No Respect for Raleigh

Great Talent & Poor Coverage

I never saw this tread before today since I'm a relatively new member, but I tried to promote some very talented youngmen and wondered why they weren't getting the recognition they deserve around the state.

About six or seven weeks ago I realized why our area players received no respect statewide. The lack of coverage and totally erronious stats in the News & Observer discredits the local players and in some cases, I believe has hurt some players' chances of moving to the next level.

I have written to the Sports Editor on three occassions in the last five weeks asking her to either figure out how to post the correct stats on their website or to stop posting these erronious figures at all. I even went over her head last week and emailed the papers Editor about the problem, with no response from anyone.

If you go to the News & Observer website and click on Sports, then High School, and use the drop-downs to find Baseball and then any area School. Once you have a school, in the upper righthand area click on "View Top Numbers."

Here you'll find that Fuquay Varina's Cameron Conner has 10 HRs, yet only 9 RBIs, FV's Kevin Brandt has 7 HRs (he really has 8) and is not listed with any RBIs, he actually set a school single season record with 39. Kevin also leads the area with 16 doubles, not 12. As a pitchers he also leads the aera with 90 strike outs, not the 20 listed. No wonder why he's not listed on IMPACT Baseball's Player of the Year list.

The N&O also has Cory Thompson from Apex with 13 HRs and only 16 RBIs, and K. Aull of Broughton with 7 HRs and 0 RBIs. Really, these must be the two most unlucky hitters in history, seems like there's never anyone on base when they connect.

Basically, what I'm saying is, if the folks away from the Raleigh area are reading this misinformation they would certainly discredit the abilities of players in our region.

 

Book is closed...

Sorry if I offended anyone. Last Post...

 

Deacon-
Your previous post hit a nerve and to an extent I answered with alot of emotion... Should not have shown so much emotion...

I have no idea who made the roster, just a few names I have heard here and there... I might have a better response if I was privy to the roster info... Maybe it will come out soon, but I dunno. Lets suppose that you are correct... I will give you the benefir of the doubt, but still await the complete roster. If you could improve the process, how would you say the coaches choose the team? Let me know wat u think... With this team, what did it come down to, might I ask? How do you suggest the coaches choose the roster? Base it totally on the tryouts alone? I would love to hear your suggestions on how to correct this problem?

 

Very good points and questions

 

Ditto -- so what can we do?

News & Observer baseball numbers –

I have also contacted the News & Observer through Tim Stevens regarding the high school baseball stats, in particular the stat for many on the Sanderson team. It seems that there is no uniform reporting of the game stats so not everybody is treated equally. I understand what they are trying to do but it not working the way they intended it to.

These find young men at Sanderson and their baseball numbers, if they were included in the News and Observer numbers, would be among the area leaders for those players listed. Obviously I can not put out their names at this time as we are still playing in the 4A East playoffs.

Pitching -- we have an 8-1 pitcher and two pitchers with over 62 K’s.

Hitting -- there are two players with five doubles, one player with 4 home runs (Sanderson’s field is 330’ down the lines and 400’ dead center), one player with 4 triples and one with 3, and one player with 26 RBI’s and one with 18.

Let’s find a way to make this work for all the kids. Hopefully the coaches will understand this will only benefit all the local players.

 

What are they trying to do and how come they can't get it right?
I'm sure the coaches understand it will not only benefit all the local players and I bet they understand these incorrect numbers actually hurt all local players too.

I'd be glad to help stting up a system to get it right.

Please contact me so we can put together some recommendations.

 

Just look at the paper today (Sunday). Great article on the games last night. NOT!!! Maybe 1 1/2 inch square total, That includes both games (Apex & Sanderson). Soccer and lacrosse both get half page articles with photos.
They can not even get the box score info right.
I know that the N&O is a regional paper but these were regional playoff games.
About the stats on the players in the stat section of the paper: I do not put total blame on the paper for this one. Not all coaches post this info on their call in sheets. The home team is the team that is responsible for calling in the info to the paper every night after their games. This is where the paper gets the stats for the players. So when a team does not include this info when they call in there is no way the paper can get it. I personally feel the paper should do away with the stat section since not all schools in the area participate in filling out the stats on the call in sheets.

 

Raleigh Rockhounds

There were many Raleigh based AAU teams that had a lot more name recognition that the Raleigh Rockhounds. Just three to name off the top of my head. But what happend 5 years ago makes no sense to be pounding today.

Carolina Blaze, first team from NC to ever win a COOPERSTOWN TOURNAMENT and many D1 players playing college ball from that team.
South Wake Storm: numerous college players playing now that came from this program.
Durham Diamondbacks: I cam name at least 4 kids off the top of my head that are college players or draftee material

Who were the Raleigh Rockhounds by the way. Never heard of them> Sorry.

And good luck to Sanderson going forward in the playoffs. There coach is doing it the right way and building a program. Apex just did not have enough guns but made a nice run.
Hope Raleigh makes it to the finals!

 

They were the team that said I was too small to help them win nationals. hahaha

 

Stats

The News and Observer isnt at total fault on the stats they post. I am shorted on several doubles and I know of several players without their HRs totals listed. I do love the conference records on the "conference pages" though. They have Smithfield 8-8 when there were only 14 conference games. Again, part of the problem is that the N & O relies on the HOME TEAM to call in results after a game. Many coaches that lose their home games get mad and wont call it in. Then it becomes a guessing game. I should have received credit for the loss in a garner game, but when they reported it to the paper the story came out with another pitcher getting the loss. SO GET ON YOUR COACHES!!!!

As far as news coverage, it is a BIG PROBLEM, the RALEIGH newspaper just doesnt care! Their affilliates do a better job because I do see reporters at the outlying area games, but then in the small paper it is a matter of if they have room to print it. I see that Clayton has their paper and McDonalds sponsor a player of the week feature.