Talk:Johnny Dickshot

From BR Bullpen

"A face that looked a little like one of the Seven Dwarfs"? Says who? Isn't that a bit subjective? -Chisoxfan 21:46, 21 August 2006 (EDT)

Bill James would be the first to say that evidence should not be discarded just because it is subjective. It is just a different type of evidence. There are few pictures of Dickshot, and it is of value in an article about Dickshot to describe his face for the reader of the article - especially because of the nickname he gave himself. If one does not, then the reader is the poorer for it. There is no "objective way" to describe someone's face. Recall the Bill James description of Don Mossi's face - such things belong in any biography of baseball players. And, in fact, the Bill James description of Don Mossi is indeed included in the Baseball Reference biog of Mossi. - Randy 22:25 21 August 2006 (EDT)

Yes, given his self-given nickname, a description is in order. But did James say he looked like one of the seven dwarves or did you come up with that on your own? And you're right, James' description is mentioned in the Mossi page, but James is also cited as the source. If this too is a James description, you need to attribute it to James. -Chisoxfan 22:33, 21 August 2006 (EDT)

OK, I changed the text a little, but compare these two photos side-by-side and tell me if you don't think the resemblance is significant. Johnny Dickshot and Dwarf. - Randy 20:45 21 August 2006 (EDT)

I would remove the reference, not because it is subjective but because it is unverifiable. Verifiability is a hallmark of any good encyclopedia with every subjective fact (i.e. all non-statistical information) should have its source cited. Unfortunately here it is a bit lax. As Chisoxfan stated, you can lookup the Mossi reference in a book or online (although it should be more properly cited), whereas the Dickshot reference cannot. If a piece of information can be cited you can use the ref hook and the citation templates (Citebook, Citejournal, Citenews, Citepaper, Citeweb). See here for info on ref and here for info on the citation templates. --MichaelEng 09:27, 24 August 2006 (EDT)

Should we cite the origin of all such information piece by piece or is including the sources sufficient? Ex. Charlie Manuel references several books in the sources but doesn't site each piece of information in a separate footnote. - --Mischa 12:00, 24 August 2006 (EDT)

I think you guys are all wet on this one. Whether or not anyone ever said it in a book, if it's obvious it should be noted. Nobody ever said that Lou Gehrig had two ears, but it's obvious. - Randy 14:29 24 August 2006 (EDT)