Best Current Sports Sections

I do have a dog in this fight, so maybe I should just shut up....but the columnist in me wants to stand and shout....so, if I may, let me clarify my own position here. . . I have read Les's stuff regularly the last 3, 4 years...on deadline, on A1, on features done over time, it's all exceptional and it would have been exceptional at any time...but, really...to say Les is twice the writer and three times the reporter Bill was (and is) is to take hyperbole past its reasonable limits....betcha Les would agree to that...

 

I got my Irish up, admittedly, because I fear I did exactly what I'm accusing Monroe of doing, disparaging Gildea to make my point about Carpenter.

 

Time for my annual screed on the word "preps."

Get rid of it. Now. No currently associated with a high school or secondary school sports program, from the principal to the water boy, calls it a "prep" school, unless that word actually is in the proper name of the school. We have 50 schools in our coverage area, public and private, and the word "prep" doesn't appear.

The only reason the word is kept alive is by the desk, because "prep" fits in a one-column sig.

 

Disparaging.

Lincoln was a better president than Washington. There I go again, disparaging somebody. Poor George.

Glad to see you sticking up for the "new guys," Johnny, the "young" guys. What's Les, in his mid-40s now? How long has he been at it professionally, 25 years or so? I first ran into him at the '88 Olympics in Calgary, when he was with the San Jose Mercury-News, if memory serves. So there's almost 22 years right there. But yeah, you've gotta be careful of geezers like me, guys who are old enough to be Les' . . . older brother.

Tradedown = less than. Not crummy. Not a stiff. Not "I wouldn't hire him in a million years." Less than.

 

If you did, Monroe, then you were on some bad 'shrooms in Calgary, since Les was still very much in college then.

Glad to see you took my olive branch and took a dump on it, though. You stay classy.

 

Oh, was that what that was, an olive branch? It looked like an extended middle finger to me. My mistake.

 

Which means you need your eyes checked, in addition to your memory. Enough. My apologies to the rest for the temporary thread-jack. I'll allow Monroe his mandatory retort and leave it be.

 

I don't read the print version every day, and I only occasionally visit the Web site to check up on the happenings back home, but the Lexington Herald-Leader seems to be doing everything and more that it was doing before McClatchy went downhill. The staff writers and columnists produce great blogs online, they still take on some good feature/enterprise material every now and then, and they've pretty well embraced multimedia online. The preps stuff is still the same, and unless I missed something, the staff is basically identical to what it was five years ago.

 

I really enjoy The Denver Post. Since the RMN closed, The Denver Post has stepped up their performance. Their pro sports team coverage from the Broncos, Nuggets and Rockies is very good. It's the paper I read the most in the region I live in.

 

How did we wind up spending 2 pages debating whether the Washington Post was better then than it is now? Of course it was. Practically every newspaper was better then. It was the life of kings.

Sure, they've lost plenty of talent in recent years -- add Rachel (Alexander) Nichols to the list -- but I'll take Sally Jenkins, Barry Svrluga, Dave Sheinin, Mike Wise, Dan Steinberg, Eric Prisbell, Les Carpenter, Mark Maske, et al., any day.

 

Damn. Chico is THAT young? Did not know that. He's solid.

And Steinberg's blog is a must-read every day.

 

"Five or six years ago, it was Dallas hands down. Today, it's nothing but a shell. ... Beyond that, the FWST puts out the superior section in the Metroplex. I like the Cowboys coverage better, and I'll read Galloway over anyone at the DMN."

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When I first moved to the MetroPlex, I took the Fort Worth S-T because of its rep ... and, well, <i>meh</i>. I dropped it because I was thoroughly underwhelmed by its Sports section. Rarely an eye-catching design, predictable columns (and I tired of Galloway's schtick <i>very</i> quickly) and hit-and-miss college/local coverage.

After reading this thread, I picked up both Sunday editions this past weekend and ... <i>meh x 2</i>. Dallas' was better -- a pretty decent separate college FB section and good Cowboys/NFL stuff. S-T's sections mirrored the DMN, but felt flat.

I understand the S-T has been decimated by the McClatchy parring knife, but honestly, I was disappointed and now am a former reader.

Truth be told, I miss the San Antonio section I read when I first moved to Texas -- well written, well designed, lots of local content without sacrificing the national news of import (though its MLB coverage was a little light) and a thoughtful Page 2 specialty page every day. I am told, though, that Hearst cuts have watered it down, too.

<i>*Sigh*</i>