A-P "So You Think You're A Sportswriter" Thread

[Elster88]

Bret Sabermetric wrote: I'm sure if I phrased it like that, I wouldn't raise an eyebrow on the CPF. The fact that I think someone probably DID recognize the 'grace under pressure' cliche, and didn't mention it in the Klapisch-bashing notwithstanding, or else you really are a bunch of nosepickers who got nothing from your elementary educations (Klapisch is writing for the fucking Bergan Dreck-chord, not the PMLA post-modernist special issue, for Chrissake). I think you're better read than that.

I for one, did not recognize the 'grace under pressure' cliche.

I'm not sure what being a nosepicker has to do with being uneducated.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

I'm not shocked at all. I'm totally adjusted to the fact that people will find problems in the form I choose to post in, and focus exclusively on that, rather than deal with my criticisims of the Mets or the CPF.

I take that as a given at this point. But how about dealing with the content. I;ve already offered to have "caustic fucktard" as my permanent sig line. but given that I'm an ill-tempered, disagreeable, nasty SOB who says mean-spirited things to the young, the inform, the metally-challenged just for sheer sadistic pleasure, how about dealing with the substance of what I'm saying?

Way too much to ask, I understand.

[Elster88]

Like I said, I didn't get the cliche myself. As for the ripping into articles, I usually read what someone writes, have a laugh, and go about my business. Off the top of my head, I rarely respond to them. I don't take the time to see if the person who is doing the ripping is correct.

My only non-conformist behavior regarding such ripping is to defend Jeter and ARod.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Elster88 wrote: I'm not sure what being a nosepicker has to do with being uneducated.

At the Princeton Club, it's frowned down upon to get your hand up your nostrils beyond the second knuckle, whereas such comportment is often acceptable in such locales as Dickshot so graphically displayed this morning in the "I'm off" thread (since deleted).

[Elster88]

All I want is one, just one, "sportswriter" to stop talking about the Met money and "break" the story that the Met payroll is actually less than last year. Then the other idiots will read it and realize it. Maybe even including the morons on ESPN that do the games and that do Baseball Tonight.

[Guest Edgy DC]

It's been broken.

Maybe not followed up on, but broken.

[Guest Rotblatt]

]Mets' Matsui Does Enough to Intrigue, but Not Enough to Impress Second baseman Kazuo Matsui makes too much money � $7 million, in the final season of a three-year contract � to be released. By BEN SHPIGEL Published: April 25, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO, April 24 � The images of Kazuo Matsui swatting homers, bumbling grounders and lying on a training table have blended to produce an enigmatic tableau. In his short major league career, the 30-year-old Matsui has developed a puzzling pattern: He sustains a freakish injury, fades out of sight and out of mind and then, just when it is time to abandon hope, he hits a home run in his first at-bat to restore the optimism. Then he slumps, turns second base into a minefield or, more likely, is injured again. Since being recalled from Class AAA Norfolk on Thursday as an emergency fill-in for the injured Anderson Hern�ndez, Matsui has once again done enough to intrigue but not enough to impress. This trip may as well be called the Matsui Mystery Tour. After hitting an inside-the-park home run and making a nifty pivot on a double play to shift momentum toward the Mets in their game Thursday in San Diego, his weekend quickly turned sour. He went 1 for 5 on Friday and missed a grounder that a skilled second baseman should have snagged. He did not play Saturday. On Sunday, with the Mets losing by a run, Matsui struck out swinging on a high-and-outside pitch on a full count with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth inning. He did so against a castoff, Alan Embree, who had a 7.62 earned run average last season.

Ah, yes, castoff Alan Embree, a lefty who is again throwing 97 mph and who has a 3.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP & a K/9 of 10 this season.

I mean, who WOULDN'T hit a grand slam against a bum like that?

]After the game, Manager Willie Randolph criticized Matsui for being too aggressive. It was Matsui's fourth game back, and already Randolph was showing little patience with him. Randolph says he has unwavering confidence in reliever Jorge Julio, who, despite pitching better in San Diego, is unlikely to pitch in a game that is not a blowout anytime soon. And he is supportive of Victor Zambrano, even though Zambrano's wildness is hurting the team every fifth start.

