"...and I handed back almost $1 million in wages. I don’t miss the place a bit."

Someone at the Chicago Sun Times was stupid enough to give Mariotti a contract extension worth almost $1 million? And Mariotti gave it up by resigning? I'll bet the Sun Times won't miss Mariotti one bit (or should I say 1 million bits), either..."

My first book, “The System,” is available on Amazon.com,

Actually, it is only available on Amazon.com, because it is self-published, in digital form only. After 3 decades as a titan of real, honest writing, apparently no publishing house has heard of him - or is it because he's too real to handle?

I'll bet the Sun Times won't miss Mariotti one bit (or should I say 1 million bits), either..."

I believe Roger Ebert nicely summed the Sun Times' feelings on how much Jay will be missed.

They also failed to improve the Web site...

Technically, I believe that removing Mariotti from their website does count as "improving" it.

Also, this:

"We wish Jay well and will miss him -- not personally, of course -- but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days." -Michael Cooke, Sun-Times editor

[2] Or maybe publishing houses are becoming more and more passe.

Why limit it to Amazon? They are the biggest, but Apple and the Nook among other options allow self-publishing, and usually the restriction with having more than one digital supplier is that the price has to be the same on each site.

A lot of sportswriters could be making a million dollars, if their papers paid $2 per paragraph break.

Any truth to the rumor that he's an adopted Pritzker, but they wouldn't give him their name so he called himself a "Mariott"-i just to tweak them?

I believe Roger Ebert nicely summed the Sun Times' feelings on how much Jay will be missed.

Here's a link to his comments.

A lot of sportswriters could be making a million dollars, if their papers paid $2 per paragraph break.

that would explain quite a bit about bill plaschke.

The mind just boggles.

Is there any sportswriter who is more universally loathed than Mariotti? Simers has his defenders, Bayless is still safely ensconced in the ESPN bubble, some people swear by Whitlock. I've yet to hear anyone say (or see anyone write, I suppose) anything like, "I actually think Marotti's a really good writer."

Is there any sportswriter who is more universally loathed than Mariotti?

Dan Shaughnessy?

Is there any sportswriter who is more universally loathed than Mariotti?

bill conlin. but i think that may have more to do with his being a(n alleged) child molester than his being a shitty sportswriter.

Dan Shaughnessy?

It's been mentioned in these pages before, but people who know Shaughnessy don't dislike him. Mariotti by most accounts, is also a despicable human being. The Ebert column was noted upthread, but it doesn't tell about the confrontation the two had when Mariotti confronted Ebert. The latter called the former a coward, and dared him to punch him in the face in front of everyone.

EDIT: I can't find that story anywhere online.

Was coming here to post Ebert's kiss goodbye to Mariotti, but I see that has been entered for the record.

Mariotti's account of leaving the Sun-Times is revised, but he's no stranger to saying whatever he thinks will sound best in the moment even if it's a blatant contradiction to #### he said weeks, days, or even seconds ago. (See, for example, his bipolar musings over the White Sox in 2004-2005 as collected by Eric Zorn.)

The people who worked at WMVP-AM 1000 with Mariotti also didn't like him. Steve Dahl -- not known for his decorum -- used to do segues into Mariotti's show and scolded him for insulting Mike North.

Mike North was destroying Mariotti in the ratings, in no small part because North is a far more pleasant and enlightened speaker. (There are few times in life one can say that about Mike North.)

Mariotti once insinuated Jack McDowell used heroin because McDowell was friends with Eddie Vedder. That was an early shot in his war against the White Sox.

If Mariotti's father is reading this, the consensus is you did a #### job raising your ####-head son.

Is there any sportswriter who is more universally loathed than Mariotti? Simers has his defenders, Bayless is still safely ensconced in the ESPN bubble, some people swear by Whitlock. I've yet to hear anyone say (or see anyone write, I suppose) anything like, "I actually think Marotti's a really good writer."

WHAT AM I, CHOPPED LIVER, MR. PRESIDENT?

