Pablo Sandoval, head turned high, graces page A11 of the Times' national edition
The New York Times’ million or so readers flipped through the paper’s news section today and found a big Bay Area-centric sports spread on A11.
The main story was supposedly about the effect of the Giants’ mediocre season on the city of San Francisco, but I couldn’t see how it fit in the news section.
The subheading states that San Francisco “suffers” from the Giant’s poor performance.
Certainly we were all swept up in World Series fever last year, but I haven’t noticed any more moping than usual around the city, even with all the summer fog.
The story itself doesn’t really claim the city is suffering. It’s more a tableau of local figures like Brian Murphy of KNBR and Brock Keeling, editor of SFist.com lamenting the team’s poor performance.
In fact, I fail to see how this is anything more than a sports feature that belonged in the sports section. Speaking of which…
Sports in the Times
The New York Times has a conflicted relationship with its sports section.
There was a period–starting in the ’90s–when the paper gave sports its own section every day of the week.
But in 2008 the paper put the sports section into the back of the business section, preserving a standalone sports section only on the weekend and Monday.
“Sports Saturday” finally got folded into “Business Day” too, and now Tuesday-Saturday they throw a few pages of–granted, very good–sports writing in the back of the business section.
Sunday and Monday, the paper has standalone sections just for sports.
Given that today is Monday, and they have a beautiful “Sports Monday” section tucked into the paper, I can’t understand why they wouldn’t toss the Giants’ piece into the dedicated sports section.
Chron photo picked up
Above I mentioned there was more than one Bay Area sports story on A11. The other story dealt with the fan violence in California, including the stabbing outside of Candlestick park last weekend.
The story itself was short and cursory, but the picture accompanying it caught my eye.
The photo–of a police officer holding a bloody shirt in the Candlestick parking lot–was taken by “Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle, via Associated Press” according to the photo credit.
Macor was also responsible for the panorama shot in the Sunday Chronicle I mentioned in a post yesterday.
Further Reading
New York Times: With the World Series Champs in a Slump, a City Suffers
New York Times: In California, a Second Episode of Fan Violence
Gawker: Times Ends Solo Metro, Sports Sections
Bay Citizen: Candlestick Violence Victims Remain Hospitalized
