Woody Paige leaving Denver Post

Can someone explain to me why the top sports columnists are all complete and utter aholes?

 

That's what you got from reading that? And "all"? Hmmm. Yes, many major columnists have huge egos, as do many successful people in any business.

 

Paige, Lupica, Simers, Plaschke, Shank, Mariotti, Bayless. All outright aholes or sanctimonious aholes. A more miserable group of people you couldn't find.

 

I think you're wrong about Plaschke. I always found him to be a good guy at events. Maybe he comes off otherwise on TV. I couldn't say; I never watch the shouting-journalist shows.

But Simers, yeah. However bad you hear or think he was — he was worse.

 

are you referring to them as a-holes based on their writing or from knowing them in person? I worked alongside Plaschke and Simers for many years. While you can sense the ego when speaking with Simers, I didn't see him to be a-hole. Plaschke was as very easy-going and friendly every time I saw him or covered a game that he was at. I never thought of him as an a-hole and still don't. The others I don't know in person but I can see where their on-air or in-print persona can come across very a-holish.

 

I may be lumping Simers and Plaschke together. Plaschke did the screaming head thing on ESPN, but was it Simers who outright stated he went into the Dodgers clubhouse to piss off players? And wasn't Simers the Luddite who attacked DePodesta for using math?

And I forgot the fraud in Detroit who writes crappy books.

 

Have we been transported back to 1995?

 

Taking Woodystock: The larger-than-life sportswriter who changed the game | John Moore

 

Can someone explain how stupid or smart these people actually are?

Screaming A. Smith is annoying, but he makes a point and is self aware. Dan Shaughnessy I find terrible, but he doesn't strike me as outright dumb.

There are other people for whom I cannot fathom how they managed to write 8 paragraphs in English on a daily basis. Yet, they go on.

I realize angry sports columnists have existed for a long time, but how do such empty voices rise to the top?

 

I personally liked Woody Paige the one time I met him when he came to speak to my high school journalism class in 1974-1975. Paige became very popular in Denver when he hit town for a couple reasons.

1. A hell of a lot of people read papers.
2. Paige tried to be like Mike Royko. While obviously not as talented as Royko (no one was) Paige tried to write columns that attracted attention and stirred controversy. It is impossible to describe how bad the sports columnists for the Post and the News were at the time (Dick Connor was still mostly a Broncos beat reporter). Paige became very popular very quickly.
3. Paige was durable. He stayed mostly in the Denver market for at least 40 years. A lot of other sports columnists passed through. Marrioti and Simers were only in the market briefly. Kravitz stayed a while longer. But Woody was almost always there.