We follow the consitution and that is that. That is the beauty of the world we live in. Freedom of speech and allow everyone to speak their mind is fundemental here.

I am just another fan who enjoys writing. I may not be the best or even good for that matter. But interacting with you out there in the blogosphere will only make me better.

No. You win, Ronnny. You take the last word. I’ll be the bigger man here.

God I admire you.

Ryan,

Again, I don’t think you and I are ever going to be on the same page with this. You seem pretty set on arguing everything I say – which is fine – that’s your perogative.

I really don’t have the time to reply to you hourly, daily, what have you. So you are welcome to enjoy the last word here. Go for it.

thats what i am saying….

Ken Rosenthal is just whining about the times changing. He was happy with the way things were in his profession in the late nineties; now he is not. What does he want us to do about it?

time machines have yet to be invented.

and youre a dude who needs to realize the difference between “extending an olive branch” and “trying to sneak in the last word”

i seriously doubt that Raul Ibanez would have ever read JRODS post, or clicked on any of the Tweets that linked to it. NONE of this happened until Gonzalez AMPLIFIED the story and printed it in Raul’s local sports page (without any of JRODS disclaimers, without any of the quotes where Jerod admits that even HE thinks Ibanez is clean).

WHY didnt Gonzalez include these parts of Jrods post? Because if he had, he wouldnt have gotten a soudbyte out of Ibanez or gotten to go on TV.

I dont blame Gonzalez for trying to make a name for himself OR sell papers. Thats his job, and if he denies trying to sell papers, then he wont have one much longer.

i just think its funny that he amplified a blog to raise awareness to the recent increase in wrongful amplification of blogs.

So if Rosenthal is railing against bloggers, it’s because JROD does his job without handcuffs and the same constraints Kenny does.

This is not an issue over journalistic responsibility, it’s an issue over the fact that Rosenthal spends hours everyday cultivating sources, working the phones, talking to people and then carefully crafiting a column that passes the smell test for a small army of fact checkers and corporate types. And, everytime he goes to the ballpark, he has to face the players on the field and in the locker room.

JROD is a fan with an opinion.

As I said, there are no rights or wrongs here. Just differences of opinion and a little frustration on behalf of the rank and file media who has to operate under much tighter regulation.

Now you’re just a dude who needs to chill.

I tried to bury the hatchet and extend that olive branch. Didn’t work.

So yeah I’ll go there. Check out the other baseball blogs from the day JRod’s original blog was posted. It was being posted and reposted all over the blogosphere. It was discussed, dissected, analyzed, swallowed and crapped out before Gonzalez even brought pen to paper a day later. If anything, criticize the man for being a few steps behind. And if he was desperately seeking sensationalism, I’d hope he’d find a better spin than “blogs are pretty wide-reaching, think before you post”.

Ok, so you’re a dude from Cleveland. I’m a dude from Philly. A dude who regularly reads the paper here and has for years. A dude who, daily, listens to sports radio here. A dude who every now and again, even gets crazy and flips on the good ‘ole TV here (that’s that box with the knobby things and rabbit ears right?). Gonzalez is already all over all of it. This little blogging story didn’t propel the guy into any medium he hasn’t already been. I see and hear the man pretty frequently.

Contrary to what folks west of the Mississippi want to think, he seems to be well-liked and well-respected around here and in my understanding, already has a substantial reader base. A reader base that finds his often quirky and sometimes out of the blue subject matter humorous and appealing. Read a few of his articles (you’ll probably be able to find links to them sprinkled throughout the blogosphere) and you’ll understand that a Dallas blogger’s fantasy baseball pick isn’t a far out territory. In fact, just read the end of the article (have you made it there yet?) and read where the guy talks about George Strait and a Phillies commentator singing Twisted Sister. Talk about sensationalism!

I guess you and I just won’t ever be on the same page. I watched (and rewatched) Outside the Lines and walked away with something totally different than you. In my assessment, Gonzalez was the more diplomatic voice of the mainstream media, stressing the ever growing relevance of blogs in the new media.

As far as your oak analogy…it was just beautiful.

where to begin……..