So Willie has poor judgment. I'm with you.

]As a second baseman, Randolph was solid, smooth and had enough power to keep an opposing defense honest. He looks at Matsui playing the same position, and though he does not say it, he cannot like what he sees. Last August, after a game in Arizona in which Matsui went 3 for 4, Randolph said that Matsui should have been credited with only two hits because his third should have been fielded cleanly.

Ah, yes, a real player's manager. I can't imagine why Johjima canceled his visit here.

] Yet, despite the Mets' repeated attempts to trade him, Matsui is still with the team. He makes too much money � $7 million, in the final season of a three-year contract � to be released.

But if he sucks as much as you say, then shouldn't we release him? Is Matsui the only one at fault here? Why let Mets management off the hook?

]He understands that he is in the lineup, for now, because the 23-year-old Hern�ndez is injured. The Mets were prepared to let the sharp-fielding Hern�ndez continue playing second ahead of Matsui, even though Hern�ndez was batting .148 at the time of his injury and was struggling to hit balls hard.

And now we're back to Willie's judgment.

]"It's a new year," Matsui, who had two hits Monday night to raise his average to .294, said through an interpreter. "I don't feel any pressure." His teammates mobbed him in the dugout after the inside-the-park homer, which linked him with Ken Griffey Jr. as the two most recent players to hit home runs in their first at-bats in three straight seasons, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. A few days later, after letting the achievement sink in, Matsui acknowledged that he was overjoyed to receive that kind of reception. Hern�ndez is in Port St. Lucie, Fla., rehabilitating his injured back and is not expected to return for another three weeks, barring a setback, giving Matsui time to make another impression. The Mets already know what he can (and cannot) do at the plate. They would like to see more consistency at second base. Like Hern�ndez, Matsui is a converted shortstop, but he has not picked up on the nuances as quickly. He still has difficulty turning a double play, which demands different footwork and pivots, but he is confident that, with a little more practice and repetition, he will master it. "Obviously, it's important for me to get right into the mix," Matsui said. "I don't want to disturb the team's momentum."

[Elster88]

Maybe this should be in the "So You Think You're an Editor Thread"

Headline on the Back Cover of the NY Post wrote: THANK 'GADO

[Elster88]

Hey jagoff, the blown save to San Fran
a) gets blamed on Wright
b) was not Billy's fault but Barry's skill.

[url]http://www.nypost.com/sports/mets/68029.htm[/url]

]May 4, 2006 -- MAYBE it's a bit premature to start calling him Braden Wagner, but it is time to be concerned about Billy Wagner. Billy the Kid blew a doozy of a save against the Pirates last night, flushing a Pedro Martinez' gem down the toilet that is Shea Stadium. This was Wagner's third blown save as a Met, and a most painful one for the fans who sat through the rain in the hopes of watching Pedro go to 6-0. Instead, Martinez wound up with a no-decision. The Mets won the game in dramatic fashion, 4-3, on Carlos Delgado's 12th-inning home run. That is what Delgado was brought here to do, hit big home runs. The blast to the bleachers was the fourth walk-off home run of his career. Wagner, whose last blown save came as a result of a Barry Bonds home run, was purchased to save games, not blow them.

[Guest Edgy DC]

A Met win that isn't credited to Pedro Martinez is not "most painful."

And let's not demonize Looper here. Everybody knows the blown save was invented by Armando Benitez.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I would have liked to see Pedro get the W, but I'm not feeling any pain this morning.

[Elster88]

I think I've read this article 25 times already this year.

[url]http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/415048p-350762c.html[/url]

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

You don't often see positive Mets material from Filip Bondy, though.

[MFS62]

Elster88 wrote: I think I've read this article 25 times already this year. [url]http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/415048p-350762c.html[/url]

Probably. (or maybe it was only 23 times)
But how many of the others contained this?

]Tom and Pedro, and a two-day tornado.

At least it brought something new to the table.

