What does AP need to make a style for?

If you don't think the reader knows Will, Sam and Mike more than weak-side, middle and strong-side, you're smoking some heavy stuff.

So, on the topic of sports jargon ... you never write Rover, Bandit any of that? Slot reciever?

 

Bandit and Rover are usually safeties (occasionally OLBs depending on the scheme). Again, you might use it in a quote, but that's about it. Slot receiver is OK, I think, because it's common enough that the casual fan knows it.

IMHO, of course.

 

I remember covering a team whose defensive coordnator had a name for all 11 positions. There was a ``strike,'' a ``rover,'' a ``bandit,'' a ``hit corner,'' a ``field corner,'' etc. I was young and thought that was cool and started writing it that way. Then I started reading my own stuff and realized it was too freakin' hard to figure out. So I went back to defensive end, strong safety, free safety and cornerback.

 

The only reason I knew what a Mike, Will or Sam was was by deductive reasoning and context. But most people don't want to have to think THAT hard to read a story off a high school football game. I would be willing to bet most readers do NOT know who Mike, Will or Sam is, and if you did a man-on-the-street poll, you'd get more Cliff Clavens ("who are three men who have never been in my kitchen?") than correct answers.

I think in our efforts to be unique, cute, sports-minded or thoughtful, we forget the most important adjective when it comes to newspaper writing: clear.

 

Bravo!

 

I echo DaMan's posts, and i echo Mystery Meat also. Bravo to you both.

That's the way writers should think: Write to be clear. Always think about being clear. Too much formula writing in sports these days, and that's lazy writing.

Clear beats cute, any time and every time.

Unless you're Barry Bonds.

 

Whoever decided it was "T-ball" was wrong. The ball is placed on a tee and struck.

T-shirt is thusly called because laid out, it resembles the letter "T."

 

Well, it's kind of both.

The U.S. T-Ball Association refers to it generically as tee ball -- but they also call themselves the T-ball association.

As with all style, it's whatever you make and stick with.

 

Since when does the AP ever follow its own guidelines?