WHEN & WHERE did i say i was a writer? i think i said that i was a dude who RARELY ever blogs.

to be perfectly honest, i am a chef from cleveland who has no aspirations to be a sports writer. I come here to read blogs about the browns, cavs, and indians (not to mention buckeye football)

i was not playing the pronoun game with you, but i do wish to stress that i do not represent the MSF. i am not compensated by MSF, and i dont speak for all of the very different people who blog here.

this story “had legs” before Gonzales put it in the Sports Page at the feet of Ibanez???!?!?!?!?!?

are you really going there?

Riddle me this; if Gonzalez is not desperately seeking sensationalism, then why cant he find anything better to write about than “SOME BLOGGER IN DALLAS TALKS ABOUT HIS FANTASY BASEBALL STUD”

do you mean to tell me that as a newspaper reporter whose job is quickly being marginalized, he didnt LOVE the fact that he got to wear makeup, go on TV, be on the ESPN ticker, get mentioned in PTI and Around The Horn….etc, etc,

my comment about you being a steroid era expert only refers to your inability to recognize that the snowball has been rolling since Canseco and MacGuire were in Oakland. it was ridiculous to attribute ANY of the “seeds” of doubt to be planted by JRod’s post. I dont know who is ACTUALLY to blame for planting those seeds, but they were watered by Sosa, fertilized by Balco, and they have been fully grown Oak trees for many many moons now….

And you SAID you were a writer.

Sorry – that was a cheap shot. And yes, I took it. Again, Sorry.

I DID understand the joke (thanks for all the —>, this feeble-minded reader with hole-filled logic found them very helpful)- it just wasn’t that funny.

Yes, I did use the pronoun “you”. In essence, I was really addressing the website, “JRod”, you the writer, and anyone of that mindset. Thank god you can’t get sued on technicalities or we’d BOTH be in big trouble.

And when did I claim to be an expert in the steroid era? I’m not so self-important as to assert that I’m an expert in anything.

I really think you’re missing the point of the article by claiming he’s amplifying the story to sell papers. We all know nobody buys papers these days! Ha. And like Gonzalez himself said on Outside the Lines (see your own link), the story had legs before he commented on it. That’s the beauty of blogs and the new media – you click “publish” and in the time it takes to sneeze that link is posted in a hundred more blogs, tweets, facebook posts, myspace bulletins, etc. You know that.

Alright, Ryan. I don’t really have the energy nor the desire for a full-on comment/reply war with you. I simply find it frustrating when a situation like this snowballs into something unnecessarily large. If everybody- EVERYBODY- just stepped back and took a moment to digest, Ryan and Ronald, Rosenthal and Raul, and even that darn Gonzalez could all just be buddies who like baseball.

I stand by the core sentiment of what I wrote before (which had nothing to do with the steroid era): Gonzalez’ article simply meant to comment on the increasing relevance of the blogosphere and reiterate those ever-potent words “think before you speak”.

You and I both could probably heed Mr. Gonzalez’ advice. Fair?

Well, because you failed to understand the joke within the “convoluted high school game of telephone”, I can only assume that you also failed to understand the essence of my post in general.

Furthermore,

Allow me to reiterate at this time, that I MYSELF am not Jerod Morris. In your reply, it appears as if you think that he and I are one person. Jerod is the founder and managing editor of this website, and I am someone completely different, hundreds of miles away, who writes about 3 blogs per year on this website. MSF is open to anyone who wants to blog about midwest sports to post articles.

I find the passage you chose to quote extremely amusing and ironic.

“a time when anybody’s opinion can be quickly amplified and the weakest voices can suddenly make the loudest noise, I worry about fairness.”

WHICH HYPOCRITE PICKED UP THE STORY? GONZALEZ IS THE ONE “AMPLIFYING” THIS TO MAKE A NAME FOR HIMSELF AND SELL NEWSPAPERS

The dude from MSF does not have an agent, and was contacted by OTL to defend himself. If it was not for John Gonzalez Raul Ibanez would not have known that MSF existed.

The fact that you think MSF planted the “seeds of doubt in baseball fans everywhere” only proves that you are not an “EXPERT” on the “steroid era”.

There are so many holes in your logic that i couldn’t possibly touch on them all, but I will say one more thing: Just because John Gonzalez SAYS that he isnt an “old-school newspaper guy who fears the Internet”; DOES NOT mean that he isn’t. OJ Simpson SAID he wasnt a killer, and Roger Clemons SAID he wasn’t a cheater.