Biggest Sportsperson Disappointment...

Curt Schilling was a Boston deity, now he’s a loon stealing like…

Oh, Brett Favre.

And, Aaron Rodgers is fucking weird.

 

Unfortunate circumstances for Clint. He went to the 1978 Royals, hit a ball in the fountains in his first game and off he went.

He also played for two of the worst managers a “phenom” could play for. Whitey Herzog and then Jim Frey. Old-school bosses who always had their favorites. Because the Royals were so good, Hurdle would platoon in right. Add in the alcohol issues on a team with some world-class substance issues and that was a bad mix.

On a personal note, here is what Clint once did for me.

It’s 2000. My aunt is in a cancer fight and she loved Clint Hurdle when she lived in Kansas City. I buy a 1978 SI with Clint on the cover. I imagine he would want nothing to do with it but, hey, it was $4 on eBay.

He’s the hitting coach for the Rockies back the. I mail it to him with a note about my aunt’s cancer battle.

Within a week, I get it back.

Hurdle signs the cover. Signs the article with a personalized note to my aunt. He also, on Rockies stationary, writes a 400-word inspirational note on how she can fight this health battle and thanking her for being a fan.

“I should have had spent more time with fans like you in Kansas City!” is the line I always remember.

Fan for life here.

 

What happens to male athletic phenoms when they discover girls?

 

At risk of a hijack, what I’ve enjoyed is with connecting with former players who weren’t HOF or even All-Stars.

Guys who are like 70 or 75 now. Maybe they had a good, ten-year run in the pros. The ones I reach out to seem appreciative that a guy who isn’t a psycho appreciates an old fan recognizing their glory days.

 

That's a great story. Clint was always tremendous to deal with as Pirates manager. Good, informative, non-condescending answers to any query. He was well-informed about and fully invested in the entire organization...just the kind of guy a team should want as its manager. He deserved a lot better than what he got from Bob Nutting, but that's the case for literally everyone who has ever worked for any of his newspapers or rooted for his team.

 

You're on to something with your last sentence.

We, as an industry, have to admit our role in creating the narrative for busts.

I predominantly cover college sports. My first year as a college beat writer, the (mid-major) basketball program I covered at the time signed a three-star prospect. Unusual for them as they sucked. Player was Mr. Basketball in his state, etc.

I played up the whole three-star thing in stories before he played a game. Fans were amped, partly because of the three-star thing I kept writing about.

He had a decent career, but wasn't a program-changer, as the team didn't have a winning season in his career. Fans called him a bust, which was ridiculous, he was often their best player. He was sometimes booed. Wasn't his fault they recruited very badly around him.

I felt responsible for setting him up only to have him "fail" a standard that was subjective in the first place. I vowed I would not play that game anymore.

To this day, and this holds true for the major program I cover now, I will not use star ratings. I will couch it in terms of "highly-touted" recruit, but I still think the star ratings are total bullshit and they play an out-size role in creating a narrative that may or may not have any relationship to reality.

You can apply the same standard to whatever version of the same dynamic occurs in whatever the appropriate sport is. There's a whole cottage industry devoted to hyping up recruits/prospects, etc.

Then? There's the whole cottage industry devoted to calling out busts. Sometimes? It's the same people who did the hyping in the first place.

It's bullshit. It's one pillar of distrust among viewers/readers I happen to agree with. We often have it both ways without pointing the finger at ourselves in the process.

 

You're doing your readers a disservice. The first thing I want to know when my team lands a recruit is "how many stars?"

You don't have to belabor it or refer to it beyond the time when he commits or signs. But it is something people want to know.

And while it may not be scientifically precise, it's not complete bullshit, either.

2023 College Football Team Talent Composite

 

Disagree. And it is hardly a "disservice". It's a subjective standard, but unfortunately, it sets the standard, so whether you belabor it or not, the die is already cast. It's a first impression that players never really escape.

 

Your job is to give the readers what they want, not what you believe they should have.

 

OK cool. I'll just write fawning fan-boy pieces, because that's what most readers want.

 

The college basketball hype stuff brings to mind Damon Bailey. He had a very good career at IU, but would've had to average 30 points a game and win three NCAA titles to live up to what was expected coming out of Bedford.

Also, I covered major college football and basketball recruiting for a few years. It was fucking awful. The stuff that goes on? You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.