Misplaced Hall-of-Famer

As a Red Sox fan, I'm thrilled that Jim Rice is finally being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend. As an editor, I'm appalled at the headline about the story on the team's official Web site.

Click on the image at right to see the offending headline. It reads: "Years in making, Rice ready for day in sun."

What we have here is a misplaced modifier. The phrase "years in the making" is supposed to modify Rice's "big day." But modifiers are supposed to appear next to the words they modify. This means that readers might incorrectly infer that the phrase is modifying Rice himself. A better headline would be "After 15-year wait, Rice ready for day in sun."

For more on misplaced modifiers, visit one of my favorite blogs, Grammar Monkeys, at the Wichita Eagle.

And in case you were wondering, longtime left fielder and Red Sox captain Rice is being enshrined with base stealer extraordinaire Rickey Henderson and 1942 MVP Joe Gordon. The ceremony is set for 1:30 p.m. Eastern time Sunday.