Please Critique These Questions

[AKKOLADE]

As part of a continuing effort to not suck as a writer, I'm posting my 4/4 sports questions here and hoping to get some critiquing from the gallery.

I discussed them with Evan Nagler a bit and he pointed out a couple of issues:

1) Clue order on the Nadal TU should have been addressed; as it is, it turns into a buzzer race for 'quick, name the #2 men's tennis player!', which is entirely too soon for that.
2) The Olympic bonus was utter tripe; I apologize for bringing this bad question into the world and would totally Roe v. Wade it now, given the chance. I can only hope it was buried in a packet.

Additionally, I'm not sure if the Catfish Hunter lead-in was a NAQTie or a good way to test knowledge on him in a non-sports way. It's too easy to just write 'this guy had these stats' on certain players throughout the entire TU; I was hoping that would be a good way to work around that issue.

So, please suggest how I can not suck!

The target of Grumpier Old Men’s Max and John fishing is named after this man. He became a free agent after his initial team failed to pay half of his salary into a life insurance fund, which allowed him to sign a contract worth $3.5 million, a record amount in 1975. 25 wins and a 2.49 ERA pushed him to the 1974 AL Cy Young award. Name this Hall of Fame pitcher for the Yankees and A’s, famed for his nickname fabricated by Charles O. Finley and his mustache.

ANSWER: Catfish Jim Hunter

He first became a defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints in 1981. This came just five years after his first work on the pro level coaching linebackers for the Houston Oilers under his father, Bum. Prior to his current job, he served as head coach Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills and was a defensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers through 2006. Who is the seventh coach in franchise history and the current coach of the Dallas Cowboys?
ANSWER: Wade Phillips

Andrew Toney holds this team’s record for most points in a quarter with 25, scored against the Boston Celtics and Kyle Korver made the most three pointers. Recent first round draft picks that they actually kept includes Samuel Dalembert, Thaddeus Young and Andre Iguodala. They’re also notorious for setting their league’s record for the worst win percentage in history thanks to a 9-73 year in 1973. What is this NBA franchise, best known for its players Julius Erving, Charles Barkley and Allen Iverson?
ANSWER: Philadelphia 76ers (accept either city or team name)


His first two tournament wins came in 2005 at Monte Carlo and Rome, beating Guillermo Coria in the finals of each. The first player since Andre Agassi to finish two consecutive years in second place in the world rankings, he holds a record winning streak of 62 matches on clay surfaces and was just the second ever to win the French Open in his first try. Name this tennis player native to Spain, best known for defeating Roger Federer at the 2005, 2006 and 2007 French Opens.
ANSWER: Rafael Nadal

Answer the following about the 2007 St Louis Cardinals FTPE.
A. The only All-Star for the squad was this slugging first baseman who hit .327 with 32 home runs and 103 RsBI.
ANSWER: Albert Pujols
B. After leaving the majors for three years, he gave up pitching and became an outfielder. He hit a home run in his first game back and was later found to have ordered HGH in 2004.
ANSWER: Rick Ankiel
C. This reliever died on April 29 in a car wreck with a stopped tow truck caused by his intoxication.
ANSWER: Josh Hancock

Identify the following about individual performances from the 2008 Bowl Championship Series FTPE.
A. This Southern California quarterback passed for over 250 yards and three touchdowns in a Rose Bowl win against Illinois.
ANSWER: John David Booty
B. He threw for four touchdowns and 174 yards for LSU in the National Championship Game.
ANSWER: Matt Flynn
C. This freshman running back for West Virginia rushed for over 100 yards and two touchdowns in a Sugar Bowl victory against Oklahoma.
ANSWER: Noel Devine

Answer the following about products of Louisville’s men’s basketball team.
A. The second player selected overall in 1968 by the then Baltimore Bullets, currently the Washington Wizards, won the NBA MVP & Rookie of the Year award in 1969 and was the Finals MVP in 1978.
ANSWER: Wes Unseld
B. Nicknamed the “Latin Assassin”, he was selected by the Sacramento Kings in 2005. This native of the Dominican Republic has spent most of his time coming off the bench behind Ron Artest.
ANSWER: Francisco Garcia
C. The first overall selection in the 1989 NBA Draft, this “Never Nervous” player won the Most Improved player in 1994 for Washington, but was mostly a disappointment due to a string of serious injuries.
ANSWER: Pervis Ellison


