Whitlock on Mariotti on Page 2

Whitlock--

I've been letting your column kind of run around in my mind for the last few days. I think you made some good points, but I agree with LWillhite: Royko isn't the comparison. Mariotti wants to be Cosell.

Jay wants to be the guy you love to hate, but listen to because he "tells it like it is." His whining about "a refusal to lower myself to laws made by jockdom" sounds eerily remiscient of Cosell's blatherings about the jockocracy: attempting to put themselves above the fray. Both thought they were better than the average jock-sniffing reporter-announcer because they told it like it was.

But Mariotti fails miserably for several reasons. Cosell did not Jay's versatility of conviction. If Jay had been covering Ali, he would have completely ripped him one day and then praised him the next for the same thing he ripped him on. Because Jay's columns occur in a time-warp vaccuum where the only opinion that matters is the one that helps him write a column that day, readers don't respect him like Cosell -- whose public views were obnoxious and consistent. And Cosell thought his greatness allowed him to go anywhere; Cosell would have gone into the locker room and told Guillen off. He would have been smart enough to know that there was no way Guillen would lay a hand on him and would hope that Ozzie would be dumb enough to hit him to extend the story. Jay thinks his greatness allows him to get away with going nowhere.

 

I know a majority of you (OK, all of you) ... can't stand Jay Mariotti.

But honestly, he's as good a writer as I've ever seen. His rants are annoying, but he's still very talented. Not sure what he's trying to accomplish half the time, but the fact that I click the Sun-Times link every morning to see if he's written a column says that he's accomplishing something.

And that maybe, just maybe, I'm a moron ???

 

I'm not certain how one can separate good writing from terrible arguments, especially since everybody at his level should be able to string gramatically-correct sentences together in a semi-interesting fashion.

Even if he were to be evaluated purely on a technical level, how could one look past the hamfistedness?

 

So, let's see, What you're saying is he annoys you and you're not quite sure exactly what it is he's saying, but he sure has a great way of doing it?

Doesn't sound like a great writer to me.

 

Oh, bullshit. There are 500 people on this board, probably including you and certainly including me, who are better writers.
The difference is, we don't have the stomach to be utterly unmitigated assholes every single second of every single day of our waking lives, and making it our professional persona.

 

Maybe he meant Mariotti is in the ToyCo.

 

I lost interest in that quicker than I did for Star vs. Barbara

 

Hey, count me among those who loved this column.

Laughed my ass off. Jason, if you read this, I applaud you. Loved the Star Jones bashing... Damned funny!

 

wow dude, maybe the fat bastard can squat and expose a little taint to keep you busy for a week or two.

haven't seen such suckleage at the teet in a long, long time. you pull it off well, though. ... hate to see what would happen if superman posted here.

 

whitlock on mariotti ... couldn't think of anything that'd make the dane grubber smile wide.

 

Jay: Your whiskers are digging into the back of my neck, Big Cocoa!

 

Wow, this thread is turning mighty creepy