I hesitate to start a post inspired by a tweet from Paul Sullivan, but here it goes anyway...
"Red Sox. White Sox. Saints. Who's next? Clippers or Cubs?"
While I certainly hope that the Cubs manage to somehow reach the top of the mountain before the Clippers, I've often thanked my lucky stars that "At least I'm not a Saints fan," because they seemed too hopeless an organization to ever win a championship any time soon. Shows what I know.
The Saints went into the game yesterday as universal underdogs. Despite many football experts admitting that the teams were pretty evenly matched (and some even admitted the Saints might be better overall on paper), the presence of Peyton Manning and the confidence from the knowledge that they had been there before would be the difference-maker in the Super Bowl.
Additionally, the psychological impact of players playing a game that they all felt was bigger than simply the final game of the season had to be a factor. The Saints had the weight of an entire city on their shoulders and it showed in the first quarter. Passes were dropped, Brees had happy feet, and the Colts' offensive line was blowing holes open in the Saints' defense that Joseph Addai used for gaining yards in almost 10-yard chunks.
It was looking like it would be another devastating loss for the Saints franchise. Even when they looked like they would claw their way back to a tie score, they got tripped up by bad turf on 3rd down from the one, and then stuffed on 4th down from the two. They managed to get a long field goal to finish the half, but the Colts would get the ball to start second half and, surely, Manning would march them down to an answering score and put the Saints right back into catch-up mode again.
Well, that isn't what happened, and don't call me Shirley.
If going for it on 4th down before the half was ballsy, the onside-kick call to start the second half was so daring that Evel Knievel would have been impressed with the size and weight of Payton's cojones.
To call that play at that time in the game was brilliance bordering on insanity, and it caused me to get out of my chair and applaud before I even knew if the plan even worked.
That onside kick changed the momentum of the game completely. Suddenly, despite the Saints still being behind, they were the aggressors and the Colts were on their heels. The Saints offense was also moving along as well since the Colts' defense now clearly had to be ready for anything at any time. Off the top of my head, Sean Payton made three unorthodox calls: going on fourth and goal in the 2nd quarter, running a reverse when they were in the gray area of field goal range, and the onside kick. One of them worked, but they all served notice that the Colts would have to be ready for anything from the Saints. I was half expecting to see the Statue of Liberty play.
If that onside-kick had failed, I highly doubt the Saints end up winning the game. They would have handed the Colts almost a sure field goal, and they could have very easily gone up by eleven before people had returned to their seats from their halftime bathroom break. Sean Payton knew the repurcussions if the kick had failed and he decided to go for the jugular of his opponent anyway.
So what in hell does this have to do with the Cubs?
As Sullivan's tweet reminded us (as if we needed reminding), the Cubs have yet to reach the top of the mountain despite setting out with a sherpa over a hundred years ago. Considering the Jews only wandered in the desert for forty years with Moses, the quest has attracted more than its share of media attention as the fan base angst has risen with every season.
We have seen what happens when they get close. Crazy shit happens. Balls carom off some poor fans' hands. Alleged routine double-play grounders are botched (I still maintain that Gonzalez would not have turned two on that ball no matter what). Balls go through first basemen's legs. Black cats run around the Cubs' dugout.
The psychological weight of the championship drought has to weigh on the players to a degree. Whether they worry about screwing up a chance to win, or they try too hard to be the heroes, the focus from the game is drawn away by the sheer magnitude of the quest before them.
This is why I want Lou Piniella to manage the Cubs until he doesn't want to anymore. Lou is the kind of leader that is willing to try crazy things just to throw off the other team. He has the balls to make a decision that could get him crucified in the media if it fails. We've already seen him do it with the Cubs.
Last year before the All-Star break, Lou was shuffling Sean Marshall out to left field so he could play match-ups with the Cardinals' batting order and still be able to bring Marshall back to pitch to the lefty hitter following the righty in the batters box. It was sheer brilliance. Even The Genius in the Cardinals dugout admitted he was impressed.
He had the stones to flip-flop Dempster and Zambrano in the rotation in the 2008 NLDS because he thought that gave the Cubs the best chance to win the series. He had faith in Fukudome. He had faith in his bullpen in Game 1 of the 2007 NLDS as Zambrano came out in the 6th inning of a tied game. He made the big calls and he got killed in the press for making decisions that didn't work. He also took the blame instead of passing it onto the real culprits in those decisions failing: the players who didn't execute the plan.