Identify the following Olympic sports that were, at one time, a demonstration sport at the Games.
A. Eliminated for the 2012 Summer games, this sport’s gold medal wasn’t even won by its supposed inventing country until 2000 in Sydney. Cuba has won it the other three times it has been held.
ANSWER: Baseball
B. This winter sport debuted in 1924, but didn’t regain its medal status until 1998. The men’s gold went to Canada in 2006 and the women’s to Sweden.
ANSWER: Curling
C. Dominated by members of the South Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese teams, this martial art sport is contested in the summer games and has been won by American Steven Lopez twice.
ANSWER: Taekwondo

[Coelacanth]

Tough to critiqe without knowing your target difficulty. I found the BCS bonus to be on the easy side and the Louisville bonus to be on the tough side. YMMV. Otherwise the bonuses looked fairly solid, despite that being about the 6th question I've heard referencing Josh Hancock.

The tossups really struggle with clue ordering. I would buzz on 76ers after hearing the words "Andrew Toney", and I don't think I'm alone in that. Any verbiage after "his father, Bum" in the Phillips tossup is just taking up space on the page; nobody is going to hear those clues.

I found the phrasing confusing on the Hunter question. "Wait...it's a guy who has a fish named after him? Some famous ichthyologist?..oh it's an athlete." Other than that it's a pretty decent tossup.

[AKKOLADE]

This was for Illinois' Novice Open.

[cvdwightw]

Maybe it's just my experience because I know sports (kind of) and don't know much other stuff in the trash distribution, but I've found that for whatever reason trash packets seem to pick one difficulty level for movies/TV/music/other and a much easier difficulty level for sports. This problem is slightly less prevalent in academic packets with 1/1 or 2/2 trash since people tend to write them at roughly the same difficulty level as everything else.

The three non-BCS bonuses all seem to have a roughly easy, medium, hard part with the medium and hart parts slightly harder on the Louisville bonus and slightly easier on the Cardinals bonus. The tossups, yeah, it's been said already. Stuff a lot of people would get in the first two lines is never a good idea. I don't know why people put fairly well-known but not uber-famous players in the first couple of words of tossups on sports teams (e.g. the Andrew Toney clue and a tossup at Cardinal Classic mentioned Jack Sikma in the first line of a Sonics tossup). A line or two before "Andrew Toney" and this would be a fine tossup, IMO.

[AKKOLADE]

See, my reasoning on Toney's early inclusion was that given the target age of players at the tournament and Toney's career ending in '88 that knowing he was a Sixer would show fairly deep knowledge. Of course, if I'm incorrect in that, let me know.

[theMoMA]

I didn't know Andrew Toney, but Kyle Korver was a bad clue. He's easy, and if you're up on the NBA, you have to pause for a second to think if it's going to be the Sixers or the Jazz.

[Manyo2]

I mostly just want to provide mad props for writing a Louisville basketball question. Good stuff.

[DakarKra]

A really minor factual correction in the BCS bonus: WVU and OU played in the Fiesta Bowl.

Apart from that, I thought that the Cardinals bonus was very easy; Pujols is the most famous Cardinal and it seems very easy to me for people to have picked up the other stories without necessarily following baseball, which is true in my case.

As for the Louisville bonus, I liked it, but I follow basketball and wouldn't have felt that I was just getting a stupid hard or easy bonus on that one; other people, of course may easily disagree just based on what they know. That said, a clue mentioning Unseld's post-playing career might be more appropriate for the age group that this tournament targets, since his playing career is outside of the many player's lifetimes. The same is true with Never Nervous Pervis, though I don't know if he has much of a post-playing career.

I'm not sure that I agree with Coelecanth on the Bum clue for Wade Phillips, but that's probably just personal knowledge on this one (I didn't know that, but knew much of what came after it). It does seem like you don't want to mention his father's name (especially if he worked under him) fairly early in the question, but I would imagine that there are a good many of players (especially at Illinois Novice) who are not as familiar with the fact that Wade Phillips's father was Bum, when compared with his work with the Chargers and Cowboys, and possibly with the Bills and Broncos, simply because those are the kinds of facts that come up more in a broadcast of a Cowboys game, which I would think is how most players (and not "sports fans") get their information. Others might disagree.

