'Significant changes' coming to sports entries for AP Stylebook

In all seriousness, I wonder what changes they could be talking about. "Sponsorship Bowl as Presented by Corporations With Money."

I really hope that's not the case.

 

That's the absolute first thing that came to my mind.

 

After I stopped chuckling at the responses — some were pretty good — I wondered about that, too.

I have a feeling we'll see the use of numerals in statistic-related copy rather of spelling out numbers the traditional way; e.g., "Johnson had 2 assists to go with 4 rebounds and 18 points."

 

It's now OK to refer to players by their initials, like D-Wade, or GP, or T-Money.

 

I wouldn't have a problem with that. Would seem to help make things more uniform. It makes me feel stupid when I have in the same sentence, "reformedhack went 2-for-12 from the field but made eight of 10 free-throw attempts." But if I'm being honest, a big part of the problem is my shop's lack of consistency on this.

 

Try this:
reformedhack fared better when unguarded, going 8-for-10 at the line but only 2-for-12 from the field.

 

Gee willikers! Thanks! Just giving an example.

 

I will admit to being OCD as hell, but your example looks nothing like my style.

2 for 12 if it's a noun. 2-for-12 if it's an adjective (because it modifies the moun).
And I ALWAYS use numbers when referring to stats such as 2 of 12 and 8 of 10.
Oh yeah, it's easier to say "foul attempts" than free-throw attempts, though props to you for hyphenating the adjective modifier "free-throw".

I'm OCD about "over." It's a preposition. Always use "more than."

The major change I would like to see AP make is a simple rule that would almost universally get rid of the word "on," as well as butting proper nouns, while at the same time, makes a story more readable:

time, date, place

AP ALWAYS puts the day at the end of every freaking sentence. "The Royals scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat Detroit on Friday."

Instead, "The Royals scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth Friday to defeat Detroit."

"The Thunder play at 7 p.m. Wednesday at San Antonio." instead of "The Thunder play San Antonio Wednesday at 7 p.m.," which is how 95 percent of sportswriters write it.

 

One more thing while I'm on my OCD rant: What the hell is AP writers' fascination with the words "get" and "got"? They sound so damn hillbilly-ish. There are a ton of synonyms to make it sound like a human being wrote the story.

 

Couple things.

First, you don't have to say "free-throw attempts." A free throw IS an attempt.

Second, in your example "The Thunder play San Antonio Wednesday at 7 p.m.," you need an "on" between the two proper nouns "San Antonio" and "Wednesday" to keep them from running together and making a few morans wonder "What sport does the San Antonio Wednesday play?"

 

Early word is, nothing as radical as first suggested.

AP Stylebook change: BLT is now acceptable on first reference | Poynter.

• Elite 8 and Final 4 are now capitalized.
• Figure skating jumps, moves and spins are all lower case, “even if named after someone.”
• The stylebook also standardized some basketball and baseball terms.