Dear dimwit on the phone

Proud Mom, I think, is married to Concerned Reader.

 

Area Man Throws Support Behind Proud Mom, Concerned Reader.

 

Whining and complaining 24/7 is what the internet's for.

"As long as there's a Republican/Democrat in the White House, I'm gonna complain about it on 40 different sites every single day!"

"This TV show sucks! I've been watching every episode for the last 10 years and it hasn't gotten any better! And I'm gonna tell you why it sucks after I comb through the notes I've been taking!"

 

Concerned Reader would be Proud Mom's mother. You're thinking of "Concerned Citizen."

 

Reminds me of the email I got in May from a track parent who said I shouldn't have focused on such a "negative aspect" of her daughter's team in a feature I wrote.

Said the article was in bad taste and that there were "so many" up-and-coming athletes and a "strong" senior class -- of which her daughter was apart -- that I could have focused on instead. Closed the email with "You should really think about the fact that you are writing about teenagers" and signed it "Concerned parent."

I guess she didn't realize her name was attached to her email address.

 

Is it too much schadenfreude to giggle when the AD of the local D-III, whose operation is significantly worse-organized than a couple of your area Class C high schools, doesn't answer his phone after canning the one coach in his athletic program who wins games, has to cancel a fundraiser golf outing ostensibly for lack of interest?

 

This round's on me, SportsJournalists.comers.

Getting stories on kidball tournaments we aren't able to staff is everything y'all have said it is. When calls don't get returned, stories can't be done. And don't complain I'm biased when I do a story on Springfield when you Shelbyville folks don't return emails or calls. ::smh::

 

Apparently, she's the same mom who called us in the middle of the night with an anonymous complaint voicemail -- which was tagged with her caller ID.

 

Got a talking to at -- of all places -- church Sunday afternoon. Grandparent was upset her grandson's team wasn't included in our roundup. I told her I called the coach -- her son -- and he never returned my calls. Hard to run anything when they don't return calls.

 

We have a guy who calls once or twice a week to ask if the local Legion team or college wood bat team is home that night. We've always chalked it up to him not subscribing and wondering why he doesn't just buy a damn paper if he wants that info. But today he calls and says "I saw in the paper there was no game today." OK, so the guy DOES get the paper and DOES read the schedule specifically, he just doesn't believe it so he has to call the people who put it together.

 

Well, getting inaccurate information from sources -- and then running it as gospel truth --- is nothing new.

I once got the entire statewide high school football schedule from the state activity association to run in our preseason football tab. Took quite a while to type it all in, but I was damn proud of myself for making the effort. Only to learn two weeks later that the bastards had sent me a copy of the PREVIOUS year's schedule. I really don't think they were trying to play us. I think they just had their collective heads up their asses --- a rather routine occurrence in that part of the world --- and never noticed.

 

Help me decide whether the local mom in my inbox got hoodwinked:
Should a participant have to pay for a supposed all-star game for which he was supposedly selected?

My guess is no, which means I have to explain that I'm not writing about her shelling out $1,300 so her son can demonstrate how special he is.