We Are, In Fact, Eating More Beats 2017

[G-Fafif]

Kicking off this season's beatwriting thread (if one doesn't already exist) with shocking news: Adam Rubin getting out of the game, per his own tweeting. Heading to PR like the guy in the hat who works in retailing. No replacement named.

Adam changed the beat for fans. He gave us information and interplay at a pace unprecedented and unmatched. We will miss his output and his sly sense of the absurd.

[Edgy MD]

Wow.

Nobody worked at the pace Rubin did, and he clearly knew that it was the pace necessary to survive. But nobody could sustain that pace over a career.

What an asset he was for fans.

[Ceetar]

And welcome to

[tweet:2jp2t9vu]

[/tweet:2jp2t9vu]

[Ceetar]

Meanwhile Maria moves on

[tweet:35spd8yt]

[/tweet:35spd8yt]

[Guest d'Kong76]

Best to El Rubino. Stop in and visit us!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Perhaps Tracky (recently laid off by the Snooze) gets the Rubin seat next. I guess this makes Marc Carig the dean of Met Beaters

[Frayed Knot]

Just the fact that Rubin would often take the rare MLB off day and use it to head up to Binghamton to check out the AA squad was shirley a pace not to be kept up for long.

[Edgy MD]

James Wagner, who took the Times beat over from Bob Seger mid-season last year, is a native of Nicaragua and a native Spanish speaker. He made his bones doing a (terrible) crime story while he was still in school.

[fimg=500]https://images.washingtonpost.com/?url=http://wp-eng-static.washingtonpost.com/author_images/wagnerj4.jpg?ts=1409155010871&w=1484&op=resize&opt=1&filter=antialias[/fimg]

[ashie62]

Sad, Rubin seemed like one of us in a similar way that Gary Cohen does.

[G-Fafif]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Perhaps Tracky (recently laid off by the Snooze) gets the Rubin seat next. I guess this makes Marc Carig the dean of Met Beaters

I think Anthony DiComo of mlb.com has Carig, who joined in 2012, "beat" by a couple of years; he'd already been around a while when Marty Noble did our last Amazin' Tuesday (which was a Monday) in 2010 and said "nobody writes a better game story than Tony DiComo," his colleague at the time. Not sure when Mike Puma came along for the Post, but it feels as if he's been there quite a while. Throw in Kristie Ackert and it feels as if there is some genuine traction among these people after so many came and went.

But institutional memory takes a hit with Adam's departure.

Wagner's been good, and Guardado, in the limited sample I took in, did fine work. Ehalt is weirdly prickly on Twitter but writes well.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Shoulda looked up last year's thread.

Below NOT UPDATED!

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Outlet Beater Years on Mets Beat College Fun Fact Daily News Kristie Ackert 2 (since 2013) Syracuse Prone to Twitter typos; former Modesto Bee reporter NY Post Mike Puma 7 (since 2007) Fordam Not an actual Puma ESPN NY Adam Rubin 15 (since 2000) U Penn Was Daily News beatguy from 2000-10 Newsday Marc Carig 2 (since 2013) Nevada-Reno Former MFY beater for the Star-Ledger NY Times Tim Rohan 1 (Since 2014) Michigan Looks like Bob Seger Mets.com Anthony DiComo 7 (since 2007) Boston U Once made Dillon Gee balk. Bergen Record Matt Ehalt 1 (since 2014) Syracuse Predecessor now does social media for ShopRite Wall Street Journal Jared Diamond 4 (since 2011) Syracuse Once victim of an Opening Day headline surprise Star-Ledger Mike Vorkunov 1 (since 2014) Rutgers Broke the cheesesteak story

[Edgy MD]

Tim Rohan's now working his night moves over at The MMQB, which looks like Sports Illustrated spinoff that's taking the Deadspin approach on an NFL-only level.

[Edgy MD]

That day Adam Rubin joined the Pool.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

It's weird to envision the Metbeat without him, and him without constant, CONSTANT streams of Metly scoops.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: James Wagner, who took the Times beat over from Bob Seger mid-season last year, is a native of Nicaragua and a native Spanish speaker. He made his bones doing a (terrible) crime story while he was still in school.

