MSF Podcast: Rick Telander Can’t Help You Read (Clowns) and Curses the Blank Screen Like the Rest of Us

July 7, 2009 By 7 Comments

If you just want to listen to the podcast and skip my mumbo-jumbo below, here is the link. Click it to play with your browser audio player or right-click and download the mp3. (And don’t worry, it’s free, for those of you have asked.)

Update: The Midwest Sports Fans podcast is now available via iTunes.

Rick Telander - Chicago Sun-TimesOn Monday afternoon I had the great pleasure of conducting the first ever Midwest Sports Fans podcast, and I could not have been more excited to be joined by a guy I grew up reading and watching: Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times. With almost 40 years in sports media, plus a successful college football career and 8 books on his resume, Rick’s diverse knowledge, experience, and perspective on a wide range of sports is nearly unparalleled by anyone else in his profession.

And contrary to what Bo Schembechler or anyone else might say, Rick is decidedly not a loser. You don’t write a seminal book about the issues plaguing major college athletics, one that was years ahead of its time, if you are a loser. You also don’t write Barack Obama’s (and many others’) favorite book about basketball, “Heaven is a Playground”, which is preparing to be re-released to celebrate its 35th anniversary, if you are a loser. And, of course, you don’t make the eminently wise choice of the White Sox having a better shot at the 2009 playoffs than the Cubs if you are loser.

Rick has always been a guy who has galvanized strong reactions on both sides of his opinions because he is not afraid to speak his mind. He certainly did not disappoint during our wide-ranging conversation in which he tackled the following subjects:

  • His unnecessarily controversial (and apparently widely unread) post in which he dared to mention Ryan Theriot’s name in the same sentence as steroids. (He takes nothing back, by the way.)
  • His thoughts on bloggers, the proliferation of blogs as a relevant and powerful source of information, and the effect this has had on the newspaper industry.
  • Journalism, and why it is not close to being dead even if newspapers may be.
  • How the picture to the right shows just how many similarities there arRick Telander - Midwest Sports Fans podcast interviewe between bloggers and mainstream writers, all of whom must face the intimidation of the blank screen in their quest for quality.
  • His book “The Hundred Yard Lie” and its relevance two decades later.
  • The ups and downs of the White Sox and Cubs and the roles that Ozzie Guillen and Lou Piniella play in their respective clubhouses.
  • His astute prediction (highlighted by a beautiful Hawk Harrelson interlude courtesy of KVB) on which Chicago baseball team has a better chance at making the playoffs.
  • The enormous expectations being placed on new Bears QB Jay Cutler.
  • The “gift from God” that was his experience immersing himself in New York City basketball to write “Heaven is a Playground” 35 years ago.
  • The genesis and current status of his love affair with music and his band Del Crustaceans.

A few quick highlights:

On the reaction to his article about Ryan Theriot:

“If you are in a tainted game, there is something to be said for that. If you want be in a bar, there’s a chance you might be drunk. And that’s what baseball is, and when I spoke to Theriot about this after a lot of people misread the story, which they love to do, and started screaming all over “Rick Telander says Ryan Theriot’s using steroids,” well, come on clowns, I can’t help you read. And if you don’t get nuance, and satire, and you can’t pick out the truth in between all that stuff, well then I can’t help you. But when I did talk to Theriot, even he understood what was going on.”

On whether there is a difference in what topics are fair game between mainstream media writers who have access and bloggers who do not:

“The truth is the truth, and in this country, we write opinions, and if we can no longer write opinions, because, say, for instance, you and I interview Obama’s cabinet, so therefore if you haven’t talked to him, you can’t have an opinion about our President? Well that leads to chaos and other nonsense. On the other hand, I think we do need to be careful and we do need to realize we are dealing with human beings.

And so I didn’t catch all that much flak because, quite honestly, not too many people want to go head-to-head with me in a debate, because I’ll annihilate them and I don’t care who they are. Not many people have been writing about sports in this country for 38 years and have been to five Olympics on three different continents and countless World Series and Super Bowls and NCAA Championships and Masters and the British Open. So if they want to come at me, they better come at me with all their ammo, and they’re not going to have enough.”

