Cleveland sportswriters

I was thinking strictly papers and forgot AP. You're dead on with Withers. Another reason why this list is ridiculous.

Bob August also is worthy.

 

Terry Pluto has been named Ohio Sportswriter of the Year eight times and has written a couple dozen books and ranks only tenth on the list.

But the guy who edited this sports book is the best Cleveland-area sportswriter.

Bill Livingston should be embarrassed.

And what a slam on Paul Hoynes. If you're going to discredit Hoynes for having just average baseball knowledge after 25 years, you need to move Grossi up. I think he knows his football nuts + bolts.

Ingraham's overrated. I think he's bored with covering the Indians. His articles take a long and winding path to their destination. Quite often the view's the same as the last one.

 

Livy wins in the category for big words and elastic-band warmup suits. I agree with TSP, almost hard to believe he'd allow that. Almost.

 

1. Shallow Gal is right. ABJ courted Withers to replace McManamon on Browns, but he passed. Or so the story goes.
2. "Best since 1980" almost seems designed to leave the Lebovitzes out. Although obviously he's a Cleveland (and Sporting News) legend.
3. Shaw is underrated, but Pluto's got the bigger beef, although . . .
4. What is the purpose of this list? Do fans of Cleveland sports really care if Greg Brinda thinks Jason Lloyd is better than Paul Hoynes? I'm not sure I get it.

 

Normally I wouldn't care much about something so trivial, but I've read these guys for too many years to bite my tongue. To rate Pluto No. 10 and Livvy No. 1 is a ridiculous. Pluto is 10 times the columnist Livvy is. Pluto connects with the Cleveland/Akron readership for which he writes in a way Livvy never has or could.

Pluto writes from the heart. Livvy writes from the dictionary. If you read these guys regularly, you know what I'm talking about.

Pluto is a columnist who still reports (he covered the Cavs and Indians beats before taking a column), and is well-sourced. He's THE must read in Cleveland, especially his Sunday notes column.

Livvy comes across as the guy who writes snidely from some Ivory press box, but his column ideas are unimaginative, his observations mundane, his reporting rarely apparent and his prose forced.

Writing is subjective, of course. But ask Cleveland sports fans who the better columnist is, and you'll find few Livvy backers. My friends in Cleveland who read The PD have wanted Livvy to retire for years. He and Shaw seem like nice guys, but they form the worst major-market columnist duo in the nation, and they've been that for a long time.

For Livvy to write a book in which he's rated No. 1 and Pluto is ranked No. 10 makes Livvy seem small. It's wishful -- and misguided -- thinking on Livvy's part.

And no, I'm not Terry Pluto, one of his friends, or his mother.

 

In an era where popularity of newspapers has diminished, Pluto still carries that tag of "people turning to the PD sports page to read his columns."

 

Left out George Sweda of the PD, one helluva golf writer.

 

No love for the late Chuck Heaton? Didn't he keep working up until the mid-'90s?

Guy's got a plaque in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

 

I thought the same thing, but I guess there's a caveat of only living writers. Somebody above mentioned Hal Lebovitz not being included because of that.

Another reason why this list is so moronic.

 

I'll tell you what, I just got ahold of this book, and apart from this stupid list (which was put together by some guy from Toledo, so what does he know), it's chock full of awesome Cleveland sports lists:

* My toughest opponents by Jim Brown
* Top 10 fights I promoted by Don King
* My top Cavs memories by Wayne Embry
* LeBron's 10 favorite teams
* Top 10 players from different area high schools
* Ten false saviors

And a hundred more.

Required reading for any Cleveland sports fan. And, without reading it, on the top 10 of any list of books about Cleveland sports.

 

John Gugger...a name that tormented my childhood.

The day I grew up was the day the Browns cut Bernie Kosar and my poor little life crumbled. I still have the newspapers from that day, and there was Gugger's column on the front of the Blade's sports section. It's seared into my head

"Belichick Makes The Right Move And Proves He's The Man."

To my fifth-grade heart, that was the most painful thing I could've ever read. Hated the guy ever since.

 

Gugger is and always has been a pompous hack. C'mon, if he was so good he'd have been out of Toledo pretty early on.