Another one bites the dust

[Sxysprtswrtr]

Outstanding farewell column, and kudos to whomever took the time to link to all of those past columns. Newspapers need to do more linking to past stories.

Excellent column. Good luck, Mr. Carty.
And, agreed -- linking to past stories is not a high priority for most sites, but it should be.

 

[slappy4428]

Wow. Never saw this coming. And after reading this column, I'm sure nobody outside of a few bean-counters wanted to see this coming either.

Jim was THE first person to PM me when I entered the sandbox. He was always an insightful, helpful individual who freely gave of his time and helped me figure out which end of the crayon was up around these parts.

He even asked me if I wanted to send him my clips to proof. I thanked him for the offer and told him that part of my life ended when I became a flack.

And yes, this was a damn good farewell column. I'd like to have seen what Jim wrote about Chris Eggle. A home run, I'm sure.

Like the Strib not getting to read Jeff Shelman, the readers of the Ann Arbor News are the poorer for it now.

Poorer but don't know it. Many still have a hard-on for the U-M series and will be glad to see him go. Nothing like shooting the messenger...
So who becomes the columnist/takeout guy?

 

[mustangj17]

Never met Jim but a little more than a year ago when I started posting him I recognized the name and sent him some random PM about getting some assignments from the AA News. Sure enough, the person he sent me too got me a gig covering some important high school football games. At the games I met another sportswriter who ended up comparing my article. He liked it and so did his boss and it led to my first "real" full time gig in which I made more than your average grocery clerk.

So Jim, if you are out there on this board still, and I'm sure you are, thanks for sending me down the right path. Good luck with law school.

 

[mustangj17]

Also, I wonder if Jim would be able to enlighten us about the future of Mlive and the Booth Newspapers in Michigan. I heard some rumors about all the papers going exclusively online. I know the folks at Mlive have been furiously hiring a lot of web producers with strong writing and multmedia background. But I hope that it was just that- a rumor, and nothing more.

 

[Moderator1]

Good dude. Good, good, good dude. That's the most important thing.
Very good at what he does as well (or did).
He'll make one hell of a lawyer. I hope the sumbitch is on my side.

 

[Jim_Carty]

Thank you. There are few things that would mean as much to me as professionally as the kind words on this site. I've made a lot of friends here. Sports journalism is a much smaller world than most people realize, filled with many more good people then bad.

For guys like Cosmo and MustangJ, I'd like to say that I still very much believe in the business. There will always be a place for good storytellers. It's a dark time now, and it may even get worse, but at some point it's going to turn.

Slap, I promise you that beer if you call PM me next time you're in town.

Moddy, maybe if you'd have taken our SE job, we'd both still be in the business!


I'm blogging a little (<a href="http://papertigernomore.blogspot.com/">here</a>), much more personal than sports journalism, but it'll have a little sports journalism from time to time, and some thoughts on newspapers in general and Newhouse/SE Michigan specifically in the next week or so. And, of course, you couldn't get me off SJ without some sort of methadone program.

Oh, and as for the lawyering ... very personal decision. Something I always wanted to do, and very likely would have done regardless of where newspapers were headed. I don't know where it takes me, but it's an itch I put off scratching for a long time, and it was just time to do it.

Thanks again, fellas.

 

[Jim_Carty]

Michigan loses to Toledo today and soon after the following e-mail pops into my box from Jeff Shelman:

"Are you going to go onto The Wolverine and talk trash about your Rockets?"

 

[imjustagirl]

Jim, with your big lawyer money I'll be expecting you to send me some of those delish bagels.

 

[Moderator1]

Michigan lost to Toledo??

 

[Moderator1]

I watched two games this afternoon (UVA-ECU and JMU-UR), then went to a volleyball match and now I'm home watching baseball. No clue what happened anywhere beyond that.

 

[Jim_Carty]

Not just Toledo, but a 1-4 Toledo team that lost to Ball State 31-0 (I think) last week. Michigan's excellent Rivals team has declared it's a worse loss than App State, because App State was, you know, good.

IJAG, I'm honestly lost on the bagels comment. But that might be a result of spending about 12 hours today on law school nonsense. Right now I'm listening to a recording of civil procedure, which is making a lot more sense the second time around.

Best bagels in the world? KC's Bagel Express, Route 23, Pompton Plains, N.J.

 

[crusoes]

Let me add to the Jim Carty thread. Good guy, better writer.

 

[slappy4428]

Not just Toledo, but a 1-4 Toledo team that lost to Ball State 31-0 (I think) last week. Michigan's excellent Rivals team has declared it's a worse loss than App State, because App State was, you know, good.

IJAG, I'm honestly lost on the bagels comment. But that might be a result of spending about 12 hours today on law school nonsense. Right now I'm listening to a recording of civil procedure, which is making a lot more sense the second time around.

Best bagels in the world? KC's Bagel Express, Route 23, Pompton Plains, N.J.

This opens new doors for you. In one day, you can hit
Angelo's for breakfast, Tony Packo's for lunch, Argeiro's for dinner and the Pub for a beer.

 

[TheMethod]

I've never met Jim, and that column was the first thing of his I ever read, but some of the comments below that column make me want to **** punch some mother****ers.

 

[Moderator1]

That's why he is a good columnist. If you do it well for as long as he did, you gonna **** some mu-fos off but good.

 

[Jim_Carty]

I think it's important to say this, because most of us have to deal with comments.

My entire viewpoint of them has completely changed since I left the paper. Before I left? I really thought a lot of people didn't like me or my viewpoints. I actually thought the comments and message board posts represented a significant portion of the readership.

Since leaving, I've receive more than 300 positive e-mails from readers, coaches and - stunningly - even a Michigan administrator who fought us tooth and nail on the academics investigation. People going out of their way to say how the column and The News is a part of their life, and that they'll feel like something is missing. Negative e-mails? Fewer than 10. A lot of people writing nice things said they often disagreed with me, but enjoyed that part of it.

I come away truly believing that the anonymous comments, and message board rips, ultimately account for a very small constituency, and probably one that you could never make happy.

Don't ever let them get you down.

And thanks again for the kind words.

 

[spnited]

Nice call on KC's, Jim. You can never take the Jersey out of the kid.

Good luck with the new career.

 

[Jim_Carty]

Ever been the Carnival Spot pizza in Pequannock, spnited? Only blocks from KC's and like heaven.

And thanks for the good wishes. Truly appreciated.

 

[spnited]

Never been... might have to try it if I'm up that way.

 

[Darren Urban]

Wow, I've looked at this board for a long time and never posted and now I've hit it twice in a week (http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/62010/). Anyway, I have the pleasure of working with Jim once upon a time in Flagstaff. We were at the same place for all of 10 weeks or so 15 years ago. Yet I formed a friendship with Jim, which just goes to what kind of guy he is.

I consider Jim a good friend and good journalist, a man whom I trusted to be one of the few people to bounce off possible career decisions. I got out of newspapers a little sooner than Jim, and when he called to tell me he was doing the same, I was only slightly surprised. Journalism was always right for Jim and he did it well. He's made the right call for his life and family, but journalism is poorer for it.