When a team with a history of losing reaches a point of breaking the cycle of failure, the team needs a disregard for convention. It helps to have a leader that is ballsy. It is good to have a leader that can care less what people write about him after the fact. It is absolutely essential that his players believe in his decisions. It might even be necessary to be a little crazy to get past normal convention and forcibly push a team past its own tradition of losing and into the history books.
If you can tell me a better manager than Lou Piniella for the Cubs to do just that, I'd like to know who it would be.
Created by OnePlusYou
Monday, February 8, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
My Bad
I never really understood how people like Palestinians and Jews could carry on a hatred of one another for so long. Doesn't time eventually numb the rage? How is it possible that any group of people could go on hating another group of people (and vice versa) for generations with no end in sight?
I used to think those people had to be the craziest-ass lunatics on the face of the earth. I know now that people who strap bombs to themselves and have their children carry the loaded AK-47 so that they can carry the shoulder-mounted missile launcher themselves on their trip to the grocery store, are perfectly sane when compared to the Cubs blogosphere.
The hatred flowing into the interwebs from the fingers of Cubs fans that is aimed at other Cubs fans is depressing the shit out of me. We should not be hating each other. We should be united together in a hatred of the St. Louis Drunk Drivers. We should be hating that shiny-shirt douchebag, Ryan Braun. We should be hating Dusty Baker, scourge of young pitchers' arms. We should be hating Aaron Miles.
Sure, some Cubs fans think that RBIs and Wins are useful stats in evaluating a players' value. Some Cubs fans make you wonder if they wouldn't flush a crap down the toilet if someone could convince them it had a high enough WAR. Some Cubs fans ask stupid-ass questions at the Cubs Convention. Some still can't get over Mark DeRosa being gone. Some won't shut the hell up on Twitter during games. You get my point.
We are all insane. We cheer for a team that hasn't won anything of significance since before the Titanic was built and it is causing us to lose our minds. In reality, the most balanced and reasoned Cubs fan is far more bat-shit crazy than Ryan Freel with the midget Farney living in his head.
Clearly, things have been said in the last couple of days (and years apparently) that can not be unsaid because there they all are on archived posts of blogs with a hell of a lot more readers than this one. The only thing that can be done is to go forward with a sense of forgiveness and move the fuck on.
I'll start.
I'm sorry, Paul Sullivan. I never should have implied to my 700 spambot followers that you are an idiot. It shouldn't have mattered whether your tweet was meant as a personal tweet or a representation of your job as a beat reporter. Two wrongs do not make a right and I should not have reacted so childishly to being blocked from a twitter feed. I thought it was funny, but I now realize that it was wrong to call you an asshole for the sake of entertainment.
I'm sorry, Bad Kermit. I'm sorry you have been forced to change Paul's bedpan as he has been incapacitated by the sharpness of my wit. At least I assume that is why you reacted as strongly as you did. Whatever the reason, I attacked one of your friends and drew your ire and that has resulted in other Cubs bloggers attacking you and calling you some nasty names. I'll buy you a beer sometime and then we can be friends. Oh hell, pizza too.
Then there are the bystanders that jumped in front of bullets or spoke out in support of my right to call Paul an asshole. I'm sorry this incident has drawn so much fire on you and that old wounds have been re-opened because of a stupid post.
Lastly, I'm sorry to all the companies in this struggling economy that lost far too much productivity over a tweet. I'm hoping this does not plunge us back into a recession, or God forbid, a world war.
I'd apologize to President Obama too, but you know what? He's a Sox fan, so fuck that.
I'm not telling anyone how to be a good Cubs fan or how to run your blogs or twitter accounts. I am BEGGING you to just stop hating each other.
Go Cubs.
I used to think those people had to be the craziest-ass lunatics on the face of the earth. I know now that people who strap bombs to themselves and have their children carry the loaded AK-47 so that they can carry the shoulder-mounted missile launcher themselves on their trip to the grocery store, are perfectly sane when compared to the Cubs blogosphere.
