Tonight's Stupid Phone Call

I disagree. Of course, the kids that display talent wind up on the varsity. But the rest get there because they work harder than the others. Let's face it, at the high school level not every athlete is naturally gifted. The ones that work hard separate themselves from the pack. The rest? Well, their parents call newspapers wondering why JV scores weren't included in a gamer.

 

Decatur? Hell, rigor mortis hadn't even set in yet.

 

Today's stupid phone call:

Woman leaves two voicemails wondering why we haven't done a story on the main local high school's sophomore football team going undefeated (keep in mind that this school's sophomore team goes undefeated, or has one loss, about every year, and then these kids stink it up when they get to varsity).

Anyway, she points out that some of the players "have been undefeated since middle school, and it would make a great story. Because .... wait for it .... "these kids work so hard" and ... wait for it ... "this is a great accomplishment for the community" and ... wait for it ... "you never print anything positive about the kids in town."

Of course, she doesn't leave a name or a phone number.

But if she calls back, my response will be a.) we already mentioned that this entire group of sophomores has been undefeated in the last two seasons, only the fourth time a freshman-sophomore group at the school has done that, b.) we did a story last year when we did a looking-ahead-at-the-varsity-program postseason wrapup and c.) if we only write about the sophomores who have been undefeated since middle school, the other kids who went to the other middle schools who didn't go undefeated will be left out of the story and she will be more than welcome to come in and take all the phone calls from the pissed-off parents of those kids.

It's a story for next year's football season, when these kids are on varsity and if the varsity is winning games (the varsity program of this school won four games this year, the most in five seasons).

 

Didn't take the call myself, but sat next to our agate/phone guy and laughed at his increasingly agitated expressions....something along the lines of a guy called in wanting to know why a west-coast paper didn't do a big feature article on the Monday night Pats/Viks game. Cuz, you know, we care and shit. Then, when the guy starts in "sir, is there a point to this call, or did you just want to bitch to somebody?" He goes off on how we only care about the NFL team IN OUR COVERAGE AREA and, god forbid, we cover someone else. Agate guy is a BIG fan of our local team and got into it with the guy for a few minutes before just hanging up on him.

And that's why I let our call-takers answer the phones when they're here.

 

Not a call, but a handwritten note:

I'm new to town/this job (and by that I mean moved across the entire country to get here, never been here in my life, so I'm still getting my bearings).

Anyway, a local high school is to play a playoff game against a school from a town about six hours away. Thing is, there is another town six hours away with nearly the EXACT SAME NAME.

So, in an advance I say the upcoming game is against the correct school, but from the incorrect town (seriously, about two letters are different in the names of these towns).

I get an envelop tonight addressed to me, no stamp, so I know it was dropped off.
Inside was the article (which ran today!) with the wrong city name highlighted. And also enclosed was a note saying "Is this a new school we weren't aware of?"

Other than that sentence, the letter was signed with a first initial and last name. No return addres, no phone number, no full name.

Like, if you're going to take the time to cut that out, write that note, drive to the paper and drop that off wouldn't you want an explanation for the mistake?

And, as we all do, my name, number, e-mail address and work address is available in VERY SINGLE ISSUE. So I only feel the letter writer should make the same available.

EDIT: It was terrible penmanship, looked shaky, and it wasn't an e-mail, so I'm sure it's some bitter old codger with nothing better to do who wrote it.

 

Alright, this is my maiden voyage, so it better be a good one:

Slot man: Ummm, rim boy?

Rim boy: Yea?

Slot man: Says here in the second sentence of the graf about NFL running back Jack that he'll be handling kickoffs this week. Should this be kickoff returns?

Rim boy: Ummm, yeah, good catch. Figured any reader who got that far would be smart enough to figure out the fourth-string running back isn't teeing it up. But OK, thanks slot man.

Three minutes pass...

Slot man: Hello? Beat writer Hack? Hey, I have a quick question. You write in the 17th graf that NFL running back Jack will be handling kickoffs this week. Should this be kickoff returns?

 

Let me be the first to say:

You suck, lifeizzz.

 

thank you. I truly belong now.

 

Woman calls Saturday. Regional game is ATM and Oklahoma.
"I have a question."
"Yes?"
"Are you watching the Texas A&M and Oklahoma game?"
"It's on up front, so yeah, I suppose I'm glancing at it between work duties."
"I was wondering - what is an Aggie?"
"Um, I think it probably goes back to the fact that ATM is an agricultural school and has been since the beginning."
"Oh, so they get Aggies from Agriculture? That's funny. So those handerchiefs they are waving have nothing to do with Aggies, huh?"
"Ma'am, there's a fire alarm going off here. I have to let you go." Click.

 

Again, not a call, but we got an e-mail from an old guy. I'm not sure if it was sarcasm or not, but he asked if it was possible to still get regular baseball caps. As in the ones with the bill on the front. He felt he was too old to buy the ones with the bills on the back and sides.

 

wow.

 

Friday night, I'm scrambling around trying to get our stringers all set up on computers in the midst of a busy high school football night. Phone rings. It's the principal of a local post-high school prep school. It's around 11 p.m.

Principal: I have a basketball game I need to get into tomorrow's paper.

Me: OK (thinking it's a call-in)

Principal: We're playing on Tuesday against BFE Academy ...etc.

Me: Ma'am, this game isn't until Tuesday?

Principal: No.

Me: Ma'am, we don't run area schedules that far in advance. We run them the day of.

(Long pause)

Principal: Oh. (confused)


I don't expect outsiders to understand how a newspaper is run, but the people that run this academy are clueless to begin with. We rarely cover them because 1.) they don't ever call in. 2.)We never get a schedule or roster and 3.) They are nomads and don't even have a home gym. Every time they have some sort of game they care about, we get a call. The principal tells me she is sending me a flier and she wants to know if we can put it in the paper. Every time I have to explain to her we don't print fliers.