Not covering Little League All-Stars

Reading the youth all-star rants on the "Dimwit" thread makes me realize just how happy I've been since I left small town daily newspaper life. It's my third straight summer not covering youth all-star baseball/softball, and I have to say I'm thrilled.

I feel like I did a lot of good work as a small town SE, but I always dreaded July for the youth all-stars, where the kids and families may have changed once in a while, but the mentality never did.

Just wanted to feel good about something for a bit. Thanks for hearing me out.

 

We hear you, UNCGrad.

Many of those parents were the worst. Like you, glad to put that in the rearview mirror.

 

I think we overemphasize the good parents and act like every father who watches his kid's Little League game is a monster. Not the case.

And some of the most fun I've seen in baseball in the past 20 years has been good, high-level Little League tournament action.

 

Some parents aren't bad at all. Some get it. Some actually worry about whether their child is having fun and learning the game.

But some act as if every little thing is Game 7 of the World Series, and the kids and everyone else would be better served by learning it with the media worrying about other stories. And, contrary to what some think, overkill coverage of this does not bring in readership.

Who's interested? We'll say every kid's parents and maybe two other relatives of both teams. We'll say that's 100 readers. Not even moving the needle at a small daily.

 

It's amazing how things like that don't get coverage, and yet the sun still rises in the east the next day.

 

And the same is true with high school soccer ... and your local D-II school's baseball games ... and the town's 5K run ... and any sport starting with "water" ...

 

We're getting this now. We've got two girls softball LL All-Stars playing for the state titles tomorrow night in a town that's two hours away. Of course, with every e-mail with results we're getting the "Why aren't you covering us?" question. I want to respond with "Why didn't you ask that three years ago when we treated the other teams who made it to state the same way? Oh wait, it's because your kids weren't on the team."

I imagine this will get even worse in the coming days.

 

I know why you hesitate saying some things to the irate caller. I don't know why you wouldn't say that. That's an honest reply that can't be disputed.

 

That's a great way to invite a shit-ton more calls. You'll either get the same parent calling back every year for the next ten to make a point, or you'll get some sort of call-sharing duties where teams pool together their parenting douchiness and call for each other. I swear the last one happened to me at one stop.

 

Why can't parents be told not enough people care about it to make it worthwhile to cover it? In fact, cutbacks at newspapers are being made because not enough people care about local news coverage, at least care enough to fund the coverage they want.

 

Well, inasmuch as I can see what Rick said, you need to add this at the end of that, Stitch: "... and getting 100 of your fellow parents to call will not indicate there's enough interest to cover it, either."