Hey, AP

Yeah ... totally a wasted column for 4 months of the season. And even then, it's a waste for all but a few teams in each league.

 

Yeah, I bet most papers complained, like we did, which is why they changed it back. We are in the process of changing systems, so to redo the box in our current system would have taken ages to do for what amounts to a month of work ... and who cares about OPS?

And the WCGB is ridiculous. I mean, I guess adding it now makes as much sense as adding it later and dropping something else, but it is odd to see.

 

We couldn't get the new box scores figured out. A couple of people spent a couple of days working on it, got the batting to work, but not the pitching. Then we got the word that AP changed its mind.
Then the first day, the WCGB shows up. Only thing we could do was delete that column. Useless info anyway for 5 months.

 

NBA and NHL capsules have been hit-and-miss in recent weeks.

 

Yes. If you replace "odd" with "awesome."

 

They've been doing that for a while now.

 

Oh.

I didn't know that, though not very much Connecticut copy has made my paper.

 

The Cubs-Astros game ended after the Indians-Rangers game. I have the Astros optional. Need I say more?

(And it's Aron's night off.)

 

I'm still quite bitter about this.

 

I greatly appreciated having to scramble over to Exchange because they sent me neither of the Frozen Four semifinals (this in a huge college hockey market).

I also loved how the Masters leader's score was first mentioned in the ninth paragraph and how most of paragraphs 2-8 were about a guy who is five shots behind (granted, that guy is named Woods, but still...)

Also, would it be too much trouble to 86 the practice of including non-North American hockey players' nations of origin in cutlines? Does anyone actually care if Josef Mdsfscdijic of the Lightning is from the Czech Republic or Slovakia?

 

Yes. You see, there are newspapers located outside the U.S., and having those countries in there makes it easier for those newspapers to locate photos of athletes with local origins.

Of all the AP things to bitch about, that's like No. 10,134 on the list.

Besides, if you're only doing minimal editing of AP cutlines, you're not doing a very good job.

 

I Should Coco, a copy editor from the United States, agrees that the nationalities aren't necessary in every single sports cutline AP sends.