piling on whitlock

[slappy4428]

i only wish dave kindred had said what bob ryan said, then i could say i love dave kindred ... but, i'm gaining new respect for this ryan, fella. he might have a future in front of him.

He will, indeed, sleep better tonight

 

[Tom Petty]

i only wish dave kindred had said what bob ryan said, then i could say i love dave kindred ... but, i'm gaining new respect for this ryan, fella. he might have a future in front of him.

He will, indeed, sleep better tonight

and that's exactly why i'm here slappy. i live to make others feel better about themselves.

 

[shotglass]

 

[WildBillyCrazyCat]

I loved this line:

"And I have to mention – because he's such a punching bag – Lupica (NY Daily News). People are so insanely jealous of him they don't realize that to get where he is he's done the work. He can be very good when he puts his mind to it."

Yeah, and he puts his mind to it, what, twice a year?

Loopey may have been very good back in the day, but he's been coasting on his reputation for about a decade now. No one mails it in more than him. Maybe that's why he felt so threatened by Kriegel?

 

[Ben_Hecht]

It's going to be a great day in this business when Loopy gets his.

A great day.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

It's funny... I know the book came out about 20 years ago, but if anybody needs a reminder of just how talented Lupica is/was, they just need to read Shooting from the Lip, which if I'm not mistaken is Lupica's only column compliation book...

Ryan is right, Lupica is great when he puts his mind to it. Unfortunately, he only does that a few times a year...

 

[Ashy Larry]

Ryan comes off like an asshole in that interview. He blames Lobel for not pointing out that he said something wrong...when in fact Lobel actually said "you can't say that...." and "I'll give ya a mulligan on that", its a popular clip out here.

 

[Boom_70]

It's funny... I know the book came out about 20 years ago, but if anybody needs a reminder of just how talented Lupica is/was, they just need to read Shooting from the Lip, which if I'm not mistaken is Lupica's only column compliation book...

Ryan is right, Lupica is great when he puts his mind to it. Unfortunately, he only does that a few times a year...

All Luppy does now is recycle the same columns now over and over.

Now he writing fiction books that are nothing more than recycled stories.

As a columnist in NY he has pretty much become marginalized because he is not able to write about the Yankees or hockey with any kind of credibility.

Luppy was on the Sports Reporters the Sunday after the Mich/ O-state game talking about how great a game it was. Most would have assumed that he watched game unless you saw him signing books at NC bookstore at 3:30 when the game started. Then you knew better.

 

[cranberry]

I loved this line:

"And I have to mention – because he's such a punching bag – Lupica (NY Daily News). People are so insanely jealous of him they don't realize that to get where he is he's done the work. He can be very good when he puts his mind to it."

Yeah, and he puts his mind to it, what, twice a year?

Loopey may have been very good back in the day, but he's been coasting on his reputation for about a decade now. No one mails it in more than him. Maybe that's why he felt so threatened by Kriegel?

Lupica has become an irrelevant caricature of himself. Nothing he says matters anymore because nobody believes he knows what he's talking about anymore. There was a time when you had the impression he was actually working it -- making the calls, doing the leg work, getting to the bottom of things. There was energy and creativity in his storytelling. Now, you get the impression he just sits there and spouts the opinions of a comfortable, midldle-aged man sitting on his couch up in Westport or wherever. Maybe it's time he got out of the game and stuck to writing his mediocre novels because as it stands now, he's just an imperious little pundit with nothing much to say. Lupica, by the way, is also one of the most gifted sports writers of our era. He's a far better writer than Whitlock but without a tenth of Whitlock's relevance. Whitlock matters, Lupica doesn't.

 

[Boom_70]

I loved this line:

"And I have to mention – because he's such a punching bag – Lupica (NY Daily News). People are so insanely jealous of him they don't realize that to get where he is he's done the work. He can be very good when he puts his mind to it."

Yeah, and he puts his mind to it, what, twice a year?

Loopey may have been very good back in the day, but he's been coasting on his reputation for about a decade now. No one mails it in more than him. Maybe that's why he felt so threatened by Kriegel?

Lupica has become an irrelevant caricature of himself. Nothing he says matters anymore because nobody believes he knows what he's talking about anymore. There was a time when you had the impression he was actually working it -- making the calls, doing the leg work, getting to the bottom of things. There was energy and creativity in his storytelling. Now, you get the impression he just sits there and spouts the opinions of a comfortable, midldle-aged man sitting on his couch up in Westport or wherever. Maybe it's time he got out of the game and stuck to writing his mediocre novels because as it stands now, he's just an imperious little pundit with nothing much to say. Lupica, by the way, is also one of the most gifted sports writers of our era. He's a far better writer than Whitlock but without a tenth of Whitlock's relevance. Whitlock matters, Lupica doesn't.