Later

[metirish]

Bondy must hate it when the MFY are on the road

[Frayed Knot]

Semi-positive I'd call it - which is OK actually, particularly from Bondy.
I'll almost always dismiss it when fans rant that a particular writer/announcer/media-type is 'biased against their team', I think it's generally childish and stupid. Except that Bondy admitted a few years back - quite proundly in fact - to hating the Mets both before and during his professional life and having no intention of ever writing anything positive about them. So - despite him managing to get in cracks about the bad opponent, mediocre division, so-so attendance, and weak back of the rotation - this piece is practically a long song.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Bad rhyme from somebody trying to cleverly coin something that'll catch on.

Better (but still weak) choices:

Tommy and Petey
Then stave off defeatey.

Tom and then Pete
Then three hunks of meat

Pedro and Tommie
Tthree hunks of salami

Two Cy Young winners
Three abs'lute beginners

[MFS62]

The problem wasn't so much with the rhyme, as with the syntax.
It would have been (slightly) better if he had written:
Tommy and Pedro and a two day tornado.

"defeatey"?
LOL!

Later

[MFS62]

Well, Dave Barry usually isn't a sportswriter.
But...
Enjoy
(from today's NY Daily News)

*********************************************************************************
Remembering '60 Series never gets old





As we continue to follow yet another baseball season, what's left of my mind drifts back to the fall of 1960, when the big baseball story was the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Today, for sound TV viewership reasons, all World Series games are played after most people, including many of the players, have gone to bed. But in 1960, the games had to be played in the daytime, because the electric light had not been invented yet. Also, back then the players and owners had not yet discovered the marketing benefits of sporadically canceling entire seasons.
The result was that in those days young people were interested in baseball, unlike today's young people, who are much more interested in basketball, football, soccer and downloading dirty pictures from the Internet. But in my youth, baseball ruled. Almost all of us boys played in Little League, a character-building experience that helped me develop a personal relationship with God.

"God," I would say, when I was standing in deep right field - the coach put me in right field only because it was against the rules to put me in Sweden, where I would have done less damage to the team - "please, please, please don't let the ball come to me." But, of course, God enjoys a good prank as much as the next infallible deity, which is why, when He heard me pleading with Him, He always took time out from His busy schedule to make sure the next batter hit a towering blast that would, upon reentering the Earth's atmosphere, come down where I would have been standing, if I had stood still, which I never did. I lunged around in frantic, random circles, so that the ball always landed a minimum of 40 feet from where I wound up standing, desperately thrusting out my glove, which was a Herb Score model I had treated with Neat's-foot oil so it would be supple.

Even though I stunk at it, I was into baseball. My friends and I collected baseball cards, the kind that came in a little pack with a dusty, pale-pink rectangle of linoleum-textured World War II surplus bubble gum that was far less edible than the cards themselves.

Like every other male my age who collected baseball cards as a boy, I now firmly believe that at one time I had the original rookie cards of Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Jim Thorpe, Daniel Boone, Goliath, etc., and that I'd be able to sell my collection for $163 million today except my mom threw it out.

My point is that we cared deeply about baseball back then, which meant that we were passionate about the 1960 Pirates-Yankees World Series matchup. My class was evenly divided between those who were Pirates fans and those who were complete morons. (I never have cared for the Yankees, and for a very sound reason: The Yankees are evil.) We followed every pitch of every game. It wasn't easy, because the weekday games started when we were still in school, which for some idiot reason was not called off for the World Series.

That series went seven games, and I remember how it ended. School was out and I was heading home, pushing my bike up a hill, listening to my cheapo little radio, my eyes staring vacantly, mind locked on the game.

A delivery truck came by, and the driver stopped and asked if he could listen. Actually, he more or less told me he was going to listen - I said okay. He turned out to be a rabid Yankees fan. The game was very close, and we stood on opposite sides of my bike for the final two innings, rooting for opposite teams, he chain-smoking Lucky Strike cigarettes, both of us hanging on every word out of my tinny little speaker.

And, of course, if you were around back then and did not live in Russia, you know what happened: God, in a sincere effort to make up for all those fly balls he directed toward me in Little League, had Bill Mazeroski - Bill Mazeroski! - hit a home run to win it for the Pirates.

