to the West Coast and convincing the New York Giants—now San Francisco Giants, with whom the Dodgers continue to have a fierce rivalry—to follow as well.
Peter O’Malley became president of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1970, taking over the position from his father. In 1979, he assumed the role of owner after his father’s passing. O’Malley held both positions until Rupert Murdoch and his media conglomerate News Corporation purchased the Dodgers for $350 million before the start of the 1998 MLB season.
O’Malley stayed with the Dodgers during the transition, serving as chairman and CEO before leaving both positions at the end of the 1998 season.
When it was announced in late 2011 that financially plagued Dodgers owner Frank McCourt was selling the historic franchise, O’Malley sought out a way to reclaim his former team. However, he withdrew his bid in early 2012.
Under the O’Malley family’s tenure, the Dodgers won six World Series, 13 NL championships and finished first or second in their division 33 times in 48 years.
In contrast, the Padres have won two NL championships and lost in both of their World Series appearances in 1984 and 2008.
A large question that looms around the new ownership group is whether they have the operating capital to make the Padres competitive once again.
Citing financial reasons, the Padres have unloaded superstar talent including 2007 NL Cy Young winner Jake Peavy and All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez (a San Diego local and fan favorite). Left fielder Carlos Quentin (also a San Diego local and fan favorite) and third baseman Chase Headley had been the subject of trade rumors.
Quentin signed a three-year $27 million contract extension that included a no-trade clause, and trades regarding Headley never materialized.
With a beautiful ballpark and new ownership, the Padres have the beginnings of what could be a recipe for success.
It all begins next week, and I can’t wait to see what happens!
San Diego Chargers to Retire Junior Seau's Number 55 Before Sunday's Home Opener
If you have ever been to Qualcomm Stadium and looked up into the rafters, not only will you see a banner for every team in the NFL, but you will notice two banners apart from the rest.
Those banners represent the retired numbers of two San Diego Chargers’ greats, Hall of Fame wide receiver Lance Alworth and Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts.
Sunday, as the San Diego Chargers open their 2012 season at home, the team will add another banner to the rafters.
The number 55.
Unless you have been in a cave for the last two decades, you would know that the number belonged to one of the most prolific and charismatic players of all time, Junior Seau.
Seau was known for his ferocious style of play and his leadership on and off the field.
While Seau did spend time with the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots, the majority of his Hall of Fame career was spent with the Chargers.
He was a local product, having grown up north of San Diego in the beach community of Oceanside. Seau attended Oceanside High School and was a three-sport star. He lettered in football, basketball and track and field.
Seau attended the University of Southern California, and after three seasons, he decided to leave school to enter the NFL. He would be selected by the Chargers with the fifth overall pick in the 1990 NFL draft.
With his enthusiastic and intense play-making abilities, he would become the face of the Chargers franchise and a San Diego sports icon that would place him in the same company as Hall of Fame baseball player Tony Gwynn.
In his 13 seasons with the San Diego Chargers, Seau would be selected to 12 consecutive Pro Bowl appearances.
He would end his tenure as a Charger with 1,158 tackles, 47 sacks (sixth all-time with the Chargers) and 15 interceptions.
Seau was selected to the Chargers’ 40th and 50th anniversary teams and is a member of the Chargers Hall of Fame.
After his untimely death of a self-inflicted gun shot wound to the chest, a public memorial was held at Qualcomm Stadium. Chargers coaches and players from past and present spoke about the teammate and friend he was.
At the memorial service, Chargers chairman of the board and president Dean Spanos announced that Seau’s number would be retired.
The Chargers encouraged all fans attending today’s home opener to wear white, and the team would be wearing their white jerseys with white pants.
Seau will be eligible for election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
San Diego Chargers
Below you will find links to a collection of Bleacher Report articles I wrote. Since, there is no archive database for Bleacher Report, these are the best I could do with a Google search.
What is ChatGPT: Exploring an Incredible Chatbot
The development of ChatGPT represents a significant breakthrough in the field of artificial intelligence. It showcases the incredible advancements made in natural language processing and machine learning. So what exactly is this new tool that everyone’s raving about?
That question and many others are answered by UC San Diego Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute Assistant Professor Justin Eldridge, who takes us on an exploratory journey of the powerful computer program that can chat with you just like a person would. It’s like having a super-smart friend who knows a lot about everything! It’s been trained using tons of information from books, articles, and the internet, giving it a wide range of knowledge.
Eldridge highlights the implications and ethical concerns surrounding artificial intelligence. While the AI chatbot can generate responses based on what it has learned from all the data it has access to, ChatGPT lacks true understanding and reasoning capabilities. This means it can produce incorrect or misleading information. Eldridge says users should exercise critical thinking when interacting with ChatGPT.
As we navigate the realm of artificial intelligence, responsible development and usage are paramount. ChatGPT represents a significant milestone in the field, offering us a glimpse into the possibilities and challenges of AI-powered conversation.
Watch: What is ChatGPT?
https://myuctv.tv/science/what-is-chatgpt-exploring-an-incredible-chatbot/
What Do the Beatles Have to Do With the Fossil Lucy?
The story starts on November 24, 1974, following a long, hot morning of mapping and surveying fossils at the site of Hadar in Ethiopia. Before leaving to head back to camp, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and graduate student Tom Gray decided to investigate a small gully that had previously been checked twice before by other workers. Just before the pair began to leave, Johanson discovered what would end up being an arm bone laying on a slope. Shortly thereafter, a skull fragment was found, then a femur. The pair continued exploring, slowly locating other pieces of bone including vertebrae, part of a pelvis, ribs and pieces of jaw.
When everyone returned to camp the evening of the discovery, amongst all the excitement and jubilation, the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” was playing over and over on a tape recorder at the camp. It remains unclear when, or by whom, the skeleton was named “Lucy,” but it stuck.
In all, several hundred fragments of bone were recovered, 47 of which formed a small fossil skeleton – AL 288-1 – representing 40% of a single hominid skeleton. It would become one of the greatest fossil discoveries of all time and have a major impact on the science of human origins and evolution.
As part of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Lucy, this special CARTA lecture series examines the discovery’s impact through time, starting with the first few years after the discovery to state-of-the-art research today. The field looks at reigniting a global
interest in how we “became human” and promoting the importance of connecting our
human past to the global future on the planet.
Explore CARTA: The Impact of “Lucy” on Human Origins Science.
https://myuctv.tv/science/what-do-the-beatles-have-to-do-with-the-fossil-lucy/