wisportswriter

The NY Post agrees with you, TooLive. Anderson is way above average when it comes to TV baseball men. Very good. Brewers fans (myself included) are lucky to have him.

First, let me acknowledge the bump. I realize this post is coming way late, but I stopped posting here a year ago (for various reasons), decided to check back in and see what's been posted about the MJS staff (I've seen/been involved in those threads in the past), came upon this thread and wanted to add my 2 cents. I know a lot of posters here have very strong opinions about the MJS staff and sportswriters in general, and I fear many of those opinions are too strong to change. But if you believe anything you read in this thread, please listen to the posts by OldSchoolSnapper and Kaukauna. They are terrific posts and really are 100 percent dead on. The flip side some of you have pointed out ... yes, most of the time sportswriting is a great job. For all the bad -- and believe me, there is plenty of bad -- there is also plenty of good. I hate the pay, the travel, the hours, the loss of a social life. But I love being a storyteller, love reporting, love being involved in sports, which I have loved essentially since birth. Where Snapper and StinkyTown are coming from is, so many times we hear people talk about what an amazing job we have, how it almost gets romanticized. That happens because all the fans see is that we "get to go to games for free and talk with the athletes and coaches." To a fan, that sounds like an incredibly good time. To us, that is a long, hard day at work. yogallardo43: I understand where you're coming from, because I know exactly where you are: you're young and still more fan than journalist. A lot of us were at some point, and we all felt the same way you do now. But that doesn't last for long. And that's OK, because it really can't. Not if you're going to do the job well. Tom's job may seem like a dream job to you. But ... I've been a lifelong Brewers fan, and I currently work at a mid-sized daily in Dubuque, Iowa, covering mostly preps. And you know what? If the MJS called me up this afternoon and offered me Tom's job, I would not take it and I wouldn't even hesitate for a single second. That's the honest to God truth. And that, again, is the crux of the point. Yes, to many it seems like what sportswriters do is so much fun. But it's not. It's a job, and it's a darn hard one. Can you still enjoy it? Can you still love it? Absolutely. But not because you get to interview Ryan Braun and sit in the Miller Park press box and watch baseball for free.

As someone who has paid attention for a long time and come to value good work in the broadcast booth, I can say only this ... Please, please no.

I hate the term MVP so, so, so much. You know dang well the award was started for nothing more than to honor the best individual performance of the year, yet because of the unfortunate wording of 'Valuable,' people every year - in baseball and all other sports with an MVP - absolutely mutilate this discussion with those words that make my ears bleed ... "But who was more valuable?" Agggghhhh!!!!! If I had unlimited powers over the sporting world, the very first thing - and I do mean the very first thing - I would do would be abolish the term Most Valuable Player and mandate all leagues great and small use the terms Most Outstanding Player or Player of the Year. So, so stupid. By that ridiculous 'most valuable' rationale, LeBron James should be the NBA's MVP every single season.

Missing Vasgersian and dull ... To each his own, but I want an announcer who just calls the game. I don't need to be entertained by the guy behind the microphone. The game's supposed to be doing that for me. I think Brian Anderson is solid. I'm glad to hear he'll be back.

You give me that funny feeling in my tummy.... Ahw sh.., yeah, that's right huh Rollercoaster of Love say what Rollercoaster yeah (oohh oohh oohh)... Oh baby you know what I'm talking about Rollercoaster of Love oh yeah it's Rollercoaster time lovin' you is really wild Oh it's just a love rollercoaster step right up and get your tickets 1-Your love is like a Rollercoaster baby,baby I wanna ride yeah (awawaw) (repeat 1) 2-Move over dad 'cause I'm a double dipple Upside down on the big dip dipper 1,2, 1,2,3 I've got a ticket come ride with me Let me go down on the merry-go-round All is fair 'n' a big fair ground Let's go slow, let's go fast Like a liqorice twist gonna whip your ass (rpt 1, 1, 2, 1...) Rollercoaster say what I will be there for you I will be your man

25-11, .694 Pretty good 1-run numbers for a team that's not mentally strong. (I believe at one point, if it's not still, that was the best record in MLB?)

That was a decent post. I think you should very much be confident in yourself, brewtank. [/grammarpolice] http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

It's a race to see who can post the Brewers' record in 1-run games the fastest ...

I would be perfectly fine with a walk. It seems like he's only making outs, and bad ones (pop-ups, double plays). And, as always with stats, you can pick the one that best suits your argument, and I am not without. (Thanks for the link, kramnoj.) With 2 outs and RISP, the exact kind of situation I've been thinking of, Prince is batting a putrid .180. Though I must admit his OBP (.414) and OPS (.814) in those situations are decent. I guess that means he's hardly ever getting a hit, but when he does, he makes it count, and he's taking some walks along the way.

