What does this have to do with Frank Tanana?

Britney Spears would be a great name for a javelin thrower.

Bob Walk would be a terrible name for a pitcher.

Or Grant Balfour.

Frank Viola has become forgotten today, perhaps because he was done as an effective pitcher by the age of 33. But from 1984 to 1990, he was a damn good pitcher, one of the better lefties in the game. Good fastball and a killer change-up.

I keep wondering why they reference the 1987 World Series MVP instead of the 1988 Cy Young award. The CYA seems the more prestigious honor for a pitcher.

Destinee Hooker could have had a great name for hockey, basketball, golf, or Zelda.

But she went and played Volleyball.

Brittany Viola would a great name for a viola player.

Frank Viola would be too.

Frank Trombone would be terrible though.

15th best in the world is still pretty good…

Absolutely.

Canada had a diver at the London Olympics, Emilie Heymans, who made it through the Prelims and the Semifinals and competed in the 3m Springboard Finals round. Heymans finished 12th (of 12) in that Finals round, and official Canadian broadcaster CTV tweeted "Heymans finishes last in diving"

You don't even need to know the background context that this was Heyman's fourth Olympics, or that she has won an Olympic medal in each of them, including one in this Olympics already, to know that the bonehead who typed out that tweet announcement should never have a PR related job again. They should be saying "do you want fries with that?" for the rest of their working life, but instead they will probably resurface as a "senior correspondent" by the time Sochi or Rio roll around.

A friend of mine retweeted (or untweeted or detweeted or whatever) back to them, and said something like "last place? have some respect for medals in four Olympics, and making the finals." CTV responded by taking down the tweet.

Brittany Viola would a great name for a viola player.

Ouch. That should have been my line - or are there any other primates who read alto clef, know the word Bratsche, and have heard all the jokes?

"last place? have some respect for medals in four Olympics, and making the finals."

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Canada had a diver at the London Olympics, Emilie Heymans, who made it through the Prelims and the Semifinals and competed in the 3m Springboard Finals round. Heymans finished 12th (of 12) in that Finals round, and official Canadian broadcaster CTV tweeted "Heymans finishes last in diving"

You don't even need to know the background context that this was Heyman's fourth Olympics, or that she has won an Olympic medal in each of them, including one in this Olympics already, to know that the bonehead who typed out that tweet announcement should never have a PR related job again. They should be saying "do you want fries with that?" for the rest of their working life, but instead they will probably resurface as a "senior correspondent" by the time Sochi or Rio roll around.

A friend of mine retweeted (or untweeted or detweeted or whatever) back to them, and said something like "last place? have some respect for medals in four Olympics, and making the finals." CTV responded by taking down the tweet.

I strongly disagree with this. 12th in the world is obviously excellent but it's still finishing last in the competition. Just like somebody has to finish last in the Tour de France, even though that person is obviously one of the best cyclists in the world or somebody has to be the worst player in MLB, even though they are probably one of the 500 best baseball players in the world. I'm not sure how it would be better to describe the result. 12th out of 12? Why not just say last? Also, your friend's complaint is nonsensical. What does what the diver did in previous competitions have to do with how she performed in the competition being described? Should any article about a pitcher having a bad game never mention the bad game but just give stats from previous good games?

strongly disagree with this. 12th in the world is obviously excellent but it's still finishing last in the competition. Just like somebody has to finish last in the Tour de France, even though that person is obviously one of the best cyclists in the world or somebody has to be the worst player in MLB, even though they are probably one of the 500 best baseball players in the world. I'm not sure how it would be better to describe the result. 12th out of 12? Why not just say last?

In this case, because she went to the Olympics and finished ahead of a number of comeptitors who didn't make it through the prelims and semifinals. She finished last among the finalists, but she didn't finish last in the competition.