An Editor has Control of a Game and my Reputation

One of the most vivid scenes this baseball/softball season was during a softball game between Adna and Toutle Lake. Jessica-Jo Sandrini was as good as any high school softball player I have seen. Adna has a way of producing such products. On the other side of the coin, was Rachel Dahlman of Toutle Lake. I had read so much about her exploits and I was anxious to see her. I expected to see a big strong, burly gal, but what I found was an almost petite red-head with the mental toughness of a wildcat.

Anyhow, I digress. In a close ball game a couple of weeks ago, the Ducks of Toutle Lake were playing almost even with the Pirates. At 1-0, Adna had a couple of runners on base. They were poised to do more damage, but Dahlman had managed to wiggle off the hook over and over again.

My story on the game read like this “A passed ball allowed them to advance to second and third. Another passed ball brought Hoke into easily score, and a desperate throw in the general direction of Dahlman and was picked up by 3rd baseman Geri Wuollet who accurately returned it to Dahlman in plenty of time to tag out Sandrini at home plate. The tag was straightforwardly made in time, but when the two bodies separated from a violent collision, the ball was on the ground and Sandrini had scored the third and final run of the game“.

When it appeared in the paper this week the final sentence was left off. My editor was calling Sandrini out.

“A passed ball allowed them to advance to second and third. Another passed ball brought Hoke into easily score, and a desperate throw in the general direction of Dahlman and was picked up by 3rd baseman Geri Wuollet who accurately returned it to Dahlman in plenty of time to tag out Sandrini at home plate.

More likely, he didn’t like my use of “straightforwardly”. For the life of me when I was writing the article, I couldn’t come up with the word "routine". I am sure his job is tough. Two days of frantic computer work, deciding what to use, what to cut and how to present it. It is not the first time I have been impacted by his choices, and it probably won’t be the last.

Regardless, I am the one that will face Rachel Dahlman and the rest of her teammates next spring with a little less credibility.

Searching for Elusive High School Sports in the just as Elusive Western Washington Springtime

I have to wonder, if I am just low on luck or short on connections.

I am new to the newspaper business. I have taken on the role of an outdoors, sports and education writer for a small town weekly newspaper in Southwest Washington. If a guy could make a living at it, it would be a ball. As it is, I combine it with another job and then substitute teach a couple of days a week and call it a living. It is a lot of fun, working a couple of regular days and then several days a week, take a seat at my home computer for my other 20 hours. Several evenings a week, I go to the local high school sporting events.

This time of year, the baseball and fast pitch games have been few and far between. Weather and the general fickle nature of small schools cause the events to be hit or miss at best. These are small town high schools. They mailed a schedule to the regional newspaper months ago and that is what the are paper prints. Of course, until my contacts mature, that is my main information source.

As an example of my good natured frustrations, yesterday, I drove 40 miles to Morton, the site of a scheduled game only to find the field and parking lot completely devoid of players and spectators. I returned via other communities hoping to find something, anything that will afford me a photo of value that might at least pay for the gas I just wasted. I checked In Napavine, 35 miles from the original location, and found the original game I was looking for.

Today was another glaring example of this calamity. Yesterday, I even confirmed with some local ball players in Onalaska that the game was scheduled. When I arrived at the field in Mossyrock, 30 miles away, I found the home team practicing in their uniforms. The game had been canceled in just the last few hours so I began my return trip home, visiting some fishing holes to find photos of value. On my way through Toledo, the closest town to my own, I stumbled onto a Fastpitch Softball game between two local rival schools.
A golden find for a home town newspaper!

I swear that my sources have me on a string and they laugh and giggle as I run all over the region looking for the story. Sometimes, bad luck can turn good just because I make an effort to drive the back roads and look for the elusive spring sporting events in Western Washington.