Part 9B of a 10-part series
When thinking about "favourite pieces of writing," Geoff Baker can look back on his time with the news desk at another paper, where as he recalls, "I chased a convicted fraud artist out of Montreal in 1994 for a highly-suspect theme park project he was promoting ... Real cloak-and-dagger stuff. Our stories got him arrested."
Speaking of fraud, from a sports angle, Baker says his expose of Tim Johnson and his Vietnam lies in 1998 "eventually got him fired and garnered worldwide attention at the time," while a piece on Carlos Delgado helping anti-Navy activists in Puerto Rico also drew widespread praise a couple of years ago.
"But I'm most proud of a 2,200-word feature I wrote on Eric Hinske and his football-playing brother in August 2002," he says.
"From a technical standpoint, the writing style and telling of the [Hinske] story from the angle I chose to do it was extremely difficult," Baker remembers. "The information in the story was newsworthy, like uncovering the real reason why [Eric] had few football offers after high school and how a family friend had to intervene to get him a Division I baseball scholarship."
While it's true that the Blue Jays third sacker is reportedly not pleased with the article himself -- "Funny enough, Eric is still sore about some of the story," admits Baker -- that doesn't change its status as a favoured piece of writing by the author.
"It was told in proper context and I think people got a real sense of what drives both brothers," says Baker. In fact, he says, "[Eric's brother Ryan] and family asked me for multiple copies. Can't please everyone."
Read it now ...
A tale of two Hinskes
Thanks to Geoff Baker for providing text to these stories from the Toronto Star database and permission to republish them here. Links will open a new browser window.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030926100824999