Ever feel like you're being stalked?

My experiences seemed to be just the opposite, which supports the theory that people don't notice the bylines. I'd be at a game, end up talking to some people. One of them would say "Did you see that story in the paper today ...." I'd say, "Not only did I see it, I wrote it."

 

The ME at my current stop previously worked in a small weekly paper in Saskatchewan, a place where everyone knew everyone, and more importantly knew where everyone lived. He says he would have people coming to his house after hours knocking on his door, wondering why he wasnt covering this or that. Usually petty little shit like the cub scouts donating $50 bucks to some charity or some shit.

 

I had a front-of-the-section, above-the-fold column for four years before the first time somebody I didn't know acknowledged me. He said, "Hey, aren't the you guy from TV?" I had made my television debut the week before. Ah, the power of the small screen.

 

This thread reminds me of that seminal wedding song:

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
Ill be watching you
Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
Ill be watching you
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
Ill be watching you
Since you’ve been gone I been lost without a trace
I dream at night I can only see your face
I look around but its you I cant replace
I feel so cold and I long for your embrace
I keep crying baby, baby, please
O cant you see
You belong to me
How my poor heart aches
With every breath you take
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
Every move you make
Every step you take
Ill be watching you

 

Two stops back a girls dad wants me to do a story on his daughter as she is approaching the national high school record for consecutive stolen bases in softball. While working on the story, I get a call from an opposing coach who says his club threw the girl out stopping the streak. The coach knew about the streak because he had coached the girl in travel ball and she had talked about the record all the time. I called the girls coach and he says they picked the girl off first base and did not throw her out. A few games later the coach calls and said the girl broke the record and gave me quotes. The dad brings his daughter by the paper and wants her photo to go in the paper with the story. We take the photo and get a few quotes. I call the other coach back who claims his club stopped her streak and in a sense of fairness wanted to add to the story that someone says the streak was stopped. So I write the story and added that one team claimed she may not have set the record. The day the story came out in the paper, the dad calls up and cusses me out, then talks to my ME and wants me fired.
When I left work that day, the dad is sitting in his pick up truck across the street from our parking lot. At the time, it was a 42-mile drive to my home. The dad pulled out after me and follows me out of the city, onto a county road and finally on the freeway, which is about 16 miles total. He's still behind me so I speed up and finally lose him on the freeway. I took an exit that I usually don't take so that if he did see me he'd get off at the wrong exit. I had lost him, but that was the scarest few minutes of my life. I vowed to talk with the police if I saw him waiting after I got off work again, but thankfully it never happen again. Thank God.
The guy is a nut. I've never meet a more obsessive person in my life. Glad to be way away from that crazy SOB.

 

High school parents = the single best reason to leave the business.

Oh, maybe one of every 20-30 is annoying, either asking for more coverage, or sending pissy letters and phone calls. But that one can really make you question sometimes just why you bother with preps.

Needless to say, the most predictable part was that daddy drove a pickup truck.

 

that's messed up

but ... doesn't a pickoff count as a caught stealing on every level?

 

Amen to that!

My first season covering high school sports was winter; part of my duties is to select first- and second-team all-state girls' basketball. i don't pick one girl who was second-team her frosh, soph and junior seasons. I picked her second team again; didn't think she was the best in the state at her position.

Father flips out. Phone calls to our office (multiple calls every day), snail mails me and other writers in the department about what an idiot I am, emails me about what an idiot I am. Lucky for me, she also played on the best volleyball team in the state. I go to cover a tournament, he stands over me for 10 minutes telling me what an idiot I am, how no one has ever hurt her like I did.

Since I'm a "public figure" and he didn't physically threaten me, my paper's lawyers said we couldn't go after him for stalking me...

 

Obsessive sports fans, particularly high school parents, can make me a little nervous at times. Yes, high school parents = the single best reason to leave the business

As I've said, I don't mind if I'm in the grocery store and the old guy sacking groceries wants to talk about Iowa basketball or the Cubs or something like that. But I do mind if I'm in a store and some mom gets in my face about why we don't cover Little League.

 

I once had a coach accost me outside the locker room for what he perceived as negative coverage of his 6-17 basketball team.

"I know all about you," he said. "When you were in college, your basketball team didn't get close to .500. Not once. So what the hell do you know about basketball? Plus, everyone I talk to says you've got one foot out the door here already."

I'd love to say I came back with some smart-assed response, but really, I was too freaked-out to say anything. No wonder this melvin had such a terrible team...he spent all his time scouting me.

 

That's why I'm so glad I don't live in my coverage area. Would it help me get more story tips? Perhaps, but I'd much rather not have to look over my shoulder in the supermarket.

But journalists don't buy groceries, right? Like teachers, who don't exist outside their classrooms? :

 

I feel like I am being stalked by jgmacg. He follows me around the board and comments on every one of my posts. It's getting creepy.