The hatred flowing into the interwebs from the fingers of Cubs fans that is aimed at other Cubs fans is depressing the shit out of me. We should not be hating each other. We should be united together in a hatred of the St. Louis Drunk Drivers. We should be hating that shiny-shirt douchebag, Ryan Braun. We should be hating Dusty Baker, scourge of young pitchers' arms. We should be hating Aaron Miles.
Sure, some Cubs fans think that RBIs and Wins are useful stats in evaluating a players' value. Some Cubs fans make you wonder if they wouldn't flush a crap down the toilet if someone could convince them it had a high enough WAR. Some Cubs fans ask stupid-ass questions at the Cubs Convention. Some still can't get over Mark DeRosa being gone. Some won't shut the hell up on Twitter during games. You get my point.
We are all insane. We cheer for a team that hasn't won anything of significance since before the Titanic was built and it is causing us to lose our minds. In reality, the most balanced and reasoned Cubs fan is far more bat-shit crazy than Ryan Freel with the midget Farney living in his head.
Clearly, things have been said in the last couple of days (and years apparently) that can not be unsaid because there they all are on archived posts of blogs with a hell of a lot more readers than this one. The only thing that can be done is to go forward with a sense of forgiveness and move the fuck on.
I'll start.
I'm sorry, Paul Sullivan. I never should have implied to my 700 spambot followers that you are an idiot. It shouldn't have mattered whether your tweet was meant as a personal tweet or a representation of your job as a beat reporter. Two wrongs do not make a right and I should not have reacted so childishly to being blocked from a twitter feed. I thought it was funny, but I now realize that it was wrong to call you an asshole for the sake of entertainment.
I'm sorry, Bad Kermit. I'm sorry you have been forced to change Paul's bedpan as he has been incapacitated by the sharpness of my wit. At least I assume that is why you reacted as strongly as you did. Whatever the reason, I attacked one of your friends and drew your ire and that has resulted in other Cubs bloggers attacking you and calling you some nasty names. I'll buy you a beer sometime and then we can be friends. Oh hell, pizza too.
Then there are the bystanders that jumped in front of bullets or spoke out in support of my right to call Paul an asshole. I'm sorry this incident has drawn so much fire on you and that old wounds have been re-opened because of a stupid post.
Lastly, I'm sorry to all the companies in this struggling economy that lost far too much productivity over a tweet. I'm hoping this does not plunge us back into a recession, or God forbid, a world war.
I'd apologize to President Obama too, but you know what? He's a Sox fan, so fuck that.
I'm not telling anyone how to be a good Cubs fan or how to run your blogs or twitter accounts. I am BEGGING you to just stop hating each other.
Go Cubs.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Cubs and Theriot Disagree About Value of Scrappiness
It's a little difficult to sit down to write a post today because of all the swelling and bleeding caused by friends of Paul Sullivan (who knew?) but damn it, I'm dedicated and not terribly bright, so I shall push on.
If we can't agree that Paul Sullivan is lame then can we at least all agree that the Cubs are not good at many things?
Don't get me wrong. They are good at some things. They are good at raising ticket prices. They are good at marketing lousy teams. They are good at creating propaganda intended to make us believe that prospects like Hee Seop Choi are good at playing baseball. They are also good at not taking their players through the horrible process of a baseball arbitration hearing.
They have not actually gone into one of these hearings with a player since 1993 with Mark Grace. The reason for this is pretty simple. The Cubs seem to understand that going to an arbitration hearing with a player will rarely end well.
Once a player and a team pass the point of no return and go to the hearing, the arbitrators who hear the case do not decide on a compromised salary. They pick a winner and a loser. So the hearing consists of the player and his agent talking about how awesome the player is and how much he deserves the salary submitted by the player, and then the GM and his team present evidence to prove, that no, that player is not awesome and he should only get paid the low amount submitted by the team.
The Cubs and Ryan Theriot are heading down the road to that very scenario. He'll sit there and his agent will point out that Theriot has led the league in singles the last two years, that he has stolen more than 20 bases for three staright years, he has been difficult to strike out, and that he has started at shortstop since 2007 for a team that couldn't find a shortstop to save its life for years. They will go on and on about how scrappy Theriot is and how he is the first Cubs prospect to manage to stay relevant on the Cubs' major league roster since Mark Grace.
