Newspaper Article

[yooperbballref]

Officials mar game - DailyPress.net | News, Sports, Jobs, Escanaba Information | The Daily Press

This was an article that was printed in a local newspaper. The article was printed for the sole reason to trash officials. The two officials working the game have 80 years of experience between the two of them, and one of them has been doing college games for the past 20 years. They are some of the most respected officials in the area.

Any of you guys ever seen something like this printed in newspaper?

[refiator]

Absolutely not. That article is implorable, and I can't believe the editor allowed it. Yellow journalism at its best.

[BktBallRef]

Guy's an idiot. The woods are full of them. Unfortunately, some are given a forum where their stupidity is shared with the masses. Such is the case here.

[bainsey]

Before we get all caught up, allow me to ask this question...

What if the writer is telling the truth?

[yooperbballref]

Originally Posted by bainsey

Before we get all caught up, allow me to ask this question...

What if the writer is telling the truth?

I know both officials personally and have worked with both, this is nothing like anything they would ever do. One of the officials in the story I talked to the day this was printed and he said neither of them ever didn't run all the way down the court for a play, or ever send players to the line where there wasn't a reason to shoot free throws. As far as the free throw difference, as we all know stats don't tell the real story of the game. Out of the 20 whatever free throws shot by the one team, at least 10 of them were in the end of the game when they were intentionally fouling to get the ball back.

[ODog]

While I'm guessing STONGE in the comments below the article is a brother official, he didn't do the crew any favors by all but identifying one of the officials and stumbling through a barely coherent rant littered with grammar errors that will only serve to inflame a public just looking for another reason to be disgusted with officials.

That said, I find it hard to believe, especially from a sports writer who is wearing a "Jersey Shore"-style chain in his headshot for the site. I guess the refs aren't the only ones with poor judgment and lagging professionalism.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by bainsey

Before we get all caught up, allow me to ask this question...

What if the writer is telling the truth?

I cannot take anyone seriously that says "3 steps were taken...." to describe a traveling. It would have been worse if he said "2 and a half steps."

And I certainly do not take him seriously when a great deal of the evidence he gives are shooting numbers from the FT line. No mention of 3 point shots or other aspects of the actual game as well.

Originally Posted by ODog

While I'm guessing STONGE in the comments below the article is a brother official and quite likely yooperbball ref, he didn't do the crew any favors by all but identifying one of the officials and stumbling through a barely coherent rant littered with grammar errors that will only serve to inflame a public just looking for another reason to be disgusted with officials.

That said, I find it hard to believe, especially from a sports writer who is wearing a "Jersey Shore"-style chain in his headshot for the site. I guess the refs aren't the only ones with poor judgment and lagging professionalism.

I do not think people on those sites with an article take the conversations that seriously. And if they do I would not really lose sleep over what they think. I doubt a comments in the article are going to make that big of a difference and I doubt seriously many people are bright enought to figure out if the person commenting is an official either.

Peace

[Freddy]

Responses and reactions like that are popular around here in the online media where anonymity protects the writer and the "fanboy" perspective reigns supreme, and I gotta admit, they're often a real hoot to read. Never saw anything like that in print that I can recall.
Another reason why having video of officials shot by officials is a neat thing. Association or assigner sends video to the state for their review and they can make their own assessment in comparison to the inflammatory article. And if video validates there's a crew that should be sent out to pasture . . . well . . .

[Mark Padgett]

Based on what he wrote, apparently the moronic newspaper writer (who is also the sports editor!) doesn't know that in HS ball, a team can be in the bonus in the first half. He should be writing for some tabloid you find at the checkout counter.

Oh yeah - he says he's been covering basketball for three years. Three whole years! I guess that makes him an expert.

[Adam]

Meanwhile, this thread has probably doubled his lifetime readership.

[jTheUmp]

Originally Posted by Hack sportswriter

I will be writing a letter to the MHSAA concerning this officiating crew.

Thanks for being fan of high school basketball.

[stiffler3492]

Seemed more like a column than a game story, but I agree, his comments seem totally out of line.

I saw something like that in a local paper near my new hometown. I think there's a reason small town journalists never rise above that level.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by yooperbballref

Officials mar game - DailyPress.net | News, Sports, Jobs, Escanaba Information | The Daily Press

This was an article that was printed in a local newspaper. The article was printed for the sole reason to trash officials. The two officials working the game have 80 years of experience between the two of them, and one of them has been doing college games for the past 20 years. They are some of the most respected officials in the area.

Any of you guys ever seen something like this printed in newspaper?

Interesting that the initiator of this thread also chose to become involved in the post-article comments. I've seen plenty of online trashing of officials, sometimes of my crew. But I've never chosen to become involved in the subsequent circus of commentary. With solid evidence (opposite of "opinion") to the contrary of the writer's opinion (opposite of "evidence"), I've been tempted, but always allowed their low-information ignorance to run rampant without my trying to straighten it all out.
I think I'm gonna continue that policy for myself.
Doesn't seem worth it, in the long run. Do you?

[Rich]

Morons like the commenters show up at every basketball game I work. Without any video, there's no way of knowing what kind of job these guys did. 80 years of experience means nothing to me -- it could be that maybe these guys can't keep up anymore. Maybe not.

(Last night I had a lady in the corner who had this grating voice and all she did was whine and complain about "fouls" we weren't calling and other things that showed her complete lack of basketball intelligence. I told my partner that if she was my wife, I'd probably mix myself a rat poison cocktail.)

That said, I can't believe how unprofessional it is for a writer for a paper to spend this much time writing a hack piece on the officials, no matter their quality. Someone needs a huge dose of perspective. I drove home last night, over 100 miles, on snow covered roads. It took me over 3 hours to get home. I have a check in hand for $115 (including $50 mileage money). Anyone who thinks we're doing this for the money (especially those of us who travel long distances to work varsity games) is a complete fool.

We have a guy here locally who does a pretty good job in the newspaper, but the other night wrote a series of tweets while covering a game that really hammered the officiating crew. To be fair, I looked up who was on the game and I'm sure some of what he wrote was the truth -- however, what good does it do for guys like this (and the writer of this article) to write crap like this?

Anyhow, as more media finds its way onto the web, I guess we're going to continue to see the BleacherReport-ization of sports reporting, where anyone who has the time and inclination to write complete crap that gets page views will continue to do so.

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by Freddy

Interesting that the initiator of this thread also chose to become involved in the post-article comments. I've seen plenty of online trashing of officials, sometimes of my crew. But I've never chosen to become involved in the subsequent circus of commentary. With solid evidence (opposite of "opinion") to the contrary of the writer's opinion (opposite of "evidence"), I've been tempted, but always allowed their low-information ignorance to run rampant without my trying to straighten it all out.
I think I'm gonna continue that policy for myself.
Doesn't seem worth it, in the long run. Do you?

Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. If it doesn't work for you, then don't post. That doesn't mean everyone should follow your example.