Is this beat writer trying too hard?

About the "throw a bullpen" line... That stuff really bothers me.

I work for a "insider" publication that covers a single sport, and even with our audience I stress to our writers to make sure the jargon isn't over the top. If there's any question a reader may not understand, I change the wording.

 

Refers to goal as "genos" also. No idea. Maybe he got it from Buccigross.

 

My wife shakes her head if she happens to be watching hockey with Huggy Jr and myself - two guys who work in the business, one at the league level one at the junior team level - and we go on about about genos, apples, buckeys, cellies, tillies, dusters, donkeys, jibs, suis etc.....whole different language ...

As for Davidi, this inside baseball crap is ridiculous (been following baseball forever and have never heard the term "biscuit change") and I find the Jays' "insiders" rarely break anything, they just tweet the same stuff Gibbons says when he meets the media that the rest of the beat reporters do. Gotta be tough when the outlet you work for also owns the team.

 

Yes, the writer is trying way too hard. I googled "baseball" and "biscuit change" and Shi's article was the only thing the came up. That should tell you all you need to know. A decent editor should have caught this, researched the term and flagged it. Also, saying in the in opening graf that two home runs came via "middle-middle offerings" doesn't provide any additional clarity to the reader, in my opinion. It is written to make the writer look smarter than the audience rather than to inform the audience.

 

Every beat from time immemorial has probably had one guy who ask questions totally designed to try to convince others he knows more about the sport than everyone else in the room. For those covering the Miami Dolphins and FSU back in the day, that was Craig Barnes.

 

I think this reflects worse on his editors that let this crap get through than it does him for writing it.

 

Add dinger to the list.

 

No doubt punctuated by The Colonel's signature phrase (attempting to do a written impression): "Ah'll tell yew whut."

 

I mean, it's 2017 - there's no guarantee he has editors.

 

If someone puts "dinger" into professional copy, they deserve to be smacked on the nose with a newspaper like a dog.

 

What timing. I read my first Davidi story about a week ago, on a kid in the Jays organization from my hometown. It was well reported and written, but yes, it's sprinkled with jargon. As has been pointed out a time or two already, he's either getting crappy editing or no editing at all. Maybe he missed class the day "write for the first-time reader" was taught. And if you want to go there, at least explain the jargon. I guess you could say he doesn't write "to contact."

 

Some terms have entered mainstream discussion over the last 20 years, like walk-off. Others haven't.