Then Hendry and his boys will bring up Theriot's lack of baserunning instincts that have led to his crappy stolen base percentage, his rising number of strikeouts because he mistakenly now believes he is a power hitter, his complete lack of range, arm strength, or decision making ability at the shortstop position, and his inability to be a normal sized person.
It won't be pretty.
Even if Theriot manages to win the case (and the consensus seems to be that he will lose), it makes for some awkward moments afterwards.
It seems odd that the Cubs would choose to go to war with a player during their year of rebuilding a happy, clappy clubhouse atmosphere again, but it is also odd that Theriot somehow thinks he is worth $3.4 million.
My guess is that the two sides will come to some sort of agreement. They managed to work out a deal with Zambrano a couple of years ago on the way to the hearing room right before the case, so they won't get bothered by the deadline of a hearing date that will happen on February 8th at the very earliest.
But if both sides keep their heels dug in and they do go to the hearing, Theriot's days as a Cub could be numbered. A soured relationship with management combined with a rising star shortstop in the minors could end up getting Theriot traded. Maybe not this year, but let's face it, he is one of the few Cubs with any value that doesn't have a no trade clause, so it's not out of the question if this season goes south early on.
Like most of the time he is running the bases, I'm not quite sure what he is thinking.
If we can't agree that Paul Sullivan is lame then can we at least all agree that the Cubs are not good at many things?
Don't get me wrong. They are good at some things. They are good at raising ticket prices. They are good at marketing lousy teams. They are good at creating propaganda intended to make us believe that prospects like Hee Seop Choi are good at playing baseball. They are also good at not taking their players through the horrible process of a baseball arbitration hearing.
They have not actually gone into one of these hearings with a player since 1993 with Mark Grace. The reason for this is pretty simple. The Cubs seem to understand that going to an arbitration hearing with a player will rarely end well.
Once a player and a team pass the point of no return and go to the hearing, the arbitrators who hear the case do not decide on a compromised salary. They pick a winner and a loser. So the hearing consists of the player and his agent talking about how awesome the player is and how much he deserves the salary submitted by the player, and then the GM and his team present evidence to prove, that no, that player is not awesome and he should only get paid the low amount submitted by the team.
The Cubs and Ryan Theriot are heading down the road to that very scenario. He'll sit there and his agent will point out that Theriot has led the league in singles the last two years, that he has stolen more than 20 bases for three staright years, he has been difficult to strike out, and that he has started at shortstop since 2007 for a team that couldn't find a shortstop to save its life for years. They will go on and on about how scrappy Theriot is and how he is the first Cubs prospect to manage to stay relevant on the Cubs' major league roster since Mark Grace.
Then Hendry and his boys will bring up Theriot's lack of baserunning instincts that have led to his crappy stolen base percentage, his rising number of strikeouts because he mistakenly now believes he is a power hitter, his complete lack of range, arm strength, or decision making ability at the shortstop position, and his inability to be a normal sized person.
It won't be pretty.
Even if Theriot manages to win the case (and the consensus seems to be that he will lose), it makes for some awkward moments afterwards.
It seems odd that the Cubs would choose to go to war with a player during their year of rebuilding a happy, clappy clubhouse atmosphere again, but it is also odd that Theriot somehow thinks he is worth $3.4 million.
My guess is that the two sides will come to some sort of agreement. They managed to work out a deal with Zambrano a couple of years ago on the way to the hearing room right before the case, so they won't get bothered by the deadline of a hearing date that will happen on February 8th at the very earliest.
But if both sides keep their heels dug in and they do go to the hearing, Theriot's days as a Cub could be numbered. A soured relationship with management combined with a rising star shortstop in the minors could end up getting Theriot traded. Maybe not this year, but let's face it, he is one of the few Cubs with any value that doesn't have a no trade clause, so it's not out of the question if this season goes south early on.
Like most of the time he is running the bases, I'm not quite sure what he is thinking.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Getting to Know: Marlon Byrd
Position: Centerfield
Batting Order Position: Fifth
Bats/Throws: Right/Right
Opening Day Age: 33
Uniform Number: 24
Has he ever fallen on his face while playing baseball?: Yes.
