piling on whitlock

I wish I could have put it as well as you just did, Boom. Nice.

 

Ok Fenian what in your mind makes luppy relevant?

 

I think Fenian's question was more what makes Whitlock so relevant?

 

some history on lupica - from a time when he was "relevent" - 1981 - and i'm not saying he isn't now.
this is from dick schaap's book "Steinbrenner!":
But then Lupica's columns grew increasingly antagonistic toward Steinbrenner, even vicious. Lupica once referred to Steinbrenner as "an owner who brings whole new dimensions to the term 'manic-depressive'" and in calmer moments, Lupica called him a "a liar....a tyrant...a graceless lout...a statesman in the Alexander Haig mold." This put Elain Kaufman, the proprietor of Elaine's, New York's fashinable East Side saloon, in a delicate position. Steinbrenner and Lupica - as well as, for instance, Woody Allen, Norman Mailer and Jacqueline Onassis - were regulars at Elaine's, and Elaine valued both the World Series championship ring George had given her, which she wore around her neck, and the more sensibly priced Wimbledon T-shirt Mike had given her. She had to be very careful to give both Steinbrenner and Lupica choice tables - lesser areas of the restaurant were good enough only for gawkers and unknowns - without putting them too close to each other. One night, in the men's room at Elaine's, Steinbrenner encountered Dan Jenkins, the journalist and author of Semi-Tough, who was dining with Lupica. "How can you sit with that little shit?" reporter Jenkins reported Steinbrenner inquiring.
Soon Lupica began to hear that Steinbrenner was spreading unkind rumors about him, calling him not a lout or a liar, but names even less flattering. Lupica never had more than hearsay evidence that Steinbrenner was the source of the vicious stories - and Steinbrenner himself later vehemently denied it - but, in his anger, Lupica called Edwin T. Broderick, vice-president and general counsel for the Yankees, and told Broderick that Steinbrenner should stop spreading such slander if he valued his reputation as a good husband and father. Whether the threat had anything to do with it or not, the stories apparently stopped circulating. Lupica continues to attack Steinbrenner in print, and Steinbrenner continued to feed baseball stories to Phil Pepe.

 

Damn, HH, that's some great stuff. Nothing like seeing Loopy go all Scarface on The Boss. Classic! Thanks for posting that. Michael Corleone Lupica.

 

We all have a finite amount of time where we can produce at top level. That time for Lupica and Albom has passed. They are not what they once were, but they were incredible when they were focused on it. It's like expecting Brett Favre to be great every Sunday still. It's just not gonna happen. I'll never understand the heat these types of guys get around here for their actual writing. Everything else is fair game, of course. That Bob Ryan still has the motor and inclination to be relevant is quite amazing.

BTW, it's damn near impossible not to come off as arrogant in these types of interviews. They are asking his opinion. So, you get to be your opinionated self or some sanitized/boring version of it. I'll take the former.

 

Whitlock is willing to ask the provocative questions and raise the provocative points.

Luppy just wants to run out the clock on his fading career as a columnist.


BTW Henry - It was Bill Madden who Steinbrenner fed stories to.

 

It would take Lupica only one strong piece for people to jump back onto his bandwagon. "He's back!" they'd yell lustily. I'm not a fan by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I cringe when I see him on The Sports Reporters. He speaks for his generation. Whitlock is a new voice for a new generation: his doesn't resonate with Lupica's crowd and Lupica's voice falls on deaf ears for the under-30 crowd.

 

Which are what? That Michael Irvin isn't much good on TV? That JW doesn't like the way Scoop Jackson writes? "Bojangling"? Makes you feel good about yourself, Boom, but it;s not catching on. Not saying it's right or wrong but, for all his noisy auditions as the Authentic Voice Of American Blackness, JW's still a regional phenomenon.

 

How did he run him out of the business? I'm genuinely curious, because I'm new to American journalistic back-stabbing and I don't know the story.

 

Sportswriters in general are a regional phenomenon. Sports is a regional phenomenon.

The fan in Phoenix doesn't care what Lupica thinks about the Yankees; the fan in Boston doesn't care what Whitlock thinks about the Royals.

But tv and the web have made plenty of sportswriters into Personalities, and now they're not regional at all, they have a national presence. And I guarantee you, most espn viewers have no idea where Plaschke or Whitlock or Albom or Lupica work the rest of the time.

 

And that is exactly the point, 21. They are known as ESPN screamers, not columnists.
Lupica and Albom achieved some National attention as columnists--back when they actually used to work. Whitlock has not.