Gary Smith on Joba Chamberlain

I haven't read it yet, but it sure was strange to find a Smith piece this quickly again. And not even teased on the cover. When is the last time one of his stories wasn't plugged out front?

 

great piece. what a surprise. : : :

 

I know this is going to prompt a riot, but honestly, the lede is so overwritten, I had to stop.

I know Gary is a God, and to be honest, he's one of the main reasons I do what I do, but seriously, I think if this lead was written by someone else, it would get mocked right off the journalism board. Even Gary gets a little too purple with his prose for my tastes.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/10/03/joba1008/

 

Link? Or is just available for the magazine?

 

Dude, that's a phenomenal lead. You do need a good bit of gravitas to pull off a lead like that, but c'mon -- I'm not even a Yankee fan and I got goosebumps. Happens often when I read Gary. In fact, if I ever meet him, that's what I'm calling him -- Goosebump Smith.

 

No, sorry, it's way, way too purple.

Did the word rise and roar again like a yearning?

Please.

Even the best in the world need editing on occasion. This was too much.

 

Did he talk to his dad? I want to know more about Joba's dad. I've never heard, read or seen a thing about him.

 

The way Gary's been writing lately, you'll have to wait until the last paragraph.

 

That lede is so far over the top it defies description.

Forgive me for not deifying Gary but considering I have seen the Yankees fans act like Joba is a god, there is nothing in that lede to make me want to keep reading.
If you are as good as Smith is supposed to be, tell me something about Joba I don't know. Don't tell me about fans reactions.

Yankees fans will love it, though, because it feeds their Joba myth.

 

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

 

And then there is nhis bullshit:

Here, in the house of the team with no patience for weakness, the team that ate its young, trading them for established stars and giving away draft picks to sign the best free agents money could buy because dominance was its entitlement, and the future always had to be now.


Well, that covers the 34 years and 6 championships of the Steinbrenner reign. I guess the first 20 championships in 53 years don't count.

Good to know facts never interfere with god's purple prose..

 

It's been broadly true since the advent of George III -- which is all the reality most current readers are aware of.