My Morning in Exile

More Whicker: He blames the Internet! Hey, if you’ve got nothin’ else may as well do that. I am a bit miffed though. The Poynter article says that “Slate’s Jack Shafer called Whicker’s piece ‘the worst sports column ever written.'” I called it that first! I demand to be recognized as the first person to launch into hyperbole! The universe demands it!

Now back on planet Earth:

  • I think I’m going to write an article in which I invent all kinds of Nazi and satanic ties to Derek Jeter, because really, I can’t see how the comments to such a thing would be any worse than when I merely point out that something he does is being overhyped.
  • You’ll be shocked to learn that local leaders are overselling the benefits and underselling the costs of a stadium construction project.
  • Doc Gooden has been hired by the Newark Bears. I was going to go snarky with this, but then I remembered that I really liked Gooden when I was a kid and that I really and sincerely hope that he does well in the job and hangs around baseball in some official capacity for a long damn time.
  • I don’t know if the Dugout Central piece on “statistical blips” is good scholarship, but I’m all for any article that reminds people that Jose Canseco didn’t invent steroids in a secret evil compound somewhere.
  • Dice-K beats up on some single A’ers and may start for the Sox next week.
  • Peavy says he’ll be ready for 2010, which suggests to me that he’s done for 2009.
  • Also, the Poynter article notes that the Jaycee thing wasn’t the first time Whicker has done this. In 1991, he wrote a similar piece regarding former hostage Terry Anderson that began “Cleaning out the notebook while hoping Terry Anderson didn’t have overdue library books . . .” As I said yesterday, stay classy Whicker . . .


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    ecp
    14 years ago

    Craig, Craig, Craig…really, you should know better.  For shame.  This is, what, the second time in a week that you dared say something…um…shall we say, less than reverential about a Yankee, and you’re wondering why the vehement response?

    Actually, sometimes I wonder if you don’t actually enjoy starting some kind of baseball version of Let’s You and Him Fight.  (I know, Eric Berne classified that as a “sexual” game, but I always thought that it applied to many other situations in life.)

    Oh, and about your Jeter entry?  May I take this opportunity to say thank you for stating exactly what I have been thinking myself.

    Craig Calcaterra
    14 years ago

    How dare you even suggest that I like tweaking Yankees fans over at NBC. I am shocked, SHOCKED! at such an accusation . . . wink

    Kevin S.
    14 years ago

    Yeah, the overhyping of this record has been atrocious.  That said, you know I was damn pissed when he dropped the oh-fer with me in the bleachers Tuesday night.  Though getting to see two incredibly rare feats, Nick Swisher hitting home runs at Yankee Stadium and Phil Hughes giving up a home run, period, kind of made up for it.f

    Kevin S.
    14 years ago

    Yeah, the overhyping of this record has been atrocious.  That said, you know I was damn pissed when he dropped the oh-fer with me in the bleachers Tuesday night.  Though getting to see two incredibly rare feats, Nick Swisher hitting home runs at Yankee Stadium and Phil Hughes giving up a home run, period, kind of made up for it.

    MJ
    14 years ago

    Craig Calcaterra, you are pathetic! I guess your Mutts didn’t start their new ballpark off they way that all you Mutts fans predicted and boasted about, so now you have to berate the Greatest MLB player in Modern Era

    Craig is a Mets fan?  Does Craig even know this wink

    Aarcraft
    14 years ago

    ECP – I’m pretty sure the Caple piece was tongue in cheek. Caple was, after all, the author of the Devil Wears Pinstripes.

    MJ – Another good question – Does Jeter even know that he the “Greatest MLB plahyer in Modern Era”? It brings up two questions 1) Whats “Modern Era and 2) Doesn’t Pujols have something to say about this?

    ecp
    14 years ago

    Aarcraft, I do realize the Caple piece was meant as more gaggerific, Jeteriffic fun!

    Wooden U. Lykteneau
    14 years ago

    Thanks for echoing the opinion that starting Dice-K in a playoff game is a farce. Your first NBC commenter lamely (a redundancy, I know) tries to argue that there’s a thrill in facing a major-leaguer for the Winston-Salem Dash (nee Warthogs), but I’m with you: These kids battled for 140 games and to essentially have a best-of-five turn into a we’ve got to win three of four now. Never mind that Salem is in the playoffs with a losing overall record in the first place and a .500 record for the 2nd half.

    kardo
    14 years ago

    MJ – what supporter of an NL East club wouldn’t be a Mets fan in their current form? 

    Also; I call Godwin’s Law!

    YankeesfanLen
    14 years ago

    This is New York, baby, and nothing can happen without the event be overblown and made to seem like the parting of the Red Sea.
    To bring everyone up to dat:
    The Yankees are now THE GREATEST TEAM IN THE ANNALS OF SPORT!
    The Mets are all things unmentionable.
    Ah, the ebb and flow.  Even the Old Gray Lady gets involved to a certain but more intelligent degree.
    And then we come to a certain group who overlap the demographic: New York Post readers who make comments on CTB.
    Oh, the Humanity, and all the people.
    A belated thanks to Shysterball readers who heeded my plea to leave ARod alone! And the big bouncer checking for the riff-raff that doesn’t know the secret handshake seems to be working.

    Nigel Incubator-Jones
    14 years ago

    1. Everything you’ve write about Derek Jeter is true, but none of which Derek Jeter himself should apologize for.  My daughter is a Jeter fan and he is among only a handful of players in MLB that I would hope she would be a fan of.

    2. Could you quiet down a little on your slant of the A’s moving story?  San Jose is about half way between where I live and Oakland. Thanks.

    michael standish
    14 years ago

    Well, you might not have received proper credit for being firstest w/mostest in calling Whicker’s
    Jaycee piece the worst sports column ever written, but at least you weren’t falsely accused of describing it as “eye-searingly, soul-hurtingly awful.”

    Unless of course (and who can say for certain, it being an uncertain world) you are now using “Jason Linkins” as a nom de plume.

    MattAux
    14 years ago

    Mark Grace had a lit of bits so that surely makes him one of the three best Cuns ever, right?

    MattAux
    14 years ago

    Mark Grace had a lot of bits so that surely makes him one of the three best Cubs ever, right?

    MattAux
    14 years ago

    Thank you, iPhone

    Kelly
    14 years ago

    That Yankee thread over there confuses me.  Are you an idiot blogger or a “media” nazi? 

    They can’t make up the mind if you are the antiestablishment or the establishment.

    AND THEY LOVE THEIR CAPS LOCK

    Bill
    14 years ago

    Wanna have real fun, Craig?  Just insinuate that Lord George is operating at, um, less than full intellectual capacity these days.  Note that this only becomes cause for discussion because of NY press stories that boast about His Lordship spending a half-day at the office in Tampa.

    An honest approach would be to acknowledge reality and let the guy close things out in private, instead of pretending otherwise.  It worked for Gehrig.

    Chris Purvis
    14 years ago

    People suck.  That’s my conclusion from the NBC comments section on the Jeter article.

    Chris H.
    14 years ago

    Nigel:

    “2. Could you quiet down a little on your slant of the A’s moving story?  San Jose is about half way between where I live and Oakland. Thanks. “

    What on Earth does that mean?  Quiet his slant?  What slant?  That public officials usually mislead the public on sports deals?  That’s not a slant, son; that’s a fact.