Scoop Calls Out Sports Media Cowards

Or maybe they just like to patronize him because he is so much fun to smack around. And maybe he is too dumb to realize people are laughing at him far more than he is laughing at them.

 

Big Chee, not surprisingly, you completely miss the point.

Here is the lede of Scoop's "groundbreaking" story.....

I waited all week for it -- for something, anything, to happen.

Nothing.

Roger Clemens -- the most selfish man in sports?I watched, I listened, I read, waiting for someone -- anyone -- to say something; to break down how selfish Roger Clemens really is to continue to treat the game this way. The game of baseball, the one America holds so dearly to its heart. Instead, nothing. The only point of national contention seems to be a "freedom clause" in his contract that allows him to go home on off days.

The media -- the people who are supposed to be the voices of reason, the protectors of the sanctity of sports -- collectively have acted as if Roger Clemens' signing with the Yankees was about Roger Clemens' signing with the Yankees. The media is failing to recognize this is about how one man not only has put an "I" in team, but put a "me" in MLB and "myself" in professional sports.

Forget about the fact that it is horribly written and contains all kinds of Scoop's "trying to be hip" schtick -- the real issue is it is absurd right out of the shoot. He claims he looked high and wide for media criticism of Roger Clemens and didn't hear a peep.....

Yeah, he must have a crack research committee working with him considering a few of us on here took about 30 seconds to google the thing and found countless examples of columnists ripping Roger Clemens and the signing by the Yankees and if you scroll back some you'll find a number of them posted here.

It is OK for Scoop or anyone else to try and make a "cutting edge" statement based on his own perceptions but is it too much to ask to at least do a little research -- and in this case I'm going to assume everyone who works in this industry knows how to google -- so as to not come off looking like a dumbass who is just ranting and raving about something of which he obviously has no clue.

 

y'all realize that a thread like this is an attention-seeking writer's greatest joy, right?

 

Do you honestly think that if TO or some other selfish athlete made the headlines this week, the "overiding" sentiment wouldn't swirl around his selfishness before getting into a story?

Lets be honest here. Roger does not encounter that when typically covered.

Anyway, many of you journalists in here seem to be glorified messeageboard posters with better grammar while having a job in the industry. Your little cliques of anti-(fill in writers name)__________ are no different than a cafeteria setting in a JHS.

 

The difference between Clemens and TO and Randy Moss and the reason he is given a little more slack -- though in my neck of the woods, I must say the Clemens deal was ripped to the extreme, particularly on all of the local talk shows -- on the whole idea of being selfish is because Clemens brings it every time he takes the mound.

He is at least a gamer who hasn't ADMITTED to taking plays off, losing interest and all of that BS because things aren't going his way or he is getting enough attention.

TO and Moss aren't good teammates in that, they can't always be counted on unless their egos are being coddled and the team is successful. Clemens, like Bonds, at least gives his best effort every time he takes the mound and that makes for a much easier "diva" personality to have to deal with.

All of that being said -- that doesn't change the fact that Scoop is still dead wrong in his assertion that nobody in the media is/was critical of Clemens because, as we've proven with very little research, that is just not true.

 

Enter the Wu is underrated? By whom?

Anyway, here's the thing with Clemens' "freedom clause" that I don't get. The clause made sense when he played in Houston and his family also lived there. But is his family moving to New York? If not, is is the best idea for an old man to fly to wherever he's pitching, then fly back to Houston, then to the next start every five days? I'm 26, and planes are hard on my knees. Seems this provision might be like giving an 80 year-old the freedom to drive. Might do more harm than good for all parties involved.

 

Dude, I don't think he'll exactly be flying coach.

 

I'm sorry, but the Yanks shared some of the bashing in the Clemens story. I don't recall their being a itemized stat sheet of Clemens selfish track history at every turn when mentioning his name after the signing. To say Bonds receives the same treatment when even Fat Actress (Curt Schilling) found time from his 162 game schedule to parrot the standard company line bandied around about Barry shows how untrue your beliefs are.

No one is stupid enough to go to extremes and say there was absolutely no one in the media who criticized Roger. But you guys actually believe Scoop is that dumb. I'm not a fan of his articles for the very reason we are here having to clarify his points for him. But clearly, there isn't a groundswell of media criticism that encircles Roger and his selfishness compared to other athletes mentioned.

 

I didn't compare the treatment of Bonds and Clemens, I compared the fact that both have a certain diva attitude about them but both still bring it every time they step on the field (Phil Mushnick's silly and incessant whining about guys not running out fly balls aside) unlike Moss and T.O., who admittedly play hard only when things are going well for them and their team.

And I'll say it one more time for the cheap seats --- if you read Scoop's article he did indeed go to extremes and said nobody is criticizing Clemens. His entire lede is built around the premise. There's not much wiggle room around that fact.

And that, the fact that he is so blatantly dead wrong in his assertion is why he is being criticized on a web-site dedicated to critiquing and/or discussing the media both in general and with regards to more specific issues.

It is not about Scoop's race, not the obnoxiousness of his apologists on these threads, not his terrible writing style and inability to talk in complete sentences -- it is the fact that he, like you are on this particular point, is dead wrong.

 

Nor should there be. Obviously there's an undercurrent of race to this, that the selfish white guy doesn't get the same criticism as the selfish black guys.

Really the difference is in the sports.

If Peyton Manning said he was going to fly in and just play quarterback on Sundays, he'd be hammered for it. But pitchers are a different animal.

 

Good point about sports but I also think the difference in degrees of selfishness is a major factor as well. Like I've said three or four times, Clemens at least doesn't disrespect the game the way Moss and T.O. do. He at least gives his maximum effort every time he takes the field.

 

If so, then he should be "pimp" and "gangster" enough to "step to" ESPN specifically.