Whitlock on Mariotti on Page 2

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=whitlock/060629

A few excerpts:

Before attacking their foes, O'Donnell and Guillen -- whether you agree with their positions or not -- guzzled a gallon of haterade. They determined that Jones and Mariotti had achieved an undeserved stature and decided to use their considerable platforms to submarine the overachievers.

...

O'Donnell and Guillen do not fear Jones and Mariotti. It's a total lack of respect driving these feuds, these controversies.

Guillen can't respect a columnist who won't meet him face to face.Jones and Mariotti are cheap knockoffs of Chicago icons -- Oprah and Mike Royko.

...

No, the fact that Mariotti is perceived as a cheap Royko knockoff is fueling the colleague backlash that is engulfing Mariotti. Royko made newspaper columnists seem important and believable. Mariotti makes sports columnists appear uninformed and cowardly.

 

A twice-repeated statement for which there is NO proof:

Guillen, the militant, gay-slur-dropping manager of the White Sox, is trying to force Mariotti off the pages of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Guillen, Mike Ditka's replacement as Chicago's newest, colorful coaching legend, wants to push Mariotti out of a job.


Do we really think Ozzie is trying to run Mariotti out of town, or vice versa?

 

Nobody I know has compared Royko and Marriotti.
And JW seems to love typing the phrase, "militant lesbian."

 

Meh.

 

Equaiting Mariotti with Star Jones?

Man, you don't want to get on JW's bad side.

 

Hi Jason:

I enjoy your posts on here...as well as the posts you inspire from others.
However, I think you're way, way, way off on this Royko/Mariotti comparison.

I've been in Chicago since 1988 and never once thought of Mariotti having any sort of claim to Royko's throne, style or platform. I'm pretty sure nobody else in this market has thought this, either...

Just in case I'm talking out of school, maybe I'll take a press-box poll at this weekend's Sox-Cubs series and report the results.

Carry on,
Lindsey

 

The column didn't do much for me.

 

I'm sure every single owner, GM, coach, and 99.7% of the players, on every professional (and most of the college) team in Chicago, would love to force Mariotti out of a job.

And if we started a list of everyone Jay Mariotti has tried to run out of town -- every town he's ever worked in -- we'd burn up all the available bandwith on the Internet, and type our fingers down to bleeding stumps.

As for the column Whitlock scores at the buzzer with this one:

;D ;D

 

Ditto

 

As a topic for discussion on this board, the Ozzie-Mariotti deal is relevant fair game, and Jason's posts have been his usual mix of enlightening and infuriating.
But if I still had a column, I would never have written about this, ever. I have a blog read by over two dozen people a day, some of whom are not family members, and I haven't written about it.
If I ran Page 2, assuming anybody does, I'd have asked Jason to pick another topic, one that perhaps our worldwide audience gave a shit about.

 

Not near Kansas so don't read Whitlock, but is he as one-trick in sports as he is with these constant Mariotti diatribes?
I'm not defending Mariotti, but man, give it a rest.