'Bloody Monday at Kansas City Star'

Kent Pulliam covered the Chiefs for most of the Marty Era and then moved to Kansas State for a couple of the Snyder glory years (late 1990s).

Great guy. Great resource to a young reporter who was learning every day and asked journalism questions to Kent nearly every day.

 

I keep a file on my desktop called Boyceisms. Hyperbole wasn't just a part of David's verbal repertoire. It was his forte. As restrained as he was in print -- everyone who knows David begs for him to let his humor out in his writing, and he refuses out of respect for the athletes he never stopped admiring -- the bullshit that flowed from Boyce's mouth is legendary in volume and stench.

Alex Gordon would hit a double in the second inning.

"That guy's the next George Brett," David would say. "Hall of Famer."

He'd pop out in the fifth inning.

"Send him back to Omaha," David would say.

"Wait," either me or Melly would say, and we always played along, because David needed a straight man. He'd tell us we were young and didn't know any better, and with me, at least, he was right. At 23, I had no business in a baseball press box, and yet David took me in, invited me to hoop on Fridays, drank with me at the Quaff and always -- always -- kept me honest.

It was hard enough to hear about Gene Wolowski and Jeff Flanagan. And now Fitz and Peds and Kent, three of the kindest men I've known, truly good souls. But Boyce? Really?

That Fannin had to deliver the news to the man who churned out more bylines for him than anyone is gut-wrenching. Fannin is everything that my colleagues and peers say and more -- a mad genius. I turned in a disaster of a story once. It was late, and it was 50 inches long, and he had no time to work his magic. I had just met the woman I'd marry. I was spending a lot of time with her. Fannin berated me, told me I sucked and delivered the words I hope adorn my tombstone: "Passan, I've got four words of advice for you: Fuck less, write more."

Click.

A few months later, when I told him I really loved her, he hugged me and said he hoped we'd be married for 50 years.

I've read the threads on the Rocky and the P-I, and they're inspiring: the way that in the face of this abject sadness -- our bedrock medium crumbling as we scramble to keep it standing -- we lift each other with the things we use best, words. Still, this feels like a wake that doesn't end; it just disappears for a few months, and we try to dream it away.

One more story, if I may. David, as Shandel noted, fancies himself an athlete. For two years, he yammered on about how if we were to run the Hot Dog Race at Kauffman Stadium, he'd beat me and Melly. In August, we strapped on these asinine costumes and toddled out to the field. The crowd buzzed. The starting music sounded. David lingered back in third place before he kicked like Secretariat. Went right by me. Had Melly not so blatantly dumped the costume shoes and run in his bare feet, David would have easily won.

And he knew that. Afterward, I asked him if he was happy with the race. He shrugged it off.

"This is nothing," David said. "I could've been in the major leagues. I just didn't want to keep anyone else from having the opportunity."

 

This just sucks all around. Embarrassing for the newspaper.
Great posts about the reporters let go, but it almost seems like it's a funeral.
The tributes are great, but very very depressing. I hope Fannin if he is as great as everybody on here says stays in contact with each and every one of these people let go in this purge and others and ones in the future and doesn't rest until they land on their feet.

What is going to happen to these high paid editors when all these major metros go all online? I can't imagine them still having jobs. The Internet is a different animal. How many blogs at your newspapers go unedited. How much breaking news goes unedited. Tell the truth. It takes a lot of editors to organize the daily print miracle and Sunday print miracle and special sections. Not so many to work on the internet edition.
Hope these sports editors realize their futures are as bleak as the peons.

 

Great stuff Passan.

I hope he lands softly and fast.

 

By the way, I'm hearing that the one of the layoffs from the Olathe News staff was a sports reporter who damn near died of bacterial meningitis in college a few years ago. He barely recovered but is now permanently disabled.

He still managed to make his way back into sportswriting, and after working at a weekly for a short time got hired on at the Olathe News to cover high school sports. Kept a great spirit even after seeing the absolute shit hole of what life has to offer.

McClatchey kicked his ass to the curb.

 

And Boyce was like the Antoine Walker of Friday hoops at Tomahawk Ridge. The man never found a three-pointer he didn't like. Half court? No problem.
Good luck, man.
Wings at the Peanut are on me next time I'm in town.

 

That's awful. We worked together at our college paper and he was a hell of a guy. Most people wouldn't have made it through everything he's had to deal with.

 

that's fucking rich.

is there a picture of this guy so we can put a face with the story?

 

His name is Andy Marso and his picture is still on the sports page of the Olathe News site.

http://www.theolathenews.com/103/index.html

 

fuckers.

and thanks.

 

They folded his paper. Should they have not laid him off because he is disabled?

I know the guy. Nice guy. But does someone being disabled change where they stand in the layoff line? I really don't know. Part of me says yes, part says no.

 

Posnanski with a blog post: http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/03/17/good-friends/