Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Do They Actually Watch What They Write About?

I know I usually don't write two posts in one day, but I have to point something out. Both the AP story about todays intra-squad game written by Janie McCauley and the story on the SFGiants.com written by Chris Haft say that with Lincecum pitching, Ortmeier made a great catch of a drive by Schierholtz. Only one problem with that......Schierholtz and Ortmeier were on the SAME TEAM. It was actually Timpner than made the good catch of Schierholtz' drive (Ortmeier was very visible standing in the on-deck circle). The diving catch Ortmeier made was the next half inning with Eddy Martinez-Esteve at bat.

That begs 2 questions:

1.) Do the reporters who actually get paid for doing this actually watch what they are paid to write about?

and 2.) How do two different writers make the same mistake without giving the other credit for the information contained in the article? Do they copy each other so they don't have to be present all the time? And do their employers know?

Just an observation I thought was quite curious when I was reading the articles on-line this evening.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm fairly certain that sports reporters are just about the dumbest people alive. They don't check their facts, often issue opinions as if it were news (much like political reporters) and have no clue what "logic" is.

Anonymous said...

I talked to a player today and he agreed with you..And Lincecum wasn't even on the field.Two off field pop-ups and a strike-out.Don't understand the confusion.

AGoldRedshield said...

why do idiots always end up with jobs that involve giving out information?

Anonymous said...

To most, a Giants spring traning is basically spinning a few words Bonds says into something controversial regarding steroids and Dan Wetzel writing several articles about it.

Never mind that fact that thanks to this blog website, I am very encouraged by what I'm seeing so far from camp, and pleased to see the way Bochy's been running things thus far.

Anonymous said...

There were about six reporters all sitting behind home plate in the stands, watching every pitch. (They had press passes around their necks.) I think they must have honestly confused the two line drives to center. None of them were keeping score, which is probably what allowed that to happen. I think they probably don't keep score until actual Cactus League games start. An honest mistake, I'd guess, though a bit embarrassing.

Anonymous said...

WHO CARES.....SPRING IS IN THE AIR!!!!!!!!!

LETS PLAY BALL

Giantfan9 said...
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Giantfan9 said...

The people I saw behind home plate weren't press. That was Dick Tidrow, Ron Peronowski and several other Giants player personnel and front office people.

Anonymous said...

looks like schulman gets the cookie for getting it right.

link

it's nice to see Timmy getting all this hype, especially since it's taking away from the amount of media-scrutiny the Barry's would be absorbing.
can't wait to see (or hear) how he does against the established major leaguers.

Giantfan9 said...

Yeah at least Schulman was paying attention. I had forgotten about Lincecum breaking Schierholtz' bat. Even with the broken bat, Schierholz put it deep but foul (don't think it was HR distance....but I lost track of it as it went foul). Looked like a fastball on the fists to me.

bpfastball said...

That's why I find this blog to be so invaluable, not because it's super important to know that the catch was made by Timpner instead of Ortmeier, but because I know YOU'RE paying attention, so when you tell us something I know it to be true.

An awesome recap of the days proceedings Hank. Excellent job, as always.

Terry said...

What BP said....and is that THE Bacci I see jumping on GF9's site? It's very appropriate somehow ;)

Hey Hank...how do the re-vamped Indian Park facilities look...or is that still in the planning stages?

-Stick

Anonymous said...

They don't have the passion for the game.
It is obvious that you have the passion for the game.
They are just on an assignment.

Unknown said...

excellent work gumshoe! :P

Anonymous said...

Hey now, we're not all bad. It's a big pain that there are so many bad writers out there. It makes the good ones harder to appreciate.

TNGiants said...
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TNGiants said...

Ooops...guess you can't edit a post. This is like the next best thing to being there...thanks for everything you do. Great to hear the real story and not just what some sportswriter wants you to hear. Can't wait til the broadcasted games start tomorrow. Thanks again for doing this.

Colby said...

Thanks Hank. And BP said it exactly right - I can always believe and feel good about your observations because you pay attention & know the Giants so well. Keep rocking Hank!

SB

Anonymous said...

Just to expand on the topic... the writer who should get props is Andrew Baggerly of Medianews (CC Times/SJ Merc). When the merger happened they kept Baggerly and Chris Haft ended up with sfgiants.com.

Baggerly basically stomped Schulman and the Chronicle on every offseason "scoop" (though it looks like Schulman got him today on the Cain deal), and continues write much more interesting content. He reported on 40-man roster movement when nobody else touched it and today he talked about Lincecum's not using ice on his arm and why while Schulman only glossed over it. He also wrote a nice article on Correia today.