Archive for July, 2009
young doesn’t know what he’s into:
Her name is Rita Benson Leblanc. Granddaughter of Saints’ owner Tom Benson. At 31 she’s the VP of the Saints. But the Times-Picayune argues that her pedigree is only part of her success.
Kind of. The story lays out how driven and smart and good with numbers she is, but it also spends some time focused on her as a foot-stomping cheerleader who loves her “PAWPAW.” So maybe this feature serves as a warning to Saints fans that once the 82-year-old Benson dies, she’s the one who’ll call the shots in New Orleans. (Or move them to a larger market.) Too young? Too Cameron Diaz-y? Oh, and former employee Mike Feder pretty much says he’s not a fan of her hands-on management style.
“I know she’s intelligent, ” Feder says. “I just think she hadn’t figured out how to deal with people.”
Incompetent people like Mike Feder, most likely, but it still should be noted that somebody doesn’t think too highly of her. This isn’t the first profile done of LeBlanc — Portfolio did a four-page spread on her two years ago about how she’s the one person who helped “save the Saints.” So watch out for her. Her closest peer responsibility-wise is Jed York, 28-year-old president of the San Francisco 49ers. Those two should get married!
Rita Benson Leblanc Is Climbing The NFL Ladder NOLA
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What do you think?
Here’s a clip of young trying his best work:
baseball bat young l
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Look who is making news again, young! This time, Science Throws Little League A Curveball Baseball. , we have a summary,
Little Bobby throws a curveball and, soon, he whines about a sore elbow. He blames it on his fledgling 12-to-6, but Little Bobby is just craving sympathy. Hate the player, not the game, Bobbo. It’s science.
Or so say the reputable American Sports Medicine Institute and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, both of which concluded independently that curveballs are no less stressful than fastballs on young pitchers’ arms. In fact, curveballs are rarely at fault in arm problems for the up-and-coming tykes in Baseball America’s rankings of the top elementary school players in the country.
Such a revelation, believe it or not, might be bad news for Little Leagues across the country. Curveballs will soon be like that random pretzel in the dugout, the one that everyone wants but everyone knows will be bad for them to eat during the game. Except the curveball won’t be bad, and so everyone will throw it, and catchers will need their protective cups more than ever.
How, then, did baseball dads go for so long advocating against the curveball?
“Why did people believe the world was flat? Because one guy told another it was flat and it looked flat. Until someone discovered that it wasn’t,” he said.
Tom Friedman has seen the future of international baseball, and it’s 6-year-old kids in the Dominican Republic throwing spitballs and knuckle-changes at a MLB training facility. Williamsport, watch out.
Two Studies Show That Curveball Isn’t Too Stressful New York Times
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How do you think this news will affect the rest of the team this season?
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Wells should be traded:
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The big news is that the Cardinals have struck again on the trade market acquiring Matt Holliday from the Oakland A’s for 2008 1st round pick Brett Wallace, RHP Clayton Mortensen and OF Shane Peterson. Wallace was a 5-star prospect according to Kevin Goldstein to begin the season and #2 on John Sickels list, with Mortensen and Peterson being “C+” prospects according to Sickels. Apparently being too right-handed isn’t a concern for them as they’re lineup could be Molina, Pujols, DeRosa, Ryan, Glaus, Holliday, *Rasmus and Ludwick. Of course Glaus isn’t back yet, and he’ll probably be given a lot of days off when he does return but that’s what their lineup could look like down the stretch.
Good news for the Cubs is that when Alfonso Soriano, Milton Bradley and Aramis Ramirez really start hitting, it’ll be like making a trade.
(slams head in door)
I don’t think this guarantees anything for the Cardinals, but it certainly doesn’t hurt them this year, so….crap.
- Joe Posnanski, one of the few sports columnists I seek out to read, recently came out with his top 100 list of players right now. The only Cubs to make the list are Aramis Ramirez at #80 and Carlos Zambrano at #92. The TLFC is naturally upset over the omission of Ted Lilly.
