By Phil Riske | Managing Editor/Rose Law Group Reporter
A veteran journalist and a star baseball pitcher both felt the employment axe this week, but their situations were quite different.
Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Ian Kennedy hadn’t even heard of the possibility of a trade until just a few hours before his start on Tuesday night, a game that turned out to be his last with the Diamondbacks. He was sent to the Padres.
Lori Baker worked at The Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette. She freelanced for the paper starting at age 14 and spent the past 35 years on staff as an editor and reporter. Baker was laid off Wednesday as part of a new round of newspaper layoffs occurring within media outlets owned by Gannett Co.
“I was laid off on Thursday Aug. 1. I got an email on Wednesday about coming downtown for a meeting on Thursday and that’s when I looked online and saw that Gannett was doing layoffs again,” Baker said in an e-mail to Rose Law Group Reporter.
Whether Kennedy, who has struggled all year, knew he would be traded only he knows, but he said he didn’t expect it. “I don’t think it’s hit me yet.”
Baker has never applied for a job, and she told Rose Law Group Reporter she is too young to retire.
Kennedy, on the other hand, has a job with a new boss in a new city and to wear a different company suit.
One can only imagine what it must be like to sit in a dugout with teammates you’ve come close to over several years and on the same day boarding a plane to leave your team and report by the next day to a different dugout with players you’ve tried to beat in many games.
Trades are part of the business of professional baseball, but they have to bring some form of shock to the tradee.
To go to work where you’ve been for 35 years and be kicked to the streets has to be gut-wrenching.
The age of the Gold Watch has long been over.
Whether you’re an athlete or a newspaper reporter, and no matter how experienced you are, you’re expendable.
Related:
Anatomy of a mass layoff: Gannett memo gives newspaper execs guidance, scripted Q&A answers
Arizona Republic, Gannett could make big coverage changes in wake of layoffs
