Baseball – Heart and Mind of America

NEW YORK Kolla, vilken skojig inbjudan jag fått! Amerikanska UD inser att jag kan för lite om baseball.
Vore ju kul att åka, även om det är svårt att motivera ännu en resa utan insålda jobb därom. Och jag kan inte komma på en enda publikation som jag skulle kunna föreslå ett baseball-reportage till. (Fast i Cincinnati skulle jag kunna kolla in Zaha Hadids Contemporary Center of Arts, tyvärr för gammalt för att skriva om.)

Undrar om svenska UD ordnar pressresor till Mora och Vasaloppet? Det gör de säkert!

/Gunilla


WHAT: Reporting tour on Baseball's Opening Day in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Space is limited to 10 print and radio correspondents. The closing date to sign up for this tour is Thursday, March 7, 2007

WHEN: April 1-3, 2007

WHERE: Cincinnati, Ohio

EVENTS: "Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball," noted French critic Jacques Barzun. This Americana tour will give journalists the opportunity to explore this observation in Cincinnati, Ohio, home to baseball's oldest professional team (the Reds) and a community where Opening Day is an unofficial holiday, complete with the Findlay Market parade in the old German section of the city to Great American Ballpark along the banks of the Ohio. More than a civic icon, the Reds are also a vital part of this medium-sized city's economy in an age when major league baseball attendance is booming.

The tour will begin on Sunday, April 1 at noon and conclude at noon on Tuesday, April 3. Tentatively the tour will include:

Opening Day (April 2) game versus the Chicago Cubs. (The Reds have set aside tickets but journalists will be responsible for paying for their tickets. Participants will not have access to the press box as 300 press credentials have already been issued. )

Findlay Market parade through downtown Cincinnati on April 2
· meetings with local business leaders
· meeting with local political leaders, including the mayor.
· meeting with the Reds Community Fund
· meeting with representatives of Reds ownership and/or management (likely on April 3)
· tour of Great American Ballpark (opened in 2003) and Reds Hall of Fame
· discussion with local journalists
· meeting with organizers of the Findlay Market Parade
· other events TBD.

LOGISTICS: Journalists will be responsible for making their own travel arrangements to Cincinnati, airport transfers, meals and lodging. The Foreign Press Center has blocked rooms in a downtown hotel and will provide reservation information to participating journalists. All events will take place in and around downtown Cincinnati, so local transportation will be via taxi.