Interview with Sox minor League pitcher Jake Petricka

[BigP50]

Interview: White Sox 2010 2nd rd pick Jacob Petricka | Chi City Sports l Chicago Sports News - Blog - Message Board - Fans

 

[Lefty]

It's great that you are interviewing all these athletes, and props are definitely owed to you for contacting the right people, staying in contact and getting these interviews done. That being said, I think you need to work on your questioning of interviewees.

From what I've read, you seem to ask a lot of narrow, "this or that" or "yes or no" questions. This is great when you're cross-examining a witness or questioning an athlete while having an axe to grind and point to prove, but in a bare-bones interview, you should try to leave your questions way more open-ended, thus giving the person being interviewed an opening to babble somewhat, because you can always sift through the quotes later.

For instance, instead of asking "as a kid, who was you [sic] favorite team", you could try something like "were you always a fan of baseball growing up, and if so, which team did you follow the most". Both questions accomplish the same task (getting the interviewee to divulge their favorite MLB team), but the latter question gives a lot more lee-way for exposition and the like.

Just something to try in the future, because as they are now, your interviews come off as rather bland.

 

[Rush]

I actually just talked to BigP about that last night, I think his networking skills and getting interviews are amazing. If he could improve on his questions that he asks, they would be 99x better.

 

[BigP50]

I just interviewed Northwestern Baller John Shurna, I think the questions were better.

 

[Rush]

Whenever you get a interview, maybe post a pre-interview on the forum and get questions from people on the forum to ask them specifically. This gets people involved and looking forward to the interview maybe. Good job landing them though .

 

[Lefty]

Well, to be honest, asking the right, or better, questions would be better. Yeah, having a pre-interview thread gets people involved, but when/if someone of note/a guest that knows what he or she is talking about reads these interviews they, frankly, come off as amateurish to a high degree.

 

[Rush]

Checkout my Jerry Azumah interview article

 

[Lefty]

I don't know where to find that, nor do I care to look.