The Yang Slinger: Vol. LXXV

To cover a truly dreadful sports team is to cut off one's foot with a rusty saw, suck out the marrow, then eat it raw. But just as somebody has to go 0-16, somebody also has to document the hellscape.

Back in the early-to-mid 1990s, I started my career as a staff writer at The Tennessean, Nashville’s morning daily.

And, truly, we were loaded. The paper’s staff included Ray Waddle, one of the best religion writers I’ve ever seen. It had two top-shelf sports columnists (David Climer and Larry Woody), a lifestyle columnist who was known across the state (Catherine Darnell), a tremendous music scribe (Tom Roland), a tremendous NFL chronicler (Jim Wyatt). I’m not saying The Tennessean rivaled Sports Illustrated for raw skill. But I was surrounded by dozens upon dozens of journalists who easily could have been doing their jobs for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

And the best may well have been Mike Organ.

Mike and I sat alongside one another in the sports department. He was a couple of years my senior, worked his way up the ranks, rarely had a bad word to say of anyone. And while Mike wasn’t the most naturally gifted pen practitioner, he did something better than anyone I’d seen before and anyone I’ve seen since.

He covered brutally awful teams.

Mike was The Tennessean’s Vanderbilt football beat writer. Which meant his life was one loss after another loss after another loss. While modern-day Vandy football is a joke, back 30 years ago it was, well, even more of a joke.

Here, take a gander …

Anyhow, this was Mike Organ’s lot on the planet earth—week after week, year after year of dog-shit football played by dog-shit teams coached by dog-shit coaches. Somehow, he never seemed particularly down, and managed the beat with zest, with integrity, with decency, with compassion.

Which leads to today’s topic: How does one cover a truly dreadful sports team?

Over the 2 1/2 (or so) years during which I’ve written these posts, I’ve often put out social media APBs, seeking out journalists who have experienced this, who have experienced that.

No APB response has rivaled this one.

I think that’s because there’s nothing in sports media quite akin to covering a really, really, really, really bad team. Like, stick around long enough and you’ll trek a few championships, trek a few .500 seasons, even trek a 6-11 or 63-99 or 30-52. You’ll see great, you’ll see good, you’ll see mediocre and you’ll see bad. But devoting oneself to observing day-by-day athletic putridity is a special slice of heaven/hell that sticks with a reporter like fermented tuna on a moldy Kaiser roll.

So let’s talk about it.

When I think of the worst modern sports teams, the first to come to mind is the 2003 Detroit Tigers, who finished 43-119 and a mere 47 games out of first in the American League Central. The Tigers were bad in every possible way—their manager (Alan Trammell) was out of his depth, three starting position players (catcher Brandon Inge, shortstop Ramón Santiago, right fielder Bobby Higginson) hit .235 or below, four starting pitchers lost in double figures (one, Mike Maroth, dropped 20 and another, 19-game loser Jeremy Bonderman, would have as well had the organization not put a stop to his starts). The team’s collective ERA was 5.30, which is just, eh, sort of unheard of.

Danny Knobler was there for all if it.

The team’s beat writer for Booth Newspapers, Knobler recalls 2003 with a mix of humor and dread. “When I started on the Tigers,” he DMed me, “I worked with a great writer named Vern Plagenhoef who always maintained that he preferred a team around .500 because then there were a lot of wins and losses so the games didn’t all look the same. He had covered the 1984 Tigers through the 35-5 start and all the games really did look the same. I maintained the opposite, that it was better to have a really good or really bad team because they would always be setting or threatening some kind of record and there would be questions of whether to make moves either to win a championship or to avoid the worst.”

But Knobler quickly realized he was off. “The problem in 2003 was that all the games did look the same,” he wrote. “They were always losing and mostly losing big. They lost 40 games by five or more runs. And because it was such a young team there weren’t contending teams lining up to trade for any of their players.”

Knobler neither dreaded nor loved heading out to the ballpark that season. It was a job. Repetitive, sure. Depressing, at times. Often meh. But when a team loses, plenty of humor creeps in to keep things lively. For example, the Tigers’ 161st game was played at home against the Twins. Detroit fell behind 8-0, and with a defeat would have tied the 1962 Mets for the most setbacks in a single season. This would be the rare front-page story for the pitiful Tigers. In the fifth inning, as he sat in the press box, Knobler’s phone rang. He looked at the ID—it read PHIL GARNER, Detroit’s former skipper who had been fired six games into the 2002 season.

