SID: "We're not claiming to be journalists."

What do you fill six paragraphs with if your team didn't a runner on base?

I understand where the SID is coming from, and it is to newspapers detriment if they treat SID submitted news like AP-wire.

 

Maybe, just maybe it's the journalists job to look at the boxscore to see GW had no hits or any base runners. Not everything can be spoon fed.

 

I'm fighting D3 SIDs in my area all the time over stuff like this.
I constantly get flowery tomes of play by play detailing every minutae of some women's basketball game attended by 25 people, when all I want is the final score, the teams' records, and the leading scorers, rebounders and assist-ers. Most times, once I see the email, I know the boxscore has been posted to their website and I'll just go there and take what I need off that.

 

It's the sports information department. Its job is to get the relevant information out to people.

And I'm sorry, but if I'm covering a game - high school, college - where the opponent is a team seven hours outside my circulation area, you're damn right I'm writing about the perfect game.

 

And they supplied the information. They certainly didn't keep it from. Just because it wasn't gift-wrapped and they weren't celebrating another school's benchmark, don't blame them. Look at a boxscore or play-by-play.

 

Uh, so? SID is right. He's not a journalist. His job is to promote the athletic department ... his athletic department. Nothing wrong with that.

 

Can't wait until game stories are computer written stories that get info from faxes sent by SIDs

 

There is no lasting shame in being no-hit. It can happen to anyone, good team or bad. It's just a pitcher finding that rare form one day, with maybe some great defense behind him and even a little luck. So if I were the SID I wouldn't bury the news. I would find a way to make it relevant in the lede without dumping on his team.

 

Building trust with the media is also part of the SIDs job. Without some trust, I just don't see how you can effectively promote your program. And right now, I don't think local media contacts have much confidence in this guy.

 

The editor who doesn't touch SID-submitted copy has no integrity, even if it's a small sport no one cares about.

 

I think the reference to the perfect game being that low is kind of silly, but I also am not totally offended by this.

How many publications write about GW baseball on even a semi-regular basis? The student paper? Does the Post or the Times run anything other than a score in agate?

Because of that, they need to create their own content and be their own publisher. The audience is certainly small -- parents, friends of players, baseball alumni, maybe some crazy A-10 baseball freaks -- but those people know they can go to the GW site and get info about the team.

Most of those people have an interest in GW only. So they should read about GW. To me there's no problem here. It might be different if they were playing even a conference game or if there was some sort of local paper that ran stuff on their team, but there isn't.