Cranberry you nailed.

"Whitlock matters Lupica doesn't "

I am nominating that for sj slogan of the year.

 

[21]

Just for the sake of discussion (altho I agree with cranberry's excellent post):

Lupica isn't the first longtime columnist to slow down after years on the treadmill; there's no shortage of veterans who write more from observation than from the trenches.

Is that always bad?

 

[Boom_70]

Just for the sake of discussion (altho I agree with cranberry's excellent post):

Lupica isn't the first longtime columnist to slow down after years on the treadmill; there's no shortage of veterans who write more from observation than from the trenches.

Is that always bad?

Yea- if your readers have long memories and you contradict yourself like Lupica always does.

As Luppy tells us now he knew all along that Mac was juicing. He just forgot about it in his book.

 

[RokSki]

there's no shortage of veterans who write more from observation than from the trenches.

And then there are the non - veterans, like Simmons, who write more from observation than from the trenches. Just couldn't resist that hanging curveball.

Boom, Cranberry - you both nailed it.

Although I'm not certain I agree with the take on Lupica's and Whitlock's relative talent levels as sportswriters. Lupica is by far the better technician, and would be compared to almost anyone. There are subjects, however, Whitlock could write about which Lupica couldn't begin to give a credible accounting of. Like being a college football player, for one. Lupica's a 'host;' JW is an 'analyst.' That's why I love reading JW on football.

But it's a minor point. Everything else you two wrote I totally agree with. Nice job.

 

[Boom_70]

I'd love to see Luppy writing about Michael Irivn "bojangling".

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Frankly, what makes Whitlock "relevant" vis a vis Lupica eludes me.

 

[goalmouth]

My 10-year old nephew knows Lupica as the author of "Heat," not as a columnist. Albom's new book deal will put him in a very rare ring of rich authors. Not saying that's good or evil, just saying.

If "irrelevance" is selling millions of books, I'll be living in Trump Tower soon enough.

 

[RokSki]

I'd love to see Luppy writing about Michael Irivn "bojangling".

I wish I could have put it as well as you just did, Boom. Nice.

 

[Boom_70]

Frankly, what makes Whitlock "relevant" vis a vis Lupica eludes me.

Ok Fenian what in your mind makes luppy relevant?

 

[spnited]

I think Fenian's question was more what makes Whitlock so relevant?

 

[henryhenry]

some history on lupica - from a time when he was "relevent" - 1981 - and i'm not saying he isn't now.
this is from **** schaap's book "Steinbrenner!":
But then Lupica's columns grew increasingly antagonistic toward Steinbrenner, even vicious. Lupica once referred to Steinbrenner as "an owner who brings whole new dimensions to the term 'manic-depressive'" and in calmer moments, Lupica called him a "a liar....a tyrant...a graceless lout...a statesman in the Alexander Haig mold." This put Elain Kaufman, the proprietor of Elaine's, New York's fashinable East Side saloon, in a delicate position. Steinbrenner and Lupica - as well as, for instance, Woody Allen, Norman Mailer and Jacqueline Onassis - were regulars at Elaine's, and Elaine valued both the World Series championship ring George had given her, which she wore around her neck, and the more sensibly priced Wimbledon T-shirt Mike had given her. She had to be very careful to give both Steinbrenner and Lupica choice tables - lesser areas of the restaurant were good enough only for gawkers and unknowns - without putting them too close to each other. One night, in the men's room at Elaine's, Steinbrenner encountered Dan Jenkins, the journalist and author of Semi-Tough, who was dining with Lupica. "How can you sit with that little ****?" reporter Jenkins reported Steinbrenner inquiring.
Soon Lupica began to hear that Steinbrenner was spreading unkind rumors about him, calling him not a lout or a liar, but names even less flattering. Lupica never had more than hearsay evidence that Steinbrenner was the source of the vicious stories - and Steinbrenner himself later vehemently denied it - but, in his anger, Lupica called Edwin T. Broderick, vice-president and general counsel for the Yankees, and told Broderick that Steinbrenner should stop spreading such slander if he valued his reputation as a good husband and father. Whether the threat had anything to do with it or not, the stories apparently stopped circulating. Lupica continues to attack Steinbrenner in print, and Steinbrenner continued to feed baseball stories to Phil Pepe.