Um …

“Here’s the really funny part,” Knobler recalled. “He had absolutely no idea they were even playing that night. He was calling me because he remembered I had traveled to Costa Rica and he wanted travel advice since he was considering a trip there.”

The Tigers wound up winning, 9-8.

I asked Knobler for lessons from the experience. He had one, and it’s tremendous. The thing about shit teams, he said, is that they’ll usually be filled with unhappy players. And unhappy players are much more likely (than happy players) to complain. “They’ll want to spill their guts to you,” he said, “and tell you what is wrong.”

And that’s both important and true. When things are going well, nobody wants to rock the boat. When things are going terribly, everyone wants off the boat. In 1994, for example, Richard Deutsch was covering the NFL’s Oilers for the Houston Post. A season earlier the team finished 12-4, but free agency ravaged the roster, and whereas once Warren Moon was starting at quarterback, now the job belonged to Cody Carlson. There was, Deutsch recalled, legitimate optimism that the strong-armed Carlson could do the job—until he was knocked out in the first quarter of the opening game against the Colts. Then everything went to shit. “With no superstars or exciting offensive play to write about, it was a struggle to keep readers informed while also keeping things interesting,” Deutsch recalled. “Coach Jack Pardee was fired after 11 games and things just got worse and fans took it out on owner Bud Adams.”

The Oilers finished 2-14. But, like Knobler in Detroit, Deutsch and his fellow scribes found some go-to anger in wide receiver Webster Slaughter. “You have to be nimble because doomed situations often spawn uncertainly and chaos,” Deutsch said. “After one frustrating loss in Cleveland, Slaughter took his frustrations out on new coach Jeff Fisher when talking to reporters after the game. Of course, we ran to Fisher to get his reaction, which was anger. Then we ran back to Slaughter to get his take and so it went for four rounds. Craziness but entertaining.”

And it’s weird. Because it’s exciting. But not exciting. It’s fun. But not fun. Neither Knobler not Deutsch gripe about having covered atrocious teams, because they were still getting paid to chronicle sports. It was not, however, easy. Or light. The days are long. The storylines are limited. When Gordie Jones was covering the 10-72 Philadelphia 76ers for the Sports Xchange in 2015-16, he got into the habit of barely paying attention to the games—because he knew the Sixers would inevitably lose. “They were playing the Knicks (one time) and getting smoked,” he said. “So I just started writing a running gamer about what was going on, only to look up late in the game to discover that the Sixers had cut it to a one-possession game. This was happening, like, 20 feet away from me, and I just figured they would roll over, as they always did. So I had to re-write some things, obviously, and get my head back in the game. Because they had so many where they just had no shot, and were out of it by halftime.” Mark Sheldon, MLB.com’s chronicler of the 2022 Cincinnati Reds, remembered “many fans checked out” en route to a 62-100 run. Grant Marek, who covered Cal football for Yahoo! Sports when it went 1-11 in 2013, recalls it as “one of those years where you had to dig deep into the thesaurus for synonyms for ‘bad.’” Ryan Mavity handled the 2007 Baltimore Ravens for the Cape Gazette, and sitting through Coach Brian Billick’s press conferences throughout the 5-11 run was akin to shopping for beige carpet. “He was just ready to get it over with,” Mavity said. “He didn’t have any answers.” Jeff Hunter, Utah State men’s volleyball chronicler for the Herald Journal (of Ogden, Utah), watched the team go 0-30 in 1995. “The matches were over quickly,” he says, “so you might have time to do something else with your night.” With the Houston Astros dropping 15 straight to end the 2013 season, the Houston Chronicle’s Jose de Jesus Ortiz decided—hey, why the hell not?—to write up a questionnaire and hand one to every member of the team. “Guys like future MVP Jose Altuve, future Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel and Marwin Gonzalez filled them out with glee,” Ortiz told me. “One question was something like, ‘Who was your favorite teammate and why?’ One pitcher said out loud something like, ‘Nobody. My teammates hate me.’ They all laughed because it was somewhat true.”

