Fan speak

Helping the little guys

Someone commented in Fan Speak that the University of Missouri and other large schools play smaller schools to improve their ranking. Do you really think the powers that be take those games into consideration when ranking the teams? If they did, Mizzou would not have kept its No. 6 ranking after its game against Southeast Missouri State. Don't criticize these larger schools. Nobody is holding a gun to the head of the smaller schools to make them play. The smaller school administrations love getting that money and the media exposure.

Softball coverage

I would just like to clarify that there are more than two softball teams in Southeast Missouri. It seems only two teams are getting all the media attention. On Wednesday, Delta and Kennett went 16 innings. Both teams' pitchers went all 16 innings. It was a great job by both. On Thursday, the headlines in the Southeast Missourian was about a pitcher that pitched a perfect game in four innings. This is a good job for a pitcher, but to take precedence over a 16-inning 1-0 game? I don't think so. It shouldn't matter where the teams are from or whether they are 10-0 or 0-10.

(It was a tough decision deciding between a perfect game and a 23-strikeout performance, but we chose the perfect game and put Delta's 16-inning game second. It could have gone either way.)