Let me ask this Mariotti question....Updated by Moddy.

Uh Doc, love ya and all but there are many more offences to the English language than J-Dub failing to use a cap here and there. For reference, see anything written by Tom Petty. That should offend your sensibilities sufficiently.

 

J-Dub, wasn't denigrating your use of the English language in any way; reading that (or trying to, at any rate) was just hard on my eyes, that's all.

EDIT: Not that you care, but I've never attacked you at any point on any thread, ever. I don't take personal shots. I leave those to 21.

 

In summary, it's not as big a deal to the outside world.

As angry as Mitch Albom's fabrication made me, no one else at my sports desk cared. A couple were dying to come to his defense. People still buy his fictional books, either unaware of blissfully oblivious to what he pulled in St. Louis last year.

I haven't heard anyone make much of what Mariotti said (then again, I'm at home doing small errands for a parent and enjoying the fact that I got a break from the desk). Somehow, I doubt this is near the outrage to Joe Reader, never mind most sports desks not near the Chicago area.

Sad but true. Crap like this - and the general public's shrugging of the shoulders - brings a little perspective to what we do. It doesn't make Albom or Mariotti any less the toads they are, and we're not wrong to be a little worked about it. But it's not a big deal is the general scheme of the world.

 

It's our business. We have to be interested. Besides, sooner or later the importance of these inside issues trickles down to the general public, blissfully and proudly ignorant as it may be.
Far fewer people worried about accounting rules than are currently thinking about Jay. Then Enron happened, and many folks learned ignorance of those rules cost THEM a big chunk of their own dough.

 

Early evening update at http://www.wenalway.com.

 

A thought: This board has long been Mariotti-obsessed and is no more a reflection of the real world than the guys at your golf club bar who probably couldn't name their congressperson, either.

Sure, we're worked up here, as we should be for a story that is instructive in the destructive power of ego, arrogance, and journalistic dumbassedness.

Another thought: I bet the guys at your club would be interested if you told them the rant's full context, the circumstances and the language, even if you used just "the manager said" and "the sportswriter wrote," not mentioning anybody's name.  Conflict always sells.

 

Oh really? You once said I had no conscience because I disagreed with you on a political thread. But maybe you had too many Keystone Lights that night and it was the beer talking.

 

Personal shots rule.

 

Does anyone think it just might be possible that the reason Guillen-Mariotti hasn't erupted nationally is...that we have moved beyond the 'f' word as a bad thing, and that most of us don't attach to it any negative connotation?

I hope so.

 

Marriotti has long been despised by people at his own paper for the exact issues that were exposed in this situation. He uses second hand locker room quotes from beat reporters without acknowledging he wasn't anywhere near the speaker. He twists those quotes out of context to fit the theme of his wordy columns. And he trashes people without giving the chance to respond to his slams.  

An undercurrent of disrespect for the guy has always festered. What's new is that Mariotti has essentially confirmed what writers and readers long suspected; he's a coward.

Jay M. knew he was unpopular but thought his ESPN notoriety inoculated him from the long knives. But at least four local scribes have already lashed his balls it's only a matter of time before sports talkers start taking swipes at his stones, too.  Soon it'll be slasher season, with every column being dissected as a example of wimpiness.. His ESPN persona hurt him more than it helped him. If he had said nothing about death threats he'd be O.K. But in Chicago, that's pussy talk.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him run out of town in about two weeks.

 

Please pardon me if you guys think I am a total outsider who just doesn't get it. But it really, deeply surprises me how totally this board seems to have turned on Jay Mariotti in this situation.
I've never met him, don't know him. And I don't know that it matters whether I do or not. You may not agree with him writing about the White Sox if he doesn't go in the locker room, but it seems to me that a long time ago when a situation was developing where he first started believing it wasn't a safe place for him to be, his paper and the PR staff of the team should have addressed that issue. I've read one of his columns listing some of the things that have happened and I agree that he should have tried to address it first. If that failed, somebody at the paper should have talked with somebody at the team and addressed the matter. But how can you let it get to the point where the guy doesn't feel safe?
In another thread, I think, I read where people were calling him a "pussy" and all of that kind of stuff. Again, this is just my opinion, but I don't think a sportswriter ought to have to fight his way into or out of a locker room to prove to anybody he's a tough guy -- or she's a tough woman. I agree that we can't let athletes intimidate us, but I absolutely refuse to sink to the level of being part of a circus in a locker room or at a race track.
It just surprises me there isn't a little more empathy for Mariotti here. That's all. Most of us have been in difficult circumstances with people who're upset at us. Lord knows I've blown my stack too many times and I've been the guy who was out of control. And I regret those incidents. I just think this whole mess in Chicago got way too far down the wrong track before anybody said, "Wait a minute, we need to do something to straighten this out."