In my 30-plus years of working in the media, I’ve never had any difficulty obtaining press credentials to cover any sports event, until last week.

I don’t want this to come across as if I’m whining, nor do I want to personally attack the media relations person who denied my request for a credential, so I’ll leave his name out of it, however, when sharing this story with another member of the local media, he thought this whole fiasco would make for a humorous column.

So, here goes.

In all my years of working in radio, television and print media, I have had the privilege of covering hundreds of sports events including some pretty big ones.

The list includes, the 1994 and 2007 PGA Championships, the 2001 US Open, the 1995 and 1996 Tour Championships, a handful of NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships, several Summit League basketball tournaments, the Big 12 Baseball Tournament, dozens of MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS games, as well as dozens of college football and basketball games.

Much to the chagrin of my wife, every time we travel, I check to see if there’s a game in the area I can attend, so in fact, many of the sports events I’ve covered weren’t even here in Tulsa; they were while visiting family in other parts of the country.

If you’ve read this column over the past 18 years, I’ve taken you to the U.S. Senior Open in St. Louis, MLB games in Tampa, St. Louis, Kansas City, Texas, and Cincinnati. I’ve written about minor league baseball games in Charlotte, Kannapolis, Nashville, Columbus, Springdale, Little Rock, and Wichita. NHL games in St. Louis, Dallas, North Carolina, Calgary, and Columbus, and NBA games in Charlotte, Phoenix and Oklahoma City.

Recently, I decided to take my father and step-mother to Mason, Ohio, to visit his sister and her family. My dad is 83 and no longer has the desire or stamina to drive across country, so this was an important trip for them and I was happy to do it.

Of course, I checked the Cincinnati Reds schedule and they were scheduled to play the Cubs. Two weeks before leaving on the trip, I applied for a press credential through the Major League Baseball media credential site. This is the same system I’ve been registered with for years and have used in the past to get credentials to games in St. Louis, Washington, and just recently in June, a Texas Rangers game.

Well, my credential application was denied, but the denial email said I could direct questions to this particular media relations person with the Reds. So, I did, and explained that I wanted to interview a couple of coaches who used to be here with the Tulsa Drillers – Lee Tunnell and Terrmel Sledge. I would use those interviews for this column and my podcast, I said.

His response, “We denied your request because you indicated are in Cincinnati for a family visit and did not contact us, nor the Cubs to my knowledge, about interviewing any of our personnel. We could only assume you were here on vacation. What is your interest in Lee Tunnell, other than he was a coach there 20 years ago? Is it an anniversary? You will have to contact the Cubs about an interview with their coach. If both coaches agree, we will discuss the request.”

I don’t know about you, but I often mix work with pleasure, and as I mentioned earlier, going to games and writing about them when I’m visiting family is nothing new.

So, I tried to explain this to him. I even stressed that I wasn’t trying to be a freeloader and that we already have tickets to the game.

What I didn’t say was, after talking with Scott Hennessey that week, the Drillers’ manager suggested I get tickets from Sledge, to which I replied that I didn’t want to bother him with that, and my cousin was planning to buy tickets. Well, Hennessey contacted Sledge and the Cubs hitting coach was happy to get us five tickets for the game, plus he knew that I wanted to do an interview with him prior to the game if I secured a press pass.

What really became laughable was after sending this media relations guy a couple links to my columns on the Tulsa Beacon web site, he replied, “This looks like a blog. I was under the impression you wrote for a newspaper.”

You can imagine, as you’re holding this paper in your hands, that didn’t sit well with the newspaper’s publisher, who said, “Tell him we’ve been members of the Oklahoma Press Association for 18 years.”

Instead, I responded, “Oh my goodness. I write for a printed newspaper. I gave you links to the online version. When I get home, I’ll send you a physical printed paper of what I write from this weekend.”

His response, “You will need to provide me a link to the newspaper.”

That’s where I threw my hands up and gave up. I didn’t respond any further, he had already given me enough to write about. I would have rather written about the game, or Great American Ballpark and some of the neat activities they have for fans of all ages, or about chatting with Tunnell in the Reds bullpen, or the great selection of concessions with some delicious options, but there’s no space for that stuff.

You’ll just have to go to Cincinnati to find out for yourself, however, don’t bother trying to get a press credential.