What? "Stats not allowed?"

What's this? "Stats not allowed?" That's a curious word choice and different from the norm. It can't just be an incidental variance in word choice IMHO. So what is the West Central Tribune (online) newspaper indicating with this? 

"Stats not allowed" rather jumped out at me this morning. We are quite accustomed - hoo boy - to seeing "stats not available." It is a recurring refrain for MACA sports fans who think they might be able to find some useful MACA info on the site. 

The Tigers used to be full-fledged in the coverage area of the West Central Tribune. Not that the coverage was perfect then. It's never perfect for anyone. You've heard the expression "sausage-making." That's what producing sports coverage can be like. I'm sure the slobs who work late at night at the Willmar paper are trying as best they can all the time. But things can go wrong on their end and they most certainly can go wrong on the coaches' end. Coaches of course call in info. 

It's an inexact science to get this work done. Like when the post-season football games start and MACA would be playing a team like Redwood Valley at Redwood. No chance of seeing coverage by the West Central Tribune except for just maybe the score. 

"The score" is the best we can hope for from our kmrs-kkok website now. The radio station had Brett Miller as an asset once. Then he left. The radio station must not have considered his service very important, because they haven't taken the trouble to replace him. At least not with online-based text-style game reviews. These needn't be lengthy. But the short ones would be nice. I was able to get familiar with the names at least from MACA cross country, for example. No more. 

The SCT newspaper is exasperating because it only comes out once a week so the timeliness is shot.

I would look at the SCT at the library. These days I'd feel uncomfortable going to our Morris library just because of the tremendous controversy it has been through. Am I overstating the situation? Well no, not when you consider the large amount of funds applied toward "investigating" the library. So the city had to dump lots of $ into that? "Investigating" its own library? At some point the city must have gotten convinced that some serious wrongdoing was committed there. 

I feel strongly that the city should have done whatever it took to finalize the matter - get it behind them - in an expeditious manner. Instead I ended up having to ask, "Is it possible that the library director actually has more power than the council and city manager?" 

Does this power come from having so many friends within a particular segment of Morris? I have seen this phenomenon play out in Morris before. A faction of people takes on its adversaries. You'd like to think that this kind of "politics" wouldn't really win out in the end. But I have seen it win out. I saw it with our Morris public school in the late 1980s. There was an earthquake of a controversy back then. 

There were "insurgents" who lost in the short term but may have won in the long term. But the tragedy was the sheer amount of conflict for so long. We had a new superintendent who wanted to end it - to do the right thing. He caved. He'd probably say he had to. He's now deceased. 

So many of the "bad guys" from back then have left town for their retirement. I could name names but I'd best not. Were their hearts ever in Morris? Or were they just a tight little "clique?" Rhetorical question. 

 

Word choice

Now, back to the subject of "stats not allowed." Not allowed? What curious wording in the WC Trib sports coverage. It's with the volleyball report of Minnewaska Area vs. Melrose. You might know that 'Waska is having a super season. Hint: they defeated Melrose 3-0. So congrats Lakers. 

'Waska is comfortably in the WC Trib coverage area. There's a full stat report on the 'Waska players. Lots of talent there. For our MACA Tigers we typically see "stats not available" in the WC Trib. Just not available. So sad. For Melrose the WC Trib does not have "state not available," they have "stats not allowed." 

Not allowed. Holy Mackerel. This can't just be an inadvertent word choice. Someone might have indicated to the West Central Tribune that stats are just not made available for publication as a matter of privacy. Well, we do live in a far more guarded world today. Is this a sign of things to come? Who knows? 

I personally miss being able to write about our MACA Tigers on a regular basis. 

The Stevens County Times publisher thinks the government should help newspapers. Well, who wouldn't want government support? The government is apparently getting ready for a super-big "bailout" of the farmers again. This is due to the Trump tariffs which are already a tax on the American people. 

Well go ahead and bail out farmers, bail out newspapers, bail out everyone while you're at it. Push interest rates down to zero. To heck with deferring gratification. The refusal to defer gratification is a trait associated with poor people, trailer park people. So that's who we are now? Under Trump.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com