First game is in the books. Beach Dawgs win Sunday night 3-1 over the Bay Area Toros. (They’re 1-2 for the season.) All reports indicated that people had a good time in the stands. And we got through our dang little broadcast without electrocuting anyone at the stadium.

I say it was a successful, fun night.

Can’t Please Everyone, Though …

One or two people listening to our first broadcast apparently didn’t read the description of our show very well before writing to complain. The following articulate-but-jerky note was in my inbox when I got back to the closet sized spare bedroom with dirty pink carpet. (I’m working on being able to see emails like this during the broadcast. Not there yet.)

It’s great that the games at Corpus Christi were picked up for broadcasting, but the quality of the “broadcast” was less than acceptable. You may have a real fun hip internet radio show, but you are terrible at keeping the listeners informed of the happenings on the field. You occasionally tell the audience after the play what might have happened. It can hardly be called broadcasting the game. I guess we won’t be hearing play by play when the any team plays at Corpus Christi. It is painful to listen to you. Parents and fans of players aroung the country would rather hear the actual account of the game rather than your vapid rambling. — Name withheld according to my dang email policy

Expanded Explanation of How This Dang Show Works

I thought I’ve made it clear what to expect from our little show. But I guess some people missed it. Here you go again. Please read this thoroughly before sending me any more mean emails that, frankly, just put me in a downer mood about people.

No, we are not going to give you a detailed, thorough account of every play of the dang Beach Dawg games. Sorry. That’s too hard to do well given typical minor league baseball resources (like roster sheets that arrive two minutes before the game and don’t list all of the players). And that’s why the radio stations that DO offer such broadcasts usually charge the teams big bucks — they know their ratings will tank when the games are on, so they charge the team to make up for the lost ad revenue.

I’m not charging the Beach Dawgs for this dang show. There’s no strings attached, in fact. I’ve not even asked for a t-shirt, internet links or stadium sign space (though the team has offered both). I certainly would not object if the team decided to fork out the bucks to hire a station to do a “real” play-by-play show. And if that meant the team would no longer allow me to do my little show from the station, well, that’s life.

So, I guess what I’m saying is … if you don’t like the way we do the show, come set up your own show for free like I do. There’s plenty of room in the press box, and I’d probably even link to you on my site. If you don’t like that idea, well, you can pay the team to sponsor a “real” play-by-play show. Last I checked, the price was at least $400 per game (and that was for a crappy station whose show may or may not be audible). To put that in perspective, the going rate for a stadium announcer is about $30/game — if that — and the players make less than $1000 for the whole season! So, if you’ve got the cash, and the gall, to pay more to the broadcasters than to the entire team, go for it. I’m sure the Beach Dawgs would be happy to sign you up as a sponsor.

But, unless you can hire someone like Milo Hamilton for $400/game, I doubt if you’ll get enough listeners to justify your investment. Typical “play-by-play” is boring. I’d rather hear Robby Mac interview the Beach Dolls about their favorite ice cream in the 6th inning. That’s much more interesting than the fifth foul ball of a 2-2 count to Josh Morgan with 2 outs and nobody on. I think most non-sports geeks will agree.

So that’s the philosophy behind our weird little show. If you don’t like it, my guess is that you’re probably not a very fun person to be around. Try taking life less seriously. Our stupid little show might not be the only thing you end up learning to love.