Being employed by mlb.com (not the Astros btw) and being their beat reporter for the team for about a decade is not a journalist? She did work for their media relations department in the late 90's prior to that gig, and then was hired in what, 2011?, by the team as their social media person. I have no familiarity with what she did in that job, as I'm not social on media and did kinda tune out the team for a couple of years. As often happens, I don't expect anyone to agree with me or me to change your mind. It's cool.
Are people who write travel books considered writers? Are the people who write obituaries for the newspapers considered columnists? Would you consider Worrel/Bullard/Drexler/Brown/Ashby/Blum to be completely independent voices? Is 610/Vandemeer not considered to be Texans communist radio? She certainly has a journalism degree... and she chose to work directly under the team (she was employed by the Astros prior to mlb.com), along with the umbrella organization for the team, which lends itself to a *different* sort of reporting. She's had some hard-hitting featured articles as of late regarding Colin McHugh's gluten free diet and Starlin Castro's catchy walkup music... I just never felt she was a completely independent enough voice to be liked (or disliked), and thus I lump her in a totally separate category from the true beat writers/local news guys that aren't paid by the team or mlb to write articles about them. I agree that the local guys are overly controversial to a fault... to the point that it would welcome a more vanilla/biased coverage of the team at times.
Honestly, I don't understand all of the Drellich hate. I'm not saying he's perfect; I just don't get the view that he's terrible. He's unnecessarily contrarian, sure, but I don't think he's vindictive about it like Brian Smith was. I also wouldn't want a beat reporter who's just a shill for the club. And for all Drellich's faults, at least works hard at reporting: well-reasoned stories, good use of sources, intellectual curiosity to explore new aspects of the game. JDJO is/was just a BBWAA shill who wrote fluff pieces and human interest stories. As a sports fan, I'll take the Drellich brand of newspaper writing over JDJO every day. That said, I too miss Footer and Levine.
Drellich isn't really a bad writer per se, but he clearly has an agenda against the Astros front office, and he rarely even tries to hide it. He goes out of his way to make anti Astro comments when there is really no place for them. If the Astros won the WS this year, his article the next week would be about how the front office has made no financial commitment to winning long term, so enjoy it now. It's hard to take anything he says seriously for that exact reason. Even when what he is reporting has truth to it, it feels eye roll worthy. He's the chicken little of negativity.
These two posts combine for a pretty spot-on assessment of Drellich. I just don't understand why he makes the unnecessarily contrarian/unnecessarily negative schtick his "thing". Does he not value his job? Is he daring them to fire him? I completely understand the hate, but it's easy to see that he'd be a great beat writer if he didn't have a screw loose/insatiable appetite for trolling. Unfortunately, that's not the case. And I couldn't agree more with every word Nick said about Footer.
I preceded Ortiz' move from Houston to St. Louis by almost a year. Strictly in baseball terms, it's probably a step up, but I don't think he will have that much fun living in this town. It's the Midwest alright: lots of beer, no good Mexican food to speak of, and an unhealthy amount of urban decay. If anyone's ever read Stephen King's Dark Tower series, where they used to live in that decadent castle and all farms and factories that make bullets are disappearing, that's what living in St. Louis feels like. Not an apocalyptic feeling of impending doom, but something more gradual, slower paced but just as inevitable. I'm gonna follow the Rams and GTFO after another two years. Ha. Do not envy JdJO. Do not envy anyone that is a Cards fan: this is about all they have left.
I went to college there so I somewhat agree with what you've observed... Urban population has been decreasing for decades, more and more people live in the remote/free-standing suburbs, and there have been several different pockets of failed or somewhat struggling city ventures, from ballpark village to the central west end, to the landing. However, in regards to baseball and the Cardinals, they couldn't be more popular/passionate with loyalties growing with each and every successful season. The Rams leaving is actually a "good" thing for the Cardinals. That ballpark is utterly packed for 81 home games a season.... From Monday nights in April to Thursday afternoon games in September. Cards fans know they don't have much besides the Cardinals (and Budweiser).... And that only makes the attachment stronger. The same select few people here who follow/observe/care about what JDJO writes (let alone those who even know who he is) exist in the thousands amongst thousands over there... And they would crush him publically if he ever came close to being bad at his job. It's most definitely a step up... But with that, he's going to have to be a lot better.
Glad to see him go and I also wish he'd take Drellich with him. I'm not getting the dislike for Footer as I thought she was a good beat reporter.
