Get off my field!!!

Interesting story.

But I think she's right on the rainout point

You told the readers on say, Wednesday, that Podunk was playing in the tournament Wednesday. In the Thursday morning paper, you need *something* to indicate they got rained out and what that means.

 

We don't run the schedules in the paper, only the results.

 

And yet you thought there was enough interest that the game merited "a big spread with four pictures"? Something doesn't add up. Either there's enough interest that you could have at least included a rainout note, or you're overplaying the hell out of something that no one needs to know the schedule of.

Just sayin'.

 

Unless the team has a girl with a killer knuckleball or Walter Mathau as a manager, I'll never cover Little League.

I was at as small a daily as you could get. Covered one "all-star" game, didn't have a roster, which was a complete disaster because half the parents didn't want their kids' names in the paper because of "stranger-danger" and were afraid their kids would be abducted. After seeing the parents, that would be wishful thinking on the part of the kids. This in a town of 8,000 and an hour and a half from the nearest metroplex. The type of town where the local police blotter consisted of gems like "Old lady calls 911 because of 'colored boy' standing outside her house on sidewalk."

After a long session of thought (2 minutes), the publisher and managing editor decided covering the college summer league team a town away might have more community interest.

New publisher came in and wanted me to run scores due to "multiple parental requests." Put in a brief on the bar on the bottom of the front page asking for scores. Made up a form to write scores on. Took form to the baseball field, to the Little League commissioner, all the local sporting good stores, had a pdf of it on our website, printed it on the bottom of our agate page four times, and had a stack of them at the front desk. In a month we got one score.

 

For us, it adds up fine.

The reason Miss Pissypants called is because we decided to throw a bone to a district championship game between two local teams that was played locally. We put 2-3 photos with it and wrote a story. LL softball parents went nuts, and acted like their children, "You did it for them, and not for us."

Just when you think you're doing something nice for the community, somebody else has to bitch about it. This always tends to be a lose-lose job.

So the four-picture spread that "doesn't add up" was sort of a fuck you, get off my back. We don't normally run the schedules for LL tournaments, and if you think I'm running a blurb about how the big game was canceled because of rain, you're nuts. Only parents and aunts and uncles of the players give a shit.

 

I'd have written a 25-incher and not mentioned her daughter once.

 

Yes, we're covering mostly Little League this summer, and now I'm hearing it from the Junior Baseball parents (different rules slightly)...I simply explain that the Little League coaches have been reporting their results and I've heard from only one Junior Coach all summer.

Little League is a hotbed for the "great story" if they win and "I'm canceling" if they lose or are ignored

 

The parents won't take it as a "fuck you" ... they'll see it as, "Look at what we made the newspaper do!"

As far as the parents and aunts and uncles being the only ones who care, that's my point exactly. You're not wrong there. But it's inconsistent to have the policy that no one cares and then go into big-event presentation mode the following day.

If that was your plan to somehow spite them, it's bizarre. It's like baking them a cake and hoping they choke on it.

 

I wouldn't hate it if they did that, either.

 

Exactly.

 

I saw this quote a short time after I saw that story on E60, which was an absolute farce.
For those who didn't see, it was a story on a girl LL pitcher who had a killer knuckleball and was a pitcher.
First, they called her "perhaps the best Little League pitcher in the country." Not true - journalistically, you can't even say that.
Second, she doesn't have a knuckleball. She has a pitch she throws like a knuckeball. It's a changeup. The short distance of the Little League mounds renders it ineffective as a knuckleball, but it works as a nice off-speed pitch that looks cool.
There was a point where some kid who struck out against her went back to the dugout crying. They said it was because he got struck out by a girl. Funny thing is, I've seen enough Major division all-star games this month to know boys cry when they strike out a lot, especially in big situations.
They made it a big deal that she throws 65. They never confirmed it with a radar reading and made a huge deal about it. Guess what? A lot of kids can do that.
It was such a horseshit story it made me scream.

 

Not just kidball, but, oh, every other sport they cover. Someone calls and bitches about coverage and, coincidentally, you had planned to cover that team the next day ...

But I digress ...

Then there's what happens every summer. Don't hear from the all-star teams until they win district or whatever. They call the ME and want the team photo rushed into the paper so the kids will see it before they go to state. Oh, we need to raise funds too, can you run a photo of our car wash? I was on vacation, so, of course, all this was done.

Did they even think to spend some of those unlimited night and weekend minutes to tell us how they actually did in the tournament? No. I suspect they went two and barbecue, but if they know my number when they need these things, seems like they ought to know it with scores.