Eric Crawford may be one of the best sports columnists to ever write for the Courier-Journal so any criticism of the CJ here really doesn’t apply to him.
That out of the way, the observer abhors giving the local newspaper more exposure, but sports editor Harry Bryan did respond to one of our readers about the lack of coverage of the University of Louisville baseball team this past weekend. Thanks to Ron T. for providing a copy of Bryan’s response:
“Thanks for the e-mail. I am sorry you were unhappy with our coverage of the U of L baseball team this weekend. We did provide coverage, although we do not travel with U of L non-revenue sports teams in the regular season.
“However, we certainly haven’t been ignoring the team. U of L baseball has been on the front page four times in the past two weeks, and as the team heads into the postseason, you’ll be seeing more. We had two writers at practice today working on stories in advance of the Big East tournament. We will carry results from the tournament and we will pick up the pace in the NCAA tournament.
“I realize that U of L baseball is picking up a following, and it is certainly deserving. Coach McDonnell has done a great job there, and our increased coverage over the past few years is a reflection of that. However, our coverage is based at least partly on fan interest, and attendance figures indicate to me that there is still some progress to be made in that area before we start increasing staffing even more.
“The fact is that U of L spring sports in general are much improved — we also have a track story planned for later in the week looking ahead to the NCAA meets — and we look forward to increasing our coverage as the teams continue to improve and build even stronger fan bases.
Thanks again for writing.”
Harry Bryan
Sports Editor
Why in the world would the C-J want to cover UofL baseball when they can do 2-3 articles a day on the UK freshmen basketball players leaving for the NBA. Don’t you get it, readers? The Curious Urinal must believe the baseball Cards are still out at Parkway Field, Lelo Prado is coaching and John Tong is calling the games.
Move the presses and reporters to Lexington. Coverage of UK will be much easier for them there.
Interesting that right after the criticisms about the CJ coverage Crawford wrote a column on the baseball team and now Bozich is doing the same. Makes me believe the CJ knows damned well they screwed up but won’t admit it and this is their “make good do over.”
I miss the good old days when people admitted their mistakes.
Good observation, CB. I can’t wait till tomorrow to see the coverage.
I just noticed that. Coincidence? I think not.
Just the term “non-revenue sport” irritates me. I know it’s factual, but it is subtly insulting also. The C-J is rapidly approaching non-revenue status as well.
That whirring sound you hear is Barry Bingham spinning in his grave.
I too received the same form letter. They could care less @ our gripes. It’s just infuriating and our wonderful student athletes and coaches are the ones who suffer bc of their inept ability to get off their lazy ass*s and hoof it out to the sporting events to cover them. They would rather use the AP stories and make a couple phone call interviews. I guess when they lose their jobs they will have plenty of time to make it out to Patterson for a few games. Newspapers will be a thing of the past before too long.
Leslie tells it like it is. What will we read over breakfast? If someone comes up with a substitute for newspapers, the printed versions are gone. May have to get an I-Pad yet.
Yes, Charlie I do try to tell it like it is. Life is too short to do otherwise. Ordered my IPad yesterday!!!
Charlie . . . will there be any “Broadcast” of the Big East tourney on any FREE radio stations in Louisville?
MR. JURICH.. TIME to MOVE the Baseball play-by-play from the HamRadio AM1570 to a local station with a broad reach willing to broadcast AWAY games. If WKRD is our FLAGSHIP station, then THEY should be covering UL baseball as often as possible. If there is an overlap of BATS games (whom I understand have first rights), then move the game to the ham radio station, but ONLY under those circumstances. PLEASE!!!!
The U of L web site says the games will broadcast on KOOL-1570 and via paid subscription on Cards-TV. A lot of people agree with you, JJ, and there has to be an explanation somewhere for why WKRD does not carry U of L games. If there is, we’ll find it. We may not like the answer, but we’re on it.
This never ceases to amaze me.
I replied back to him and asked him to look back at their accomplishments since 2007. If being ranked each year since doesn’t get the team more coverage it deserves, than I seriously think this guy is/has been very late to this party.
A form letter? A form letter??? Further antagonizes readers! I received a form letter recently from a hotel chain in response to an up close and personal encounter with bed bugs. That’s the best corporate leadership can do? Who are these guys??? And why give them any more business???
A CHAMPIONSHIP is surely worth more than a few lines buried several pages into the sports section, even if it is a non-revenue producing sport. With several local guys on the team, acknowledgment of the accomplishment should rate page one of the sports section. Oh brother…
As always, GO CARDS!
It may be his response to me.
I wasn’t upset about the coverage in general, just the lack thereof surrounding the BE championship.
I figured this was a form letter. What a shame.
Ryan, you hit the nail on the head. A Big East championship deserves more than two paragraphs on page six. In fact, the improved coverage of late made it even more obvious that someone dropped the ball last weekend.
Charlie, that’s a form letter – Tom got the same response…I haven’t received mine yet.
Well, I would expect him to respond to the same complaints in the same manner. Not sure why he needs to personalize it.