Sarina Morales met with Pedro Gomez on both southern coasts of the United States before finally convincing the ESPN reporter to head to the northeast.

But now that he’s coming to Syracuse, Morales, the president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), believes it’s perfect timing for a journalist who followed controversial baseball slugger Barry Bonds for the past few seasons

‘It’s so timely,’ Morales, who previously met Gomez at NAHJ conventions in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. in 2006 and San Jose, Calif. in 2007, said. ‘Especially with the whole steroids conversation and the Mitchell Report (a government report on the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball) coming out (in mid-December).’

Gomez will speak about topics like Bonds, ethics and covering professional sports Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Newhouse III’s Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium as a guest of the NAHJ.

Morales emphasized that along with current pro-sports issues, she wants Gomez to speak on breaking into the business. She added that Gomez’s background shows how it can take much longer than most realize to reach the pinnacle.

After graduating from the University of Miami with a degree in journalism, Gomez spent 15 years working at several newspapers across the country, according to his ESPN biography. He eventually became the Oakland Athletics beat writer for the ‘San Jose Mercury News’ in 1990. Gomez would take the same position at the ‘Sacramento Bee’ five years later before becoming a sports columnist at the ‘Arizona Republic.’

In April of 2003, ESPN came calling. Gomez served as a bureau reporter in the southwest. Soon he was tagged by the network to shadow Bonds on the stars divisive quest to break Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record. He accomplished the feat, and Gomez was there to cover the story and ask the tough questions about Bonds’ possible connection to steroids.

Despite watching – and to an extent – being a part of history, Morales noted Gomez worries about being forever-known as that guy who followed Bonds around for a few years.

‘He’s actually a really nice guy,’ Morales said. ‘But his name is always mentioned with Barry Bonds. But (Gomez) is actually a pretty talented dude.’

In addition, to his relationship with Bonds, Morales plans to ask Gomez about the broadcast journalism field today. He also will speak about making ethical decisions and posing the tough questions that come with those decisions.

These are all topics Morales talked about in previous meetings with Gomez. And after musing over his answers, she decided it’d be nice to let other students in on Gomez’s insight.

‘After awhile,’ Morales said. ‘I realized he’d probably be a good person to come to (Syracuse) to hear what he had to say.’

[email protected]

Published on February 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm