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and i would much rather have a round of golf with jackson, so no wonder the astros brass shuns the outdated justice and his staff who perannually print "ASTROS ARE DEAD" headlines as 'incentive' to win.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"
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.
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. Agreed! So, I don't read him. Haven't in quite a while. 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. 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.
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.
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....)
Those Cubs... didn't I say something about those Cubs... I'd tried to tell ya'll!!! You know what I said...
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.
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 ), it comes from being employed by the Houston Chronicle.
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.
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.
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...
