Dear dimwit on the phone

Wasn't that like three weeks ago?

We had a story in news section, but that's because a local dog competed.

 

When Jack Kemp died, we had to run it because the wire pages already went out, even though he'd done more in life than quarterback the Bills. And that's all I got.

 

There's nothing like a tight-ass newsroom that can't update a page on deadline.

 

My favorite story of this ilk was when Edward Bennett Williams died. It was a Saturday night and happened early enough that it could've gotten decent play in the A section, but the news desk was being run that night by a few kids who didn't have much of an idea who he was (I was a relative "kid" myself, but at least I knew what he had accomplished beyond owning the Redskins and Orioles). Sports got stuck with it because of his NFL and MLB prominence. The night sports editor argued it should go in the A section and lost.

The editor-in-chief threw a tantrum when he came to the office Monday, and it was a long time before anyone on the news desk that night had any sort of leadership role again.

 

And all the editor on duty news side (a real piece of work, but more on that at a later date) had to do was tell the paginatior to remake tbthe page but apparently that was too much for the editor.

 

Dear most coaches (not all, but most) in my coverage area,

Why can't you be more like North Shelbyville High's tennis coach? He emails me a short description of how the match went, highlights key contests regardless of whether his players won and includes a spreadsheet with the results. I weep with joy every time see his email in my in-box.

Sincerely,
SS

 

I have the same reaction when one of our baseball or softball coaches tells me they've started using the Gamechanger app.

 

The tennis coach here also uses a spread sheet. I can pick and choose what I need. It's awesome.

Gamechanger has simplified things for me greatly, especially when either the teams I cover are on the road or two of them are playing at the same time.

 

Our teams are almost all on Gamechanger, and it's been awesome -- especially when they have a good wi-fi connection in the dugout and do the live scoring. We splurged for the $40 per year paid access, and it was money well spent.
At one point last season, I hit sports writer Nirvana in terms of getting call-ins done. One of our teams was playing in the town I live in (not work in) and their game was being shown live on local cable access. Another one was doing live scoring via Gamechanger. I was keeping tabs on both and swapping texts with a third coach, all while sitting in my living room and kitchen.

 

We used GameChanger last season as well. I hated it at first, but grew to love it because that meant less time tracking down coaches after games. And it's especially beneficial when a team uploads stats throughout the game, which -- for one reason or another -- none of our teams do that.

 

We have a few who use GC, but shop is too poor to pay for an account. We end up asking coaches for login info so we can access all the numbers once they've been uploaded.

 

If you have a paid account, see if the team they're playing is on there doing it live and follow them. I've gotten a number of scores that way.
That's the best part of the paid option, is getting full access to every team. That includes some youth and juco teams that are really hard to get quick info from otherwise.
I'm glad the paper pays for the subscription, but if they didn't I might pay for it myself. It really is a great asset for us.