You should never underestimate the power of BigSoccer. Do you realize how many of the average game attendees monitor and/or post to this forum? (Edit cause I forgot smilie)
Ok, it's time from my Chronicle Confession. Actually, this is embarrassing, but here goes... The evening of the santos game in Torreón the Chronicle sports editor Nick Matthews PMed me on Twitter replying to a tweet I had sent to him that day. I was complaining about the coverage in the Chronicle on the eve of The Santos game. He told me it would be better to speak in person on the subject and gave me his office number. I told him I had people there getting ready to watch the game but I wanted to talk to him and would call him back the next morning. But after the game I was depressed and didn't feel like pleading my case for how important that game was. After that I've sort of lost interest and given up. I'm sure he was expecting me to back off when he gave me the number, but I'm still sorry I didn't call. Maybe I'll give it a try soon...
yah but that Metzie team had character, something that these Astros don't. For instance take the catcher, Choo Choo Coleman. He never learned his teammates' names-he would just call them by number "hey 15 good job!"
Now I know why the Dynamo hired Tom Dart, they needed a writer based in reality: If there was 19,904 at Minute Maid Park, there was 25,000 at BBVA Compass last Saturday If a beat writer has two beats, and he only really covers one, does he really have two beats?
Wonderful story in the paper from AP about the game, how the Dynamo stole the game with too many extra minutes added on, and how Taylor was shown a red for straight-arming Earnshaw to the face. Lots of nice quotes from Toronto coaches and players. Wow. I can't believe the Chronicle can't find anybody in this city that can write a decent story for them from the Dynamo point of view. We on BS don't care, we've moved on. We know where to find our Dynamo news. But there are a lot of sports fans in this town that pour over the sports section every day. They judge the sports teams by the coverage they get in the paper and the Dynamo are definitely coming up short. http://www.chron.com/sports/dynamo/article/Dynamo-rally-to-tie-Toronto-FC-1-1-4450512.php
and the Chron's sports editor @Nick_Mathews has been poudly tweeting all the great sports stories in the paper... Rockets, Astros, Texans, A&M, Aeros.... let me see, who's missing in that list.....?
What the Chronicle should do is take stringer articles from writers from this city and completely remove Jesus from covering the Dynamo. His focus on baseball is from his heart and he doesn't have enough left to cover the Dynamo adeqautely. I now do believe that Ortiz probably has the talent and intelligence to write good articles on the Dynamo consistently. However; his egotistic, opinionated, and lazy writing has alienated those who read the Chronicle. Maybe the Chron could contact the UH journalism dept because I believe an intern could do a better job than Ortiz.
The Chronicle did post a job opening for a Dynamo correspondent, I was alarmed by one of their prequisites: "must be able to master writing soccer columns in Crayola crayon and subscribe to MLS Live for Dynamo road games". Seems like they aren't shooting real high I hope Ortiz stays on the Astros beat and we all just get our Dynamo news elsewhere. To his slanted way of thinking, the Astros announce real attendance and the Dynamo lie. When it is probably more exaggerated by the Astros. I hope he suffers watching the worst team in the majors.
It's not like they gave a damn when the team was in danger of moving; there was hardly mention of it until January (mostly because the Aeros rarely get print coverage at all; Mike Damante's Hockey Stop blog is solid). It was only after the move was all but done that the Chronicle feigned any criticism or in-depth knowledge of the matter. The worst part was waking up to this puff piece on Les the morning after the last Aeros home game. On the front page of the sports section, above the fold. Talk about getting slapped in the face as a fan. Could you imagine being an Aeros employee? Honestly, I don't know that I mind Ortiz as a writer. He's put up decent articles, it just seems like not only his heart, but his paycheck, are tied to baseball at this juncture.
Yet again, the Chronicle underwhelms. The Rockets lose on threeseparate pages, a long story on JJ Watts charity softball game, 4 million pages on NFL draft coverage, a couple of pages of baseball and "Oh! Yeah, there's a soccer game. And some guy from Honduras will probably play." I really do understand that as a nation we prioritize the NFL/NBA/MLB far above MLS. But don't the Chronicle writers and distorts live in this city? Does the Dynamo average attendance figure not count? Do they assume That no Dynamo fans speak English, or know how to read? It's just annoying when you see a freakin charity softball game get more ink than arguably the best team in its league.
The Chron is a wash for footy coverage. They as well never cover UFC. The head honchos over there are old dinosaurs. They just don't get it with how popular soccer and UFC are around the planet. It's off their radar so they don't high talk our boys. Sucks.
Even NPR this morning gave a 10-second recap of Giles Barnes' unassisted goal and the Dynamo extending their home unbeaten streak. I was pleasantly surprised to hear it.
The Chronicle editorial board meeting with Chepo de la Torre. Yep folks, that's our good 'ol hometown American newspaper for you.
8th graders could likely do it better at this point. Problem is, print is dying there is no money left. No one in their right mind gets into now.
volunteer to write for Dynamo Theory, talk to the Keeper or grab a camera and start a tumblr. be the change instead of just complaining like _____ ____.
And you of course recognize that the business fundamentals are so bad that if you had to buy a new printing press you would never make money nor get bank financing to purchase it. Other than a monopoly and incumbency - which should be a license to make money - the Chronicle does nothing to stand out that gives any indication they care about quality. The Chronicle is what I call a "Cap'n Crunch" paper - you can read it front to back in one bowl of cereal.
http://howlermagazine.com/ i pitched a couple of people my idea for a podcast. my 3 favorite things are soccer, beer and talking about soccer. my plan was to have a rotating cast of big soccer peeps (i have a mental list of a couple of yous that i would love to shoot the soccer with), family members and random soccer local locos come on and get drunk with me as we talked soccer while not contsrained by fcc rules. dudes i pitched it to thought it was a terrible idea , but i may get around to it one day. i would love to have juvechelsea as my first guest.