The Boston Globe = a disgrace
As a journalism student and sports copy editor, I appreciate accuracy. Reading The Gainesville Sun's sports section daily really makes me appreciate a good sports section (because it's so consistantly bad). Today the Boston Globe Sports section has reached an all-time low.
Today Nick Cafardo wrote an article on the 2003 Major League Baseball draft. I'm terrible with the whole linking thing in blogs, and it doesn't really matter because his egregious errors have been corrected in the online version anyway. But check this out. I kid you not, this passage appeared in the Globe IN PRINT and ONLINE today:
"The '03 draft produced Rocco Baldelli, Mark Teixeira, Jose Reyes, Joe Mauer, Miguel Cabrera, Justin Morneau, Johan Santana, Travis Haffner, Hanley Ramirez, Rich Harden, Lastings Milledge, Brandon Wood, Nick Markakis, Chad Cordero, and Rickey Weeks."
Oh boy, where do we start?
Of these 15 players, only FIVE were actually picked in the 2003 MLB draft. Five. Talk about bad proof-reading. How is it possible that a sportswriter could be hired at the prestigious Boston Globe and still have a job after printing this? That's 10 fact errors, if you're keeping score at home.
It gets worse. ANY real fan of baseball knows that international players are not elligible to be drafted. How then, do we explain Hanley Ramirez, who was signed as an international free agent out of the D.R., being drafted in 2003? How dumb are the Red Sox for passing on Venezuelan stud Johan Santana and drafting outfielder David Murphy instead, you might ask. Wait, what's that? Johan Santana was actually signed in 1995, roughly eight years earlier than 2003? How could a baseball beat writer not know that? Johan Santana WON the 2004 Cy Young award and was a serious contender in 2003, yet Cafardo seems to think that was the year he was drafted. (Let's not even mention that once again, international players cannot be taken in the MLB draft, which would exclude Reyes and Cabrera too).
Rich Harden PITCHED in the 2003 American League Division Series, yet somehow that was the year he was drafted? In all actuality, only Lastings Milledge, Brandon Wood, Nick Markakis, Chad Cordero and Rickie Weeks were actually drafted that year.
Another interesting tidbit: Both Travis Hafner and Rickie Weeks' names are spelled wrong. I mean, as if the fact that 10 players listed weren't drafted in 2003 weren't enough. My editing lab instructor said today in class that most writers would be fired if they spelled three names wrong in the span of a month. Cafardo should lose his job over this article, which essentially has 12 fact errors in just one paragraph.
One last note: An omission that really makes this article laughable is that he didn't even mention the most important 2003 draft pick: the one and only Jonathan Papelbon. Granted he was a fourth-rounder, but if you're going to make up that 10 All-Star caliber players were drafted in '03, at least include the Red Sox All Star who actually WAS.
This is my latest rant on how stupid the Globe is. I'll get to my "Why Dan Shaughnessy should be burned at the stake" rant some other day.
Today Nick Cafardo wrote an article on the 2003 Major League Baseball draft. I'm terrible with the whole linking thing in blogs, and it doesn't really matter because his egregious errors have been corrected in the online version anyway. But check this out. I kid you not, this passage appeared in the Globe IN PRINT and ONLINE today:
"The '03 draft produced Rocco Baldelli, Mark Teixeira, Jose Reyes, Joe Mauer, Miguel Cabrera, Justin Morneau, Johan Santana, Travis Haffner, Hanley Ramirez, Rich Harden, Lastings Milledge, Brandon Wood, Nick Markakis, Chad Cordero, and Rickey Weeks."
Oh boy, where do we start?
Of these 15 players, only FIVE were actually picked in the 2003 MLB draft. Five. Talk about bad proof-reading. How is it possible that a sportswriter could be hired at the prestigious Boston Globe and still have a job after printing this? That's 10 fact errors, if you're keeping score at home.
It gets worse. ANY real fan of baseball knows that international players are not elligible to be drafted. How then, do we explain Hanley Ramirez, who was signed as an international free agent out of the D.R., being drafted in 2003? How dumb are the Red Sox for passing on Venezuelan stud Johan Santana and drafting outfielder David Murphy instead, you might ask. Wait, what's that? Johan Santana was actually signed in 1995, roughly eight years earlier than 2003? How could a baseball beat writer not know that? Johan Santana WON the 2004 Cy Young award and was a serious contender in 2003, yet Cafardo seems to think that was the year he was drafted. (Let's not even mention that once again, international players cannot be taken in the MLB draft, which would exclude Reyes and Cabrera too).
Rich Harden PITCHED in the 2003 American League Division Series, yet somehow that was the year he was drafted? In all actuality, only Lastings Milledge, Brandon Wood, Nick Markakis, Chad Cordero and Rickie Weeks were actually drafted that year.
Another interesting tidbit: Both Travis Hafner and Rickie Weeks' names are spelled wrong. I mean, as if the fact that 10 players listed weren't drafted in 2003 weren't enough. My editing lab instructor said today in class that most writers would be fired if they spelled three names wrong in the span of a month. Cafardo should lose his job over this article, which essentially has 12 fact errors in just one paragraph.
One last note: An omission that really makes this article laughable is that he didn't even mention the most important 2003 draft pick: the one and only Jonathan Papelbon. Granted he was a fourth-rounder, but if you're going to make up that 10 All-Star caliber players were drafted in '03, at least include the Red Sox All Star who actually WAS.
This is my latest rant on how stupid the Globe is. I'll get to my "Why Dan Shaughnessy should be burned at the stake" rant some other day.
posted by Jennifer at 8:21 PM
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