Apparently, last September, he knocked himself silly while running out a ground ball. According to ESPN:
"The Rangers' cleanup hitter fell flat on his face behind first base after failing to beat out his inning-ending ground ball to shortstop. Byrd got up gingerly and walked toward center field, but nearly collapsed while the Rangers' training staff attempted to help."
Is Victor Conte in his contacts list?: Yes.
A very interesting story by Steve Henson at Yahoo! Sports revealed that Marlon is a current customer of the former BALCO owner, who now does business under the name Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC).
"Byrd’s daily regimen normally doesn’t waver. He takes Aerobitine before batting practice, then again shortly before the game along with two or three Vitalize pills. He takes ZMA when he returns to his hotel room for the night.
An hour before games, Byrd also takes a special formula Conte calls a pre-competition packet that includes six capsules, two powders and a sublingual dosage of the cell fuel adenosine triphosphate (ATP) obtained from a lab in the Ukraine."
Conte has strenuously pointed out that no customers of SNAC have ever tested positive for PEDs currently banned by the MLB.
Baseball-Reference.com's Most Similar Batter: Reed Johnson (weird, huh?)
Why we might like him:
- He is really similar to Reed Johnson.
- He has had three straight seasons with an OPS over .800
- Doug Glanville says, "Marlon is a battler. He's got a great work ethic. This is a guy who I worked with tirelessly in spring training. We talked a lot. He can run it down (in center field). He makes his routes. He's very precise, goes hard after everything. He's a grinder."
- He is really similar to Reed Johnson and will be playing every day.
- He has never had a season OPS over .800 when not playing home games in the exremely hitter-friendly Ballpark in Arlington.
- Keith Law says, "He replaces Milton Bradley and Bradley's replacements, but even with the off year Bradley was more productive for the Cubs on a rate basis than Byrd was in Texas."
What Cubs Blogosphere Thinks of Him:
- The Cub Reporter - "Decent offensive production for center fielder, terrifying home/road splits over the last 3 years including a major drop in power, walks way too little and at best an average center fielder. Feel the excitement."
- Another Cubs Blog - "There were cries from a majority of Cubs fans about Byrd's contract, which is only 3 years and $15 million. I was disappointed to see such a reaction to not only a very small amount of money these days, but to a contract that was obviously a good one for the Cubs... He's worth nearly $10 million in 2010 and paid only $3 million."
- Bleed Cubbie Blue - "He wasn't my first, second or third choice. All we can do is hope that the next three years will be a repeat of Byrd's 2008 and 2009 seasons. Otherwise this is a waste of money."
- Desipio - "It’s not that Marlon Byrd is a terrible player, he’s not. He’s also not that good. He’s not a guy you need to sign in December, and he’s sure as hell not a guy you need to give a three year contract to."
Moving On
I'm not sure about anybody else, but I'm pretty tired of talking about Paul Sullivan and whether he is good at his job or even at being a normal human being with common decency. The fact of the matter is that without access to his Twitter feed, I will rarely know what he has written and will therefore probably never end up on his Trib stories, and he won't get the three members of my family that would go to his stories from links that I may have placed here.
It isn't a tragic loss to my world nor his, but it does make one wonder: If Paul Sullivan bitched about Milton Bradley in a forest and everyone was blocked from hearing it, would anyone give a shit?
More importantly, the time for an unfounded sense of hope and faith in the Cubs is upon us. This is the time when it is most reasonable to believe that Alfonso Soriano can come close to earning all that cash Hendry shoveled at him. This is the time when we can believe with all of our hearts that Randy Wells is not a one year wonder. This is the time when we can visualize Jeff Baker becoming a productive every day player.
Marlon Byrd can patrol centerfield. Theriot will start to take walks again. Rudy Jaramillo will fix everyone's swings. Marmol will throw strikes. Samardzija will emerge as a legitimate member of the pitching staff and not just a hairdo that makes the ladies blush and giggle. Lilly's shoulder will be fine. Lee will not stop hitting like he's twenty-eight years old. Ramirez's arm won't fall off again.
Deep down we know that at least half of those things will not come true, but we have a whole season to come to grips with harsh realities. We feel there is plenty of time to wait for the first debilitating injury or inexplicable slump of death. We do not want to believe that major failure by at least one of the key members of this team is almost inevitable.
