Questions from you, answers from us pertaining to coverage of local sports instead of the Reds and other major league sports…and why college baseball gets such a prominent platform on Press Pros.
We hear it…emails and questions pertaining to why there’s so little written about the Reds on Press Pros, given that we have two former beat writers for the club on our active staff of contributors. We have selected one of those questions to share, along with our response.
If you read Press Pros regularly you’ll find that there’s always been an historic interest in the Reds…because we don’t forget!
“It strikes me odd that you have no coverage of the Reds at all on Press Pros. Why I can’t figure this out is because Hal McCoy writes for you and is so well known as a Reds writer (and still writes about them for the Dayton Daily News). I don’t mean to raise a stink, but I’ve been a Reds fan all my life, and I really enjoy this website. But I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good to have at least something on it about the Reds.” … Donald (Vandalia)
Ed Note: Don, you’re welcome to share your question, as we’re happy to share with you some of our thoughts (or at least mine) about the Reds, major league baseball, and major league sports, in general. First, if you’re a veteran reader of the site you obviously notice that the site is directed toward community, high school sports, and to some degree the local and popular college sports at UD and Ohio State. As to the Reds, they’ve made it very plain over the past ten years that THEY DO NOT WANT our attention. To quote their media relations man, Rob Butcher, “We have our own sources of coverage,” meaning MLB.com and local TV and newsprint. Meaning, like the rest of the corporate world, they want fewer people and outlets to deal with, even though it all looks and reads alike. Simplify the process. Monopolies are good, apparently. Second to your question, I have a personal issue with the cost of actually attending major league baseball, or major league sports in general, and I frequently write about that on Press Pros. I think it’s ridiculous to charge someone $30 (as the Reds do) to sit 400 feet away in right field, some of the worst seats in GABP. If you want better box seats along first and third base, those average about $56 dollars over the course of the season. And I say average because the prices fluctuates with the opponent. It’s called dynamic pricing, but it’s a dynamic ripoff. If a bad team comes in you may pay $50. If at good team comes in (the Red Sox) you’re going to pay at least $75. And this is true with a lot of major league parks. It’s called greed, price-gouging, and it doesn’t stop with where you park your butt to watch. If you want to buy a Coke, or a beer, you’re going to pay through the nose for that as well. Even at minor league parks…I noticed that a 22 oz. brewskie at the Dragons’ games is $9.50. Geez, you can buy a 12-pack of Bud Light for that price and watch the game at home (which they’ve made it easy to do with their television package). Go to a Reds game and get a Big Boy hamburger and you pay about $8. They’re $3.50 at the restaurant. A couple of years back I was in San Francisco with my family and bought ‘sushi’ at AT&T Park. It was $75.00! A bratwurst was $12.00. And this follows right down the line with major league sports, and sadly, with Ohio State football and other major college events. What I’m saying is…it’s just not a good value for the the average fan when you figure the cost of travel, tickets, concessions, hotels (if you stay overnight), and even parking. That said, we’re all free moral agents as to how we spend our money. But look at all the empty seats now at Reds games (on TV), and tell me if the Press Pros way of thinking isn’t the sinking in with a lot of would-be Reds fans.
“I’m curious about why there is so much coverage of Ohio State baseball on Press Pros, and why the high school games you cover are limited to what seems certain teams and certain leagues? It’s a great site, but it seems like it could be better if you included more and different coverage.” … James Hesson
(Ed Note: First to your question about Ohio State baseball. Obviously, if you read you see that we have sponsorship for that effort, from people who choose to support college baseball and use it to help get their name out there to prospective clients. In some cases, that sponsorship comes simply from die-hard Buckeye fans who appreciate the quality of our coverage, because in terms of baseball, particularly, no one else even bothers to show up, even the local papers. Like most newspapers, they’ve fallen on lean (or leaner) times and have cut staff accordingly. Second, Ohio State baseball, itself, appreciates that coverage because it helps market the program to would-be recruits across the state and Midwest via the internet. It’s easy for the best high school prospects to follow Buckeye baseball on Press Pros, and become familiar with coaches, players, their schedule, history, and their future needs. Third, because of ‘two’, we do it to drive home the possibility to area high school kids that there IS baseball beyond high school, if they want to pursue it. Every player at Ohio State is not a scholarship player, as is the case with every college program in America. There is actually MUCH opportunity, and they actually WELCOME kids, like Tipp City’s Aaron Hughes (at Ohio State), to walk on and show that they have the talent to play and want to be a Buckeye. So, WE COVER THEM AS AN INCENTIVE to kids like Hughes that they can do it…if they want to! As to your question about which high school games we cover, it really boils down to finding ‘quality’ games to cover. It’s very hard to write about twelve walks and eight errors, so we seek out the better teams. If you notice, you don’t see a lot of bad games (of any kind) written about in Sports Illustrated, and you also tend to follow those teams that show aptitude for actually competing for a state title. Last, like other media sources we’re actually limited by staff as to how many places we can be on a given day. And as to ‘different’ coverage? Our addition of high school bowling this year was one of the best things we’ve done to date, as to recognizing a new and growing sport. That’s about the best answer we can give you.
