Michael Silver -- I just don't get it...

[SuperflySnuka]

Oh, jgmacg, as usual, I agree with you 100 proof. That kind of scene deserves a couple of fat grafs, at least, with lots of telling detail -- and that's if the story's just a short hit.

Jonesy, you only agree with him 50 percent?

:D ;D 8)

 

[Jones]

Kids these days, so damn literal.

 

[SuperflySnuka]

That hurts, Jones, that hurts...you've got a decade or so on me -- that's not too much :)

 

[silentbob]

jgmac is right -- (he or she has become a voice of reason around here, hasn't he/she?) -- the drink is a throw-away detail. it doesnt add much to the scene (it's not even a scene!!!) but it does add something. my guess is silver would've added the dialogue if he could, but sometimes noise, women or too many lime-flavored drinks prevent a reporter from getting every single detail.

let's not confuse the story for what it is. it's not an in-depth, soul-searching narrative on edge's quest for redemption. it's just a let's-check-in-with-edge type of story.

yes, silver likes to flaunt his access. yes, it can be annoying. ... but it also helps the story.

 

[DanOregon]

If I'm 14-years-old, I want to know what my sports heroes drink so I can emulate them. I don't think its any better or any worse than celeb profiles that mention what an actor is wearing or what they choose from the menu. It leaves me cold, but it probably helps justify the expense of a bar tab by mentioning it in the story. Might also lead to possible product placement opportunities for the ad reps.

 

[jgmacg]

Do not, however, get me started on Mr. Silver's all-seeing "I".

Does it make you madder than Tony Soprano when he's catching a bad beat at the table, Mr. jgmacg?

And more confused than the cast of "John from Cincinnati."

 

[21]

While it's hard to argue with The Jones' expertise in the realm of cocktails, cordials and apertifs - and their meanings - my gut tells me the drink reference was pretty casual, and that Mr. Silver wasn't necessarily freighting it with any interpretative weight. Why? Because the second half of that same sentence carries no detail at all - "assemblage"? "lovely ladies"? - and makes no nod toward color or description or individuation. It sounds to me rather that Mr. Silver simply wrote out the drink order as he heard it, then retrieved it from his notebook when he started writing.

Which is fine, but like S'Fly, I'd rather hear that the drink was his usual; or his fourth; or that it made him wince; or made him mellow; or that he held it without drinking it; or that it cost $12 and he ordered a round for all the "ladies"; or that he ordered it as if he'd never tried one before; or that four college guys at the next table were drinking the same and that's how the idea came to him, etc., ad inf.

That my beloved Jones could decode and tease out the meaning of the drink says more to me about him - and about the breadth and depth of his writerly instinct - than it does about what Mr. Silver actually put on the page. But that's just me, and there's plenty of room for disagreement on the point.

Do not, however, get me started on Mr. Silver's all-seeing "I".

I've never seen anyone so good at explaining why certain writing works and why it just fails.

About the damn drink: There's nothing wrong with stating the drink....but that's all he did, he stated it. No shading, no context....there's an art to making a simple statement and leaving bullet holes no one will find for a week. It's Patron, you don't ***** it up with Rose's--my reaction. Silver states it like it's cool, maybe he thinks it is. Mixed message, or worse, no message...a missed opportunity to paint a picture. Lovely ladies? Assemblage? It sounds like the bingo caller describing the church gals on Friday night. I read it as, 'I was here, just take my word for it.'

 

[forever_town]

What Sinatra drank said something about him, how he stood said something about him, how he talked to his right-hand man said something.

This says absolutely nothing.

Like you said, sometimes a drink can make a statement.

For instance, what if James were at a bar with Cardinals teammates and he were drinking ginger ale while everyone else was getting loaded? And what if it were because he gave up alcohol for some reason?

THAT would be quite the story.

 

[SuperflySnuka]

AGREED! completely agree. What I'm pointing out is that there is zero background or context to it. But there needs to be a reason, otherwise, it's just stupid...