I could spend a lot of time picking the list apart, but then I realized that my own attempt would probably come up with just as many issues. There’s just no way to do something like that and for everyone not to hate it.
Beyond that list though, I do recommend Joe’s blog, one of the better sports writers out there in my opinion and his conversations with Bill James on SI.com are probably the most entertaining baseball reads on the web.
- Speaking of lists, Fangraphs recently did a series on the Top 50 players ranked by trade value with no Cubs making the cut and you’ll see what I mean that these lists are ripe for anger.
- Found this link from Ruz’s blog on how the Red Sox pitchers dissect the strike zone. A pretty in-depth and technical article on how pitchers attack hitters.
- Ryan Dempster’s toe X-ray showed “excellent healing” and he should be back in the rotation next Wednesday (maybe Tuesday now with Lilly going down). Pitching match-ups for this weekend are Harang vs. Wells, Cueto vs. Hart and Owings vs. Harden. Ted Lilly was scratched from his start tomorrow with a sore left shoulder, exam tomorrow….ruh roh.
Today’s lineups…
| Dickerson RF | Fukudome CF |
| Taveras CF | Theriot SS |
| Votto 1B | Lee 1B |
| Phillips 2B | Ramirez 3B |
| Encarnacion 3B | Bradley RF |
| Nix LF | Soriano LF |
| Hanigan C | Fontenot 2B |
| Gonzalez SS | Hill C |
| Harang P | Wells P |
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Tell us your opinion!
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I wonder how Wells’s fans feel -
When the Cubs last saw the Reds, from June 5-7 in Cincinnati, the Reds were right behind the Cubs in the NL Central standings and some people were still saying they’d be contenders.
The Cubs took two of three in that June series and since June 7 the Reds are 15-23, including a 7-12 July record in which they have scored 63 runs and allowed 113 in the 19 games played. The three pitchers scheduled to start this weekend for the Reds (Aaron Harang, Johnny Cueto and Micah Owings) have a combined 8.68 ERA during July. So, this would be a real good time to get Cubs bats going, continuing what they began on the road trip just completed. Despite scoring only one run in each of the first two games in Philadelphia, the Cubs scored 38 runs in seven games (5.43 per game) on the road trip and scored ten or more runs twice. They are averaging 4.52 runs per game for the 19 games so far in July and have posted a 12-7 record this month.
Ryan Dempster’s recovery is going well, but he won’t start this weekend. Instead, Bruce Miles tells us, he’ll go on a running program and could be slotted in vs. the Astros next Thursday. Kevin Hart will make one more start (Sunday) before Dempster’s return.
Will Lou return in 2010? Here’s an interesting take from the Sun-Times, which includes comments from former Cubs managers Dusty Baker and Jim Riggleman on how difficult it can be to manage the Cubs even when they’re winning.
And, here are a few notes from Dave van Dyck on whether the Cubs will make any moves before the trading deadline and what those moves might be.
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Aaron Harang looks kind of sad in that photo. He should, if he’s thinking about the Cubs; he’s 9-6 lifetime vs. the Cubs, but with a 4.55 ERA. He did throw a nice game vs. the Cubs on April 23 at Wrigley Field, allowing seven hits and an unearned run. Derrek Lee has homered five times off him (in 49 career AB) and Aramis Ramirez has three HR off Harang (in 43 AB).
Randy Wells threw 6.2 good innings vs. the Reds in Cincinnati on June 7, but he was long gone by the time the Cubs won that game in 14 innings. He gave up six hits — two doubles and four singles — and two runs. A sobering reminder of how fluid the Cubs’ pitching staff has been this year can be found in that boxscore — three pitchers who were in that game (Jose Ascanio, Jason Waddell and David Patton) are no longer on the 25-man roster.
The Cubs are back on cable today, CSN Chicago and FSN Ohio. For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Reds site Red Reporter. In fact, yesterday they had a detailed post analyzing today’s starter, Aaron Harang.
Overflow comment threads will post today at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
what do you think?How do you think this news about Wells will affect the team this season?
