Cover what you like, or what the readers do

Good that you could spread it out like that...but seems really far out from the end of the seasons.

By the time you run them...would anyone remember much from the season?

It's likened to the month-long gap between the end of the college football season and the national championship.

 

Regular readers are picking up the paper for high school sports coverage? I have a bit of insider info in that I know of the area Rhody is in, but we don't have any pros or college teams to cover out here, and it's essentially a community weekly beat. Pretty much all the sports coverage out here is targeted and only of interest to niches.

 

We've been debating that. One of the biggest factors, I gotta admit, is that after the British Open and Tour de France, except for the PGA, the only thing really going on until school starts, outside of whatever kid baseball that might trickle in, is NFL camp news, and the cynical editor I am, I don't believe the deal will be done until they start reporting for camp

 

I feel so sorry for all of you who have to cover this stuff. I really do, because I've been there and then some.

I remember in my tenure in Florida, we covered the Dixie Ball leagues as if it were the Super Bowl. Everyday, we were out there covering it.

With only limited AP, we were stuck filling our huge sections with boring Dixie Ball gamer after boring Dixie Ball gamer. And in south-central Florida, the heat is maddening. The rain delays even more so. Games, thanks to the rain delays from thunderstorms blowing in from the Atlantic and then the Gulf, would last until 1 a.m.

We'd drive hours and hours to tournaments after putting in a full desk shift.

During Dixie Ball time, we'd go seven or eight days in a row without a day off. In one 21-day period, I had one day off. Granted, I was making serious bank on overtime and mileage, but who cares when your life is not worth living. I actually wondered if I would die instantly if my car took a purposeful leap off a bridge into a deep canal.


I guess Nietzsche was right: that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

At my shop here, we cover one big city tournament and that's it. Thank goodness. Pickings are slim this time of year, but cripes, anything is better than youth baseball.

 

Someone mentioned Legion ball in Connecticut. I saw a team from New London at the 1986 American Legion World Series in Rapid City, S.D. Really good team.