Richard Justice to MLB.com

[nattering nabob]

Long-time Houston Chronicle columnist Richard Justice has left the newspaper to write a column for MLB.com

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2011/12/richard_justice_mlbcom.php

In fact, Richard has already written his first piece for MLB.com, on Kirk Gibson. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111206&content_id=26102940&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Richard's first love has always been baseball, so this is a good move for him, and a great hire for MLB, which has had a crying need for a quality lead columnist. On the other hand, it's a blow for the Chron, and yet another newspaper lifer heading to the internet. Last one gone turn out the lights.

 

[Versatile]

Justice was one of my two or three favorite metro sports columnists left. Jerome Solomon is actually outstanding for Houston, too. But this is a tough blow. Justice's blog was excellent.

 

[steveu]

Holy ****. That is a HUGE loss for the Chronicle. To many people, including myself, Richard Justice WAS the Chronicle's sports section. My best to him in his future work with MLB.

And no, I'm not Richard, nor am I his press agent, yadda yadda yadda...

 

[Versatile]

Sign of a good columnist: I just looked at the comments below that blog post, and the first says Justice was too nice to the Longhorns. The second says Justice ripped on the Longhorns just for hits.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Nice parting shot at the end of the blog:

Since it's affiliated with the business it covers, there has been some grumbling about whether it can be truly independent and aggressive, but generally the coverage is respected.

Great move for Richard and another huge blow for the Chron and newspapers in general. Obviously, the important thing is that the vast majority of those who previously read his work will still be able to do so.

And I'm sure he'll still be making regular appearances on PTI and Tony Kornheiser's radio show, which frankly was my most regular exposure to him.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

We've long gotten past the point where anyone needs to justify a move to a website, that's affiliated with the team or the sport that it covers...

He should have said, "If I had to bet on baseball or the newspaper industry, that would be the easiest decision I've ever had to make."

It's a great move for Justice. While I've always liked him as a columnist, his strength is clearly baseball and this is the perfect place for him.

Congrats Richard!!!

 

[derwood]

Congrats!!!

Nice get for MLB.com.

 

[Joe Williams]

Guess I'm in the minority. I've always felt that, as a columnist, Justice was a fine baseball writer.

To me, he seemed clearly out of his depth on NFL, NBA in particular. I hate when newspapers take someone who's really good at one thing -- like being a great beat writer or a fine national columnist on one sport -- and foist them on readers as all-everything experts. VERY few can pull that off. I thought Justice was a 9 or 10 when writing about baseball, a 4 or less on other stuff.

So I'm glad he made this move, for him and for baseball writing in general. To hell with the Chronicle.

 

[YankeeFan]

Terrific baseball writer.

The Chronicle was a mess when I lived there 6 years ago -- nearly all wire copy. Can't imagine what it looks like now.

 

[Versatile]

Nice parting shot at the end of the blog:

Since it's affiliated with the business it covers, there has been some grumbling about whether it can be truly independent and aggressive, but generally the coverage is respected.

Great move for Richard and another huge blow for the Chron and newspapers in general. Obviously, the important thing is that the vast majority of those who previously read his work will still be able to do so.

And I'm sure he'll still be making regular appearances on PTI and Tony Kornheiser's radio show, which frankly was my most regular exposure to him.

I'm curious as to whether you're right. I imagine he'd be doing a lot of MLB Network now and perhaps less MLB.

 

[Versatile]

Guess I'm in the minority. I've always felt that, as a columnist, Justice was a fine baseball writer.

To me, he seemed clearly out of his depth on NFL, NBA in particular. I hate when newspapers take someone who's really good at one thing -- like being a great beat writer or a fine national columnist on one sport -- and foist them on readers as all-everything experts. VERY few can pull that off. I thought Justice was a 9 or 10 when writing about baseball, a 4 or less on other stuff.

So I'm glad he made this move, for him and for baseball writing in general. To hell with the Chronicle.

I actually think he did a great job on the Rockets. I can buy that he wasn't the best football columnist, but he gravitated toward baseball, and that's what I always thought of him as.

I think of Jim Souhan similarly (though not as positively). He's a baseball writer first who does a good job on basketball and succeeds in football writing mostly when he is writing about management or off-field issues. The Vikings have more of those than the Texans.

 

[Mark2010]

Terrific baseball writer.

The Chronicle was a mess when I lived there 6 years ago -- nearly all wire copy. Can't imagine what it looks like now.

Was in Houston this summer. Paper was a real disappointment. Granted it was August and the Astros were in last place and the NFL lockout had just ended and colleges hadn't started practice yet. So there wasn't a lot to talk about. But was disappointed in the size and scope.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

>>>Since it's affiliated with the business it covers, there has been some grumbling about whether it can be truly independent and aggressive, but generally the coverage is respected.<<<

No it's not.

Good for him if he improved his job security, but let's not pretend that mlb.com is anything but an extension of MLB.

 

[Den1983]

Terrific baseball writer.

The Chronicle was a mess when I lived there 6 years ago -- nearly all wire copy. Can't imagine what it looks like now.

Was in Houston this summer. Paper was a real disappointment. Granted it was August and the Astros were in last place and the NFL lockout had just ended and colleges hadn't started practice yet. So there wasn't a lot to talk about. But was disappointed in the size and scope.

The Chronicle isn't anything that it used to be. Sad, considering its city.

And I also never really liked Justice. He just didn't cut it in sports other than baseball. His blogs were terrible. Interested to see how the Chron goes about replacing him, or if they do.

 

[Fran Curci]

Den1983: Couldn't disagree more on Justice's blogs. I found them to be packed with good opinions and illuminating anecdotes, just what you'd expect from a savvy guy who's been a big-time writer for decades.

 

[Greenhorn]

Justice is one of my favorites. The Chronicle has the infamous distinction of being the largest paper in America to never have a Pulitzer.

 

[SpeedTchr]

Hardly ever finished his pieces, since it appeared he was trying too hard. Glad to see him go.