Globe story on Saturday at U.S. Open

I was looking through national coverage of the U.S. Open this morning and came across this piece written by Jim McCabe in the Boston Globe. It struck me as odd - not necessarily bad, but more like something you'd see in a 1940s-era newspaper with the more conversational, to-the-reader type of tone.

Full link is here: http://www.boston.com/sports/golf/articles/2007/06/17/woods_makes_move/, but I will highlight the first five grafs, which seem to emphasize the point:

I don't know the guy, know anything about him, nor have I read any of his golf coverage before, so I don't know if he always writes so leisurely. Like I said, I don't think it's good or bad, but rather just a bit ... different. Thoughts?

 

I like it. It has a breezy feel to it and all the vital gamer-type stuff -- "Woods shot a stellar 1-under-par 69" or "birdies at the par-4 10th, par-5 12th, and par-3 13th to seize a two-shot lead" -- is there, but it's presented in a subtle way that doesn't come across as a barrage of play-by-play. The rest of it makes one of the biggest tournaments of the year accessible to people who will never play Oakmont.

 

I like it... it's something different. I'm not sure I'd want to read that type of "gamer" every day of the week, but, to me, its a great change of pace.

 

Agree with CB, different can sometimes be good. Sometimes when you read a gamer, you can almost guess what's coming and I bet most readers can too. Not sure anyone knew what to expect next in this one. Not that I want to read this every week, but it's a bit refreshingly different. The end is pretty different also. I'd been taught in school not to ask questions or make readers think. But he uses a question to set up his last graph and it works. Nice ending.

 

Jim McCabe is the most underrated writer at the Globe.

 

And one of the best golf beat writers at any paper in the country. His command of all elements of the New England golf scene is comprehensive; his writing and presenting those facts to you is thorough and interesting.

 

Whenever I read that kind of chatty style, I think of Al "Bear" Ryan, who writes baseball for the Toronto Star. His gamers are very conversational, almost loose.

I haven't seen the Star in a while, but back then Bear platooned with a couple of other guys, so it never got old. Everytime I read one of his gamers, I thought how refreshing it was.

I mean, if you're going to write stuff that reads like wire copy, you might as well use wire copy.

 

Very, very true.