Early Season Beat Writer Change at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette?

Nighthawk: I guess you forgot the jobs thread where I told someone to go fly a kite, in more colorful terms, and you declared my response was proof why you should never take me seriously. I have neither the time nor inclination to look for it now, but it was a California-based job. I'm sure you can find it easily, as there are not many job threads here.

I had no idea who you were nor any interactions with you before you decided to butt in on a thread and take a shot at me for no apparent reason. So yeah. You raised my antennae and I've noticed your posts the last few weeks, and they all reek of holier-than-thou, know-it-all arrogance no matter the subject topic, which is annoying enough when it comes from someone in his late 30s like me but really irksome when it comes from someone barely out of college. Maybe I misread you. I don't think I did, but maybe I did.

My point about your comments re: Colin is that you're too young to be dispensing that advice. Why should I take seriously a 23-year-old who declares, with no wiggle room, that one has to be single with no plans to start a family in order to cover an MLB team? How do you know this? How many MLB beat guys do you know?

I've seen dozens of MLB beat guys who are happily married with children. I've seen many beat guys who are just merely happily married. I've seen beat guys whose marriages and families fell apart, too. But the ratio is still in favor of those who managed to make it work. I say that as a happily married, childless (except for me) 37-year-old who spent a lot of time at MLB ballparks--albeit not in a traditional beat capacity, but still in a regular enough role to confidently make these assertions.

I think it's foolish at any age to declare absolutes about anything, but to do so at age 23 comes with more than a tinge of arrogance. If YOU think YOU can't have a wife and family in order to cover an MLB beat, fine. I don't agree but it's your opinion. But to come on here and declare nobody can do it--when you have not even had an MLB beat and have not even tried to balance a family with a job, never mind the MLB beat--paints you as a know-it-all butting in simply to read himself talk (and yes, let me beat you to the punch: that IS ironic coming from a guy with 51,000-plus posts). What you think you know at 23 is a whole lot different than what you will know at 37.

 

I thought you were older.

 

Colin, I have 8-year-old nephews and I totally commend you for your decision.

My brother-in-law is extremely involved in his kids' lives and they adore him.

Young 'un twins are tough. Fortunately, I only had babysitting duty here and there. I could have never hacked it.

Congratulations to you, your wife and family.

 

Wrong. You've been ripping me for the last three years ever since I completed an internship at the Trentonian and decided I could not allow your anachronistic venom toward that paper to go unchecked any longer when I knew it was no longer true. Apparently, you don't remember, but we do have an ugly history of you slamming me because I stick up for that paper, which is why I said what I said. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't have a darn good reason for it.

And yeah, you couldn't have misread me any worse. Arrogant? Heck, I belittle my stories after they've been published before my editor even gets a chance to say he liked them and have said numerous times around my newsroom that the only reason my last paper kept me around was because of how good I am at making cheesecake.

OK, I might be a little arrogant concerning cheesecake. Good thing there's no CheesecakeBakers.com.

 

I don't have any recollection of arguing with you about the Trentonian, so how the fuck could I be ripping you for three years if I didn't even notice you until a few weeks ago? You should grow thicker skin if you think you're going to remain single and in this field forever.

(In my defense, I argue with anyone who has anything good to say about the JRC. Especially a teenager/young 20-something who emerged from a dump like that brimming with positivity about the organization. Now that I have been made aware of our past, I will make sure to seek you out for a good dose of "I told you so" when--not if--the JRC starts slicing and dicing its editorial staff and replacing it with unpaid community bloggers.)

[blue]I'm sure you're not arrogant behind closed doors, since you said so.[/blue] However I think any poll of the electorate here would find my opinion is held by the majority. I notice you didn't respond to any of my points about the thread topic, perhaps b/c I was right?

Regardless, I look forward to learning more about this business thru your all-seeing eyes and ample experiences.

