Quote of the Day

by Jesse on Mar 17, 2008 10:03 AM EDT in News Comment 22 comments

From an article on MLB.com

This is Ron Gardenhire, on speaking with Gomez after Gomez hit the center field wall with his face:

"I couldn't understand a word he said. So I just said, 'Come with me.'"

Ouch.

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Actually the most important quote in that article

was this one:

The manager and trainer Dave Pruemer jogged out to check on him, and Gardenhire figured that, no matter what Gomez was trying to say -- "I might try to get an interpreter for the season," he joked -- there was no reason to risk him any further.

If Gardy needs an interpreter, that means one thing that has been obvious since Gomez threw Pedroia out at the plate in the second game of the year: He's coming north.

And he should.

Nay, he is the most exciting player to show up on the Twins in over two decades, if not ever.

And even though I think ST numbers are next to irrelevant, I believe Mr. Gomez is in the top 5 on the Twins in RBI, TB, Extra Base Hits, Slugging Pct, Steals, Runs and Outfield Assists.

What will he do today?

by Old Twins Cap on Mar 17, 2008 10:21 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

He's definitely exciting

I think you're right, that he will be coming north, unless Span does something to separate himself from the group. Right now it looks like Young, Gomez, Cuddyer, Kubel and Monroe as the outfielders.

by Jesse on Mar 17, 2008 10:34 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What a difference a day makes . .

. . or three. On Thursday I wasn't sure what was going to happen but after a 6/11(i didn't look that up but I think it's right) weekend that had a 2B, 3B, and a homer mixed in he's looking like a stud again. I hope he can keep it up and earn his spot. I like you guys think that he will be coming North unless he collapses or Span explodes, the latter not being very likely.

by halfchest on Mar 17, 2008 11:08 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

"Ouch" ?

When I read that I thought Gardenhire was just making a joke - even if it was a joke based on some level of reality.

At least I chuckled a little.

by montanatwinsfan on Mar 17, 2008 11:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I thought it was funny

That's all it was meant to be.

by Jesse on Mar 17, 2008 11:46 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Gardenhire no comedian, but

he is a lot more humorous than Reusse (or me).

Did you see this attempt at humor (at least I hope that's what it was)?:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/16715246.html

Two levels of hoped for humor there.

1)That Monroe really might be a "forgotten" option in center field, and

2) Reusse talking about "blacks" as if he is down wit dat.

#2 was so odd and incongruent that people were accusing him of racism. Obviously it wasn't racist, but the lack of sophistication and thoughtfulness in that piece was pretty offensive.

by montanatwinsfan on Mar 17, 2008 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Reusse

I normally don't read him anyway, so I don't really know if this is out of the ordinary.

As for the content, I didn't really find it offensive as much as I found it pointless. Shane Mack, Kirby Puckett and Torii Hunter were black--this we know. I'm not sure where he was going with it.

by Jesse on Mar 17, 2008 1:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Simply reporting a fact

>>2 was so odd and incongruent that people were accusing him of racism. Obviously it wasn't racist, but the lack of sophistication and thoughtfulness in that piece was pretty offensive.

Not only was it not racist, it was the straight reporting of a fact: here is where the black player who has been considered the team leader has hung out for more than a decade at Hammond Stadium.

Period.

That an array of newspaper readers with their own biases chose to interpret in one fashion or another says plenty about them, and nothing about Reusse other than that he's willing to report a fact.

"Man, the past is a long and twisty road." -- Satchel Paige.

by Firpo Marberry on Mar 17, 2008 11:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes

Readers have been trained to be more culturally sensitive (or politically correct) than Reusse was in that article. I don't think he was any more racist by using terms like "blacks" and "brothers" than people are by using terms like "African Americans". But white guys aren't supposed to use terms that some individuals of other races might find offensive. If it was LEN3, nobody would think it racist.

The ironic thing to me as a white amateur anthropologist is the fact that the African Americans on the team have always occupied that back corner of the clubhouse. I don't know what it was like in Orlando, but since Fort Myers opened, they've occupied those lockers away from the whites and Latinos. The article indicated that they were given those lockers, and they (Puck and Newmie, Torii, Matty and Jacque, now Monroe, Young and Watkins) have managed to turn what might be perceived as a back-of-the-bus thing into a place of honor.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Mar 17, 2008 11:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

StarTrib

What shocks me is that the editors didn't send it back to Reusse. Why would they want to risk angry letters.

by snolls on Mar 18, 2008 7:59 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Anything

to increase circulation and get you to stop by and take a look. It's a pretty common, if boring, tactic.

by Jesse on Mar 18, 2008 9:06 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well it got us talking, but

I agree that the editors probably let it go for the very reason you wrote. I also have no doubt that is exactly why Reusse chose to put that in his column.

