Yankee Stadium Mass...(Cat McKenzie)

It’s me again WABC Special Project Producer, Catherine “Cat” McKenzie – out on the road again but this time I only had to go as far as the Bronx. I have been at WABC for 11 years. Whenever I tell people I am a producer they always ask what does that mean?

Well on a trip like this I am in charge of helping get our product out on the air while we’re in the field.  That means everything from making sure our satellite feeds are up and running to setting up interviews to actually doing an occasional interview to help our reporters round out their coverage.

Right now I am at Yankee Stadium preparing for the Pope to say mass for about 57,000 people.  Security is the tightest it’s ever been on any event that I’ve covered..and that includes two Presidential Inaugurations.  Today, I’m working with Liz Cho, Bill Ritter and NJ Burkett along with about a dozen technical people we arrived at the station at 3:00am this morning!! Then we had to head down to the Sheraton Hotel, go through a security sweep and take a bus to the stadium. It was EARLY – but the early wake up call was worth it.

Our anchor position is in the Yankee Bullpen – yes we are standing on top of the same spot future hall of famer Yankee Mariano Rivera warms up on…pretty cool.  Traveling with anchors has its privileges.  Bill, Liz, David Bloch (one of our Executive Producers) and I took a walk around the stadium.  We walked around the warning track, which is the track of dirt that surrounds the outfield.  When we got to the third base line – an old ABC audio engineer who recognized Bill and Liz summoned us onto the stage – yes onto the same stage the Pope would be on in just about 7 hours.  The colors are so vibrant lots of purples and golds...interesting fact – on the stage is a huge white chair where the Pope will sit.  We were told that the stagehands who had been on the clock since Thursday at midnight and who had been sitting on everything – would not sit in that particular chair…. So after just looking at the chair…we then walked down into the Yankee dugout and out into the tunnel where we were able to look inside the Umpire’s Locker Room.  They had turned the locker room into a suite….complete with new carpeting…gold curtains, fresh flowers, candles and crystals. This is where the Pope would arrive to prepare for celebrating the mass. Then we ran into some young men in liturgical vestments – I asked them if there were excited – one of them was also topping his vestment off with a Yankee cap – they told us as did everyone we met this morning that they were just as excited to be in the inner sanctum of Yankee Stadium as they are to be helping the Pope’s with his final event on this trip.

Our next stop was the Pinstripes Club where we got some much-needed coffee and snacks.  Then it was back to our spot in the bullpen – where Executive Producer David Bloch was able to wrangle recording star Harry Connick Jr.  for an interview with NJ Burkett. How cool was that? And how pretty are his eyes?!!!!

The congregation is coming in now and we can all feel the excitement that they are generating. Kids in “Benedict” jerseys. Families all dressed up for church.  Music blasting from the speakers.

We do a quick interview with Mayor Bloomberg who talks to us about the emotional visit the Pope paid to Ground Zero this morning – and also gives us some insight into his talks with the Pope while he has been in New York.

The choir is singing “Oh Happy Day” and the sun is coming out – and although this is a work assignment and I was raised an Episcopalian I can’t help but smile at how this visit has touched so many of so many different faiths…and I’m a little excited to see the Pope celebrate mass…gotta go Harry's about to sing.…thanks for reading…Cat

Covering the pope (Nina Pineda)

It is amazing to witness the Catholic youth, all chanting, singing and praying together. They are not embarassed to express their love or their devotion to the pope of their generation. They call him B16, for Benedict the 16th.

(The aftermath of the youth rally)

We were moving through the crowd, talking to these young people, very representative of how the face of the Catholic church is changing. And they talked to us about the challenges they face, striving to live chaste lives and abstain from pre-marital sex, to keeping the sabbath and going to church on Sunday. And they are heartened, they are lifted to know that other teens are struggling and they can become better people and be closer to God if they all do this together at the same time.

(Field producer Maura Sweeney and photographer Todd Pierce after a long hard work day.)

From the T-shirts, to the dancing, the expression of faith is so representative of the creative ways kids are choosing to worship. They were told they aren't just the future of the church, they ARE the church.

(Nina and photographer Rob Cantwell)

To worship with Pope Benedict is a privelege, an honor those in attendance will remember for the rest of their lives. And so will we!

Headed to St. Joseph's Seminary

It is day two of the pope's visit to New York City, and while we are all tired from working 16 hour days, it's been a thrill to witness history in the making.