The Ebert column was noted upthread, but it doesn't tell about the confrontation the two had when Mariotti confronted Ebert. The latter called the former a coward, and dared him to punch him in the face in front of everyone.

EDIT: I can't find that story anywhere online.

That wasn't an Ebert column. That was a different Sun Times columnist. Ebert was merely the most high profile Sun Times-er to blast Mariotti when he left. About a half-dozen did in all.

Hell, the front page of the Sun-Times blasted Mariotti the day he left. It had a little bit above the paper SUN TIMES header saying "Welcome Back [Guy's Name]" Then you flip to page 2 and learn that years ago Guy Whatshisname had cancelled his Sun Times subscription, saying he'd never give the paper another dime as long as Mariotti worked there. The paper was practically doing a Conga Line when Mariotti left.

Someone at the Chicago Sun Times was stupid enough to give Mariotti a contract extension worth almost $1 million? And Mariotti gave it up by resigning? I'll bet the Sun Times won't miss Mariotti one bit (or should I say 1 million bits), either..."

He didn't realize that's what he was doing. Apparently, he had a habit of throwing a bunch of hissy fits, screaming at his sports editors that he'd resign unless. And the editors had to take it, because the suits who ran the place thought Mariotti drove circulation.

However, with all the rounds of layoffs due to the internet killing revnue (and the Sun Time ownership scamming the paper illegally in its last windfall days), one day Mariotti did his big baby routine ..... on the same day the sports desk had been ordered to trim budget by X-amount. Well, rather than cut some stringers, they decided they actually could accept Mariotti's resignation this time.

Mariotti made up some song and dance about his experience in the Beijing Olympics made him realize hat the internet was the future and the print past or something - but it was a BS cover story.

As for the comments that Bill Conlin or Murray Chass are as hated as Mariotti, no way. Conlin is no the most persona non grata there is due to child molester allegations, but he'd always had some backers. If everyone hated him, he wouldn't be one of Cooperstown's honored writers. Every sportswirter in Chicago positively hates Mariotti's guts. Chass? Hey, say what you will but he's the guy who went drinking w/ Billy Martin and got the great "They were made for each other - one's a born liar and the other's convicted" comment about Jackson & Steinbrenner. Marvin Miller was on good terms with Chass to the end. Everyone hates Mariotti. Players always thought he was a piece of crap because he'd rip them for random and contradictory things in the paper and then never even see them in the dugout or clubhouse.

Seriously, every single person hated Jay Mariotti as a human being.

Mike North was destroying Mariotti in the ratings, in no small part because North is a far more pleasant and enlightened speaker. (There are few times in life one can say that about Mike North.)

Nothing testifies to Mariotti's idiocy more than the accuracy of this sentence.

Thanks Dag. That explains why I couldn't find Ebert saying so.

Is there any sportswriter who is more universally loathed than Mariotti?

Plaschke is a worse writer than Mariotti. Mariotti however is a far worse person.

He's obviously extraordinarily high-maintenance, but at least Mariotti wasn't a politician or an ass-kisser, and that extended to the sports and teams he wrote about. He spoke truth about power. He was an excellent sports columnist in the early and mid 1990s, under any serious criteria. Any honest reading of his Sun-Times columns from that era will confirm the point.

The conversion of his craft from literate writing a couple times a week to the modernist admixture of TV bloviation, blogging, tweeting, and trolling for page hits didn't serve him well, but I'm not sure why venom is unleashed upon him for technology's advance -- something entirely out of his control.

Is there any sportswriter who is more universally loathed than Mariotti? Simers has his defenders, Bayless is still safely ensconced in the ESPN bubble, some people swear by Whitlock. I've yet to hear anyone say (or see anyone write, I suppose) anything like, "I actually think Marotti's a really good writer."



WHAT AM I, CHOPPED LIVER, MR. PRESIDENT?

Dude, Murray... You're just some blogger.

** my beeper just went off alerting me of a BBTF thread in which the first 20 posts express the same consensus opinion - I must go there immediately and pretend to have the opposite opinion **