Is it "win over" or "win against"?

Another one that drives me up the wall is time, date, place. It's a pretty simple rule to follow, yet no one seems to do it.

 

Yup. I had to fix that in local copy yesterday.

 

I heard a coach say, "I don't think we can outscore them, so our only chance to win is to play good defense."

By definition, if the team can't outscore the other, it has no chance to win.

Do you run that quote? It's improper use of "outscore," by the dictionary, but people allow it into copy, even outside of quotes.

 

No, I wouldn't run that quote, at least not the first part.

 

Didn't Haden Frye of Iowa more or less say that about two decades ago?

If it's in quotes, it's fair game.

 

Every AP cutline. Seems simple enough.

 

That's true. Always move the day in AP cutlines.

 

OK, let's get really anal here. I once worked with a higher up who insisted on "victory" instead of "win."

"Win is a verb, not a noun," he would say.

So we told him we would have to change the standings to V and L. Then he said no because the W stood for "Game won" and the L stood for "Games lost." So then we said we would put GW and GL on the standings. He didn't like that either, but in copy it has to be "victory."

 

I used to change all "overs" to "against" because of the spatial relation reason. I also dislike "Johnny Heisman threw for over 300 yards for the fourth game in a row," because it should be "more than." A few of the times I changed it the slot switched it back to "over," so I've lightened up on my dislike, though it's still a pet peeve.

 

The 'more than' 300 isn't a pet peeve. That's the right usage.

Win 'over' I think is a pet peeve. Not saying anyone's wrong for feeling that way...also not saying anyone's wrong for using 'over' like that.

 

don't even get me started on "last," either, mister ... or the axe will fall.

 

"Win" is a verb and a noun, depends on how you use it. As such, "win" or "victory" would be acceptable.