TJ Simers' first column for the OC Register

Along with the accusations as it related to the Angels.

 

And now he's suing the LA Times:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/16/t-j-simers-sues-the-los-angeles-times/

 

So, he lied then.

How can he sue for wrongful termination, when he told the Big Lead he left the Times willingly?

"I had the opportunity to remain at the Times as Page 2 columnist, including a recent offer of a guaranteed contract."

http://thebiglead.com/2013/09/10/tj-simers-tells-us-why-hes-leaving-the-la-times/

 

LAT article frames it as a discrimination lawsuit, not wrongful termination:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-times-sued-by-former-sports-writer-tj-simers-20131016,0,6176163.story

 

Mark Blaudschun will comment on behalf of the LAT.

 

Newspapers "rearrange the furniture" all the time and few if any newsroom employees have much recourse.

LA Times should have just assigned Simers to cover preps, without a pay cut. And if he didn't do it properly, then they could have fired him for cause.

As it is, offering someone a one-year contract to continue doing his job sounds like a pretty good defense. Sounds like an ambulance chaser, pushing the age and ailment stuff. Man up!

 

None of this makes sense; certainly none of the claims TJ is making.

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2013/10/tj_simers_sues_la_times_a.php

 

If Simers is doing this to needle the Times and be a nuisance to them the way they paid him for being a nuisance to so many on the L.A. sports scene, that might make some sense.

Otherwise, it's pretty weenie for the wise-guy columnist to go whiny in a money grab. Wonder if the OCR is having any second thoughts, thinking about its exit strategy with Simers and when a lawsuit would come their way too.

 

I hadn't considered that. I was more wondering if the suit makes it appear to the public that he views the OCR as a step down when the owner is pumping in a lot of money to create the opposite impression in Southern California and beyond. Lots of people over the years have left larger newspapers to go there; I did once, a couple decades ago.

 

It's a good point, Frank. You break up with one girlfriend to start dating another, you don't want to be slinging arrows at the one you left or it will look like you really haven't gotten over it. Take a new job and look backwards via a lawsuit, it undercuts the notion that you've taken a step up in the world and are the winner in the split.

I just know that people who sue employers generally have harder times lining up new employers. Even the most competitive businesses rarely like having employees who are engaged in litigation with their competition.

T.J.'s image long has been that of the sportswriter-gunslinger. Gunslingers running to lawyers to fight for them? It's out of whack.

 

T.J. is not far from retirement. Maybe he gets enough money in a settlement to retire right away, or at least to consider it. But this would be different if he were counting on writing for the Register for another 20 years. That's not the case.