In response to a quite by WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg that “journalism is not dead; newspapers are dead.”

“I would say kudos to him for understanding that, and that is absolutely true. If you can’t tell the difference between somebody writing a limerick on a bathroom door, and the poems of Emily Dickinson, well, there is no difference between journalism and just crap. But quality will win out, and true information will win out, and art, and craft. The things beyond just slanderous stuff will rise to the top; I think he’s absolutely right.”

On whether the issues he discussed in “The Hundred Yard Lie” have improved in the 20 years since the book was published:

“They’ve gotten more technological and more devious, but I guarantee you they haven’t gotten better…

…

And ESPN and the other TV networks and the NCAA and the coaches and the boosters, they just keep pushing it and pushing it and pushing it. I just can’t even write about it anymore because it’s that essential thing: people say, “We can’t pay the athletes!” and I say, “Well, why?”

That is just a small taste, and hopefully you’ll take a listen to what was certainly an entertaining discussion to take part in and one that I think you’ll all find interesting and insightful. Once again, here is the link to listen to the podcast:

We don’t have it set up on iTunes yet, but we’ll be getting it there soon. Our goal is to start bringing you a new podcast every couple of weeks starting out, and then gradually make it a weekly or even twice-weekly feature here on the site. Your comments, good or bad, are appreciated as we tweak the podcasMidwest Sports Fans podcast hosted by Jerod Morrist to make them as enjoyable, compelling, and listener-friendly as possible.

I also need to give three huge shout outs.

First, to Cody Dunlap of our sister site Dallas Sports Fans for helping me transcribe the excerpts.

Second, to our very own KVB who edited the raw audio together and ingeniously added the Hawk Harrelson sound bytes to the White Sox discussion. He also made the incredible logo that you see pictured to the right, featuring my pasty whiteness, which keeps in mind an adage that is always true: cut-out heads with no necks are hilarious.

And third, a shout out to another of our very own, Nick Gerlach, whose band The Twin Cats (and their face-melting funk) provided the soothing, melodic saxophone tones you hear in the intro. Song credit:

Photo credits:

And finally, I will send you off with the YouTube video that Rick and I discuss at the end of the podcast. It features Rick’s band Del Crustaceans, and their guest soloist Bill Murray, rocking it out to “Hang On Sloopy.” Enjoy:

Filed Under: CFB, Featured Column, Podcast Tagged With: bloggers, Bo Schembechler, chicago cubs, Chicago White Sox, Heaven Is a Playground, jay cutler, journalism, lou piniella, mainstream media, Midwest Sports Fans podcast, ozzie guillen, Podcast, Rick Telander, Ryan Theriot, The Hundred Yard Lie

Behind the Keyboard: Hannah Patrick of Sports Media Challenge Takes us Behind the Buzz

June 30, 2009 By 9 Comments

Behind the Keyboard: Hannah Patrick InterviewAs many of you know, I started the Behind the Keyboard series as an opportunity for you and I to get to know some of the influential voices and personalities in the sports blogosphere. We kicked it off a few months back by profiling Barry McBride of the Orange and Brown Report and then last week we interviewed Sarah Spain of Mouthpiece Sports.

Today, Behind the Keyboard is highlighting an individual who is actually not a blogger at all (at least not that I know of, but you never know who is lurking in the dark shadows of their parents’ basement…) but who still has the ability to influence the sports blogosphere on a daily basis. That individual is Hannah Patrick, a Media Analyst with Sports Media Challenge.

If you are an avid viewer of the 10:00 am SportsCenter, you may have noticed a new feature that popped up a few months back called Blog Buzz. The goal of this feature is to highlight the five most important and talked about sports stories, as seen by the sports blogging community. As you will find out from the interview below, Hannah is the point person for submitting the editorial content for the daily Blog Buzz feature. This is actually how she and I were first “introduced” — when she emailed to alert me to MSF’s first appearance on Blog Buzz, back when we wrote about Mike Brown being named NBA Coach of the Year.

Because I am at the office when Blog Buzz runs on ESPN, I have never actually viewed the seHannah Patrick, Sports Media Challengegment myself. (I did, however, receive many calls from friends who were watching when MSF was on there.) And while I think all sports bloggers like the general idea of Blog Buzz, it was met with some criticism upon its initial launch (for examples, here and here).

