Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Rant du Jour

I know, I shouldn't acknowledge the trash journalism that has prevailed regarding Paul Lo Duca, but I have to get some things off of my chest for the last time regarding this. (I was going to write this last night but thought it unfair to put this in the same blog entry as Mike Piazza's return to Shea.)

Do you remember back a ways when the Mets were ordained the Kings of New York by our friends in the media?

Well, that's now exposed for the big con job it was. On day two of what promises to be a long stretch of New York Post exploitation of the Lo Duca affair which is engineered to take use the image of a beautiful woman and use it to sell newspapers (because let's face it...if Sonia Lo Duca looked like an average everyday housewife, would her divorce be a story? See: Brinkley, Christie), the very same newspaper thought this Mets related "story" worthy of their front page, did not believe that Mike Piazza returning to Shea Stadium, a real Mets related story, worthy of the most prominent part of their back page.

There truly is a sucker born every minute...and when Pedro Martinez wore a crown on his head as the Mets "took over the city", the sucker born that minute must have been me...Because I should have known something like this would creep up, and that when push came to shove an ordinary Yankee game would upstage Piazza's return to New York.

Here's the tragedy of all this: The people that worked on breaking this story that's really nobody's business are, for the most part not the same people that are on the Mets beat day in and day out writing the stories that real baseball fans read...yet in the short term, and maybe the long term, it's those beat reporters and those stories that suffer because players will shun anybody remotely associated with that newspaper, fairly or not. In turn, it's the real baseball fans that suffer...But since when did news departments care about their sports departments and their audience anyway?

But the other tabloid in New York is no better. In Tuesday's Daily News, Mike Lupica wrote one of his "win me a Pulitzer" columns with his flowery language and his dogged determination to get to the facts, even when the facts he was hoping to uncover weren't what everyone had hoped for. After needlessly shifting the focus from Lo Duca's divorce to his legal horse racing gambling habits as if he was the only one, Lupica writes this:

"We are cynical and with good reason. Twenty years ago, the last time the Mets had a team this good, we didn't know that two of the bright young stars of the sport, Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, were already on a slippery slope because of drugs. Two weeks ago, Floyd Landis is the heartwarming winner of the Tour de France and now he is a drug cheat on a pathetic PR campaign. For all we think we know, there is so much we don't know."
Good reason?

A ballplayer gets a divorce...a divorce...and we're cynical? We're comparing something that befalls half of American couples to drugs and cheating? What? This is why we're searching for skeletons in this poor guy's closet?

You want to know why Mike Lupica is cynical?

Because their paper got scooped on the story.

That's it.

The only thing more pathetic than exploiting a story to sell newspapers, is exploiting someone else's story to catch up.

Pathetic.

***

I'm not sure that the presence of Ricky Ledee on the Mets...the same Ricky Ledee that was overrated as a Yankee to the point where he (along with minor leaguer Jake Westbrook) brought back David Justice in a deal that helped the Yankees win their third straight title in 2000 in front of a packed house at Shea which included me (but I'm not bitter)...is good karma. But tonight, we usher in the Ricky Ledee era nonetheless (proof I'm not consulted on anything).

And Ruben Sierra? Is there an excess of Geritol at the post game spread?

14 comments:

Ed in Westchester said...

The Post should be the hate list for the next millenea.

That paper has no shame at all.

The News is no better. Lupica is as arrogant as that overstuffed windbag on WFAN, and his little dog too.

Only Newsday has stayed somewhat above the fray. I still hate them because of Wally Matthews basically calling Wright a juicer on Sunday, but they are staying clean on the Undertaker.

Jaap said...

I agree with you 100%. Especially about Lupica's typically needless hysteria. Between him and Mitch Albom it's a wonder anyone reads the sports pages anymore.

And as good a rant as it is Metsra, the facts is the facts. Sex sells. The media is in a race to sell papers and they'll blow any microcosm into a mountain to sell a story.

We should write a united Mets bloggers public letter to Lo Duca to show him our support. (I mean ALL Mets bloggers...)

Anonymous said...

I bet he needs a hug.

Ed in Westchester said...

SD - Verified.

Metstradamus said...

Jaap, I agree sir. The Post is going to do what The Post is going to do. Nothing I rant will change that and I realize that. And it's not like I'm going to start boycotting newspapers because they are what they are, and there are still columns in both papers that I enjoy. But what annoys me is when a guy like Lupica takes this stance that he's the keeper of journalistic integrity that it's his duty to get all "Braveheart" on us like it's the journalism that cleans the ills of society...meanwhile they're only writing about it because they're a day late with this story, which is a non-story. Unbelieveable.

Denizen, it really is true. And when Lindsay Lohan faints from "heat stroke" again, Sonia Lo Duca is a ghost as far as the Post is concerned.

Mike V said...

Great post Metstra, great post. The sting of being away from New York on the day Piazza returns is assuaged a bit by the fact that I'm also away from earshot of this other media circus.

Anonymous said...

Someone has clogged the company toilet with a huge log. The janitor keeps trying to flush it but it doesn't go down.

Anonymous said...

I started reading Lupica's column, and I think my eye sockets almost blew out because of how far they were rolling back.

And you know what's annoying.

It's the way that Lupica writes those one sentence paragraphs.

And the way he always says, "the way."

It's a little old.

Really.

Anonymous said...

The Post is a tabloid, you're right ... it's not worth reading, really. It used to have a good sport section pre-Aussie-ownership days, but no more.

Anyway, concerning Piazza's farewell tour ... I'll be seeing him in Cincy this September for sure.

And, Brother, congrats on the 200K hits mark!

Metstradamus said...

fromnextto...

"Disagree with" and "affected by" are two different things.

I'm not affected by it at all.

I sure as hell disagree with it.

But you make a valid point.

Anonymous said...

Good piece, Metstra. I agree with you. And Lupica, like M&MD, is ridiculous.

And that's why I never read or listen to them.

I have to admit I don't understand why a guy like you does either (I ask my friends the same thing, so don't take it personally).

But a fact's a fact, Metstra: You're a better writer than Lupica, & you understand baseball better than M&MD do.

You don't need them; they'll need you in a few years. Mark my words.

Don't worry about them, they're idiots.

Anonymous said...

The two-sentence paragraphs are just as bad:

"These things happen in the big city. These stories go where they go."

"Yesterday was Lo Duca's turn. The No. 2 guy in the order got his number called."

There's definitely a rhythm there. The second quote's as corny as a Cracker Jack, but the first one's actually quite beautiful -- or would be, except Lupica's so far off-base with his premise that he comes off like a skilled artist painting a sunset on a fat pile of dog shit.

Metstradamus said...

Mike,

If I need an agent, I'm coming to you. I think you're Drew Rosenhaus in disguise!

Anonymous said...

I wish my bank account was Drew Rosenhaus's in disguise.