Why Don't Sportswriters Use Dialect Anymore?

Wouldn't it be more fun if Chris Mortenson reported his recent cell phone communication with Brett Favre as: "Ah haven't made up mah mind 'bout the Vikin's yet."

If Mortenson were writing about Satchel Paige in the 1950's, he could!



The writer is Bob Broeg, profiling St. Louis Browns catcher Clint Courtney in the April 15, 1953 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Courtney was something of an oddity, a catcher who wore glasses. He, like Paige, apparently had an accent as well.



Courtney never did make a World Series, or become the best "ketcha" in baseball. Instead he became a part-timer for the Nationals and Orioles, then a minor league manager.

It truly was a different time -- how do you think this ad for Life magazine would go over now?