[Gonzagapuma1]

His first two tournament wins came in 2005 at Monte Carlo and Rome, beating Guillermo Coria in the finals of each. The first player since Andre Agassi to finish two consecutive years in second place in the world rankings, he holds a record winning streak of 62 matches on clay surfaces and was just the second ever to win the French Open in his first try. Name this tennis player native to Spain, best known for defeating Roger Federer at the 2005, 2006 and 2007 French Opens.
ANSWER: Rafael Nadal

I thought this was pretty bad because off the first clue it was really obvious that it was a young tennis player which basically meant it was either Djokovic(or however you spell his name) and Nadal. And the second clue wasn't very good either because Nadal being the 2nd
best tennis player in the world behind Federer is pretty much the most well known thing about him.

[drollins]

Most seasoned trash players would have nailed these on the first or second clue. I would've taken Catfish Hunter on the first clue, but that's because I know the movie. It's still a decent opening clue. The 76ers question probably would have gone the fastest. Andrew Toney spent his entire pro career with Philly, so people who know their NBA would smoke that one. The only major cringe I felt was seeing Bum Phillips in a question about his son. That's something CBI would do. The clue wasn't needed.

Overall, they're good questions for a novice field. I'd hold on to them. Some extra editing and you can plug them into another packet a few years down the road.

[Matt Weiner]

Most seasoned trash players would have nailed these on the first or second clue. I would've taken Catfish Hunter on the first clue, but that's because I know the movie. It's still a decent opening clue. The 76ers question probably would have gone the fastest. Andrew Toney spent his entire pro career with Philly, so people who know their NBA would smoke that one.

I think when Fred asked for a critique, he probably meant he wanted good writers to tell him how the questions could be improved structurally, not for horrible writers to show off how awesome they are by disguising "HEY GUYS LOOK HOW MUCH I KNOW" as a suggestion about clue difficulty.

The only major cringe I felt was seeing Bum Phillips in a question about his son. That's something CBI would do. The clue wasn't needed.

What?

Overall, they're good questions for a novice field. I'd hold on to them. Some extra editing and you can plug them into another packet a few years down the road.

WHAT?

[Frater Taciturnus]

Overall, they're good questions for a novice field. I'd hold on to them. Some extra editing and you can plug them into another packet a few years down the road.

Generally, I believe that that particular practice is held to be highly unethical in the current "real" circuit. I have no idea what kind of bizarre quizbowl-related ethics exist in your environment, but I'm pretty sure no good-faith, mainstream editor would accept that.

[Mr. Kwalter]

The only major cringe I felt was seeing Bum Phillips in a question about his son. That's something CBI would do. The clue wasn't needed.

What?

Overall, they're good questions for a novice field. I'd hold on to them. Some extra editing and you can plug them into another packet a few years down the road.

WHAT?

[AKKOLADE]

Can't believe I put Sugar instead of Fiesta for the WVU-OU portion. Silly mistake there.

Re: the Louisville bonus, you're right on the need to mention Unseld's post-playing career for this field, DakarKa. I probably would replace Garcia with a question about Pitino to have a true easy portion.

Yeah, the Korver clue was stupid. For some reason I still thought of Korver as a scrub that not many fans would be aware of. Moment of stupidity there.

Also, my thought on using the Bum clue in the Wade Phillips TU was that since this tournament was intended for younger players, like Andrew Toney, not too many people would be as aware of Bum Phillips as they would various other facts of Wade's career. So mentioning him just a bit before the half-way mark in the TU didn't seem bad to me, especially when I think it's pyramidal in relation to the other clues in that TU. I don't really think it's a "CBI clue" since it strikes me as a pertinent piece of information that would help with answering the question.

The Nadal TU - yeah, like it's been said by multiple people, it needs to have a good bit of clue re-ordering at the start. If you follow tennis at all then you're going to have a good shot at answering it before the end of the second sentence, which is not a good thing.

