While you might read this as an incoherent screed on the fact that sports fans have decided to use the internet to voice their opinions, Bob Costas (whose baseball qualifications include being born in New York in the 1950s) does come up with a very insightful quote at the end: “It means I’m an idiot.”
I’m completely baffled at the level of animosity shown toward blogs. I mean yes I fully understand what happens to the gate keepers when everyone gets a set of keys, but what I don’t get is why they seem so shocked and appalled that other people like to do what they’ve been doing all these years: spout opinions on sports with varying degrees of insight and accuracy. Costas can complain about the lack of professional accountability from bloggers all he wants, but guys like Jay Mariotti and Bill Plaschke are constantly making statements without foundation and often in pretty mean spirited fashion as well. Does going to school and then getting a paycheck to do it really make all the difference?
4 responses so far ↓
1 Ed // Mar 14, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I don’t get why he threw bloggers into the argument. His initial objection was with ESPN- specifically their ridiculous polls. And I agree with him that ESPN is attempting to create the story (or at least give staffers justifications for their jobs) by conducting and airing these polls. And throw into that pot the “Who’s Now”, “Greatest Highlights”, and other silly fabrications they create in the name of entertainment.
Remember when sports was the entertainment?
He finishes with a rant on the internet and talk radio commentary. This would be ESPN.com and ESPN radio. I hear a lot of blowhards on ESPN radio, and the most inflammatory and less substantive blowhard are newspaper columnists who are their trying to give themselves a name by spouting off. ESPN is not alone- FoxSports Radio is just as bad.
What’s sad is that Costas doesn’t have much of a clue about what he’s talking about. You can’t start talking about journalistic credibility by naming Dan Le Batard, whose pomposity on that stupid ESPN show where reports say whatever they want is the very thing Costas is ranting about.
2 Craig Calcaterra // Mar 14, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I wonder what happens when Costas goes to a bar and someone says something to him about sports. Does he call them an idiot right to their face, or does he just communicate it silently with an icy glare?
3 Larry // Mar 14, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I went t college with Costas. He was the prototypical geek. 1972, his senior year, the rest of us were wearing torn jeans and hair down past our shoulders. Bob had white shirts with pocket protectors, tortoise shell coke bottles, and a sports Jones like nothing I’ve seen since. He was a supercilious jerk then, and hasn’t changed anything but his appearance.
4 Repoz // Mar 15, 2008 at 4:34 am
“I wonder what happens when Costas goes to a bar ”
Booster seat users ALWAYS get proofed.
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