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The Greatest Game You Never Saw, or Got to Read About

National powerhouse house Texas beat Boston College 3-2 last night in the NCAA baseball tournament. The game went a little long-25 innings to be exact.

The game set a variety of NCAA records, and was, obviously, historic. There was the little matter of Texas' closer pitching 11 (!!!) innings of no-hit relief, or BC allowing 20 hits and only 3 runs without turning a double play. I can't imagine a more amazing win or horrible loss. I'm sorry to have missed it. I wonder if the Globe and Herald are, too.

Neither Boston newspaper saw fit to send a reporter to cover BC's first NCAA appearance in many years. BC is playing at Austin, Texas, which is far away from here. Times are tough, college sports have low priority, and college baseball lowest of all. It was a perfectly justifiable managerial decision by two excellent and hard-pressed sports editors.

Until last night, when all of a sudden it wasn't. That's the damnable thing about news, you can't ever be certain when it's going to break out. We now have a local sports team involved in a game about as chock-full of the human drama of athletic competition as can be imagined, and neither local newspaper had a reporter on hand to capture the BC side of things. Austin's Associated Press reporter is our city's information source of record for the unbelievable events of last night.

This is how newspapers are committing suicide through self-suffocation. Every sensible cutback kills. My account of events was compiled from a couple of Internet message boards for sports fans who followed the game on the NCAA Web site. I have the facts, but not the human beings behind the facts.

BC may not get home for another day or two. They play Army today at noon, CDT. That's going to be some game, too, one way or the other. I'd like to see the Eagle kids out there today, or failing that, I'd like to read about it from the point of view of a familiar byline. No can do. I'll have to wait until BC is back at the Heights, when I'm sure both papers will send reporters over to debrief the team on the astonishing game.

Swell. Journalism is supposed to be the first draft of history. When it becomes the second or third draft, it's a product of questionable utility. If the Globe and Herald can't be the journal of record for local sports teams in national championship competition, what exactly is their utility?

posted by Michael Gee @ 7:32 AM