A lot of talking to do. SCN softball

Let's get right to this. I have a beef to grind regarding St. Charles North (IL) high school softball and the lovely people they have working there. I have to give some background on this.

I track high school stats every week. One of the teams I track is St. Charles North, who's one of the better teams in our area. I met their coach, April Stary last year, who I think is around 30 years old. So it's not like she's one of those older out of it coaches. And we kept talking about stats this year, and I thought she was a good enough person. She sent them every week by e-mail. Now I always ask for them by Wednesday. This past week, she didn't send them. And three weeks ago, with the team struggling a little, she banned her players from talking to the media, which makes our jobs that much harder.

So I get into work on Saturday afternoon after missing Friday. I see two e-mails, one from Scott Mennie, a parent of a SCN player and April. Mennie sent e-mails to John, whp's my boss, and Christine, who basically covers everything softball for the area. She covers loads of games and writes features. Well this guy sent her an e-mail asking why we're not doing a feature on SCN softball players. And he signed it Director of SCN softball public relations. For a high school team?! This guy's ego is about as big as Donald Trump's! But apparently, their"director of PR" didn't know the coach was not allowing the payers to speak to the media.

Back to the e-mails. The first one is from Mennie to me. Here is the transcript.

"Dear Mr. Bartolo,

I am a parent of a softball player on the St. Charles North softball team. I am a subscriber to the Daily Herald and a regular advertiser through my businesses.

I have observed in reading the Sports Extra section of the Daily Herald that for the past weeks, you have used outdated information in posting stats for St. Charles North softball players. For instance, in this week's Sports Extra, the stats shown for SCN players are stats as of April 17 - two weeks behind the actual stats.

Is there an explanation?"

Now I should preface this. Earlier, he had apparently sent Stary an e-mail asking about who keeps stats at the paper. I got this e-mail 20 minutes later. This was her response to him and she also sent it to me as well. This is the transcript.

"The guy's name is Adam Bartolo, his e-mail is _________
Do me a favor: when you e-mail, do it as a concerned parent, not as the guy who does our stats and see what he says. (Love the subterfuge here...) I'd love to see if he owns up to getting the messages, or if he says he hasn't gotten any from me. If I was a betting person, I'd put $ on the "he got 'em and didn't put 'em in" or the "she never sent me anything".
Keep me posted...and if you want to call him..._______ is the # I call to talk to some of the reporters at the Daily Herald or 587-864. Let me know....CAN'T WAIT to see what he has to say!"

For the record, I have left a mesage on Stary's VM asking her to call me back so we can discuss this like adults. I have not contacted Mennie. John can do that although I'd certainly like a few minutes with him. But here's what I'd like to say. Yeah, there's an explanation. Your coach didn't send the stats this week, so there was no update. So it was one week behind, not two or three. How can I record information that I am not given. And why did she send me a copy of this e-mail that was totally addressed to Mennie to begin with?! I mean, who in their right mind would let me see this?

I try not to take this kind of thing personally. But I am disgusted at the actions of these people. I have done nothing wrong here. I am not out to get anybody. But I have learned over the last 2 and a half years that there are those parents and coaches who perceive people like me in the media as a robot without feelings. Now to them, I (as a clerk and corrsepondent) may just be a "media guy." To them, I may be a puppet that they feel they should be able to pull the strings whenever and however they please. Well, Mr. Mennie, that is pure crap.

I am proud of what I do. I am proud of the effort I put into my job, even though I may not own my own business or have a bogus job title. And I am proud that I treat people with respect and don't make accusations unless I have my information in place. So I don't know how this whoe thing will resolve. John is as ticked off over this as I am. I hope it will blow over, but I don't back down when I know I'm right.