Of all things to motivate me to figure out how to use this blogger account again, I didn't think it would be Boston Globe sports coverage. But I was very distressed to read the discussion of Peter May's horrid Paul Pierce contract article. I admit that I have lately fallen into the casual fan category for the Celts, and thus was not aware of the contract specifics; I was fooled by May's poor reporting, wondering if the new contract was necessary and valuable. Globe sports writing is a significant part of the discourse of the Boston (and even national) sports scenes, and the general tendency of readers is not necessarily to passively accept what media show, but to think within the categories that media present (thank you, Professor William Gamson of Boston College). However untruthful, the discourse he creates can wind its way into the talk of other fans and become part of how they perceive the situation.
Has anyone seen any significant follow-up from May (apology/clarification), or from the Globe? A mistake of this magnitude for a reporter is grounds for suspension or firing.
On a completely different topic, I hope everyone was watching Big Papi come through again last night. Out in the West, it happened during the tail end of dinner. I had left the game on after cooking, and was chatting with my girlfriend when I heard the crowd start to get excited when the first two men reached base. I jumped up to watch the end, and of course celebrated rambunctiously after the homer. I think I have some relationship repair-work to do now...but worth it for Big Papi!
Chris
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Elsewhere in the newspaper business, papers run corrections when their reporters make mistakes. Off the top of my head, I can't recall that the Globe's sports pages have ever done this -- although, to be fair, lately I am far more likely to read the electronic version than the print, so maybe I'm just not looking in the right place.
The ninth inning was crazy last night. Cora reached first, and the announcers pointed out that barring a double play, that meant Ortiz would come to bat. Loretta's at-bat with no outs and two on felt like a prelude rather than an opportunity -- a double would have tied the game, but whatever. The sense that Something Big was ordained was just, well, crazy.
There are times I still can't believe that the Twins cut Ortiz outright, because they didn't think he'd be able to hit well enough to play at the major league level; or that we signed him to be Jeremy Giambi's backup at first base.
Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Or to have a payroll big enough that you can afford to drop a few hundred thousand dollars on a flyer, in case it works out. [*cough*] Wily Mo Pena [/*cough*]
How about that home run Pena hit last night? I think it landed in Quebec.
I'd have thought you'd be wanting to remind us of Bronson 'All Star' Arroyo's 150+ innings pitched and 3.2 ERA
:-)
But David Wells is back of the DL, and so all is sweetness and light. What would we do right now with Bronson Arroyo?
Indeed
On the Globe: I didn't see that they ever published a correction, although I could easily have missed something.
The next development that I saw was the Globe's decision to wheel out Shira Springer several days later with a thoughtful, decent article that explained everything May got wrong without acknowledging his Sunday notes column. The ultimate punctuation at the end of this mini-drama, however, came at the end of the week when Bulpett or Murphy (I can't remember which now) had a long piece in the Herald in which it was revealed that Pierce resigned with the Celtics against the repeated advice of his agent, who'd apparently been pushing him for six months to opt out after this season and play the market for a bigger contract.
I've mentioned it before, but there's really no comparison between the Globe and Herald sports pages these days. The Globe is overwhelmingly lousy, while the Herald is decent. On the verge of bankruptcy, but decent.
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