Thorough, fair youth sports coverage is a big deal
JERRY AULDS

Atta-boy girl, you've come a long way baby!

Eons ago, Leon Hale, my favorite columnist, wandered into KULP radio hankering for some conversation about our noon sportscast that raved about El Campo Senior League Girls All-Star softball teams stirring victory in the sectional playoffs up in Houston.

Leon declared himself both intrigued and pleased that a girl's softball team led the sportscast while everything else, including the Astros, played second fiddle.

I hastened to explain that several fans called, uptight and miffed that we wasted time on the Astros, and that we had recently learned a valuable lesson about covering girl's sports, to wit: The mommas, daddies, grandparents, uncles, aunts and older cousins of the young ladies who compete in sports demand and expect equal time, plus!

And expect swift and sure retribution for anything less, as in "You're not carrying the girls playoff game tonight." "Whatta you think about me and my friends switching our advertising to the Wharton radio station? The said they would just love to carry the game!"

I told Leon that I now understood why certain kinds of confrontations are called "Come to Jesus" meetings. Leon said he understood. "I had a little girl who loved to run, jump and sweat."

The column Leon penned later treated the subject with wry humor and understanding and solidified his position as my favorite columnist.

I bring it up because I was thumbing through some old papers and reread that column. Leon has not retired but has cut back on the number of columns he writes, but he is still with us and that is all to the good. Anybody who calls his readers "The Customers" and remembers a little girl who loved to "run, jump and sweat" needs to keep servicing his customers.

By the way, KULP brought all the games for the El Campo Boys Junior League World Series Championship and the same a few years earlier when the Senior League girls finished third in the world.

Equal time. That's how you play ball when its run, jump and sweat time.