dumbest. thing. ever. written.

[Ric]

i know its fashionable to bash chronicle writers; perhaps we do it so often, we've become immune to their stupidity. which may explain why none of us (to my knowledge) ripped justice for this little gem from his july 21st blog (http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2007/07/bonds_indictmen.html):
The Chicago Cubs are going to the playoffs with a fomula that Drayton McLane should copy. First, they spent a ton of money in free agency last winter--around $300 million in all. Second, their GM is an old-school scout who built the organization from the inside out.
justice has written far too many items to try and narrow this down with any certainity, but i think you'd be hard-pressed to find a dumber, more asinine statement of his.

i mean, wow - i don't even know where to begin... how about here: didn't this jack-off cover the freaking baltimore orioles for however many years, ie the poster child for why, unless you’re the yankees or red sox, it is abhorrently stupid to throw gobs of cash at your baseball roster? or should i use the team the cubs are chasing - the brewers - as why it's 99.9999999999999998% of the time stupid to overpay for past performances?

further, how do you build a team from "the inside out" - what does that even mean? there's nothing "inside" about the cubs. they have (if i'm being generous) 4 homegrown products contributing to their team this year (zambrano, hill, theriot and pie); otherwise, it's a team of highly-paid free agents, meaning it was built from the outside out, or whatever nonsense.

and while i'm not sure you'd quantify purpura as an "old-school scout" (another meaningless, nothing term), he would at least be cut from the same cloth as the "old school scout" considering he started here as director of player scouting. i don't know - maybe he used the interwebbery and computer-do-hickey and therefore lost his "old school" status. who knows.

but what really chips away at my will to live beyond that is that there are, unfortunately, way too many dolts in this city who are going to buy into such unmitigated garbage and start spouting it as fact when it is, far and away, about the worse thing mcclane could ever do.

honestly, and sincerely - how did this penis leak secure a columnist slot in one of the nation's largest cities? it boggles my mind in ways i truly have yet to truly fathom.

[OrangeRowdy95]

Because RJ is a good guy. If you're a good guy, then good things happen to you, no matter how stupid you are.

[redgoose]

I can't seem to tell if he was joking or not since he goes on to say they're trying to copy the best team in baseball. I would assume he's referencing the Yankees. Since the Yankees overpay everyone as well and are also in second place. The Cubs have assembled a team of free agents, however just like us they don't have any farm help. Unlike us they went out and signed more help and that does cost money and i guess that's what Justice is poking fun at. But if your farm teams suck, you have to go out and buy talent if you really want to win. I'm not saying they spent their money the right way. :confused:

I really think he's trying to poke fun at the Cubs, Lou Piniella talking about his farm system, the Yankees, and the dynamic duo of Drayton and Tim Purpura all at once. :(

Either way it's a pretty crummy joke if you have to think about it this much and can't possibly determine if it's attempted humor or just really bad journalism.

Thinking about this whole thing really makes me wish we still had The Houston Post. The standards of writing have completely blown out the window and there's no motivation to improve it without any competition.

[G.O.A.T.]

Because RJ is a good guy. If you're a good guy, then good things happen to you, no matter how stupid you are.

I AGREE!

http://mcsa.fc2web.com/ASTROS%20Player/JasonLane03.jpg

[Mr. Clutch]

Yep, seems to me that spending $300 million and building a team "from the inside out" are 2 contradicting strategies.

No?

[shipwreck]

and to think ive seen this guy on espn

[kevwun]

The dumbest thing he ever wrote was yesterday. He said that Garner should be fired if he doesn't start Jason Freaking Lane immediately. I'd try to fathom this, but I don't want to give myself an aneurysm.

[Ric]

The dumbest thing he ever wrote was yesterday. He said that Garner should be fired if he doesn't start Jason Freaking Lane immediately. I'd try to fathom this, but I don't want to give myself an aneurysm.
i read that as well. chris burke should start every single game, either at 2B or in CF when biggio plays. period. when he doesn't - THAT should be the fireable offense.

[MadMax]

Because RJ is a good guy. If you're a good guy, then good things happen to you, no matter how stupid you are.

A good guy who the Astros avoid like the plague. Which leaves him just as another Joe with an opinion. Not much different from you and me.

[Blake]

see sig


I think his column/blog are hilarious. I have never witnessed someone flip flop on every topic weekly. Makes me really laugh.

"Garner deserves our support" on Monday/"Garner needs to be let go" on Wednesday.

Occasionally, if the stars align correctly, on chron.com he will have his column posted and his blog will completely contradict the column

[MadMax]

Occasionally, if the stars align correctly, on chron.com he will have his column posted and his blog will completely contradict the column

good catch....you're absolutely right.

the jeff kent/chris burke thing to me was just priceless. he was telling us that kent should be benched so burke could start in 2004...the next year he was telling us how the astros were idiots for letting kent get away in free agency.

