Clueless writing about our sport

[gm]

Re: Clueless writing about our sport

The classic mainstream media focus on the FAILURE to set a record BS. I've never seen a write-up on a good FB or Basketball game where the lack of a record setting performance was part of the headline.

You must have missed the NBA finals headline -- "James Again Fails to Break Chamberlain's Single Game Scoring Record, Heat Lose to Spurs."

:lol:

[cladthin]

Re: Clueless writing about our sport

The classic mainstream media focus on the FAILURE to set a record BS. I've never seen a write-up on a good FB or Basketball game where the lack of a record setting performance was part of the headline.

You must have missed the NBA finals headline -- "James Again Fails to Break Chamberlain's Single Game Scoring Record, Heat Lose to Spurs."

:lol:

You are right I did miss it along with everyone else.

[Alan Shank]

Re: Clueless writing about our sport

In yesterday's Sacramento Bee, which is covering the meet extensively for obvious reasons, Joe Davidson, who usually writes a column about local athletes, wrote this:

"...Kim Conley overcame Jordan Hasay on the back stretch..."

I e-mailed him asking whether he actually watched the race, since Conley "overcame" Hasay on the home stretch, and he said he was right at the finish line. I replied asking whether he knew the difference between the backstretch and the homestretch. After a couple more exchanges, he finally wrote:

"And you're right - home stretch is more accurate than back stretch,
come to think of it."

More accurate?

Well, not to be totally negative, I complemented the paper on, not the quality, but the FACT of the coverage, since the Bee normally provides almost zero coverage of athletics. He claimed that "we push for all we can get", presumably meaning himself and the other guy (whose name, of course, I can't remember) who sometimes writes about T&F.

So today, no obvious factual errors, but check out this sentence, re Mike Rodgers' 100-meter win:

"Forever a crowd-pleasing event, Rodgers won his second outdoor title since 2009 in clocking a 10.09-second effort, all the more impressive given he bore into a headwind of 1.7 meters per second."

This is one of the most horrible examples I've ever seen of a "dangling modifier", since the intended referent, "the 100 meters", does not even appear in the sentence. I weep for our language.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA

[Marlow]

Re: Clueless writing about our sport

I weep for our language.

Weep not.
As an AP English Language teacher and exam grader, I can tell you it's not the language that's in danger; it will soldier on just fine. It's the onset of 'short-hand' in-line messaging that's changing the way we communicate, for better or worse.
It looks like we're reverting to the 1500s where we can spell and follow whatever grammar conventions we wish. Meanwhile Official-Speak, how government and big businesses use language, gets more stultified.
I send my students out into the world armed with all the 'proper' knowledge of usage, but as I tell them, if you need to build credibility with whomever you are communicating, follow the rules, otherwise use the language as YOU wish - it's not set in stone.

[Alan Shank]

Re: Clueless writing about our sport

I weep for our language.

Weep not.
As an AP English Language teacher and exam grader, I can tell you it's not the language that's in danger; it will soldier on just fine.

Not if people whose job it is to write butcher it like that. We are losing distinctions of meaning right and left.

It's the onset of 'short-hand' in-line messaging that's changing the way we communicate, for better or worse.

That was not in-line messaging, nor was it a headline.

Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA

[berkeley]

Re: Clueless writing about our sport

"Forever a crowd-pleasing event, Rodgers won his second outdoor title since 2009 in clocking a 10.09-second effort, all the more impressive given he bore into a headwind of 1.7 meters per second."

Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA

I think he plagiarized this from here: http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/. If he didn't, he should enter it.

[tandfman]

There's a story currently linked on the front page that says, both in the headline and in the text below it, that Grant Fisher is the only Michigander on Team USA at the World Juniors. It's from the website of a group of Michigan papers, so you'd think they'd know. Unfortunately, they're clueless. There are two others from Michigan on our team, Audrey Belf and Kendall Baisden. This was pointed out in comments at the bottom of the story on the website.

http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/article/-5736669056658638935/usa-track-field-picks-grand-blancs-grant-fisher-as-only-michigander-for-iaaf-world-junior-championships/

[Atticus]

I think he plagiarized this from here: http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/. If he didn't, he should enter it.

Oh, ya gotta LOVE the 2013 winner!

She strutted into my office wearing a dress that clung to her like Saran Wrap to a sloppily butchered pork knuckle, bone and sinew jutting and lurching asymmetrically beneath its folds, the tightness exaggerating the granularity of the suet and causing what little palatable meat there was to sweat, its transparency the thief of imagination.

[Jnathletics]

There's a story currently linked on the front page that says, both in the headline and in the text below it, that Grant Fisher is the only Michigander on Team USA at the World Juniors. It's from the website of a group of Michigan papers, so you'd think they'd know. Unfortunately, they're clueless. ....
[/url]

I'm from Michigan and I will never read the mlive. You want two see how clueless they are about Track and Field? Look at the stats page.

http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/boystrackandfield/stats/

Every year its the same thing. Times are WR or impossible.
ie. 300H boys two are listed under 17 seconds
800 in 42.70
4X100 and 4X4 team listed in 0.00
and my favorite both the 3200m and 3200m relay have a team or individual listed in 3:45!!!!

Dang we are fast in Michigan. ;-)

Just looked at it a second time and noticed the 177' SP, 22' PV, 18' HJ and 36' LJ, so we are great in the field events also!?!?

[berkeley]

Apparently Rudisha broke 1:40 in London:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/other-sports/rudishas-long-road-to-olympic-glory-with-holy-coach-275555.html

[Atticus]

Apparently Rudisha broke 1:40 in London:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/o...ch-275555.html

Nice. I hope the IAAF recognizes this!

And it is there for the joyful realisation of both men’s dreams at London 2012, where Rudisha ran the first sub-100 second 800m.

[dupontred]

Back to the whole fact-checking thing, there's an article on a Linda Lanker, mentor for the US Team at the World Juniors. Sounds like a wonderful woman, but also said she won national championships in the 100H and 400H for Arizona State. And she's 58. So would have won in the mid-late 70s, so AIAW titles, I guess. Don't know her maiden name, but certainly no Linda won any national titles. There was one runner-up in the 400H for Arizona State. Not to take away from her accomplishments, but why do outlets even run these stories without fact checking?

[gh]

There's a story currently linked on the front page that says, both in the headline and in the text below it, that Grant Fisher is the only Michigander on Team USA at the World Juniors. It's from the website of a group of Michigan papers, so you'd think they'd know. Unfortunately, they're clueless. There are two others from Michigan on our team, Audrey Belf and Kendall Baisden. This was pointed out in comments at the bottom of the story on the website.


http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/ne...championships/

I don't think Belf made the team. No Q, right?

[gh]

Back to the whole fact-checking thing, there's an article on a Linda Lanker, mentor for the US Team at the World Juniors. Sounds like a wonderful woman, but also said she won national championships in the 100H and 400H for Arizona State. And she's 58. So would have won in the mid-late 70s, so AIAW titles, I guess. Don't know her maiden name, but certainly no Linda won any national titles. There was one runner-up in the 400H for Arizona State. Not to take away from her accomplishments, but why do outlets even run these stories without fact checking?

if you look in our archive, you'll find the Pfeifer/Hubbard history of the collegiate women's champs, 1969-83.

[tandfman]

I don't think Belf made the team. No Q, right?

You're right, which means my post was another bit of clueless writing. But I probably got that from yet another clueless article somewhere. I wouldn't have made that up. [no idea how to do the red-faced smiley]