The Spring is a time when fans can prepare themselves for the rigors of the season much as the players, umpires, and announcers do. We can gear up for the rollercoaster ride of emotions that awaits us as the season unfolds with its many twists and turns.
We, here at Aisle 424, will endeavor to provide some useful tidbits over the next few weeks about the members of our 2010 Chicago Cubs to help prepare for the road ahead. We will attempt to highlight the reasons we could end up loving a player enough that we would agree to name our unborn children after him, and we will also investigate why we could end up hating a player more than Paul Sullivan hates spinach. (See what I did there? I went the other way.) We will also attempt to stop writing in the third person and coming off as an arrogant ass.
I'm hoping to have the first post up sometime tonight or early tomorrow. Until then, please enjoy two random pictures that have no relationship to each other in any way.
It isn't a tragic loss to my world nor his, but it does make one wonder: If Paul Sullivan bitched about Milton Bradley in a forest and everyone was blocked from hearing it, would anyone give a shit?
More importantly, the time for an unfounded sense of hope and faith in the Cubs is upon us. This is the time when it is most reasonable to believe that Alfonso Soriano can come close to earning all that cash Hendry shoveled at him. This is the time when we can believe with all of our hearts that Randy Wells is not a one year wonder. This is the time when we can visualize Jeff Baker becoming a productive every day player.
Marlon Byrd can patrol centerfield. Theriot will start to take walks again. Rudy Jaramillo will fix everyone's swings. Marmol will throw strikes. Samardzija will emerge as a legitimate member of the pitching staff and not just a hairdo that makes the ladies blush and giggle. Lilly's shoulder will be fine. Lee will not stop hitting like he's twenty-eight years old. Ramirez's arm won't fall off again.
Deep down we know that at least half of those things will not come true, but we have a whole season to come to grips with harsh realities. We feel there is plenty of time to wait for the first debilitating injury or inexplicable slump of death. We do not want to believe that major failure by at least one of the key members of this team is almost inevitable.
The Spring is a time when fans can prepare themselves for the rigors of the season much as the players, umpires, and announcers do. We can gear up for the rollercoaster ride of emotions that awaits us as the season unfolds with its many twists and turns.
We, here at Aisle 424, will endeavor to provide some useful tidbits over the next few weeks about the members of our 2010 Chicago Cubs to help prepare for the road ahead. We will attempt to highlight the reasons we could end up loving a player enough that we would agree to name our unborn children after him, and we will also investigate why we could end up hating a player more than Paul Sullivan hates spinach. (See what I did there? I went the other way.) We will also attempt to stop writing in the third person and coming off as an arrogant ass.
I'm hoping to have the first post up sometime tonight or early tomorrow. Until then, please enjoy two random pictures that have no relationship to each other in any way.
Monday, February 1, 2010
It Is My Subjective Opinion That Paul Sullivan is an Asshole
Today started like any other day. I came to work, I started running down my to do list and checking some items off, which is always nice. I had some lunch and checked out my Twitter feed to see what was going on.
Let's see, something about the NCAA letting every basketball team that exists into the final tournament, the Bears managed to find someone too arrogant to realize that the offensive coordinator position in Chicago is a death trap, some coach with an apparent anger management problem drills one of his own volleyball players in the head with a volleyball during a match (from @JerodMSF at MidwestSportsFans.com), and Joe Mauer is about to sign a deal to stay with the Twins for the rest of his life.
Then I saw a tweet from Mr. Paul Sullivan, the Chicago Tribune's beat writer for the Cubs:
I checked out his Twitter feed and looked for references to any of those players. Milton Bradley was referred to nineteen times in the last two months with such phrases as "deadbeat," "really bad idea," and "overpriced" peppered into his descriptions. Aaron Miles was mentioned once, two months ago. None of the other departed players was mentioned even in passing, so it seems we have a more than likely target for Sullivan's name-calling.
Still, there was one other possibility, so I thought I should make sure Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune wasn't engaging in petty name-calling of a player that he covered as an objective sportswriter. I thought some due diligence was required before accusing him of being more of a child than my girlfriend's three-year old niece. So, to be sure he wasn't just being self-deprecating, I tweeted back to him:
"Did you go somewhere? RT @PWSullivan: One idiot gone, one idiot en route."
