The Hardball Times:Maybe it should be called “mediacrity”…
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The Hardball Times found this 5/21/2008 on www.hardballtimes.com [flag] |
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Comments (16)
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tangotiger Loved it. -
ger8ry "O.K. just so we're clear--this is not about Barry Bonds."
OK. But it makes me wonder what an article would look like if it was about Barry Bonds.
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bads85 Accountability without naming names is impossible. There is no "being a nice guy" if one is holding the MSM responsible. Your blind link to Paul Gutierrez's increased his web hits, making his editors happy. Most importantly, you exposed all your readers to an accidental lobotomy by sending them to that clown's article. No one who knows any better willingly reads Gutierrez (the guy's career peak was beat reporter for the Oakland Raiders), no more than they let their toddlers play with hammers on a glass coffee table.
If you are going to go after the MSM, enourage your readers to not hit the link that good taste says you must provide -- or at least warn them that they will soon be dumber for reading the article. Otherwise, you are assisting the hack --- bad attention is much, much better than no attention in the newspaper industry.
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bads85 BTW, great dissection of Gutierrez's tripe. -
John Brattain OK. But it makes me wonder what an article would look like if it was about Barry Bonds
(laughing) Touché
Well, when you're discussing 2008 collusion there aren't many names to toss around.
Best Regards
John
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jvonbokel "Finally, the $10 million he refers to has been debunked early, often and repeatedly quite some time ago."
Forgive my ignorance, but what is Bonds' asking price? I had assumed the minimum would be in the $10mil range.
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baseball chick well said.
to put it mildly. interesting that it is so easy to get the media to collude.
and it is obscene that both selig and the media have settled on 2 "Bad Guys" for the supposed steroid era and completely ignored anybody else, especially the organizations who clearly knew and tolerated this.
i would actually like to hear somebody besides that all around good guy jeff kent from the last 10 years of barry's teams stand up and talk about how barry was a cancer in the clubhouse. because i have heard a lot of the opposite.
and we don't criticize griffey these days because he is a "good guy" who we know for absolute certain could not possibly have ever used roids because he is a designated "good guy" just like we deify bagwell and biggio here in houston although their prima donna ways have cost the team in may other ways.
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John Brattain Forgive my ignorance, but what is Bonds' asking price? I had assumed the minimum would be in the $10mil range.
There hasn't been one. No team has called asking if there is one. I spoke to the Bonds' camp and they made it clear that they have not made a single demand or contract minimum for him to play.
Best Regards
John
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Jose Lima Mr. Brattain,
I found your article well written and wonderfully thought provoking.
I think this Bonds fiasco will one day make for a great study in ethics. Was/Is it ethical for the press to have colluded against a cheater that there was no proof of him cheating?
That being said do you think Bonds is a cheater? No need to answer but if you do than I am a firm believer you sleep in the bed you make, and if he cheated he should receive no sympathy from anyone.
I wonder if he's angered more by the fact that the press and MLB is getting away with the same ethical standards as he used in playing the game or that he is this truly saddened by his lack of participation in baseball? Perhaps both.
Either way, it shows how little difference there is between the tarnished HOF and the supposed "reporters" who claim to be the flag holders of ethics and facts.
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elllpeee Indeed, a well written, entertaining and thought provoking article.
Jose Lima,
You ask if Mr. Britain thinks Bonds is a cheater. What do you mean by "cheater"? Are you asking about his (probable) use of PEDs? If so, why can't we have sympathy for the one man who is taking a majority of the backlash from a widespread epidemic of PED use in the sport. Moreover, it was a use that was not disaproved of by his employers (the teams or MLB). That is not really the point here.
In fact, it seems to me that you are guying into the hype that the mainstream media has presented as fact. That Bonds is the bad guy for many reasons, including his unproven use of PEDs, and that he is getting what MLB has decided he deserves.
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Jose Lima But the difference is I am not a journalist passing fiction for fact.
