It’s remarkable that the Times would send a reporter to cover a baseball story who knows nothing at all about baseball. It makes you wonder how much their other reporters know about politics and economics.
- - he officially disqualifies himself from ever commenting on politics and economics, because he shows that he is incapable of thinking for himself. SPORTS makes him wonder, not what he’s already read in the Times on politics and economics.
John obviously has some obsessions here, if he wants to take an article in the SPORTS section and use it to cast aspersions on the newspaper in general. He might have questioned the authority of the gardening columns, or the restaurant critics; I presume he did not because his mind is already made up on them.
I look forward to John commenting on these important matters.
I was going to suggest that the Times article wasn’t in the sports section but was more of a “general interest” or “feature” piece. But no, Michael Brick is a sportwriter for the Times and you do have to wonder about a professional sportwriter who doesn’t know that Bob Feller and Honus Wagner didn’t play for the Washington Senators. Those two names aren’t exactly trivia questions to anyone with any knowledge at all of baseball history.
John obviously has some obsessions here, if he wants to take an article in the SPORTS section and use it to cast aspersions on the newspaper in general
I think John’s point is the Times sent an unqualified s***head to a ballpark.
sample the times sports section for a week, and discover comparisons such as the failure of a ball club as metaphor for the collapse of democracy as good liberals see it.
you want politics, read the editorial section… or the sports.
John obviously has some obsessions here, if he wants to take an article in the SPORTS section and use it to cast aspersions on the newspaper in general.
It is called quality control. We keep hearing about “journalistic standards” over and over again from the established media, especially as they try to distinguish themselves from New Media. So it is fair to expect that journalistic standards will govern each story that a paper puts out, whether it is about Iraq or about a baseball game. So it is entirely fair to question the quality of other sections of the paper if basic knowledge is lacking in one section. As vlad says, Honus Wagner and Bob Feller are well within the wheelhouse of what a baseball writer should know.
sample the times sports section for a week, and discover comparisons such as the failure of a ball club as metaphor for the collapse of democracy as good liberals see it.
Actually, it was Phillip Kenicott’s article in the Washington Post that drew all the overblown metaphors about modern democracy. Kenicott has been widely mocked in D.C. for that article. Here’s the deal: we liberals won’t send pompous artsy writers to review new baseball stadiums, if you don’t send Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity to review Merce Cunningham’s ballet company.
sample the times sports section for a week, and discover comparisons such as the failure of a ball club as metaphor for the collapse of democracy as good liberals see it.
Actually, it was Phillip Kenicott’s article in the Washington Post that drew all the overblown metaphors about modern democracy. Kenicott has been widely mocked in D.C. for that article. Here’s the deal: we liberals won’t send pompous artsy writers to review new baseball stadiums, if you don’t send Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity to review Merce Cunningham’s ballet company.
Fair enough.
As our readers know, I’m not shy about criticizing the Times when I think it goes astray on matters of politics and economics. This one was more light-hearted, but at the same time, it was one of those “signs of the apocalypse” moments for me. It’s a sad thing, I think, if it’s no longer common knowledge that Wagner and Feller didn’t play for the Senators. Then again, maybe it just shows that what was universally known to kids in the 1950s and 1960s isn’t so universal among those who were kids in the 1980s--in other words, that I’m getting old!
I am not going to get into the rest of the discussion, but I do have an interesting piece of trivia about Honus Wagner. By the way, I agree that he may very well be the greatest shortstop to ever play in the majors. He also, if memory serves me correctly, has the distinction of having the most valuable baseball card ever. The last time one was auctioned, it went for close to a half a million dollars. It is his American Tobacco card. There are only about 4 or 5 known to exist. As I heard the story, American Tobacco originally issued his card as a bonus on a cigarette purchase without his permission and Wagner was very anti-tobacco. He forced American Tobacco to withdraw the cards and destroy them, but not before some made it into the hands of the public - thus their rarity and value. So if you ever find one in your attic in an old cedar chest ....!
Then again, maybe it just shows that what was universally known to kids in the 1950s and 1960s isn’t so universal among those who were kids in the 1980s
You often hear older athletes complain that the younger ones coming up don’t know and appreciate the history of the game - Charles Barkley, for example. Some of that, surely, is the perennial snark, “These kids today don’t know nothing,” which must go back to the early pharoahs.
But baseball really does have a long and rich history. Think about it: how many football, basketball, or hockey players can you name who were active before World War II?
The old Senators could have used Wagner (whose heroics at SS were accomplished with the old, tiny fielding glove) and Feller, but name any team who wouldn’t benefit from adding those two - including the 1927 Yankees.
Washington did have that other fastballer, Walter Johnson, who was long retired before measuring actual speed was possible (although several old-timers who saw him, Feller, Koufax, and Ryan pitch swore the Big Train was fastest, that’s anecdotal). On the worst team in the league for most of his career, he nonetheless led the league in wins six times, and strikeouts 12 times - even though batters could safely go up looking for the fastball, since Johnson seldom threw his curve . . . it just didn’t matter. He also holds the all-time record for shutouts with 110. Several times in his career he started both games of a double-header, and usually won both. Like Wagner, one of the original five HOF inductees.
I can see having a sportswriter who knows nothing of baseball history, BUT he should be kept from writing about it.
Maybe all I need to do to get a Sports Writer job with the NYT is tell the difference between a Bowling Ball and a Golf Ball? And somehow twist GWB’s minor interest ownership in the Rangers as a way of avoiding service in Vietnam. What? That wasn’t until the 80’s? Oh, well I’ll demonstrate my correction skills by posting said correction on the middle bottom column, of the 11th page in the Life & Styles section.
On the worst team in the league for most of his career, he nonetheless led the league in wins six times, and strikeouts 12 times - even though batters could safely go up looking for the fastball, since Johnson seldom threw his curve . . . it just didn’t matter. He also holds the all-time record for shutouts with 110. Several times in his career he started both games of a double-header, and usually won both. Like Wagner, one of the original five HOF inductees.
One of the most thrilling games in baseball history was the last game of the 1924 series. Walter Johnson came on in relief in the 9th inning and held the Giants hitless through the 12th, when Washington scored to win.
Last summer, when the Times raised its price to $1.25 I cancelled my subscription. I was willing to be misinformed for $1, but I considered $1.25 to be extortionate. The truth is I should have cancelled it many years ago. At one point, for example, I felt compelled to go to a book party because the Times reviewer had labeled the author, whom I knew somewhat and liked a lot, an anti-semite, which could not have been farther from the truth. I do not like book parties but I felt obligated to give him my support. I explained this to one of the other guests, who said his wife was in politics. Every morning when she read the paper she would get angry over their lack of knowledge. Any area you know something about you see what their deficiencies are. Happily, this is now becoming clear to a larger part of the population.