Within a couple of hours, I noticed that Sullivan's tweets had disappeared from my feed. I checked and found I had been blocked. I guess Paul didn't like being mistaken for an idiot despite the fact that he had absolutely no problem at all in publicly calling another person an idiot.
Maybe Paul doesn't understand that there is a difference between being a columnist and a beat writer. Maybe he doesn't get that a beat writer needs to stay fairly objective. Maybe he thought he was free to go off on a rant on one of the players if he so chooses.
No, that's not it. I found an interview SportsNutz.com did with Paul back in 2005 (The interviewer calls himself The Heckler, so its possible there is some copyright infringement with the real Heckler, but that is for another day):
There is one last possible scenario where Paul Sullivan has remained objective and not resorted to petty name-calling. I looked up the definition of "idiot" and found that there are indeed two accepted definitions:
1. an utterly foolish or senseless person.
2. Psychology. a person of the lowest order in a former classification of mental retardation, having a mental age of less than three years old and an intelligence quotient under 25.
Accepting the first definition would require that the user of the word would have made some subjective conclusions about the person they are referring to. The second is an objective (though outdated) term reserved for those with extreme mental handicaps and a measured IQ under 25. Maybe Paul has some test results that show that Milton Bradley actually is a severely mentally disabled individual.
That would indeed be news. If it were true. Otherwise, it is libelous. Or he was just being a subjective dickhead and calling someone names disguised as journalism when he knows that person isn't going to read what he writes. I'll miss his classy words of wisdom.
UPDATE
Another fine blogger and fellow Paul Sullivan-blocked tweeter, Wrigleyville23, asked Paul Sullivan's editor, Mike Kellams about Sullivan's latest tweet. Specifically, he asked if Kellams felt it was acceptable for a beat writer to refer to the people he covers as idiots.
Mr. Kellams did respond via an e-mail to WV23:
I believe a lot of things.
I believe Chicago is a big place with tough people – or least I thought we were – and this is pretty tame.
I also believe a guy who can’t keep track of outs, a guy who was sent home by his GM (who was then applauded for his actions by the player’s former teammates), a guy who checked out early on his rent, might well fit the description.
I also believe readers who don’t sign their names yet demand publicly accountability by others might also fit the description.
Not saying. Just saying.
Have a great day, Mr. Ville23. Is that a family name?
Best,
Mike
So, it is OK to insult people as an objective journalist as long as the insult is tame and also, Bradley really is an idiot.
It is also OK to insult people who write under a pseudonym because they are obviously not decent human beings themselves.
Well, Mr. Kellam and Mr. Sullivan, my name is Tim McGinnis and I think you are both cheap hacks who are desperately trying to hold onto jobs in a dying medium by being dicks to the players they cover and the few readers they have left. You can find me in Aisle 424 on most game days.
Let's see, something about the NCAA letting every basketball team that exists into the final tournament, the Bears managed to find someone too arrogant to realize that the offensive coordinator position in Chicago is a death trap, some coach with an apparent anger management problem drills one of his own volleyball players in the head with a volleyball during a match (from @JerodMSF at MidwestSportsFans.com), and Joe Mauer is about to sign a deal to stay with the Twins for the rest of his life.
Then I saw a tweet from Mr. Paul Sullivan, the Chicago Tribune's beat writer for the Cubs:
"One idiot gone, one idiot en route. Former leader of Boston's '04 "Idiots" signs minor league deal with Cubs. http//bit.ly/9Dbnak"Obviously, the idiot that is en route is Kevin Millar, but the identity of the idiot that is gone was left to our imagination. Of course, the most likely candidates for the identity of the idiot would seem to be departed Cubs: Kevin Gregg, Aaron Miles, Jake Fox, Neal Cotts, Reed Johnson, Rich Harden, or Milton Bradley.
I checked out his Twitter feed and looked for references to any of those players. Milton Bradley was referred to nineteen times in the last two months with such phrases as "deadbeat," "really bad idea," and "overpriced" peppered into his descriptions. Aaron Miles was mentioned once, two months ago. None of the other departed players was mentioned even in passing, so it seems we have a more than likely target for Sullivan's name-calling.
