This just floored me, though I guess it shouldn't have

I know it's tough love, but at some point we have to stand up for ourselves. If we allow ourselves to be underpaid and undervalued, we will be.

That said, it is tough to tell anybody struggling to make ends meet that they should pass up money.

 

this kind of thing is good if you have a regular gig and dabble in this stuff on the side.

 

This is actually pretty standard sports ticker (not the company, necessarily) stuff. When you call up GameCast or its like, someone is entering the data. The MLB pressbox where I worked had a small group of these guys -- semi-retired guys, freelancers using it as part of their income, part-time radio people. Not a gig you can pay the rent with, but not a bad gig, either.

Hey, if I were retired and could make $30 keeping score at ballgames, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

screwed my bracket up though. i had him going out in the round of 16.

 

Keeping stats at home tricky business. What if network late coming back from a break? What if official scorer at game changes a stat or makes correx unknown to TV viewers? What if you take a leak or spend too long in the kitchen popping popcorn and miss a play or two? Etc.

 

Exactly. No one claims this is a way to make a living doing this. It's simply something you do in your free time for some extra change.

 

Yeah, if you were retired, which assumes you are financially comfortable and don't need to work anymore. Of course it would be great. You get to watch all the sports you want and use it as an excuse with your wife that it's work. I'd be all-in, too.

My retired uncle works at a golf course making minimum wage because it keeps him busy a few times a week, it's a nice course and he gets to play for free. But most of us aren't retired and most of us in this business aren't NEARLY close to being financially secure.

I don't know, but after a day of working in a warehouse or freelancing for various media outlets or doing whatever odd jobs I'm doing to make ends meet since I got laid off, the LAST thing I want to do is come home and watch sports, and instead of relaxing, have to keep stats and punch in data for a measly 30 bucks. Usually I'd prefer just to watch sports while drinking beer, but that's just me.

I'm with Rudy on his earlier post. People in this business, especially freelancers, go through far too much trouble to cover sporting events. I mean, if you drive 4 hours one way and go through the process of getting credentials or whatever you need (lunch, dinner, etc.) to cover something that will make you 75 bucks, what's the point? I always immediately ask SEs how much I'm making for a specific gig, and if it requires a lot of driving, I ask them to throw in a little extra cash for gas. If it's not worth my time, I turn it down. The only times I will take jobs that won't net me a lot of profit is for the paper I do a ton of freelancing for, so the gigs keep coming. You know, I take one for the team once in awhile so they keep giving me work and trusting me with their better freelancing gigs, which includes coverage of an NFL team.

Otherwise, I'll just tell my boss at the warehouse that I'm available for more hours
in a specific week and make significantly more money that way.

 

Fine. No one ever suggested one was going to get rich doing this.

Some of us drink and keep stats at the same time. I might take them up on this, although I wonder what sort of software is required and if my system is compatible. Would only do it for sports/teams I actually was interested in watching anyway.

 

Drinking and keeping stats simultaneously....

Love it, Mark!