I’ve always admired Ortiz’s reporting chops, because—win or lose—he’s creative, thoughtful, insightful. And with bad teams, those attributes are particularly vital. You have to see outside the box. You have to look for the unusual. You have to tell stories. When Nathan Sager covered the 2-16 Ottawa Redblacks of the CFL, he knew there was precious little quality football to appreciate. He also knew, however, that when the offense struggled, fans would inevitably chant, “Ho-bart! Ho-bart!” in honor of Ken Hobart, a backup quarterback from 20 years earlier. And that, come fourth quarter of every game, someone would hand one fan a shoe, then watch as he poured a beer into it and chugged. “It was incredibly gross,” Sager said, “but it became A Thing.”

And that’s one of the absolute keys to staying afloat during bad runs. A reporter must dig out the joy, the humor, the quirkiness. They must find the gold nuggets.

As for some other tips …

• Don’t be afraid of those you cover: Yes, losing sucks. Yes, the players will often be miserable. But that’s no reason to cower, to tiptoe, to hesitate. In fact—do the opposite. Walk into the clubhouse with a sense of purpose mixed with appropriate empathy. “Look, I know this season has been hard. But I have to ask about that play in the fourth.” Once upon a time, the writer Nate Olson covered the 2002-03 Arkansas-Pine Bluff men’s basketball team. The Golden Lions opened by losing 18 straight en route to a 4-24 record. “I traveled with the team on road trip to Iowa playing Drake and Iowa State in three days,” Olson recalled. “It was a brutal travel schedule with meh hotels and bad pregame meals. One guy wouldn’t touch the pasta in Ames and opted for all fruit.” Through it all, Olson was there. With questions. With observations. With bylines. Wherever a Pine Bluff player looked, there was ol’ Nate. That November, during a 78-54 loss at Memphis, multiple Pine Bluff players were ejected after a fight. Olsen, a regular presence through the rare highs and ceaseless lows, was the only journalist allowed into the dressing room to chat with the booted participants.

Why?

Because he was always there.

Because he wasn’t afraid.

• Look for ways to keep your writing lively and entertaining: Just because the team blows doesn’t mean you have to. When Deutsch was on the Oilers beat, the team lost to Philadelphia and cornerback Chris Dishman accepted responsibility. “I took the liberty to lead the game sorry with Elton John and Nirvana references, writing that Dish was ‘all apologies’ and that ‘sorry was not the hardest word.’” he recalled. “It marked the only time in 10 years of reporting that editors did not cut song references I tried to sneak into stories, probably because they didn’t read the story.”

More specifically, losing doesn’t mean a team isn’t interesting—it just means you might have to take apart the pieces and seek out narratives that have some sizzle. In 2007, Tim Graham took a gig covering the Miami Dolphins for the Palm Beach Post. This was the first season following the Nick Saban debacle, and the squad began the year 0-13. Which sounds … grim. Only (cough) it wasn’t. Not for Graham and the other Dolphin scribes. Over the course of the campaign, the team started three quarterbacks. Its recently traded wide receiver, Wes Welker, was catching 112 balls for the arch-rival New England Patriots. Star linebacker Zach Thomas suffered a season-ending concussion in a fender bender following a game. Star receiver Chris Chambers was traded for a bag of used cabbages. Linebacker Joey Porter habitually shot his mouth off. Ricky Williams returned from a marijuana suspension. Bill Parcells was hired to clean up the mess. “It probably helped my career more than any other circumstance,” Graham said. “It would have taken me seven or eight years to encounter so much, but mine was condensed into about eight months. The constant hardship created so many substantial story possibilities. I fancy myself an idea guy, so applying that extra thought/care into beat coverage really helped us stand out when the audience was at peak attention.”

In 2003-04, the St. Bonavneture men’s basketball team finished 7-21, highlighted by 114-63 setback to St. Joseph’s. Yet despite one defeat after another, Brian Moritz—writing on the team for the Orlean Times-Herald—thinks back warmly of a feature he wrote on the XXXXL baggy shorts worn by star point guard Marques Green. “I'm still proud of that,” he said. “I think that's the biggest lesson I take from that season. A bad team can still be an interesting one.”

