07-22-2008 HENDRICKS SMACKS US OVER UMPIRE STORY... The Kansas City Star's fine columnist Mike Hendricks bitch-slapped this site (7/23) over a story first reported here two days earlier regarding an elderly umpire being attacked during a baseball game involving 10-year-olds. (Story below.) Mike correctly pointed out errors in our story and used them as his focus as a reason why "you can't trust the blogosphere for accurate information." (Ironically, his story was on the Star's blog. Note: Technically this is a Web News Site and not a blog that allows anonymous posters.) We will not respond/debate each item. He correctly pointed out the umpire who was attacked was 79, not 81. And, yes, we did initially report (and later corrected) that former Chief Eddie Kennison (who was at the game) came to the aid of the umpire during the attack. It actually it was former Chief Mark Collins. We feel the story was not whether the report on this site was completely accurate. The real story was an umpire was attacked by a coach (and board member) at the baseball complex during a game involving children. Whether the umpire was 81, 79 or 12 doesn't really matter. Which Chiefs player got involved was interesting, but irrelevant. The real story was simply that no one should ever physically go after any umpire under any circumstances. Our focus was on the umpire and children, and that the story was not going to be reported anywhere else. We attempted to speak with the principals involved for clarification, but they refused. Only after the story appeared here did they speak with KMBZ's Darla Jaye and then their remarks showed up in the Star. That has given them sufficient time to massage their version and attempt to manage the situation. We sincerely apologize for any errors in our story and will gladly correct any that are brought to our attention. However, we will not apologize for bringing this story to light. No one else seemed willing to do it.
Mike Hendricks
Hendricks column: Getting the story straight on umpire incident Another reminder why it can be a bad idea to trust the blogosphere for reliable information. Because contrary to an �exclusive� report in a local blog, it wasn�t former Chiefs receiver Eddie Kennison who saved an 81-year-old umpire supervisor from being beaten up by an irate coach at a 3&2 baseball game last Friday. It was another former Chiefs player, Mark Collins, who stepped in, I learned when I checked into the story. And the umpire was 79, not 81, as the blog said. And the old guy didn�t have a bad hip. Nor was he curled up in a fetal position on the ground to protect himself from a fusillade of punches. Nor for that matter was the coach arrested for tugging on the official�s arm, which was the extent of the physical contact, according to Shawnee police. But otherwise, everything else in the blog report (further spread on radio broadcasts) was right on the money. Don�t you love the Internet? So much information. So much of it utter tripe. Not saying there aren�t some good, reliable blogs out there. Even the blogger in question gets it right occasionally. Link to rest of column: http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/13206
FEEDBACK (07-23-2008):
After reading his story it makes me think that you folks reported that President Lincoln was killed at Ford's Theater. Two days later he is criticizing you for misspelling "Theatre."
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