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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s top investigative reporter, Nancy Phillips, has written a story containing what we’re told are allegations of child molestation against sportswriter Bill Conlin, a longtime columnist at the rival Daily News. Conlin resigned just moments ago, according to a source at the Daily News.
Conlin, who turns 78 this May, won the Ford C. Frick Award last May. The story supposedly will drop soon (the newspapers publish under a joint-operating agreement, sharing some resources and a website but otherwise competing for the same readers). Conlin has hired an attorney to defend himself against the piece. We’ll have more details on this. For now, we can tell you that Conlin is at his condo in Largo, Fla.
And Bill Conlin’s articles on BTF...
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Whole bunch of men who thought they got away with it... they didn't. I wonder how many victims have decided to track down their abusers.
See posts 5 and 7
Are we now presuming that every guy who gets accused of molestation is guilty, even if he never gets charged with anything?
I think I'll wait for much more information to come out on this before I go ahead and jump to a conclusion.
I agree with Joey B.
Isn't Ringolsby ballfan?
Yes.
For those that don't RTFA, there's no more detail than what is in the quoted excerpt. I don't know how one could reach any conclusion about the merits of the accusation based on the information available.
This explains why Conlin always had nice things to say about David Samson and the Marlins.
Best Regards
That's cruel and unusual.
Nobody from the Daily News is denying it. At least, none that I have seen.
It's not like they have a reputation to protect.
This sounds suspiciously like the sort of thing an accused child molester would say. BURN HIM! BURN THE WITCH!
OK, link fail. Here's the Daily News confirming Conlin's retirement:
http://the20.nbcphiladelphia.com/post/14518956879/bill-conlin-retires-doesnt-resign-according-to?extpar=the20
are the sportswriters who are so quick to jump to judgment against athletes willing to say conlin should be kicked out of the hall / have his awards taken away?
Well, of course he's a
roiderchild molester...just look at him!Oh, they will. Sportswriters know which way the wind is blowing and won't hesitate to turn against one of their own for this most heinous of crimes. Look at how Posnanski -- one of ours! -- got excoriated here for even suggesting that Paterno's life should not be reduced to a child molestation scandal he was 3 steps removed from (Sandusky diddled the kid, McQueary saw it, Paterno was told). Conlin's toast, member of the fraternity of sportswriters or not.
But, geez louise, it might be faster if we simply "outed" every public figure who wasn't a sexual deviant.
The PED analogies are just writing themselves these days.
A big part of the scandal was the coverup - Paterno was not 3 steps removed from that.
And that Paterno did little at best to prevent Sandusky from continuing his association with the University and young male children for years afterward.
Then they get the panicked call
This intrigued me, so...
Wha... but.. huh?
I went to Fordham Prep from 1979 to 1983, and I'm just now hearing about allegations of sexual abuse by some of the teachers and the former principal at the school. I didn't see any evidence of that firsthand while I was there, but I do remember hearing about a teacher who was supposedly gay (it was an all boys school). Now I'm hearing that this teacher would rub the shoulders of some of the students. I'm not sure why this wasn't questioned at the time.
Isn't that 2 steps removed?
Because of Sandusky?
I'd have to check the internet, but I have a vague recollection that a fairly large religious organization has been going through -- and still continues to find ways to continue to not come clean -- similar allegations.
WTF is wrong with society?
This is true under certain circumstances. There are certain crimes that, by the nature of the crime itself, if you even attempt them, you have actually fulfilled all the elements of the completed offense as well. In certain jurisdictions, all that is necessary for the offense of prostitution is to offer to engage in sexual acts for compensation -- so the offer is, in effect, the attempt to engage in the crime as well. If that is how the offense was defined in Philadelphia (or Pennsylvania, depending on whether this was a state law or city ordinance), a defendant could argue that once the jury acquitted her of the substantive offense, it would establish that she did not even offer (i.e., attempt) to engage in prostitution. Thus, by definition she could not have engaged even in an attempt. She wins.
