Gonzo Journalism
We'll give White Sox beat writer Mark Gonzales the benefit of the doubt. After all, last night's comeback victory ended just after midnight, apparently well past the bedtime of the hard-core former West Coaster.
How else to explain this, the most inappropriate lede in a season (still just two-thirds over) filled with them.
The White Sox's best cure for shaky starting pitching Tuesday night was power, relief pitching and defense.
Yes, you read it right, Gonzo wrote "Tuesday night," so he was talking about the breathlessly exciting, never-say-die, down-to-the-last-two-strikes thriller that could very well spur the White Sox on to a great run during a tough homestand and halt all the bad juju that's been overwhelming the team since the All-Star Game.
But what's worse is how lazy the lede is--again, a Gonzo trademark. You can tell this is simply rewritten from the Sox Dis 101 book of ledes the Tribune commonly culls from. Care to guess what the original lede was before Nick Swisher won the game with a two-out, 14th inning shot? Maybe it was "The White Sox were again done in by shaky starting pitching Tuesday night." Or "The White Sox are finding that there is no cure for shaky starting pitching."
Either way, it's bad writing. On the other hand, it's no wonder this sort of pedestrian fare is rarely corrected and never improved upon, because it runs rampant through the entire newspaper.
And considering this sentence was written well before extra innings and some time before Gonzo got all sleepy on us, the copyeditors at the Tower are snoozing in their hamster wheels, too:
Floyd threw seven consecutive pitches to start the game, and Polanco cranked a 3-1 pitch over the left-field fence to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
As opposed to how starting pitchers usually start the game, by throwing...consecutive pitches? Seems he meant that Floyd threw seven consecutive balls.
If it was a matter of Matt Thornton tossing seven consecutive balls in the 13th, perhaps the gaffe might be more easily forgiven, in the rush to turn his story in. But this sentence was virtually the first game action writing Gonzo did last night, and he was apparently indulging too heavily in free press box popcorn to bother reading over his own writing to see if it made any sense.
Then again, it hardly matters. In the eyes of Chicago's media leader, last night's win was just another ho-hum, come-from-behind, down-to-the-last-two-strikes, 14th inning victory, right?
--Brett Ballantini
How else to explain this, the most inappropriate lede in a season (still just two-thirds over) filled with them.
The White Sox's best cure for shaky starting pitching Tuesday night was power, relief pitching and defense.
Yes, you read it right, Gonzo wrote "Tuesday night," so he was talking about the breathlessly exciting, never-say-die, down-to-the-last-two-strikes thriller that could very well spur the White Sox on to a great run during a tough homestand and halt all the bad juju that's been overwhelming the team since the All-Star Game.
But what's worse is how lazy the lede is--again, a Gonzo trademark. You can tell this is simply rewritten from the Sox Dis 101 book of ledes the Tribune commonly culls from. Care to guess what the original lede was before Nick Swisher won the game with a two-out, 14th inning shot? Maybe it was "The White Sox were again done in by shaky starting pitching Tuesday night." Or "The White Sox are finding that there is no cure for shaky starting pitching."
Either way, it's bad writing. On the other hand, it's no wonder this sort of pedestrian fare is rarely corrected and never improved upon, because it runs rampant through the entire newspaper.
And considering this sentence was written well before extra innings and some time before Gonzo got all sleepy on us, the copyeditors at the Tower are snoozing in their hamster wheels, too:
Floyd threw seven consecutive pitches to start the game, and Polanco cranked a 3-1 pitch over the left-field fence to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
As opposed to how starting pitchers usually start the game, by throwing...consecutive pitches? Seems he meant that Floyd threw seven consecutive balls.
If it was a matter of Matt Thornton tossing seven consecutive balls in the 13th, perhaps the gaffe might be more easily forgiven, in the rush to turn his story in. But this sentence was virtually the first game action writing Gonzo did last night, and he was apparently indulging too heavily in free press box popcorn to bother reading over his own writing to see if it made any sense.
Then again, it hardly matters. In the eyes of Chicago's media leader, last night's win was just another ho-hum, come-from-behind, down-to-the-last-two-strikes, 14th inning victory, right?
--Brett Ballantini
Labels: 14th Inning Victory, Another Ho-Hum, Come-From-Behind, Down-to-the-Last-Two-Strikes, Free Press Box Popcorn, Mark Gonzales, Seven Consecutive Pitches
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