Plum Crazy

The Grammar Police are back. When last in action, they were pursuing people for failing to distinguish between who and whom.

Now they're on the Case of the Misplaced Modifier. Occurring when "single words, phrases, or clauses. . . do not point clearly to the word or words they modify," they are alarmingly frequent. That, by the way, was a properly placed modifier.

Today's culprit is the NY Post and its coverage of yesterday's Yankees game. Summing up seventh inning action, the Post (another properly placed modifier) writes:

Down a run, Baltimore manager Lee Mazzilli brought in lefty Steve Kline to face lefty Hideki Matsui. Matsui hit a high pop-up to left that probably should have been caught.

Yikes! That's wrong on two counts. When the Post writes "down by a run," it is referring to the Yankees, not the Orioles, which brings me to the second problem. It was the Orioles who (more grammar perfection on my part) were either up or down a run, not Lee Mazzilli.

As corrected, the sentence should read, "With the Yankees down a run, Baltimore Manager Lee Mazzilli. . . ."

Serving to protect the interest of grammarians everywhere, the Grammar Police shall remain ever vigilant for other abuses of the English language.