I was insane with joy. The truck driver was devastated. But I will never forget what he said to me. He looked me square in the eye, one baseball fan to another, after a tough but fair fight - and he said a seriously bad word. Several, in fact. Then he got in his truck and drove away.

****************************************************************************

Later

[metirish]

Jeff Pearlman asks why....good article.

] Pee No Evil Why are sportswriters pretending baseball's steroids era is over? By Jeff Pearlman Posted Friday, June 2, 2006, at 5:12 PM ET Albert Pujols It's easy to understand the media's love-fest with Albert Pujols. The St. Louis Cardinals slugger crushes baseballs into the outer realms. And more important in the wake of the BALCO fiasco, he has yet to be tainted by evidence of steroid use. Pujols has 25 homers in 51 games played, putting him on pace to break Barry Bonds' record of 73 home runs in a single season. Both fans and rival players breathlessly praise Pujols as they once did Bonds. St. Louis' marketing department is constantly churning with new ideas for milking the Albert cash cow. And within baseball's press boxes, writers and reporters check their e-mail, drink free sodas, and question, well, nothing. Two weeks ago, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Pujols "is being touted as the first P.S. slugger, post-steroids." The paper also categorized speculation that Pujols might be juicing as an "errant rumor." The New York Times followed up with this Pujols quote: "My testing is proving a lot. It's working really good." Is Pujols abusing steroids or human growth hormones? I don't know. But what's alarming in this era of deceit is that nobody seems interested in finding out. A little more than one year removed from congressional hearings that produced the most humiliating images in the game's history, baseball writers have a duty to second-guess everything. Instead, everyone is taking Pujols' test results at face value. Have we forgotten that Barry Bonds has never failed one of Major League Baseball's drug tests? In Sports Illustrated's baseball preview issue, Tom Verducci, who has done great work exposing the proliferation of steroids in baseball, credulously praised the likes of Pujols and Twins catcher Joe Mauer. Verducci exclaimed that baseball is now "a young man's game, belonging to new stars who, certified by the sport's tougher drug policy, have replaced their juiced-up, broken-down elders who aged so ungracefully. It's baseball as it ought to be. A fresh start." In other words: Masking agents? What masking agents? Last year, editors at the Post-Dispatch assembled a task force to investigate whether Mark McGwire had ingested performance-enhancing drugs. After a short stretch of fruitless reporting, the effort died. One would think that Pujols�a 13th-round draft pick who has put on 20 pounds of muscle since his debut in 2001�would at least warrant a gander, or perhaps a flight or two to his native Dominican Republic to check out the friendly neighborhood pharmacies. Yet the paper has lifted nary a finger in examining Pujols' background. "Albert isn't an enhanced thug like some of the other suspects," explains Rick Hummel, the longtime Post-Dispatch baseball writer. "He hasn't grown significantly and he's always had a lot of power. So what's there to look into?" What's there to look into? How about this: For the past decade, baseball has been routinely pulling the bait-and-switch with its fan base. When McGwire and Sammy Sosa engaged in "The Chase" for the home-run record during 1998, we were told the game was being saved, that two great men with selfless hearts were doing the impossible. Oops, it was all a lie. Three years later, we were asked to suspend belief yet again as the 37-year-old Bonds, with a head the size of Jupiter, effortlessly broke McGwire's standard. Why are journalists so soft in this area? One reason: fear of being shut out. Over the course of a 162-game season, beat writers and columnists work their tails off to develop relationships with players. You grovel. You whimper. You plead. You tiptoe up to a first baseman, hoping he has five minutes to talk about that swollen toe. You share jokes and�embarrassingly�fist pounds. Wanna kill all that hard work in six seconds? Ask the following question: Are you juiced? After having been duped by the men they cover, America's sportswriters are playing dumb again. One year after being dismissed as a has-been, steroid-using fibber, Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi is the toast of New York. Recent articles in metropolitan newspapers have praised the steadfastness and resiliency that have led him to hit a team-high 14 home runs. But where, oh where, are the doubters? At the start of spring training in 2005, Giambi looked smaller than in seasons past. Now, he has muscles atop muscles atop muscles. Yet unlike the San Francisco Chronicle, which dedicated itself (journalistically and financially) to learning the truth about Bonds, none of the New York dailies have assigned an investigative team to the case. The closest we've come is Joel Sherman of the New York Post, who recently wrote a piece titled "Clean Machine�Giambi Says Fast Start Is Untainted." The article dies with this whimper of a quote: "The big thing I learned during all my problems was that I can only control what I can control. I can't stand on a soapbox every day. I am working my tail off." I, for one, don't believe him. During my six years at Sports Illustrated, I fell for the trick and covered Giambi as the hulking, lovable lug who cracked jokes and hit monstrous homers. All the while, he was cheating to gain an edge. So, why�when MLB doesn't administer a test for human growth hormone�should I believe Giambi is clean? Likewise, when I look at Roger Clemens, I wonder: Where's the investigative digging? Like Bonds, Clemens is a larger-than-life athletic specimen. Like Bonds, Clemens is producing at an age when most of his peers are knitting. Unlike Bonds, Clemens does not have journalists breathing down his neck. Instead, the hometown Houston Chronicle has covered his recent re-signing with the Astros as a time for unmitigated celebration. Forget combing through his garbage for vials�I just want the Chronicle to ask Clemens whether he's used. Is the Rocket cheating? Again, I don't know. But doesn't someone have to at least try and find out? "A lot of baseball writers are drunks or cheat on their wives," says Jose de Jesus Ortiz, the Chronicle's Astros beat writer. "I would never question anybody unless I have evidence. It's unfair to feel that just because of Bonds now we're required to question everyone about their methods." Is it unfair to pester individual athletes about steroids? Maybe. Is it the right thing to do journalistically? Without a doubt.

