1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

"Losing pitcher"

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Smallpotatoes, May 3, 2009.

  1. BillySixty

    BillySixty Member

    That's what I mean. I don't use "losing effort" or word the sentence in that manner. But I see that all the time in roundups, probably because the scoretaker or whomever is writing it is tired of losing the phrase "was the losing pitcher." That's why I think there needs to be some sensitivity.
     
  2. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    "Suzie Cantpitch (0-34,354)  gave up 10 hits and six runs in the top of the first inning."

    Saves the "losing pitcher" phrase and spells out the losing effort without bludgeoning people with detail.

    Also gets complaints:

    "Did you have to spell that out like that?"
    "Yes, ma'am. The reader is owed a fair explanation of why the team lost."
    "You hurt her feelings writing that!"
    "Actually, giving up the 10 hits and six runs in the top of the first hurt her feelings a lot worse. In fact, she told me that when I talked to her after the game."
    "Well, you should never have asked her about that!"
    "Asked her? Ma'am, she walked up to me after the game after I interviewed her coach and said, 'I stunk, I let my team down and I want to apologize to my teammates for that.'"
    "«speechless»"

    At one point in my life, I was surprised at how many sports parents are WAGs. I got over it.
     
  3. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    The best answer. No matter how badly you want to, sp, you are never going to satisfy everyone. And you've got to stop beating yourself up because you can't.
     
  4. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    I don't think I had a choice. The e-mail was not sent directly to me. It was forwarded to me by the news editor. While the news editor is not my supervisor, many readers seem to think she is. Therefore, I had to deal with it. Otherwise, the reader probably would have gone above the news editor to my real supervisor.
     
  5. i kind of disagree

    i think, considering how valuable our few remaining readers are, we should return all emails, no matter how stupid they are.

    as long as they don't use profanity, i return all of 'em. can't hurt
     
  6. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    Immediately change it to "Pitcher whose fault it really wasn't."

    PWFIRW.
     
  7. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    I had just had this conversation with an AD who was critical of one of my stories about a league championship softball team that has totally gone in the shitter. Had plenty of facts and stats to back up my work,too.

    Unlike baseball, in softball the same pitcher may well pitch most all of the games. So if the team stinks, her record is probably going to stink, as well. At least in baseball, the losses get spread out sometimes.
     
  8. They had losing pitchers when "The Greatest Generation" played the game.
    We have losing pitchers today.
    Just explain it's an official statistic.
    No need to apologize.
    No need to shield the kid, or any kid.
    It's a life lesson: leave the mound (or circle in softball) with your team behind and it stays behind, you get L_Smith (1-4) in the boxscore/linescore.
    If that's too tough to take, the kid should play video games.
     
  9. Della9250

    Della9250 Well-Known Member

    I'll go one better. I had the dad of a baseball kid get upset with me because I said his kid was a hard-luck loser. I went on in the story about how great the kid did -- lost a 1-0 game where he didn't allow a hit for the first five innings, struck out eight, walked one and allowed just three hits with the run being unearned. Of course, he didn't like those three words, hard-luck loser.
     
  10. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    That's because you used "loser" as a noun.

    I try to avoid those sort of cliches when dealing with preps. Not that it's wrong, per se, just maybe a little less sensitive. Like "losing effort".

    Honestly, most of the time I just put the record in paranthesis: Podunkville scored three times against Shitsville starter Dick Sucker (2-10) in the fourth inning.
     
  11. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    Looks like another tough year for Shitsville.
     
  12. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    If you don't want a loser, don't keep score.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page