Why sports columnists need strong editors

Wabberjocky · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2007 12:31 pm

Art Thiel of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is among those who sometimes need to be saved from themselves:

Quote:

One might argue that these Mariners have more mood swings than a marriage between Britney Spears and Yosemite Sam. But the fact is that streakiness in baseball is much more a function of the modesty of talent.

I'm still trying to figure out what that means.

Docsdoctor · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2007 1:20 pm

It means Mr Thiel believes that:

* Britney Spears and Yosemite Sam are very mercurial, possibly bipolar.

* His readers would be unable to follow his longer explanation of just how inconsistent the Mariners are, or possibly he's tired of writing about it.

* In any case, throwing out some popular references, with the implication that they embody a thesis he does not support, is a good way to present that thesis.

* Inconsistent teams have mediocre talent.

Wabberjocky · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2007 4:07 pm

Earth-shattering revelations, one and all.

onceahack · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2007 4:24 pm

I agree with Docsdoctor that he's probably trying to say all that, but he should also be careful to use words that have the meaning he is trying to convey. From Webster's Ninth New Collegiate:

modesty

n

1 :

2 :

If he must use a fancy word, he could say paucity, but there's hardly a scarcity of simpler ways to say dearth.

Docsdoctor · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2007 7:41 pm

To be clear, I don't mean Thiel is trying to say those things, but that they are the meanings of what he wrote. For instance, I don't believe he was trying to say, "I'm tired of writing about how inconsistent the Mariners are," but I do think that's probably why he dragged Britney and Sam into it.

The only part of the excerpt that has any actual meaning is the assertion that streaky teams lack talent. I don't think he's right about that, but the "mood swings" stuff is kind of a straw man in the first place. Was someone claiming that the team lost games because of their emotional state? If so, he didn't tell us about it.

Wabberjocky · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2007 8:30 pm

In any case, at some point whoever was reading the story on the sports desk needed to look up and say: "Yo, Art ... WTF????"

But as with Mitch Albom, I'm guessing this doesn't happen because he's "Art Thiel, branded Seattle sports celebrity."

onceahack · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2007 9:17 pm

Yeah, you would think the "branding" would be all the more reason for someone to point out how sloppy a piece it is. The real shame is the number of kids who read this sort of drivel and aspire to write that way themselves. After all, if he has his face by the column, that must be great writing, right?

Wabberjocky · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2007 9:27 pm

Thiel wrote a book about the Mariners a few years back called "Out Of Left Field." His own paper reviewed it as "a triumph of story over storytelling."

Testy Copy Editors

Why sports columnists need strong editors

Who is online

What They're Saying

Useful Links