Dear dimwit on the phone

He did say they cover both teams, so I'm guessing his shop is a lot like mine: Games featuring two area teams take precedence.

 

I thought the picture was essential to the story, considering one team made 12 errors. I get where you're coming from, but you'd make an exception to run a picture only if the stakes are at their complete highest, when the kid in question is going to feel his absolute worst? Of course the picture I ran wasn't flattering by any means, but they lost by 6 runs and it wasn't all him.

And yeah, it was a centerpiece story because - aside from the fact it was two local teams - I really thought it was going to be a better game. Finished 1-2 in the division a couple years ago. But early season, kind of cold and pretty windy made for an interesting day. And a very shitty game.

 

Don't humiliate children in print.

These aren't pro athletes, earning millions of dollars a year. They're not even college athletes, bringing in millions of dollars to a university. These are high school students, most of them playing for the love of the sport. Chances are good this is the only time in the kid's life that his picture will appear in the newspaper, and this was the occasion you chose to play it huge?

Nothing wrong with mentioning what happened in the story, especially if it was a key play, but running a five-column picture of a kid making a blunder is just wrong. Sorry, but you should have adjusted your plans.

 

We're just not getting along tonight

 

I feel your pain, Gator. I've been there, so don't think I was being critical of your decision.

 

I blame it on the North Korean rocket ... breaking up in space did something to earth's atmosphere.

Let's agree to disagree and part as friends here.

 

Deal.

 

I have to admit, the last two posts gave me some really hearty chuckles ... Mrs. Hack asked me what was so funny.

 

I don't go out of my way to leave a crucial error out of a story, but I don't go out of my way to point one out, either.

 

Nothing wrong with running the photo. If that was what happens, that's the photo you have to use to tell that story. It's called photojournalism.

I can see the point if they're young kids playing Little League or something but high school kids, especially nowadays, can handle it. If they didn't want the error in a photo in the paper, they shouldn't have made the error.