Idiots Write About Sports

My peaceful Tuesday-morning bus ride was interrupted by the shocking news that the San Francisco Chronicle has killed Glenn Dickey’s column and zapped Tom FitzGerald’s “Open Season” column as well.

Now, I’m not a big fan of the changes the Chronicle has made lately. The new “All Over Coffee” comic strip is an embarrassment, and the Datebook section has almost become a parody of itself. My reliance on the Web for news has tempted me to cancel the Chron altogether. I basically keep it for the Sporting Green, and even that only for the Giants and Cal coverage, and maybe Ira Miller’s column.

FitzGerald’s column was innocuous enough. I almost never read it, but I didn’t mind it.

But Dickey…. it’s hard not to get behind the removal of Dickey as a columnist. With the possible exception of Allan Mallamud, Dickey was the worst columnist I have ever read. His final column is a classic — a gigantic ego trip and a fuck-you to all who criticized him.

Dickey was a second-guesser of the highest order. He liked to rip people with impunity but couldn’t take criticism. He continually attempted to make news rather than report or comment on it. As a Cal fan I found his Cal partisanship and his attitude toward Cal to be embarrassing. His treatment of Art Howe was merciless.

Phil and I used to mock Dickey’s columns — and more specifically, the man behind them — on a regular basis. Essentially as often as he wrote one. With Phil’s departure for Southern California, that mockery had come to an end. And now, Dickey’s column is gone — or at the very least, it’s gone until someone with no sense decides to offer him a job writing a column for them. Let’s hope nobody’s that stupid.

Goodbye, Glenn Dickey. You made us laugh at love again.

Of course, the treatment Art Howe got at the hands of Glenn Dickey seems like flowers and chocolates compared to the way the New York press corps treated the skipper. Poor Art.

First, a kind word about Glenn Dickey -- he wrote a really good book about the A's ("Champions") which was detailed, well-researched, well-sourced and remarkably free of the the know-it-all tone that pervaded his columns. I gave his book about the history of the 49ers as a gift to a friend of mine who also happens to dislike Dickey's newspaperin' work -- I thought he was going to punch me when he saw who wrote the book -- but he was impressed by the depth of that book as well.

Now, the unkind words: what a terrible, terrible columnist. Everything Jason says goes double for me.

And the Chronicle actually went out of its way to encourage his pomposity. They used to run house ads for their assorted columnists and Dickey's featured the headline "Consult Coach Dickey," basically touting the columnist for his Monday morning quarterback and vendettas against Bay Area sports figures who failed to properly kiss his signet ring.

Good move by the Chronicle. Now if they can just reassign Ostler to something more fitting to his talents -- proofing the Daily Jumble oughta do it -- they might just have themselves a newspaper again.

Post a comment