Dear dimwit on the phone

That isn't semi-pro. Semi-pro football (here, at least) has an owner who pays for the equipment and uniforms and league dues (other than player dues that buy championship rings).

 

Sheesh, it's my week for complaints.

Cell phone rings last night while I'm at dinner with my wife and daughter. I don't recognize the number, so I ignore it. They don't leave a voicemail. Rings again, same thing. On the fifth call, I excuse myself and walk outside to take it. It's one of the organizers of a girls basketball tournament wanting to know if we are going to cover the banquet on Friday, because some WNBA player is going to speak and "it's a really big deal."

I tell her we aren't, because nobody associated with the tournament bothered to tell us about this banquet until right then. So I really don't feel the need to scramble the schedule on short notice (I kept myself from saying "WNBA? Who cares!")

She proceeds to rip into our coverage of the tournament the past few years and says it was much better under a previous sports editor. I calmly pointed out back then we A) had a larger staff than we do now and B) they were bringing in nationally-ranked teams from across the country and had Pat Summitt and Geno and all the other top college women's coaches sitting in the stands, but now it's a tournament that just has schools within a two-hour drive of town.

This takes 10 minutes. My food has arrived in the meantime and is getting cold on the table. I get home, log into our system and see a photog is free at noon. I assign a wild art. The photog goes out there and is treated like royalty, while the tournament organizer proceeds to rip me. Seems I'm sexist and uncaring about the importance of women's sports.

I'm tempted to go over there today looking for a fight.

 

Um...cell phone? You are asking for trouble giving people that.
And if she is that persistent by calling you without leaving a voicemail...screw her. You should have said, here is my work number, I will contact you later.

 

I didn't give her my cell number. One of my reporters did.

 

We get calls all the time from outraged people who seem to think the WNBA is the same as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, Division I college football, etc., and demand equal coverage. It doesn't help when the local politicians talk about pro sports and always refer to the WNBA on equal footing.

One lady call up outraged that we buried our WNBA coverage on the back page... even though the story was about the women's national team that happened to have a local WNBA player on the roster.

Of course, it's pretty obvious that the WNBA is equal to the NFL and MLB, what with WNBA players having to play overseas during the offseason for bigger paychecks and better competition.

 

You let this reporter live?

Someone once gave out my cell number. Now I get pestered by Big Juco Booster every time he has a question. I'm not going to change my number for one guy so he gets shunted to voice mail now and I don't call back.

 

Just to avoid a long quote, What Ape Said about giving out cell numbers. Those should be as closely guarded as home numbers and, at least in my case, it is my home number.

 

That would be a "free" day home from work in my shop. It's understood.

 

The next large crowd I see at a women's sporting event outside of the Olympics or pro tennis tournament will be my first.

 

but yet you've mentioned you enjoy you some girls sports quite a bit. odd, eh?

 

Female oil wrasslin'.
Wet T-shirt contests.
Those are sports...right?

 

I disagree on the cell phone thing.

We keep a file of coaches/AD cell phone numbers. Why would I not make mine equally easily available?