Long-Form Journalism

[Edgy MD]

Check out a couple of golden pieces of baseball writing, as Ben Reiter at Sports Illustrated recalls the tragic tale of Hideki Irabu, and Dave McKenna at Deadspin recalls the tragedy that didn't happen, the teenager who fell out of the upper deck of Riverfront Stadium and somehow pulled an unlikely gymnastics grab to save his life.

[Centerfield]

I read the McKenna piece. Never knew about it before that article. What an amazing story.

[Guest 41Forever]

I'd forgotten that Irabu had taken his life. Heartbreaking.

[seawolf17]

We saw someone fall out of the stands at a Ducks game many years ago. Still gives me the shivers.

[metirish]

41Forever wrote: I'd forgotten that Irabu had taken his life. Heartbreaking.

Oh wow, me too, fascinating read, heartbreaking indeed.

[Edgy MD]

41Forever wrote: I'd forgotten that Irabu had taken his life. Heartbreaking.

That's the amazing thing about such stories. The "fat pussy toad" crack will stay with us until the day we die. Put the tragic and lonely (and far more meaningful) end of the tale fades.

And that's part of why we need real journalists in this world.

[seawolf17]

One of Irabu's first American starts came in Rochester when I was working for the radio station there; the scene that day was unreal.

[nymr83]

Edgy MD wrote: Check out a couple of golden pieces of baseball writing, as Ben Reiter at Sports Illustrated recalls the tragic tale of Hideki Irabu, and Dave McKenna at Deadspin recalls the tragedy that didn't happen, the teenager who fell out of the upper deck of Riverfront Stadium and somehow pulled an unlikely gymnastics grab to save his life.

Sad stuff about Irabu... If you all want a happier, though not baseball-related, story, check this out. Most NBA/NFL players go bankrupt and that number is even higher for #2 overall picks who are among the biggest busts in draft history. but this guy didn't blow his money and even though he sucked at basketball he is winning at life -

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/20211833/nba-bust-darko-milicic-finds-success-back-home-serbia

[Edgy MD]

Jeff Pearlman takes a deep forensic look at "The Fallout From Sportswriting's Filthiest Fuck-Up," ironically at Deadspin, the outlet that has created new expectation that sportswriting ought to be profane (hence the headline).

A fascinating look back at the mostly dead world of local journalism that was a fixture in American culture not so long ago, and the exploited fringe characters who made it go.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That very same thing nearly happened every night at my first job, which was a small underfunded daily in the sticks where we covered high school sports and tried to make one another laugh and for a time our editor was 27 until he left and we were led by a 24 year old.

The most effective means of containing us was Jane who worked in the paste-up room. Back then, the copy would come out actual size on photolike paper, cut by exacto knife and glued onto newspaper sized stock before going through to the press. Jane was like a mother figure to us young guys and kept us in line since she could read what we wrote.

[Edgy MD]

That's the thrill, right? It's got to almost get through to keep the thrill there for the risk-addicted staff of mostly young men. And the thrill is part of what keeps them going at a demoralizing entry-level-but-nonetheless-high-responsibility job.

And in order for the risk to be real, there has to be that one time everything went through the cracks.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I recalled a different cautionary tale that also involved a sports story and involved a joking editor replacing a single word in a wrestler's quote: "I was really sucking [crossout:3ni51mgj]wind[/crossout:3ni51mgj] cock."

[Frayed Knot]

I remember a time when the agate type of the hockey boxscore in NEWSDAY listed a Ranger goal as: Messier assisted by Leach (sucks)
I didn't see this myself but it came to light via a Ranger fan calling in to WFAN spitting apoplectic over it threatening to cancel his subscription and everything else short of bombing the paper's headquarters.

As it turned out this "misprint" occurred only in editions distributed in eastern Suffolk County (separate printing outlet I guess) where it was almost certainly the result of a prank by some copy-boy
without enough supervision, although it was still enough to feed into the Blue-shirt mindset of believing that everything east of the Cross Island Parkway was hostile Islander country and therefore
could only have come down on orders from the top as part of some grand conspiracy against everything NYR.

[Ceetar]

Nowadays you can just f12 and make any site say whatever you want. (never trust a screenshot)

[Edgy MD]

The New Yorker invites you to consider the error.

The premise is a little over-stated. There are parallels to the error in other sports — "unforced errors" in tennis comes to mind first — but still a good deep dive.

[seawolf17]

https://deadspin.com/how-unh-turned-a-quiet-benefactor-into-a-football-marke-1819064622

Being in public higher ed enrollment & communication, this story touches like a million nerves for me. Really, really interesting.

[A Boy Named Seo]

This could've landed in the #TakeAKnee thread, but either would've worked. Some nice quotes from former coaches and especially teammates Alan Wiggins and future Met Garry Templeton.

Remembering Baseball’s Right-Wing Rotation When three Padres pitchers came forward as members of the John Birch Society in 1984, the sports world was challenged by a different kind of political activism

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2017/10/31/16578390/padres-john-birch-society-mlb-alt-right

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I remember that episode in Padres history though I didn't know anything about John Birch Society other than it always being parodied in MAD magazine.

I also remember that Atlanta brawl!

I forgot however how it all ended for Show. Really well written piece!

[Edgy MD]

David Walter at Deadspin tells the amazing story of how baseball is everything in Palau.

Not journalism per se, but a long blog post from the always-good Cardboard Gods, as Josh Wilker takes a profound look at Jerry Hairston.

Current Affairs on "Why You Hate Contemporary Architecture."