Template:Did you know nominations/Opener (baseball)

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Cwmhiraeth (talk) 05:12, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Opener (baseball)

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Sergio Romo

• ... that the Tampa Bay Rays' team earned run average decreased after they began using an opener (Sergio Romo pictured)?

• Reviewed: IOU
• Comment: Special occasion request for October 23 (first day of World Series)

Created by Muboshgu (talk). Self-nominated at 04:45, 3 October 2018 (UTC).

• New article from a redirect on October 2, 4,200 characters, and within WP policies. The hook is short enough and interesting to a broad audience. The image is properly sourced and licensed. Just waiting on the QPQ. Muboshgu, let me know when the QPQ is done. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 23:19, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

• @Gonzo fan2007: I helped out with this article, so I'm submitting the QPQ: Template:Did you know nominations/Emilio Álvarez Icaza. Yoninah (talk) 21:57, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

• sounds good to me. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 01:10, 14 October 2018 (UTC)

• In a discussion at WT:DYK#Template:Did you know nominations/Opener (baseball), the suggestion was made to run this as a special occasion hook for the first day of the 2018 World Series, albeit with a more general hook. I am copying the pertinent discussion here:

* To elaborate on what I was saying, I think the approved hook is a bit technical for non-baseball enthusiast. I would personally go for something like:

• ALT1: ... that the "opener" strategy was employed in the opening game of the 2018 American League postseason? Source: [1] Alex Shih (talk) 00:36, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

• Reliever Ted Power began a game in the 1990 National League Championship Series. Is he the first playoff opener? If he's not, another interesting hook would be explaining why so. Otherwise, Liam Hendriks was called the first playoff opener during this years playoffs.[2]—Bagumba (talk) 01:17, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

• I don't think we can retroactively call Ted Power a "opener" in that game when the term did not exist, for the same reason that we would not call Bruce Sutter the first closer in the modern sense to win a Cy Young Award. I agree that explaining why would be interesting too, I imagine it would be something like:

• ALT2: ... that the idea of "opener" has only been put into practice during the 2018 Major League Baseball season? Source: [3] Alex Shih (talk) 03:12, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

• Here are some other ideas:
• ALT3: ... that the "opener" strategy in Major League Baseball is designed to shut down the most dangerous hitters on the opposing team?
• ALT4: ... that pitcher Sergio Romo, who is usually the "closer" for the Tampa Bay Rays, was the "opener" for the team in May 2018? Yoninah (talk) 20:38, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

I'm not gonna give this the full review, but I think the best hooks here are ALT2 and ALT4; ALT2 would be of greater interest to general readers and could stimulate their curiosity (i.e. make them click the link), and ALT4 for the contrast. However, I think ALT4 is a bit too technical for non-baseball fans since it presumes familiarity with the Tampa Bay Rays or other baseball-related terms and thus isn't as good in the wide audience appeal part, so I guess ALT2 is the best option. Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 00:13, 16 October 2018 (UTC)

• ALT2 is not entirely accurate; it was the first time the strategy was used. Here is a revised alt:
• ALT2a: ... that the idea of an "opener" was first put into practice during the 2018 Major League Baseball season? Yoninah (talk) 14:44, 16 October 2018 (UTC)

• 2018 was the first time it was called an "opener", but as documented, not the first time the strategy was ever used. – Muboshgu (talk) 03:05, 17 October 2018 (UTC)

• So ALT2 and ALT2a are not really accurate. I'm striking the hooks that are incorrect or not desirable to other reviewers. Personally, I'm partial to my ALT3. Yoninah (talk) 12:16, 17 October 2018 (UTC)

• For ALT3, despite the article currently using the phrase "shut down", I don't find where such extreme language is supported in current citations, even as an opinion.—Bagumba (talk) 15:13, 17 October 2018 (UTC)

• OK. But we need a hook soon if this is going to run during the 2018 postseason. What do you suggest? Yoninah (talk) 18:48, 17 October 2018 (UTC)

Yoninah, I think we can always just tweak ALT2/2a; e.g. something like ... that the idea of an "opener" became a named strategy during the 2018 Major League Baseball season? Alex Shih (talk) 08:32, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

@Alex Shih: Or:

ALT2b: ... that an "opener" was used for the first time during the 2018 Major League Baseball season? Yoninah (talk) 08:49, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

• ALT5: ... that several Major League Baseball teams adopted the "opener" strategy during the 2018 season? Muboshgu (talk) 20:14, 21 October 2018‎ (UTC)
• I am going to tick ALT5. I wish we could present it as a more interesting fact or have fun with some word play, but this is the best option I think. Yoninah, would you promote this if you agree? Thanks, Alex Shih (talk) 20:08, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

• Alex Shih The truth is that I did a lot of work on this article, although I didn't receive a DYK co-credit. I think it would be better for someone else to promote ALT5. If you want it to appear on October 23 or October 24, those sets are already in the queue, so an administrator will have to deal with it. Since the World Series runs at least 4 games, a regular editor could promote it for October 26 or 27 right now. I'm moving it to the Special Occasions holding area. Yoninah (talk) 21:35, 22 October 2018 (UTC)