What types of parents are the worst to deal with???

I agree with your notion that a team going to the state championship allows for a better product.
The second part is totally my own, though I do understand your viewpoint. It's just that I'd rather go ahead and start working on the state championship team and not have to also worry about the kids who are going two rounds and falling flat on their face. In a perfect world, there'd be somebody to cover both. But when it's one person stretched in two places, it's in the paper's best interest that one bow out.

 

After yesterday, I'm inclined to think baseball parents -- at least in my area -- are the ones that get under my skin the most.

I know this is something most every one here does, but here's my situation from yesterday: I was already over 40 hours for the week and had to cover a team on my day off because it was playoffs. It's clear across town from our area, but actually kind of close to where I live.

We only have two full-time sports guys on my staff outside my editor, and as we mainly cover two schools, we just split the stuff down the middle between the two of us, sticking to one school each. It just makes things easier. It also means that I cover Entitlement High the whole season, which is fine with me. The parents suck, but the coaches are cool.

Our other writer was covering state tennis all day yesterday and couldn't go to the baseball game, but was planning on calling the coach afterward. (I don't know if he ended up doing it or not.)

The back story is that my area is very affluent. Parents and kids have a HUGE sense of entitlement. This team had really underachieved this year. They were supposed to be a state championship contender, but ended up backing into the playoffs.

So Entitlement High is down 3-2 in the third inning, and their opponent, Really Bright White Uniforms High, starts knocking around their ace, who can't find the plate at all. Ended up walking six in 2+ innings. His mom's yelling from the stands to the ump that pitches the catcher has to stand to catch should be strikes: "THAT'S AT THE CHEST BLUE!!! AT THE CHEST!" Then the dad chimes in: "PULL DOWN YOUR SKIRT!!!!!!"

The starter is finally pulled, but leaves with the bases loaded. Reliever A comes in, gives up a first pitch grand slam. You'd think that'd shut the parents up. Nope. A few batters later, he gives up a three-run homer. From Reliever A's mom: "It's that damn pitching coach, he keeps calling for fastballs." Uh, no. This kid was tossing BP out there. He gets one out, is lifted for Reliever B, who hits the first two batters he faces ("Why would the pitching coach call for a breaking ball?!!") before getting the final out of the inning. It's now 11-2.

EHS scores one run in the top of the next inning before a sick diving catch by RBWUHS' right fielder with guys on second and third ends the inning.

Reliever C comes in for EHS. This kid is a sophomore, far and away the best arm on the team. The parents hate him and his family, though, because they don't feel he's earned his spot. (His father, Bruce, is the school's principal.) It's been a huge issue for the team the whole season, but if his father wasn't the principal, he'd probably be the ace.

"Oh great, here comes Bruce's Boy."

"Of course Coach would call on him."

(Reliever C allows just two baserunners the final three innings, mowing through RBWUHS' lineup that just crushed the first three pitchers.)

EHS starts to come back again. Their No. 3 hitter is up with runners on first and second, and gets caught looking at a 3-2 fastball down the pipe. EHS parents go nuts. The usual, "THAT'S BUSH!!!" "CALL IT BOTH WAYS!!!" "I'M GOING TO MURDER A KITTEN!!!!" (OK, exaggerated on the last one.) No. 4 hitter then doubles to left, scores two. 11-5. "YOU COST US A RUN BLUE!" No. 5 hitter strikes out swinging.

Reliever C does his thing, EHS is up again. They load the bases and push one across on a walk. No. 3 guy is up again, and hits a rope to right -- where the same kid makes another sick catch. Parents are incensed at the wind, which was blowing out during RBWUHS' big third inning. "Of course it would go dead right when we're up!"

EHS ends up losing, 11-6. I talk to the coach, go home and write the story. I check the score of the other school in our area, Lots of Money High School, to find that they won after coming back from an 8-0 hole. I include it in a roundup at the bottom of my gamer on EHS I post online and call it a day.

I wake up this morning to find this, an email from a parent at LMHS (his kid had a home run in the game, I included that in the roundup):

We did three stories on Lots of Money before the playoffs. I hadn't been to an Entitled High game since the middle of the season. Ah well.

 

Well, it was nice that she acknowledged she was a bitch.. ;D

 

Slight threadjack: I hope your paper was paying you overtime for working on your day off.

And if they don't, you can write back to I am a bitch with this e-mail:

Dear I am a bitch:

I spent my day off, when I could have been doing anything in the world, covering the school that is my primary beat, for free because my paper's publisher wants to buy a new car and our paper's overtime budget was cut. And there was no one else around to do so since my boss was on unpaid furlough and our minimum-wage part-timer was given five minutes and a cardboard box to clean out his desk so our company's CEO could get his six-figure bonus.

So, instead of my day off, I spent it watching a bunch of crappy pitchers with rich parentage who couldn't hit the side of a wall of their country club get lit up while their snot-nosed parents took their silver-spooned frustrations out on the umpire who really earned his $25 bucks for the game by dealing with their BS..

After writing about my game, I decided to do the professional thing (which, since I'm not getting paid, isn't really professional), and wrote up your kid's game with the information that was available since your coach, in spite of it being the greatest win of the season, decided to go out and have a few beers before calling us and missed our deadline.

Our regular writer for your school was out for the day covering state tennis playoffs, since, you know, those kids work hard too and if we didn't cover them, their rich parents would have hold off on buying a new yacht because their kids wouldn't receive scholarships.

And while your favorite team's win would have made for a great story, for our paper, it sucks, because it's just going to be more work for us. But we'll make it up to you. We'll cover your next game against Giant Sports Factory High, and we'll report what happens. Hope your team will be able to come back against the best team in the state.

Sincerely,

Recent AZ Grad.

 

Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V. Send.

Haha, Baron that was awesome. And, hell no, I didn't get paid overtime. That would be the reasonable thing to do, and there is no way my paper would be reasonable about it.

 

Baron,

Nice, but that's an awful lot of words when "Die in a fire." would work just as well.

 

Well, since the thread is active again...

My favorite specific incident happened last summer while covering American Legion baseball. A catcher for the home team accidentally reached out too far for a pitch, trying to get a jump start on a throw to second. When he did, his glove hand got hit by the batter's bat at full speed.

Understandably, the catcher -- a really good kid -- jumped up, threw his glove off and clutched his hand. He also dropped an F-bomb.

Now, I don't blame a kid for dropping that kind of language, especially after getting hit by a baseball bat, even if it was his fault. But one of the opposing mothers in the stands apparently felt differently. She started yelling at the kid and the umpire for the language, saying the catcher should be thrown out of the game.

It really put me in a bad mood. I desperately wanted to walk up to the lady and ask her to let me swing a bat at her hand and let her see if she could keep the F-bombs in.

 

Did you at least get paid? If not, that's bullshit. You shouldn't be working for free.

 

No. If I turn in that I worked more than 40 hours, I'll get fired. Don't even get me started.

 

I thought about that, but I figured, what if the mom was hot-looking? (no pun intended). The world needs good-looking moms.

 

If you're not getting paid and you're working and you're not complaining, then I've got no sympathy. If you let your company walk all over you, you deserve it.

 

What he said.