One of the main reasons I contacted Hannah about participating in this interview was to give her and Sports Media Challenge an opportunity to discuss their objectives with Blog Buzz as well as to get her unique perspective, as someone in the middle, on where the blogger-mainstream media relationship is headed.

I am sure that many other sports bloggers know Hannah from being contacted about Blog Buzz and her effective use of Twitter to network, as well as the recent Blogs With Balls conference that she attended (and that I wish I had too!). Hopefully this interview will allow you to get to know her even better, as well as understand the objectives behind Blog Buzz and some of the ways that Sports Media Challenge continues to be a pioneer in the merging of sports and online media.

My sincere appreciation goes out to Hannah for her diligence in completing this interview, which we conducted over email. As usual, a few quick background notes first and then we jump right into the interview.

Hannah Patrick Background Info:

  • Education/College: East Carolina (Arrrghh!) with degree in Communications
  • Current Company and Position: Media Analyst with Sports Media Challenge
  • Favorite sport: I grew up loving baseball. But in recent years football has become my favorite.
  • Favorite teams: Panthers, Bobcats, Hurricanes, and all ECU Sports
  • Favorite athletes: Jake “Day light come and I wanna” Delhomme, keeping it local. We are both originally from Cajun country and ended up in the Carolinas. Plus, he has persevered and accomplished a lot regardless of all the scrutiny around him.
  • Twitter: @mhannahp

Hannah Patrick Behind the Keyboard Interview:

Jerod: If you would, provide our readers with a quick background on Sports Media Challenge, how you got involved with them, and what you do as PR coordinator.Hannah Patrick - Balls of Fury

Hannah Patrick: Sports Media Challenge is a brand monitoring, marketing, and PR consulting company specializing in sports and entertainment clients. I got involved with SMC through networking while dominating in a kickball league. We were named “Balls of Fury” (pictured left, click for larger view) and were champions in Spring ’08.

As media analyst my responsibilities include monitoring our client’s reputations online. Currently, my responsibilities have shifted to leading SMC’s efforts with SportsCenter’s Blog Buzz, which means I am in charge of the editorial content that is submitted on a daily basis.

Jerod: How did the idea for Blog Buzz come about? Was it initiated by SMC or ESPN? How has the response been from fans, bloggers, and the Worldwide Leader?

Hannah Patrick: SMC used to do a section for the “Sports Business Daily” called Blog Hound. It was based on the same premise, where we submitted to them the top five most popular blog topics on a daily basis. ESPN came to SMC looking for a similar concept, thus Blog Buzz was born.

The response, other than the initial launch, has been mostly positive. We have seen both sides though: bloggers that are totally stoked to see their hard work on SportsCenter and others that just don’t see the value. In the end, our goal is to connect one of the world’s largest sports entities to some of the most intelligent, informed and passionate sports fans and writers.

Jerod: What other Blog Buzz-like initiatives is SMC planning for the future?

Hannah Patrick: In the immediate future we would like to see the segment in other SportsCenter show times, like the 6:00 pm hour for instance. We would also like to start doing an in-depth analysis one day of the week, where we give several different blogger perspectives.Jerod Morris, Ken Rosenthal, John Gonzalez

Jerod: Time for a random question. If you had to bet your last $10 on a fight-to-the-death cagematch between me, John Gonzalez, and Ken Rosenthal, who are you picking?

Hannah Patrick: Definitely you. But you are going to need some sort of super power first. Like… the ability to walk through cages.

I polled the office on this question as well. Results were pretty entertaining and are as follows:

  • “Ken Rosenthal would win because he is backed by the traditional media and he would squash Jerod with his huge budget.” @ryanstephens
  • “Ken Rosenthal because he came on screen like the Hebrew Hammer or the Jewish Juggernaut. But no matter what… Buzz Bissinger would beat all of them.” @jakerosen
  • “Kimbo Slice.” @jackieadkins
  • “Jerod being a blogger wears underwear like cage fighters. So I am going to go with Jerod.” @matthewgarner
  • “I would go with the guy asking you the question.” @brittanylane

[Editor's Note: While I appreciate Matthew Garner's trust in my willingness to wear underwear, Brittany Lane clearly had the right train of thought here considering I'm the one posting the interview...]

