Dear dimwit on the phone

Dear dimwit on the phone,

The reason we don't have the college baseball tournament matchups in the TV listings for tomorrow is because they have to play today in order to determine who's playing tomorrow.

Pointing out how we have some of tomorrow's college softball tournament matchups listed in order to argue what I'm telling you is wrong just shows you how much of a dumbass you are.

 

I envy you on those rules and your supportive editor. I try to establish anything like that, and the head editor slap myself and the rest of the department down. "We have to be willing to accommodate everyone however they want to get it to us," he constantly says, and includes tracking stuff down on Facebook pages. Also nixes restrictions on how often team or kid can appear.

 

The reason for that is we received A LOT of photo submissions and we were trying to be fair to as many people as possible, rather than favor those who yelled the loudest. Yeah, it's important to have an editor who is supportive and we did at the time. But he also could see how well-received the concept was and that I was willing to devote a significant amount of time to a job no one else in the department wanted to tackle.

 

Can't believe this slipped to page two:

Dear dimwit on our Facebook page: Want to know why no one from Podunk South was listed in the story about the All-Central League selections? Because Podunk South doesn't play in the Central League, it plays in the Eastern League, and the Eastern League hasn't sent in their selections yet. Or was using "All-Central League" in the headline and lede too confusing?

 

They're out in full force, run for cover!

Woman (who sounded like she'd had a few) calls about the preview of Game 3 of Spurs-Heat, telling me the Heat had lost last week and she was getting grief from her brother about it.
"But ma'am, they're playing right now."
"I don't care. The Heat lost last week."
"But I'm watching the game right now, they're playing San Antonio."
"But they already played the game last week. The Heat lost."
"Ma'am, turn on your television ..."

It went on until I was dealing with a hall-of-fame nominee for this thread, so I said "Thank you" and started hanging up, but not before I heard her say I had a screw loose.

 

It can be said the call ended with you and the caller reaching a consensus. That's a win in my book.

 

Almost looking forward to work today, since our centerpiece was the Heat's win. I'll have to find the Looney Tunes theme on YouTube to tip folks in the office off ...

 

After going through the last 10 pages or so trying to figure out at what point it was OK to jump in, I landed here.

Thanks to a power company equipment failure, we were completely black for almost four combined hours from 10:50-12:30 and 1:30-3:30 on boys' basketball district finals Friday night. We don't do backups (or even UPSes) because that costs money and if a generator can't power the press, why bother?

Among the highlights:

1. About an hour in, the publisher shows up (ostensibly to ensure we didn't bail), with a headlamp on and initiates conversation with "So, guys, how's it goin'?" He then spends most of the evening muttering pleas for the power to come back on or going outside to try and find out what's wrong.
2. Pressman calls power company, which offers to call him back when power is restored.
3. Managing to get the section out before sunrise.

And of course, one month to the day of the District Finals Disaster of 2013, we get a snowstorm (in April), some guy hits a power pole and we're black for three straight hours again.

 

I would love if baseball/softball were a summer sport in Michigan. Our latitude basically gives about a month between the end of snow and the end of the school year.

As it is, softball and baseball programs are creeping up more and more every year, even here, where they'll get about a four-week window where home games are remotely possible, and two of those weeks will be playable but miserable. In fact, this winter, which simply wouldn't die, created a three-week excuse for spring sports in which the area's lone 18-hole golf course couldn't open for the season until MAY 14.

 

There's an old lady who calls all the time who must be extremely lonely or have dementia or something (because you think she'd stop calling after 1000 unreturned voice mails). Her calls during baseball season have usually consisted of "Who's pitching for Home Team," "What time does Home Team play" and "What's the win-loss record of Home Team," even though it seems like she already knows the answer (especially when her question gets way too specific: "Who was the batter for Home Team who hit the 3-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth to drive in three runs and win the game?"). One time she called to ask a question and even though she got the answer, she called again later to ask the same question!

Well the other day she calls and leaves a voice mail to ask who the starting pitcher is for Home Team, and here's a first -- she calls back later and leaves a voice mail to tell us who's pitching for Home Team.

 

The sticking point on that is that MHSAA (like the state government in general) makes decisions that make perfect sense in Kent and Oakland Counties and no sense at all for the UP.
Summer baseball makes perfect sense in the UP and perhaps MHSAA could swing split seasons with the normal spring season for the Trolls and summer ball for the Yoopers. They already have different seasons in (I believe) tennis, girls soccer and boys golf (my time covering UP sports was pre-2006 so everything may well have changed since the court case).
Hey, write a column, talk to a local AD, try to get someone from Lansing on the phone to see if it's even doable. Gives you some nice summer content.

 

Surprised you guys play at all up on the UP. No high school baseball in Montana, where I worked for a while. You could well have snow in April, or even May, so scheduling would be a nighmare.

Instead, all the kids play American Legion ball. Season goes from mid May to early August, 3-4 games per week plus tournaments. Around 60 games. Two different levels, one for the older kids (or real studs) and one for the freshmen-sophomore age bracket. Worked great for us, because there wasn't overlap with other spring sports and gave us something to cover during down times in June and July.