Simmons Cliff Notes

Solid post.

 

FYP.

Also, it's impossible to tell without any kind of rating system or audited circulation count, but i'd bet a significnt majority of his readership is from his hometown -- no genius revelation, that. Outside of our universe, does anyone here know anybody NOT from Boston who reads this guy?

And i just thought of this: any chance he writes long PRECISELY because his audience can't spend a hour reading him, so it has to keep coming back? More clicks, more page views, falsely created sense of audience depth...?

 

Nah, unique visitors is all the rage now.

 

Pretty sure the footnotes are a David Foster Wallace homage.

 

Simmons is still pissed that he's NOT one of those big-city columnists. That's the point.

And that's not what he's doing. He's ridiculing the profession -- a profession he couldn't hack it in. Except he's got no reason to be bitter, because he's been much more successful being OUT of this profession. So, why not let bygones be bygones?

 

BobSilent,

It's not in every column, but it's in there often enough to be considered part of his act. And, yeah, I'm aware that some big-city columnists ridicule others sometimes. Thanks for enlightening me.

And to add to Buckweaver's point, not only does Simmons ridicule the profession, he often does it based on premises that simply aren't true. As has been pointed out numerous times here in response to his OTL piece, for example, he criticizes the "old-school media" for not doing stuff it had, in fact, done, and then he takes credit for starting a Boras-vs.-Manny debate that had already taken place.

 

You either like Simmons or you don't. As a Boston fan, I can relate with him. I think he's very funny most of the time, as do many of my friends even outside of the New England fanbase. He's pretty knowledgeable and has an entertaining, witty style of writing.

With that said, I completely disagree with this column. I think this divorce had to happen. Ramirez was sabotaging team chemistry, from getting in a physical altercation with Kevin Youkilis to shoving the elderly employee to constantly mouthing off against the organization.

One thing that wasn't mentioned was the fact that Ramirez was not even this regime's signing. Back when he signed with Boston in December of 2000, Duquette inked Manny to that monster contract. Since the new ownership purchased the club, the Sox had been trying to dump Manny whether it was waivers or in the Alex Rodriguez swap.

 

If what everyone writes is true, I stand corrected.
I had no idea Simmons' bitterness is so transparent.
I still think newspapers could learn something about the way he writes.
In some form.

 

What I cant stand about Simmons, and is evident again in the Manny piece, is that the guy would never consider citing an actual source with actual knowledge in his work, but he'll cite his freakin father in every...single...piece

 

J-Bug isn't a reliable source on all things national?

 

Simmons often tries to cram in all of these tangents like Klosterman, but they usually don't seem to serve any purpose other than to show how smart he thinks that he is.

That piece was awful and impossible to follow.

 

The only people I know who enjoy Simmons' stuff on a regular basis are people who read him while they're at work. That means that someone is actually paying them for their time to head down whatever rabbit hole is required, for however long. And it proves that reading Simmons is only a preferable alternative to, y'know, actual work.

I honestly don't know anyone who reads him on a regular basis on their own time.