Toledo Blade columnist

[kbb]

Sources tell me that Ron Musselman is out as the Toledo Blade's sports columnist ... he was sent packing to some other department of the paper. Apparently most of the staffers in sports are thrilled. Dave Hackenberg, who should have been the columnist all along, will take over that gig full-time when the University of Toledo's basketball season is over. I guess that means there will be an opening for a beat writer at some point.

 

[Shaggy]

Pretty decent paper, and Detroit is an hour away. If you can handle Toledo, it'd be a pretty good gig.

 

[fmrsped]

Couldn't have happened to a more miserable prick.

Musselman is intolerable.

 

[boots]

This just in from the boots pipeline. Blade may or may not fill the opening quickly. Muss can be a prick but he has been known to be helpful many times.

 

[WSKY]

Pretty decent paper, and Detroit is an hour away. If you can handle Toledo, it'd be a pretty good gig.

I don't think telling people Detroit is an hour away would be a top selling point — unless you're in need of some crack. A better selling point would be that Windsor is an hour and five minutes away.

 

[alleyallen]

Pretty decent paper, and Detroit is an hour away. If you can handle Toledo, it'd be a pretty good gig.

I don't think telling people Detroit is an hour away would be a top selling point — unless you're in need of some crack. A better selling point would be that Windsor is an hour and five minutes away.

And now that Michigan has made cheating on your wife a potential life-term felony, you might want to reconsider the selling points of the job.

 

[Jason Haupricht]

Hack's golf stuff is top notch.

 

[fmrsped]

Hack's golf stuff is top notch.

You are correct sir. Others may know the whole story, but when Musselman got the columnist gig, it was over Hack (as mentioned earlier), who then went to UT.

At the same time, Wagner was taken off BG and there was some other reshuffling, apparently the result of a behind-the-backs crusade by a couple of staff members (one of whom really surprised me). Either way, IMO, Hack was wasted on the UT beat, and -- this is jusy my theory -- his work suffered because of his placement there. (Is that contradictory? Maybe. But it makes sense to me.)

 

[Chad Conant]

If they fill the job, there's a guy there on the news side who used to have the job I currently hold covering a D3 college and Cleveland pros. From what I hear, he'd like to get back into sports. Don't look too hard for them to fill it outside.

 

[wickedwritah]

Where do the union talks stand, as it were?

 

[Shaggy]

The Blade will just have to remind those who apply that cheating on their wife in Detroit will be the equivalent of getting their penis cut off, so if you're going to have an extramarital affair, do it in Ohio or Ontario.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

As a Windsor native, I used to pick opf the Blade about once a week in my travels. Could never understand how such a below-average paper could pay so well.

The Guild would have a lot to do with that.

 

[kbb]

From what I'm told, Musselman wasn't canned because he is a prick, but because his columns sucked. I read a few of them online, and they were pretty much devoid of opinion, information or emotion.

 

[donnie23]

Another shout for Hack. Good guy, good work.

 

[fmrsped]

Update: Sources tell me Musselman had a local media piece in today's Peach section.

 

[satchmo]

yup

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070117/ART18/701170392

 

[Mooninite]

So is the step up or a step down...or sideways? I liked the last media columnist...Russ Lemon he wasn't bad

 

[wheels89]

Hack is a writer's writer. Great guy, easily approachable and always willing to help. When I covered the MAC I learned a lot from him.

 

[Orange Hat Bobcat]

Just another chime for Dave Hackenberg. ... When I was still a snot-nosed college kid, I covered a few MAC Tournaments up in Cleveland and normally ran into Hack. He was always open to conversation and invited me to join him at his table more than a few times. When you're 19 or 20 and still breaking in, that's kinda neat. The promotion couldn't have gone to a nicer guy -- and a very good writer.

 

[Jason Haupricht]

Musselman was in Miami Tuesday and wrote something about Grossman for the sports front. I wonder if he'll be writing columns for the Peach and Sports sections?