Detroit Tigers Call Out Detroit Free Press for ‘Misleading’ Headline

Detroit Tigers Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal was filthy (in a good way) during his most recent spring training start, leading Tigers beat writer Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press to write an article to describe it. In the article, Petzold described how Skubal’s curveball was so good on Monday that it “broke the ankles” of Blue Jays slugger Bo Bichette.

“Skubal — the reigning American League Cy Young winner who was a standout basketball player in high school — broke the ankles of Bo Bichette with a curveball in the third inning,” Petzold wrote. “On the pitch, Bichette swung and missed and fell on top of home plate.”

Misleading Headline Draws Wrath of Detroit Tigers PR Team

There was nothing wrong with the wording in Petzold’s article itself, but the headline that was chosen for the article was “misleading”, according to the Tigers’ public relations department.

The title originally used (we don’t know if Petzold came up with it or if it was an editor for the article read as follows:

“Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal breaks ankles in 13-3 loss to Blue Jays in spring training”

Here is how the Tigers PR department responded when they saw the title.

“Tarik Skubal’s ankles are fine,” @DetroitTigersPR posted. “Misleading headlines are not.”

Title Changed

In response to the Tigers calling them out, the Detroit Free Press changed the title to the Tarik Skubal article to the following:

“Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal breaks opponent’s ankles with curveball in spring training loss”

Yep, that sounds much more accurate.

Mistakes Happen

Did the Detroit Free Press, and potentially Evan Petzold himself, make an error in judgment by using their original title? Of course, they did. But did they do it to mislead their readers? I highly doubt that to be the case.

The first time I read the original headline, I did not think for even a nanosecond that Tarik Skubal broke both of his ankles while pitching. In fact, I knew exactly what the title meant, and I was curious to see which Blue Jays hitter(s) fell victim to Skubal’s filthy repertoire. My guess is that 95% of the people who read the original headline knew exactly what it meant. I guess whoever runs the Tigers PR X account is in the 5% who were tricked.