April 21, 2006
Column 245
Dear Leslie…
Dear Leslie:
As you know, the essence of what follows has been e-mailed to you privately and you have not responded. You have cast dispersion on my integrity. I must respond. In doing so, I mean no disrespect to the AMOA, NDA or darts in general.
There is a quote attributed to you floating around the Internet at the moment, directed at me and my column Reggie and the Snotmuffins, as follows:
“…that (the) ‘bad press’ was pulled by the source the day it went out due to inaccuracies and just bad facts [emphasis added]. The slight difference in the rule, just as in pool, allows for two things we cannot control: 1) how level the floor is on the entire tournament floor and 2) the fact that all games cannot be up against a wall. Therefore, there can be a very slight variance needed to ensure that the game is secure. For instance, last year someone shoved over a dart board. It took down another board. If we did level the game for stability that would have taken down more boards. Hope this helps. Leslie”
I pulled the story, and have explained publicly my reason for pulling the story as follows:
“I write the Dartoid’s World column to share a different, usually humorous, view of the sport, a view that hopefully can be appreciated and bring a smile to faces across the spectrum of recreational to professional darters of both the steel-tip and soft-tip genre — and across cultures. Occasionally I produce a serious piece. Never is anything I write intended to hurt or seriously offend and certainly never would I intentionally produce something that I thought might bring disrespect to the game. Over the years I have published some 250 Dartoid’s World columns. Until yesterday, never had I pulled a story. I did not pull the column because I do not stand by the facts as reported. What I wrote was meant to be constructive and also, like it or not and backhanded as it may have been, to give the AMOA and NDA credit for a brilliant product marketing strategy. I was however advised by people whose opinion I value and trust that the column was considered by some, particularly at a moment in time when so much positive is happening around darts, to be unhealthy for the future of the game. Intentionally or unintentionally, this is not something with which I want to be associated. So I pulled the column. My apology goes out to anyone who was offended and to anyone who is now unable to read it.”
Leslie, I take great offense to what you are saying.
The essence of my column, the impetus for its being written, was that I (and I would think most darters), find your decision to change the long-accepted regulation governing dartboard height from 5’8” to 5’8” plus or minus half an inch. In a word, I find this ludicrous. I believe the NDA should reverse its decision immediately.
Your rules are incredibly precise in other areas. For example, when two darts land in the cork darters must count holes in the board to determine who wins the cork to begin a match. I think this is a good rule. It’s unfortunate that there is not a way to import something similar into the steel-tip game.
But still I scratch my head. Why be so precise and so fair to the darters on one hand and so imprecise and unfair on the other? Under your new rules a dart thrown at the bull on one board might, if thrown exactly the same way on another, might miss the bull by an inch.
I would think a reasonable person who cares about darts and darters would pause, at least for a moment, and evaluate the obvious absurdity of rule rather than accuse the person who called it into question of reporting “inaccuracies and just bad facts.”
Whatever the genre, darts is a game of precision. The feet or levelers on electronic darts machines are designed to account for inconsistencies in the surface upon which the machine is placed (to level the machine) AND to make it possible to ensure that the height from the floor to the center of the board is accurate.
Leslie, I must respectfully request that you either retract with an apology the comments you are spreading or clarify specifically what the “inaccuracies and just bad facts” are in the story I published and pulled.
Otherwise, I feel I have no alternative but to reconsider my decision.
Dartoid