Jerod: Shifting gears to Blogs With Balls, what were you overall impressions of the event?

Hannah Patrick: Everyone has said this, but it was awesome to put a face with all of the talented names that I have been working with. For me, it was a great opportunity to talk to people about what they do and don’t like about the segment.

For example, Blog Buzz’s biggest fan, Chris Motram, and I finally got the chance to meet. That might have been my favorite part. Getting to pick his brain about the segment was great. I took some much appreciated notes that we plan on going over with the big guys in Bristol.

To me, that was the spirit of Blogs with Balls. Everyone was just out to learn something new, share information, and shake someone’s hand. I think it was a great success, and I look forward to seeing it evolve into something even greater in the future. The guys at HHR really did an outstanding job.

Jerod: Excuse me for a moment while I kick myself again for not going. What were the three most important things you took away from the event?

Hannah Patrick:

  1. Bloggers can be professional without losing the spirit of what they do
  2. Sports bloggers are just as eccentric, talented, and entertaining in person.
  3. When they say wear comfortable shoes, they mean wear comfortable shoes.

Jerod: I would define your role as somewhere in between bloggers and the mainstream media. Would you agree? If not, to which side do you see yourself falling; and if so, how do you navigate through the sometimes choppy waters of bridging the gap between blogs and the MSM?

Hannah Patrick: I would agree with the statement that my role lies somewhere in between bloggers and the mainstream media. The line between traditional media and social media is being blurred more and more every day and SMC’s and ESPN’s efforts with Blog Buzz are another step in that direction. We have worked to establish a place as the communication arm between the two platforms. Blog Buzz has simply createdHannah Patrick - Sports Media Challenge another intersection between the MSM and bloggers.

Jerod: What is your most memorable personal sports moment?

Hannah Patrick: In 2006, when the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. I had just moved to a new city and didn’t know anyone but my roommate. When the Canes won, everyone stood up on the tables and on the bar and sang “God Bless America!” At that moment I felt like I knew everyone in the place. It’s funny how sports can unite a group of people.

Jerod: Coming from a PR perspective, I would love to get your honest thoughts (good or bad) on how the Raul Ibanez controversy was handled and played out publicly. Specifically, if you had been prepping me for the OTL interview, what would your advice have been?

Hannah Patrick: The Ibanez controversy really was an interesting case study about the dichotomy of bloggers vs. traditional media. This brought about a conversation that was inevitably going to surface. Blogs With Balls was a perfect place for the two sides to share their thoughts… and there were many different thoughts.

From a PR standpoint, there are times to take a lower profile until the heat dies down; this was not one of them. We would give you four stars on the way you handled the Ibanez controversy, specifically for three reasons:

  1. You were gutsy for jumping on the issue.
  2. You should always go into a media appearance with an agenda that is as strong, if not stronger, than the person asking the questions. You should be able to articulate your message easily and repeatedly. You successfully did all of these.
  3. You should also craft your message so that people will first listen, then understand, then believe, and finally remember. Which you did!

Jerod: SMC appears to be one of the leaders in assisting athletes in managing and promoting their reputations. How much of your focus is shifting to the online world and what are the specific challenges/opportunities that athletes face when it comes online PR?Sports Media Challenge logo

Hannah Patrick: The vast majority of our focus is online. We have been working to push our clients towards the social media landscape and we stress to them that social media has to be a single component of an overall media strategy. Many athletes are hesitant about getting involved in various forms of social media because they are afraid that they won’t be able to control their message. But the reality is that whether they are in the space or not, they are being talked about. Buzz Manager enables us to provide our clients to with critical information about “the buzz” on the web.

Jerod: We know that there is lots of hype around Twitter and that it is the new time-waster-du-jour for many people in many different industries. How do you use Twitter from a professional standpoint and what kind of sustained impact do you see it having 6 months, a year, 5 years down the road?