• Find the stories within the stories: Lots of times people give up on shit teams. They set them aside, they reduce them to “insignificant loser” status.

In short, they get lazy and indifferent,

Enter: You.

Back in 1992-93, Adrian Dater covered the Denver Thunder, a team in the (now defunct) National Professional Soccer League. He was young and hungry and one of about 12 people aware of the club’s existence. So the Denver Post paid him $40 a story to freelance ... and the Thunder was awful. Beyond awful. After starting the season 3-5, they went on a 32-game losing streak.

Yes, 32 games.

The McNichols Sports Arena stands were empty.

The roster was demoralized.

The future was grim.

And then …

“A couple players pulled me aside and told me, "We're not getting paid,’" Dater recalled. “One of them said a check actually bounced. So, I start talking to a couple more players and, sure enough, nobody is getting paid. The owner, a guy named Mike Kelegian, ran out of money. I end up getting a story on the front page of the Denver Post sports with a headline of something like, DENVER THUNDER NOT PAYING PLAYERS. It was my first front-page story ever at the paper. It was a good scoop. Obviously, in the world of the NPSL, that story kicked up a fuss. The league had to step in and take control of the Denver Thunder for the rest of the season.”

“Just because the team is terrible, it doesn’t mean you can’t be great,” addedd Benjamin Hochman, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist who, seven years ago, trailed a Missouri men’s basketball team that went 8-24. “You just have to challenge yourself that much more. Cover the hell out of the losing. Get creative with your descriptions of the despicableness. Put it all in historical and statistical perspective—do you, the readers, realize juuuust how bad this team is?”

• Laugh your ass off at the preposterous place you inhabit: The losing won’t last forever. But the memories should. No one is dying. No one is losing a limb. Everyone is making money. Going 0-16 isn’t a tragedy. It’s a bad season. So keep that in mind and have fun and giggle and guffaw and remember this isn’t serious.

In 1988, Phil Sheridan covered the Philadelphia Eagles for the Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Courier Times. Everything was preposterous—from the opening 38-0 loss to Seattle to scoring 52 points total over the first five games to starting quarterback Bobby Hoying and backup Koy Detmer.

Here, I’ll let Sheridan tell the rest …

“Before their fifth game, in Denver, I wrote an advance that included the phrase, ‘After next week’s loss in Denver …’ and NOBODY SAID ANYTHING. Not an editor, not head coach Ray Rhodes, not a single player. They lost 41-16.

“It was Rhodes’ fourth season as head coach. He went 10-6 each of his first two seasons, winning a playoff game in 1995 and reaching the playoffs in 1996. Quarterback injuries led to a 6-9-1 record in 1997. For those first three seasons, Jon Gruden was the offensive coordinator. Jon got the Oakland head coaching job after the ’97 season.

“Rhodes hired a man named Dana Bible to replace Gruden. Bible had been coaching at Stanford and had never been a coordinator on the professional level. The most interesting thing about him was that he saw the Beatles perform in Cincinnati in 1964. The Eagles starting quarterback was going to be Bobby Hoying, a third-round draft pick from 1996. Midway through the season, Hoying’s agent, Shawn Trell, told me that Bible had been demoted and Bill Musgrave had been hired to run the offense. This meant that Rhodes had now passed over his own quarterbacks coach twice for the job. That quarterback coach was a young guy named Sean Payton.

“With Trell’s tip in hand, I lurked in the ground-floor hallway near the door to the coaches’ office. Ray Rhodes came walking in and I sidled up and asked him about the coordinator change. He lied to me, said he had thought about it but that no change had been made. So I didn’t write anything. Then Ray told a TV reporter who broadcast the ‘scoop’ on the pregame show that Sunday.

“Next time I found Ray by himself, I told him that I would never trust him again, and I wouldn’t ask him if I heard something worth reporting. He shrugged. He didn’t care. He wasn’t going to be around much longer.

“In mid-December, after practice, Ray told the assembled reporters that he was going to ‘come back with the force of a thousand hurricanes’ in his next job. The sports front of the Inquirer had a half-page picture of Ray with a headline about his concession speech. That day, he pulled me aside after practice.

“His wife Carmen was not pleased with the story. Or the picture. ‘Phil,’ he said, “the whole city of Philadelphia knows I’m getting fired. Why you gotta write a story about it?’

