Josh Suchon decided to quit as the Oakland Tribune’s A’s beat writer and become a radio sports announcer in Modesto after the great Bay Area newspaper merger, the Modesto Bee reports. Instead of writing exclusively for the Oakland Tribune, he also had to answer to editors at the San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times, with each having their own idea about the perfect angle.

“My main story ended up being edited to the point where I had three different leads in three different newspapers,” said Suchon, who covered the San Francisco Giants from 2000-03 and the Oakland Athletics from 2004-06. “The Mercury must have thought my lead was horrible because they completely rewrote it. That was the event that signalled to me that it was time to get out of the business because it was getting harder and harder every day.”

Suchon, 34, has just completed his first year as the voice of the Modesto Nuts minor league baseball team. He also hosts a daily sports talk show and calls high school football games. He’s shown here preparing to do such a game on Nov. 9. (Photo credit: Ted Benson, The Modesto Bee)