Dear dimwit on the phone

Actually, I hear that a lot in talk amongst people that are not in the biz. Even though we are used to listing the winning score first, people that don't think that way just say the score of the team they care about.
My wife does this all the time...I ask was the baseball score is and she'll say, "They are losing 3 to 7."
No matter how much I correct her, she still does it.

 

I always found it a pleasant surprise to hear from the losing team, so I didn't mind how they gave me the dang score.

 

I've got a guy right now, consistently giving me new an hour past our deadline...it's always an hour late, no matter how many ways I spell it out for him. Arghh!!!

 

I've always maintained that anyone who can't get something as simple as a score right when reading it off will not be coaching my child in anything.

 

Technically, it's not wrong though...it's just a style thing actually. But yes, it's annoying.

 

thanks for the information, but if your Little League softball "tournament" only has three teams, there's no way I'm going to show up.

Basic standard for us...if it has more than eight teams it's on our radar...less than that and you're not really holding a tournament

 

I have two brackets this weekend that have exactly eight...what do I do then? ???

 

you flip a coin and take your phone off the hook

 

Yeah, that irritates me too. I think this thread will live forever.

 

I'm with you Flex, but they could always whine to the publisher.

 

I've got one high school golf coach who emails scores for the whole league (each school hosts a mini-tournament for the regular season), but sends them the morning after the match. He also sends in all the scores for area school in the league. One time I sent a shooter out to a match, hoping we'd get scores on time since we had someone there. We didn't, but I ran the art anyway since I'm not wasting the shooters' time without putting something in, with a note in the cutline saying we didn't have scores. So when the scores come in the next day, I write back to explain our deadline situation -- again -- and he writes back, "oh, I thought deadline was 2 p.m." Yeah, well, it is ... for the weekly listings of signups! Did dude ever wonder how we get night games in with a 2 p.m. deadline??

 

And I'll show the publisher the edition where I covered the 12-team district Little League finale with the bleachers packed. Only so many hours in the week, so you have to prioritize.

PS -- I'll hit the small softball tourney, assuming it's somewhat nearby, once they get to state level and have a decent amount of teams.