Every day should be opening day when you open your checkbook and see the logo of your favorite Major League Baseball team prominently displayed. All 30 teams available. Matching labels and cover are also available. These baseball checks are only $27.90 at DesignerChecks.com
Last night we had terrible starting pitching throughout the system. Tonight we had great starting pitching everywhere. Go figure.
Iowa Cubs
The Iowa Cubs topped the Omaha Royals, 5-1.
Starter Casey Fossum gave up a home run to the second batter of the game and then shut the Royals down the rest of the way. Fossum went seven innings and allowed only five hits and one walk. (He did hit one batter too.) Fossum struck out five for his second win for the I-Cubs.
Bobby Scales was 2 for 3 with a double and a walk. Scales scored once and had two RBI. Third baseman Nate Spears was 2 for 3 with a triple. He scored once and had one RBI.
Shortstop Aaron Miles went 2 for 4 with a walk.
Tennessee Smokies
The Smokies were beaten by the Mississippi Braves, 2-1.
Hung-Wen Chen was the hard-luck loser tonight. Chen threw 6.2 innings and allowed two runs on eight hits. One of the runs allowed was unearned. Chen walked two and struck out four.
First baseman Blake Lalli had a double and an RBI single in a 3 for 4 game. Left fielder Ty Wright went 2 for 4 with a double and a run scored.
Daytona Cubs
The Daytona Cubs shut down the Palm Beach Cardinals, 7-0.
Tonight’s good pitching continued with Craig Muschko, who allowed only one hit in his five innings of work. Muschko didn’t walk a batter and struck out five to improve his record to 5-1.
Third baseman Josh Vitters was 2 for 5 with a double. He scored twice and knocked one in.
I don’t know what’s going on with the PB Cardinals catching or pitching staffs, but the day after the Cubs stole eight bases, they stole another six bases tonight. The Cardinals used different catchers on the two nights, so it’s not just one weak arm.
Center fielder Tony Campana was only 1 for 5, but he stole three bases and scored twice. Campana now has 38 stolen bases for Daytona, as well as 11 earlier in the season for Peoria. He was caught stealing once after getting picked off once. Left fielder Josh Harrison was 2 for 4 with a walk and two stolen bases. Harrison scored once.
Brandon Guyer had the other steal tonight. The right fielder was 1 for 3 with a double and a walk. He also scored twice.
Peoria Chiefs
The Chiefs shut out the Lansing Lugnuts, 5-0.
Starter Justin Bristow turned in another great start for the Cubs tonight as he went six innings and gave up only four hits. Even more impressively, he struck out eight and didn’t walk anyone.
Third baseman Jovan Rosa was 2 for 3 with a three-run home run. Rosa drove in all five runs tonight.
Center fielder Kyler Burke was 3 for 4 with a stolen base. Burke scored twice. First baseman Rebel Ridling went 2 for 4 with a stolen base and a run scored.
Boise Hawks
The Hawks polished off the Eugene Emeralds, 6-2.
He only pitched 2.1 innings, but since this is great starting pitching night, starter Jonathan Nagel didn’t allow a hit and only walked one while striking out four. He did allow an unearned run though.
Andres Quezada picked up the win with 2.2 shutout innings of relief.
Second baseman Logan Wakins had two doubles in a 2 for 5 night. He also had two RBI. Center fielder Jose Valdez was 2 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored. Third baseman Greg Rohan was 2 for 5 with a double and two RBI
AZL Cubs
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I have always been a fan of Harris, I have to say, seeing news like this gives me mixed feelings.How do you think this news will affect the rest of the team this season?
