Sabathia makes announcement guaranteed to irritate New York Times
2008-07-07 14:35
by Bob Timmermann
Newly arrived Milwaukee Brewers pitcher C.C. Sabathia has announced that his first name will now no longer sport any periods. He wishes to be called CC Sabathia. A man of Sabathia's size (officially listed at 6'7" and 290 lbs) likely has a lot of CCs in him.
According to the New York Times story (from the AP) about the trade Sabathia had a 3.83 "E.R.A."
The New York Times should shift to referring to athletes by "Mr." and "Ms." now, so they can avoid the CC conundrum. (Also the name of a new Robert Ludlum novel.)
It's not clear to me that C. C. has the authority to do this. What if he decreed that the periods were still okay, but they had to be little pentagons? Why should he get to decide?
Also, does the NYT use a period with Harry Truman's middle initial? (Or, hm, maybe 'initial' isn't the right word. His middle letter.)
1) If he decided instead to be represented by a glyph, would the reporters have to refer to him as TPFKNACPCPS (the pitcher formerly known as C period C period Sabathia)?
2) Many women would like to be able to drop their periods as easily.
There was a debate among newspaper writers on whether or not it should have been Harry S. Truman or Harry S Truman. It did not help that Truman himself did not care.
McCullogh's Pulitzer-Prize winning biography opts for the period: Harry S. Truman. As I understand it, the S may not have stood for anything, but it was still meant as an initial rather than a name in and of itself.
23 Sliced, I have to say that I'm disappointed in you. So concrete, so literal, so limiting! There are any number of explanations that make perfectly good conceptual sense to me.
Perhaps his parent agreed on the initial, but never got around to coming up with the rest of the name.
Perhaps it does stand for something, but the parents simply didn't choose to specify what that something is.
Perhaps it is an early example of conceptual art, where the initial is intended to stand for all "S" names simultaneously.
Hell, maybe it's a name that exists in more than three dimensions, and the "S" is the only part that intersects with our perceptual realm.
Furthermore, I'd disagree with you conceptually. In order to be an initial letter, the primary requirement is that there be nothing before it. Why does there have to be something after it in order to be the initial letter? In fact, the initial letter of his middle name is, indisputably, "S."
Finally, here's a thought experiment. Let's imagine Truman filling out a form that asked for "Last Name/First Name/M.I." If he put "S" in that third spot, would you say he was wrong?
Just wanted to throw some fuel on this fire. The whitehouse.gov website has it as
Harry S Truman (no period)
W. must not like him.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html
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Bring it on CC!
http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=282332
I don't believe the New York Times has ever used "Mr." or "Mrs." or any other title for sports stories.
For a very long time, all athletes were just referred to by their last name only.
Who says lightning can't strike twice?
Also, does the NYT use a period with Harry Truman's middle initial? (Or, hm, maybe 'initial' isn't the right word. His middle letter.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/washington/28bush.html
1) If he decided instead to be represented by a glyph, would the reporters have to refer to him as TPFKNACPCPS (the pitcher formerly known as C period C period Sabathia)?
2) Many women would like to be able to drop their periods as easily.
It is the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/
http://tinyurl.com/6o7mbs
Belies that stereotype, doesn't it?
Not among librarians I know.
Perhaps his parent agreed on the initial, but never got around to coming up with the rest of the name.
Perhaps it does stand for something, but the parents simply didn't choose to specify what that something is.
Perhaps it is an early example of conceptual art, where the initial is intended to stand for all "S" names simultaneously.
Hell, maybe it's a name that exists in more than three dimensions, and the "S" is the only part that intersects with our perceptual realm.
Furthermore, I'd disagree with you conceptually. In order to be an initial letter, the primary requirement is that there be nothing before it. Why does there have to be something after it in order to be the initial letter? In fact, the initial letter of his middle name is, indisputably, "S."
Finally, here's a thought experiment. Let's imagine Truman filling out a form that asked for "Last Name/First Name/M.I." If he put "S" in that third spot, would you say he was wrong?
Harry S Truman (no period)
W. must not like him.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ht33.html
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.