Dear dimwit on the phone

Not deriding the photographers. They have no idea, typically. Hell, half the time I don't even notice when a courtesy runner goes in the game.
It just amazes me how many times it happens that the best picture the photogs turn in has the courtesy runner in it. Seems like it happens at least four or five times a season.

 

I see that precious little has changed in the 365 days since I began this extended furlough. Lord help us!

 

I know a DII team that recruited and signed courtesy runners to scholarship. Its a powerhouse DII that has been to several college world series and the coach lives for slap hits, double steals and hit-and-runs.

Of course, he signed track stars and taught them how to run for softball.

 

My frosh year we won conference by stealing 87 bases in a season doing just this. If our pitcher or catcher was on base, we were going to have runners in scoring position. We also had a super track athlete who learned how to bunt left handed.

 

Woman who keeps stats for Daughter PD's AAU team has a daughter that is a backup point guard but thinks she's Magic Johnson.

Last season, in a game in which the entire team scored 30 points - including a handful of free throws - she had her daughter with 16 assists.

I asked "How is that possible?" Her reply? "Well, my daughter got the ball to the player who was in position to score. It's not her fault if they miss the layup or shot. It's still an assist."

Oh.

 

Wow. Just.......wow.

 

After 40+ years in this business, nothing surprises me. Not even the prep softball team's scorekeeper that called in a linescore once with something like 3 runs on 32 hits.

Scorekeeper took the word hit to heart. If the batter made contact with the ball, it was a hit.

 

Man, I'm glad I don't have to deal with the public anymore.

 

I can definitely agree with you on that one.

 

Swear to God, a colleague of mine took a call from a baseball coach (a COACH, mind you) one night.

He was going through the box score and getting each player's numbers and asked the coach if a specific player had scored any runs.

The coach says, "What counts as a run? When the player gets to home?"

He was dead serious. True story.

 

I have a feeling that later this year, this thread could fill up with examples of calls from, oh say, four fairly large Southern cities, and callers will be screaming, "I can't find today's paper to get the score!" I wonder how many of the general public in those areas will be oblivious to a huge change coming. Just thinking out loud, move along.

 

I wonder what some people will expect, content-wise. I know I get complaints from people - exclusively those without internet access - for not running a full story from a late game in the edition after the one a game missed, instead just running a brief recap and, if it's baseball, a box score. I imagine there are some people out there who will expect full game stories and box scores for three day's worth of MLB games.