And unlike many people, I am a firm believer in an eye for an eye. I think your sins should be held against you here on earth. I am not compassionate nor do I believe in mercy. I also am not one to BS anyone. Do I think Bonds cheated? Yes. Do I think there is collusion against Bonds? Yes. Do I feel for the guy? No.
MLB /Bonds/Sports writers around the world were married to one another AND all made a lot of money off each other and now each side is trying to clean up their names.
I do find it ironic that you would accuse me of succumbing to the same proof-less propaganda that the media has spread about Bonds' steroids as you seemed to have succumbed to by Bonds and company’s proof-less spread about collusion.
I believe both parties are guilty and the fact that Bonds' has become the face of the steroid era does not lessen his guilt or any others. But I do ask you this, where are the lawsuits of defamation? Where is the campaign to free Bonds from these false statements? And in the end you can throw at me as many accusations as I can throw at you but what evidence do either of us truly have but our own gut feelings.
My gut says that both of them lied and cheated. Clemens' and Selig's name in my eyes should be married to Bonds and expelled from baseball.
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elllpeee Point taken. I do feel that you are missing my point, and that may be my fault for not stating it clearly.
Why should Bonds be held up as a poster-boy for the PED era and viewed publicly as a cheater when countless others are just as guilty as he. Moreover, there is no proof yet that he did take anything (although I do believe he did). Many substances were not against the rules, so it remains to be seen if he did in fact break the rules. That is where my sympathies for Bonds lie.
Furthermore, I feel that Selig and all of the game is nearly as culpable as any player that did use these substances by creating a culture that notonly turned its back on the issue, but could even be seen to have encouraged it.
As for the original article, I merely feel it isthought-provoking. In truth, there is no proof that he is being blackballed. The article does present a circumstancial case fairly well, and makesone consider the stated points. On that I think we can agree.
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baetown415 Bravo Mr. Brattain,
I still wonder why people talk about Bonds' recliner, extra lockers, and him being a clubhouse cancer when he explained the reasons for the first two a couple years ago and the third charge against him doesn't really ring true (though he did some things that angered me while he was still playing). John hit the nail on the head with the Barcolounger, though some people still would think Bonds was selfish for thinking about keeping his body healthy (silly him!).
As for the extra locker(s): it has been well-noted that Bonds' son Nikolai, formerly a bat boy for the Giants, had his locker next to Barry's. This apparently led some unobservant (or stupid) media members to believe that Bonds had multiple lockers. Although I was never inside a locker room with Bonds, this reason sounds more likely than the media's claim that Bonds always had three lockers to his disposal.
Perhaps most egregious is the way Bonds is portrayed as a teammate who doesn't care about anyone but himself. When Jerry Crasnick wrote an ESPN article during Spring Training about the post-Bonds Giants, he told the story of how Bonds took aside Kevin Frandsen, who was struggling to hit at the time, and helped him in the batting cage everyday, giving him pointers with his swing and talking to him about his approach. Frandsen ended up hitting well during the last month and a half of the season (small sample size, I know) and attributed a lot of that to Bonds' help.
But yes, Barry would instantly cause all good guys in the locker room to suffocate because of his "poor clubhouse presence." That surely would happen.
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scapistron Is this the same club house cancer that dressed up like Paula Abdul for a team skit? -
Mike Clark I think the Selig "two bad guys" argument is accurate. The baseball media thinks everything is clearcut, one way or another. It isn't. Barry Bonds is a bad guy because the media needs bad guys, so they can have good guys. No shades of grey. I do not like Bonds, but I'd love to see his big ego crammed into a Marlins' uniform, for example, and have him humbled by fastballs he doesn't see and hits he can't leg out than by a cabal.