My feelings are purely anecdotal, so I welcome the stat-heads to find some numbers in response to my claim. And if I'm wrong, I'll gladly stuff it. I remember a game around midseason that Prince won with a walk-off single. Is that just about the only clutch hit he's had all season? It feels like every time he's come up in a crucial situation - late innings, runners on, etc. - he has failed miserably. And I've been feeling this way for a couple weeks now. Am I wrong?

Even if quality of product is an issue in some cases, it's nowhere near -- light years below -- the factors I listed. You can cast those issues off if you like and rail away, but it doesn't change the reality. And what you ignored is the fact that people have not stopped reading the news. News and sports Web sites are thriving. And the content of those sites comes mostly from writers who cut their teeth at newspapers. The writing and reporting is not -- is not -- the problem at newspapers. The problems are severely declining ad content, skyrocketing overhead costs and the fact so much information is out there where people can get it for free. Frankly, I'm amazed circulation hasn't dropped even worse than it already has. Why would you subscribe to a newspaper, when every one in the country is giving it away for free? The only way newspapers are 'out of touch' is in the fact they haven't yet figured out how to make the Internet work for them, and online advertising doesn't bring in near enough revenue to support an entire staff. And comparing ad revenue at Google to a newspaper is like comparing apples and airplanes. You hate TH and his writing. I get that. But to insist that the issues you have with him are the same issues that are hurting the newspaper industry right now, that's just factually incorrect, plain and simple.

I want to laugh that off because it's so detached from reality, yet somehow I still let it upset me. I wish I was better at that. The print media is in dire straits because of massively declining ad revenue due in large part to a weak economy and the fact it hasn't yet come up with a model to work with the Internet (aka giving away the product for free), not to mention skyrocketing prices in newsprint (paper) and gas. To suggest that any style of MLB game story writing is the reason the industry is dying is ludicrous. Even to include newspaper-wide writing and reporting is miles off the mark. People are still reading sportswriting and news reporting, and mostly from newspaper writers (or at least former newspaper writers). They're just not paying to get it anymore. Doug: I can respect your wants for different kinds of content from TH. While a beat writer can't please everybody, your last post is not entirely unreasonable. I take more exception to the posts that suggest TH is 'phoning it in' or using a 'formula' when writing his stories. I know it's fun for a lot of folk here to destroy the guy at every chance they get, and if you don't like his style, that's fine. But I guarantee that TH - and I've said this before - cares a great deal about his work, and for anyone to suggest laziness or a lack of effort upsets me as a colleague (so to speak).

FWIW, I too think the JS' Packer coverage is second to none and love McGinn's style. But the NFL and MLB are different beasts. McGinn has a whole week in between games to write that in-depth analysis on KGB that you mentioned, Russ. By the time TH is done writing his gamer, first pitch is about 18 hours away.

I remember seeing it on the MJS Web site before anywhere else. Who else had it prior?

Disappointing. I don't really know what else to say. Maybe because there's no 'template' for a post like this.

Thank God there's at least one other Brewer fan who feels the same way.

No, TH was first on the CC trade. And yes, anyone could write a gamer without being there. But you couldn't write a good gamer w/o being there or just by being 'spoon fed' information by the teams. Big difference.

For the record, I am not condoning Tom's action of printing a reader's e-mail and/or name. The things I was speaking of in my posts were more the heated exchanges in the blogs and chats. Printing a reader's info is definitely crossing a line. I apologize if I wasn't clear about that before.

No, I asked "How would you handle it?" because I just wanted people to think about it from the other side. It's easy for us to sit here and say what a jerkbag he is for doing what he did. Would everyone casting stones have taken the proverbial high road themselves? I seriously question that. And I also made sure to emphasize this wasn't a sportswriter 'sob story' as I knew it would be construed as whining. That's why I said you can apply the scenario to any job, not just sportswriting.

And the opening line of my original post ... Thanks for reading.

Please note, and I cannot emphasize this enough, that I am not condoning some of the ways Tom has reacted to these situations, including this most recent. But in the spirit of walking a mile in another man's shoes, try to imagine what it would be like to be a writer on the same beat for a long number of years - so you obviously know at least a little something about what you're covering - and now everybody and his brother thinks they know more than you and rips you relentlessly in multiple public forums. Translate that kind of thing to any job, for that matter. I am sure Tom is very passionate about his job and cares deeply about his work; I know I do. And I also know if as many people openly criticized my work as they do Tom's, it would be difficult for me to handle. I'd like to think I'd handle it a little better - not get involved in direct attacks there's no way I'm going to win - but I'm as human as the next guy. How would you handle it if people were hurdling insults your way on a consistent basis?

Stay in school and change your major. I'm only 5% kidding. I'd tell you why, only it would be perceived here as whining. If you're going to stay in the biz, you better darn well love writing. Not sports. Writing. (edit: Just realized I should have just PM'd this. Apologies to the board.)

If only, lcbj68c. Oh, God, if only.

1. Aaron Rodgers And it's not even close. Not necessarily because he earned it, but because of everything that's going on.