Talk:Neal Ball

Neal Ball has been listed as one of the Sports and recreation good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
November 29, 2012	Good article nominee	Listed

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on September 24, 2012.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Major League Baseball shortstop Neal Ball beat his close friend Babe Ruth in a bowling challenge in 1923?

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Confusing or unclear tag

Really? Every baseball term is linked to its description. Is someone who has no interest in baseball even going to read it? Please share specific comments on how you would clarify the article. Thanks. --SHLAMA 00:54, 26 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

SHLAMA

Just curious what your interest in Neal Ball is, as it seems like an obscure bit of trivia to bother writing up a wiki entry for just out of the blue. Are you related to him perhaps?

Not related, just found the feat noteworthy when I stumbled across it in my research on Negro League star Rube Foster, who used to play on the same ball diamond as the Little League team I coached in Otsego. -SHLAMA 13:38, 29 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Neal Ball/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Wizardman (talk · contribs) 04:06, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'll review this article shortly. Wizardman 04:06, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Here are my issues with the article:

I'd move the unassisted triple play sentence to the first para of the lead, since that's basically what he's known for in baseball and probably the only reason most know who he is.

Done. —Bloom6132 (talk) 05:27, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"1881, in Grand Haven" no comma needed there

Done. —Bloom6132 (talk) 05:27, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can put in a couple he's in place of Ball in the article. Seems like every sentence uses Ball so this would make it flow a bit better.

Done. —Bloom6132 (talk) 05:49, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"a minor league baseball team that were members of the Southern League" Sounds a bit iffy, reword.

Fixed. Reworded to "a minor league baseball team that competed in the Southern League." —Bloom6132 (talk) 05:27, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"Ball had a relatively disappointing year, " I'd take that out; it can be determined by the stats. (besides, he never had a good offensive year, so it's not really relative of anything)

Fixed. —Bloom6132 (talk) 05:27, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"On a positive note, however, " Reword.

Fixed. Simplified to just "However" —Bloom6132 (talk) 05:49, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"Ball was bought by the Cleveland Naps[1] for approximately $5000.[11]" only that second ref is needed. The article actually does lean towards being overreferenced in a couple spots. That's not a bad thing of course, but at the same time we don't need the extra refs breaking up sentences. An extra example is "The player who was final out of that play, Jake Stahl,[16] " It's noted in the unassisted triple play paragraph, so it doesn't need to be re-reffed.

Fixed. Removed the two overreferenced examples. —Bloom6132 (talk) 05:49, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Adding his 1909 stats may be helpful. Other years could help too, but 1909 a bit more so since it was the triple play year.
It might be helpful to look through the Sporting Life or Baseball Magazine archives to see if any extra personal info or anything can be added on Ball. That's available [1].

Normally I would suggest to split the early life and later life, but given that his pre-baseball career is the one sentence, it wouldn't make sense, so the personal life section is fine as is. I'll put the article on hold, and will pass it once everything is fixed. Wizardman 04:29, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Everything checks out now, so I'll pass the article. Wizardman 00:54, 29 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]