Of course, that is a big if -- I don't know how the law in question defines prostitution. If it is actually engaging in sex for money, then the appeals court's decision seems a bit odd.
WTF is wrong with society?
We're ###### up and prone to sin by our very natures.
The big mistake is the people who thought it was a "Catholic problem" or a "celibate priest problem". It's a human being problem. There are molesters in absolutely every walk of life, and virtually every organization has tried to protect itself from liability and reputational damage through whatever means necessary.
Hell, you're not even legally allowed to sue gov't agencies, including public schools, no matter how badly they mishandle/cover-up the abuse.
That's part of the reason attorney's focused on the Catholic Church first. But now we're seeing that the same scandal exists everywhere.
1. Two former students, now adult, tell the school a current teacher molested them.
2. Admin approaches teacher, who says enough to get fired.
3. Admin tells police, as it is legally bound to do.
4. Former students refuse to cooperate with police.
5. Investigation is on hold, because with no victim there's no crime.
These situations go beyond just priests. It's coaches and teachers, regardless of their affiliation.
Which could be a very good thing, if guilty people get exposed. It can also be a very bad thing, if it leads to a bunch of people getting falsely accused.
It wasn't all that long ago that we went through the Wenatchee child abuse hysteria. I hope we're not seeing the start of a repeat of history.
Did anyone else see the HBO Real Sports piece about Bob Hewitt (70s-era South African tennis star) who's being accused of molesting multiple pre-teen girls whom he *cough* coached? Made my skin crawl. The worst part was the interview with another South African player from the period who recalled joking with other players about Hewitt's habits. Just beyond creepy.
These situations go beyond just priests. It's coaches and teachers, regardless of their affiliation.
Concur. We saw the wave of priest accusations when it became a big story. Now we'll see teachers, and coaches, and rabbis (there's a huge investigation of the orthodox community going on in Brooklyn right now).
Institutions protect their own, and it takes a lot of courage to speak out. It's about time we stop sweeping this under the rug.
While letting us poor kids use the church's gym, our cumbumbling priest used to goose us as we would take jump shots...telling us it would make us jump higher.
Damned if he wasn't right.
Most of the abuse cases which are termed pedophilia are actually ephebophilia (victims in the ~11-16 range, whether they be priests preying on altar boys, or school teachers preying on students.
So it would seem unless more recent things come to light that Conlin won't be charged for these specific accusations, but this could just be the tip of the iceberg.
But the guy's reputation is toast. Not that he had much of one around here to begin with, of course...
Unless there was a cover-up. I think a cover-up extends the statute of limitations, as the crime is considered to be ongoing.
But, i could be mistaken. IANAL.
Since there will be no trial, I guess my court of public opinion vote is "guilty".
Exactly the behavior Conlin described in his column on Sandusky.
It's really shocking. You'd think if someone did that to your kid, you'd be outside his house with torches and pitchforks.
Burn, RCC, burn.
If it's not the tip of the iceberg, you have to view Conlin in an infinitely more favorable light than Sandusky. Imagine a guy spending 40 years with impulses to do this sort of thing, impulses as strong as most people have toward adults of the opposite sex, and not acting on them.
Back in the mid-70s Conlin wasn't any sort of powerful figure who would have had an institution backing him up, he was just a beat writer. Not yet a columnist. No TV appearances I believe. But it was still totally hushed up.
Are we now presuming that every guy who gets accused of molestation is guilty, even if he never gets charged with anything?
Yes, let's not forget that there is a lot of lying and misremembering by accusers, too. (30, 40 years ago?) A whole lot of work in psychology has been done in this area. To begin with, your member isn't what you think it is . Let's not forget the McMartin scandal. I'm surprised at how many people here are so eager to sign up for the Insane Clown Lynch Party.
And obviously since these parents confronted him at the time, he realized it was harder than he'd thought to keep it a secret.