 

[broadway joe]

Oh my god. Now we've gone too far the other way. He was just telling us what, when and where Edge was drinking, with specificity, as any good writer should, and from that we can draw our own conclusions. Of course a writer can always go deeper, but this was not meant to be the definitive, magazine-length profile of Edgerrin James, it was a web column about whether Edge has lost a step. Silver could have spent another six grafs on this scene, telling us how the light sparkled off Edge's gold teeth, but this was not the story for that. Besides, at some point you have to trust that the writer is giving you the relevant details. If it was his sixth drink and he was slurring his words, I assume Silver would have told us that. It's more likely that Edge was just sitting and chatting, drinking a whatever it was, and Silver decided that was all the description worth spending on that scene.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

If Mr. Silver describes the scene, including the drink James has, then that's readable.

When Mr. Silver writes in his precious "Look at ME!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm with a famous ATHLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm COOOOOOLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" style, it's just not worth reading. Jock-sniffing only provides insight into how much ass a writer is willing to kiss to get a player to say "Yeah, man, it upsets me when people say I've lost a step at 29."

Haven't finished a Silver story in a decade. Started a lot of them with high hopes . . .dude DOES write for SI.

But ultimately, he's a writer. One with skill and a great paycheck, but a writer. Not a jock, not a member of the inner circle, not an athlete. Basically, when he writes like this, he comes off like a college-age fanboy who is just stoked and honored to be in the room with these godly athletes.

 

[da man]

Until Jones referred to it as tequila a few posts ago, I had no idea what kind of drink Patron was. I'm guessing I'm not the only one (among readers, not among all you drunkards ;)).

 

[zeke12]

Why in the **** would you put Rosie's in Patron?

 

[X-Hack]

If Mr. Silver describes the scene, including the drink James has, then that's readable.

When Mr. Silver writes in his precious "Look at ME!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm with a famous ATHLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm COOOOOOLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" style, it's just not worth reading. Jock-sniffing only provides insight into how much ass a writer is willing to kiss to get a player to say "Yeah, man, it upsets me when people say I've lost a step at 29."

Haven't finished a Silver story in a decade. Started a lot of them with high hopes . . .dude DOES write for SI.

But ultimately, he's a writer. One with skill and a great paycheck, but a writer. Not a jock, not a member of the inner circle, not an athlete. Basically, when he writes like this, he comes off like a college-age fanboy who is just stoked and honored to be in the room with these godly athletes.

Bingo. That's exactly what I was trying to say myself and have been trying to say for the last 10 years.

 

[Satchel Pooch]

I ran into deposed dictator Augusto Pinochet the other day ... one hearty laugh ...

 

[SuperflySnuka]

I'm honored...I didn't realize I could incite such vitriol...

 

[Bump_Wills]

Never given much thought to Silver as a technician one way or the other, but I do remember one year, being at training camp and seeing a group of beat writers slobber all over him on his hit-and-run visit. There's a vast difference between showing someone respect and audible slurping. I mean, the guy ****s, too, just like the rest of us.

 

[thebiglead]

Obviously a subjective discussion ... but I'd be curious to hear the names of three NFL writers at national outlets (sportsline/fox/espn/yahoo) who you think are better reads than Silver. Obviously it's personal preference ... but still curious.

I prefer it when writers to hang out with athletes away from the locker room/field, but that's just me.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

That kind of stuff is probably in the SI Stylebook. Their writers have been doing it for years. The point is not to convey important information but to establish yourself -- and the magazine -- in the picture. It's another way of saying: "We're important. We have access. We're standing next to This Famous Sports Figure (or sitting across the table from him at breakfast/lunch/dinner)." Another of my favorites: Mentioning that you're sitting in the front passenger seat as he drives back to his "crib" after practice. It's just house ad within a story -- and after you've read about a thousand references like that, often in the lead, it gets to be pretty comical.

It's standard magazine celeb profile writing -- "(Name the actor) looked out over his arugula at the trendy Beverly Hills bistro and sighed." -- brought to sportswriting.

 

[jgmacg]

I blame television. And Bill Zehme. And our culture of celebrity. And our schools. But mostly Zehme.