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The reporting on this whole Holliday situation and the winter meetings by Strauss is driving me crazy this season. The article today about the "Wait Could Cost" the Cards epitomizes to me what's wrong with current print and sports media. The active portion of the offseason is all of 2 days old and the PD is already stirring up the pot.

Mo "increasingly finds himself in a vise"...
If the Cards "remain attached to plan A" it "may cost them part of plan B"...
Boras' role is a "complicating factor that the club may not overcome"...
"Though able to sign free agent pitcher Brad Penny for a $7.5 million base salary on Monday"...

None of those are quotes by the Cards or referrencing statements made by the Cards. They're assumptions made by a reporter. Come on, guys. It's Wednesday morning of the winter meetings. Not a single high profile player that we're interested in even has a confirmed contract offer from other teams. Mark DeRosa is not the centerpeice of anything that we'll do this offseason. There are at least 5 other guys on the market who could approximate his production... and probably two guys on our 40 man roster already.

Ah... I should just stop reading it all. I don't think anyone expected the Cards to go to Indianapolis and come home with Holliday in the bag. We won't be held hostage by Boras until we start seeing other names flying off the board and I'll be surprised if that happens before Christmas.

Fat Strat wrote:The reporting on this whole Holliday situation and the winter meetings by Strauss is driving me crazy this season. The article today about the "Wait Could Cost" the Cards epitomies to me wrong with current print and sports media. The active portion of the offseason is all of 2 days old and the PD is already stirring up the pot.

Mo "increasingly finds himself in a vise"...
If the Cards "remain attached to plan A" it "may cost them part of plan B"...
Boras' role is a "complicating factor that the club may not overcome"...
"Though able to sign free agent pitcher Brad Penny for a $7.5 million base salary on Monday"...

None of those are quotes by the Cards or referrencing statements made by the Cards. They're assumptions made by a reporter. Come on, guys. It's Wednesday morning of the winter meetings. Not a single high profile player that we're interested in even has a confirmed contract offer from other teams. Mark DeRosa is not the centerpeice of anything that we'll do this offseason. There are at least 5 other guys on the market who could approximate his production... and probably two guys on our 40 man roster already.

Ah... I should just stop reading it all. I don't think anyone expected the Cards to go to Indianapolis and come home with Holliday in the bag. We won't be held hostage by Boras until we start seeing other names flying off the board and I'll be surprised if that happens before Christmas.

I despise Joe Strauss for this reason. I realize that a reporter is obviously going to stir the pot, but he takes it to a new level. The other day he was saying that Holliday wasn't as well liked in the club house as we first thought. And that he might have a shaky relationship with LaRussa.

Fat Strat wrote:The reporting on this whole Holliday situation and the winter meetings by Strauss is driving me crazy this season. The article today about the "Wait Could Cost" the Cards epitomies to me wrong with current print and sports media. The active portion of the offseason is all of 2 days old and the PD is already stirring up the pot.

Mo "increasingly finds himself in a vise"...
If the Cards "remain attached to plan A" it "may cost them part of plan B"...
Boras' role is a "complicating factor that the club may not overcome"...
"Though able to sign free agent pitcher Brad Penny for a $7.5 million base salary on Monday"...

None of those are quotes by the Cards or referrencing statements made by the Cards. They're assumptions made by a reporter. Come on, guys. It's Wednesday morning of the winter meetings. Not a single high profile player that we're interested in even has a confirmed contract offer from other teams. Mark DeRosa is not the centerpeice of anything that we'll do this offseason. There are at least 5 other guys on the market who could approximate his production... and probably two guys on our 40 man roster already.

Ah... I should just stop reading it all. I don't think anyone expected the Cards to go to Indianapolis and come home with Holliday in the bag. We won't be held hostage by Boras until we start seeing other names flying off the board and I'll be surprised if that happens before Christmas.

This is it for me. I get caught up in all that crap when I read it, and I'm smart enough to know that if Holliday signs this week that we've made a steal. I've done pretty well this week with staying away from it, though work has helped with that.

Fat Strat wrote:The reporting on this whole Holliday situation and the winter meetings by Strauss is driving me crazy this season. The article today about the "Wait Could Cost" the Cards epitomies to me wrong with current print and sports media. The active portion of the offseason is all of 2 days old and the PD is already stirring up the pot.

Mo "increasingly finds himself in a vise"...
If the Cards "remain attached to plan A" it "may cost them part of plan B"...
Boras' role is a "complicating factor that the club may not overcome"...
"Though able to sign free agent pitcher Brad Penny for a $7.5 million base salary on Monday"...

None of those are quotes by the Cards or referrencing statements made by the Cards. They're assumptions made by a reporter. Come on, guys. It's Wednesday morning of the winter meetings. Not a single high profile player that we're interested in even has a confirmed contract offer from other teams. Mark DeRosa is not the centerpeice of anything that we'll do this offseason. There are at least 5 other guys on the market who could approximate his production... and probably two guys on our 40 man roster already.

Ah... I should just stop reading it all. I don't think anyone expected the Cards to go to Indianapolis and come home with Holliday in the bag. We won't be held hostage by Boras until we start seeing other names flying off the board and I'll be surprised if that happens before Christmas.

Yeah, this is something I vent about a lot.

We tend to make certain assumptions about the media. Because we read their work every day, or see them on television, or hear them on the radio all the time, and because they have some (usually unknown, unconfirmed) contact with our heroes, and because unlike most of us they get to spend their working hours involved in sports (a dream come true for most of us, or so we think) we tend to have this unchallenged notion that they are all ---

* extremely well-paid, thus uniquely intelligent, knowledgeable, qualified individuals
* relatively objective
* would not print/discuss on air if it weren't true
* good journalists: e.g. confirmation, fact-checking
* well-connected to insiders, who give them timely, accurate information
* omnipresent in the front office and the clubhouse, seeing and hearing first hand "what goes on."

I'll just say that while some media members are excellent, as general perceptions go most of those are extremely misplaced.

I'll just say that while some media members are excellent, as general perceptions go most of those are extremely misplaced.

There is a guy here in Chicago, Jim O'Donnell, whose coverage of Northwestern football for the Sun Times can only be described as some bizarre drunken personal vendetta against the color purple.

Hungary Jack wrote:

I'll just say that while some media members are excellent, as general perceptions go most of those are extremely misplaced.

There is a guy here in Chicago, Jim O'Donnell, whose coverage of Northwestern football for the Sun Times can only be described as some bizarre drunken personal vendetta against the color purple.

I went to a university that has a pretty good journalism school. I know of quite a few graduates who have gone on to write for newspapers and other media. Although some were straight-A types, others where...how can I put this best...not very bookish. Most of those guys went on to sports coverage.

The people who cover sports, in my experience, are not the best or the brightest products of their alma maters.

People think reporters are well-paid?

RickStain wrote:People think reporters are well-paid?

And they're right about that almost as often as the Chicago Sun Times is right about the next football coach at Notre Dame.

annnnd moving this to the correct thread:

Median salary for a news reporter is $70,000 a year. Not exactly financial elite, but i'm sure most people would take that salary.

ya i would...and hell i could sit behind a computer at my house and make things up too...hell i would take that job in a heartbeat...plus you get backstage passes to all the cool events