Unplug the phones

It's technology that's been around since Al Gore invented the Internet, but I'm surprised nobody does this:

Why is there not, in 2009, a simple form on the Web site to submit scores?

Sport: (Drop-down Menu)

Visiting Team: [___________] Score: [_____]
Home Team: [___________] Score: [_____]

Then, depending on the sport, a variety of choices come up - boxes for quarters/periods/innings, space for goal scorers, etc.

 

I think this would be especially problematic during football season. With late games, coaches might not send in results until right up against deadline.

As always, you will have the coaches who care about their jobs and getting their kids recognition. They'll find a way to e-mail results and stats.

And you'll have the coaches who don't care, who won't bother to do it.

Out here in Podunk, nobody owns Blackberries, so the previous poster who proposed that clearly isn't living in the country.

I just don't see where this would save much time.

 

Others have mentioned this, but a big problem here is the coaches can be way too selective and "forgetful" with the information. Coach calls, you can ask questions to get the info or even a quote or two if you're trying to make it a longer story.
For example, you see that a team scored six runs in the seventh inning to win a game. With a phone call, you can ask the coach to take you through it and flesh out your story. Coach tells you in an e-mail they scored six runs to win it (or the other team did) -- and believe me, there's coaches who would just give you that -- and that's all you've got. Unless you make a follow up phone call anyway.
So, yeah, I'll side with the folks who think the policy is asinine.

 

All right. Let me try to answer everyone in order here.
ChiliPeppers: This was implemented to save us time. When we told them it wouldn't save us time, they said "yes it will."

Red Sox: We don't take the e-mails as they come. We have to clean them up and format them to our style and all that good stuff. So, yeah, the time-saving argument makes less and less sense.

Write...Drink: Um, no. There are no exceptions. If the coach doesn't have e-mail access (which is quite common, I've found), we are supposed to tell them to e-mail it from school the next day. The only exception we have right now is if the team is out of state.

Henry: 40k weekday; 50k Sunday.

TSP: A. Yes, yes they are. B. The coaches are supposed to include their phone number in the e-mail in case we have to call them (yeah, I know, you don't have to tell me).

rtse: I agree, but the coaches should be given the option. In some cases (track, especially), e-mail is easier for us, but I have a real problem telling a coach who wants to give me information that I won't take it. I had a fax yesterday (results in my hand) and I was told not to put the score in the paper.

Lolly: Already happened Sunday when there were only two of us working. Coach isn't sending in results any more.

Rick: He's chosen his convenience, because now he doesn't have to do any work. He can sit there and forward e-mails to us all night and not do any of them himself.

Zebra: In theory and in a perfect world, you're right. But: 1. We all know that most coaches are stupid, and couldn't fill out a simple form if their lives depended on it; and 2. Because of the way our tabs and spacing work, a simple e-mail form isn't feasible for sports with scores by inning/quarter/period/etc...

 

The bottom line is, because of this policy, you are going to have less local results in the paper, and that will hurt your readership in the long run.

 

And, by never talking to the coaches, you will get zero (0) leads for feature stories and columns.

Just wrapping another layer of rope around the newspaper's neck.

 

So if the phone rings in the sports department, nobody's supposed to answer it. Or it's answered, but if it's a coach, you're supposed to hang up?
Proof once again that those who don't do the work have no clue how the work should be done.

 

As a reporter, it is my job to gather information for publication. I should be allowed to use any (legal) method necessary to do so.

The thinking behind this policy is tragically flawed.

 

Exactly, pressboxer.
That goes for the tagline, too.

 

I thought this thread was in reference to dealing with credit card debt collectors.

Actually, it's not a bad idea. Can save a lot of time and the age-old embarrassing spelling mistakes (including the one where the copy desk guy refers to certain track and field event as the "shit put".) But I wouldn't make it an iron-clad policy, for the reasons stated above such as travel, lack of access to a computer, etc.

 

This is one of the dumbest policies I've ever seen. When it comes to taking box scores, I can format them while I take them over the phone, and I can take them faster. Is this the SE that implemented this policy or his bosses? If it's the SE, then he's just being a lazy fuck. If it's the higher-ups, then I can't see why they'd care in the first place. Again, really stupid policy that makes the sports department look like a bunch of assholes to coaches and to the readers.

 

good point