The story by the father of the NJ prosecutor (one of the victims) is probably how most of it went... She came home and told the folks, the father (brother-in-law to Conlin, incidentally) went over to Conlin's ready to kick his ass. Conlin started crying and swore up-and-down he "just touched her leg". As the guy said - once Conlin started crying, "the fight went out of him" -- and he left it at "don't ever come around my home or my daughter again."
What's happening now are adults stepping forward with no prompting, and for an uncertain outcome.
This is the worst possible thread for this kind of typo.
I'll imagine it when I have reason to believe this is the scenario. I think it is far more likely that this is only the start of the revelations. Others who also suffered in silence are likely to come forward.
EDIT: If Conlin did, in fact, quit "cold turkey," either because of his own conscience or the effect of the parents telling him he needed to stop, that would be noteworthy, because it is just so uncommon.
Right. All of the kids, who are now adults and came forward on their own, and all of their parents who corroborate their stories, are suffering from some false memory phenomenon.
Compared to you, Poz makes sense.
Yeah, there's always a passionate reason to put reason to one side and just take people's assertions on faith.
It wasn't, and it isn't, just McMartin's prosecutors. It was an entire way of eliciting evidence that has been exploded as little more than a canard.
But, even if you're right, that still doesn't justify going off the deep end, as too many here are always too willing to do in these cases.
And vice versa.. :>/.
I read the ####### story. Why don't you wait for the ####### evidence and trial before you slap your mule on the ass and take off hellbent for leather.
Edit for typos.
I'm not referring to them. I'm referring to you.
Sure, he can have his effing impulses and jack off in the shower (alone) for 40 years.
All of a sudden, now, everyone here wants to take the press at its word--as if it's Gospel. When did that conversion take place?
I was going to make a similar comment about the acronym in # 57
Well, that was Freudian.
EDIT: I see, I came too late.
Because there isn't going to be one. We can wait for Conlin's side of the story, though.
But assuming he denies everything- we're left to try and figure out why all these adults would concoct an elaborate web of stories depicting Conlin as a child molester 30 years ago. It's difficult to come up with a plausible scenario.
RDF
LOL. You're not left to do anything. In fact, who are you to be doing anything--to feel that you should decide the merits of claims from a story in the press? Are you serious? What you can do, if you really feel you need to say something about this at this time show a measured response. What a concept.
What?
This is a bad typo.
EDIT: cokes all around.
Taking the press at their word? When they have multiple corroborated accounts of many different incidents I do take the press at their word. This is an award winning investigative reporter doing her job by the book. If this is made up then she just destroyed her career. There is no rumors or innuendo, this is a story with hard facts.
Nobody is talking lynching but they can discredit the guy all they want. A public figure is subject to trial by public opinion.
Your attitude is disturbing to me in that it implies you feel he should not be criticized short of a trial. Why would someone without their own secrets feel that way?
This.
I mean - I have various impulses --- some illegal, like beating the crap out of certain co-workers, others perfectly legal but not fulfilled nearly as often as I'd like.
I expect no medals, positive comparisons to rapists/prostitution johns/etc because I've managed to suppress these impulses completely... not diddling children as often as you'd like isn't enough to get you in the door of a civilized, functioning society.
This is Homer Simpson level "Where's my Nobel Prize?" thinking.
Particularly since Conlin's never even made any good movies.
Doesn't the public be do this for every story in the news of any nature?
There's no evidence that Conlin stopped, just that he stopped abusing these particular kids. In the next couple weeks and months, we're probably going to hear about his latest escapades with the younglings.
I was waiting for that one.
It does seem reasonable to at least wait until Conlin responds before assuming too much. But it's tough to see what he would say that would make this look much better. I suppose he could explain some grand conspiracy and give reasons for it, but uhh, this looks pretty bad. Short of an extraordinary back story, it looks like someone may need a genital tasing. Or 12 million of them.
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