I am currently taking a sports journalism class and the class has been interesting and exciting thus far, but I think the best is yet to come. Towards the end of the semester students are expected to write a paper and offer a presentation on a sports issue.

The Miami Heat's "Big Three"of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh is the topic I chose to do the sports issue presentation on. Truthfully, I have never been a basketball fan until the big three era debuted for the 2010-2011 basketball season. Owners, coaches and fans placed the players on a pedestal. Ultimately, I was curious to see how the three of them would execute and how successful they would be in their execution. 

Currently, I am brainstorming ideas to get a feel of where exactly I want to go with my presentation. I want to view several different credible sources such as the Bleacher Report, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, etc. I want to discuss the credit and criticisms the big three has endured since their debut.
 
In addition, I plan to get opinions from colleagues , friends and family about potential topics for the presentation. My objective is to be specific, rather general. There is a ton of information on the big three, but I am going to narrow it down to the things I perceive to be the most interesting and important. 

Waking up on November 6, 2012, I felt nervous and anxious. I knew the 2012 presidential election would be a determining factor for not only my livelihood, but the livelihood of others. Grand Avenue Middle School, located at 2430 W. Wisconsin Avenue was jammed packed on this day with voters. 

First, I witnessed happiness, nervousness, confusion, negativity, positivity, etc. Although the lines were moving rather swiftly, the workers at the polls were a bit discombobulated. There number of unregistered votes outweighed that number of registered voters significantly. Oddly, the unregistered lines moved quicker than the registered lines. A couple people stood out as being extremely impatient. 

Secondly, I noticed that there were numerous younger individuals eagerly waiting to cast their votes. I went to the polls at 5:30 p.m. and it was obvious that this was a rush period. Individuals had on work clothes, but observing their facial expressions it was clear that nothing was going to stop them from casting their vote.

Next, I noticed the majority of people entering and leaving had a smile on their faces as if the presidential candidate that they had chosen had been elected already. I inferred that individuals felt like they were attempting to make a difference that they wanted to see some to pass.

Lastly, their wasn't anybody in particular that stood out to me. Everyone at the poll at the Grand Ave Middle school were reserved but friendly. This observation was interesting to me, because my initial thought was that someone would misbehave at the polls. 

By in large, this election meant a great deal to myself and I am certain others. I took it rather serious, because it will affect me tremendously. Witnessing others voting enabled me to see that they too took it serious as well.  

Just when I thought that things couldn't get any better, they did. On Tuesday, October 30th  #loweclass was graced with the presence of Gord Ash, who serves as the vice president and assistant general manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. I was pleased to be informed that I would have an opportunity to see him again this year.

First, Gord gave #loweclass background information on his career. He has been involved in sports journalism for over thirty years. Prior to managing the Brewers, Gord was a member of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club in the ticket department in 1978. Maneuvering his way up, Gord later became the general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays from 1995 to 2001. 

Second, Gord touched basis on the issues of sports journalism. He explained that one of the biggest issues of sports journalism is being first. Although we were discussing sports journalism, I believe this to be applicable to several other fields of journalism. Yes, consumers want news put out fast, but they also want quality. News sources should want to uphold their reputation or by any means necessary protect it from being tarnished. 

Gord notes that journalist can improve the quality and credit of their pieces by interviewing the players themselves. Today, more journalist get information directly from the player. This adds credit to their pieces.