Mariners cutting out Tacoma News Tribune

LaRue better watch out or Griffey and Swseeney might take a swing at him. Of course, they'd miss because they can't hit anything anymore.

 

The whole point of them giving the quotes anonymously was because they didn't want their teammates to know it came from them. Obviously the teammates were going to want to know who leaked such an explosive story. Obviously the reporter knew that it would probably come to that when he agreed to keep them confidential. He made the calculation that the story was worth the confidentiality and its ramifications.

And now that he's got a little bit of foreseeable pressure on him - not jail, mind you, not the White House bugging his phones, but twenty-five 30-year-old adolescents pissed at him - he's supposed to out them?

I just don't follow the logic.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. I can understand having to use an anonymous source in regards to something like a big trade or a coaching hire, but for this? Not worth the trouble.

 

I can understand the argument that he shouldn't have used the anonymous sources to begin with.

But not the argument that he should out them now because he's getting heat for it.

 

Didn't Mike Sweeney used to be a media darling in KC? What a douchebag.

I've heard he got better later in his career, but when I was covering baseball, Griffey Jr. was the worst star player in the league to deal with. He tried to attack Bob Kravitz at the all-star game. Complete asshole.

 

Plus, everyone knows the story is true.

 

I'm with you there. Once you use those sources, you sure as hell can't out them.

 

One time I interviewed Ken Griffey Jr. while he was sitting in a big ass recliner that would probably have kept him safe from a bomb. If he's still got a chair like that I'm not surprised he was sleeping.

 

And, to me, here's the funny part in all of this: I didn't care that Griffey was sleeping in the clubhouse. Probably not the first time that's happened. I'm much more interested in the a-hole who would talk to a reporter about it before talking to his teammate.

Now, unfortunately, LaRue has a pretty big problem on his hands. Yeah, it'll boil over in a few weeks, but I think he's put himself in a tough situation for himself and his paper. And for what? A blog entry that will be forgotten in the minds of many the next time (oops, the first time) Griffey homers.

 

I don't know. I think it's a pretty juicy, telling inside clubhouse scoop. First-ballot Hall of Famer, city's all-time sports icon, sleeping in the clubhouse when he's called on to pinch hit. I mean, that's absolutely the denouement of the definitive Griffey biography when someone writes it in a few years. It's almost cinematic in how gift-wrapped the symbolism is regarding the fact that it is pretty much over for "The Kid."

 

Yeah, but it's a risk-reward thing. You know your readers are going to believe the players over your anonymous sources. It is juicy, there's no denying that. But is it worth getting completely shut out of future interviews/stories for that? It's telling, but unless you can prove it's true with on-the-record sourcing (which is going to be near impossible to get in this case), it's a battle the reporter just isn't going to win.

 

I think that's a fair point. But I wouldn't dismiss this as a "blog entry that will be forgotten." If it's true - and it probably is - I can't see any self-respecting reporter passing up that story after being force-fed 162 days of, "We've just got to give it 110 percent."