Overheard in the press box

I'm sorry, but a Jr. High girls game that is 37-7 in the 3rd qtr and has seen 43 alt. possessions, the clock won't be stopping. Not if he's doing it. Not if I'm doing it. Not to mention if the ball goes out of bounds, I can get the ball back in play before anyone even thinks about the clock.

Now, in HS football or even varsity basketball, the clock normally runs correctly (unless at my alma mater where the VG are so bad they are routinely beaten soundly, our VG coach will ask to run 4 or 5 seconds off on every dead ball).

 

Most states have a running clock rule. And at that level, most of the time it can be agreed to. Again, if those aren't there, you can't change the rules. I know what you're saying though. I don't disagree that that's the way it should be.

 

So does Mitch really sit on a phone book when he's in the press box?

 

HAH! 77 assists in 73 points last year!

 

Had a girl credited with 121 digs in a match last night. No other player had more than 20, and there were 128 points in the match.

 

Mitch doesn't talk to his beat writers.

 

Each point lasted 20 minutes.

 

I'm late to the party with the sideline vs. press box discussion, but ...

I roamed the sidelines at my former paper, mainly because two of three schools we covered had awful press boxes. I loved being on the sideline because of the interactions you have with the coaches, players and officials. When I was in Frankfort, I got to know all the officials in the area and there was one who I could count on for anything -- during a game or whenever.

In 2005, I wrote a column that pissed off one of the schools in our coverage area. I just happened to draw their next game the next week, which was on the road. Instead of standing on that team's sideline, I stood with the home team. Players asked me why I wasn't with the visiting team, and I told them what happened. One kid, who was probably 6-3 and 275, joked that he'd be my bodyguard for the game.

Stuff like that is really cool. But then there was the time I almost got taken out during a game and watched as one TV guy got hit while he was filming for his station. The guy was knocked out and had to be taken to the hospital, but he was fine in a few days. That was enough to convince me to stay off the sidelines and in the box, where the view is much better.

Plus, with the way I keep stats, it's much easier having a table or desk to put everything on.

 

You've never worked with a columnist have you?

 

I'm with Mizzou on this one. If the columnists wants the white meat and leaves you the scraps, you try to make the best casserole you can.

 

I used to work for a columnist/SE who, after a game, would tell me to let him know when I'd finished the first six or seven grafs of my gamer. He wanted to read them "so we don't duplicate."
He would always say, "OK, we're good." Then I would read his column and it had the exact same angle as my gamer.

 

The season opener for the minor-league hockey team here in Podunkville. On deadline the beat writer files his gamer which I read. The columnist sends his story which somebody else reads. It takes the same angle as the gamer only with less game detail. With that, almost matching heads get put on the story. Luckily we caught it before the page was sent.