[Ric]

I think his column/blog are hilarious. I have never witnessed someone flip flop on every topic weekly. Makes me really laugh.
i don't mind his flip-flopping, per se; at least he admits he was wrong and is open to new ideas. oppose that to any one of a number of east coast writers who seem to grind the same ax over and over and over again (i'm thinking of ron bourges and his defiant anti-bellicheck stance and any and all ny writers who want to run arod out of town).

BUT... the problem is that he's having to flip-flop because he's wrong on nearly every single topic he covers. and that stems from his complete and utter lack of knowledge - he doesn't study his subjects, he doesn't do any homework. in short, he's lazy and only interested in appealing to the LCD because he knows those are the people that are easiest to incite.

[kevwun]

His biggest problem is that he gets zero information from the front office, coaches or players. He pretends like he knows what's going on, but he really has no clue.

[Blake]

i don't mind his flip-flopping, per se; at least he admits he was wrong and is open to new ideas. oppose that to any one of a number of east coast writers who seem to grind the same ax over and over and over again (i'm thinking of ron bourges and his defiant anti-bellicheck stance and any and all ny writers who want to run arod out of town).

BUT... the problem is that he's having to flip-flop because he's wrong on nearly every single topic he covers. and that stems from his complete and utter lack of knowledge - he doesn't study his subjects, he doesn't do any homework. in short, he's lazy and only interested in appealing to the LCD because he knows those are the people that are easiest to incite.

Oh, I completely agree. He has no journalistic credibility whatsoever. I just get a kick from reading the tripe he spews

[MadMax]

His biggest problem is that he gets zero information from the front office, coaches or players. He pretends like he knows what's going on, but he really has no clue.

EXACTLY!!

i don't think it's always been that way. but it certainly is now.

[Ric]

i don't think it's always been that way. but it certainly is now.
oh, people still talk to him - he's an easy mark for anyone that wants a puppet journalist because they all know the guy has zero-point-zero integrity, ready to sell-out so he can make his own headlines.

van gundy obviously did it as his tenure wound down here. and casserly did, too, for many years, which is why justice was about a year late on calling him out for what a terrible job he was doing.

[kevwun]

I don't think anybody at the chronicle can get reliable info on the astros. Phil Garner absolutely hates Ortiz. If looks could kill, he wouldn't survive an astros post game news conference.

[MadMax]

van gundy obviously did it as his tenure wound down here. and casserly did, too, for many years, which is why justice was about a year late on calling him out for what a terrible job he was doing.

ah...i was thinking about the 'stros, in particular. my understanding is garner hasn't talked to him since the justice began covering their conversations as if they were 3 act plays, complete with the Justice soliloquy.

and berkman has made his opinions about Justice pretty clear, as well.

[Ric]

ah...i was thinking about the 'stros, in particular. my understanding is garner hasn't talked to him since the justice began covering their conversations as if they were 3 act plays, complete with the Justice soliloquy.
that's funny. the sad part is that justice is actually a very good writer.

[msn]

that's funny. the sad part is that justice is actually a very good writer.
Decent with prose and vocabulary, I'll grant you. But everything else you've cited IMO damns him from the "very good writer" label.

[shipwreck]

how could the paper seriously have such lousy beat writers with such poor connections to the astros. rj seems always construct conjecture which rarely equates to personal player relations. its evident that unlike most competent journalist he's failed to win the favor/trust/friendship of the houston sports staples.

needs to take a note from matt j, he seems to have the in with jvg and other athletes. matt is a much more entertaining writer/speech-engineer, and i would much rather have a round of golf with jackson, so no wonder the astros brass shuns the outdated justice and his staff who perannually print "ASTROS ARE DEAD" headlines as 'incentive' to win.

as if the astros were just playing cards waiting for the all inspiring chronicle kick in the a$$ to start playing. "OK GUYS NOW LETS REALLY PLAY"

[Ric]

Decent with prose and vocabulary, I'll grant you. But everything else you've cited IMO damns him from the "very good writer" label.
but don't we read him BECAUSE he's a good writer? otherwise, why bother reading and getting worked up over a moron who's also a bad writer? when he writes a piece like this morning's biggio's farewell (a real down the middle, non-devisive stance), it's always well-written and captures a lot of our own feelings - a true testament to a good writer.

no, i think he's a very good writer, imo. he's just lazy/apathetic toward things like facts, research, work..... whatever might get in the way of him grabbing headlines for himself.

[msn]

but don't we read him BECAUSE he's a good writer?
No. No, I *don't* read him. Because, considering the full body of his work, he's an opinionated, witty, lazy hack who has no business working for a newspaper in the fourth largest city in the country.

otherwise, why bother reading and getting worked up over a moron who's also a bad writer?
Agreed! So, I don't read him. Haven't in quite a while.

when he writes a piece like this morning's biggio's farewell (a real down the middle, non-devisive stance), it's always well-written and captures a lot of our own feelings - a true testament to a good writer.
When he writes a piece like that, I miss it unless someone points it out--a real testament to a potentially good writer who's lost his audience by spewing drivel 90% of the time. Wait, that wasn't fair: 97% of the time.

no, i think he's a very good writer, imo. he's just lazy/apathetic toward things like facts, research, work..... whatever might get in the way of him grabbing headlines for himself.
To me, the entire body of one's work counts as to whether one is a good writer. Sure, RJ has the capacity to put out something that's very good in terms of prosaic quality and connecting with the audience. So is a tenth grader in high school. When RJ's columns hold no more appeal to me than RyanED's AOL sports blog, there's a problem.

