Ron Drogo, (spnited), RIP

I had a seven-hour drive to Iowa tonight and I thought about Ron most of the way.

To me, he was the embodiment of SJ. But the funny thing was when I tried to think of that seminal Spnited SJ moment ... there really isn't one.

He was just here. An ethereal, piss-and-vinegar (DD got that description dead-on) presence that seemed to be created in the same primordial brew that the board itself emerged from.

I love piss-and-vinegar, which is one reason why I love this board and why I loved Spnited right off the bat.

If I had never known Ron himself, just knowing his board persona would have been enough. Who embodied SJ -- its foibles, its greatness, its flaws -- more than Spnited did?

Argumentative? Check. Passionate? Check. Unpredictable emotion? Check. Occasional jab at another member for the sake of a jab? Check.

Like many others, the age-joke thing for me was low-hanging fruit in my early days. I came on the board in 2004, so I wasn't one of the originals. To me, it was like a sign of respect, I sign that you had made it at SJ, when he deemed it was cool for you to take your age shots at him.

Several years back, I decided to do a new spin on the age jokes, by teasing him with jazz age lingo from some website I found. I was clearly trying too hard to make a joke and I thought he'd be pissed. When I got either a PM or a post on the thread that he thought it was funny, it warmed my heart.

But the funny thing? You catch him on the wrong day -- long-time friend, approved age-joker or not -- and he'd still get pissed about the age jokes!

Later, I got to know spnited and Ron better. We'd send each other the occasional PM (I've never been a big PM'er) and found we had a lot of common ground, right down to what we do for a living. And, of course, we have a lot of common friends here on the board, BYH and IJAG among them.

I learned that you could trust him completely. He'd never screw you, he'd never share anything with anyone that you commiserated with him in private. I respected the hell out of him and it made his piss-and-vinegar posts even more genuine. He knew with his bluster on here that he was full of shit, but he was never truly full of shit. He never posted anything he didn't really believe. If he argued, its because he believed in what he was arguing.

Reading the obits and tributes from his New Jersey colleagues today made me very pleased to confirm what I had always suspected about him ... his irascible nature was just a layer of his personality that hid a lot of warmth, a lot compassion and a lot of genuine feeling for his compatriots.

He always said he wanted to have a bite or a drink with me, perhaps at one of the outings. Because I have young kids and family responsibilities, the outings were never my line of country. So I never did meet him, but I feel as if I did.

It's funny. Spnited and I both agreed via PM that there was a lot of people at SJ who took message boards too seriously. That it had become such a part of their lives that it was consuming their "real" lives.

But when I saw the news of his death today, I knew we were both wrong. He was as much a friend to me as any friend I've had in the flesh. I trusted him implicitly and I respected the hell out of him.

So I repeat, who embodied SJ -- its foibles, its greatness, its flaws -- more than Spnited did?

Cared deeply about his craft and those who participated in it? Check. Cared deeply about this board? Check. Cared deeply about the friends he met on it? Check. Genuine down to his last post? Check.

Perhaps the greatest SJ has ever had? Check.

 

Wish there was something meaningful I could add here. But everyone else has done it far better than I ever could. And the tributes by Double Down and BYH should be bronzed and saved somewhere beyond a mere message board. Beautiful work, guys.

I only knew spnited from his posts, but I liked him and always looked for his thoughts. He made me laugh, made me nod my head in agreement, and occasionally made me shake my head for ...well, other reasons. No bullshit or phoniness about him. No flowery excess words, not trying to impress anyone, he was genuine, blunt and honestly told it like he saw it.

And it was also always apparent that he was smart as a whip and had a great sense of history, I loved hearing him him talk about the 1970s NBA and Knicks, hearing him put Steeler and SEC fans in their place, doing the same to the fantasy football and sabermetric geeks, loved the old school common sense perspective on the modern sports world, loved the fact that he preferred the NBA and MLB over the NFL (which ain't all that easy to find these days). I always pictured him as this classic straight out of central casting hardened East Coast newspaper man, and it sounds like that picture was damn close to reality.

And I love now hearing from those who knew him better about the kind-hearted caring friend behind the ball-busting curmudgeonly character he depicted on here. Doesn't surprise me at all. But I didn't know him in real life. I only knew his posts. And, from those, I liked him. And I already miss him.

 

Well said. But the main question is, whose ass was more supple: yours or his? Maybe IJAG can chime in

 

I missed this awful news earlier; I guess I was thrown by the name. Then I spent a lot of time reading through this thread, pausing in the back of a memorial, grieving for those hurting the most.

I guess I'll inch up and pay my respects now.

I didn't get to know Ron/spnited as many of you on here did. I just got the glimpses of his online persona, which offered subtle -- and not-so subtle -- reminders of some of the things I have loved about this business. For me, he made this board feel that much more like a newsroom when he posted. He did that by adhering to the credo others mentioned earlier -- by remembering he was not the story, but a storyteller.

