Take some time off, Jay

Ellis Redding gets it. We're supposed to suddenly be at a loss because Jay won't be around to hammer the coach of whatever local team is going badly? The guy's a good writer, but his song-and-dance is well-worn, and we can stand a respite, especially given his above-it-all demeanor.

 

Mariotti could use a vacation, for sure. A guy that tightly-wound needs to get a break every now and then, or else he'll just combust.

 

'No' is right. I'll cut him slack when he makes his ass down to the dugout and looks someone in the eyes before he rips them in the paper.
Instead, he leaves the beat reporters and representatives from his paper and others answering bullshit he's stirred. Unfounded bullshit, most of the time.

 

Because he's probably salaried, he has lived up to his contract and essentially any additional work he does until his contract is up will be for free.

 

And if you were handed the same contract for the amount of money he's getting paid, I'm sure you would turn it down.

Get a grip on reality.

As for working when there's news ... What about the concept of getting paid to work? This is basically overtime for him. If the paper wants to pay him above and beyond his contract, fine. But I think there's nothing wrong with what he's doing.

The venom should be directed at the paper for agreeing to his contract, not Jay for enforcing it. If management wanted him to work the full 12 months, they should have used him more judiciously the last nine months.

 

Not so for those who work union shops with no overtime allowed. I have good friends who have to shut it down when they reach their 40 hours. Doesn't matter if the head coach on their beat gets fired. No matter how much the writer wants to write the story, somebody else would cover it because management refuses to approve the time-and-a-half wages.

 

Welcome, Jay Marriotti.

 

This sounds like lawyer speak, much like his last "contract negotiation" leave. I bet he wanted to take off his column, for his health, and still do his yak-fest, so this is the way to do it, and appease doctor's orders. The guy likes to write, so something's up. He wouldn't miss a chance to rip Kerry Wood for falling in the hot tub, would he? If he's sick, I hope he gets well soon. If he's quitting newspaper work, don't let the door hit ya....

 

"Once again, F_B hung the curve and an SportsJournalists.comer took advantage of the opportunity by sending it deep."

 

A lot of columnists do this, it just doesn't come out as publicly.

I know another prominent columnist who came back from the Super Bowl a few years ago and the SE said, "Gonna take a week off?"

The columnist said. "Try six..."

The columnist was off for six weeks.

A lot of these guys have contracts that have a specific number of columns that they have to write in a year span. If their home team goes to the Super Bowl, or it's a Olympic year, they do something similar.

What I find most interesting about this is that it got out this way...

 

A contract is freely negotiated and mutually binding and, therefore, it affects both sides. If the ST agreed he would write X this year and he's written X this year. He's done. Period. Were I the ST, however, I wouldn't let him do ATH from the newsroom. You're out, you're out. Our workplace isn't your set.