Phil Rodgers' view on article

Phil Rodgers view on my Aaron Rowand story.

Pretty good story. I'd give it a B+. The quick critique would be that

the

lead and the end of the story could have been a little punchier. But

the

transitions from one paragraph to another were good and the body of the

story was fine. Send me your real address and I'll mail you a marked up

copy

of the story, if you would like.

Regarding my day, there really isn't a typical one. It tends to be

sporadic,

very busy at times and not so busy at others. But there's always

something

to check between box scores and winter-time player moves, rumors, etc.

It's

52 weeks a year baseball.

Because I cover the major leagues, not just the Chicago teams, I keep a

daily log in which I track all 30 teams. It's basic stuff -- like

scores,

record, place in the standings, performance of starting pitchers,

saves,

home runs, that kind of stuff. It takes me about an hour a day to enter

that

information in the log, which is extremely valuable because it forces

me to

pay attention to all the teams. I watch a lot of games on TV and at the

ballpark and talk to players and executives with teams, as well as

writers

who cover those teams.

Hope this helps a little.

Phil