More Le Batard hijinks

Sometimes when my work schedule allows it, I get to the gym while First Take is on. There's something satisfying about seeing those guys on a monitor above the treadmills with absolutely NO sound coming out. It's like they're underwater or something. Muted for life (if only).

 

No ... but then again I would have fired his ass over it.

 

If print journalism is the toy department, what does it make the TV guys?

 

To me it is. He's stepped out of a role of being a journalist and started acting like a whiny fan. Paige does it within the context of his column, much like Jim Murray did, but this is a step beyond, in my book.

But, then again, I'm not running ESPN. I'm a bit old school when it comes to objectivity.

 

That made me think of Michael Bamberger and what he did in Michelle's Wie's first tournament as a pro.

 

Why do you think he is a journalist? He is not a journalist. He did this "within the context" of being a talking head with radio and television shows.

 

LeBatard did this as a joke. He is not really broken up about LeBron leaving Miami, as you can see by this completely sincere column where he expresses his gratitude for what LeBron brought to Miami: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/12/4233191/dan-le-batard-lebron-james-gave.html

With this billboard, LeBatard is trolling both Cleveland and Miami fans over the sense of entitlement they have both felt about LeBron needing to feel gratitude about what they supposedly did for him. On top of that, he used Comic Sans in the "YOU'RE WELCOME LEBRON" line at the top of the billboard, mocking the font Cavs owner Dan Gilbert used in the letter he posted to the team website after LeBron spurned Cleveland in 2010.

Whether or not you consider him to be a good journalist or entertaining, LeBatard is operating at his own level in his field, as evidenced by when he sold his Baseball Hall of Fame vote to Deadspin. Too many people treat sports as life or death, while LeBatard rightly sees it as what it should be -- an entertaining diversion from our dreary lives. He's made a living pulling people's strings over how seriously they take sports and I admire him for it. I'm not saying everybody in the business should be like him, but my enjoyment of sports is greater with the addition of his ingredient into the stew.

 

Woody Paige once ate dog food on TV.
He's not an exemplar of any kind of dignified behavior.
Some will actually eat shit for big money. ESPN proved it.

 

And if he were confining it to his show, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But the bulletin board turned him into an attention slut. Either that or he's got a hell of a lot of disposable income.

 

The saddest part is La Batard comes off as one of the most insecure dudes out there.