A Comment By John Pastier

A Comment By John Pastier

Renowned ballpark researcher John Pastier set me a copy of his post sent to SABR-L, which follows:

Steve Gietschier wrote:
  
. . . we surely do give a damn. Anyone who doubts this is invited to
    
come to our offices any day between the end of the baseball season and
the tenth of January and watch an understaffed group of editors work on
our annual baseball books while simultaneously performing all the other
tasks we are called upon to do. No tears, please, it's just the truth. We
do the best we can in the time we have allowed, and the data we were
preparing after the 2004 season were severely flawed.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I fully sympathize.  The mainstream journalistic world has been severely
eviscerated by corporate bottom-line-itis.
Good people labor under absurd conditions because corporate suits expect
ever-larger profit margins in a declining and inherently labor-intensive
business.

But average consumers aren't aware of the conditions that Steve
describes.  They assume that a TSN imprimatur guarantees the sort of
truth and accuracy that one might expect from a bible.

I suppose that corporate management has the right to pursue any profit
target it wants, but shouldn't there be some truth in packaging for the
benefit ofthe consumer?  Maybe these books should carry a prominent
disclaimer on the front and back covers, and on the title page, saying:
"This book is the product of an understaffed group of editors who work on
TSN's annual baseball books while simultaneously performing all the other
tasks they are normally called upon to do. They do the best they can in
the short time allowed, and the data in this book may therefore be
severely flawed.
Buy at your own risk. -- The Management."

-- John Pastier


I wonder how many got the humor of the above?