Fair enough. Each person is going to either like or dislike writers based on their own criteria, and that's one of those "to each his own" deals. I enjoy her because she cracks me up, and I do think she has more baseball knowledge than most of her male counterparts at the Chron.
i don't know that i agree with "most", but i don't deny that she has baseball knowledge. she chooses to display it in a really sickening, offputting manner though (imo).
sorry, i'm headed to Vegas tomorrow. bodog takes sports bets, but i don't know that they have over/unders for the season win total
I already explained. She was trashing national media and Heyman in particular for reporting lies just because they like attention and are basically stupid for believing Boras. She implied they are lazy and don't check with the other side (the team) before reporting things like this and then mocked (heyman and some CBS guy) for reporting that the Astros liked Pudge still and were interested when all the local reporters who had connections to the team were hearing the opposite. She said that Ed Wade told her personally no Pudge and basically said that Heyman and the others don't know what they are talking about. She almost verbally trashed Jon Heyman by name before biting her tongue after she said it and then just went in to a non-specific rant about "national media."
Yeah, a walk-off home run. A bases-loaded clearing triple. Gunning some from the outfield at home plate for the final out.
Hunter Pence catching up to the lead runner at home plate and barreling over both the lead runner and catcher for the game-winning run.
I've never ever, saw any list in my entire life with Drexler considered a top two guard. Drexler was great, but Olajuwon is a legend.
This is particularly amusing, since Alyson and Backe have a great relationship -- I can personally assure you of that. And I'm not even sure if she had met Russ Ortiz before a month or so ago. Just like newspapers have an op-ed page, MLB.com has the mailbag. If you don't like more opinionated, conversational exchanges, don't read it. It's the same way if you don't like opinions in a newspaper, don't read the op-eds. Now, if she starts slipping personal opinions into her own reporting, then that's a problem. But you haven't cited that, unless I missed it.
I was just using a hypothetical. In my quick research, Pudge is the all-time catcher leader in hits and doubles, but trails multiple guys in BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, and OPS+. Add in a bad defensive reputation for most of his career AND the fact that he played in Texas AND the fact that he has serious steroid suspicions around him, and I don't think it can be argued he's the greatest catcher ever.
it's the subtle, in-between-the-lines crap that she throws in. i haven't been keeping a journal of all of her b.s., but this has been a complaint of mine for years of reading her coverage of the astros. as far as the ortiz and backe thing, one particular example: she titled her column a couple weeks ago "Time is Running Out for Backe", or something to that effect, when no quotes in the article from cooper or wade indicated that he's on the verge of getting cut, and after Ortiz got shelled his last start, she titled the column "Ortiz Off His Game" or something benign like that, inferring that something went severely wrong in the cosmos and the reliable stud Russ Ortiz had an abnormally off day. i've heard her say over and over that this is who she thinks the 5th starter needs to be, and she continues to propagate her desperate attempt to be correct, thinking that will somehow give her more credibility in the future or something.
Reporters have absolutely, positively nothing to do with the headlines on MLB.com, nor most news sites. (Though I can speak to the former from personal experience. I wrote 100+ stories, and had headline input exactly zero times.) If a headline doesn't match the story, that's on a sensationalist producer/copy editor in New York, not the beat reporter. If you think Alyson/reporters should title their own articles, that's a valid critique and one that I somewhat agree with. But it's not her call to make.
really? why? i believe you, but it seems kind of stupid that reporters are trusted to write the stories, but not a one phrase title. either way, her not being responsible for those titles doesn't sway my opinion of her one iota. read her comments in her blog. http://footer.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/03/pudge_is_on_his_way_and_the_as.html#comments not that i'd expect her to, but it's funny that she can't accept and admit that ed wade clearly lied to her face and used her this whole time. chip bailey threw out the idea in his chon blog yesterday that the possibility existed that ed wade has been playing boras like a fiddle this whole time. serious props to wade if that's indeed true.
I do think Wade was lying in a sense. He was using the media to his advantage like most GMs do and most agents do. They aren't in the business to help the Chron reporters look good, they are trying to improve their team for as little money as possible. My only problem with Foot on this was how high and mighty she got about local reporters being the be all end all and national reporters being out of touch.
Most hits by a catcher, ever. 14 All-Star Games (2nd most All-Time, most if you don't count Yogi's seasons where he split time between C and OF) 13 Gold Gloves (most All-Time) Most Career Pickoffs This year he'll set a record for most games caught, ever (needs 54 games caught). And he's got one of the best CS% of all-time (behind Yogi, Campanella,and 2 others, none of whom had nearly the volume of SB attempts). He's got a legitimate case. I'd probably take Bench, but it's not like there's a big difference between all of those guys (except Piazza, who was a bad defensive catcher with a weak arm).
