Jeff Pearlman continues to loathe his job

The working conditions are terrible. None of his colleagues do their job. The whole damn operation is a waste of time. I’m just waiting for the “I don’t believe in nothin’ no more, I’m goin’ to law school!” post.

Not that I don’t see where Pearlman is coming from. Press boxes are bad places to watch games. Reporters do ask inane questions. Athletes do give vapid answers. That whole scene is rather silly.

But rather than mope about it, Jeff, do something about it. Tell SI that you’re done with the conventional beat and you want to cover stories differently. Tell them you want to eschew the box, dispense with the postgame interviews and ask the questions you’re presumably not allowed to ask. You wonder why no one asks if Jay Cutler is overrated? Ask it yourself! You want to rain on the Bears’ playoff pretensions? Do it!

But for God’s sake, drop the pity party. Everyone has a job they hate from time to time. None of us like being away from our kids for work. All of us, however, sack the hell up and get on with it.


14 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
YankeesfanLen
14 years ago

Does a Yankees win really have this effect on various sportswriters/journalist/pundits/bloggers?I presume Tyler will be back next year for game stories in the Business section, but if you and he are the only two remaining, Craig, I’ll live with that.

Michael
14 years ago

I think it all came together for Pearlman about 10-12 years ago, when he realized he hated people.

Chris Simonds
14 years ago

I’ll trade him my job that I don’t like much. Oh wait, I don’t even have that anymore.

mike in brooklyn
14 years ago

I met some guy a few years ago who writes for one of the big magazines.  I asked him which team he actually roots for.  He said none of them.  Now that he has gotten to know the players, he pretty much hates them all.

MJ
14 years ago

Ha. Funny post, fair criticism. To be honest, I mainly work on books these days, so I infrequently enter clubhouses/locker rooms. I really went into the Bears’ room to observe the scene, which is just horrible. I LOVE writing books. Love it. But the day-to-day reality of the clubhouse scene would be horrific. But maybe you’re right, no one wants to hear me gripe.

Personally, I can’t wait for more stellar predictions such as:

“Oddly, I like their moves more than the Yankees. Penny and Smoltz could easily win more games than Sabathia and Burnett”

And such great articles as how it’s Inhumane to be a Yankee fan.

Jeff Pearlman
14 years ago

Ha. Funny post, fair criticism. To be honest, I mainly work on books these days, so I infrequently enter clubhouses/locker rooms. I really went into the Bears’ room to observe the scene, which is just horrible. I LOVE writing books. Love it. But the day-to-day reality of the clubhouse scene would be horrific. But maybe you’re right, no one wants to hear me gripe.

Jay
14 years ago

The real problem here is that Pearlman feels the need to maintain a blog. At some point, he probably figured that it was something he needs to do to keep up with the direction that sports writing is headed. Which is probably true, if you’re a beat writer or are somewhat good at it.

However, all Pearlman does is alternate between being a whiny b——and having no point at all.

sansho1
14 years ago

Heh.  What’d I say?

Michael
14 years ago

Well, Jeff, your love for writing bad things about people DOES come through in your books. Kudos.

And if you ever want to regularly do locker room duty again, you could always start chasing players around with a specimen cup. It worked for Rick Reilly…

Richard Dansky
14 years ago

“The food here is terrible. And such small portions.”—Woody Allen

DSFC
14 years ago

Jeff’s just still steamed that while Alex Rodriguez is now a world champion, Selena Roberts’ book hit bargain bins approximately 15 minutes after publication, where many copies are still available. Don’t worry, Jeff, she’ll always have the Duke lacrosse case as her shining moment – no one can take the honor of destroying the reputations of innocent men away from her!

Charles Brooks
14 years ago

Craig-
I very much enjoy your blog.  You’re my first stop for baseball news and, frankly, you’re about the only blog on any topic that I visit on a regular basis.

About your Pearlman post…it seems a little bit on the catty side…  Sure it’s easy for us to feel aghast that a guy with a job like his would ever think of complaining about his work, but like the guy says, there are down sides to any profession.  And it seems that his point is not so much complaining about the work as much as it is to reveal the realities of the trade.  Sports reporting (addressee exempted) has become a cheesy, predictable dung heap consisting largely of overhyped minutiae, moral posturing and treacle heartwarming pieces.  It’s not entirely unwelcome to have one of the inner sanctum point out some of the absurdities.

That said, and now that you’ve brought this Pearlman guy’s blog to my attention, I think it would have been much more interesting (and perhaps laudable) if you had shared with us his posting titled “Nothing changes, everything changes”.  Here is a piece that (maybe) better reflects the character and principles of the fellow as well as addressing a tangible social issue upon which, as the man says, history will spare us no sympathy in its judgement.

Right, keep up the good work and congrats on your fulltime gig.

——Charles

Brett
14 years ago

Followed the first link to the Pearlman piece, which linked to a Viva El Birdos post, which linked to a Shysterball post.

That was weird.  Who am I?  How did I get here?

MJ
14 years ago

Followed the first link to the Pearlman piece, which linked to a Viva El Birdos post, which linked to a Shysterball post.

That was weird.  Who am I?  How did I get here?

I’m at the corner of first and first.  How can the same street intersect itself?  I must be at the nexus of the universe!

-Kramer