Compare and Contrast 3 Stories

The first article I read was from back in November, when the Chicago Cubs broke their 108 year old drought and won the world series 4 games to 3 over the Cleveland Indians. The article was written by Jayson Stark, of ESPN, with the piece titled "How Did the Cubs cures end? With the Greatest Game Ever", This piece was excellent as it was a hard news style that gave very detailed descriptions as too what transpired in the game, and examples of how this will go down in World Series lore. I loved the way Stark brought the game to life with solid writing to be able to paint an image for the readers, "the history of Game 7 in Cleveland, on a balmy Wednesday night turned stormy Thursday morning. It took 10 exhausting innings and 4 hours and 45 exhilarating minutes. But when it finally ended, at 12:47 a.m., on Nov. 3, 2016, the giant left-field scoreboard read: Cubs 8, Indians 7. and it was suddenly possible to type a sentence that no living human has ever typed"(Stark, Espn). I feel Jayson Stark was able to paint a picture a reader can envision, while reading this piece, to be able to put the game into focus. Stark gave examples of past great World Series games such as Louis Gonzalez in 2001, or Joe Carter with the Blue Jays in 1993, to be able set the tone and give readers a sense of how big of a game this was ,and the magnitude that this win will hold when discussing great games to be ever played. The tidbits of information, such as this being the first world series game 7 to ever have a rain delay, or the fact that was Mike Montgomery's first ever save attempt. Stark told the story of the game with all the facts, but his writing is what made this piece top notch. Going the extra mile to be able give his readers insight that many other journalists either wouldn't know, or would not take the time to research the way Mr. Stark did. Lastly I thought the way he implemented the time of each event in the game was genius as it showed just how special and crazy this game will be forever held in baseball and Cubs fans minds everywhere.

"Love, hate and Brady: How Tom became the improbable lightning rod", is my second article and is a feature style piece, on the football's greatest Quarterback Tom Brady. The article was written by Kevin Van Valkenburg, an ESPN Senior Writer. This piece will be featured the day after the Super Bowl, in ESPN the Magazine, and boy is this a well written article that gives great insight into the man that sparks debates no matter where you are. The first sentence is great and simplistic, KISS, in this case, and to me explains why Tom is the best to ever do it, "Tom Brady is addicted to playing catch. Ask any of his friends or teammates and they will testify to this. He loves playing catch the way some people love fly-fishing. It's a physical act that feels, at times, almost spiritual. He's not a snob about it. He'll happily play catch with his wife, his kids, his friends, with Hall of Fame receivers or with journeyman dreamers who barely sniffed the NFL"(Valkenburg,ESPN). Great writing and as i said sums up why this former 6th rounder picked 199, will go down as the greatest QB ever, but that is just the start as Van Valkenburg, dives in deeper as to why, this seemingly humble and class act of a man can spark so much discussion, and why everyone and their mother seems to have a different thought on him. Ryan McManus, a 5-foot-11 receiver who had played at Dartmouth, was Brady's choice to play catch with while he was serving his 4 game suspension. Van Valkenburg does a great job of pacing the story at a steady pace that grabs the readers attention, and he does not let go until the end. I found the McManus story incredible, as someone of Brady's caliber normally would not remember someone like McManus who spend one camp with the Patriots. But that's the point Tom isn't like any other super star, he comes across a genuine person with a burning desire to be great. But what i liked most about this article was the fact that Van Valkenburg, dove into the reasons why some don;t like Tom, such as the whining to the refs, or his pretty boy lifestyle. Van Valkenburg was able to present these alongside all that makes Tom Great, and was able to show how opinions vary drastically. Very different from the other two articles, as this was on a specific player, that is magnet to lime light, compared to just a team.

"Where'd Matt Ryan's famous nickname come from? Hmm...", is article written by Andrea Adelson, which is featured by ESPN. This is also a feature piece on Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Matt Ryan, and how he got that nickname, Matty Ice. The piece although not to the extent of Love Hate and Brady is excellent, as Adelson traces back to his high school days, and gets quotes from his high school teammates was a nice touch, that goes a long way to be able to set up this story, and give the article depth. This quote from one of Ryan's high school teammates was genuine, "He was always a cool customer," high school teammate Tony McDevitt said, McDevitt. Also from, a high school teammate by the name of Billy McKinney, a different answer as to how Ryan got the name, this was after McKinney wanted the ball thrown to him, "He grabbed my facemask and was like, 'No, I'm going to throw the ball to who I want to throw it to.' The origin wasn't so much he's clutch and cool as ice. It was more like it's the Iceman, he's all business. It's his way or the highway."(Adelson, ESPN). Adelson does a great job of showing different sides of Ryan through different quotes from former teammates. "His ability to handle adversity ... that's how he got the name Matty Ice,", was from Ryan Gallup a college teammates of Ryan's, who Adelson thoughtfully put near the end of her article. Very well descriptive feature on the second most talked about Quarterback this week, and how his famous name came to be. I thought the chronological order she took was great and helped solve the mystery that is Matty Ice.

Comparing these articles to each other is difficult, as two are feature stories, and one is hard news style. Love Hate and Brady, and Matty Ice both told stories on a featured player, as to how they became either the lighten rod of controversy, or one of greatest nicknames of this era. Both were written with depth and quotes to back up the narrative and title of each story. What all three had in common was the fact they were descriptive and painted a picture, for us the reader to see as we read.

The contrast between all three of them is that the Cubs piece was hard news style opposed to the feature style on the Superbowl two quarterbacks. Each were descriptive, but wrote differently for example the Cubs piece painted an image as to how the night looked, and how the energy felt. While the Brady piece started off with a simple sentence that carried weight as to how great he is by informing us he loves to play catch, while the Ryan story was in chronological order to be able to tell his story of his nickname. All in all these were three excellent articles written by three different but each excellent writers, who put their own writing style in to be able to tell us these stories. I feel that as much different as these are, they share the same theme in common, which is good writing.