The Legendary Norm MacLean

I didn't rip him. I described what the guy looked like.

 

Please read your post. You said you know why he was disliked. I asked you why and you couldn't or wouldn't give me an answer.
Now please tell me where I am wrong.

 

Listen, Back-Door Bob, I read my post. I wrote that I understood how he could be disliked. He clearly didn't care about his appearance in a professional setting. That says volumes.

 

My name is not bob. It is boots. Secondly, I'm sure you're not the poster boy for GQ magazine. You dislike someone because of the way they are dressed? Who in the hell are you to be so damn shallow? You don't know the guy and made an awful assumption.
What you're angry at is that I am defending a good hearted person who would do anything to help you if asked. You, in your follow the leader mentality, have judged someone without know them.
No wonder athletes hate talking to reporters. Your assumption spoke volumes about you.

 

I'm amused by the guy, mostly because I don't work in NY and have to put up with him all the time. He's around every NY area sports venue all the time and serves no particular purpose. I've seen him show up at baseball games in the fourth inning, ravenously eat buffet leftovers, then spend the rest of the day in the press room, pontificating about various subjects to anyone who can't get away quickly enough. It's a unique way to cover a game, to say the least.

Therefore, I'm even more amused at a news release which puffs him up as something like a combination of Red Smith/Dick Young/Jimmy Cannon while also greatly exaggerating his credentials as a hockey scout.

 

The best story I heard was he rode on a cargo plane from New York to Vancouver one year.

 

This is one of those times when my first instinct was to say "those folks are right, Boots is full of shit." Then my second instinct was to believe what I've always believed, that you just post silly shit here to get a rise out of people. Because NO ONE who has been in the industry for more than a fortnight believes Norm is anything other than the biggest, most useless freeloader in the business.

Norm doesn't give advice or information, because he has neither. And as for being helpful? If stealing newspapers, stealing the final set of press notes that read MONTREAL EXPOS off someone's computer at the end of the 2004 season, swiping media guides from beat writers (my favorite story: Marty Noble realizes his Mets guide is missing, goes to Norm's seat, finds a well-worn Mets guide, opens to page 7, sees his initials there and takes his guide back) and arriving at the ballpark in the fifth inning, kicking the real-life writer out of the seat Norm never fucking occupies and then spends the rest of the game eating leftovers in the dining room as his seat collects dust, then by fucking God, he's the most helpful guy on earth.

 

First of all, BYH, let me belatedly say that your rewrite of the press release was outstanding. Definitely belongs with the rest of the Hall of Fame work you've done here.

As for your post here, I agree 100 percent. Here's all you folks need to know about MacLean:

One time, I was covering a game at Yankee Stadium. After we had all come back from the clubhouse to the press box after the game, someone said Norm was in the stands, looking to see if anyone had left that day's giveaway. I thought the writer was joking.

Until I looked down and indeed, saw Norm MacLean going through the seats, desperately looking for leftover giveaways. A true professional. . .

 

He Passes To The Man...And, Boom Goes The Dynamite!

 

Is that what the kids are saying nowadays?

I'm always so hopelessly behind.