 

No, it's because you keep proving again and again that you have no interest in discussing this in a civil manner. I disagree completely that I'm too young to be dispensing advice. I don't think you're ever too young to dispense advice. If you don't like it, nobody said you have to take it, but to dismiss it just because of the guy's age is incredibly arrogant and short-sighted. It also wasn't an absolute. You chose to see it that way. We see what we want to see.

It's not my fault that you don't remember what you've said. That's hardly a defense (and your "defense" also smacks of being foolish, and really, you're going to seek me out if that happens? Very mature.) for your attacks that you only now know who you've been attacking.

Poll whoever you want. I really don't care and I won't be having any more interactions with you anyway. I've got better things to do with my life than waste time on a 37-year old who insists on acting like he's 6.

 

I've been very civil. I laid out exactly why I didn't like your advice, in perfectly G-rated terms, and you chose to ignore it. I can only assume you didn't address it b/c you know I was right.

As for "it also wasn't an absolute," I present your own words:

There's no wiggle room in that advice. Again, if you'd said you, individually, could not cover baseball with a family, I'd disagree but respect it as your opinion. Except you, all of 23, declared nobody who wants to start a family can cover baseball for a living. Pretty cut and dried. Perhaps you will shore up your logic in future posts, as you mature. In the meantime I suppose faux depth such as "We see what we want to see" will have to suffice.

As for whatever I said that so clearly hurt your precious little feelings, I guess I'm sorry I don't remember it. I guess whatever you said or did didn't matter that much, which is pretty funny since the JRC does evoke passionate replies from me. I would think I'd remember you if we argued about the JRC, but apparently not.

You clearly have better things to do than interact with me since you are doing so at 4 am. Anyway, you have a nice life and a great career. I do look forward to living vicariously thru you as you accomplish things I could only dream of, if only I didn't make the career-wrecking choice of coming home every night to a wife who loves me.

 

I don't suppose you two could take your love-in to PMs, could you?

 

To be honest, I don't think NightHawk was being arrogant, and I'm not sure we can make that assumption on here. How often do we hear humor or sarcasm doesn't work in print? There are inflections in tone, mannerisms, etc. that show when we're being funny or sarcastic that just don't carry into the written word.

Arrogance is similar (unless you come out and blatantly type something like, "I'm better than you fools because I won this award and cover this beat and get the most Google hits every day. Suck it."). You need to have a conversation with him in "real life" to determine if he's actually arrogant. Grab a drink and talk with him. Get to know him.

Does he have the experience of being both married and a MLB beat guy? No. But does he make a valid point? Yes. Does he have some basis for his beliefs, in terms of talking with beat writers and their husbands/wives? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I believe he was honestly just stating his opinion that having a family and being an MLB beat writer is a challenging. If you don't like it, who cares? If you think it's the smartest thing ever posted on this board, who cares?

This may be just something based on my small experience, but it doesn't seem "older" members of the sports media are that willing to listen to others' ideas. "Check the morgue, and do it like that. We're doing this because we've always done this." Well, what we've always been doing isn't working. (Google "newspapers" and "declining circulation" for more information.) I wish there were more communication among members within the same newsroom, even between those grizzled vets and those young whippersnappers. We can learn something from each other.

 

I covered baseball for two years when I was single and I couldn't take being away as much as I was. I worked with two guys who quit the beat because of family issues. Another, who left the paper just before I started, got divorced and blamed the beat for it (15 years later, he's still covering baseball).

About 10 years ago there were papers who could make it manageable. I know of a lot of places that would rotate writers in and out at spring training so they would never have to be away from their families for more than two weeks at a time and split up road trips so they don't get burned out.

With cutbacks, I don't think too many papers have the luxury of doing that anymore.

When I was covering the NFL, I'll bet I was on the road about 50 days a year. Baseball, I'll bet was three times that.

 

Exactly right. I was merely stating an opinion and nothing more. We can all learn from each other on this board.

As far as arrogance, it only comes when the subject is cheesecake, and I really do need to work on that. I need to remind myself that winning a small state fair isn't exactly having my own bakery in New York.

 

Do you mind shipping some to me?