Morrissey on Jerome Holtzman and the Importance of Beat Writers

Nice tribute to Holtzman, but even better tribute to vanishing beat reporters:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/chi-13-morrissey-jerome-holtzmanjul13,0,6751698.column

 

Read this on the wire last night. Enjoyed it very much.

 

That's all well and good, but what does Johnny Marr think of beat writers?

 

Damn, I so wanted to pull the trigger on that.

 

Don't read the comments.

 

Boy, this could have been a really swell tribute to Jerome Holtzman if Morrissey hadn't instead turned it into yet another in an endless series of pointless black-and-white diatribes about evil BLOGS!

Zzzzz...

 

I heard he was the last of the famous, international playboys.

 

I agree. It could have been a lot better to further emphasize what is missing because of the death of the beat writer. A good tribute, yeah, but could have been a lot more.

But judging by the comments, maybe it didn't need to be that.

 

As long as a big difference between mainstream coverage and Web sites -- with the exception of the big boys that Morrissey noted -- is the level of original reporting, I didn't think there was anything pointless or out of line about the distinctions Rick drew.

Obviously, more anecdotes about Holtzman's doggedness and insider-ness would have been interesting for us to read. (I did not read any comments.)

 

The commenters and bloggers don't give a crap about a learned argument. If you even mention the word blog in anything other than the most glorifying, kow-towing terms, you'll be branded forever as a "blog hater." And heaven help you if you ever have a typo for the next hundred years after that.

 

I don't think Morrissey was trying to write a tribute to Holtzman. He had a different agenda. If anyone wants to read a tribute to Holtzman, here's one:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-080726-jerome-holtzman-bob-verdi,0,5773267.column