That was most professional and surgical take-down I’ve ever seen.

You must be, like a lawyer or something.

Well done, Craig.

I’ll take this book off my “to-read” list now.

Craig,

Roberts can actually back up the “search for normalcy” bit. She has anonymous sources that saw A-Rod carrying self-help books in the locker room, but no one can confirm that he read them.

FYI: “Muckraker” is actually a positive term, at least to real (read: newspaper-trained) Journalists. It refers to the likes of Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and Upton Sinclair and the work they did to expose civic corruption, Standard Oil, and the meatpacking industry. Ironically, the term was coined by Theodore Roosevelt, who went on to address these things as part of the Progressive Movement in the early 20th century.

of course, it was thanks to her that ARod’s steroid use first came to light.  but somehow this fact keeps getting in the way of attacks on her journalistic integrity.

Same Old:  That is true, but you have to wonder why she outed only one name, out of 104 on the list she so clearly had access to.  Strange that.

the Duke lacrosse players would have liked to have her lack of reporting skills and acumen brought to light when she screwed with their lives.

Very good article and a sane and honest look at the contents.  Sports “journalism” is so filled with self-righteous hysteria, negativity, and salacious gossip (that’s what the customers want, though) that, for a time, I was worried that the crap reporting was going to be accepted as gospel by the lemming mainstream media and as hate-fodder by the moron fans. 

Mercifully, I think that articles like this and a number of others (including Murray Chass and Jason Whitlock) have made honesty conquer idiocy.  If only for one time.

Selena Roberts seems to have stolen the Underpants Gnomes strategy:

1. Collect one fact.

2. ???

3. Profit.

And we still can’t be sure what the hell she actually did in Step 2.

My advice to all of you: go buy a book this week. Not Selena Roberts’ book, but SOMETHING. Support good journalism and writing.

For all his negativity, Jeff Pearlman does try to understand the players he writes about in books such as his recent biography of Clemens.  Roberts, on the other hand, doesn’t bother going beyond the established ARod psychological profile bs already embraced by the media.  I didn’t buy the book; I only read parts in the bookstore, but I doubt the book has any redeemable value whatsoever

I had the opportunity to skim this.  I think someone could write a better sourced book about Spiderman being a real person.