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Chris Ballard on Bobby Valentine, SI 4/30

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Double Down, Apr 27, 2007.

  1. goalmouth

    goalmouth Well-Known Member

    Thanks to novelist_w for putting that re-run profile in its place. If Valentine is on the other side of the world, then there really is a God.
     
  2. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    Well, I thought it was telling that Ballard himself was the only American journalist to show up to the thing in NYC. The media here must think he's a non-story.
     
  3. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    I would imagine that, like me, most readers have not read every single feature story ever written about Bobby Valentine, and thus may have been able to enjoy this one. It was an artfully contructed profile of not just Bubby V, but an interesting examination of how Japanese baseball is changing. The idea that, because Ballard was the only memeber of the American media present at the banquet in NYC, it means Valentine is a non story, is silly. Perhaps it's more telling for the opposite reason; the pack mentality of the media means no one is willing to look at a different angle and take a risk to do something unique. We can agree that Valentine is in love with himself far more than the baseball world is, and that this has been written previously countless times, but the contruction of this piece was well done, and tackled the subject far better than previous attempts.
     
  4. leo1

    leo1 Active Member

    we know valentine says whatever he wants but i'm kind of wondering if he didn't expect the comments about baylor and mike hargrove being idiots to be off the record, maybe while he and ballard were having beers in his apartment or something.

    anyway, great piece. sounds like ballard made at least a couple trips over there. i wonder if one more shitty season means he'll be fired. seems doubtful that he'll ever accomplish his mission of fundamentally reforming japanese baseball.
     
  5. Boomer7

    Boomer7 Active Member

    He may be, but he's still on the hook for that incredibly naive story about baseball being good, clean fun again in last year's preview issue.
     
  6. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    Hey, I said Ballard did a good job with it. What else do you want? Take a risk and do something unique? I can't imagine there's anything left after the time he spent in New York, what with all the media there, and it's hard to believe one of them hasn't already done a "Bobby V.'s Eastern Odyssey" story. The piece, while well done, told me very little about Valentine that I had not already read years ago.
     
  7. Montezuma's Revenge

    Montezuma's Revenge Active Member


    So because you don't like the premise of one story the guy wrote, he's "on the hook?" Sounds like one of those fanboy readers who swears off a columnist because he didn't have the "right" take on the hometown team one day.
     
  8. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Just read the story today and I enjoyed it very much. I was aware of the general outline of Valentine's career in Japan, but this piece filled in much valuable and entertaining detail.
     
  9. I don't necessarily want to steer this off in another direction, but . . .

    I got through only three of the 10 pages in Ballard's story. What I read was interesting and well-reported and well-written. Valentine has always struck me as a fascinating person (I've talked to him a few times, and I know he's self-centered and can be a prick to beat reporters, but that's part of his charm, I guess).

    My point is that I just can't burrow through 10 pages of anything online. The story, to me, was too long for the format. I'm not saying it had to be two pages, but I find myself reeling back my time/patience constraints whenever I read something online (which is why I find Bill Simmons' 4,000-word columns insufferable, but I don't want to compare Ballard to him).

    Does anyone else have this problem? When I pick up a magazine, I'm ready to dig in. The online payoff has to be faster, and this one, even though the part of it I read was well-done, just wasn't compelling enough to go to Page 10. That's a lot of copy to read on a computer screen. An online story, to me, almost can't be written like a print story.
     
  10. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    I would never click nine times to read an on-line story, which is why I always click the "Print" button on stories like this to read it. That makes it much easier visually. ESPN seems to get it with their E-ticket stuff. They've figured out a way to wrap the text around art, which makes it much better. I think web sites went to this multipage format for longer stories because they wanted to create more hits, but I can almost guarantee it turns off more readers than it generates extra hits.
     
  11. Boomer7

    Boomer7 Active Member

    The premise was simply so outrageous that it damaged his credibility. He's an excellent reporter, and I enjoy a lot of his stuff, but that particular article was unbelievably irresponsible.
     
  12. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    Amazing what you can do following a guy for six months. ;D

    Very nicely researched, written and presented story.
     
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