Sunday, February 9, 2020

Request: Will Someone Please Kill the Bug that is Up the Collective Ass of the New York Times Sports Department?

So rather than join the tabloids on this unnaturally spring-like day in celebrating the start of the only well-played sport in New York right now, The New York Times' "Sports for People Who Don't Like Sports" Section led off on its front page with a great-big, two-page piece on...the Oregon-Oregon State women's basketball rivalry.

Go Ducks!  Go, uh, Beavers!

Meanwhile, two of the section's "journalists," James Wagner and Joel Petterson, decided to write a hilarious piece on how an average Yankees-Red Sox game is as boring as The Irishman:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/08/sports/baseball/baseball-irishman-long.html

Actually, I would gladly sit through game or movie (which I didn't like) again, rather than read this piece another time.

What's more, Wagner is the Mets' regular beat reporter.  Petterson is an editor—and apparently a rugby fan.

Yay.

Where else does this occur in The Paper of Record?

Do their architecture critics write oh-so-hilarious pieces about how they hate looking at buildings?  Do their real films critics write satirical screeds about how going to the movies is like watching paint dry?

Message to The New York Times:  Two of the four words in your name are "New" and "York." Baseball is a popular sport here.

I'm sure The Oregonian has spots for those who wish to write about women's college basketball in the Great Northwest. Your many discontents ought to apply, and let some baseball fans cover baseball here in dear old NYC.

25 comments:

Alphonso said...

Well said.

He didn't really think the Beavers are better than the Ducks, though, did he?

Mediasavvy said...

Hatred of the Yankees goes back decades in the NY Times. Maybe Hal Steinbrenner pissed off the pearls and brioche crowd in the upper east side when he bought the team.

Maybe its because all the NY Times reporters come from Yale and some Steinbrenner pissed on the wrong statue in New Haven.

Maybe the feud is older than that. But for as long as I've been aware, the Times hates the Yankees.

Any way you slice it, their sports coverage is generally crap, as are many other sections of the paper, but that - again - is because they get all their reporters from Yale, where opportunity isn't earned, it's a birthright.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Thanks, Alphonso. And to tell you the truth, I can't really say which team they preferred. I didn't get that far.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Mediasavvy, from what I've seen, I'd say that the Times does some things better than any paper in the country, or maybe even the world—mostly big, investigative projects—and some things terribly—mostly when they have to "analyze" anything.

It did used to seem like they hated the Yankees, but that was mostly because a lot of their staff was old Giants, Dodgers, or Mets fans.

Now? They have hit on this brilliant idea that they shouldn't even try to compete with the tabs or other media, just do funky, off-beat stories on all sorts of sports stories that have nothing to do with New York. Hooray.

Anonymous said...

ALL CAPS MOVIE REVIEW!

I JUST COULDN'T GET PAST DENIRO AND PESCI LOOKING LIKED THEY LOOKED IN THE IRISHMAN.

ESPECIALLY DENIRO.

HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE, WHAT, A MAN IN HIS EARLY 40'S IN MANY SCENES?

...AND SEEING HOW HE LOOKED LIKE HE WAS IN HIS 70'S AND KNOWING HE REALLY IS IN HIS 70'S JUST KILLED THE MOVIE FOR ME...I MEAN, HE'S GOT A YOUNG WIFE AND CHILD IN THE MOVIE!

NOT TO MENTION THE 3 AND A HALF HOURS WHICH WAS TOTALLY UNNECESSARY. THEY COULD HAVE EASILY TRIMMED AN HOUR AND A HALF OFF THE MOVIE.

THE MOVIE WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH BETTER WITH DIFFERENT ACTORS AS THE YOUNG DENIRO AND PESCI.

THEN JUST TRANSITION TO THEM AS THEY GOT OLDER (LIKE THEY DID IN GOOD FELLAS).

