Reporting the backstory with the San Francisco Giants

A group of 15 lucky Newsroom by the Bay students and staff combined work and play today with a trip to AT&T Park to watch the San Francisco Giants vs. the Cincinnati Reds.

While the game ended in a 5-1 loss for the Giants and the end of a remarkable four-game winning streak, NBTB students got a rare front-row seat on sports journalism, arriving early for a pre-game tour of the ball field, a visit to the press box and the pre-game chalk talk in the Giants dugout.

“We’re very grateful to the Giants organization, especially (Giants president and chief executive officer) Larry Baer and his staff, who arranged for the amazing press access for our students,” said NBTB Co-Director Beatrice Motamedi.

Gabrielle Brieter, a student at Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks, Calif., said students tweeted all through the game. “It was so exceptional to be there. You almost felt like one of the sportswriters,” Brieter said. “My first instinct was to pull out my notebook and pen and write down everything that I saw because I didn’t want to forget it.”

Malik Grandberry, a student from University Prep in Chicago, shot more than 50 photos and filmed a garlic fries-eating competition, the pre-game talk by Giants Manager Bruce Bochy, and a 360-panorama of AT&T Park. He also met a sportswriter for the Associated Press, who talked about the sacrifices required for those who aspire to become professional sports journalists, as Grandberry hopes to be.

“We learned some of the backstory,” said Grandberry, adding, “it’s important to build relationships with the players and the coaches — to get on their good side, so that you can get interviews after a game.”