Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Hey! He's getting paid for that!

Here are the first three paragraphs of Bob Smizik's column from today:

No one should be surprised by what has happened to the Penguins in the first two games of the Stanley Cup final, nor should they be astonished if it happens again tonight when they meet the Detroit Red Wings in Game 3 at Mellon Arena.

The Penguins, once so full of all that seemed necessary to become a champion, have been exposed in the first two games of the final. Not exposed as a bad team, but as a team not worthy of the most cherished trophy in team sports.

No one expected this -- not the players, not the coach, not the fans. Everything had been near-perfect. All phases of their game were humming.

So the point of the first paragraph was that it was not surprising that the Pens were destroyed in Detroit. The third paragraph says that this was not expected by anyone. Hmmm... how can you say something is not surprising AND unexpected? Let's go to the listed synonyms for surprising, from synonym.com -
surprising (vs. unsurprising)
amazing, astonishing,startling,stunning Also See: unexpected
Right. Surprising = Unexpected. So, we all know that Mr. Smizik is still riding the high of thinking he was able to get Mark Madden fired, but really, he makes about as much sense as some of my writing does, and for me this is just a hobby.

I don't make a habit out of discussing the Post-Gazette, but don't you think they could make a better effort when the eyes of the hockey world are on Pittsburgh?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That guy (and most others from the PG) are horrible at times. Starkey (sp?) is ok, and Shelly A. once in a while has something funny to say, but it's really bad overall. I'm out here in the Bay and it's even worse. You're lucky to see anything about the NHL till page 4 or 5 of the sports section, then, usually is just some lame recap. Ray Ratto (sp?), who is a good baseball writer for the SF Gate, is absolutely clueless when it comes to hockey, or at least that's the impression I get when I read his articles.

Marco V. said...

"as a team not worthy of the most cherished trophy in team sports" - I guess the writeup is trying to be sensational and it achieved just that. Getting the players in is already a struggle on its own, just figuring out how to validate a degree from another country. Luckily there are agencies that help in getting our international players in.