*UPDATED – Pasadena: Where’s the love, Miguel?

**UPDATED (8/21, 3:04 p.m.): Here’s an excerpt of another e-mail from today:

I am wondering why to date there has been absolutely no mention of the PHS Bulldog Team. Is there some sort of problem that I am unaware of? It has been abundantly clear to me now, that we may never see any ink in this paper … Please let me know if there is something that has been done by anyone that would create such a situation. Pasadena is a large city with a rich football history and Pasadena High School happens to be a part of that history. I am going to give you and this paper the benefit of the doubt, and see that maybe if we win, you will give us the space in the paper that the young men practicing and playing their behinds off, that just so happen to represent Pasadena High School, a school that is named after the city in which we live, a school that has the name of the paper for which you work for, their just due!!!!!

Here was my response in its entirety to the Pasadena parent:

Hello XXXXX,

Since I started working here three weeks ago I have written ONE
article in the paper but have written numerous blog entries. Below
are two links highlighting Pasadena and a Pasadena football player
who made my Top 5 wide receivers list.

Pasadena did nothing to me. I’m sorry if Bulldogs Nation feels
they’ve been snubbed but that’s not the case at all. There will be
plenty of stories down the road and I’m certain Pasadena will get
plenty of ink in the paper.

Hope this helped =)

Aaaaaaaannnd the Pasadena parent responded with this:

Thank you Miguel for your prompt response, this does make me feel as
though there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks Again

Like I said, it’s still early and it was just ONE story. Robledo thinks I’ve been one-sided, too, but I don’t buy it.


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*UPDATED (10:05 p.m.): Got some more e-mails sent to me but I liked this one from another Pasadena parent:

Good evening,
I came home this evening with the intent to send you an email asking if you had made it to Pasadena High School yet since the coverage so far in your blog has seemed a little one sided….but I guess I don’t have to since someone already beat me to it. Just wanted to let you know that you are always welcome in Bulldog country and by the way we’ve got lots of sports besides football.

Good stuff. Thanks! Believe me, I’ll be around.

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Apparently I ruffled some feathers by not MENTIONING Pasadena High in my story that ran in Tuesday’s paper.

I got a few e-mails and phone calls about it. Nothing unusual for a team to feel like they were snubbed, which was not the case at all here.

But it’s another thing for another one of our reporters who does NOT cover sports to get heat from parents, at a school board meeting, no less.

That’s what happened to our very own Caroline An who covers education among other things. Some parents and/or administrators gave her a hard time (kiddingly, perhaps) while on assignment covering Pasadena Unified’s school board meeting.

Here’s an excerpt of an e-mail I got Tuesday morning. I will not identify the e-mailer.

Good Morning Mr. Melendez,

I am writing this to express my dismay after reading the article that you wrote in today’s Star News titled “Muir Football Gets Down To Business”. In your article you name almost all of the schools in the area, you neglected to mention the one school that is named after the city in which you paper is named PASADENA. This situation is disturbing to me ..

…It was blatantly obvious last year and I see that I should prepare myself for ANOTHER YEAR OF UNBALANCED COVERAGE. Maybe I am being hasty in my assessment of this situation, because you may be planning on covering PHS in another article.

…With this being said I hope that this year I can open the Star News after the game days and see mention of ALL OF THE AREA SCHOOLS NOT MOST OF THE AREA SCHOOLS, no matter what their records may be. MUIR, popular as they are ARE NOT THE ONLY SCHOOL IN TOWN!!!!!

Look guys, that was the first story of the season. There will be plenty to come. Trust me when I say this: I plan to spread the love. I hear Maranatha and La Salle got a lot of ink last season.

I’m not going to concentrate on any particular school. I like to bounce around and give everyone their due credit.

And another thing, the picture above is a story about a ref in the UK who dished out red cards at soccer games to rowdy parents.

Now, I don’t have the power to throw out a rowdy parent but I do have this fabulous forum to denounce such behavior. Lets keep it clean and fun out there guys.

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