Le Batard taking year off from paper

It is nice to see that my mad skillz as a clairvoyant are still sharp.

 

Shit. LeBatard really did know how Ricky Williams felt.

Anyway, this isn't that big of a deal. LeBatard hasn't had much since Williams walked, the TO nonsense and the steroids business, in which he cheerfully sided with the cheaters. He was going to spend the next year tilting at some more windmills while he tried critique Bill Parcells. Maybe he had a bout of common sense and decided not to bother.

Frankly, I'm surprised the guy's still in sports. It's obvious he'd rather talk about The World At Large.

 

Yeah, you would hate working for me, because I don't buy into this superstar bullshit. Bust your ass for me and I'll have your back now and forever. But bump me to the end of your list of priorities and you can drop dead as far as I'm concerned, because you're damaging the company that's putting bread on my table and damaging the company that's allowing a bunch of other people to make the car and mortgage payments.

If I'm the guy who was paying you deep into six figures before the TV guys even knew how to pronounce your name, your first loyalty had better be to me.

Maybe I shouldn't have a hard-and-fast rule against moonlighting, but if you are going to go out launch yourself as a multi-media brand then please remember who made it all possible in the first place and maybe consider dropping your magazine and TV gigs instead of the newspaper column that made it all possible.

Again, if you screwed up and overextended yourself to the point of exhaustion, then you should give everything up for however long it takes to get back on track. If that's not in the cards, then at least have the courtesy to hand in your resignation. If you're feeling well enough to work for someone else, then you're well enough to work for me.

And, BTW, I'll fight to the death the notion that newspapers have somehow become mid-majors to TV's BCS status.

 

I wonder if his break from The Herald will also mean a break from ESPN?

I'll be surprised if he ever comes back...

 

I don't think I've ever heard the word "blowhard" attached to one person as consistently as it is with him.

 

Fixed.

 

I had just gotten going in the wake of this when pressmurphy checked in to elaborate. I concur completely!

It is the rare company in any field that tolerates an employee working for a second or third employer -- veering uncomfortably close to direct competition, given the battles faced by print vs. electronic -- to the point of being so fried that he then needs time off from his main job. Most companies tell the person to choose. Newspaper editors are so insecure, and childish about some crossover attention, that they tolerate and even encourage it, while others on their staffs in different roles are provided no such $ opportunities.

If Le Batard wants to "move up the ladder," he can resign from the Herald and focus on his national gigs. But he and others like him want to move up the ladder while hanging on to every rung below them, too. Piggish, really.

 

So he takes a year off from sucking as a columnist. Big deal.

 

Maybe he'll be at Ricky's place in Northern California taking hits from the bong...

 

In your frothing, I think you missed my point. I agreed the Herald shouldn't have given him a leave of absence. Should have told him to make a choice. My point was (and you acknowleged it) that you shouldn't prevent your employees from moving up the ladder.

Now, if they overextend themselves and their work suffers at your paper, then, as I said, "sayonara."

I don't read the Herald or DLB enough to know if he was "damaging the company that's allowing a bunch of other people to make the car and mortgage payments," but I suspect that if he truly were, they'd let him go.

As far as the mid-majors metaphor goes, you seem to be taking the same offense Xavier does every time it's labeled as such. I think print is superior in TV in most ways when it comes to journalism, but there's no denying that TV pays better and is always looking to cherry pick the best and the brightest from the print ranks, in much the way a BCS school tries to cherry pick the best coaches from the mid-majors. Many, based on pay and visibility, view TV as a step up the ladder of success (hell, it's probably easier and pays more than what we do, who wouldn't want that?). It wasn't a knock on print in any way, shape or form.

Now drink a beer and relax, would ya? I already have a death match scheduled this week.

 

Anybody know if this is just a polite way of allowing him to walk away from the paper with his rep intact? It sounds like he wants to "spend more time with his family."

 

Le Batard is one of just a few big-time columnists who is widely despised by his peers.

It's not on the level of Albom or Lupica, but it's still pretty bad. Obviously, there is some jealousy there, but most of the people I know who have worked with or alongside DLB think people are forgetting a S in his last name.