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

Trust me, I'm not. I've already resigned.

 

Wait, resigned from your job? You got anything lined up?

 

Not currently, no. Trying though.

I'm keeping my second gig, but moving to another state as I'll still be able to do it there.

 

Oh, well that's good then. And don't let the move interfere with the NCAA league.

 

Don't you worry Jake, I'll still be there to beat your ass in the championship.

 

Getting back to the original spirit of the the thread, I got an e-mail last week from a baseball parent complaining that we featured the star player of the team too much and the other players not enough. The kid plays shortstop and pitches, so he's in a lot of pictures. He's also a pretty good player, so he's a guy we mention in stories a bit.
So I figure there might be some merit to the guy's claims and looked over our coverage from this season. In roughly two dozen stories, the kid had been quoted a total of three times. Our player of the day type feature used him once, and five of his teammates once each.
I e-mailed the parent back telling him this, and explaining why the kid was in so many pictures. In the explanation, I mentioned that lighting plays a factor too (6 and 7 p.m. starts only leave a few innings of good light for the photogs, so they get what they can -- pitchers and plays at second). Guy e-mails back and offers a half-hearted apology about the coverage. He refuses to acknowledge the lighting issue, though, saying "Baseball games have been played for years and I've never seen it be a problem."
You just can't please some people.

 

Apparently, another staff person (a former SE) said he's been repeatedly harangued by people complaining why we don't run all scorers in track agate (a process put into place before I got here). Further, a quick check indicates that neither does any other paper in our ownership group.

 

Tell that that unless it's the state meet, track events are useless. (This is coming from someone who actually enjoys covering track too).