Inky reporter vs. Brett Myers

My instinct is to side with the reporter because Myers is such a world-class prick. And listening to the audio, my sympathy was definitely with the reporter. But I kept wondering, "why is he talking back to the guy? Why not just walk away?" You make more of a statement that way if that's what you want to do, and you don't escalate the situation or get his teammates to sympathize with him.

 

There was nothing wrong with the follow-up question. The problem was "How do you spell retard?" after Myers started to go off.
Walk away.
Myers is a prick, don't exacerbate the situation.
Many of us who have been around as long as or longer than Carchidi have been called a lot worse by dumbass athletes/coaches etc. You simply don't get into a shouting/cursing match with them.

 

For those who say the wife-beating incident is irrelevant to this discussion, it is not. It points to Myers' character, and it shows how much of a Grade A jerk the guy is.

It also shows how he has a penchant for taking on someone who has a little less power than he does. Yeah, THAT requires a lot of bravado. He's an asshat.

No, people are saying Carchidi covers preps because he's been a revel-rouser in the past. Whether that's true or not is up for debate, but if this incident is any indication of his track record ...

 

BB Bobcat,

I think it's a mistake for a reporter to assume what anybody thinks. If his answer isn't clear, you can't just write it and let the reader figure it out. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Carchidi asking him about that again. I'm betting if another reporter had asked the same question, Myers wouldn't have gotten all crazy. Myers clearly didn't like to be questioned by Carchidi. Ther was history. It was personal.

I agree that Myers' off-the-field trouble is irrelevant. Never said it was.

But I have gone back and read this message board, and more than a few are linking Carchidi's preps work with his behavior. That's a stretch. Like I posted earlier, the "how do you spell retard" line was a bit much, but I'll never fault a reporter for not taking crap off a spoiled pitcher. Carchidi was just being a smartass. Myers was being threatening. There was a "Who are you to question me?" part of that argument that was fairly obvious.

And again, T.J. Simers does this stuff every ... single ... week. Go back and look at one of his more recent columns on Kobe. He is clearly trying to instigate Kobe after Kobe made it clear he did not want to talk about the Lakers. Yet, Simers keeps asking. He did the same thing with Gary Matthews earlier this year, and yet Simers is loved by nearly everyone in this business. So what's the difference?

 

Well, to me it was pretty clear what Myers meant by popups. But even after that, when Carchidi asked again and Myers said: "You thought they were crushed?" maybe Carchidi could have said "I don't know. I just want to understand what you thought" instead of voicing his own opinion. When a player asks a reporter's opinion, the last thing he wants to hear is the reporter's opinion.

Carchidi essentially asked Myers opinion, and then he said he disagreed with the answer, which is what set Myers off.

 

This is from the AP follow:

The 27-year-old Myers is one of the more approachable players on the Phillies, often joking around with reporters. Whether he pitches or not, he usually sits in a chair at his locker after a game and is willing to talk to anyone. Reporters often gather around him before and after games, and he gets along with most of them.

Really? Can anyone confirm this?

 

I'm sure he is a decent guy -- aside from the blow-ups and beat-downs. Just about any player can be volatile a after taking a loss like Myers took. But just because he's "one of the more approachable players ..." doesn't mean he gets a pass when he gets in a shouting match with a reporter, calling him a retard.

 

Walter,
That's accurate. Most of the time, Myers is a fairly easygoing, kind of smart-alecky guy who enjoys interplay with the beat writers. He clearly has a short fuse -- that's obvious from the incident with his wife last year, but also from the way he carries himself on the mound at times. He acknowledges that his temper has been a problem on the field as well as off. He can accelerate from good-natured shit-giving (and, in fairness, -taking) to just plain mean pretty suddenly, which is what apparently happened here.
He is not the world-class jerk and constant source of aggro that he's been made out to be in some of the posts here. But he can be abrasive.

 

OK, here's the thing about that.

You're right ... but Carchidi could not be threatening in that situation. Being a smartass was his equivalent. That's why I say one's as bad as the other.

 

You are absolutely right about Simers. The difference is he does it because he wants a confrontation, I believe. If he baits a player and the player goes off, he says "Whoopee, I have a column!" not "I demand an apology."

 

Indeed, Simers is a different kind of asshole.

 

"Nice guys" don't abuse their wives.

Too bad the Phillies didn't have the guts to get rid of him.

Has there been any punishment for his use of the word "retard?"