“‘Ray,’ I replied, ‘the whole city does know. We just didn’t know until yesterday that you knew.’

“The punchline was that their league-worst 3-13 record would have earned the Eagles the No. 1 pick in the draft. Except for this year. The NFL had given the expansion Cleveland Browns the No. 1 pick in the 1999 draft. The Eagles had the No. 2 pick.

“A week after the season ended, I had a rare double scoop. I wrote that the new head coach of the Eagles would be Andy Reid and that the new head coach of the Green Bay Packers was Ray Rhodes. Ray lasted one season in Green Bay. Andy was with the Eagles for 14 seasons.

“A thousand hurricanes.”

The Quaz Five with … Jennifer Eakins

Jennifer Eakins is the fantasy football content manager for @4for4Football and @BetSperts. You can follow her on Xitter here …

1. Jennifer, so you're the fantasy football content manager for 4for4 Fantasy Football. And I ask—what does a fantasy football content manager do?: If you ask most people in my life other than my husband that same question you’ll get a myriad of answers, none of which would likely be correct. The bulk of my job is content creation of the written variety, dissecting data, and recommending NFL players to either draft if it’s the spring or summer, or those to start in lineups if we’re in-season. I also am involved in a weekly podcast along with other assorted videos that dole out fantasy football advice. Behind the scenes, I also edit written articles and develop the content plan for both the offseason and throughout the NFL regular season. A full-time gig in this industry is a rarity which I’m fortunate to have, so we rely on plenty of contract help, and I’m also responsible for bringing in the talent and herding the cats throughout the season to keep it all running smoothly.

2. Don't hate me, but one of my problems I have with fantasy sports is the diluted joy that was rooting for your favorite team. Like, I think there's something beautiful in hating the Eagles if you love Dallas, hating the Dolphins if you love the Jets. And that seems to get lost in the new era. Tell me why I'm wrong.: I wish I could tell you you’re way off base here, but I can’t. It all depends on the level of fantasy football we’re talking about. I do think the casual manager can still root for their beloved teams and curse their enemies but if you want to win consistently, you must check your biases and consciences at the door. Never drafting a player from your rival franchise is a bad strategy unless, of course, you’re in the AFC or NFL South (just kidding, Panther fans). Having a moral compass can get in the way if you don't want to draft any scumbags, but we are talking about the NFL so choices have to be made. I personally draw the line at DeShaun Watson but some have a different threshold. Compartmentalizing fantasy and reality is entirely possible considering each given week you’re likely looking at one maybe two players who will face your beloved franchise. In my role, however, it gets much tougher to root for just one team as the lines are very blurred after an entire offseason of analysis. My family was part of the original season ticket holders for the Dolphins back when they entered the league. I was raised hating the Jets and no work responsibilities or desire to win fantasy titles will change that, I just may have to hope for a big day from Breece Hall with a Jets loss now and then.

3. How do you feel about people finding joy in a player's injury, because it helps their fantasy team? Do you get it at all?: Victory-lapping injuries is a big no-no in the fantasy football world but sadly it happens. You hate to see anyone sustain an injury but we all know it's a brutal part of the NFL. As analysts we try to prepare players for the what-ifs so they have options for every scenario, but I suppose it’s no different than fans celebrating an injury because it helps their team’s real-football outcome.

4. You spent much of 1998 working in customer service with the Colorado Rockies. That team won 77 games and put the med in mediocre. Was that a fun gig? Challenging? Weird?: I wish I could say it was challenging or fun but that job was neither. Let’s just put the competence of the actual team aside for a moment, I was one of 15 or so people sitting in a room answering rotating calls from the public about anything from “what time is the game”, to “the Rockies bullpen sucks”. At this point in my career, I had been out of college for four years and was willing to do anything it took for a job in sports including the mind-numbing phone center for a whopping $7.25 an hour. The questions were repetitive, mind-numbing, and very rarely required brainpower of any kind. It wasn't all bad though, as that year Coors Field held the All-Star Game and our department was tasked with handling all the MLB mascots. My responsibility was following Homer the Braves mascot around to make sure little kids didn't kick him in the nuts.

