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Hmmmm,
Writing for an international webpage is difficult.
Those of us that do it are as much a "professional writer" as we are a "professional umpire."
That makes writing for this medium difficult.
I try to write interesting pieces. I do not have the time to write as often as Roland nor do I have as many ideas as does he.
I write about personal anecdotal happenings.
I am sure that some of them miss the mark and are considered "horrible" (that should be said using your very best Bill Walton impression) even by people that like my work.
Editing a "real time" webpage must also be difficult.
LDUB, as writers for this site we are required to handle a lot of our own editing. There is simply no way that one person can handle editing each article. The editor is not dealing with many Tex Maules's, Kerry Kirpatrick's and Dan Jenkins's -- we are not THAT good.
I am sure that on the football board (simply used as an example) there have been comments about articles that have listed rulings that might not have been 100% correct.
Those pages would be even more hard to edit as the editor might not know football rules as well as baseball rules.
First, I am happy to be back writing about baseball. I am even more happy writing about umpiring baseball.
As a group we can be satisfied reading Mano's monthly magazine (which also has errors) or we can join here. That is difficult as NEITHER of the mediums use professional writers.
Second, I simply can't compete with Roland in the NUMBER of articles he produces. I work for a living. I have a "real job"(tm).
So we have two ways to handle the issue:
1) We have Roland writing and releasing for publication six articles a month or,
2) The gaps get filled in with "coaches" writing articles that are telling umpires how to do thier job. Those articles drive me crazy . . . the bottom line issue is if we are going to have more current articles by umpires we need more umpire writers.
Seems pretty simple, doesn't it.
I currently have about six articles in the "On Deck" section that are coming on their way to the site.
I can only produce about two columns a month.
So, in closing, Roland has a style of writing. He also has a large number of articles. While I do not agree with each sentence of each article he writes at least he has the balls to put stuff out there for us to read.
LDUB, I never try to write a column on interpretations because there are too many umpires that know far more than me . . . I am not asking you to cut anyone any slack . . . I am simply asking you to recognize what a difficult thing it is to write things down and let every one take a shot.
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