Vice on Lisa Saxon, one of the women who changed sportswriting

[Double Down]

Saxon, one of the first female baseball beat writers, opens up about what it was like. Worth your time.

Side note: Reggie Jackson remains one of the biggest assholes in sports history.

https://sports.vice.com/article/lisa-saxon-the-woman-who-helped-change-sports-writing-forever

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

That's a great read.

I don't agree with her not voting for him for the HOF, but that's her right as a voter. Lord knows plenty of men with HOF votes have done the same thing to players they didn't like.

I only covered (helped cover) baseball briefly and I always got the sense players are bigger assholes than in other sports.

It sounds like Jackson belongs on the list with Jim Rice, Dave Parker, Albert Belle, Dave Kingman and other legendary assholes.

 

[Riptide]

Another side note: There's a great Vin Scully story in there.

 

[cranberry]

Nice read. I'd like to have seen more people interviewed ... fellow beat writers, pr people, etc. Seems like just Saxon POV with one quote from Fornoff. As a side, I'm always wary of people recounting conversations years later. They tend to be glorified versions of the truth. Cringed at the misspelling of "barer."

 

[LongTimeListener]

The story cried out for comment from Reggie, or at least "Jackson could not be reached for comment."

It was a nice story. My one quibble with these stories is that they focus on the athletes who treated women terribly, but they don't mention how other writers behaved. I wonder if she caught a good crew or if she faced a lot in the press box too. I'd put a lot of money on the latter.

I mean, when you get right down to it, Reggie was only 3 percent more of a **** to her than he was to anybody else.

 

[ChrisLong]

I'm guessing that Gene Mauch eventually came around to Lisa.
I had only covered a few Angels games over the years, but I was assigned to cover the Sunday game before the All-Star break. Our regular beat guy was given the day off, but he asked me to get some general quotes from Mauch regarding the first half that he could use for his midseason report.
Well, traffic issues delayed my arrival to Angel Stadium. I missed the pregame stuff ... no big deal, since it was a Sunday day game I could get what I needed afterward. So, after the game, I got the usual postgame stuff and waited for all of those question to be asked. When everybody was done, I asked Mauch a general question about the first half. He got up and started walking out of his office, turned around and said, "I went through all that before the game. Just get the quotes from Lisa, she's the best writer in here anyway."

 

[Editude]

As a story of what Lisa (longtime peer) accomplished in the specific and general picture, that was tremendous. As a "story," though, it's just OK, long without being especially well written or framed.

 

[Double Down]

I find Vice pieces to be often under reported. But I appreciated the history.

 

[SnarkShark]

The story cried out for comment from Reggie, or at least "Jackson could not be reached for comment."

It was a nice story. My one quibble with these stories is that they focus on the athletes who treated women terribly, but they don't mention how other writers behaved. I wonder if she caught a good crew or if she faced a lot in the press box too. I'd put a lot of money on the latter.

I mean, when you get right down to it, Reggie was only 3 percent more of a **** to her than he was to anybody else.

My first thought as well. You gotta at least try. And if he declined comment, you have to include it in the story.

I loved the Reggie stuff, but the story needed some other voices.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

It appears to me that George Hendrick is one cool sonofabitch.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

It appears to me that George Hendrick is one cool sonofabitch.

I thought I had read somewhere that Hendrick had a reputation for being a ****, but all I can do is stand and applaud after reading that story.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

It appears to me that George Hendrick is one cool sonofabitch.

I thought I had read somewhere that Hendrick had a reputation for being a ****, but all I can do is stand and applaud after reading that story.

Hendrick also reportedly found out that Donnie Moore was beating his wife and confronted him on day in the locker room and said, "You wanna' hit someone?"

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

It appears to me that George Hendrick is one cool sonofabitch.

I thought I had read somewhere that Hendrick had a reputation for being a ****, but all I can do is stand and applaud after reading that story.

Hendrick also reportedly found out that Donnie Moore was beating his wife and confronted him on day in the locker room and said, "You wanna' hit someone?"

****. I might have to go buy his jersey.

 

[Moderator1]

It appears to me that George Hendrick is one cool sonofabitch.

I thought I had read somewhere that Hendrick had a reputation for being a ****, but all I can do is stand and applaud after reading that story.

My understanding (and this could be wrong) is that he didn't talk to the media because he just didn't feel comfortable, didn't want to do it, etc. Not out of hatred, anger, whatever. He was a good guy who just chose not to talk.

This story makes that seem more credible than him being a ****.

Anyone dealt with him?

 

[ChrisLong]

It appears to me that George Hendrick is one cool sonofabitch.

I thought I had read somewhere that Hendrick had a reputation for being a ****, but all I can do is stand and applaud after reading that story.

My understanding (and this could be wrong) is that he didn't talk to the media because he just didn't feel comfortable, didn't want to do it, etc. Not out of hatred, anger, whatever. He was a good guy who just chose not to talk.

This story makes that seem more credible than him being a ****.

Anyone dealt with him?

I believe you're right. He just didn't want to talk to the media, but he wasn't hostile about it. You could chat with him. I approached him one time and he tried to beg off, then I told him I was doing a story on his son, who was a basketball star at Cal. We talked for a few minutes.
I remember once that after he had a good game for the Cardinals in the postseason, he was asked to do the media room and he did it. Nothing earth shattering, but he did it.

 

[Boom_70]

I have always confused Alex Johnson and George Hendrick. Both had similar career path in teams they played for and both had reputations as being malcontents.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

http://www.si.com/longform/donnie-moore/index.html

Apparently the only person who did something about the bruises that began appearing on Tonya in the 1980s was towering Angels outfielder George Hendrick, who currently coaches first for the Rays and gives as many interviews these days as he did as a player, which was none. Hendrick did, however, recently confirm the accounts of two other former Angels players who remember Hendrick’s Fu Manchu hovering over Moore’s one-inch afro. "You wanna hit somebody?"

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I remember in the late 80s, there was a book called "Baseball Confidential" in which players were polled on various issues and quoted on it, some anonymously, some not.

Hendricks, some players said, was as nice as could be towards reporters, as long as they weren't trying to interview him.

 

[goalmouth]

A good read, reminded me of a juxtaposed story from, maybe, New York magazine 30 years ago. It was about the first male students at Vassar. The expected setup -- a couple of dudes in guy heaven, surrounded by available women. Or so they thought. There was a quote from one, he was in the cafeteria and one of his 'conquests' was with her friends at the next table, talking about him sotto voce. Paraphrasing his quote of what she said: "Oh, he's nice enough, I guess. But the best thing is, I can have him anytime I want."

 

[LongTimeListener]

A good read, reminded me of a juxtaposed story from, maybe, New York magazine 30 years ago. It was about the first male students at Vassar. The expected setup -- a couple of dudes in guy heaven, surrounded by available women. Or so they thought. There was a quote from one, he was in the cafeteria and one of his 'conquests' was with her friends at the next table, talking about him sotto voce. Paraphrasing his quote of what she said: "Oh, he's nice enough, I guess. But the best thing is, I can have him anytime I want."

I'm sure this makes sense and is completely relevant in your head.