Right now, we have all been ''swept'' by the US Secret Service, which means they have checked all of the camera equipment and our bags with bomb-sniffing dogs and metal detectors. Once all is clear, we file onto secure buses to be transported en masse to the site we are covering for the pope's visit. Today, I am covering the rally in Yonkers at St. Joseph's seminary.

The bus has just started to leave Midtown, to the cheers or everyone on board. Everyone is acting like school kids, joking and chanting with the giddiness we feel covering a large scale event.

The Secret Service runs a very tight ship. There is no room for error here, and I've never witnessed more heavily armed bodyguards or tighter frozen zones prior to this, and that includes the UN General Assembly and Heads of State visits to New York City post 9/11.

Yesterday, at St Joe's on the Upper East Side, our photogrpaher accidentally stepped out of the barricaded area reserved for press, and a Secret Service agent made the ENTIRE Press Corps empty out of our ''pen'' so the dogs could resniff every bag and federal agents went through our equipment by hand.

Even the people who lived on the street (87th) weren't allowed to sit on their steps or even open their windows prior to and during the pope's service. It was wild. There were sharpshooters in the belltower and on rooftops all over.

Seeing the Pope 

I couldn't help but tear up and quickly tried to blink away my tears before going on the air. It's just incredible to be close to a person so many people around the world regard as the closest thing to God on Earth. Pope Benedict emerged from his Cadillac, with its bulletproof windows, and hugged babies on the steps of the church. He gently held the lucky infants faces and feet. He appeared so much gentler than the cardinal who earned the nickname ''God's rotweiller'' while still Cardinal Ratzinger before becoming Pope.

I immediately wished my own daughter could have been blessed by his holiness, but there was no way I could have brought her (Tea...8 months old) with me to work, because we were literally standing in the same place for about 8 hours and I worked from 9 a.m. until midnight yesterday.

It's been amazing to see the NYPD in action for the pope. They have secured this city down to an exact science, closing down blocks and containing people so well. A few blocks away, you'd never even know what was happening.

Everything went well Friday and we are all hoping the rest of the weekend will be safe and flawless.

I'll write again about the rally. It's a beautiful, sunny day at Dunwoodie, where the seminary is located. I'm sure we will all be inspired by the kids, the pope's message to them and, of course, Kelly Clarkson!!

Bye for now...Nina.

(Field Producer Maura Sweeney and Photographer Todd Pierce after a long hard work day.)

The Final Countdown

By Tara Zimmerman, producer

For me, this is among the most exciting parts of a race...the days leading up to it. There are daily check-ins with Diana, Lisa, Heidi and Lori on how we're all holding up; we've received our race bibs and Channel 7 shirts to wear; we're making plans for the pasta party the night before the race.

Tonight, I pick up my sister Tracy from the airport. She's flying in to cheer me on (and for a weekend of R&R!). She and my boyfriend are reviewing the race route, plotting where they'll be to cheer me on. This is the fun stuff.

The past few months have been a bit tougher, with skipping nights out with friends to train, long runs, chaffing, a sore sartorius muscle and the bout of food-poisoning that I thought would sideline me. Our coach Jimmy Lynch (seen above stretching me out), with Wharton Performance, has been great in answering all of our questions, no matter how small, like "What if we have to go to the bathroom during the race?" (thank goodness for port-a-potties) and "How do I prevent that chaffing? (it turns out Body Glide and Vaseline work wonders).

But after all the hard work and miles logged, now it's time to enjoy the ride. See you at the finish line!

Training for a Blog...race jitters

By Diana Williams

Fear has set in. It permeates all our e-mails within the group. Have we trained enough? Will our hips and knees hold up? Will blisters pop? Will we make it to the finish line without walking? What were we thinking!!??   

Running coach Jimmy Lynch is sensing our jitters. His latest e-mail reminded us that 98 percent of the race is showing up. And at this point, we all know there is no turning back. Today, we received all our race gear. Our bibs with name and number and a chip that will attach to our running shoes. That chip will register our times, not just at the finish line, but at different spots along the 13.1-mile route. Later, we can log onto the New York Road Runners Web site and see how we did. Time doesn't really matter for most of us. We just want to cross the finish line in one piece. As Jimmy says, running is not in your feet, it's in your head.