place has become like high school. if you're uncool enough to show enthusiasm for a piece or a writer, you'll quickly be derided as a suck-up -- especially, god forbid, if it's about long-form stuff. far easier to rip than to praise, or to even-handedly take in someone's faults and talents and understand why they affect you still. welcome to hack city.
and don't tell me that gary's stuff is not holy writ, and we should be able to have a chuckle or some such. his passing from the scene is an important moment for any site that goes by this name.
it's too bad, really. this would've been a great place to tote up smith's career and look at it from the point of view of craft: why the first pat tillman piece or the phillies pitching staff didn't work, why ali's entourage or richie parker did. in short, what he actually DID that made him an important figure -- and whether his kind of career is even possible now.