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No matter what they say, I can’t stop thinking young is interesting:
-After losing 2 of 3 to the Nats, no one photo better sums up the Mets’ year than Jeff Francoeur being the baseball’s bitch. Except maybe this one. -If you caught HBO’s Real Sports last night, you know about Friends of Jaclyn, a program that lets college teams “adopt” a sick child. Also, you cried like a baby. -A Dominican prospect undergoes DNA testing to prove he’s as young as he says he is. Livan Hernandez tried to take the test, but broke the machine. -It’s looking more like it’s LeBron or bust, after Chris Bosh breaks into laughter at the mention of playing for the Knicks. -Steroids? In my MMA? It’s more likely than you think. Former UFC heavyweight champ Josh Barnett tests positive, canceling a scheduled fight with Fedor Emelianenko. -DiPietro, Roloson, now Marty Biron. The Islanders do know you can’t play three men in goal at once, right? -Burglars broke into Texas A&M’s football complex, and wrote “The Eyes of Texas are Upon You” on the carpet. But who would do such a thing? -Struggling Red Sox add Adam LaRoche, Chris Duncan. Shockingly, this news doesn’t immediately turn around the team’s fortunes.
Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter’s anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and the blogosphere to bring you everything you need to know to start your day..
Tell us your opinion.
Here’s a clip of young doing his best work:
Picture Perfect Base Running Mechanics for Baseball
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Check out who is making news - harris! Marvin Harrison’s Accuser Shot Again, And What This Has To Do With Big Ben Nfl. To make things easier, we have a summary -
A man who claims he was shot by Marvin Harrison last year was shot again. That’s a nebulous sports connection, but you better believe it was on ESPN.com’s front page today.
Dwight Dixon was shot seven times in broad daylight this morning in North Philly, 15 months after a dispute at Marvin Harrison’s bar led to…something. There are no suspects yet, though Dixon told a police officer on the scene that he thought Harrison hired someone to take him out.
Facts are few (much fewer than in the Roethlisberger case) but there it was, among the top headlines on ESPN.com this afternoon. The company policy excuses don’t fly, as there was no criminal case brought in last year’s shooting. Ironically, there is a civil case pending.
It’s only right that ESPN cover Dixon’s second shooting. Rightly or wrongly, he’s linked with Harrison, and this is news. ESPN made the story their own, with some incredible reporting by Shaun Assael and Peter Keating, and it’s in their best interests to follow up.
It might be the most unfair thing in the world to report this story in a sports context. What happened last year may have absolutely nothing to do with this. But this is news, because it’s being reported. That might seems a tautology, but when the media comes to a consensus on something, there’s no stopping it. And ESPN isn’t so big that their abstention can keep something from being news.
Philly man in critical condition ESPN.com
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This might be shocking news for harris fans, but some of you who will say that you saw it coming from a long way away. I’m pretty surprised. harris is spectacular, I hope this doesn’t affect the rest of the team.
Want to give yourself an edge? Want the same type of professional equipment that the professional athletes use? Want to steal a few dollars off the price? Get FREE SHIPPING on orders over $99 when you shop at BaseballRampage. These guys have nearly everything you and your team need, from bats balls and gloves to cleats, bases, even pitching machines.
Harris sure has been in the news a lot lately,
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I don’t normally comment on the Major League Cubs figuring it’s Al’s job, but since he’s traveling, I thought I’d start out with a short comment that I’m pretty confident Al would agree with.
The Cubs have not been a good team so far this season. Most of the year, they’ve simply been treading water. They’ve had moments where they’ve looked like the world-beaters of the past two seasons, but mostly they’ve been pedestrian. Not bad, mind you. Cub fans know a bad team when they see it. They just don’t look like a playoff team.
But here we are past the All-Star Break, and the Cubs are only a game out of first and a game up on the first-place Cardinals in the loss column. Speaking of the Cardinals, for the first half of this decade, they were a pretty dominating team, making the playoffs every season from 2000 to 2005 except for a minor blip in 2003 which we all remember. But during that time, they never won the World Series, despite some pretty amazing teams led by either Mark McGwire or Albert Pujols.
Yet when 2006 rolled around, the Cardinals were clearly down. Albert Pujols by himself gave the team an offense that was a bit above average, but there were major holes in the lineup. The pitching staff was decidedly mediocre. But the rest of the division was down, too, and the Cards just sneaked past the Astros the final weekend of the season to crawl into the playoffs. We all know that Cardinal team, which was easily the worst Cardinals playoff team of the decade, won the World Series.
