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High School Baseball SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by CarlSpackler, Apr 5, 2011.

  1. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    You don't?
     
  2. HandsomeHarley

    HandsomeHarley Well-Known Member

    Covered a softball doubleheader today between two of the better teams in the state at their division.

    First game, combined 16 errors. I shit you not. This wasn't a pair of St. Podunk One-legged Academy teams -- these teams are damn good.

    The home team committed five errors in an eight-run inning with two out.

    Covered them Monday and they run-ruled some jabroni in both games. I was out of there in less than two hours. Not today.

    And WTF is this with assclown school districts scheduling baseball AND softball at home on the same day? Why the hell can't the baseball team play on the road and vice-versa? To top it off, the local juco softball, a national power, was home today, and the high school held it's only home tennis meet today.
     
  3. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    Not for a while here. Best thing that E-mail ever produced.
     
  4. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    God, so glad for you guys. When I was in Richmond, we got NO e-mails. Maybe one fax. The rest were call-ins. It was ... awesome. I actually preferred track meets over wrestling, though.
     
  5. ShiptoShore

    ShiptoShore Member

    Faxes... Not sure they're much better than phone, unfortunately. And how could swimming get left out if we're talking track meets? Two peas in a pod.

    Takes 14 times longer to do track agate than write up a baseball game, and the ratio of reads on the baseball story vs. the track story is 14/1.

    I hope I catch a bad flu the weekend of track sectionals this spring. Only thing worse than taking agate info over the phone is watching what the agate means as it unfolds.
     
  6. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    I'm a baseball junkie anyway, but being out at even the most dreadful high school baseball or softball game beats the hell out of being in the office. Fortunately, there are some strong programs in both sports here.

    Track: Wish I heard from more than one school! Usually don't get out to meets until the league meet, and everyone seems to hate duals/triangular meets, but have one coach who always calls or e-mails in invitational results. The others? They get my preseason letter and my card, but strange how they find them only when they have an offseason camp or clinic to promote ...

    Swimming (spring sport here) is another matter. All the schools in the league have similar software that compiles the agate and break it down into varsity and JV by gender. One coach not only emails me a copy, but sends them to all team members and their parents, so when I don't go further than one deep in my agate and don't print JV results, they know where to find them. I can "cover" a swim meet in about 15 minutes.
     
  7. Shoeless Joe

    Shoeless Joe Active Member

    I love springs sports. I hate spring sports.
    Monday it was 78 and sunny. Tuesday it was 48 and drizzling.
     
  8. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    At one of my old papers, we had a local track coach who would bring the book by after the game. Right to my desk. Thankfully, she had very neat and readable handwriting.

    I judge awful call-ins based on how long they last. So track was always the worst. Tennis, while annoying, could be done in 2 minutes if the coach had his or her shit together and ready. Same with wrestling and cross country.
     
  9. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    The good thing about high school baseball in North Dakota was only using wood bats.
     
  10. Brian

    Brian Well-Known Member

    Thankfully in Ohio we have a centralized website to which most of the track meet results get published. We don't even need to take a call, an email or a fax from the coach. Just log on and get the results directly and nicely formatted by one of the comuterized systems from the site.

    Otherwise, all of our coaches are considerate enough to email results that aren't on the website.

    As for baseball, I love covering preps. Kids are easier to converse with after losses, because there isn't the crushing emotion that exists after a football or basketball loss. Coaches are actually willing to talk about the game, unlike football and basketball coaches -- who are looking to end the interview saying as few words as possible.

    There just seem to be more angles to pursue in my mind when it comes to baseball and softball. More trends, more stats to dig into, more levity from everyone involved.

    I kind of wish all high school sports were in the same mindset as baseball and softball, instead of the 'we're-all-gonna-die' if we lose this football game mentality that exists in Ohio.
     
  11. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    I once covered a high school baseball game between one of our city schools and one of the schools from the Navajo reservation.

    City school won 43-1 in five innings. It was brutal.

    Said city school finished fifth in a six-team region, just ahead of the Navajo school.
     
  12. jackfinarelli

    jackfinarelli Well-Known Member


    Second this! Plus if the game is in June, the temperature might be 90 degrees so those 4 hours of calling a game where the pitcher could not find home plate with radar, sonar AND a GPS, will be mightily uncomfortable. High school baseball can be "horrrrrrruble" [/Bill Walton]
     
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