Simmons Cliff Notes

My problems:

The first xxxx words are stories about him partying, working with stars, etc.

He again grinds his ax with the Boston media.

I believe the point was that Boras was the problem. But he didn't get there until 20 minutes in.

I don't get this one.

 

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson's Joker in Batman: "This story needs an enema."

 

And of course, Mr. Simmons uses his NFL picks column to talk about WEEI talking about his History of the Manny Empire on Thursday.
One thing, Bill - this has already been discussed ad infinitum in the Boston papers, well before you had your Archimedes moment on why Manny pulled a D.B. Cooper.
Could someone give him a tall glass of getthefuckoveryourself please?

 

Just went to read the column, and I haven't gotten any further, but this at the very beginning made me laugh out loud:

 

Um, it's Cliff's Notes [/copyeditor]

 

I prefer texting. Well, not to road head.

 

Glad you added that caveat.

 

Actually, it's CliffsNotes.

 

It's hard to believe the same website that published the Simmons Manifesto on Thursday, would come back with the very solid piece on the Economic Meltdown's impact on Sports the next day.

 

I think more than anything, Simmons wants to be Klosterman.

 

I'm not a huge Simmons fan, but I think his popularity partially shows why newspapers are failing.

For the most part, readers love this guy. (If you dispute this, please, stop reading right now, because you will in no way agree with what's to follow)

And yet ...


... journalists hate him.

There's a disconnect there.


I think journalists hate Simmons because he represents a new-age form of sports journalism. It's basically long-form blogging. Simmons breaks all the rules of traditional journalism. He uses 'I.' He admits he's a fan. He admits he's biased and he's not afraid to speculate on things he didn't learn through sources.

But intead of learning from his popularity -- "readers really want this? -- most of us choose to bash, standing by our journalistic traditions as the lifeboat takes on more water.

Whatever floats your boat.

Again. I'm not a huge Simmons fan -- I read him about once every two months - but I do find him talented and entertaining. (Calling the Ramirez trade a foreclosure was pretty clever.) Yes, this story went on way too long. And I didn't agree with his interpretation of the opening -- Shouldnt' the Kimmel show have paid for drinks in the first place? -- and his villain wasn't all that enlightening -- Isn't the agent always to blame? -- but he keeps the reader engaged.

If I were in charge (I use that phrase a lot), I'd tell my writers:

*Feel free to take chances.

*Don't be afraid to include yourself in columns. (My biggest pet peeve on this board is when people post "Readers don't care about you!" and "I stopped reading the first time he said "I." Wake up, people. Memoirs are on the bestsellers list. Bill Simmons is among the most popular sports columnists in the country. J.R Moehringer put himself in a profile of Pete Carroll -- and it's in the latest BASW collection.

Maybe not you, but someone doesn't mind reading about the author!

NOTE: Yes, the above can be overdone, so I would reserve the right to reel the abusers in and take away this privilege.

Bottom line: News stories are news stories. There are rules to follow there and those shouldn't be compromised. But everything else? Use journalism rules as a guideline and just tell the best story.

Another example: Wright Thompson's story on George Selvie in the latest ESPN The Magazine. When I saw it, I wasn't real interested because I know Selvie's story. But Wright decided to eat whatever Selvie ate throughout the course of a couple days. An orginal idea? No. But it kept my attention more than your average George Selvie-is-undersized profile.

Writing changes. Embrace it.

P.S. I liked the footnotes.

 

Journalists tend to hate Simmons (I don't, I save my hatred for SJ posters ) because he reinvented the wheel to get his dream job yet all he does is cry about not getting a gig at the Herald.

He won. The rest of us lost. Yet he cries and cries and cries and cries and cries.

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