Once you make the playoffs, anything can happen, as we found out the bad way over the past two seasons. I’m not saying that this team is going to win it all. I’m just saying that if you think a team that is only a game back in July and a game up in the loss column can’t win it all, you’re dead wrong.
Iowa Cubs
The I-Cubs lost to the Omaha Royals, 9-6.
Jose Ascanio had a terrible start tonight, not making it out of the second inning. Ascanio gave up six runs, five of which were earned, in only 1.2 innings. He was tagged for six hits and failed to strike anyone out. He walked one batter and hit one too. He also had a wild pitch. This awful outing did only raise Ascanio’s ERA to 2.91 though.
John Gaub threw an inning of scoreless relief and Blake Parker had two shutout innings out of the pen. I mention them because they’re both having good seasons that have been mostly under the radar here.
Center fielder Sam Fuld returned to Iowa and hit his first home run of the season. Fuld was 2 for 4 with a walk and two RBI from the home run.
First baseman Matt Craig and DH Jason Dubois had identical lines of 2 for 4 with a double an a run scored. Shortstop Darwin Barney was 2 for 4 with a run scored.
Shortstop Aaron Miles was 1 for 5.
Tennessee Smokies
The Smokies were kicked off the reservation by the Mississippi Braves, 8-5.
David Patton made a rehab start and it didn’t go very well either. Patton pitched two innings and gave up three runs on a three-run home run in the second inning. Patton allowed two hits and walked one. He also struck out one.
First baseman Blake Lalli ws 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI. Second baseman Tony Thomas was 2 for 3 with an RBI sac fly.
Shortstop Jonathan Mota was 2 for 5 with a double and a run scored. Center fielder James Adduci was 2 for 4 with a walk and an RBI. Third baseman Marquez Smith was 2 for 5 with a double, an RBI and a run scored.
Catcher Welington Castillo was 1 for 3 with a solo home run, his eighth of the season.
Daytona Cubs
The D-Cubs lost to the Palm Beach Cardinals, 5-3 in 13 innings.
Rafael Dolis started and allowed three runs on four hits over four innings. Dolis walked three and struck out two.
Joe Simokaitis had an ERA of 8.68 in 9.1 innings of relief in Boise. So naturally the correct move is to promote him all the way to Daytona. He responded to the promotion with two shutout innings of relief. He allowed two hits and he hit a batter. He didn’t strike anyone out.
Luke Sommer pitched the 13th inning and took the loss, allowing two runs on three hits.
Left fielder Josh Harrison went 2 for 6 with four stolen bases. Center fielder Tony Campana went 3 for 7 with a run scored and two stolen bases. Shortstop Starlin Castro had the final two of the Cubs eight steals tonight. Castro was 2 for 5 with a double and two walks.
Peoria Chiefs
The Chiefs were pounded by the Lansing Lugnuts, 6-2.
Austin Bibens-Dirkx got his first start tonight, but it didn’t go well as he picked up his first loss. ABD gave up five runs on six hits, inculding two home runs, over five plus innings. One of the runs was unearned. The positive sign was that he struck out four and didn’t walk anyone.
Right fielder Andrew Rundle hit his second home run, a two-run shot in the sixth inning. Rundle was 1 for 3.
Boise Hawks
The Hawks were outslugged by the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, 10-8.
Robert Hernandez started tonight and continued tonight’s theme of bad starts with three runs over 5.1 innings. Actually, tonight that’s not so bad. He gave up four hits and issued three walks. Hernandez struck out five. One of Hernandez’s runs was unearned.
Corey Martin allowed five runs, three of which were earned, in only one inning to take the loss.
Second baseman Logan Watkins was 2 for 3 with a walk. He scored three times and had one RBI.
First baseman Justin Bour was 2 for 4 with a walk and a double. He had two RBI. Left fielder Jose Valdez was 2 for 3.
Center fielder Brett Jackson was 1 for 3 with a run scored and two more walks. He struck out once.
