Hey, where did my stats and game notes go?

I had never been so pissed off than I was last night. Covering a juco basketball game in Bumblefuck, the men's game ends at 10 p.m. I write quickly to send for our first edition, making deadline by 10 minutes. By 10:30, I'm in the locker room talking to the coach. By 10:45, I'm done. I go back to the scorer's table ... and all my stuff is gone except for my computer. Laptop bag, briefcase, even my fucking coat were all gone.

Luckily, the coach from the other team knows me and he mentioned to the asshat that was ready to toss my stuff into the lost and found that he thought it was mine. So he held it for me on the bench and waited for me to come back out, where he actually walked over and gave all my stuff to me.

Problem was, the fucking cleaning people threw all my stats away. My game notes, my boxscores, my running-score total, my pregame packet, everything. Fortunately, I had enough play-by-play in the first edition to give me enough information on the game itself, and luckily there was enough other stuff to write about, but for fuck's sake, in seven years this has happened to me only one other time, and I was lucky enough to find all my stuff at the top of a nearby trash can. The gym last night was spotless when I came out of the locker room. I never would have found my stats.

End of rant.

 

I've been there and been through that. I always put my notes back into my laptops side pockets and zip everything up expect what I'm holding in my hands. I do this every time I leave the gym floor at a game. It's unlikely, but possible, the cleaning crew would throw away a laptop bag.

 

It's entirely possible members of the cleaning crew would take a liking to a laptop bag and the laptop that's likely inside it.

 

I was at a hockey game a couple weeks ago, writing a feature. After the game, I went into the locker room to do a couple interviews. When I got back to my seat, my legal pad and pen were gone.

 

I guess we'll have to pack everything up and tote it with us to the locker rooms from now on.

 

Why wouldn't you anyway, it's not a press box, leaving a laptop out like that in plain sight in a high school just screams "TAKE ME!"

 

I lost my all-time favorite Real Army Surplus jacket from press row at a Western Kentucky game.

Bitterness.

 

I'd bet a legal pad and pen that Norm MacLean was at that game.

 

king, I've been there before. I understand where the cleanup would want to get home ASAP, but the jacket and the stats by the laptop should be a dead giveaway for them now that we're at the end of the season. They know better than that.

 

i hope you'll make a phone call.

 

They're cleanup people. They assume that when the game is over, everyone is going home. They're laughing at some dumb ass leaving his coat and some kind of damn machine behind. Just more work for them.

If you're working in Bumblefuck, don't assume they run the place like Madison Square Garden.

My experience has been that if fans pass by, they love to take any kind of stat or note sheets.

 

and media guides. those are always the first to go missing