Links (8)
THT: Brattain: Maybe it should be called “mediacrity”…
Published 5/21/2008 at BBTF's Baseball Primer Newsblog
THT: Brattain: Maybe it should be called “mediacrity”… Brattain on the terra-dwelling media’s somnambulation through the Bonds collusion. The bottom line is this: collusion cannot happen absent a lazy or complicit fourth estate. Just so you know, I am about to demonstrate why so many in the media despise bloggers. Fifteen years ago a columnist/reporter could write a piece that would be accepted as is, safe in the knowledge that his mediocre effort would be lost on most readers. No more. I am about to do what the press despises about the blogosphere and expose (1) how ...
Sports journalists are lazy. Trevor Hoffman is a watched pot and saves are boils. Mike Piazza goes into the HoF a Padre
Published 5/21/2008 by Dex at Gaslamp Ball: Front Page Posts
... The Hardball Times has a piece up critiquing how lazy sports journalists are when it coms to investigative type reporting. I agree, though I do think it's not beyond the realm of possibility that all of the owners really don't want anything to do with Barry Bonds without having to consult with each other about whether or not they should. ...
Why nobody wants Bonds
Published 5/22/2008 by Bjoern at Mojo Blog
... of his employment; he can only have these considerations if the team allows it.
I honestly believe that a lot of teams don’t want Bonds because he might alienate the fan base or because they have other guys available, but there are some teams that could be in contention if they had a little more offense (Seattle, Padres) - something that Bonds could surely provide - that accusing MLB of collusion is far from unthinkable.
Link: Maybe it should be called “mediacrity”…
The Media vs. The Blogosphere
Published 5/22/2008 by Patrick DiCaprio at THE FANTASY BASEBALL GENERALS
John Brattain at The Hardball Times wrote a great article on why the dinosaur media is against the blogosphere. It is not about competition. John Brattain is one of my favorite writers in the baseball world. He is a firebomber who pulls no punches and asks no quarter. I had the privilege of being John’s colleague back in the days when I wrote at The Hardball Times, before moving on the my current position with RotoTimes/Fanball/Owner’s Edge. John tackled the issue of why the traditional media hates blogger’s so much. The short answer is not that they draw readers away, though ...
Odds and Ends: Griffey, Baek, German, Wells
Published 5/22/2008 by Tim Dierkes at MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com
... today's link collection.
Hal McCoy seems fairly certain that Ken Griffey Jr. will play out the season with the Reds.
Dejan Kovacevic has heard that the Pirates are torn between Pedro Alvarez and Tim Beckham at #2.
Cha Seung Baek has been DFA'd, and this time he might be claimed. He could have a career as a fifth starter somewhere.
John Brattain explains why he feels teams are colluding against Barry Bonds. ...
Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend Reading
Published 5/22/2008 by Sarah Green at umpbump.com
... , with the 390 foot “single.” Who else has to get robbed just so we can preserve the “human element”? The Hardball Times takes the media to task for dismissing the Bonds/collusion whispers as conspiracy theories. For the record, I’ve also dismissed those whispers. But this post is the first thing I’ve read that has made me think again. ...
The Wil Cordero Memorial Linkpunch, Thursday, May 22nd
Published 5/22/2008 by Rob Iracane at Walkoff Walk
... Sports journalists are lazy, says John Brattain, because they don't take the time to educate themselves about the topics they are writing about. Brattain points to the Barry Bonds hullabaloo to prove his point. Point taken, man. Hardball Times. ...
Article of the Week for the Week of May 18 - 24
Published 5/27/2008 by Brandon Heikoop (noreply@blogger.com) at The Outsiders Look at the Insides of Baseball
Colleague John Brattain regularly writes some of my favorite baseball articles. In a recent article at the Hardball Times, Brattain furthers the discussion regarding regarding possible collusion between baseball and ...
John, you should be given a Pulitzer for the way you attack this subject and debunk a lot of the myths concerning it.
You're absolutely right that a lot of the "Collusion? Pfft!" crowd are simply parroting MLB talking points, and the fact that we can't actually have an objective, civilized debate about it shows just how little we've come in all these years (I guess that's the right way to phrase it).