Still, there was one other possibility, so I thought I should make sure Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune wasn't engaging in petty name-calling of a player that he covered as an objective sportswriter. I thought some due diligence was required before accusing him of being more of a child than my girlfriend's three-year old niece. So, to be sure he wasn't just being self-deprecating, I tweeted back to him:
"Did you go somewhere? RT @PWSullivan: One idiot gone, one idiot en route."
Within a couple of hours, I noticed that Sullivan's tweets had disappeared from my feed. I checked and found I had been blocked. I guess Paul didn't like being mistaken for an idiot despite the fact that he had absolutely no problem at all in publicly calling another person an idiot.
Maybe Paul doesn't understand that there is a difference between being a columnist and a beat writer. Maybe he doesn't get that a beat writer needs to stay fairly objective. Maybe he thought he was free to go off on a rant on one of the players if he so chooses.
No, that's not it. I found an interview SportsNutz.com did with Paul back in 2005 (The interviewer calls himself The Heckler, so its possible there is some copyright infringement with the real Heckler, but that is for another day):
[The Heckler]: Does being the beat writer for the team instead of a columnist affect you as far as the questions you ask the players, since you see them everyday?That's one hell of an effort you made last year, Paul. I'd hate to see what kind of poisonous bile would get published if you weren't making such a valiant effort to be objective.
[Paul Sullivan]: I don’t think people understand the difference between a columnist and a beat writer. A beat writer is supposed to be fairly objective. Obviously if I was totally objective it would be pretty boring, but I think most of it is based on the premise of objectivity. A columnist can say whatever he wants. He can go off on a rant against one of the players. I’ve got to deal with the players, so I try to get along with everyone if I can. It’s not always possible, but I think I make an effort.
There is one last possible scenario where Paul Sullivan has remained objective and not resorted to petty name-calling. I looked up the definition of "idiot" and found that there are indeed two accepted definitions:
1. an utterly foolish or senseless person.
2. Psychology. a person of the lowest order in a former classification of mental retardation, having a mental age of less than three years old and an intelligence quotient under 25.
Accepting the first definition would require that the user of the word would have made some subjective conclusions about the person they are referring to. The second is an objective (though outdated) term reserved for those with extreme mental handicaps and a measured IQ under 25. Maybe Paul has some test results that show that Milton Bradley actually is a severely mentally disabled individual.
That would indeed be news. If it were true. Otherwise, it is libelous. Or he was just being a subjective dickhead and calling someone names disguised as journalism when he knows that person isn't going to read what he writes. I'll miss his classy words of wisdom.
UPDATE
Another fine blogger and fellow Paul Sullivan-blocked tweeter, Wrigleyville23, asked Paul Sullivan's editor, Mike Kellams about Sullivan's latest tweet. Specifically, he asked if Kellams felt it was acceptable for a beat writer to refer to the people he covers as idiots.
Mr. Kellams did respond via an e-mail to WV23:
I believe a lot of things.
I believe Chicago is a big place with tough people – or least I thought we were – and this is pretty tame.
I also believe a guy who can’t keep track of outs, a guy who was sent home by his GM (who was then applauded for his actions by the player’s former teammates), a guy who checked out early on his rent, might well fit the description.
I also believe readers who don’t sign their names yet demand publicly accountability by others might also fit the description.
Not saying. Just saying.
Have a great day, Mr. Ville23. Is that a family name?
Best,
Mike
So, it is OK to insult people as an objective journalist as long as the insult is tame and also, Bradley really is an idiot.
It is also OK to insult people who write under a pseudonym because they are obviously not decent human beings themselves.
Well, Mr. Kellam and Mr. Sullivan, my name is Tim McGinnis and I think you are both cheap hacks who are desperately trying to hold onto jobs in a dying medium by being dicks to the players they cover and the few readers they have left. You can find me in Aisle 424 on most game days.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Bye Bye 2009 (for real this time)
I was bumbling around the tubes of the interwebs and stumbled upon this video of a Cubs parody of Don McClean's American Pie. This would have been more appropriate closer to New Years, but I think it still seems like a good way to once and for all put the past season behind and start gearing up for new disappointment in 2010.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
