simers bumps into manny ramirez at the racetrack

Good point. I've never met the man. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say a nice thing about him, aside from him being a brilliant writer.

 

Pure crap ... the column, too.

 

So he's allowed to suck how many times?

 

Brilliant? I read 10 grafs and all I knew was TJ was at the race track with some other writers.
Damn, that's just brilliant stuff.

 

So he's allowed to suck how many times?
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My point was that I judge it with the assumption that it's part of a larger body of work and every single column isn't going to be like this. Or more to the point, that none of the columns are going to be like this.

It's not like I'm saying space should be reserved for it in the next BASW. Just that it was fun.

 

Point 1: The T.J. sucks/T.J. doesn't suck argument is pointless, because neither side will ever agree.

Point 2: T.J. hangs out with writers, and he hangs out with editors. There are a lot of people who don't always agree with T.J. but would be pleased with any opportunity to hang out with him. I'm one of them. He might be the best, most loyal friend I've ever had in the newspaper business. Wait, scratch that: delete "might." He also had as profound an effect, 33 years ago, on my career as anybody I've ever worked with.

Point 3: My opinion, and it's not really meant as a knock, is that people who hate Simers basically take sports more seriously than people who don't. (I was going to write "too seriously," but that would have been a value judgment.)

If you hate this column, you probably hate T.J. as a columnist, which is cool. He has plenty of readers, and he's gotten to the point in his career and the age where judging whether his career will be a success is moot; it has been a success, it will be judged a success looking back on it, and people who don't agree? He doesn't care.

I'm just wondering what all the haters think when they have something as important as a John Wooden Night or a night with Joe Torre and Sandy Koufax, and the guy who winds up as the moderator is T.J. Simers -- and nobody involved seems to hate it.

Could it be that they get the point that T.J. built his career on? "Sports is entertainment, and don't take the whole thing so damn seriously."

 

SF,

I would say that people who hate Simers as a writer take sports too seriously.

I wouldn't say that about people who hate him as a person.

 

I might agree, but I think there's a significant group of people who A) don't distinguish between the two and B) say they hate Simers but have never spoken a single word to him.

And yes, guys, I'm aware of the problems he caused when he was out in New Jersey and the East Coast early in his career, and I'm aware he was a dick and that some will never forgive him. I'm just saying that as a person you'd want to know, today, 2010, his hateability in my mind is vastly overrated.

 

No, I like a lot of Simers' work, I get his approach and much of the time find it kind of refreshing. This column, however, sucks. It was a phone-in effort and a waste of time to read.

 

Fair enough.