Pet Peeve: Box scores that don't add up

How about the coaches who take liberties with the "Notables" section?

We run a short brief at the bottom of our box, as I've seen many papers do, that should say something along the lines of

Noteable: Smith added 12 rebounds.

Sometimes, though, coaches/clerks are dumb enough to think the following happened:

Noteable: Smith had 19 rebounds, six blocks, 12 assists and four steals.

Covering Oak Hill? Perhaps. Covering 1-11 Rupert Tech? Not a chance.

 

I'm not great at math --basic addition included -- so there's usually a calculator within reach.

My stats are pretty uniform, though football is always a challenge. Where I run into trouble is note-taking; with my chicken scratch, it's sometimes difficult to make out every number.

One more thing: I know accuracy is the name of the game -- a HUGE part of our job -- but do readers even notice this? If I'm wolfing down bacon and eggs at 7 a.m., I'm sure as hell not adding up girls basketball point totals.

 

There are always a few folks out there who notice ... I got yelled at one time by a mom because i put that a girl scored 23 points in a game when she really scored 25. Robbery!! (Probably cost her a scholarship...)

 

One of the things I pride myself on from my covering high school days are the stats and the boxes. My grasp of grammer and punctuation is marginal at best. I have no delusions of grandeur over that, but I am very good at math.

I never had a parent, player, coach or fan call me up complaining about missing their son's catch or screwing up their daughter's free throws. Everything always added up correctly.

Part of the reason for this was I would add up the stats at the half to see if I was correct. If I was off, I would consult the home book. I would also add up right after the game ended to fill the 10-15 minutes the coach needed to speak to his or her players.

If I ever had anything wrong, I would run down the home book.

 

You know, SB, if you're going to take care of that in your post, I'm not sure why we've got Slappy around. Please, think of the others before you post.

 

While I'm busting chops, I can't let this one go. It's just way too funny, considering your sentence. Fucking priceless, good sir.

 

Like I said...

And no, I won't fix it.

 

That's great. Little things like that get me from one day to the next.

 

Glad my weakness can bring a smile to your face. Oh, I'm smiling while I type this. I accepted my inadequacies a long time ago.

 

As have I, my friend. As have I.

 

Fortunately my place doesn't check box scores. LOL.

Seriously though. When you are on a deadline crunch it is going to get back the guy taking the game. I always add up on the run, but sometimes it gets through and on most papers there is no way someone is going to read all the box scores and makes sure they add. Of course I am talking preps here, not AP. No excuse for AP mishaps that aren't quickly corrected.

Anyhow, what do you do if they don't add up? Do you fudge the numbers? Run it incorrectly? Or don't run it at all? That is a question that has been asked a thousand times on the high school desk.

 

Not necessarily. Unless you count deadball rebounds, the free throws will probably mess you up. And I don't think he's talking about rebounds, just points. Rebounds can be tricky. I keep pretty detailed stats and I'll admit my rebound totals are probably a few off.