But as you pointed out before Jesse, that aspect of the article was so contrived it was obvious. It was just poor writing.

Editors are supposed to edit poor writing and turn Reusse's attempts at humor/controversy into something that is meaningful, or interesting, OR at the very least into something that makes sense.

An article that poorly written doesn't create readership. It might have created a discussion but I would think it would cause a lot of people to stop reading Reusse altogether.

by montanatwinsfan on Mar 18, 2008 12:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Prima donna

I think guys like Reusse and Sid get a free pass from the copy desk. There are two reasons for this.

They hate editors and think they know best, so they complain every time an editor makes a copy improvement.
They hand stuff in way after the deadline and there is no time to use the standard editing procedures.

When I was the editor of a national magazine, I had a few guys like that, who I had to keep around because they were the reason a lot of readers picked up the rag.

After we acquired a competing magazine and merged them, I inherited a guy who wrote a humor column called Gigglebytes. Not only did he send the thing in at the last possible second, but it was often either not funny or in bad taste. Still, somehow the readers of the former publication listed his column as the reason they picked it up.

Reusse and Sid are like that for the Strib, partly because they have radio gigs. I suspect this column would not have passed through the copy desk gauntlet with politically incorrect language in it. This is a paper that still refuses to print the term Indians to refer to the team from Cleveland.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Mar 18, 2008 1:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not close to being true

>># They hate editors and think they know best, so they complain every time an editor makes a copy improvement.

# They hand stuff in way after the deadline and there is no time to use the standard editing procedures.

Not only are both of these statements incorrect, Sid is heavily edited because he can neither spell nor write.

Neither of these men are surpassing their deadlines. That strategy won't play at daily newspapers.

Reusse has a fine relationship with his editors.

The editors tolerate Sid, and a couple of them have no reluctance to get into it with Sid.

The radio shows play no part in how they are treated at the paper.

"Man, the past is a long and twisty road." -- Satchel Paige.

by Firpo Marberry on Mar 18, 2008 8:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Then I'm giving the editors too much credit

I have read some doozies in Sid's column, including dropped articles, wrong tense, wrong use of plurals, misspelled names, and factual errors galore. Just the other day he referred to the Twins needing Liriano to get back to his "2007 form," twice. Obviously, he meant "2006 form". I just can't believe the editors follow standard procedures with Sid's column and still let the sheer quantity of copy and factual errors get through.

You might know more about Reusse's relationship to his editors than I do. Perhaps they've relaxed some things since the days prior to Brackin, when they announced that they would not publish an article with politically incorrect team nicknames. Reusse's recent column on Monroe takes political correctness to a level well beyond publishing names like "Indians" and "Fighting Souix."

Anyway, Reusse's pieces are sometimes thoughtful and poignant. But more often than not, he spends half of his column inches telling stories that have marginal relevance to the point and then he has to rush to make his point. If I were his editor, I would take a sharp knife to the first half of his columns most of the time and tell him to elaborate on the point he's trying to make.

The point is, the sports columnists for the Strib could use a much keener editorial eye and a heavier hand. I would make Souhan exhibit A on that oscore. His columns are often a mish-mash of lame humor couched in vague cultural refences. He's much more effective when he plays it straight.

Since I don't want to assume that the editors are incompetent, I'm placing the burdens on the writers. As a former editor, I have let some stuff slip because of harried printing cycles and such because of prima donna writers. I'm giving the editors the benefit of the doubt based on my experience.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Mar 19, 2008 12:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ring Lardner was a sports writer back....

Reusse's crutch for at least three years has been to start a piece like this: Jerry Terrell was a light-hitting, Minnesota native who saw diminishing playing time as his 8-year big-league career played out.

He does manage to tie the history into his contemporary point, despite the fact he overuses this method.

However, it's not the job of mere copy editors to determine whether or not they like a columnist's style and adjust the copy accordingly. (And for all the people who bitch about Reusse, and Sid, they seem to read them.)

Reusse's knowledge of Minnesota sports and baseball surpasses anyone around. People don't like a lot of his stuff, and he can be acerbic, but he tells it straight. And he's not averse to making himself the foil.

When Souhan was a beat writer, he kept writing straight news as if it were a column. Even given the broad latitude seen in "straight" news today, Souhan went beyond that. So they made him a columnist, and as a columnist he's a good TV reporter. He's not a good columnist.

His best columns, ironically, are when he does a straight news story - a job he failed to do well years ago when he was being paid to do it -- and omits both his opinion and his bizarre similes and metaphors.

Sid's stuff has long been poorly written -- the evidence was painfully apparent in out-state editions years ago when Sid would file on deadline and his column would be a mess, then it would get cleaned up with editors had breathing room to get out the metro edition.

