Covering Little League Opening Day

nate: Get as many kids' names in the story as possible. All parties will be happy.

P.S. Be sure there are no accompanying photos of kids a) crying after a loss; or b) watching a ground ball go through their legs. You will be blamed for it whether you shot them or not, whether you selected them or not.

 

With Patch, find a way to make a photo slide show or even shoot some video. The story isn't that important. You're better off telling the story with photos than words.

 

LL is just starting there? We're a month in.

 

Hell, if it keeps going in the direction it has been, we're probably into district all-star play already.

 

We have six LL opening day ceremonies this weekend representing five of our papers. No stories, all photos, which means picture pages and an easy week next week.

 

Send the photog for some cute kid photos and run a single stand-alone on your Scoreboard page...or maybe a multitude of photos if you get enough variety. That can be fun...of course, be ready for the "When are you shooting my kid's game?" phone calls.
Actually doing a write-up...not so much. And I do Little League coverage, but only at the summer all-star tourneys.

 

Mine was supposed to have the opening day ceremonies the day-before Easter, although they started games a week or two before that. However, because of rain, everything got delayed to this Saturday. I'm in New England though, so the weather is a concern until around April 1. Try-outs are normally late March or early April.

 

You need to get a story on a fan's first little league game. It's time to do some real reporting. /dailynewscrossthread

 

If it's like other opening ceremonies, they will introduce all the teams. Not very newsworthy.

But if they pick a player to receive the ceremonial opening pitch, might be worth talking to the league president about why that player was chosen. (My son was picked on year because he had been in the for like 10 years and also was umpiring, so I thought that was pretty nice and they put some thought into it.)

Also if they have some local politician or celeb throw out the pitch, might talk to them about their memories of Little League, etc.

And if they have some local kid some the national anthem, I would put that in the story.

Beyond that, I might look for what's new -- parking improvements, field upgrades, new pretzels in the concession stand.

 

My suggestion would be a slideshow of Little League MILFS. That would bring in the page hits. Everyone wins.

 

Easy on the slide show suggestions. Can't be getting ripped off by Bleacher Report

 

BRILLIANT!