"Joyful" fan is back

At least he included his name, which I removed from this. He also included my boss, the sports editor, among the recipients.
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To the Prattville Advertiser,

I just want to thank you for being such a great hometown paper and putting a Prattville story at the top of your sports page. I would hate to imagine having to read a Montgomery paper and having the top story about the Montgomery Biscuits SWEEPING, yes SWEEPING, a series on THE ROAD and taking sole possession of FIRST PLACE in the Southern Division. Thank god we have the Prattville Advertiser putting that story on page two and reporting on own our hometown at the top of page one. I just dread the first Biscuit loss when, as usual, that story will be the lead sports story taking Prattville's rightly spot on the front page.

You truly have the journalistic wisdom to realize that Prattville deserves the lead story because they are defending their title this season. Well, so are the Biscuits, but that's different. You fully understand that a professional baseball team in the capital city of the state of Alabama, affiliated with a major league organization is completely secondary to news about a HIGH SCHOOL story in Prattville. Thanks so much once again for your savvy reporting and editing. Keep up the good work. Lord forbid the Biscuits making the playoffs and possibly taking up space on page one. Oh I'm sorry, for a second there I thought I was writing to a MONTGOMERY newspaper. I know such a crazy thought of the Biscuits having priority on a sports story would never happen in the Prattville Advertiser.

By the way, Stacy, my name happens to be ***, DUH!!!!! And if it's your policy to have a last name, that would be ********. Happy now, Dilbert?


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my response ...

First, thanks for putting your name. That means you warrant a response.

Second, how immature are you to not only butcher my name, but too also resort to name calling? Great way to get your point across in a mature manner.

Third, Prattville is in our coverage area. Get over your apparent jealousy of that area.

Fourth, layout decisions -- I'll assume you know what I mean since you feel you're an expert at recognizing "savvy reporting and editing" -- are done before any night game starts. If we had the ability to predict, as you called it, that the Biscuits' game last weekend would be "perhaps their best game of the season," I would use that talent in something besides journalism. It is possible to change those layout decisions late but -- as you probably know -- they are rare because doing so takes time and deadlines don't change. If the Biscuits (or the other team) had a historic feat in the neighborhood of a no-hitter, we would consider changing the layout

Fifth, the Biscuits' win last weekend was one win among 140 games. The Houser situation, however unfortunate, had an effect that Friday night and -- because the bullpen was depleted more from that -- again on Saturday. It has an effect for the rest of the season on the team and, unfortunately again, affects Houser into next year. For you to not recognize that the Houser story was bigger than one game kind of hurts your credibility to recognize "savvy reporting and editing."

I look forward to your next name-calling, capital letter-filled missive. They do make for good posts on my blog.

Thanks,
-A. StAAAAAAcy "Dilbert" Long