06.05.08
Reason #823,221.5 to not learn English from sportswriters
The half-reason to not learn English from sportswriters in the headline above comes from telling half the story . . .
. . . old-fashioned pitcher’s duel . . .
One pitcher dueling with himself? On the psychiatrist’s couch, maybe. I submit that perhaps pitchers’ duel or simply pitchers duel (with pitchers serving as a descriptive adjective and not a possessive) would signal the extreme likelihood that two pitchers were engaging in the activity described by that time-honored word with “two” implicit in its meaning.
For more such apostrofreak fun, visit Apostrophism, the apostrophe abuse blog.
And, what the heck, here’s an unrelated bonus clipping:
I’m not above a cheap shot—mainly because I’m so rarely in a position to pull one off. But you gotta love this typo a few days back in a link to a New York Times story (which has no headline typo when you arrive):
Oh, imagine the “party politics” we’re going to miss at such Democratic “fun-raisers”!
, 
and 
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JohnnyB said,
June 6, 2008 at 7:08 am
1st story:
Should “Citizens Bank” have an apostrophe somewhere?
2nd story:
Which Clinton do the “Fun-Raisers” belong too?
Bill Brohaugh said,
June 6, 2008 at 7:51 am
1st story: Actually, no. I double-checked. Citizens is correct, and seems to be part of a general trend to eliminate the apostrophe in commercial names. I suspect that inability to use apostrophes in web addresses is a factor.
2nd story: Um, yeah, what you said.