worst leads you have seen

where is tripp?

 

this one ran in our rag today:

With bitter cold and early snow hitting the Podunk Sports Center on Saturday, the Podunk Spring Classic felt more like the Podunk Winter Classic.

 

I like to have fun with sports ledes. I still write plenty of hard news stories, so sports gives me a chance to be more creative.

Even so, if a kid scores the game winning goal with 1:07 left after his team trailed most of the game, guess what I'm leading with? I was going to come up with some kind of cheesy "it turned into a good week to be a Manning" lede since a kid on the other team was named Manning.

If the game I'm covering ends dramatically, there's really no other way to write your lede.

 

The sad thing about that lede is it has potential. You could make a quick, less-wordy joke about renaming it the winter classic and get the point across and have a solid lede. It just takes a little more work.

 

Just read this one...

They wanted it and they fought for it, but it didn't happen Friday night for the Podunk high lady Podunks.


As opposed to the other team, who didn't want it and didn't fight for it.

 

Up 51-36 the Chicago Bulls had Sam Cassell and the Celtics in a pickle, and not one of the sweet Gherkins either- one of the big vinegary ones Jim Boylan buys at the fair.

 

Wanted to find out who won between Samprus and Fed. in an exhibition match. Just wait until you see how long into the AP story it took to find out that bit of info......

"There were moments when, if you squinted a bit, you would have sworn that was the Pete Sampras of old, rather than an old Pete Sampras, the way he’d arch his back before swatting a serve that managed to clip a line and fly past Roger Federer for one of 13 aces.

There were moments when, if you listened to the whip of the racket through the air, you would have been absolutely sure Federer was giving it his all, hoping to make sure he wouldn’t lose to Sampras on this night, in this arena, before this crowd.

And then there were moments Monday when, as you watched Sampras throw his racket to the ground in mock disgust or saw Federer raise an index finger to celebrate four aces in a single game, it didn’t really matter whether this match counted or not.

Federer is closing in on the retired Sampras’ career record of 14 Grand Slam singles championships, a mark that exists only in black in white, written in a record book. Yet for nearly 2 1/2 hours, before an appreciative and occasionally raucous gathering of 19,690 at Madison Square Garden, these two living, breathing greats of their game shared a court, Federer in his ultra-modern all-black getup and Sampras in his old-school all-white outfit.

“It was a great night for tennis,” Sampras said.

Federer flicked his fancy strokes from all angles, just the way he does on the sport’s grandest stages these days. Sampras smacked big forehands and bigger aces, just the way he did back in his day.

Pistol Pete vs. The Federer Express.

The Past vs. The Present.

“Good vs. Evil,” as Sampras said with a snicker earlier in the day.

Current No. 1 Federer beat former No. 1 Sampras 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6) in an encounter that certainly doesn’t settle the “Who is better?” debate, given that one participant is 26 and the other is 36, nothing more than bragging rights was on the line, and, frankly, who can truly know how hard each was really trying? It did, however, raise tennis’ profile, make both men some money — $1 million for Federer, less for Sampras—and, well, allow people to say they saw Sampras, the best of his generation, face Federer, the best of his."
=====


Really? Are you kidding me?

 

I can't remember the exact phrasing of the second part of this lede, but it actually made it as far as the copy desk before someone red-flagged it:

Mary Smith's heart was a lonely hunter, searching for life after she was bludgeoned to death two years ago by her estranged husband.

It was on a transplant story. And after a painfully long argument, it was rewritten.

 

About two pages into this I was thinking exactly the same thing - hell, that's when I hit reply and started typing. When it comes to gamers, some games just have nothing that ever stands out about them, and you still have to write a story on deadline. Get too far out there and you'll go over everyone's heads. You're not writing a novel.

This thread is probably better viewed as a guide of things you should avoid, at least doing too much (ex. I've done the "Coach wanted this so they got that" when I couldn't think of anything better, because it was exactly like 100 other high school softball games I saw, but maybe I last used that for the 63rd uneventful high school softball game in that sequence)

 

"As the rain steadily fell on the Podunk High field, it mimicked the tears falling from the eyes of the Dicksmack faithful, who watched the careers of seven remarkable seniors fall sloppily to an end Friday night ..."

Actually, I just made that one up.

 

Fucking senior stories.

 

Here are three I read every year and have read every year for almost twenty years and if I read one of them again I think my head will explode:

April is the cruelest month (or any version of same)

This is the story of ...

Welcome to ...