There was telling detail throughout his posts, because he was showing, not telling what a newspaperman is supposed to sound like. Be about. He wasn't looking to provoke reactions. He was earning them. (Except, maybe, with BYH, but those exchanges always offered one more enjoyable glimpse of an old-fashioned newsroom.)

I never really thought about it much. He was just there. And with him a piece of the business that, as Double Down said, should not be undervalued.

I didn't know Ron well enough to know if he was a curmudgeon in real life. But if he offered that impression on here, there's something to be said for curmudgeons. They've managed to get older and not let life numb them enough to keep them from getting cantankerous. As Double Down said in his beautiful tribute, beneath the crotchety exterior, there's someone who cares enough to believe in the love story under all the heartache. That's no small feat.

For those closest to spnited on here, who have offered so many touching tributes, I'm sorry for your loss. For those who knew Ron Drogo, please accept my thoughts, prayers and best wishes that the memories eventually heal more than they hurt.

Rest in peace, Ron.

 

Well, hell, that's terrible news. RIP.

 

It strikes me that Ron even looked like a newspaperman in his pictures. Those just look like pictures that would go next to his name in the newspaper, right down to glasses that only an old fogey would wear. He looked comfortable in his skin. I don't think he was a contact lenses type of guy.

And his personality is in those pictures. He looks hardened, and like the type of guy who would bust your balls at the drop of a hat, but that warm smile gives away his secret. He wasn't that hardened, and if he busted your balls, it meant he liked you.

Damn damn damn.

 

Like they do in Formula One (or at least what they did in the F1 movie Grand Prix), my supple ass is waving the black flag and is going to defer to Spnited's supple ass out of respect.

 

Honestly, that picture looks *exactly* what I pictured him as, having never met him or having any idea who he was.

 

I was thinking about you earlier today. Spnited had his usual "Fucking SEC" reaction a week ago Saturday when you posted about the lack of Auburn photos on the wire. I thought he was overreacting, even for him, and was ready to hit a post that said something like maybe you just wanted photos to fill a section "...but it's easier to be a raging dickhead than give the guy the benefit of the doubt," or something like that. I don't know why, but I deleted the confrontational part and left it simply at maybe you needed to fill a section.

Again, I don't know why I did that, b/c calling Spnited names (damn, there I go again, using his screen name) was never an issue, and he probably would have just shrugged it off or called me a raging dickhead and we'd be done with it. Still, I'm glad that wasn't our last exchange (actually our last exchange was about the Mets sucking, as I noted on the side saddle, I'll hate for two this season).

 

WFW, BYH.

As far as Ron "looking like a newspaperman," spot on as well. He reminds me of a journalism professor I had at San Diego State ... one of those guys who got a professorship through the school of hard knocks, had been an investigative reporter at the Union-Tribune, was now an assistant city editor. Had a pair of glasses that never fit, he was always pushing them up his nose.

I wish I had a dollar for every time he handed me a paper bleeding red ink from every paragraph, barking at me to "Do it again! And get it right this time! Don't tell ... Show!"

I remember being invited down to hang out at the UT newsroom on Saturday nights, listening to the scanner, watching the copy flow process, soaking up the atmosphere.

Anyone who doesn't know someone like this - or has worked for someone like this - has really missed out on something special.

RIP to your friend.

 

Ron Drogo seems a lot like some of the guys who taught me all I know about this business.

Cranky? Opinionated? Abrasive? Yes, yes and yes. But I wouldn't trade those years and the knowledge and experience that came from them for anything. In many ways, old-school sportswriters and deskers like Ron made me who I am ... a curmudgeon a generation behind Ron and his contemporaries.

I'll raise a glass in his honor and resolve to thank the people who shaped my career before it's too late to do so.

Never met spnited, but like most of you, I feel like I knew him anyway. And I find myself missing him. How could you not? Even when he posted here with his fists, there was still charm behind them.

I just read a thread from 2007 ... one of the semi-annual SportsJournalists.com death penalty debates. Some bastard killed somebody, and at that point, it was the worst story I'd heard about. Of course, there always seems to be something even more heinous right around the corner.

Ron and I weren't ever going to agree on the death penalty, but I respect everybody's opinion, especially when they stick to their beliefs strongly as he did. Some of the best friends I have on this planet don't share my opinion on executions (or much of anything), but I love and respect them anyway.

Clearly, a lot people here love spnited, even if they didn't share his take on the death penalty, the SEC or anything else. So if that can happen over time on a message board, why in the hell do people who actually see each other every day have such a damn hard time finding common ground or seeing things from another's point of view?

It's late and I'm babbling.

RIP, Mr. Drogo.

 

Marty Noble, who goes back forever with "Dorgo," wrote beautiful tribute to Mr. Drogo for the Bergen Record website. It's worth the 5 minutes.

http://bit.ly/fAuUmj


- Mike Vaccaro