Not your standard headline thread -- OK, actually it is

I just caught myself with this one tonight. It was a momentary brain fart, to be sure, but at least I saw it before it made it into print. I was running a promo to the MLB arbitration story on the inside, and I typed the headline: "Wang looks for a raise"

I can't imagine anything much would have come from this (technically, it is correct), but it just looks bad.

 

Was Johnson also looking for a raise?

Some names you just have to be careful with.

 

There are so many ways ANY Wang headline that can sound suggestive.

 

In college I was told by a prof that it was a good think that copy editors had dirty minds. The point of saying that was to avoid too many sexual innuendos in heads and decks.

 

In college, my editor ran an AP story about Kerry Wood with the headline "Cubs rookie Wood on the rise".
We laughed. Presumably, the paper's advisor did not.

 

Dirty mind=clean copy.

Best headline involving Wang, courtesy of ESPN:
Angels jump on Wang early, pull away

 

Another name to be careful with: Rudy Gay. I also had a story about a 90-year-old guy with a signed baseball by Babe Ruth. I was really tempted to go with the headline "Babe Magnet."

 

Hell, I like that one. Especially if you got a photo of the guy with a great big grin on his face.

 

Paper I was at once used the following, regarding a certain Dallas Mavericks player:

Mavs to play with Wang out

 

Nothing wrong with that hed. Clever, and of course, with photo, isn't literal.

 

Seriously, I don't get the "magnet" part. Otherwise, it's great.

 

We once ran "Long balls aid Wang's effort."
Someone else had written it and I saw it afterward and was equally horrified and entertained. But it was too late to do anything about it. Luckily, we didn't get any phone calls and the bosses never said a word. Maybe it was just my overly juvenile sense of humor.