When I get a chance to do so later this week, I'd like to take a moment and edit these and see if I can improve upon them, and then get more feedback. Until then, please continue to let me know what you think.

[theMoMA]

See, replacing Garcia with Pitino would replace the only part that I know with another part that I know. I mean, I could get Wes Unseld from better clues, and I know "Never Nervous Pervis" [no Ellison], but I think you're pushing it any time you're asking newer players to name historical sports figures who aren't really, really famous, especially in a novice field.

[AKKOLADE]

See, replacing Garcia with Pitino would replace the only part that I know with another part that I know. I mean, I could get Wes Unseld from better clues, and I know "Never Nervous Pervis" [no Ellison], but I think you're pushing it any time you're asking newer players to name historical sports figures who aren't really, really famous, especially in a novice field.

Yeah, you're right. Ellison should be replaced.

[AKKOLADE]

Overall, they're good questions for a novice field. I'd hold on to them. Some extra editing and you can plug them into another packet a few years down the road.

Also, I'm not going to do this because it's a bad idea for so many different reasons, most concerning that it would give an undue advantage to all players who get to read these questions and would also color any future questions I write as possibly unacceptable.

[fizzball]

I'd prompt for Wade Phillips' first name. There are fraud points available on Bum (or Weeb, Knute, Woody, or Fielding).

C. This reliever died on April 29 in a car wreck with a stopped tow truck caused by his intoxication.

This is an awkward sentence. His intoxication stopped the tow truck?

[AKKOLADE]

I'd prompt for Wade Phillips' first name. There are fraud points available on Bum (or Weeb, Knute, Woody, or Fielding).

C. This reliever died on April 29 in a car wreck with a stopped tow truck caused by his intoxication.

This is an awkward sentence. His intoxication stopped the tow truck?

I think I had it set up to prompt for Wade's first name; if not, that obviously should be done.

Would "This reliever died on April 29 in a car wreck with a stopped tow truck, a wreck later found to have been caused by his intoxication." be better?

[fizzball]

Would "This reliever died on April 29 in a car wreck with a stopped tow truck, a wreck later found to have been caused by his intoxication." be better?

"...in a DUI-related car wreck with a stopped tow truck" ?

[AKKOLADE]

Would "This reliever died on April 29 in a car wreck with a stopped tow truck, a wreck later found to have been caused by his intoxication." be better?

"...in a DUI-related car wreck with a stopped tow truck" ?

That's better. Thanks.

[Captain Sinico]

How about "This reliever died on April 29 when he crashed his dumb ass into a stopped tow truck because he was drunk, high, and talking on a cell phone."

MaS

[AKKOLADE]

How about "This reliever died on April 29 when he crashed his dumb ass into a stopped tow truck because he was drunk, high, and talking on a cell phone."

MaS

Too judgmental - who amongst us hasn't crashed into a stopped tow truck due to being drunk, high and talking on a cell phone?

[Captain Sinico]

I, for one, have only hit moving tow trucks while drunk, high, and talking on a cell phone.

MaS

[DumbJaques]

He first became a defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints in 1981. This came just five years after his first work on the pro level coaching linebackers for the Houston Oilers under his father, Bum. Prior to his current job, he served as head coach Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills and was a defensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers through 2006. Who is the seventh coach in franchise history and the current coach of the Dallas Cowboys?
ANSWER: Wade Phillips

This isn't too bad (and I for one like the Bum knowledge), but I'm not such a huge fan of the laundry-listing of coaching stints. It strikes me as the same as saying "from X year to Y year, he played for Z team. From A year to B year, he played for. . ." which is, to me, a rather bland way of asking about sports figures. Among the awesome facts about Wade Phillips are his marriage to a former (current?) stripper, his hilariously 0-4 playoff record, and his even more hilarious debacle with Denver in the 1990s (about which much more can be said than "he served as head coach"). Actually, that's my main critique. Say more than just "he was here in this year." I'm not sure how easy it would be to track down info about how Shannon Sharpe allegedly threatened him with a 2x4, but some actual commentary about his stints with those teams make it a lot easier to a player who's listening to the questions, I'd say.

EDIT:

OH MAN FIRST POST IN THE TRASH SECTION