Words Fail Me

Another reason why bloggers suck and you need four years of j-school to be a real baseball writer...Here's Sully's lead paragraph in his alleged game story for tonight's Reds-Cubs tilt:

When Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker squared off at Wrigley Field on the night of June 3, 2003, Sammy Sosa was ejected in the first inning for using a corked bat.

Have I mentioned that that was the lead paragraph? You know, the paragraph which, if my journalism text book is correct, should be used to summarize all the salient information contained in the article?

You see, traditional journalism used what we in the biz call an "inverted pyramid" structure. All the really, really important stuff goes first. The other interesting-but-not-essential details get shoved to the back.

The reason for this is because you can't assume that people will have the time or inclination to read all your pearls of wisdom. Therefore -- important stuff up top, less important stuff at the bottom (which also makes it easy for your ed to cut as needed).

It seems the most important fact in tonight's Reds-Cubs game for Sully is that Sammy corked his bat five years ago. Rick Reilly was right -- all these damned bloggers are ruining sports journamalism for the rest of us...