And if you’re going to rip a copy editor, perhaps you would do well to get your indefinite relative pronouns right ;P

This was an unfortunate result of the PED era of baseball, thankfully Raul handled it with dignity, but that doesn’t surprise me.

Gonzo is awful, always has been.

This is exactly like newstations that hire Alicia Lane to improve ratings, while their mission (reporting the news) goes by the wayside. Same goes for politicians, who long ago stopped working for postive change and justice, and instead, have their actions guided by assurance of votes, and probably plenty of kick-backs and back-alley deals. Sigh.

F*** ‘em. I still got my Phillies, my guitar, and South Beach….

Fans are treated to the fear and loathing of a sleeping giant which has perverse sports. What links are there to read about the 2009 MLB drug testing in laymen terms? How has it improved from 2008 (ala Manny).

In the past, newspaper columns used to actually include real reporting. Columnists would go somewhere, talk to someone, and write something off-beat that both provided insight and allowed for a writer’s voice to shine.

That’s because in the past, becoming a columnist was a promotion for reporters. It was the top of the ladder (unless the reporter wanted to then go into editing and such).

Anyway, these days you have columnists all over the place because of the internet. It brings the idea of the columnist down. But don’t just blame the internet. Television has a lot to do with it, too. Look at “Around the Horn”: Lil Wayne was given a chance to be a columnist via TV.

Again, people have to realize things are changing. But that’s in a perfect world. This is not a perfect world.

Problem these days is there’s too much airtime and too many ways to talk. So it’s natural that opinion gets out there when, in the past, maybe it shouldn’t.

The overarching issue, of course, is that reporters and bloggers have to realize that the field is equalizing. Everyone will soon report and opine at the same level. But we’re not there yet, and thus we have these awkward battles played out on shows like “Outside The Lines.”

The Dipsy

But the thing that pisses me off the most is the Inquirer giving this blogger so much attention… they shouldn’t have mentioned it in the first place. Shame on them.

If this was a Mets or Braves blog and someone was crying sour grapes about Raul’s start, we have a totally different story. Instead it was someone across the country just throwing some ideas out there. The next thing I know they force Raul into a defensive mode, which I believe he handled in a direct and clear manner, to his credit.

I don’t feel bad for Morris because he did recieve tons of attention for this, but it did feel like Gonzo was attacking without reason. As David Murphy put it in his blog on philly.com, some times it’s better for the big brother (mainstream print media) to just let the little brother (bloggers, independant journalists, etc.) do their thing without trying to pick a fight.

What I do think is that Morris’ piece demonstrates while he is able to use tools to create a thought-provoking piece, his writing was sloppy, enough so to give Gonzalez a chance to run with it.

If there is fault with Morris, it is that paragraph. It comes across almost too forcefully. He helps himself slightly with “unstated speculation.” You know what he wants to say, but he won’t say it because he’s still unsure. I don’t think that’s a conclusion, but more a window for a cop-out, a go-to for a lot of writers in discussion pieces.

He has really milked this over the last several days, and it has begun to reek of attention whoring on his part.

“Maybe the 37-year-old Ibanez trained differently this off-season with the pressure of joining the Phillies’ great lineup and is in the best shape he’s ever been in. And maybe that training included. … Well, you know where that one was going, but I’d prefer to leave it as unstated speculation.”

Now, he uses the word “maybe” and doesn’t say “steroids”, but anyone with half a brain knows exactly what he’s saying. It’s a blatant implication and in my opinion, is the conclusion that Morris reached.