Idiots Write About Sports

I don’t subscribe to a major metropolitan newspaper. I read the San Francisco Chronicle.

I don’t know if I used to appreciate Bruce Jenkins more because he used to be better, or because I used to be a bit more impressionable. Either way, the past few years I have found an increasing percentage of what he writes to be nonsensical. Most of it I’ve written off to him becoming a cranky old man. But it’s getting worse.

Critics say the Diamondbacks didn’t have the cash to spend this freely on the free-agent market. They wonder about [Troy] Glaus’ shoulder and the fact that [Ryss] Ortiz lost his job in the Atlanta rotation. Listen, if you’re Arizona management, these are worthwhile gambles, and fans don’t care about the money. These two players — along with Shawn Green, Royce Clayton, Craig Counsell and Javier Vazquez — could lift the Diamondbacks back into contention.

Excuse me while I chuckle quietly to myself.

“Fans don’t care about the money” is a direct shot at the analytical types who suggest that Glaus and Ortiz aren’t worth the money. But it’s a ridiculous statement on its face. No, fans don’t care about payroll numbers. But they do care about ticket prices going up because their team has sunk even deeper into debt; they do care about a team that was among the worst in baseball mortgaging its future on overpaid players; they do care that the Diamondbacks might be setting themselves up for five more years of failure.

I don’t care about how much money the Giants are paying Edgardo Alfonzo or Mike Matheny, or how much they paid into the college fund of Robb Nen’s children. But I do care that he was such a horrible signing that the Giants have blown money they might have spent in some other place, on a player who actually could have helped.

Also in today’s Chronicle, the report that Yahoo will hold a Fantasy League contest, the winner of which will be Brian Sabean’s assistant for a year. I could not have imagined a more amusing way for Sabean to give the Sabermetrics crowd the finger. You’ve got to admit, that guy’s got a certain kind of style.

Is there a blogger around who likes the journalistic outfall of his local newspaper? I would say brickbats hurled against the local rags are more common than complaints about the corner team's corner outfielder, or the incompetence of its fifth starter. The LA Times has its Plaschke, its Simers; the New Yorkers, aside from Murray Chass, have a whole squadron of newspapers to afflict them, yet I read about it rarely. (But then, when do I ever try to read about the Yankees on purpose?)

Posted by scareduck at March 15, 2005 04:26 PM

Oh, and as to the Sabean contest -- yes, I think you've got exactly the right spin on it. Having decided the saber-geeks have become the front office's number one pest, he has decided to eliminate them by incorporation. It's not unlike a fourteen-year-old winning an overnight stay at Michael Jackson's house.

Posted by scareduck at March 15, 2005 04:29 PM

Hey, I live in L.A., and I like the Times' sports section, Plaschke excepted. I even like Simers, which puts me in a very small club indeed. We hold our meetings in my broom closet.

The Chronicle? Not so much. Some real talent has left that paper in recent years. Susan Slusser does some great beat reporting, and I still like Jenkins, even if Jason thinks he's too cranky, but the Knapps and Ostlers are becoming the exception at that place rather than the rule. For those not familiar with the Chronicle, imagine a newsrooms slowly becoming staffed entirely by Plaschkes.

Indeed.

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