Deadspin tale about Lupica and Mickelson

little man with a lot of talent who had a column in n.y. in his late 20's. ego began to run amok in the late '80s, i'd say. up until then he was a pleasure to work with, generous and helpful to a youngin' like myself. but big money and the news -- and others -- treating him like an irreplaceable superstar helped do him in.

left the news for "the national," i believe, then went to newsday i believe before the news wooed him back under ridiculous terms. he became bigger than anyone at the paper and let everyone know it.

he's made life miserable for just about every other columnist threat the news has ever put in his path. see: araton, kriegel, olsen, o'connor -- even their beat columnists are frequently "lupica-ed" into a tizzy, when he'll just watch a game from his coach and decide, "i must write this! my voice is better and more important than anyone else's. eff them. i'll write it and their column will get buried."

"the little unit" -- a moniker another news columnist pinned on him around the time randy johnson was commonly known as "the big unit" -- is a sports dept. morale killer. leon carter works for him, not the other way around, which is terrible for eveyone else.

this clear things up for you, jj? ??? ??? ???

 

Gotcha. Thanks. I had read about the Lisa Olson and Mark Kriegel incidents but I didn't really understand just why Lupica has been such an idiot. I know, I know.....as if anyone ever has a good reason to be an idiot.

Next question - why has someone not beaten the crap out of the little bastard yet? They could probably solicit donations to cover all of their ensuing legal costs.

 

Awwww, the little bitch had to rush his precious work. Tsk, tsk.

 

The Little Unit... he he he

 

Amen to that, Dave. I just love the golf writers who camp out in the press tent or press room the entire day, albeit 14-16 hours, granted, and never set foot on the actual course. Editors should require their writers to spend at least two hours out on the course just to soak up the sights, sounds and flavor before going back in to get a good vantage point with the monitors. Yes, sad to say sports fans, but it really is necessary to watch most coverage via TV monitor, sepcially if you have a mainbar, 16 siders and 45 inches of notes to write---that and spend at least a couple hours talking to players as best you can between tgheir excursions into the press area.

One other thing---as fascinating as it is for us press folks to read ab out each other's various experiences, and even observations of the usual suspects on this web site---Lupica, Pearlman, Whitlock, etc.---let's keep in mind that 97% of sports fans and/or our readers really don't give a rat's tooth about our "girl talk" concerning our better-known brethren.

 

Probably sympathy. If he was two inches shorter he'd be in the circus. You don't want to be seen pounding a dwarf.

 

HAYYYYYY!?

If you're going to use it, use it right! It's capital "D" on Dwarf!

 

Tossing them, however, is perfectly acceptable.

 

Yes -- good opp for the classic USA Today graphic/photo breakdown. Something of Lupica's relative position to Phil's from a blimp camera view would suffice. In all seriousness -- I've not had any use for any of the old espn 'sports reporters' crew except for Conlin. He was an ass too, but at least he knew it. And he could outwrite both of them on his worst day.

trench

 

Ryan remains the gold standard, there . . . especially given the prevailing, reduced featherweight
competition.

 

Whitlock was great till he insulted Luppy and did not get asked back.