Verducci rails on cranky old blogger Chass

Murray Chass is a bitter, cranky human who previously used his position as baseball columnist at the NYT to crush people -- including other writers.

I loved that Verducci put him on blast.

 

Writers fighting with writers in print (or pixel) about sports is OK. Writers fighting with writers about writing makes both writers look bad and sports journalism look worse. And I too know both Tom and Murray, and wish things were different.

 

Chass reported something about Verducci that absolutely wasn't true.

 

Murray was never a great writer. However, before his brain cancer and subsequent surgery and before getting pushed out at the Times and becoming a cranky old guy, he was unmatched in terms of covering the business side of baseball. He was not just a good reporter but a great reporter.

Personally, I wish for his own sake he'd just put it away for good and just retire. Easy for me to say, I guess.

 

He had brain cancer? Honestly that makes me see him in a completely different light. He might just be processing thoughts and moods differently now. Yeah, probably for the preservation of his rep he should stop writing. But if it keeps him going and gives him some fulfillment and an outlet, it seems worthwhile.

 

Any virtriol on here for Marvin Miller himself?

I know he's in his 90s, but he apparently passed on to Chass the names of two people (Verducci, Jim Palmer) whom he thought had an agenda against him, but apparently voted for him.

Miller called Palmer "an anti-union sonuvabitch" according to Verducci.

Sounds like Chass was guilty of being Miller's mouthpiece as well as being inaccurate as well as being a prick in his blog entry. A pox on both of their houses as far as I'm concerned.

 

This is basically the way I feel about it, too. But he's a fun target for a whole generation of amateur Internet writers, 99 percent of whom will never have half of Murray's resume.

 

This is irrelevant. Wrong is wrong.

 

Not irrelevant at all to be noting the professionalism (or lack thereof) of the wannabes who run to every one of Murray's less-than-stellar posts these days so they can parse and make fun of it. All because he offended BLOGGERS!

This one (typical) came up No. 1 in a google search...
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/murray-chass-makes-negative-sense/

 

OK. I agree with you here. The mean-spiritedness is not something I like, either. Take someone down, but do it with class.

 

Just checked, and Chass still hasn't corrected his post. That's not right.