sports/entertainment assignment

Link: www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/sports/baseball/05mets.html?oref=login

I read a baseball article from the New York Times titled “Mets give Martinez a whiff of first-and-long.” I am not a sports person and do not normally read the sports page, but I felt that this article was a good example of a well written sports news story. I also do not know a lot of sports terminology, but I was able to understand it (for the most part) and get a vision of what happened at the game.

I think the author was successful in writing this article. The lead of this story was somewhat like a feature lead. Instead of stating that the Reds beat the Mets, Borzi (the author) described the fireworks that are fired off whenever the Red hit a home run. He described the scene of the game such as the number of fans attending the game and the day. Another reason this is a good example of a sports article is because the author used a lot of quotes from players on both teams. He asked the players specific questions about the game which gave the reader a feeling for how they felt during and after the game. Finally, this story had a focus other than just the game. This was a big game for Pedro Martinez who was starting as a pitcher for the Mets. I learned that he is a very good pitcher from this article, and in this particular game he struck out nine of 10 batters and then 12 of 14 batters. The author used many quotes from Martinez in his story.