http://www.slate.com/id/2142937/?nav=fo

[Elster88]

I wanted to say something similar, but didn't want to get yelled at.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I agree with JP too.

He makes a great point about beatwriters' reluctance to endanger their access.

[metirish]

Glavine,Trax and Floyd look back at the bad old days .

] METS INSIDER From dark days, a whole new ballgame BY DAVID LENNON Newsday Staff Writer June 16, 2006 PHILADELPHIA -- Cliff Floyd remembers when there was no light at the end of the tunnel. So do Tom Glavine and Steve Trachsel. Which makes what is happening with the Mets this season that much sweeter for the longest-tenured members on the club. After Wednesday's victory over the Phillies, the Mets claimed the best record in baseball by nudging percentage points ahead of the Tigers. Read that again. For those who suffered through the lean times in Flushing - that's a euphemism for the Art Howe Era - this runaway success has an almost dreamlike quality to it. "I've never been on a first-place team before so this is entirely new for me," said Trachsel, a 13-year veteran who signed with the Mets after their World Series appearance in 2000. "You come to the ballpark expecting to win rather than hoping to play well - or hoping the other team screws up so you can win." That's the mindset when you finish 26� games out of first place, as the Mets did in 2002. Or 34� games back, as they did in 2003. The pinnacle for the Howe regime came in 2004, when the Mets pulled to within 25 games of the top spot, perhaps motivated by the knowledge that Howe, who stayed on as a lame-duck manager for the final two weeks, would be gone at season's end. Looking back at all that misery, no one is happier now than Floyd, who was scolded by the front office for his infamous "no light at the end of the tunnel" remarks during those dark days. He laughed about it this week. It wasn't so funny then. "People were in denial," Floyd said. "I was saying to myself, 'What are they really looking at? Let me know.' We had no direction. Nothing was looking like, 'OK, down the road, maybe we'll be all right. We've just got to battle through this tough time.' It didn't look like that. "Nothing was good. Everything was negative. You want to go home. Every time you go past LaGuardia, all you're thinking about is catching a flight and going home. That's how it was." Just as Floyd was saying that, he looked over at Jose Reyes, fully dressed in his uniform and swinging a bat in front of his locker - three hours before the game in a near-empty clubhouse. That's the enthusiasm a long winning streak and the prospect of a playoff berth brings. The Mets are bursting with a self-esteem that is radiating outward through the fan base and infiltrating the tri-state area. "Everything is different," Glavine said. "We're more of a lead story than an afterthought. You sense the excitement that everybody has. Not only in our own ballpark, but on the road now. "We've had huge followings on the road. That's obviously different from the last couple of years. Everybody kept telling me and has continued to tell me that New York is more of a National League town. They just haven't had a lot to cheer for in the National League the last few years." Inevitably, the discussion brought Glavine around to the dreaded Y-word. But after three seasons of being dwarfed in New York by that pinstriped shadow, Glavine, who's endured more than his share of frustration since leaving the Braves, finally can say the balance may be shifting a bit. "We're not going to unseat the Yankees overnight or anything like that," Glavine said. "They are what they are and they deserve everything they get, attention-wise. "But you just hope to get your little niche of the market, so to speak, and give your loyal supporters something to boast about. Because God knows, the Yankees' fans have had plenty to boast about over the years. You know the Mets fans are starving to do the same thing, and so far we've given them something to boast about." The Mets, especially Flushing veterans like Floyd, Glavine and Trachsel, are careful to add the caveat "so far" to any conversation about their rapid start this season. First place midway through June does not guarantee a postseason berth in October, but there is a prevailing sense the Mets will not be playing out the string. Trachsel remembers those dog days too well. "In those years, you got toward the middle of August and September, and that's when it got real tough," Trachsel said. "It's like, OK, we've got to find something today, let's play spoiler. But you know what? Spoiler --." Floyd is disappointed that this probably will be his only season to enjoy the Mets' renaissance. The leftfielder is in his walk year and likely will be leaving right when the Mets are worth sticking around for. "You hope you're part of the organization for longer than this year," Floyd said, "because they're going to be on TV a lot, the city's going to embrace them, Shea's going to start selling out, there's a new stadium coming. You can't really think of anything but good things for a team like this. At the end of the day, you go home happy a lot, and I think that's the best thing that can come out of this. "I don't care if it's June. We'll take that over what's been happening here my last three years."