AZL Cubs
Were the only winner tonight, shutting out the Athletics, 7-0.
.:”
Let us know w you think!
Every day should be opening day when you open up your checkbook and see the logo of your favorite Major League Baseball team proudly displayed. All 30 teams available. Coordinating labels and cover are also available. These baseball checks are only $27.90 at DesignerChecks.com
Ha, I can’t get enough of mock,
In an interview with Seth Wickersham for this week’s ESPN Magazine, Winslow reveals all the details of the staph infection that caused him to miss games and be suspended by the Browns after being critical of the organization. Given his history of wanton douchiness, you’d be hard pressed to sympathize with Winslow. Until now. Winslow told ESPN’s Seth Wickersham that he had to have fluid drained from his testicles to play in an Oct. 19 game at Washington⦠Winslow told Wickersham that he woke up one October morning sore in the groin area, but figured the problem would go away. Winslow said by the next morning “my testicles were enlarged, to the point where it hurt to walk.”⦠Wickersham said Winslow passed it on to his wife Janelle. She was also hospitalized and the couple worried about it affecting their ability to have children. Describing Winslow’s treatment, Wickersham quoted Winslow as saying, “They had to drain it. They had a scalpel. They cut into it. I had to clean it every day with a Q-Tip, for two and a half weeks. It was the most painful thing I’ve ever been through.” Pardon me for just a moment⦠GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH The Browns have had six players treated for staph infections since 2003. One of those players was high-priced free agent LeCharles Bentley, who nearly had to have his leg amputated after staph infected his surgically repaired knee. Bentley never played a single game with the Browns. And there you have the entire Cleveland franchise in a nutshell. Not only do they suck, but they also manage to nearly kill their players, or infect their testicles to the point where they have to be sliced open. What the fuck is going on with this organization? Do they wipe the shower floor with fresh Monkey feces every morning? So yes, we feel a brief bit of sympathy for the Soldier Boy. And let’s give him proper credit for still sticking it to his old lady, literally and figuratively, despite the coco nuts. Of course, this is Kellen Winslow. So it never takes him too long to steer back into Douchevania. Wickersham wrote that he contacted several former Browns employees on why no one defended Winslow. Wickersham said those conversations revealed hard feelings over Winslow treating the trainers like he was their only patient, jeopardizing his damaged knee from a 2005 motorcycle accident by playing basketball in the off-season and his lewd locker room remarks. Suddenly, a Q-Tip to the man’s urethra seems fitting. Winslow Reveals Staph Details Ohio.com HT: KSK reader Kyle D
We’ve all mocked Kellen Winslow in the past for grossly overestimating his own bravery. But perhaps it’s time to reconsider, given that last year, he had his testicles sliced open.
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Any tThoughts?
Every day should be opening day when you open up your checkbook and see the logo of your favorite Major League Baseball team prominently displayed. All 30 teams available. Coordinating labels and cover are also available. These baseball checks are only $27.90 at DesignerChecks.com
I wonder how dunn’s fans feel -
The first time I ever wrote about Erin Andrews on Deadspin was August 22, 2006. The site was nearly a year old by then.
In the wake of the awful video that hit the Web over the weekend — actually, it had been hanging around for months, apparently but no one had seen it — everyone is pointing fingers. It’s blogs’ fault for objectifying her. It’s fans’ fault for often caring more about what happens off the field than on. It’s ESPN’s fault for not strangling this story in the crib when they had the chance. (And they did.) It’s her fault. It’s our sports culture’s fault. It’s the fault of the thin walls of a lousy hotel.
None of these things are true, of course, and all of them are. Obviously, the fault lies in the assbag who shot the video in the first place, something this person has made a habit of, ultimately stumbling on someone in the public arena. (Let there be no doubt, though: This could happen to your wife, your girlfriend, your daughter. These slugs exist because it’s impossible to find a way to kill them all.)
