Doyel-Conlin feud?

[Ace]

Reads to me like Conlin got to Doyel and he was acting bitchy in response.

The high road is generally better.

 

[Montezuma's Revenge]

Conlin 1, Doyel 0.

If Doyel has any sense, he won't try to get in a battle of wits. With Conlin, or most anybody else.

Because Doyel is an unarmed man.

 

[spinning27]

Are you guys serious? I still need someone on this thread to explain how Doyel was irresponsible.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Looks like Doyel isn't the only one speculating on Howard.

SportsJournalists.com favorite Le Batard is weighing in. He has a ESPN the magazine article.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/news/story?id=2584877&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fmlb%2finsider%2fnews%2fstory%3fid%3d2584877

 

[Appgrad05]

Was I the only one thinking the most damning phrase from Doyel was "edited for spelling and grammar."

I've never met either of these guys, but have heard plenty of stories about Doyel. Judging on that, I'd say there's a reasonable chance Conlin meant for it to be private and Doyel conveniently didn't see that note.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Count me among those who like Doyel. I think he's a good guy. I don't agree with all of his columns, but I think he does good work...

I enjoy Conlin as well, although he does fall into the grumpy old man category very frequently...

The lesson to be learned here is never to rip a fellow journalist in print... Nothing good ever comes from it and everybody looks stupid as a result...

 

[casty33]

Just an opinion, if anybody's interested. I don't think anybody comes out looking great when two people in the business of reporting news rip each other. That said, however, I've been in the news business for over 30 years and I've never heard of Greg Doyel. I have covered events with Mr. Conlin and, while he can be opinionated and caustic, he's also entertaining. In a pissing match between the two, my money's on Conlin. But again, they both would have been better off ignoring each other since I can't believe readers care what two "reporters" think of each other.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The opinion from this former opinionist is much like Casty's, but with a twist. There's nothing wrong with columnists disagreeing with each other's opinions, as long as it's done in public. If Bill wanted to defend Howard, he has a forum to do so, and his readers deserve his opinions more than Doyel did. A challenge for Howard's doubters to put up or shut up would be more effective than an email to a doubter.
Don't know Doyel, do know Bill. I'd take his side on the merits of this dispute, but you all should know my prejudice here.
Two more things. The "he's hitting a lot of homers, so we're suspicious" is about as nasty and stupid an innuendo as there could be. Anyone who wants to accuse Howard or anyone else of using performance-enhancing drugs should get off their ass and do a little reporting before writing. Let's face it, if Howard was a Marlin, Danny would be in his corner if he came to bat with a syringe sticking out of his ass.
Being a columnist was a great job and I miss it. But if the future belongs to loudest, meanest, voices engaged in the most personal arguments possible, then the job is over for me, and I'm glad of it.

 

[21]

<loud clapping>


btw, here's Doyel's bio from his web page (which sort of explains Conlin's comment about winning more awards):

Gregg Doyel is one of two national columnists at CBS SportsLine.com. The other is Mike Freeman, whose name comes second in the alphabet but first on the June 2006 press release that announced their dual hirings. Doyel is just petty enough to notice that slight, and just dumb enough to mention it publicly.

Which means that, when Doyel is on his keyboard, nothing and nobody is safe. Read him regularly -- but why? -- and he's eventually going to pish you off. Doyel pissed off Charlotte Observer readers (and management) for six years before jumping to CBS SportsLine in 2003 to write about college basketball. After burning bridges for three years, Doyel was pulled off that beat. Now he's writing about whatever he wants, assuming Freeman doesn't want to write about it first.

Oh, so you want his background? Fine. Here it is. Doyel grew up around here, graduated from college and has worked for three newspapers. He has written two books. He has won more awards than you. Happy?

He'll write three or four times a week. You'll read it. Sometimes you'll wonder why.

 

[Ace]

<loud clapping>


btw, here's Doyel's bio from his web page (which sort of explains Conlin's comment about winning more awards):

Gregg Doyel is one of two national columnists at CBS SportsLine.com. The other is Mike Freeman, whose name comes second in the alphabet but first on the June 2006 press release that announced their dual hirings. Doyel is just petty enough to notice that slight, and just dumb enough to mention it publicly.

Which means that, when Doyel is on his keyboard, nothing and nobody is safe. Read him regularly -- but why? -- and he's eventually going to pish you off. Doyel pissed off Charlotte Observer readers (and management) for six years before jumping to CBS SportsLine in 2003 to write about college basketball. After burning bridges for three years, Doyel was pulled off that beat. Now he's writing about whatever he wants, assuming Freeman doesn't want to write about it first.

Oh, so you want his background? Fine. Here it is. Doyel grew up around here, graduated from college and has worked for three newspapers. He has written two books. He has won more awards than you. Happy?

He'll write three or four times a week. You'll read it. Sometimes you'll wonder why.

Well, I guess the high road isn't in the cards anytime soon.

 

[thebiglead]

Always enjoyed Conlin, especially on Sports Reporters. That being said ...

Still not understanding why Conlin would feel the need to defend Ryan Howard.
Anyone else see that as homerish?

If this had been written about Pujols, would the St. Louis columnists be firing off emails in defense of Albert?

 

[Montezuma's Revenge]

I don't know. Is it homerish if you're around a guy quite a bit and you feel like he's getting the screws from people who don't know what they're talking about? I mean, it doesn't make me feel good about my profession to read Doyel's column. It's just a sleazy way to go after someone. I'm not saying Conlin should have written him; but I can understand.

So I guess I pose this question: Is defending a local athlete by definition a homerish move? Or do we take it on a case-by-case basis?

One thing that points away from it being a homerish move, to me, is this: Conlin wrote what I would presume to be a personal e-mail. It's not as if he wrote a pandering-to-the-Philly-crowd column rebutting Doyel's piece. He wrote him an e-mail that I presume he expected to stay between him and Doyel.

(Obligatory disclaimer: I am not one of Conlin's running buddies, have never actually met him and am not in his age group.)