There’s an old joke among grizzled sports writers that once your last local team is knocked out of the playoffs, it’s time to pop champagne and celebrate.

It’s not meant as a knock against any of the teams or players. It’s simply a recognition that the season is over and, with it, a long nine-month grind. Vacations can finally be taken and we can reset mentally and physically to prepare to do it all again.

I’ve never really understood that mindset, though. Especially in a small town like Vicksburg.
From a workflow standpoint, the longer the season goes the better in my opinion. Mid-May through late July is a dead zone when high school coverage is your bread and butter.

While it’s nice to not work late covering games every night, the stress of finding something interesting to put in the paper and on the website every day is still there. The job gets harder, not easier, in that stretch. If we can have a high school baseball or softball team make a deep playoff run like Warren Central did in 2024, or college baseball teams reach the super regionals and College World Series, that fills the paper without having to dig too deep for ideas.

The other reason I’ve never understood it, is that it just seems wrong to root against your local teams.
As sports writers it’s our job to write a story whether the teams we cover win or lose. We have to work with what they give us. But it sure is a lot more fun when they win.

Everyone is smiling, happier, more talkative. They’re making memories and we’re helping preserve those great moments forever. It always puts a smile on my face when, 10 or 20 years after it happened, someone mentions a picture we took or a story we wrote as a good memory. It’s a tiny bit of validation that what we do matters in a business where it’s sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees.

These players and coaches are also our friends and neighbors. They are people we’ve known and worked with for years, and will know and work with for years to come. I want to see them succeed at the highest levels and fulfill their dreams.

We started last week with five baseball and two softball teams in the playoffs, and several might be eliminated by the end of this weekend.

Just getting this far is an accomplishment for some, but losing in the first round will be a huge disappointment for others. It’s a cruel fact that not every team can win its last game this time of year. It’s not something I’ll ever root for, though. That seems just as cruel.

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com