Talk:Elmer Stricklett

Elmer Stricklett 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
June 27, 2012	Good article nominee	Listed

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on December 8, 2011.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Elmer Stricklett is considered to have been the first baseball pitcher to master the spitball?

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Boston?[edit]

Not sure what to make of this [1] – Muboshgu (talk) 19:24, 28 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Moving this here for now[edit]

While some reports claimed that he took credit for inventing the pitch,<ref name=obit>{{cite news|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/920588542.html?dids=920588542:920588542&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jun+09%2C+1964&author=&pub=Hartford+Courant&desc=Spitball's+Inventor+Dies+at+87&pqatl=google|title=Spitball's Inventor Dies at 87|newspaper=[[The Hartford Courant]]|page=25|date=June 9, 1964|accessdate=November 25, 2011}} {{subscription required|date=November 2011}}</ref> 
Other reports claim he was the first pitcher to master the pitch.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PRciAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EKQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4848,5389890|title=Grandfather of Spitball: Elmer Stricklett Tells Story in Own Way|page=10|newspaper=[[San Jose News]]|date=December 23, 1931|accessdate=November 26, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ExIbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vEgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1490,3223135|title=Practicing a New Delivery: Elmer Stricklett, of the Brooklyn Superbas, Has a Slow Floating "Spit-Ball" Among His Curves; Expects it to Fool the Batsmen|page=18|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|date=February 15, 1907|accessdate=December 6, 2011}}</ref><ref name=walsh/> Another theory is that the pitch was created in 1873, but Stricklett revived its use.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pQ8bAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7kkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3529,8022362|title=First Spitball Thrown in 1873; Glycerine Was The Lubricant|newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|The Pittsburgh Press]]|date=May 29, 1914|accessdate=November 26, 2011|page=16}}</ref>

GA Review[edit]

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

Reviewer: Wizardman (talk · contribs) 05:01, 24 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'll review this article shortly. Wizardman _{Operation Big Bear} 05:01, 24 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Here are the issues I found:

"before joining the Dallas Colts of the Class-C Texas League in 1898." sentence starts with 1898 so redundant; perhaps just say" later that year"
- Done. – Muboshgu (talk) 19:51, 24 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I would imagine the 14-1 record in 1899 is worth noting, though of course not every minor league stop needs the stats added.
- Sure. – Muboshgu (talk) 19:51, 24 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
"The Brooklyn Superbas of the National League drafted Stricklett from Milwaukee after the 1904 season." are you sure that's right? I don't think they had drafts back then.
- Well, it wasn't the draft the way we currently know it. BR calls it the Rule 5 draft, so that's what I'll call it.[2] – Muboshgu (talk) 19:51, 24 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
"He debuted with the Superbas in the 1905 season, and remained with Brooklyn through the 1907 season" He pitched three full seasons for Brooklyn. I know we can go into more detail than just this sentence.
- Yeah, that was negligent on my part. I added his stats, including top ten finishes. – Muboshgu (talk) 20:16, 24 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Did you check The Sporting Life sources? Found a couple that seem like they might have stuff, but I didn't look too closely; a good number of results though.
- Haven't checked them. I forget if it was you or another editor, but somebody showed me where the archives are. Can you refresh my memory? – Muboshgu (talk) 20:16, 24 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  - Probably was me; [3]
    - Probably. I bookmarked it this time. And it was useful, it turns out Stricklett played for a team in 1912 I didn't know about, and Baseball Reference didn't realize that this person[4] is the same person. I emailed their site with the link to let them know. – Muboshgu (talk) 04:45, 25 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Nothing too major; I'll put the article on hold and will pass when the issues are fixed. Wizardman _{Operation Big Bear} 05:10, 24 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

One more minor issue: "In four MLB seasons, Stricklett went 35–51" I think this sentence could go at the end of the last mlb paragraph, since he played beyond that. I'd also prefer a bit more in the way of expansion before passing this. Wizardman _{Operation Big Bear} 15:06, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I moved that sentence as you requested, and expanded the page a little more with some more statistics. I'm not sure there's more to add. – Muboshgu (talk) 16:56, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good. It's probably as expanded as it's going to get, so I'll pass this as a GA. Wizardman _{Operation Big Bear} 16:05, 27 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you sir. – Muboshgu (talk) 16:57, 27 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]