5. Your first Linedin gig was "sales rep" for the Atlanta Hawks in 1995. You write, "I was responsible for building a database of season and group accounts through both telephone and face-to-face presentations." That sounds ... um, not overly fun. What do you remember?: The Hawks was my very first “real job” fresh out of college. This was a time when the internet was pretty new—Alta Vista-new—and computers at workstations were not a thing. We were required to make 100 cold calls a day with some sort of system that kept track, or so they said. We had to keep tabs on who we were calling and make sure they weren’t someone else’s client, all on paper. I discovered very quickly that sales was not my thing but my time there was an absolute blast. I met some amazing people, took in a ridiculous amount of NBA action, and learned a ton. While I was there Magic Johnson made his return to the NBA which was a fun memory, and a profitable one when he came to town since we had to sell tickets for a less-than-exciting Hawks squad. There was also a logo change while I was employed there which was pretty cool, as they went from the storied Pac-Man that had been in use since 1972 to the Hawk clutching the basketball which was met with mixed reviews at the big reveal party at the CNN Center.

Bonus [rank in order—favorite to least]: Lars Tate, Selena Gomez, "Trolls 3," large cups of whiskey, Ella Fitzgerald, Pantera, Spud Webb, the number 793,322, "The Crown," Andy Cohen: Andy Cohen is the clear leader of these random things for me. We have similar upbringings and both enjoy the Grateful Dead (although I’m not on board with the new John Mayer version). Lars Tate was before my time at UGA, but once a Dawg always a Dawg. Who doesn’t love Spud Webb? As a 5’6” short king, he was way ahead of his time. I have plenty of respect for Ella Fitzgerald but Jazz is not my jam. I’m fairly indifferent to Selena Gomez, the number 793,322, and Pantera, and I haven't seen The Crown or Trolls 3. That leaves large cups of whiskey as a very distant last. After four years of life in a southern college town, the smell alone makes me gag.

Ask Jeff Pearlman a fucking question(s)

From Clayed1: How do you stay focused when you’re writing and there are so many distractions?: In this area, I’m an abject failure with the impulse control of a 15-year-old boy with a LoyalFans account. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, NYT, WashPost, ESPN—they all distract me. The best thing I’ve started doing is using an Internet blocker that shuts off access for designated periods of time. Or, when I’m deep in writing, I’ll go to a spot with absolutely no wifi.

But it ain’t easy.

A random old article worth revisiting …

On March 3, 1976, a decapitated dog was found in Millbook, N.Y. According to Peter Eisner of the Poughkeepsie Journal, the animal was not deliberately killed. So that’s good …

The Madness of Tyler Kepner’s Grid …

So unless you’ve been living beneath a pebble beneath a rock beneath a big hunk of cheese, you’re aware of Immaculate Grid, the daily game that’s drawn thousands of nerdy sports fans (guilty!) to its ranks. And while the NBA grid, NFL grid, NHL grid and WNBA grid are all fun, this game is at its best when it comes to baseball—where the names are endless and the transactions ceaseless.

Over the past few weeks I’ve often discussed the grid with Tyler Kepner, the Athletic baseball writer. And now, for kicks, every week I’m gonna feature one of Tyler’s bonkers grid results. He’s the ultimate baseball geek (I say this with great affection), and his outputs blow my mind.

So …

Tyler observations:

• Dennis Lamp started the Cubs' famous 23-22 loss to the Phillies in 1979; I talked to him once for a retrospective on that game. Toronto signed him from the White Sox in 1984, and as compensation (under the weird rules of the time) the White Sox got to pick an unprotected player from another team. They took Tom Seaver from the Mets!

• I saw Chuck McElroy pitch in the minors and I remember the Phillies traded him to the Cubs for Mitch Williams. He went on to pitch for a bunch of teams.

• George Frazier lost three games for the Yankees in the 1981 WS, but ended his career as a champion with the Twins in the 1987 WS. In between he played for those star-crossed 1984 Cubs.

• Geronimo Berroa had some big years for the A's. I remember a baseball card of him as a Blue Jay, in 1988 Donruss, although it looks like he didn't actually play for Toronto until 1999, so this was pretty lucky.

