Jeff Pearlman closes the door on John Rocker, and his guilt

People are throwing out examples of writers who have had big stories on subjects, but I think the starting thought was that they are inextricably linked -- as in, you can't think of one without the other. And McGwire, Knight, Tiger and the rest have way too much other stuff going on.

Price and Yeager is somewhere in that category but not all that close, because Price does have some other achievement. The only one I can think of that comes close to comparing to Rocker/Pearlman is Alexandra Stevenson and Charlie Bricker, because his Dr. J story is the defining (and pretty much only) noteworthy thing about her career.

 

I was responding to Mizzou's question about writers who will be mentioned in a player's obit.

 

W.C. Heinz and Air Lift.

(Disappointed Songbird didn't beat me to this one.)

 

I think you can think of Knight without thinking of Feinstein, though you can't think of Feinstein without thinking of Knight. I'm sure that's true of a lot of writers.

Knight will be mentioned in Feinstein's obit, but Feinstein won't be mentioned in Knight's. I'm sure Babe Ruth was mentioned in Ford Frick's obit, but Frick probably wasn't mentioned in Ruth's.

 

I think part of the Pearlman backlash when the Rocker story came out was that he was so young, so it's assumed he had some kind of agenda or was trying to make a name for himself.

As far as the Payton criticism goes, I know it got pretty bad, but some of the outrage seemed a bit manufactured, not that they weren't upset by the book, but feeling the need to publicly bash the writer, defend Payton and as a result, help him sell a ton of books.

 

He is an attention seeker.
He admitted he wore the goofy lid for that very thing.

 

Helluva interesting story.

I knew I shouldn't look at the comments, but had to be stupid. It's amazing how many people just don't get it.

 

That happened? Man, this is probably the first time I've wished death on a ballplayer

 

Yeah, I came away thinking the same thing.

 

I guess it goes under the "fly on the wall" heading. But I still found it interesting. Possibly more because of being in the business.

 

I think that's pretty bang-on.
Caveat: Express hurt and feign self-doubt when censured by peers. Repeatedly.