* So much in the legal arena is a function of image, impression and psychology. Thrust and counter thrust. Positioning for a settlement. Impressing a judge. Rule of thumb: When filing a motion, avoid mistakes. Names, dates and Spell Checkable words matter. A lot.
Media accounts of Jim Leavitt’s motion, filed by attorney Wil Florin, in his wrongful termination suit against USF included multiple uses of sic. Never a good sign. To wit: a wrong year, a misspelled name and a misspelled adverb (publically). Sic.
* Much has been written about Derek Jeter’s theatrics last week at the Trop. His mistake was in histrionically overselling a call, i.e., that he was hit by a pitch. He wasn’t; the ball hit the end of his bat. But “selling” a call to an umpire is part of baseball gamesmanship, not “cheating.” What was really objectionable was that four umpires couldn’t get together to reverse a wrong call–and then Joe Maddon, who was right, gets thrown out for complaining.
Nobody wants to see baseball slowed down any more with over-reliance on instant replay. But there are common-sense applications that could address farces such as the Jeter incident. Television replays–including convincing audio–would have settled the issue in seconds. Instead it took several exasperating minutes of posturing and arguing to leave a correctable mistake to possibly determine the outcome of an important game.
* Last week starting safety Will Hill played against Tennessee after having been suspended by Urban Meyer for the first two games. No one is saying what he was suspended for. Hill offered this “explanation”: “Just wasn’t ready to play. Urb didn’t think I was ready to play, so he sat me out.”
“Urb”?
That might be a clue right there.