Hannah Patrick: We always tell our clients that whatever you put into Twitter is what you will get out of the experience. It has been compared to a river of conversation. You can step back and watch if flow on by, but at any time you can jump in and take part.

Professionally, Twitter has enabled me to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the sports blogosphere second by second. I think that will be the heart of Twitter when this initial explosion dies down. The ability to track current topics of conversation will have more of a sustained impact than the other uses of Twitter. I love that Twitter is championing citizen journalism and I don’t foresee that dying down. I think it will play a large role in future elections for sure.

As far as using Twitter as a tool to interact with and follow celebrities, I am more wary about the long term impact due to the high level of involvement that it requires. Other forms of social media, like Facebook, seem more likely to stand the pass of time because it doesn’t require such intense devotion.

Jerod: Time for another random question. You can play a round of golf with any three people relevant in the sports world (including the media, bloggers, etc.) today. Who are they? Why?

Hannah Patrick:

  1. Skip Holtz, because I am a Pirate fan. JRod - MSF
  2. Shaq, because he would crack me up.
  3. Jerod Morris, assuming his mom would let him out of the basement.

Jerod: Unfortunately, my mom only lets me out of the basement for dinner, yardwork, and White Sox games; so I’ll have to pass. Finally though, getting back to Blog Buzz and the slow but steady blurring of the lines between blogging and the mainstream media, where do you see it going? Where should it go? And what do you think are things that bloggers and the MSM should keep in mind to make this inevitable transition as successful as possible?

Hannah Patrick: Yes the process has been slow and steady, but I think that Deadspin implementing their new commenting policy will be a huge catalyst in this process. Also, the FTC has become more aware of the blogosphere and is making writers become more accountable.

As long as bloggers recognize that professional organizations are taking notice and giving bloggers a voice, there has to be some sort of give and take. The blogosphere is changing, and that means that those who are looking to make money from it will need to get used to the changes.

**********

Our thanks again to Hannah Patrick for taking part in the Behind the Keyboard series and for supplying me with pictures to use throughout. You can follow her on Twitter at @mhannahp and you can jump over to the Sports Media Challenge website to learn more about Blog Buzz and to keep your finger on the pulse of how sports and online media interact.

If you are interested in being the subject of Behind the Keyboard, follow me on Twitter (@JerodMSF) and shoot me a message. Let’s make it happen.

Filed Under: Behind the Keyboard, Featured Column Tagged With: Behind the Keyboard, bloggers, blogging, Blogs with Balls, Hannah Patrick, interview, mainstream media, sports blogs, Sports Media Challenge

The Anchor’s Desk: The More Legitimate Blogs Become, the More Responsibility They Need to Assume

June 13, 2009 By 3 Comments

Bloggers v Mainstream Media - Accountability, ResponsibilityA Web log, also known as a blog, can be written by anyone. You can blog about your feelings, your cat, or whether you think it’s fair to suspect Raul Ibanez of using steroids, which is what JRod famously did last week.

Blogs have taken off, and now we’ve got a problem. The lines have blurred.

What happens when bloggers get together and create a site like Midwest Sports Fans, updating it with news, and making it look and feel like a news site? Are they now journalists with the same standards?

With mainstream media being consumed on the web more and more each day, it’s tougher to discern what’s journalism and what’s “just some guy writing.”

If you go on a newspapers’ website to get the news, it looks like a website, has a banner on top, and some columns and news items. If you go to a blog site, like Midwest Sports Fans, it may look pretty darn similar, with the basic web design, sponsor links, and columns. The difference is that the columns on this site don’t have the same journalistic standards.

This has become a pretty slippery slope.

As sites like Midwest Sports Fans explode in popularity, they become more legitimate-looking. Therefore, such sites’ readers treat then more as “news” as opposed to “wanderings of the mind.” Does this mean higher ethics and journalistic standards need to be exercised?

In the case of Raul Ibanez I think it does.

When you have Raul Ibanez reacting to it, and Jerod Morris (JRod) appearing on ESPN, you know your site has arrived. There is a responsibility to balance your right to blog with journalistic principles of fairness.