I have no idea how many editions the Trib runs anymore, but if it's like most newspapers there are few editions and tighter deadlines and, in fact, far lousier copy editors.

As for the Monroe piece, there was nothing politically incorrect about it. Reusse stated a couple of facts: black guys have lockered in this spot, and they still locker here. There's nothing racist about that observation.

Most people in prison are black men. It's a fact. The statement casts no opinion about either men nor black people, it's just a fact, just like Reusse's statement was a fact.

"Man, the past is a long and twisty road." -- Satchel Paige.

by Firpo Marberry on Mar 19, 2008 6:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Pictures of naked women here

Guess that sold a paper, eh?

>>I don't know what it was like in Orlando, but since Fort Myers opened, they've occupied those lockers away from the whites and Latinos. The article indicated that they were given those lockers, and they (Puck and Newmie, Torii, Matty and Jacque, now Monroe, Young and Watkins) have managed to turn what might be perceived as a back-of-the-bus thing into a place of honor.

You're reading too much into it. Clubhouses are commonly segregated, by choice, regardless of who lockers where.

>>Anything to increase circulation and get you to stop by and take a look. It's a pretty common, if boring, tactic.

That's a pretty common, if wildly erroneous remark. It hasn't been true for at least 20 years.

Exactly how does a story that is buried on an inside section sell papers?

The only way to sell a paper to someone who doesn't normally buy one is to have the piece on the front page. That paper would also have to be in a box that requires putting in coins - at a newstand someone can just stand there and read the piece free. That's been true for at least two decades.

Today, even an inviting front-page headline probably won't sell more than a couple newspapers. The curious are as likely to read the headline and then go online to read the story.

You can put that "it sells newspapers" notion to rest forever. If it's not a front-page headline, it can't possibly sell a single paper, and even then it's probably unlikely to sell a paper. Pretty much nothing sells newspapers these days.

"Man, the past is a long and twisty road." -- Satchel Paige.

by Firpo Marberry on Mar 18, 2008 8:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You assume 'increase circulation' means buying

a paper, when it has more to do with having people read what you've written. The Strib is online, and while I can't say how many people read it there as opposed to the paper, I'm willing to bed a significant portion of the paper's readership is online.

The tactic is still used to rouse a reaction, and when that happens people want to see what all the commotion is about. It's the only reason I went to read it. It's the only reason I searched out an interview with Bob Costas where he recently made (then retracted) disappointing remarks about the online community. Have you read some of the tripe over at the Chicago Sun Times online?

My point is that writers will still produce material which will incite a reaction, and the ripple effect from that reaction will bring new eyes.

In spite of all this, I generally agree with you. The response to Reusse's article was probably a bit stronger than it needed to be. Like I said initially, it wasn't so much offensive as pointless. The point meandered and was diluted if not lost in the storytelling. Which is something I've been guilty of on more than one occasion.

by Jesse on Mar 19, 2008 6:01 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I "assume"...

"increase circulation" means buying a paper because indeed that's what it means. It's not open to interpretation.

Newspapers aren't making money online, and if they ever do it will not be because of controversial writers, if indeed Reusse qualifies, but because they regain the financial windfall they once enjoyed from classified ads, or through some other model.

The Wall Street Journal has an online content model, but it's hardly controversial content, it's content you can't get, exactly, anywhere else, so a certain percentage of folks are willing to pay for it, and even more importantly a certain percentage of merchandisers are willing to advertise on it. The New York Times, which has probably the best newspaper Web site, also has for-pay content, but it's quality, not clownishness or controversy, for which you pay.

It's probably been close to half a century since newspapers could hope to increase circulation and pay the freight through the outrageous contributions of widely-read columnists, and the notion that "X sells papers" has been dead for quite some time.

"Man, the past is a long and twisty road." -- Satchel Paige.

by Firpo Marberry on Mar 19, 2008 7:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Another quote from Gardenhire

"Jason Kubel will be in there every once in a while..."

Now, a couple of points:

This was in Sid's column, so who knows? (http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/16732011.html)
It isn't clear from the context what he meant by this. But:
If Kubel isn't the everyday or nearly everyday DH, it's a huge mistake. I have this fear that he's falling in love with Monroe, and it will take 2 months to sort that out. Just put Kubel in the freaking lineup and leave him alone.

And oh yeah, find someone who can speak Spanish.

by Eric in Madison on Mar 17, 2008 12:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree

I read that and threw up in my mouth. But then I realized it was Sid quoting a guy who tends to say stuff off the cuff. So it's almost certain that he didn't mean it exactly the way it was printed.

BTW, in the same article, Sid talked about Liriano needing to get back to his 2007 form, twice. Apparently, he doesn't have fact checkers.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Mar 17, 2008 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs