Nobody Ever Said Sportswriters Were Smart

I was enjoying the Yankee schadenfreude over at Joy of Sox this morning, when Allan put up this quote from some New York Times writer named Ben Shpigel:

Babe Ruth was a 17-year-old pitching prodigy at the St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys. The Red Sox had yet to win a World Series, and the Yankees did not exist. They were still called the Highlanders, playing not in the Bronx but in Manhattan, at Hilltop Park and the Polo Grounds.

What's wrong with this quote? Well, the Red Sox had already won a World Series, the first World Series in 1903 under the name "Pilgrims." But it is still the same franchise. The Yankees did exist, under the name Highlanders, which they changed to Yankees in 1913.

A team isn't different because they change their nickname. It's the same franchise.

And another writer named Tim Smith of the NY Daily News wrote this gem:

[Sabathia] served as the big enforcer when he nailed David Ortiz in the thigh with a fastball in the fourth inning ... [I]t was what they needed most from one of their strongest performers. It will reverberate long after this series is over. ...

Papi had a wry smile on his face after getting plunked, which said "we'll see who's laughing last." And he hit a single and double, scored a run and drove in two in the seven-run seventh.

So how did that work out, Tim? A great Yankee moral victory, eh? Smith spends a good part of his column blabbering how Papi getting hit was a really great thing for New York.

No, no one EVER said sportswriters were smart.

Especially me.