I somehow missed this (I don't even remember Seger either) which probably doesn't bode well for him adding anything of value, but I followed him and Abbey, which means I'm +2 beat 'guys' which I'm sure will annoy me when they all tweet the same stuff so I'm sure at least one will get the axe by May

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Kevin Kernan's not a beater but a columnist but he's down at Spring Training early, filing stuff on Seth Lugo's disc golf game in an attempt to step into that Ruubin Vacuum. http://nypost.com/2017/02/06/inside-mlbs-craziest-curveball-from-a-frisbee-loving-met/amp/

[G-Fafif]

Ceetar wrote: Edgy MD wrote: James Wagner, who took the Times beat over from Bob Seger mid-season last year, is a native of Nicaragua and a native Spanish speaker. He made his bones doing a (terrible) crime story while he was still in school. I somehow missed this (I don't even remember Seger either) which probably doesn't bode well for him adding anything of value, but I followed him and Abbey, which means I'm +2 beat 'guys' which I'm sure will annoy me when they all tweet the same stuff so I'm sure at least one will get the axe by May

Seger wasn't much on getting trade scoops during the day, but he was like a rock when it came to night moves. Since shifting to the Dodger beat, he's still the same working those Hollywood nights...or so I hear.

[G-Fafif]

For those who missed it, Adam Rubin is now SID (or some such PR title) for the NYIT Bears athletic program.

Old Westbury's gain. Metsopotamia's loss.

[G-Fafif]

Adam lets it all hang out for The 30.

https://30letter.wordpress.com/2017/03/09/a-qa-with-adam-rubin-on-15-years-covering-the-mets-his-departure-from-espn-and-what-really-happened-with-omar-minaya/

According to a reliable source (Rubin himself), ESPN doesn't care about Mets fans, at least not in a "thorough" way.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Holy God, that was great. Roobs should write a book.

I have pretty good sources, and I was told Omar didn’t even know what “lobby” meant when he said it at the press conference

You don't say.

I was also reading and nodding all the way; I've been trying to hang in newsmedia for 25+ years and can say the finacial models, conditions and support for what we do has never been worse at the same time that the hunger for the work has probably never been higher.

I'd say in general I will cop to being of those guys perpetually dissatisfied with work but things really do suck today and I need a new career.

[Ceetar]

Rubin is really just that Rovell guy for the Mets. or was. or whatever. I'd forgotten that in the years since I paid any attention to him.

[Edgy MD]

Jared Diamond comes home with a fascinating scoop on the shadowy, underground world of independent batting coaches and the pupils they rescued from obcsurity and helped turn into All Stars.

[Edgy MD]

Kevin Kernan breaks the open secret that one of the ushers at First Data Field is Sixers semi-great Steve Mix.

[Frayed Knot]

A small item in one of the papers recently said that WFAN is likely to be cutting back on travel assignments for their longtime NYM reporter Ed Coleman (and also Sweeny Murti on the NYY side).
Nothing seems to be definite yet but speculation is that neither is going to be on road trips anywhere west of the Mississippi this year.

[G-Fafif]

Sign of the times: Adam is now @AdamRubinMedia and has had to relinquish his Twitter check mark.

[Ceetar]

G-Fafif wrote: Sign of the times: Adam is now @AdamRubinMedia and has had to relinquish his Twitter check mark.

I'm sure he'll get it back, but has to be re verified. They pretty much verify anyone these days. If you submit the form they'll definitely verify you.

[Edgy MD]

That didn't last long. Adam Rubin has taken a side gig, blogging for SNY/Metsblog.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That guy is a maniac. He needs a good dose of wife-kids-and-mortgage.

[Benjamin Grimm]

This was in the plan for a while. He mentioned it in the article that G-Fafif linked earlier in this thread, on March 10.

[Edgy MD]

I had no idea.

But man, he'll still be covering the minors, which takes effort and shoe leather and stuff.