Reilly's latest, 9/9

Hence, he is now the column equivalent to the world's tallest midget.

 

Can't speak for anybody else, but my position comes more from disappointment than anger or jealousy. Every time I read Reilly now I'm hoping - mostly in vain - to read something that will really stretch me as a writer, that makes me want to beat the hell out of that story with my own stuff because he ripped a hole in my preconceptions. The Citadel story did that for me. The Marge Schott story did that for me. Now he's famous, rich and set up for life, and, for me anyway, he seems unwilling or just incapable of doing that anymore. I do not think those facts are coincidental, though I don't think the transformation has been entirely purposeful.

It's nice he can use our biz to make money. It's nice I can too. U2 does the same thing in the music industry and still makes gobs. You won't see me comparing anything they've made in the last 10 years to Joshua Tree.

I listened to the BS Report with Patton Oswalt last night. It was the first time I'd ever listened to it, but I love Oswalt and Simmons has been growing on me. In between barbs about comics and movies, Oswalt raised an interesting point about successful comedians. Dane Cook is a fantastic example. You get to a point with fame where people are going crazy for your bit the second you step on stage, and whatever you say is gold. There's no impetus to improve anymore, and it's a dangerous thing mostly because it's an indiscriminate killer. It even bites comedians who are still trying to improve. When young comics are coming up, they're scolded in the fire of improv nights, open mics and 30-seat bars where people go to get drunk and argue. When you scuffle, the feedback is immediate and, at times, overwhelming. If you want to get better, you improve, or else. I see small-town papers as proving grounds in much of the same way.

When you hit that rarefied air, things change. Cook can hit the stage and garble fart noises for 30 minutes (not far off from his actual bit) and get riotous applause and rake in more money than he did when he was being genuine, and I don't know if there was even a cognizant switch. In Cook's case, maybe, but not always. There's no line for him anymore where he can push his bit and maybe step over the line once or twice just to remember where it is.

I think this is where Reilly is right now. He'll never lose the core of that transformative writer he's always been. He's the same guy that wrote that Schott piece, and if you believe it, life experience has made him even better, or had the potential to anyway. I just think he's lost sight of where the edge is.

 

I have played golf for more than 25 years now. I have spent countless hours on the range when I played competitively. I have taken several PATs and you know how many times I've holed out from more than 20 yards? Twice. A hole-in-one and a 70-yard shot. Sure I've put shots real close, within an inch numerous times from a short distance. But to hit a 4.5-inch hole from more than 3 feet is an accomplishment, much less from 50 yards. So get off of it.

 

You must be a terrible golfer. I've had at least a half-dozen hole-in-50's, and it didn't take me 20 straight shots at the same hole to accomplish the feat.

 

Great post, spud. That's where a lot of us are coming from. Most of us don't hate Reilly and most of us aren't jealous of him or how much he makes. Most of us are disappointed that we can't read the type of stuff he used to write regularly.

And I'm with you, Bullwinkle. I am not a good golfer and don't play all that often, but I have hit a hole-in-one and have holed out from a fairway bunker from about 150. It's hard for me to imagine a competitive golfer not being able to do it. I know it's all luck, but the more you play the more chances you have to get lucky.

 

It would have been better if Reilly kept hitting, and hitting, and hitting, before he gives up the quest, rather than to make one from 50 yards. Again, he mailed it in. On the frickin' golf course.

 

Yeah, but his son was PISSED! He couldn't keep him out there all week!

 

I can't wait for next week's column about Reilly hosting SportsCenter - he's on right now.
Anyone wanna bet it won't happen?

 

He actually hasn't been too bad so far. I'm not the biggest Reilly fan at all... I hate his baseball-bashing columns while he gives the NBA a damn free pass... but so far on baseball highlights he's been all right.

Not the best thing ESPN's done to put Reilly on SC, but hell, might as well earn his salary.

 

No room for context or middle ground here, Spud. Take it elsewhere.

Just kidding. Well said, sir.

 

wow, I must be a worthless golfer then. Been playing 13 years and never had a hole in one, never hoped out from more than about 30 yards. And I'm a mid to low 80s golfer.

 

me too, I'm about a 13 handicap and have never holed out from more than 35 yards. Closest I've been to a hole in one was on a downhill par 4 , I actually hit the pin and had a 3 foot eagle putt. I did not make the putt. I have friends who can't break a 100 who have had holes in one.