User:Scolwell98/sandbox

Zack was born during 1960 in Garden River, Ontario, Canada to John and Edith Zack and grew up on the Garden River First Nations Reserve near Sault Ste. Marie. He is a part of the Ojibwa tribe and remains a resident of the Garden River First Nation reserve. His motivation to play fastball comes from his childhood and he shows this through the clinics he puts on for native children throughout Ontario. He has one sister Leslie and one brother Brenden. While he was young he was taught many sports, including fishing, hunting, football, and softball, the latter of which was a family tradition. Zack believes his family's love for Fastpitch and the fact they would throw the ball around with him as a child was instrumental to his career success. He has also commented that as a child the mentors in his life had encouraged him to go as far as he could with the sport. Specifically as a teenager, after consulting his grandfather with a dream about an eagle and playing for team Canada, his grandfather explained the eagle was the "highest bird" and symbolic of no one being able to break his records if he pursued fastpitch. In 2003 Darren Zack ran to be elected on to the council of the Garden River First Nations band. He along with 44 other candidates ran for 12 available spots. Zack's care for the youth is a asset for his political intentions.

Zack got his start in the game as a 14-year-old with the Garden River Braves in 1974. He began his fastball career at first and third base, but all the while he yearned to pitch. Zack kept practicing on the sidelines, biding his time, waiting his turn. When he was 19 years old his uncle did not show up for the game and he got his first chance to pitch. In 1983 the Boston Belmont Merchants came calling, and he played three seasons for teams in Boston and Connecticut, including Wellesley Trucking. In 1987 he joined Ashland ESS, and then had a stint with the Vancouver Magicians (1990-1992) of the Norwest League, while also spending two seasons pitching in New Zealand. According to Al Mitchell Zack's Manager for the Magicians good pitchers have about four pitches, but Zack throws six. Steve Frost a sports reporter said that on top his multitude of pitches Zack can routinely throw between 85-90 miles per hour.

Zack played for the Canadian National Team from 1991-2004. He has won several medals, including gold medals at the Pan-American Games and a silver medal at the 1996 World Softball Championships. He won two consecutive gold medals at the Pan American games in 1991 1995. He was also the Canadian champion in 1991, 1993 and in 1995. Zack has also played for several Canadian Native Fastball Championships (CNFC) teams including Garden River, Horse Lake Thunder, Sapotaweyak, and Invermere A's.

'Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?'Bold text

The first and second paragraph tells us how many believe Darren Zack is un-hittable, the greatest pitcher of all time, the Babe Ruth of fast pitch softball but fails to tell us who made this claims. The article continues on to tell us he is a fan favourite and a humble gentle man, but once again fails to tell us who exactly says this. The first two paragraphs seem to be biased towards promoting Darren Zack as the best ever and a great personality without factually backing up the claim. The article seems to be framing him to be a superstar in the world of fast pitch softball.

Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?

The viewpoint of all his accomplishments is over-represented when compared to the focus on his background and religion. The only mention of where he is from and what shaped him as a person is a brief snapshot of his early life and the mention of his family in the introduction. The bulk of the entire article is focused on his accomplishments in sport. The bulk of the article seems to be simply stats of all his accomplishments. There is an underrepresentation of who he is as a man and what he believes. There is also a lack of focus on what drives him to continue to participate in the sport. No focus on his spirituality except for one sentence as well.

Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?

Most of these articles are news articles or taken from information found on him from teams and leagues he has played in. Many of these articles as a result do seem biased as they simply talk about what a legendary player he is and how great a person he is as well. Some of the bias from these articles has made it's way into the article and more editing and awareness is needed to improve the article. These sources re not neutral and because of this bias has found it's way into the article just because all the information from these sources is overwhelmingly in favour of Darren Zack with not a bad word to be found about him. The bias from these sources is not noted in the article.Scolwell98 (talk) 23:40, 16 March 2018 (UTC)