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Wilbon vs. Steinberg: Who ya got?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by H.L. Mencken, Oct 5, 2012.

  1. Wilbon is right in that outside of the team the KC Star refuses to nickname drop (crossthread) there is very little sustained juice for any of the teams. When the Caps, Wiz, Georgetown and Md hoops are good, folks show up. When they're not, pass. Same goes for Nats. I respect the way the Nats have built the franchise and I think they're set up for a decent run over the next 5-6 years, but DC is a good NFL town and bandwagon central with everything.
    When the caps were in the Cup finals in '98, Jason La Confora (the post beat writer at the time IIRC) went on the Metro an did a very unscientific poll. He showed people 2 pictures and asked then to ID them. One was Caps winger Peter Bondra, the other was Gus Frerotte. I think it was 87ish or Frerotte while maybe 8were able to ID Bondra. To paraphrase Brad Pitt, it's the Redskins, ten 50 feet of malaise, then there's everybody else.
    As far as Wilbon vs. Steinberg, Wilbon great guy, but his style was always a little dry. He was always #3 at the post behind Tony and Boz IMO.
    Love he and TK on PTI though. When it's not the two of them, I don't watch.
     
  2. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Like MW a lot, but he's anything but a moralist when he's preoccupied cleaning and polishing MJ's clubs.
     
  3. H.L. Mencken

    H.L. Mencken Member

    Remember when Wilbon blamed Sean Taylor for his own death in a random home invasion because it fit his own simplistic narrative? Good times.
     
  4. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    I think the Nats are starting to get a loyal fanbase. The Redskins have one, but Snyder has pissed on them for about 15 years.

    The Wizards and Caps are novelties. The Caps suffer for playing a sport no one south of Lorton gives a shit about, and the Wizards just suck, have a shitty logo and a shittier team name.
     
  5. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    How many really rabid (pro) sports towns are there in the US, anyway? 3? And how many "great" sports towns? 3 more? Mr. Wilbon's failure here was complete, from his unconsidered original comment to his thin-skinned and ridiculous self-defense.
     
  6. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I still don't know what is a douchier move - crapping on a town for whatever reason simply because you can, or defending crapped upon town's honor in an attempt to be linked to the person crapping on town and suck up to the locals.

    And let's be clear, Kornheiser was the King of writing "(City) is a hellhole" columns six hours after checking into his hotel for the Washington Post.
     
  7. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    What I found bizarre about Washington as a sports town was that the dominant local paper had as one sports columnist, Michael Wilbon, a man whose passions clearly belong to the teams of Chicago and another, Sally Jenkins, who lives in New York City.

    I know that the Washington area is a place of recent arrivals. But Denver, for example, is a city with lots of newcomers. And I could never imagine the old Rocky Mountain News having allowed Bernie Lincicome to write homages to Derrick Rose or hiring a a Los Angeles based columnist, even someone as talented as Jenkins.
     
  8. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    You got that right.
     
  9. JC

    JC Well-Known Member

    The older I get I think there is more pride in being a so called shitty sports town.
     
  10. geddymurphy

    geddymurphy Member

    Wilbon was a great columnist and good guy.

    He has been corrupted by TV, just like Mike Wise has been corrupted by radio.

    He was trolling, and Steinberg rightly called him out on it, just as he has called out Post colleagues in the past. It's something I really like about Steinberg. He gives reality checks on the TV/radio stars who occasionally deign to "write" something.

    And everyone's missed the point on D.C. It's a soccer town, even if the only mention of D.C. United in the ESPN mag was a drawing of Jaime Moreno among 40 or so D.C. sports people. They wrote about RFK without noting the team that currently plays there.

    Sure, United is down now, but it was THE dominant team in MLS for several years, and it's had a great base of fans that is finally dropping off after years of stadium mis-steps and horrible personnel moves. When it gets out of RFK, it'll be huge once again. In the burbs, you see far more D.C. United shirts and bumper stickers than Wizards or even Nationals gear.

    In terms of attendance, though, D.C. will always be hampered because it's a workaholic town. Don't listen to your local blowhard political candidate. D.C. people work themselves to death. That makes 7 p.m. game times difficult. The 1 p.m. getaway game on a weekday? Forget it.
     
  11. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    Yep. D.C. Sports fans don't have the luxury of spare time like the lazy denizens of sleepy burgs like Chicago, New York, etc. ...
     
  12. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    I must live in the wrong burb. I bought my nephew a United shirt. He doesn't like around here, though. Haven't seen all that many others.
     
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