Well, after my gripe session about the way the Corpus Christi media have covered the Beach Dawgs so far this season, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out some highlights of Beach Dawg media coverage so far.

First off, some of the people behind the scenes at the Beach Dawgs were a little nervous at my previous suggestion that the local television news crews were part of the problem. The TV guys have, by in large, given the team fair treatment they said, and they hoped that my complaints wouldn’t somehow be taken harshly by the local sports casters.

Upon reflection of those concerns, I have to say that the local TV guys have indeed treated the team relatively well. The Beach Dawgs have been the lead story on at least two or three local sportscasts so far, and at least one camera guy has showed up for almost every home game so far. During the recent road trip, the local TV guys even managed to get more information than I did about how the team was doing.

That’s decent coverage, I guess.

And, of course, the local ESPN sports radio affiliate — particularly morning show host Henry Hernandez — continue to talk plenty about the Beach Dawgs just about every day. (Henry has even given me a standing invitation to call in any time I want to talk about the team.)

And, of course, I neglected to mention in my last article that our friend (and regular guest on my broadcast) J.C. Reyes is giving the team some good mentions in the Nueces County Record-Star and the Alice Echo-News.

But that said, I still think more could be done by all media, particularly the daily grandaddy, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, who remains the only daily media outlet that has yet to send a representative to Fairgrounds Field for a game.

Game summaries are find and dandy. (And, you can even find plenty of those on the Caller-Times website.) But more comprehensive coverage of the team is in order: management changes, local players, a harried history, and connections to the rest of professional baseball are just some of the stories that have gone largely untold so far.

But none of those even are the REAL story that’s tragically missing from our local media this summer.

Of particular interest to EVERYONE in the Corpus Christi area should be the fact that the team has yet to attract crowds in large number. That should have already been the focus of a lead story (not just the lead sports story) at least two or three times this year. Here’s why:

When Corpus Christi voters let their city council help finance the arrival of the other local team, the decidedly more popular Corpus Christi Hooks, in Whataburger Field almost five years ago, they did so knowing that the county had already paid to build Fairgrounds Field for the Beach Dawgs predecessors, the Coastal Bend Aviators. That means, of course, that taxpayers basically committed themselves to supporting two minor league baseball teams.

But few people in town seem to recall making that commitment.

I just don’t think the average Corpus Christi resident adequately understand that, when he doesn’t show up to a Beach Dawgs games, he’s only hurting his own investment in Fairgrounds Field.

The Beach Dawg’s groundskeeper has told me that, in the weeks after the Aviators closed shop and before the Beach Dawgs announced their arrival, the stadium’s turf went completely to pot. Grass grew to almost a foot high, and the county’s caretakers(not trained in the fine art of maintaining a professional baseball field) had made some mistakes that could have proven costly had they not been caught in time.

And I can testify personally that the equipment in the press box was largely inoperable when the Beach Dawgs arrived. (Much of it is still pieced together with stuff that people like me have temporarily donated to the team.)

That is potentially the future of Fairgrounds Field if the Beach Dawgs don’t come back after their one year agreement to play at the stadium. (And, while I do NOT speak one bit for the team, who could blame them for not signing on again if crowds stay around 250 per night for the rest of the year.)

The county’s once-state-of-the-art stadium will very likely be left to rot away unused.

It ain’t a pretty picture.

But ugly as it is, it’s the picture that our local media need to be painting more clearly and more often.

And, until that story becomes part of the Corpus Christi’s mainstream watercooler talk, I’ll continue to say that the media — all local media, even the well-intentioned TV and radio guys — need to do a better job of covering the Beach Dawg’s 2008 season.

The local media simply needs to do its job and remind the public of its own commitment to keep two professional baseball teams alive and healthy in the area. A local reporter would do well to head out to a Beach Dawg game and roam the stands, visiting with the diehards, some of whom still wear Aviators gear. That reporter would surely find at least a handful of local taxpayers who have been waiting to talk publicly for years. They will be excited to say that they are there, mostly, because they never thought it was a smart idea to woo The Hooks in the first place.

Now that’s a dang story.

Come on, Corpus Christi media, get out to Fairgrounds Field and do your dang jobs!