The anti-Gundy

Leave your opinions on Gundy at the other thread. This is about coaches who had good reason to go off on a reporter and did not. Two stories:

1. Picture it (in my best Estelle Getty). NCAA baseball super regional. Emotional roller-coaster of a game. Team A Hero knocks a two-run home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to give them a one-run lead. Team B Schmoe hits a home run in the top of the 9th to re-take the lead. Team A Hero comes up again in the bottom of the 9th, with one out and a man on second, and hits a a walk-off oppo-field home run to give Team A a trip to the College World Series.

Post-game press conference, Team B coach. First question:

Q: "Coach, Why did you pitch to Hero in the 9th instead of intentionally walking him?"
A: "Well, we had our closer in the game. He was fresh and we thought he could get him out (The starter gave up the 8th inning shot). He made a good pitch, but Hero just did a great job handling it. The decision that I'm really upset about is the pitch I called in the 8th. Hero had squared to sac bunt on the first pitch, so I called a fastball thinking he would try to bunt again. If I had called for the curveball like I should have he probably wouldn't have hit it out of the park."

Second question:

Q: "Coach, Why did you pitch to Hero in the 9th instead of intentionally walking him? You had a base open there and he'd hit a home run last time up."

There was an audible "GASP" in the room. Most of us were shaking our heads thinking, "Oh shit. This is not going to be good." I thought the coach might get up and walk out. At the very least, I thought, he would bitch the guy out for asking him the same exact question AGAIN. We waited for it, but it never came. The coach looked incredulous for a couple of seconds, then he swallowed hard and gave virtually the exact same answer again. Even though the coach would have had every right to get snarky, the fact that he didn't earned him a lot of respect from me.

2. In a three-person huddle with me, the other reporter, and the offensive coordinator, the other reporter asks the following: "Umm... coach, did it seem to you like you were having a little trouble getting the running game going tonight?" (The team had a total of 23 or so rushing yards in the game.)

Coach starts to give the quote the guy is looking for ("Well, we were trying to run but...") then stops and says, "You were at the game, tonight, right son?"

Any good tales out there?

 

The longtime Detroit sports guy for AP walked into a press conference late, listened to the golfer explain how his dad taught him and nutured his game, helped his swing and development.
The AP guy asked the golfer his dad's name.
"Davis Love (pause) Junior" was the response.

 

I was covering the NCAA Tournament in Chicago several years back and two of the players on one of the teams in that regional had just been in a fight and some idiot from the AJC asked one of them if he was considering becoming a boxer after his hoops career was over.

Some writers and reporters seem intent on giving the rest of us a bad name.