The whole conversational, water-cooler, witty schtick to me has no business in a newspaper. An Internet blog, maybe. But (as I've said numerous times) this guy has a degree in journalism and a level of access to the inside of these franchises that none of us enjoy: as such I expect more from him than the lazy sarcastic drivel I can get from any know-nothing armchair GM running his mouth in the break room at work.

[msn]

OH, and thanks for pointing out the Biggio column; I'm going to read it later on this evening.

[The Cat]

ah...i was thinking about the 'stros, in particular. my understanding is garner hasn't talked to him since the justice began covering their conversations as if they were 3 act plays, complete with the Justice soliloquy.

and berkman has made his opinions about Justice pretty clear, as well.

You have to understand, a lot of what Lance says is tongue-in-cheek. He and Richard actually have a pretty good relationship. Not that I'm defending Justice altogether, a lot of his criticisms have some validity. But that particular one is overblown... trust me.

[Ric]

But (as I've said numerous times) this guy has a degree in journalism and a level of access to the inside of these franchises that none of us enjoy
but i think you've hit on the point i was trying to make better than i obviouly did: having a degree in journalism and having access to the inside of a franchise are not mutually exclusive. he's a good writer who's lazy with his facts, information, research and, yes, access... but he's still a good writer.

and i do agree, he's more than worn out any and all good will with his readers. how anyone could still take him seriously at this point defies any reasonable level of explanation that i can currently fathom.




(but he's still a good writer....)

[Buck Turgidson]

but don't we read him BECAUSE he's a good writer? otherwise, why bother reading and getting worked up over a moron who's also a bad writer?
You mean like you're doing with Ortiz? ;)

[MiniMing]

Those Cubs... didn't I say something about those Cubs... I'd tried to tell ya'll!!! You know what I said...

[MadMax]

but i think you've hit on the point i was trying to make better than i obviouly did: having a degree in journalism and having access to the inside of a franchise are not mutually exclusive. he's a good writer who's lazy with his facts, information, research and, yes, access... but he's still a good writer.

and i do agree, he's more than worn out any and all good will with his readers. how anyone could still take him seriously at this point defies any reasonable level of explanation that i can currently fathom.




(but he's still a good writer....)

i'm not sure i care if he's a good writer. i don't read opinion columns as if they're literature. i'm looking for some meat, even if it's mixed in among opinion. i'm looking for opinions based on something remotely close to fact. if i want to read good writing, i'll turn to a novel.

[msn]

having a degree in journalism and having access to the inside of a franchise are not mutually exclusive.
Yes, they are. There are many, many folks who have degrees in journalism who do not enjoy the access inside this franchise that Justice does. His access does not come from his status as an occasionally good writer (I'll meet you this far :D ), it comes from being employed by the Houston Chronicle.

[Ric]

fair enough. i guess i have a slightly different perspective: i wish he would use his skills and talent as a writer to try and better us as sports fans by doing his homework, working legitimate contacts, and presenting fair, unbiased observations and opinions that educate, rather than incite and appeal to the LCD so his blog can get more hits and he can make more ESPN appearences.

buck, i don't read (and certainly don't get worked up about) JdDO with much regularity, not after trying to read his book, which, i swear, a fetus could have written better; he promptly went on my ignore list. he and feigen are absolutely horrible writers; if i read them, it's akin to me slowing down while passing a wreck.

[msn]

i wish he would... try and better us as sports fans by doing his homework, working legitimate contacts, and presenting fair, unbiased observations and opinions that educate, rather than incite and appeal to the LCD so his blog can get more hits and he can make more ESPN appearences.
On this we agree.

[onethreeeleven]

Last year, RJ wrote that if A-Rod was going to be traded, the Astros should not try to get him because he was a "locker room problem". This was recorded as the dumbest thing ever written by the Guinness Book, replacing several statements made by Bud Selig, who heaved a sigh a relief.

RJ is a moron.

[Ric]

Last year, RJ wrote that if A-Rod was going to be traded, the Astros should not try to get him because he was a "locker room problem". This was recorded as the dumbest thing ever written by the Guinness Book, replacing several statements made by Bud Selig, who heaved a sigh a relief.
that came from, i'm guessing, gerry fraley at the dallas morning news. arod is obviously so good, he needs a new designation for his kind of awesomeness on the field, but... there IS something about that guy. i was in dallas for his entire tenure in arlington...... let's just say, off the field, there's a wide gap between a guy like biggio and arod in terms of his community involvement, presence...