With Readers, the Sports Pages Can't Win

Local baseball lovers had hungered for a major league team ever since the Senators left town. They rejoiced at the arrival of the Nationals, but that meant a huge added expense at The Post. Baseball is more costly to cover than any other sport because there are so many games and the travel costs are so high.

To cover the Nationals, Sports gave up minor-league baseball. Do it with stringers, one reader begged. Stringers cost money. The Post also dropped horse-racing results.

Because of a tight budget and the Orioles' poor record, The Post stopped covering their road games this summer. That brought a lot of heartfelt complaints. Readers don't want wire stories; they want Post stories, especially when it's something historic such as the Aug. 22 game when the Texas Rangers set an American League record, scoring 30 runs to the Orioles' 3.

So why don't readers tap washingtonpost.com for scores? Many just don't want to go there, though that is the future of breaking sports news. Miailovich again: "Let me also say that the gratuitous brushoff to look at The Post's Web site . . . really angers me."

Lawrence Watthey of Frederick wrote: "If I can't get my sports information from the newspaper . . . [do] sports editors think I am going to go to The Post's Web site when I can bring up ESPN's just as easily? . . . What The Post can offer is the aesthetic feel of reading a newspaper with my morning coffee." Ralph Blessing of the District e-mailed to say: "Gee, if I wanted to rely on the Internet for my sports info, why would I bother subscribing to The Post in the first place?"

These problems will not be solved until there is an integration of The Post in print and on the Web that readers welcome.

Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.