Alumni Spotlight - Evan Brunell, AS'09

In October 2003, as Aaron Boone’s 11th-inning home run off Tim Wakefield landed in the left-field stands at Yankee Stadium and provided a gut-wrenching end to another chapter in the long-playing Red Sox-Yankees drama, Evan Brunell was not unlike the majority of Boston fans. The initial feeling of shock yielded to dismay and anger: a reserve third baseman who had hit just six home runs in the regular season became the latest Yankee to drive a stake through the heart of Red Sox Nation.

Brunell, a high school student at the time, took the loss hard. A diehard Red Sox fan, he couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the loss and the continued inability of Boston to exorcise the Yankee demons. While Sox fans flooded the airwaves of sports radio and consoled each other as best they could, Brunell discovered another coping tool: blogging.

What started as a way to deal with the heartbreaking end to a promising baseball season would evolve into MVN.com, a blogging Web site with a current stable of 200-300 fans who write about virtually every topic in sports. With MVN.com, Brunell, AS’09, who earned his degree in journalism, provides an outlet for fans to discuss the travails of their teams with an audience that shares their interests.

Brunell acknowledges there is a marked difference between sports bloggers and professional writers, but he attributes that to just one major difference: accessibility.

“The access journalists have in terms of locker rooms and the ear of ‘insiders’ gives them information they can use, and information bloggers need to do their work,” Brunell said. “As for those accomplished bloggers, not much differentiates them in terms of talent – or even an understanding of how journalism works – from a professional.

“Take myself, for example. I have a journalism degree. What is necessarily better about accepting a job at a low- to mid-level size newspaper to cover high school sports as opposed to creating a successful market for your blog in a high-profile subject?

“Newspapers are switching from having information and being the requisite influential voices to being gatekeepers of content.”

Brunell is sensitive to the opinions of those who feel blogging is simply an outlet for sports fans that can’t draw the line between team loyalty and objective reporting. But he also feels there is some credence in the remarks made by life-long fans.

“Readers gravitate to writers who live and die with each play along with them,” Brunell said. “It gives bloggers credibility, and readers are apt to consider their suggestions far more seriously than a journalist who grew up 500 miles away with no vested interest in the team.”

Because of the success of MVN.com and the hours required to manage its content – he is one of three full-time employees – Brunell has little time to do his own blogging. However, he has managed to continue to indulge his passion for the Red Sox with firebrandal.com, a Red Sox-themed blog that recently formed a partnership with ESPN. He describes himself as a “guardedly optimistic” Red Sox fan whose birthday (August 16) shares a date with two important events in Sox history: the anniversary of the death of Babe Ruth and the firing of manager Jimy Williams.
 
Brunell feels Northeastern was the perfect place to hone an interest and talent that existed before his arrival on campus.

“I’ve always been a good writer and I came to enjoy it in my class work,” said Brunell, who is deaf and credited NU’s Disability Resource Center for easing his transition on campus. “When I was trying to determine a future for myself, I thought about how I could fuse my two passions together: writing/reading and sports. Thus, sports journalism was born.

“My experience at Northeastern was amazing. I thought NU offered a great atmosphere, both academically and [in other opportunities]. I met a broad range of professors who all informed and improved my outlook on the world.

“There were four general areas that I pursued in higher learning: journalism, business [in which he has a minor], writing, and leadership. I can certainly say that I am rather advanced in knowledge in these areas thanks to Northeastern.”