UPON MY 2ND VIEWING (YES, I WAS CRAZY ENOUGH TO SIT THROUGH IT AGAIN), I LIKED THE MOVIE A BIT MORE AS AL PACINO COMPLETELY STEALS THE SHOW WITH HIS PERFORMANCE. (I SAY OSCAR WORTHY)

PESCI IS VERY GOOD AS WELL.

DENIRO IS NOTHING SPECIAL.

THE MOVIE'S STORY IS INTERESTING ALTHOUGH THIS VERSION OF WHAT HAPPENED TO HOFFA HAS BEEN VIEWED BY MANY AS "RIDICULOUS" AND "NOT POSSIBLE".

FINAL VERDICT FOR ME IS PACINO SHOULD WIN BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR.

NO OTHER AWARDS FOR THIS MOVIE.

IF I HEAR ONE POLITICAL STATEMENT OR OPINION FROM ANYONE, I WILL SHUT THE SHIT OFF.

WHICH MEANS I WILL BE SHUTTING IT OFF AT SOME POINT(PROBABLY SOONER THAN LATER).

TheWinWarblist said...

ALL CAPS I will always try to keep my politics off this blog. My learning and beliefs are something else entirely.

Anonymous said...

I ADMIRE THAT WARBLIST...

I LOVE THIS BLOG, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE ANY MENTION OF POLITICS INEVITABLY BRINGS IT DOWN 100% PERCENT, EVERY SINGLE TIME.

KUDOS TO YOU WARBLIST.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Well, I did get in a Bloomberg reference recently—but it was mostly to abuse the Mets, so I assumed ALL-CAPS would be okay with it.

HoraceClarke66 said...

ALL-CAPS, I pretty much agree with you about "The Irishman"—though I think I disliked it even more than you did.

I'm a big fan of Scorsese, big fan of all those people. But as you say, it was nonsense not to use younger actors for part of that.

And the people saying the story is bullshit are completely right. This was some low-level hood who, when he realized he was dying, basically claimed responsibility for every big mob hit for 40 years.

He not only didn't kill Hoffa, he also didn't kill Crazy Joey Gallo.

Anonymous said...

TOTALLY AGREE HOSS.

HOFFA AND GALLO?

LOVE SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO BTW.

HoraceClarke66 said...

He was good. As most of the cast was—though it's sad how Pacino always overacts now. What a force he was in the Godfathers (I and II, that is).

I was glad that The Irishman didn't win, but what a nice tribute to Scorsese. He seems like a good guy, has a wife who's had, I think, MS for years, and takes care of her.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And ALL-CAPS, you must have loved Joaquin's tearful plea not to exploit cows. Hee-hee.

Hey, sure, there's too much animal cruelty in our food business, and whatever somebody wants to eat, God bless.

But people who want us to un-domesticate animals such as cows and horses...I wonder if they realize how many fewer cows and horses there would be if that were to happen.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they should write about Football and now the XFL. Why show interest in the best team in NY Sport's history.

Joe Formerlyof Brooklyn said...


I used to be a big fan of the NYT. The rah-rah-sis-boom-bah leading up to the idiotic 2003 invasion of Iraq changed that -- forever.

I'm sorry to inject politics.

However, as a long-time reader of the NYT, I did notice that the sports section seemed to "feel" that there was something totally unbecoming about . . . winning. Or wanting to win.

You should, it seemed, play baseball like those wunnerful guys in Boston.

Or, maybe, Houston.

Anonymous said...

IT'S AMAZING HOSS...

I SAT DOWN TO WATCH THE OSCAR'S A LITTLE LATE AND DIDN'T REALIZE I MUSSED BRAD PITT'S POLITICAL FUCKING STATEMENT EARLY ON WHICH WOULD HAVE MADE ME CHANGE THE CHANNEL EARLY ON.

THERE'S ALWAYS AT LEAST ONE ASSHOLE,

...AND JOAQUIN WITH THE FUCKING COWS?

I KEPT SAYING "GET OFF NOW, BEFORE YOU REALLY SAY SOMETHING WRONG. GET OFF!"

CAN'T THESE PEOPLE FROM HOLLYWOOD UNDERSTAND WE DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR VIEWS AND IDEAS OF HOW THE WORLD SHOULD WORK.

