By Dylan Butler
I'm not looking for sympathy because this is the life I have chosen, but it really is work. Sure I get to sit in press boxes or courtside, watch games, interview athletes and get paid to write about it, but it isn't quite what it's cracked up to be. There's the long hours with minimal pay, there's having to walk into a cramped, sweaty locker room and deal with some Prima Donna athletes who could care less about talking to you and give you cliche answers, like Crash Davis gave Nuke LaLoosh in “Bull Durham.””We gotta play 'em one day at a time.””I'm just happy to be here, hope I can help the club.””I just want to give it my best shot, and the good Lord willing, things will work out.”Mark Sabia thought it was cool, too. He had season credentials for the Mets, Yankees, Giants, the Knicks and the Nets in the name of Westchester Cable Services. The only problem is that, according to the Queens district attorney's office, there is no such thing as Westchester Cable Services and Sabia isn't, in fact, a reporter.Sabia was arrested April 11 when he attempted to pick up his season credentials at Shea Stadium before the Mets home opener and charged with five counts of falsifying business records, criminal impersonation, petite larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and one count of scheme to defraud, according to the Queens DA. He was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court April 12 and his next court appearance is scheduled for April 26. If convicted, he faces up to four years in jail. According to the criminal complaint, Sabia claimed he produces syndicated sports programs and provides footage to several upstate television stations, none of which claim to have ever conducted business with Sabia. Sabia also received credentials to the American League and National League championship series as well as the World Series in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004, according to the Queens DA.He was a regular in press boxes and locker rooms and his microphone with its “Mark Sabia Sportszone” flag was unmistakable. I'm not sure, though, what is sadder – that Sabia was apparently a wannabe reporter or that the area professional teams were duped by Sabia. It sounds like a pretty interesting book to me. Hey, it could even be a movie, something of a “Catch Me if You Can,” meets “Everybody Loves Raymond.”Kudos, though, to the New York City Police Department's Public Information Office, which denied Sabia's attempt at a NYPD press credential. According to the complaint, Sabia was turned away because he was unable to provide any documentation to verify the existence of Westchester Cable Services. Now if only the local teams were as thorough when issuing season press passes.According to the Queens DA, Sabia received a season credential for the Mets for the past two seasons, but we at the TimesLedger Newspapers were denied our request despite covering the team each week. But I digress.This should be just the beginning, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not saying others should get arrested, but local teams should certainly crack down on who receives working press credentials. They should really put the emphasis on the word “working.” I'm not naming names here, but there are individuals who go to every press conference just to eat the free food and who linger around the press dining areas and press boxes in stadiums and arenas for almost every game but are never seen putting pen to paper or touching a single key on a laptop.They are there just to be seen while others, who are looking to cover the game, are locked out. And it's not just the professional games, I see it happen at St. John's basketball games, too. There are two guys, again who will remain nameless, who sit at Red Storm home games – at Madison Square Garden only – who incessantly babble throughout the game, never taking down one note. To me, the easy way to crack down is to ask these reporters for samples of their stories. If they're actually at a game to cover it, they should have no problem producing some sort of write-up on that game for the organization they claim to work for. I'd have no problem with that because I know that when I'm not actually working a game, I'm not there. I'm not hanging out in the press room or handing out my column to fellow reporters and the athletes who I cover. Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