[Elster88]

]For those who suffered through the lean times in Flushing - that's a euphemism for the Art Howe Era

Poor Art Howe. It's not like he had the players to succeed. Not all his fault.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

The Art Howe "era" lasted only two seasons. If Art was managing this current team, they'd most likely be in first place anyway.

[stevejrogers]

Elster88 wrote: ]For those who suffered through the lean times in Flushing - that's a euphemism for the Art Howe Era Poor Art Howe. It's not like he had the players to succeed. Not all his fault.

Yeah but the media hated the poor guy, he was too "nice" and too "small town/midwest/country" for New York

Even though he was born and played some Major League baseball in Pittsburgh!

Someone on the Mets Listserv actually said that when I repeated a quote about Art Howe being too "mid-west" for New York, "I didn't know Pittsburgh was now in the Mid-West"

[MFS62]

I don't know if this belongs here because it has no byline.
And I'm not sure if it goes in the quotes of 2006 thread, either, but:

]from rotoworld: Brett Myers worked five innings and allowed three runs Saturday in a no-decision versus the Red Sox. Myers failed in his attempt to become just the third pitcher ever to beat the Yankees, the Red Sox and his wife in the same week.

Bad writing. They didn't tell us who the other two were.
LOL!

Later

[MFS62]

David Wright a Blue Jay?

edit: lost the link. I'll post it shortly
The link:
http://torontosun.com/Sports/Columnists/Elliott_Bob/2006/07/16/1686900.html

Just think of what would have been posted in the current third base history thread.



Later

[Elster88]

SteveJRogers wrote: ="Elster88"] ]For those who suffered through the lean times in Flushing - that's a euphemism for the Art Howe Era Poor Art Howe. It's not like he had the players to succeed. Not all his fault. Yeah but the media hated the poor guy, he was too "nice" and too "small town/midwest/country" for New York

Which media members hated him?
What did they say?
Did they call him names in their articles?
Where did you get this from?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Art's from Pittsburgh, arguably the midwest, but neither small-town nor country.

Nice is a different story.

I don't think he was hated. I think he was mocked, like any manager of a losing team, because whatever assets he had didn't work. Whether another manager would have succeeded is, as almost always, debateable.