Strange Trib Headline

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2 total messages Started by Mark Anderson Sat, 06 Oct 2012 05:43

#263

Author: Mark Anderson
Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2012 05:43

15 lines
2344 bytes

The headline on the Trib announcing the outcome of the Cards/Braves wild 
card game was:

"Cardinals overcome ugly delay, Braves to advance"

From: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-cardinals-
beat-braves-in-nl-wildcard-game-marred-by-infield-fly-rule-call-
20121005,0,3871782.story

The way I read it I thought the Braves won the game and advanced.  The 
comma separates this sentence into two statements; Cardinals overcoming 
an ugly delay and Braves to advance.  In reality the Cardinals won the 
game and advanced.  In that context Braves represented just another in 
the list of things the Cardinals had to overcome today and the to 
advance was awarded to them.

Re: Strange Trib Headline

#264

Author: smr
Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2012 17:34

26 lines
2343 bytes

On 10/6/2012 12:43 AM, Mark Anderson wrote:
> The headline on the Trib announcing the outcome of the Cards/Braves wild
> card game was:
>
> "Cardinals overcome ugly delay, Braves to advance"
>
> From: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-cardinals-
> beat-braves-in-nl-wildcard-game-marred-by-infield-fly-rule-call-
> 20121005,0,3871782.story
>
> The way I read it I thought the Braves won the game and advanced.  The
> comma separates this sentence into two statements; Cardinals overcoming
> an ugly delay and Braves to advance.  In reality the Cardinals won the
> game and advanced.  In that context Braves represented just another in
> the list of things the Cardinals had to overcome today and the to
> advance was awarded to them.

I agree that that headline is awful, but I would only interpret "Braves 
to advance" as its own thought if it followed a semicolon. The comma is 
there to indicate a separation of things related to the first clause, 
ie, things that were overcome.

So, it's technically grammatically correct but still poorly written.

-- 
smr

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