WE DON'T NEED ANY POLITICAL STATEMENTS OR COMMENTARY EITHER, FOR SURE.

I RESPECTED AND ENJOYED DENIRO SO MUCH AS AN ACTOR.

THAT IS UNTIL HE SHOWED THE WORLD HIS POLITICS, IN A CHILDISH AND BOORISH WAY, MAY I ADD.

NOW BRAD PITT TO A LESSER EXTENT.

CAN'T THESE PEOPLE FIGURE OUT THE WHOLE COUNTRY PRETTY MUCH LOVES THEM, UNTIL THEY GET POLITICAL AND LOSE 50% OF THEIR FAN BASE IMMEDIATELY?

TheWinWarblist said...

32%.

Carl J. Weitz said...

I have long been a subscriber to both the NY Times and the Washington Post because supporting an investigative free press is essential to a democracy. I agree JFB, not adequately checking Judith Miller's reporting on the Iraq invasion will always remain a stain on the paper's legacy. I'm not sure if her editor was just lazy but I have noticed that at times they will try to prove how impartial they are or fair to the other side that they don't do full due diligence. Strictly my opinion. As far as their sports section is concerned, it has always sucked. Not only that, but because they cared so little for baseball, at one time they were the only NYC paper that did't report on or include the box score of the previous night's game.
LOL, when I did once subscribe to the Post for the sports, I had my paper guy tuck that paper into the fold of the Times so no one would notice I subscribed to the Post.

As for last night, I'm sorry that the Joker didn't win because an old grammar school/HS friend of mine is the person who is responsible for bringing Batman to the big screen since the late 80's. Although they break records for box office profits none have ever won a Best Picture oscar.

Carl J. Weitz said...

All Caps.....for the same reason Taylor Swift took a political stance 2 years ago, the actors you mentioned also don't hide their political preferences. The reason being that these actors are icons, not the Dixie Chicks. At this point, they have more money than god and simply won't suffer any pain. And when it comes to choosing a movie to pay your $ 15.00 to see, almost no one will boycott their work due to their political views. I think Eastwood is an all-around douchebag and James Woods a smug conspiracy-obsessed right-wing lunatic. But I wouldn't in any way avoid seeing either in a performance based on the above.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I agree with you on the Times, Joe FOB and Carl. They seem to get certain strategies of "fairness" or marketing in their heads, and they can't break loose.

The sports page thing is clearly marketing, but it's ridiculous.

You want to run big features on Indian high school women's basketball teams, or deep-sea diving, or trekking through Antarctica, fine. But run some damned stories on the local teams, too.

HoraceClarke66 said...

The other thing that kills me about almost all sportswriting today is how much they're (we're) missing.

The writers seem to feel that all the highlights are now covered on TV or the internet, so they don't really write game stories so much as daily feature pieces.

The screens, though, mostly cover home runs and big strikeouts.

As a result, almost every time I watch a game, I notice that the critical moments simply aren't covered. Anywhere.

Yankee Daddy Roger said...

It would have been below the fold on the front page of the NY Times if the Oregon Duck Ladies and the Oregon State Beaver Ladies were playing soccer or for the World's Championship of Team Squash.

Yankee Daddy Roger said...

Or competing in an AKC Event

Local Bargain Jerk said...


Sorry I'm jumping in late, but this was a good piece, HC66.

Anonymous said...

32% WARBLIST?

HAHA...I DON'T THINK SO.

Isiyku Abdulahi said...


I really want the world to know about this great man who brought back happiness into my life again after my husband left me and the kids 3 years ago for another women online when i contacted Dr Believe he cast a love spell for me within 48 hours my ex husband start calling me and begging for forgiveness for everything that have happened between us. I was so happy to have my family back together with love again here is the email of Dr Believe via believelovespelltemple@gmail.com a man with the great powers you can also call him or add him on Whats-app: +2348156148821
God bless you
I am very grateful for your help in my marriage.