Talk:Miller Huggins/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Bladeboy1889 (talk · contribs) 09:19, 24 June 2012 (UTC) Bladeboy1889 (talk) 09:19, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for agreeing to review this, but please take your time. No rush. I nominated a whole bunch of articles two months ago and tried to stagger them so they'd come up one at a time, but this backlog review thing has me working on a whole bunch at once. – Muboshgu (talk) 16:28, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

I'll make any minor prose changes directly into the page and leave queries etc on here. I'll do it section by section but it might take a couple of days.

Lead:

• Is there a ref for his nicknames?
  • They are referenced in "Playing and managing profile", and shouldn't be referenced in the lead. – Muboshgu (talk) 22:51, 3 July 2012 (UTC)
    • Fair point Bladeboy1889 (talk)

Cardinals:

• The bit about Branch Rickey being brought in to run the team - may be my lack of baseball knowledge but what does that mean? I'm presuming there's a difference between him and Huggins who the article says is still managing them in 1917? Could this be reworded slightly to make the difference plain (particularly as the sentence repeats 'the team' at the end of each stanza which sounds a bit clunky if you read it out loud.)
  • Huggins was the field manager, while Rickey was brought into the front office. I added more of that detail for context. – Muboshgu (talk) 17:44, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

Yankees

• Yankees in disarray - how, why? bit of context needed maybe (not much as it's not the important part of the article but enough to give a bit of background.)
  • Clarified with less POV language. – Muboshgu (talk) 22:55, 3 July 2012 (UTC)
• The criticism in the press - it's not really clear how he dealt with it? The following statement implies that something had changed but it's difficult to tell what, or what Huggins had done.
  • That instance came and went. I intended to develop that section to show that Huggins wasn't wildly successful with the Yankees at first, as his first transaction was panned and Huston criticized him publicly. It wasn't until Huggins stood up to Babe Ruth and Ruth blinked that he truly gained respect. Is there any way I could make this more clear? – Muboshgu (talk) 17:47, 6 July 2012 (UTC)
    • How about something like 'By the 1921 season Huggins had largely silenced his critics in the press as he stamped his authority on the team...'? Or words to that effect - it could help remove any ambiguity without tying it down to a specific action? What do you think? (Actual text might need tweaking as what I've come up with might be to POV for some tastes?) Bladeboy1889 (talk)
      • I did something similar. How's that? – Muboshgu (talk) 17:54, 9 July 2012 (UTC)
        • Small tweak done. Bladeboy1889 (talk)
• First World Series - could we drop the second mention of the WS in the sentence and replace with 'title' (or similar) maybe? It sounds a bit of long winded repetition otherwise.
  • Rewritten. – Muboshgu (talk) 18:30, 6 July 2012 (UTC)
• Maybe change the last sentence of that para to: "The Yankees failed to reach the World Series the following season, finishing second to the Washington Senators in 1924." - I think that could add a bit of context to it as it'd be their first miss in four years?
  • I've done this. Bladeboy1889 (talk)
• The changes on June 2nd 1925 - is there a significance to that date? Was it a specific game, in which case you could follow it with 'for the game against X'. Also it could perhaps do with context - eg was it after the first five games of the season or midway through etc? By adding a timeline element it should make the importance of the decision a bit more prominent?
  • There is some significance to that date, though now that you mention it, I'm not sure if it's worth keeping in the article. June 2, 1925 was the first of Lou Gehrig's 2130 consecutive games played, a streak that went on over 14 seasons.[1] It wasn't broken until Cal Ripken Jr. did it quite prominently in 1995. – Muboshgu (talk) 18:26, 6 July 2012 (UTC)
    • I think the mention of Gehrig's streak is probably worthwhile but maybe the specific date isn't, could be just 'at the start of June' or maybe replace with more of a timeline thing eg "five games into the season", "at the midpoint of the season", "with the season only a month old" or something? Forgive me - I've no idea at what point June 2 would fall in a baseball season. Bladeboy1889 (talk)
      • I can agree that the streak start date is crucial for Gehrig's bio, but not as important in Huggins'. For perspective, the baseball season tends to start in early-to-mid April and end in late September or early October (even back then). – Muboshgu (talk) 17:46, 9 July 2012 (UTC)
        • The change works much better - good work. Bladeboy1889 (talk)
• Could the last two sentences of that para be switched? The relatively poor finish to the season would give context to Ruppert being asked about replacing Huggins. Unless the rumours were due to the changes - in which case it needs to be linked more clearly to the proceeding sentences as a resulting fall-out.
  • The rumors were due to the team continuing to struggle. I clarified this, since that paragraph read like Huggins' changes had saved the team: they didn't. The team was in 7th place when he made the changes, and they ended the season in 7th place too. – Muboshgu (talk) 18:00, 9 July 2012 (UTC)
• 1928 - seems to be the only season where there is little information about the changes he made, is there an example of at least one of the pitchers Huggins brought in, or others he dropped? not critical but it seems a bit light compared to the other years?
  • Looking into it, he didn't really make many changes. The team apparently acquired Stan Coveleski, but he was at the end of his career. They did acquire Bill Dickey, who played his entire Hall of Fame career with the Yankees, so I added that.[2] – Muboshgu (talk) 18:15, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

Death

• Influenza - 'due to him catching (or contracting)' maybe?
• I've done this.Bladeboy1889 (talk)

General note The comment from user "Secret Account" on the talk page about someone called Barrow making the roster changes not Huggins (all of them or just one season or what?) Could you clarify that point as I don't know enough to know whether that claim holds weight or not?

• This is referring to Ed Barrow, who ran the Yankees from the front office. Back in Huggins' day, the field manager had a lot of say in the composition of the team, but Barrow did do a lot. Really, though, the two were both involved in player transactions.[3] The article as it is doesn't mention Barrow, and I will find ways to incorporate him. – Muboshgu (talk) 18:02, 9 July 2012 (UTC)
  • I added a reference that shows Barrow and Huggins collaborating on player transactions. It's unclear to what extent each of them did, but they were both involved in these transactions in the 1920s (Barrow was hired in 1921, Huggins in 1918). – Muboshgu (talk) 18:26, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

And that's about it - pretty straight forward despite being quite long. The references all look notable and well researched, and the article appears NPOV and balanced. I'll put it on hold while you look at the comments above.

Bladeboy1889 (talk) 15:57, 3 July 2012 (UTC)

• I've struck out what I think is done, just a couple of things still to look at and some suggestions about how to approach the silencing of press criticism and the date of his big roster changes. Not far to go now. Bladeboy1889 (talk) 13:23, 7 July 2012 (UTC)

• Excellent work. Everything covered off so I'll update to a pass now. You might want to think about going for FA with this article by the way. Bladeboy1889 (talk) 07:05, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

• Thank you. I am definitely going to nominate this for FA in the future. I have an active nom there now and at least one other that I'll nominate before this, though, but Huggins is on my list. – Muboshgu (talk) 16:47, 10 July 2012 (UTC)