…is brought to you by the New York Times.
The story: Several well-known players were eligible to be named to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year. But a number of them are now known to have used performance-enhancing drugs.
Therefore — for only the second time in 42 years — the Baseball Writers Association of America was unable to vote anyone into the Hall this year.
Here’s how Wayne Kamidoi of the New York Times presented the story today.
Wayne tells us — and I presume he’s smiling when he says this:
From a production standpoint, today’s page is one of the easiest ever.
I posted this page first thing this morning — before I got out of bed, even. And already, I’m getting questions about other versions with other headlines.
Wayne tells us:
Yes! We re-wrote the headline between editions. Part of the apprehension seeped in.
Not sure what worked better. We thought the second headline was clearer, without wrecking the concept or hammering people over the head.
ESPN showed the early version [this morning], which went to those who get the first national edition… photo courtesy of Dave Wilson, ex-sports designer now an editor on ESPN.com‘s Playbook section.
In addition, Dave and a few of Wayne’s NYT colleagues pushed the page out via Twitter and Facebook last night.
This is the second amazing baseball steroids-themed page Wayne has designed. This one has been in my Art of Being Brilliant presentation for years. It’s literally a show-stopper.
I also designed the syringe page. So, it seems the Steroids Era has come full circle — from 89 mug shots to zero.
In addition, I’m told Poynter’s Sara Quinn is working on a Q&A with Wayne. I’ll post a link as soon as the article surfaces.
UPDATE – 5:20 p.m.
For more reading, find essays about this page by…
- …the Tampa Bay Times‘ Paul Wallen.
- …the Minneapolis Star Tribune‘s Josh Crutchmer.
- …New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan.
- …Poynter’s Sara Quinn.