After watching Brad Lidge give away Game Four of the World Series, I got to thinking about Dennis Eckersley, the Hall of Fame closer for the Oakland A's.
I covered the ballclub when La Russa & Co. turned Eck into a closer, which he wasn't too happy about at first.
One evening, after Eckersley had blown the game, which was pretty rare with him on the mound, he called the defeat, "A bridge job."
None of us knew what he was talking about until he explained that he felt so awful about losing that he was in the mood to jump off the Bay Bridge on the way home from the ballpark. Hence, the nickname -- "Bridge Job."
Us in the media told him not to do anything so rash. In fact, a few of us offered to drive him home. (He was that good a quote.)
I also got to thinking about "Bridge Job" when we were discussing quotations in a recent JHU class.
I'm a believer that you cannot string direct quotes together in a piece. It's the writer's responsibilty, through paraphrase and use of fragments, to try something different.
That allows the real gems that somebody may say, like "Bridge Job," to stand out.
I covered the ballclub when La Russa & Co. turned Eck into a closer, which he wasn't too happy about at first.
One evening, after Eckersley had blown the game, which was pretty rare with him on the mound, he called the defeat, "A bridge job."
None of us knew what he was talking about until he explained that he felt so awful about losing that he was in the mood to jump off the Bay Bridge on the way home from the ballpark. Hence, the nickname -- "Bridge Job."
Us in the media told him not to do anything so rash. In fact, a few of us offered to drive him home. (He was that good a quote.)
I also got to thinking about "Bridge Job" when we were discussing quotations in a recent JHU class.
I'm a believer that you cannot string direct quotes together in a piece. It's the writer's responsibilty, through paraphrase and use of fragments, to try something different.
That allows the real gems that somebody may say, like "Bridge Job," to stand out.