Dear dimwit on the phone

Yesterday, old man called my boss (sports editor) yesterday wondering why the ALCS game wasn't on the channel we had in our TV listings. Old man said they don't have rainouts in the playoffs.

At a girls' soccer playoff game last night, a fan of a small school we cover asked why I wrote the small school's boys' team used an illegal player in its playoff loss the previous night (player was in a front-page photo). She told me it didn't matter since the school still lost. She couldn't comprehend the coach (who coaches other sports at the school) and the player (who plays baseball) will be subject to suspensions and the school would be fined, win or lose. The player in question received a red car the previous game and received a two-game suspension (never sat out at all). Not only was he not supposed to be in uniform, he started (and then asked me after the game why he didn't make All-Tournament when he had been the team's leading scorer in the regular season).

 

No, but I wouldn't really know where to start. Mississippi State fan didn't think Monday's 1A headline about team rising to top of polls "was big enough." Here, let me beat you to it - that's what she said.

 

Not a phone call but an official in this tale.

Covered football tonight. Podunk leads Central 35-21 with under 30 seconds left. Podunk runs a draw on third down and gets close to the first down marker. They don't even have to take a knee to end it; all they gotta do is stand around. Since the game is legitimately over THE REF CALLS FOR A FUCKING MEASUREMENT WITH 15 SECONDS LEFT!!! I hope someone eggs that man's house in two weeks.

 

Guy called yesterday to complain that we have in his words "zero coverage" of the baseball playoffs, even though the Giants clinching was on the front page.

 

Had an AD send a note asking why there wasn't more than a single sentence on his school's girls soccer team winning a big playoff game. It was explained a coach usually had to call in such things, and we'd not heard from his soccer coach (or most of his coaches) all season.

Shock of shocks, they lost the next game and didn't call either.

 

I'm chalking it up to the fact my office doesn't have a phone line so no one can call to bitch and anyone who actually needs to get a hold of me knows how to do so already.

 

We must be lucky to have some coaches with a brain.
I covered a softball playoff game last week and apologized (sincerely) to the coach for not covering them more. They play on Tuesday (the end of our work week, when I'm usually into overtime by lunch and the boss wants me to get out as soon as I can) and Thursday (usually a day off), so we barely covered them this season.
Coach actually said, "That's OK. I know it's football season."
I wanted to kiss her.
Got similar reactions from other softball and volleyball coaches and parents, too. Our teams have been great about calling in. Guess I'm doing something right.

 

Slow down Broadway Joe! LOL
Or does she look like Suzy? haha

 

Lol ... Nowhere near that good looking. My wife also would kill me

 

Softball? In October?

 

It's slow-pitch softball. It's a relic from the not-so-long ago days before fast-pitch took hold here and also, I suspect, a cheap and easy way to satisfy some Title IX requirements. It's slowly dying off, but still kicking.
On the bright side, the games move like lightning. The ball is constantly put in play and foul balls with two strikes are outs. So the games rarely last more than 90 minutes, which is pretty sweet. It's also a nice break in the middle of the week, when we can get out to cover a game, from the wall-to-wall football coverage.

The private school association plays its fast-pitch season in the fall, too. Those teams are generally terrible AND there's a 1 hour, 15 minute time limit to boot. Game usually end by the run rule or the time limit and don't drag on.
Fall softball rules. Wish spring softball moved as fast.

 

Clearly the type of person who just immediately discards every section that isn't the sports section and then expects a big spread for whatever event should get the largest headline.