I've never written to a newspaper before, but that paragraph was just too much. I just sent this letter to the editor of the Globe:
QUOTE
To the editor,
I've watched as a staple of my youth, the famous Boston Globe Sunday Baseball Notes column has faded from one of the highlights of my week to something I don't even bother to read.
Nick Cafardo has turned a New England institution into an embarrassment for your paper. His writing style has been poor for some time now. His problems include:
- Quoting anonymous sources when there is no reason for them to be hidden
- Interviewing the same group of executives repeatedly, even when they have no relevance to his article
- Asking rhetorical or open-ended questions, rather than actually delving into the answers/opinions and the reasons for them
- Dismissing statistical analysis and contrary viewpoints without explaining why the are weak or invalid
- Basic facts reported incorrectly
I stopped reading the Sunday Notes column because I wasn't learning anything and I wasn't even enjoying reading it. I would have thought this to be impossible even five years ago.
Today I stopped by Boston.com and clicked on a baseball article (Yankees make their move: Granderson), not knowing who the author was. I was treated to this:
"So Granderson is on the verge (pending a physical) of going to the Yankees, who will give up prized center field prospect Austin Jackson, lefthanded starter Ian Kennedy, and lefty reliever Phil Coke in a three-way deal that includes the Diamondbacks. Arizona gets righthander Erwin Jackson from Detroit and Kennedy, while the Tigers get Austin Jackson and Coke from New York, plus Arizona lefty Matt Scherzer and righty Daniel Schlereth. "
It is simply inexcusable that your lead baseball "analyst" doesn't know the names of prominent major league baseball players. To also not know which hand they throw with is equally inexcusable. The fact that I know these names/facts as a casual fantasy baseball player makes it mind boggling that Nick Cafardo does not. Edwin Jackson was an all-star this past season! And Cafardo doesn't know his name! If it were simply one name I could believe it was just a typo missed in the editing process, but two names and three pitchers throwing with the wrong hand? That's not a mistake, that's a lack of knowledge.
I'm not sure what's more disturbing...Cafardo's lack of knowledge of the sport he's paid so handsomely to cover or his utter laziness in reporting on it. A one minute visit to any number of websites or a look at a couple of media guides would have given him all the correct information he should have known offhand anyway. Apparently Cafardo couldn't be bothered to do any research when his knowledge fell short.
This reflects very poorly on your newspaper. I wonder if this sort of haphazard reporting would be allowed to go on in other sections of the paper? Would you stand for it if one of your political columnists identified a senator with the wrong name and political party affiliation? If not, then I'm not sure why it's consistently allowed in your Sports section.
It saddens me to see how far your Sports section has fallen. I'm encouraged by some of your new hires, but Cafardo either needs to improve or be replaced, because his current performance is simply deplorable and has driven me away from your newspaper.
Sincerely,
Hendu for Kutch
) Cabrera out of CF.
