Help me out, AP

I don't usually get this desperate, posting on these "Why doesn't the AP run a ..." threads. But would it be too much of a question to ask for a photo of Cristhian Martinez from tonight's Braves game? I know they choked the lead away again (that's for another thread), but he did pitch 4 perfect innings and hit a 2-run double as a relief pitcher.

But thanks for those three extra Ryan Howard photos, I appreciate that.

 

Is he local to your area? AP rule is always to shoot the starting pitcher.

 

We are a southern paper, hence the Braves need. Martinez wasn't the starter, but pitched 4 perfect innings in relief of injured Beachy AND hit a two-run double to tie the game (one of the greatest things I've ever seen as a Braves fan, by the way).

But once the Braves blew the lead back, Martinez was much less notable, with the injury to Beachy taking precedent. So it was all good, but by golly I was cursing the AP much of the night.

 

I'm all for ripping the AP when they deserve it, but if the argument is that they didn't move photos of a middle reliever in a game his team lost, then it's your expectations that need some help.

Sure, he had a good night, but good lord, the way you're talking about it, this guy is the baseball equivalent of Jordan dropping 63 on the Celtics or something.

 

AP photographers have it pretty tough, so I try to go easy on them. Misspellings in names suck. No photos of a key player sucks. Lack of options sucks.

But I will only complain about a wrong cutline. Most commonly, that means misidentifying someone.

The rest, you just work around.

 

If you need a photo that badly, your paper needs to staff the game. An AP game photo just fills space for most papers.

 

Another option: US Presswire. They staff most Braves games and upload more photos than AP, plus a lot of times the photos are just better.

In this case, they had Martinez standing at second or pitching. Obviously, neither was spell-binding lead art, but they were both good profiled shots of him.

 

I'll agree ... unless you're paying them for a specific shot, the photo wire is like a buffet. What you're presented with is what you get. If they totally botch it, then I'm giving them a call.

I don't worry about cutlines too much, unless, again, there's a really big goof. But the way they're writing them now to help search engines is ridiculous: "Podunk Tech's Henry Wellhung, from Upper Freedonia, scratches his crotch before getting into the batter's box in an NCAA baseball game against Podunk A&M Tuesday, May 31, 2011."