Morrissey vs. Mariotti

Re: Rick Morrissey goes off on Mariotti, bloggers

Should merge these...

 

He wasn't taking a completely unprovoked shot at Jackoff Jay -- Mariotti is part of the story now (despite his feeble protestations to the contrary) and Morrissey was completely justified in responding and telling readers that, "No, that is not how it works. Good columnists go into the locker room."

 

I know it's a few years old, but I just read the piece on the Mariotti-Telander feud, and I found the mental image of this priceless:

 

I think Mariotti's blasts of hot air are actually mentioned in "An Inconvenient Truth" as one of the contributing factors to global warming.

 

Re: Rick Morrissey goes off on Mariotti, bloggers

That's a well-played shot. Subtle yet direct.

 

My favorite part of the story is that Mariotti was afraid to go to the clubhouse because Tony Phillips screamed at him. Is there any baseball writer who covered Phillips that never got screamed at? He went most of a season yelling at me when I came near him, all because he had me confused with another writer with the same first name.

 

We've all seen Guillen's comments, but what precipitated them? What was the context? Why was he talking about Mariotti in the first place? Does anyone know why this came up orginally? Did some goofball ask him, "Jay Mariotti said ... do you care to respond?" Was Guillen looking for Mariotti? How did this all start?

 

I agree with this. Big difference between filling a seat in some press box and being visible in the locker room. When you make a BS rationalization like that, you should get called out.

 

Yawn. Media vs. media. Do readers really care?

But given this is a forum of sports journalists, I'll comment here. And if Rick Morrissey wants me to walk over to Trib Tower so he can yell at me about it, send me a PM, and I'll be there!

I agree that this column just doesn't work. Morrissey perpetuates the stereotype of every blogger being some whack job who goes off half-cocked. Note to Morrissey: yes, going to the locker room is all well and good. But there are other ways to get insights than hearing Mark Buehrle say for the 137th time, "I was just trying to keep my fastball down and throw strikes." Anyway, I don't agree you always have to show up in the locker room the day after you've ripped somebody. I don't think you should make a point of avoiding it -- as Mariotti does -- but players have their jobs, and columnists have theirs. If a manager or player is that upset, and doesn't see the writer in question, he's more than free to call. The phone works both ways, last I checked.

Also, Morrissey falls into the trap of unintentionally defending Guillen by pointing out what an ass Mariotti is. Yes, truth is a defense. But the reason for the upset isn't because Guillen called him out, it's because of how he did so. And that line about cutting him some slack because he's Venezuelan -- come on, the guy has been in the U.S. for 25 years. He knows what those terms mean.

Morrissey is a good columnist, but I think in this case his personal animosity for Mariotti, and for the effect the Internet is having on newspapers, got the better of him.

 

AMEN!

 

I don't dislike Morrissey.

But the Trib is full of guys like him, who -- if they fell over and crashed in the middle of a forest -- no one would hear, notice, or care.

 

i think it was an excellent column and it WILL interest readers.

i don't think it's bush of morrissey to use this spat as a teaching moment. and i agree that it's weak for someone to rip away and never show up to hear a rebuttal. i was taught that if you're normally never there, AT LEAST be there the day after you rip.

it's a perfectly legitimate topic since it's national news and jay is such a national figure.

jay is a machine. but like gee, i don't understand the refusal to do lockerrooms (no pun intended).