Here’s an analogy: If you tell a group of four friends that you suspect Mr. Smith is gay (and why), you’d feel okay, because you’re just telling a few people. But would you stand in a crowded opera house of 1,000 people and announce that with a megaphone? Probably not. You’d have to feel a little funny about that.

That’s the difference between writing something in a chat room or e-mail, versus placing it on a huge blog site like MWSF.

When talking about journalistic standards, the lines are blurry of course. Newspaper writers who blog for their own papers’ websites have let their standards slip. A decade ago, you would never print rumors or hunches unless you could confirm them. Nowadays, for some reason, the same legitimate journalists will post just about everything, thinking its okay because it’s “just on their blog.”

They put something on the web and then say…“but I haven’t been able to confirm it.” Then can you really say it at all?

However, I still know they would not go as far as to drag a stand-up guy like Ibanez into the steroid discussion, out of the blue. I’m a journalist, and I wouldn’t have. Mainstream media members have their reputations and relationships to maintain.

The subject of who has to stick to journalistic ethics and standards boils down to how you present yourself. If Jerod wondered about Ibanez’s possible steroid use in a chat room, it wouldn’t matter. But since MWSF has a huge following, Jerod (JRod) has turned himself into a quasi-journalist and needs to be careful. He told me on Friday that he doesn’t regret writing about his Ibanez-steroid theory (and naming him), he only regrets he wasn’t more careful with the tone and the title of the story. In other words, bloggers should have the right to say what’s on their mind, but he does sense that there is a level of responsibility that comes with it.

Remember bloggers, you’re not just talking to your friends anymore. You’re sharing this stuff with 50,000 people or more, larger than some newspapers’ entire circulation.

Jerod wrote a piece, basically saying it’s sad that in this day and age we have to suspect aging sluggers of steroid use. He speculated that Ibanez could very well be using.

If a member of the mainstream media wrote that piece, the author would not be ethically able to name Ibanez as an example, unless he was getting Ibanez’s reaction on the topic of “the blanket of suspicion.” There was an SI article on the same topic, using Albert Pujols as the focus. The reason that article was okay was that Pujols was discussing how sad it is that there are doubts. Plus the article wasn’t done in a way to ignite speculation.

JRod said he would have asked Ibanez about the topic, but bloggers don’t have the same access to the Bloggers v Mainstream Media - Accountability, Responsibilityplayers as regular media. I believe that makes it not okay to name names.

When JRod was on Outside the Lines (picture courtesy of Awful Announcing), Ken Rosenthal blasted him for not showing any decency and writing whatever he wanted. John Gonzalez of the Philly Inquirer took more of a middle ground, saying bloggers are the “wild west of journalism,” and they have to be careful. I agree with John to a point. People can blog about whatever, but when blog sites start to look like news organizations, there have to be some standards.

JRod did not come out and say Ibanez is using…he just said there is reason to doubt him in this day and age. That doesn’t sound terrible, but because JRod’s following is so huge, it certainly created a huge backlash, including from Ibanez himself.

MWSF has the burden of popularity. It has become legitimate. It has become a place people come to for insight and information. It is very easy for someone who is reading online material to forget they are on a blog site as opposed to mainstream media website.

At the end of the day, it’s up to each blogger to realize they have a level of responsibility to fact-check and not spread rumor. JRod found out the hard way that your tone and the way you present facts can do a lot of damage. While he says he doesn’t regret naming Ibanez, he says it has made him think about being careful. I also credit Jrod for reaching out to Ibanez after the story broke in Philadelphia and trying to explain himself.

That’s the type of responsibility, accountability, and decency that needs to be on everyone’s mind next time they blog.

———-

Scott Reister is a featured contributor to Midwest Sports Fans, as well as Dallas Sports Fans.

He is a Sports Anchor for the NBC affiliate in the Tri-Cities and Spokane, WA. To learn more about Scott, visit the Scott Reister bio page on Midwest Sports Fans or check out the Local Sports page on KNDU.com.

To contact Scott: sreister@hotmail.com

Filed Under: Featured Column, MLB, Sports Writers and Reporters Tagged With: Anchor's Desk, bloggers, Jerod Morris, Ken Rosenthal, mainstream media, media, MLB, MSM, Raul Ibanez, scott reister, steroids