Best Current Sports Sections

So are you saying that the Times sucked back then because they went outside and hired Adande?

 

No big-time sports section is as good now as it was in the mid-'80s to mid-'90s.

Setting aside, as if it could be set aside, the devolution/revolution of the business, there are three reasons:
1) Newspapers competed for talent then, at all stations.
2) Columnists became columnists because they had grown up wanting to be columnists. Kornheiser wanted to be Red Smith before he saw how much money Cosell made.
3) You did a single job.

Now:
1) Practically no one recruits a star at any beat, let alone for a column.
2) Young talent grows up wanting to be multi-media stars, with the column being the second rung on about a 6-rung ladder, TV at the top. The newspaper stars -- generally columnists, not always though, with some beat-guy exceptions -- go for the money of radio and TV. No way can Wilbon ever again be a good columnist, no way can Wise give up 20 hrs a week to radio and be good, no way can Hamilton be good after a lifetime inside. Sally is great with the caveat that she lives in NY and her every writerly instinct makes her constitutionally unable to write 3x a week. All that said, give Boz credit -- he hasn't sold out his talent to whore after radio and TV.
3) You blog, you tweet, you video, and God knows what else.

 

At last, a reasonable man.

Here's what's happened to Boswell Baseball left Baltimore (so to speak). He made his reputation writing incredible stuff about the Orioles' great run in the '70 and '80s, but the O's haven't been any good for 20 years now. He had Earl Weaver -- charismatic, quotable, original -- to talk to, a locker room full of interesting guys, and he got to write of heroic deeds. We tend to forget sometimes that no matter how good a writer is -- and Boz is one of the all-timers -- it helps to have good material. How many "The Orioles (or Nationals) Suck" columns can any man write before it begins to suck the life out of him?

 

All due respect to you, Monroe, and to Mr. Gildea who was and is a fine gentleman, but ...

If you don't think Les Carpenter is twice the writer and three times the reporter, then it calls everything else you've said about the rest of the paper into question. At least to me.

 

". . . twice the writer and three times the reporter . . ."

God, that's beautiful. Even Bill -- an understated, modest fellow -- would smile at that.

Read "When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore" sometime. (Maybe there's a Cliff's Notes version if you're pressed for time.) Anyway, it's one of maybe the 10 best books ever written about pro football. And Bill wrote just as well about boxing.

 

Kornheiser stopped caring about his sports column about a decade ago, so while he is a tremendous writer, losing his column was not a big loss.

Wilbon used to be known as the best columnist on deadline, which meant he was the rare superstar columnist who regularly traveled to all the top events (you would be very surprised how rarely this happens anymore) and was almost always a great read. He doesn't do much anymore. It's unfortunate.

Agree on Shenin being one of the best. Agree on Sally Jenkins being one of the best. I haven't read Maese since he was hired to cover the Skins, but he was a steal of a hire.

I asked one of my mentors (an old-school newsie who still reads tons of papers every day) what the best section in the country is right now and he said it was the NYDN and the WP and nobody else was even close.

 

Read it Monroe, thanks. Tremendous book. Now read any 20 of Les' offerings from the past few years. You can be a big Bill Gildea fan without tearing down the best of the new guys. Sounds awfully get-these-kids-the-hell-off-my-lawn to me, to tell the truth.

 

The object of all this isn't to tear anybody down. It's to keep the Post -- on this board at least -- from being turned into the World's Tallest Building.

As for my opinion that Bill Gildea could take Les Carpenter in two out of three falls . . . that's hardly suggesting that Les sucks, is second-rate or isn't worthy of anyone's serious consideration as one of the better takeout guys around. So spare me the generational claptrap. This isn't about Young vs. Old, this is about Good vs. Better. Next thing you know, you're going to say I've got something against people with extremely wavy hair.

 

This is SportsJournalists.com's all-time champ in the category of Stupefying Claims.

 

Another reasonable man heard from. Keep 'em coming.

 

They used to simply abdicate preps coverage to the Rocky. The Rocky did such a good job that there was no sense trying to compete, especially as the Rocky was doing it on a statewide level, which the Post never had an interest in doing. The Rocky was the prep sports headquarters for Colorado -- they did the polls, they compiled the results, they did the standings, all of it.

Haven't seen what the Post is or isn't doing this year, so I can't say if they're living up -- or coming close -- to what the Rocky did. But essentially any preps coverage would be more than what they did have.

 

If you'd like me to start lining up Les' defenders, Monroe -- from outside the Post office, to suit your standard -- this thread could get awfully long in a hurry.

And for the record, you didn't say Gildea could "take Les Carpenter in two out of three falls." You said -- quoting you -- "Is there anybody outside the Post building who doesn't think Les Carpenter is a tradedown from Bill Gildea?" So if you would like to clarify, clarify. But don't pretend you were elegantly making your case. You were taking a cheap shot at a gifted writer.