Reader Jason Price – who is unusual in that he provided his name and email address – had this to say:
You guys are queers and your “IN” articles suck. Get over yourselves… you’re beat reporters on the internet who couldn’t get a job on TV.
Let’s take this bit by bit, with Jason’s comments in bold and mine labeled as “KL.”
You guys
KL: (looks around) Um, no, just me here, thanks.
are queers
KL: I appreciate Jason identifying himself in this way from the top. And no, I’m not gay.
and your “IN” articles suck
KL: You have to pay to read Insider articles, so Jason is paying for articles he thinks suck.
Get over yourselves… you’re beat reporters on the internet
KL: I’m not sure how “beat reporter” is supposed to be an insult, but more to the point, Jason has no idea what a beat reporter is. A beat reporter works a beat, so he’s assigned a specific team (or player) and follows his target around all season, attending every game that team (or player) plays. Even the most cursory read of my articles would make it clear I don’t work a beat.
who couldn’t get a job on TV.
KL: At last count, I’ve been on TV over 130 times. So it appears that Jason is no better with a remote control than he is with a keyboard.
Of course, through all of that, Jason never bothered to say what article or articles prompted the email, so if his point was to offer some sort of meaningful criticism, he failed at that too. Excellent work, Jason!
Is there anyone out there who can explain why someone would so passionately hate the Insider content and yet post how much it sucks? Even if you get the Insider at a discount, you’re still looking at around $20 a year.
Why would someone spend five minutes of their time to read and post on a blog that they disliked??! There are plenty of Insider blogs I haven’t cared for. But guess what- I stopped reading them! I don’t get it.
I believe it was Woody Allen who once said “The food here is terrible. And the portions are so small.”
I guess Keith and other ESPN writers muct be serving a useful purpose in the community for bigots of all shades to just sound off at.
It might help if these people had to identify the substance they were under the influence of when they wrote their pieces or just declare their insanity.
Keith makes it a point to dissect arguments using legitimate argumentative means and then someone supports him by attacking the user and not the argument. Oh well.
Bob – to be fair, there’s not exactly an argument here to dissect. I see an opinion (Insider articles suck), but no evidence or argument behind it.
So leave it at that – an opinion with no justifiable basis. People only open themselves up to criticism when when they start critiquing the person and not the argument. It gets nowhere and tends to obscure the original point of the argument. Looking back, it wasn’t worth pointing out since my post itself was off-topic, and I apologize for that.
On the other hand, Jason Price is clearly the Marilyn vos Savant of Mailbag of Malcontent contributors – after all, he used both your and you’re correctly.
What is the point of this?
Yeah, the guy is short on logic and long on…being a fucking moron. But there are tons of guys like this, and is it still amusing? It works when you break down a Woody Paige column, or a Joe Morgan chat transcript.
Maybe I’m in the minority, it just seems like a cheap way to get a chuckle, and frankly, below Keith to stoop to a lone poster.
Ken Tremendous nods approvingly.
I’m just wondering how long it takes before it devolves into a contest between actual Keith fans competing for the best Keith hater imitation. And if that sounds like a dare…
The targets aren’t the unintelligent. The targets are the rude – the people who think it’s appropriate to use foul language or hurl personal insults to someone they’ve never met because they disagree with said person’s opinions on baseball. The ease with which people write these things over email – since they’d never say such things in person unless they were asking for a broken nose – astounds me.
I agree. While I don’t see the emails that someone in a position like KLaw receives, I certainly do see the postings on bulletin boards attacking journalists, players, other posters, etc. Disagreeing is fine. Offering an intelligent counterpoint is welcome. The attacks are pointless and rude. I still think it’s a very small minority, and many are probably just kids, but many are also adults. Heaven help us!
A funny little tidbit from an interview with Battersbox.ca in 2003.
“BB: What’s JP like to work with?
KL: I couldn’t imagine a better boss or mentor. Everyone likes working for him. He has brought a single strategy to baseball operations that governs everything we do, and he’s been consistent about it from day one.”
How things change…
As a lawyer and frequent target of uninspired insults, I can only say (metaphorically speaking that is), I sympathize with you Keith. You see Jason, poor, poor Jason, if he ever learns of the notoriety (no Jason that’s not the same thing as fame) he’s gained here on/at The Dish, will point to your parsing of his idiocy as further evidence that you, Keith, married father of a sexually reproduced child are in fact a queer. The thing is, with certain kinds of idiots, pointing out their idiocy to them serves not to educate but rather to entrench their positions. Then again, maybe it’s best he doesn’t try and reform, it will after all lower the odds of him being able to reproduce.
I always get a chuckle out of these posts by Keith.
People, who are insider subscribers, complaining about the content that they believe sucks. You bought it, didn’t you? You can’t expect 365/366 days of blockbuster, news-breaking posts, can you?
What makes this the funniest, Law and Gammons are the only readable people on ESPN. I’d contemplate throwing Stark in there, but it’s better than hearing from Steve Phillips and his illogical ramblings.
I actually enjoy these language guffaws. I’m not exactly the greatest writer in the world and enjoy know others aren’t either.
And to prove a point – my son’s 2nd grade teacher – a person who is influencing the minds of our children – wrote on my son’s report card “XXXX does the bear minimum.”
Last I checked bear is an animal, I think she meant bare…
Obviously, ESPN and others, who blog and use the internet as a forum, intend to appeal to people in a some manner, good or bad. While we all can’t agree all the time, this is just another useless rant by someone who felt the need to say something, as if they are gaining notoriety or fame in some regard. Sportsnation and other vehicles have created this negative backlash; as you can’t expect all of your readers to be intelligent and well-informed. Therefore, you take these posts/emails with a grain of salt, and realize that some people have different intentions in general. By no means does it justify personal insults, etc, but given the intelligence of the common man……
My one and only problem with the Insider is the cost for Canadians. They either need to move prices in line with where our dollars are, or if postage is the issue, allow for a subscription, minus the magazine. 60 dollars for 2 years for Americans, 100 for Canadians. yuck.
hey klaw, i know youve answered this on espn chats before, but could you possibly give us a short run down of your favorite books on baseball? baseball fiction, especially, like shoeless joe and matt christopher books.
kidding on the matt christopher.
thanks klaw.
To Eric above: Please don’t ever help your children with their homework. Unless of course you have some justification for wanting them to undress at school.
Bear minimum: Least amount possible
Bare minimum: Non-sensical jibber jabber that is closest to meaning, being minimally naked (which is sort of like being mostly pregnant, or partly uneducated).
Ok yeah I reversed those Eric was right, I’m sewing my mouth shut now.
Wow. There are 20-something pseudo-intellectuals and an ESPN writer reacting to Jason Price’s worthless note. I think this Jason Price is smarter than all of us.