But it’s more than that, obviously. That’s the reason we’re all here and talking about it, aren’t we? This is not just any sideline reporter snoop video. It’s Erin Andrews. If this is Holly Rowe, or Jill Arrington, or Michele Tafoya, this story is over in a day, if it even goes that far. But it wasn’t. It was Erin Andrews. She was not called America’s Sideline Sex Object: She was called America’s Sideline Princess. Lisa Guerrero posed for Playboy. Jamie Little models when she’s not updating us on NASCAR. Andrews was never like that. She was a sideline reporter, and a busy one, sloughing through West Lafayette and regularly traveling with Brent Musburger. It would have been shocking to see her do so much as a photo shoot.
But that doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s not like Jamie Little or Lisa Guerrero would deserve a snoop cam video any more than Erin Andrews did. No, the reason the video has gained such traction, and the reason everyone is so upset — and I can assure you, I’ve yet to talk to a single person, blogger, blog reader, ESPN employee, sideline reporter, upright walking normal human being, who wasn’t profoundly disturbed by this — is because we all felt somewhat complicit with Andrews. Everyone felt like they knew her. They didn’t, of course. But everyone with an interest in the world of sports was present for her rise. When the stills from the video hit the New York Post this morning, it is very likely that 95 percent of their readership were seeing her name for the first time. (Suddenly, Nick Denton cares about sports!) It’s all out of everybody’s hands now. The toothpaste is out of the tube.
That’s the thing: This is awful for anyone who has ever written or said anything about Erin Andrews, ever. Everything seemed innocent before, which is why everybody did it. Sports Media Watch has an excellent long post detailing what brought us to this point, pointing out comments about Andrews made by newspaper folk, bloggers, broadcasters and whatever Bruce Pearl is. But Sports Media Watch overstates it: It somehow tries to tie all that to the video, saying the Andrews talk created a “hostile environment.” From my experience, the environment was anything but “hostile.” Its lack of hostility always seemed like the point.
But it’s all just kind of dissembling now, isn’t it? People who took photos of themselves smiling with Andrews on the sideline feel guilty, ESPN feels guilty, bloggers feel guilty, everybody feels guilty except the scumbag who shot the video in the first place. (I am ascribing this person with the inability to feel empathy.) The whole thing went wrong, very wrong. I do not think there is direct causality here … at all. But it’s not so wakka-wakka all-in-fun anymore, isn’t it? Even if we all feel comfortable that we were above board, if we scoffed at those other sites who were cruder and uglier, that part is over. No one feels good about it.
Just to check myself on this, I went back and read every post I ever wrote about Andrews. The first was about a reader chiming in to say Eric Karros had made a strange comment about Andrews — it turned out to be Orel Hershiser — and contained the line “we still have sympathy for the Erin Andrews of the world, if just because no matter what they do, no matter where they are, no matter how much work they might put in … to their male colleagues, they’re pretty much still just a skirt,” which is something I still think is probably true. Later, an interview with her from CSTV, Andrews’ tips on where to eat in Atlanta, Pat White saying he “almost fainted” when she walked up to him and her relenting to a blog interview in which she called Deadspin “hysterical,” swoon swoon, blah blah, god it all feels so gross now. I dunno: It felt like she was in on the joke, you know? Maybe she was. Doesn’t matter now. (Make sure to read the comments on that story, by the way. When commenters learned that Andrews might read Deadspin, they were downright respectful. (One commenter even joked about having to comb his hair and put on a tie.)
Was I ever over the line? Was Bruce Pearl when he hugged her? Was Rick Sutcliffe when he constantly commented on her dress? Was ESPN, and sports media in general, when they realized that attractive women on the sideline helped ratings? Did I contribute to this awful thing that happened? Did all of us? I don’t think so. I really don’t.
But. I have never met Erin Andrews. If I ran into her on the street today … I’m not sure I could look her in the eye. I’m not sure anybody could.
what do you think?This will be shocking news for dunn fans, but there are those of you who will say that you saw it coming from a mile away. I’m pretty surprised though. dunn is great, I really hope this doesn’t affect the season.
Here’s a vid of dunn trying his best work:
Adam Dunn Prank Calls Marty Brennaman
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