Barnicle story on Grantland

The Big Lead rips Grantland for posting a story written by Mike Barnicle, who lost his Boston Globe gig over fabrications and plagarism.

I looked at the story and was taken aback. In the first three grafs, he refers to Boston Red Sox manager Tito Francona.

Am I missing something? Tito was Terry Franconca's father. I've never heard Terry referred to as "Tito." Does anybody at Grantland do any editing?

 

I guess if you're a plagiarist from Boston, everything is forgiven.

 

I think Tito is a nickname for Terry.

(When I read "Barnicle," I was excited, thinking this would be about Barney Stinson.)

 

I've heard Francona referred to as Tito plenty of times.

 

Everyone in Boston calls him Tito, including Remmy and Orsillo. Tito is short for Terry, and I believe his father was also using Tito as a nickname. Much as I would love to bash Barnicle and Grantland, they are ok here. But they both deserve each other.

 

Yes, Francona is frequently referred to as Tito.

No, Grantland shouldn't touch Barnicle with a 10-foot pole if they want to be taken seriously.

Barnicle is a joke. An embarrassment.

And, it's just one more reminder that it's Simmons' site. If this is what they're going to print, then the site isn't about serious, long-form journalism.

It's about Simmons stroking his ego (and getting it stroked by ESPN).

Does the site really need another Boston voice? Does it need another friend/hero of Simmons providing copy?

If we need a profile of Francona & Epstein -- which we don't -- do we really need Barnicle to write it?

I can't wait for the Doris Kearns Goodwin story about growing up a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

 

I actually quite enjoyed the article, but there is no way he should be writing for that site.

 

Barnicle is a tremendous talent, but as pointed out on TBL, the two cardinal sins of journalism are don't make shit up and don't plagiarize stuff. Barnicle has done both. Didn't he do both within a month of each other? God only knows how many times he did it before he got caught.

 

Props to Simmons on getting Rany. Great move. Good guy and better writer.

 

No way I am giving Mike Barnicle -- fraud and plagiarist -- a click.

 

Well, OK, so Tito is Terry's nickname. However, in this case it's a little too "inside baseball" for me. For someone who grew up with Tito Francona as a player, I found this use distracting.
So, yeah ... fuck Barnicle.

 

Tito is known in Boston but probably shouldn't be used on first reference for clarity. But that's an editor's decision and those thing don't concern Grantland.