Teddy Goldstein took a little stab at Jay Mariotti in the Chicago Tribune. It's certainly worth discussing here, is it not?
The ultimate team player—that's how you think of Jay Mariotti, right?
I own 1/6th (currently) of a blog entitled "Fire Jay Mariotti", so the answer to this question is a resounding and emphatic "YES".
I find it funny that Teddy Greenstein thinks that he is addressing an audience that views Mariotti as a "team player."
The same Jay Mariotti who described his Sun-Times colleagues as "soft" for declining to rip White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.
Damn bunch of softies! He's Venezuelan and swears a lot for crissake! Haven't you seen his team's record since July 2, 2006? The Blizzard is downright rip-able, and deserves to be ripped until the ripping brings "R.I.P." to mind. About his job of course! You tell 'em, Teddy Goldberg!
(yessssss.....nailed that one!)
Mariotti tells WTTW-Ch. 11's John Callaway in an interview that airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday: "When I'm being critical of our writers, it's to try to unify."
In Mrs. Finklebury's kindergarten class, almost everyone wanted delicious yellow cake with chocolate frosting for the class party, but Stubby Stubbornton, always contrarian, refused to have a party with anything but fruitcake. Stubby's ultimate goal, however, was to have a unified class, so that everyone had the same cake preference. After hours of thinking, Stubby decided that the best way to do this was to make fun of everyone until they opted for fruitcake instead. But a strange thing happened! No matter how much Stubby made fun of the other children, they didn't prefer fruitcake! Now if this kind of crap didn't work on kindergartners, Jay, then....
Meh, you know, it's probably just easier to call you a fucking retard.
Mariotti: "Are the local media now brainwashed that every time Ozzie goes off it's 'Ozzie being Ozzie,' or are we dealing with one of the great crackpots in the history of professional sports? I happen to choose the latter."
Maybe, just mayyyyyybe the local media thinks that there's more interesting things to write about than repetitive dissections of literally tens of Ozzie rants? Are you listening, sensible people? Jay is COMPLAINING that the rest of the Chicago media isn't beating a dead horse like he is.
Callaway: "That's what people would say about you."
Attaboy, Callaway.
Mariotti: "Not me."
WRONG as usual, Jay, WRONG as usual.
Mariotti went on to say that Sun-Times beat writer Joe Cowley "has issues" and wrote a "pathetic" column after the Sox's blowup-doll controversy.
Another fine point, Teddy Greenberg! Yeah Jay, what about that? Why are you critiquing the writing of columnists for other newspapers?
He had harsher words for fellow columnist Rick Telander after Callaway played a clip of Telander asking why Mariotti is always so angry and determined to find "the dark side."
Teddy Rosenberg is realllllly hitting the nail on the head here.
Mariotti: "If you're not interested in, as he says, 'the dark side' of sports, then get out of the business."
And there's nothing more to it than that. Period.
Callaway: "Wait a second. Nobody has said more about the dark side of college football than Rick Telander."
A FINE point. I have no idea who Rick Telander is. But a FINE point, nonetheless.
Mariotti: "We're all supposed to cover the entire spectrum.
THE MARIOTTI SPECTRUM
John Paxson is a moron
Jerry Reinsdorf is a cheap-o wuss
Cedric Benson is a stupid person, a stupider runningback, and is responsible for all evil in the world.
Tiger Woods is pretty much the best thing ever.
Alfonso Soriano is a selfish asshole
Lou Piniella is crazy
Ozzie Guillen is the worst human being alive
Kenny Williams is a terrible GM
The Bulls don't have any star players
July 2, 2006 is the most important date in sports history. Period.
Outside of the Mariotti Spectrum: Actual games played by Chicago teams.
Don't sit here and stereotype me.
Oh, sorry, Jay. I'm planning on it. It's fun and easy, and the best part is, it accurately sums up your writing career.
That's just a smear campaign from a guy who … if he calls me angry, I call him bitter and old.
Sounds like he's talking about Hawk Harrelson. It really does.
This is a fellow who needs to examine the newspaper business, where it is right now, where the Sun-Times is in this market and maybe get his act into gear and help us win this battle …"
What battle?
(I think Teddy is Jewish.)
I always wonder how self-aware Mariotti is. Does he know how bad he is? I mean, what he does obviously generates controversy and thereby interest. So he'll probably have a job as a columnist as long as he wants. But I mean, does... does he know how objectively horrible his writing is? A good comparison is boy bands. Do they know that they're just around to sell albums, or do they actually think they're doing something musically important? I think these questions are right up there with "How is Derek Jeter so calm-eyed?" in terms of how much I ponder them.
ReplyDeleteOn the Sun-Times sports page today is a link to email sent to columnists. Each of the messages about Marriotti is a rave. I guess nobody ever complains about the guy.
ReplyDeleteOh, by the way, he was referring to Telander as being bitter and old. Which seems weird, because Mariotti seems older and (duh) more bitter than Telander. Did anyone ever see the Sports Reporters, a show from back in the 80s with the old guys smoking cigars and talking about Chicago sports? The young guy on there is Telander. He's on Jim Rome's show every once in awhile. Also, Joe Cowley is the Sox beat writer, (who does go into the clubhouse, and the ballpark, unlike Jay) and both he and Telander work for the same paper as Mariotti. I'm only saying this because the blogger said he doesn't know him.
ReplyDeleteIf not for his appearances on ESPN, you'd think Mariotti was just another cranky old sports writer wearing a worn out fedora and chomping on a cigar. Which would be an improvement over the goofy Phyllis Dyller look-alike that we get instead. And this is the guy that's going to unify sports writers by ripping their work? Okay...
ReplyDeletejim - The Sun-Times must have the best e-mail filters known to man to find the positive stuff thrown Mariotti's way.
ReplyDeleteI think neither boy bands nor Jay Mariotti really think about what they are doing in any terms of importance. Whereas boy bands see the cash that piles up that allows them to pay for rehab and lawsuits to "make the kind of music they want to" and recoup money they lost due to Lou Pearlman, Jay Mariotti just thinks about how he is on television and how he gets attention and thinks he must be doing something right.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone, including the Sun-Times, is aware of how horrible Mariotti truly is but they can only see the color green. His columns generate interest and make them money so no one cares. I would love to watch someone go at Mariotti really well in the press one day and then offer to fight him. I also can't wait for when Ozzie Guillen does get fired and he will be standing outside Mariotti's door like Russell Crowe did Denzel Washington in "American Gangster." I am way too excited by this.
Don't sit here and stereotype me.
ReplyDeleteOh, sorry, Jay. I'm planning on it. It's fun and easy, and the best part is, it accurately sums up your writing career.
lollercoasters
wait i'm confused...are you giving it to greenstein? or is this like the first fjm post to use the metablog format to like...EGG ON...a sportswriter?
ReplyDeletemy mind is officially blown.
I'm siding with goldstein/greenstein/goldbloom/rosenberg/rosencrantz/bloomberg. Basically I just thought the article should be addressed here. I didn't necessarily think ol' Teddy was writing poorly.
ReplyDelete