Justice : Baseball lucky to have had McLane around

FF

Exactly, PdJ! Exactly!
You can be the worst ghoul in the world but if you help some writer meet his deadline, you'll be portrayed as a good guy. Nick Cafardo at the Boston Globe endlessly carries water for his sources. But sports writers are far from the only scribes guilty. Bob Woodward is notorious for this. See the link below for someone's speculation as to how Woodward's "you help me and I'll help you" modus operandi might have worked in a previous era.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/books/1999/9910.levine.reich.html

was McLane the worse ghoul in the world though? I thought he was given plenty of credit for helping save the Astros. Just that he was a cheapskate and interfered with his gms in favor of his hand picked favorite players.

I didn't say he was the worst ghoul in the world. But anyone can get soft coverage if they make a writer's job easy. Conversely, a reticent saint might be slagged.

merry holiday sunday!!!

i think that justice over all these years, has been pretty honest about drayton - who deserves praise for what he did to build the team and disgust/contempt for destroying it.

justice is right about drayton always giving the media access - unlike most other owners - not that he was always exactly, uh, um, honest about what he said.

justice got out of houston right after crane took over - and unfortunately, he was waaaaayyy too late to the - crane is BAD news - understanding. crane has no intention of doing anything with the media, neither does his basketball CEO and luhnow is as un-talkto-able as The Hated Tim Purpura.

mclane was a cheapskate about anything having to do with prospects/minor leagues, fer SHER. and he waited WAAAAYYYY too long to sign long term contracts with his stars - he wouldn't never ever do something like a longoria type deal. which was stupid. and after the greg maddux with the braves accepting arb, he made an obvious policy of refusing to offer arb to gonna be FA which really killed the team in a lot of ways. that and refusing to let his GMs trade away anyone tradeable for younger players because he thought it would always be a White Flag thing and the fans only wanted major leaguers.

only real STAR!!! he traded away was billy wagner and his honest mouth.

mclane wasn't a cheapskate when it came to his few STAH!!! major leaguers - at least not until he got rid of his GM.

crane is lucky because the chronicle reporters left are nobodies (sorry guys, but they have no serious baseball rep and no power of any sort) and the 2 columnists left don't like baseball, unlike richie who is most definitely a baseball guy who had to write about other sports. crane won't be under any pressure at all to put something on the field resembling a major league baseball team because nobody cares any more (CERTAINLY not the radio guys) and next year when they move to the DH league, they gonna have 10 years worth of excuses about how they can't be expected to keep up with the Angels/Rangers and like the pirates owners, he'll happily take the fall for the nice profit.

it's funny, i keep telling people that and all i hear about is how the team has all these prospects in the low minors. and all i keep saying is that they haven't drafted anyone who has any potential to be a star since chris burke (and Drayton completely ruined Burke's career in order to keep biggio's ass thoroughly licked).

pirates fans and athletics fans actually have it better for the reason that they have a larger and older fan base and a media who actually give a **** about the team.

and no, houston can't fold or move, because of the stadium - at least not for 18 years...

athletics fans actually have it better for the reason that they have a larger and older fan base

Hey watch it !

He's a pal and a confidante.

And if he threw a party . . .

Is this an example of the soft articles that Richard Justice will write, now that he has gone to mlb.com?

Is this an example of the soft articles that Richard Justice will write, now that he has gone to mlb.com?

Yes. But he also writes other types of pieces, as can be seen here

After looking at Justice's latest article, on free agent Prince Fielder, linked in 11, above, I was struck by this line about Fielder:

Besides being a dynamic offensive player, he's a very good baserunner and is way better at first base than he'd given credit for.