Report: Indians to Sign Casey Kotchman
February 2, 2012
Asdrubal, Mr. Cavalier Highlight Cleveland Sports Awards
February 3, 2012While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
Sorry Bob, but this has a little Get off my lawn to it -“Why should a sportswriter who is covering, say, a basketball game, send out little comments about the game every five minutes? If the tweet recipients were that interested in the action, wouldn’t they be riveted to the game on radio or TV? And if the sportswriter is tweeting every five minutes, isn’t his story going to suffer? To write a decent story, you need enough time to do two things: fully absorb the nuances of the event and turn those observations into a coherent, compelling piece of writing.” [Dyer/Ohio.com]
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Evaluating the Sessions trade discussions- “While I’d be looking for a 2012 first rounder specifically if I were Chris Grant, and definitely not interested in cash or either of the two players NY was talking about, that 2016 pick – while four years later than what Cleveland needs right now – is still a first round pick. The Lakers, meanwhile, currently hold a top-20 protected pick in 2012 they received from Dallas, in exchange for Odom, as well as their own. They’re sitting with the 8th best record in the West right now, at 13-9, and if I had to guess they’ll finish this season with anywhere from the 21st to the 25th pick in the first round come June. I’d also bet, at this point at least, that Dallas will eventually finish out of the lower 20, and LA will end up with two 2012 draft picks at about the same spot; call it the 22nd and 24th pick overall this summer, or something like that. [Bowers/Stepien Rules]
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Ranking the Super Bowls. Sorry Matt, your Steeler bias is showing a bit here- “22. Super Bowl XL 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers 21 Seattle Seahawks 10 – I think Seahawks fans are STILL whining about this loss, as they feel the refs basically gave the Steelers the win. No doubt there were some calls that didn’t go the Hawks way, but the Steelers played better, and deserved to win. It was the swan song for Jerome Bettis, who like John Elway retired a winner on the games biggest stage.” [Loede/Gridiron Gab]
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“Right now, there appear to be five spots accounted for between closer Chris Perez, setup men Pestano and Sipp, as well as righty Joe Smith and lefty Rafael Perez. That leaves two vacancies and a slew of arms in the mix to battle for those jobs during Spring Training. Candidates on the 40-man roster include righty Frank Herrmann, lefty Nick Hagadone and righty Corey Kluber. Hagadone has very limited MLB experience and Kluber is more likely to be back in the Triple-A rotation. So, of the rostered candidates, Herrmann would be a “favorite,” so to speak.
Herrmann appeared in 40 games for the Indians in 2011, but I don’t see him as a “lock” for a job due to his inconsistent performance. He had a 5.11 ERA, so Cleveland isn’t going to just hand him a job without a close look this spring. Like Durbin, though, Herrmann performed well when filling his specific role. As a long man, Herrmann is most utilized in the early innings when a starter struggles or in extra innings when a bulk of his fellow relievers have already been used. Consider that Herrmann had a 0.89 ERA when he appeared in innings 3-5 or extras (20.1 innings) last year. He had a 7.50 ERA in the 6th-9th innings.
To Acta’s point, the Indians bullpen as a whole performed best when the pitchers were used in their preferred innings. It was when the manager was forced to use his relievers in other roles — a game gone awry can often dictate such adjustments — that they typically found trouble.” [Bastian/MLB.com]
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Wait, so if you get caught selling counterfeit tickets to the Super Bowl, which you will sell for hundreds if not thousands of dollars, you can get out of jail free with a $100 donation? Um, risk/reward? Come on Indy, got to do better than that- “For minor offenses, a $100 donation to the Clothe-a-Child fund can get you completely off the hook. You do the (minor, likely victimless) crime, you do no time, and kids in need benefit. Sounds like a win-win to me.
If you’re curious about what you can get away with, Deputy Prosecutor Allison Broviak told the Indy Star that minor offenses include things like public intoxication, trespassing, or selling counterfeit tickets. So maybe you can be a little more at ease when throwing back an extra shot or five, but it’s not like you have a golden pass to distribute snuff films or set a police car on fire or something.” [MJD/Shutdown Corner]
12 Comments
THANK YOU for confirming my initial thoughts on that Dyer piece. It amazes me that, given that the medium is now going on six years of existence, that some writers fail to grasp what Twitter is. No one is asking for play-by-play; even out-of-towners have access to games now via DirecTV, Sirius et al. What we want are those nuances shared, what we *cant* get by watching or listening at home. If a sportswriter is tweeting “every five minutes,” he’s not doing it right.
I’m in the middle ground here though. I agree that a writer can throw out some funny stuff that is happening during the game or an observation that might not be caught on TV/radio to help inform his followers.
However, it is also true that it will effect his story after the game. A good writer doesn’t know which of those funny moments, nuances are going to go into his piece. He collects as many of them as possible and then weaves his post-game story interjecting them where appropriate. They do not have the same effect on his reading public if they have already read those on twitter.
I’m in the middle ground here though. I agree that a writer can throw out some funny stuff that is happening during the game or an observation that might not be caught on TV/radio to help inform his followers.
However, it is also true that it will effect his story after the game. A good writer doesn’t know which of those funny moments, nuances are going to go into his piece. He collects as many of them as possible and then weaves his post-game story interjecting them where appropriate. They do not have the same effect on his reading public if they have already read those on twitter.
For me, the part about a fan not being able tear himself away from the game to read a twitter feed is just such an old fashioned attitude.
Rick, I don’t think Dyer meant that a fan can’t both read tweets and follow the game. He said the story a beat writer is composing in his head during the game might be compromised. That’s probably true, but the number of readers as interested in tweets as post-game stories may make that an acceptable trade-off. What is considered competent writing is deteriorating quickly now, and maybe Dyer and I care but we will soon be in a distinct minority. This may be a generational thing; now it’s instant take uber alles.
Here’s where Dyer and I differ. Grossi was using the technology to communicate a little private venom to someone. He totally compromised the one perception readers must have of a reporter, and it’s no excuse that this new-fangled shiny thing just has too many buttons. The PD didn’t ask him to use a tweet to talk to his pal. If I misuse my employer’s technology and embarrass my company what results is on me. Make a call if you need to spew, Tony, and make sure the door is closed.
I know the larger point was about the writer, but this is the line I was referring to-
“If the tweet recipients were that interested in the action, wouldn’t they be riveted to the game on radio or TV?”
well, it’s nice to think they would be. i usually am playing with my kids, helping them with schoolwork, doing chores, or on my laptop for work when I have the game on, so it’s not like I am fully invested most of the time despite not using twitter.
Deadspin had an interesting column this week about how Twitter actually makes watching sports even better: http://tinyurl.com/6qjy9sj
Contrary to what the grumpy old writer thinks, people nowadays can actually watch a game, work a remote and follow Twitter just fine.
I’ll say this, when I’m AT a game, I usually don’t do much with twitter. When I’m watching at home by myself, I want the interaction with other fans.
I disagree with this, or maybe although I’m not that old I am old fashioned. But I am way too into games to be checking someones twitter updates. I guess if I did care to check though it would be a good way to avoid watching commercials.
all the deadspin article does is build up the stereotype though. ok, so if he was watching live he could have been one of 60K fans to make fun of that guys mullet. dang, missed opportunity.
i get those that like using twitter but that one seems too much “living in your mom’s basement” for me (hey, Rick started it with the “get off my lawn” talk)
I’ll have to go back and re-read. I thought it played up the communal aspect more, like if I can’t be there, I can still converse with other Browns fans, etc., from the comfort of my couch.