Gary Smith on Joba Chamberlain

You think he should include 100-plus years of backstory in his lede? That's like Notre Dame fans saying that if you mention that they're 0-5 this year, then you better also include something about the "Four Horsemen."

 

Overwritten, overwrought. I agree with a post above: If a no-name had written that lede, people would have torn him to shreds.

Cringe-worthy.

 

For more info on Joba's father...

Please note when this was written.

http://ads.omaha.com/media/maps/cws2005/www.omaha.com/index863d.html?u_pg=528&u_xid=365&u_sid=1423484

I knew a lot of the stuff already, but how Joba and his father played catch in the backyard...

My God. And you thought Roy Hobbs was the perfect baseball story?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joba

 

Thank you for that link, 93. As someone who despises baseball, I really didn't know anything about him. That story made me cry twice.

 

It got dusty here as well.

 

Love Smith, but overwritten. He does this from time to time. Sometimes simple is better. Pops has polio, son throws a 99 mph fastball and is in the majors. Dad lives vicariously through son. THAT'S the story.

The kid does something that very few on this earth can do ahletically. His father is a cripple.That dichotomy is fascinating. How does the father be so handicap, and the son so gifted?

That's the story I would want.

 

Read the link I put up.

 

Since they cut staff, SI has turned Smith into more of a regular contributor, looking apparently to get a lot more for their money. And that's obviously not turned out to be a wise decision.

 

I'm not sure I agree with that. I don't know that the frequency with which he appears is the problem as much as I just feel lately like he has fallen too much in love with "voice." Not every subject can hold up to the Gary Smith treatment, where every muscle twitch has a deeper meaning that connects us all, every molecule and every rain drop reveals the purpose, and my goodness, we few, we happy few, can we not feel the heartbeat of this great nation as it cries out for a hero?

Barf.

He's getting in the way of the stories with clever writing tricks. It's impossible for some people to look at his stuff objectively because he's such a incredible talent, but the story 93 Devil posted is a better story than Smith's. It truly is.

 

I agree with some of what you're saying, but be careful not to be too cynical. Smith isn't, I don't think, showing off. He's thinking like a fiction writer. Or, even more accurately, a screen writer. He wants his character's psychological needs to drive the piece. It's not verbal masturbation on his part. It's legitimately grounded in narrative storytelling technique.

That, of course, doesn't mean he necessarily gets it right every time.

 

Sorry, PW, the whole Joba lede was verbal masturbation...six grafs that took me nowhere and didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.