Dear dimwit on the phone

One of our salespeople is now a local Little League baseball mom. I already suggested she report her son's team's games when we start caring in the summer. Considering how much she complains about the schedule, I'm not sure she cares enough to get him a scholarship.

 

A former managing editor's daughter was involved in cheerleading, and I would guess that was the last time a cheerleading story or photo appeared in our paper.Ugh!

 

I think I already posted this sometime ago, but lacrosse is not a sanctioned high school sport in our state. However, because the publisher had like a nephew playing, guess what sport suddenly gained "importance" for that school year and required a centerpiece story?

 

Cheerleading, girls flag football, lacrosse ... all of them (and likely more) have been pushed at my shop by various editors because of their bias. I am sure it happens everywhere.

 

We had an owner/publisher whose kids were on the community swim team, so guess what got way overcovered

 

Our shop has a general rule that we don't put photo in if a staffer's kid is included in the pic

 

Old guy called the scoreline Tuesday night to get the congressional primary election results. God bless folks like that, the ones who just trust that we'll be there for them. I wish they weren't all dying off.

 

Thank goodness I had an understanding publisher when his daughter was on varsity basketball and volleyball as a sophomore. We'd see each other at her games, but we'd talk sports there and shop in the office, except when she got called up to varsity volleyball mid-season, while the team was on a win streak. I looked at him and said "if she messes up, I'm gonna rip her." We both laughed. He got relocated between her soph and junior seasons, but I think he would have been hands-off in our coverage and photo selection the rest of her high school career.

She went on to earn a hoops scholarship at a DI school.

 

This is what I'm dealing with right now with one of the irate softball parents. There was another doubleheader Wednesday and she was credited with one hit in each game. I'm awaiting the email in which I'm sure she will ask if I talked to the coach about the "problem" with the stats (which I won't because there isn't).

The thing about this that probably factors in is that the particular game which brought the parents out of the woodwork was an unique situation: It was a suspended game from April and in the interim, the head coach was fired and a former coach was appointed the interim coach. They used different stats programs, which possibly explains how the stats became a problem.

 

Baseball and softball parents are the worst for calling to complain that coaches have a vendetta against their kid.

Hey, it may even true. But how do you write that Little Johnnie is riding the pine and he's clearly better than Big Jimmy?

I have had that conversation with parents dozens of times.

 

We had a softball game called in where the batter got like a three-error four-bagger, and the parent/statkeeper called it a home run.

Another softball statkeeper called EVERY ball hit into play a hit.

 

I was at a game where a girl hit a ball to the outfield and it went under the fielder's legs allowing the runner to take an extra base. Because the ball went under the girl's legs, the parents in the stands called it a two-base error and were chirping about a no-hitter. Finally had another parent ask me about it and had to explain it to her that the error didn't negate the hit.