Postie #4

Every day during the major league baseball season, the Washington Post, like most other daily U.S. newspapers, publishes the expected starting pitchers for that day's games. For each pitcher, the Post's listing includes name, handedness, won-lost record, ERA, and the team's record in games the pitcher started. All very nice, except that apparently no one at the Post ever actually looks at the (presumably computer-generated) final product. 

Dating back to last season at least, the listing has been garbled when there's a pitcher with embedded blanks in his name, as illustrated by this example from this morning's paper: 

CARDINALS AT ROYALS, 7:10

Wainwright (R)    8-3   2.32   9-3

Vargas, J J     8:10p    5-2  3.39

Sometimes the output is even more perplexing, with negative numbers floating around. Seems to obviously be a computer glitch, but you’d think that someone could fix it by now.

Another systematic problem occurs when a team is unsure of its likely pitcher and provides two possibilities, in which case the entire game is listed twice, once with each pitcher’s name. It really appears to be a double-header unless you’re paying close attention. 

This past Saturday, I was glancing through the listing and was surprised by the number of day games – although there are plenty of exceptions, teams usually play their Saturday games at night. I finally realized that the listing of games and pitchers was not for Saturday, but rather for Sunday. 

They also can’t seem to quite decide the order of the groupings. Typically National League games are listed first (with the Nats game first in that group), followed by American League games, with interleague games as the final group. When the Nats are playing an AL foe, however, sometimes they keep the standard order of the groups, meaning that the Nats game is buried near the bottom, and sometimes they move the interleague group up to the top. 

OK, these are not exactly life-and-death issues. But you’d think that some sentient being in the Post’s sports department would be on the ball enough to get all of this straightened out.

Postie #3

(from a 12/24 article on shootouts in the National Hockey League)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/capitals/nhl-shootout-isnt-going-anywhere-but-it-could-use-some-improvements/2013/12/24/6dbe3158-6c1c-11e3-b405-7e360f7e9fd2_story.html

“[The Caps’] overall record of 19-14-4 is buffeted by the eight shootout wins; two overtime wins and four post-regulation losses: one in overtime, three in shootouts.”

Merriam-Webster definition of “buffet”:
1 :  to strike sharply especially with the hand :  cuff
2 :  to strike repeatedly :  batter <the waves buffeted the shore>
3 :  to drive, force, move, or attack by or as if by repeated blows

This is a nice column by the always-perceptive John Feinstein, but somehow I don’t think this is the word he wanted here. Maybe "bolstered?"

Postie #2

(from a 12/11/2013 article on the Caps' 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/alex-ovechkin-scores-four-goals-as-capitals-rally-to-beat-tampa-bay-lightning-in-shootout/2013/12/10/2408e668-6210-11e3-94ad-004fefa61ee6_story.html

One of the paragraphs from my print version of the paper started out as follows:

"Ovechkin’s third four-goal game of his career and his 13th career hat trick."

There certainly does seem to be something missing from that sentence. To someone's credit, the online version was updated to add "It was" to the beginning.

Postie #1

(from a 12/9 article on the Georgetown-Colgate men’s basketball game)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/georgetown-hoyas-do-just-enough-to-escape-colgate-despite-shooting-woes/2013/12/07/1ff9b612-5ee4-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html

“But Colgate hung around, reeling off nine answered points to pull within five, 47-38.”

OK, I assume that they really meant “unanswered” points. But I am still baffled by the math.

Posties Intro

I’m a hopeless newspaper addict – have to have that sports section to read over breakfast, even when on vacation. Consequently, I’ve subscribed to the Washington Post for well over 30 years, pretty much since I moved to the area. While it still has much to offer, especially its coverage of national politics, the years and the Internet have not been kind to newspapers. Unfortunately there are times when the Post reminds me of an old, dear friend with a terminal illness, who is slowly declining without you being able to do anything about it. These entries memorialize some bloopers, blunders, and pet peeves. I don’t go out of my way to find these – they’re just there (mainly due to the apparent lack of attention to copy editing).