• I saw Marco Scutaro hit a walk-off HR off Mariano Rivera in Oakland, and I remember he was traded from Colorado to the Giants before his big postseason with SF in 2012.

• Eddie Robinson played for a bunch of teams and I interviewed him very late in his life when he was almost 100. He was a longtime executive for a few teams and quite a guy.

• I covered Todd Greene with the Angels, we actually compare Immaculate Grid results every day. I also covered Chad Moeller with the Yankees and once did a fun story about the many prominent pitchers he'd caught.

• And back in high school, when I published a baseball magazine, we had about 500 subscribers from all over the country. One of them happened to be a 10-year-old kid in Indiana named JD Closser. He grew up to be a Rockies catcher. 

This week’s college writer you should follow on the Xitter …

Connor Earegood, University of Michigan

The managing sports editor for the Michigan Daily ripped out his pen (well, laptop) and unleashed a beauty after his school’s Rose Bowl triumph over Alabama. Headlined MICHIGAN CAN’T GET COMPLACENT AFTER ROSE BOWL WIN, the piece delved into all the Wolverines accomplished—and all they still needed to do.

Wrote Connor …

One can follow Earegood on Xitter here.

Bravo, kid.

Journalism musings for the week …

Musing 1: I’ve witnessed many amazing things in my years as a journalist, but this self-own from Jason (I don’t quite get the information superhighway) Whitlock may well be the one that leads me to an early retirement.

Musing 2: Over the past bunch of days I’ve seen some stuff on TV that, I’m quite certain, has network lawyers yanking out their hair. First, during ABC’s New Year’s Eve telecast, Andy Cohen spoke of a man (who he presumed to be gay) by noting, “He’s strictly dickly.” And then, on Pat McAfee’s ESPN show, Aaron Rodgers insinuated that Jimmy Kimmel had Epstein ties. And you can’t just freely make accusations like those. Cannot.

Musing 3: I was happy to learn that Mark Mravic and Alexander Wolff, my excellent former SI colleagues, have been hard at work putting together an anthology of Grant Wahl’s writing career. Well-deserved honor for a late pal.

Musing 4: My son Emmett says I’m addicted to hair observations, but last night we attended the men’s basketball game between Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine, and for the past decade Michael Wilder, the Anteaters assistant coach, has rocked the best Afro in college hoops. And I’m here for it.

Musing 5: It’ll go overlooked, as news articles often do, but the New York Times’ Reid J. Epstein really captured the mood of President Joe Biden in the lede to his article, BIDEN CONDEMNS TRUMP AS DIRE THREAT TO DEMOCRACY IN A BLISTERING SPEECH. Wrote Epstein: “President Biden on Friday delivered a ferocious condemnation of Donald J. Trump, his likely 2024 opponent, warning in searing language that the former president had directed an insurrection and would aim to undo the nation’s bedrock democracy if he returned to power. On the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Mr. Trump’s supporters, Mr. Biden framed the coming election as a choice between a candidate devoted to upholding America’s centuries-old ideals and a chaos agent willing to discard them for his personal benefit.”

Musing 6: There’s a San Diego-based producer named Elisione who feels very, very, very underground to my old soul—and also happens to be preposterously good. His new release, Prod. Eli 4, is dazzling.

Musing 7: A really smart, insightful piece from The Atheltic’s Chantel Jennings on what the NCAA’s media rights deal for women’s hoops actually means—beneath the nonsense hype and glitter. Wrote Jennings in AFTER SECURING MEDIA RIGHTS DEAL FOR WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL, NCAA PRESIDENT MUST DO EVEN MORE: “With the momentum women’s basketball has captured in recent years and its broadcasting deal expiring at an opportune moment, coaches had made public pushes for the NCAA to put the women’s basketball media rights deal on the free market. Some even received signals from the NCAA that a stand-alone deal, more similar to the men’s NCAA Tournament, would be the way forward. But it’s fair to say, even with their best efforts, their hopes were never terribly high. Decades of feeling as though the NCAA had pushed women’s basketball to the side had made sure of that. So, they weren’t floored when they learned Thursday that women’s basketball was packaged along with 39 other championships.”

Musing 8: The new Two Writers Slinging Yang stars James Edwards III, the great Detroit Pistons beat writer for The Athletic …

Quote of the Week