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Now that the euphoria of Mariotti's resignation has faded a bit and we're basking in that lovely afterglow, one question keeps gnawing at us: why did Jay leave? Sure, we know he said he's gonna sell his soul to the interwebs now, but...really? Mariotti had just secured employment with the S-T through 2011, the S-T is not undergoing a bloody purge a la the Trib, the Sox and Cubs playoff chances were sure to be a boon for his rantings, and his side-job at ESPN has to be bringing in decent bank. So why jump ship when everything is looking okay? We just don't fully buy the interwebs argument.
Looks like our hunch may be right. Deadspin's Rick Chandler is reporting that Mariotti's sudden resignation was actually a flare-up of his feud with S-T colleague Rick Telander.
Details are beginning to trickle in on Jay Mariotti's sudden resignation from the Land of Newsprint, and it's pretty much what you would expect: Jay quitting in a hissy fit over a perceived slight. According to two reliable sources, Mariotti, just back from Beijing, wanted to write a column on Barack Obama. But it wasn't Jay's turn to write — it was Rick Telander's — and Telander also wanted to write on Obama.Jay no can do column? That makes Jay a sad panda. The topic of the Obama column: a reaction to his pro-Sox, anti-Cubs comments. You can scope out Telander's Obama column here. And just to rub salt in the wound?
Mariotti resigned, and then headed to the Sun-Times office to tape his Around the Horn segment, only to find that his security pass had been deactivated while the paper was deciding whether or not to accept the resignation.Ouch. Hell hath no fury like a Mariotti scorned, no?
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Being the public eye like Marriotti is must be frustrating. I sometimes feel bad for the guy - I wonder if he likes the abuse he takes.
Of course he likes it. Why else would he act the way he does. All the "battles" with ozzy guillen and hawk harelson were more than he could ever ask for. Maybe the S-T can actually get columnist who talks to actual athletes.
I really hope this isn't why Mariotti quit...I was always hoping he'd go down like Nixon for some impropriety.
Now if they could just get rid of Carol Slezak and the "hottest fan" contest...
One less shouty jock-sniffer on the payroll. Maybe they can devote his, assuredly large, salary to actual newsgathering?
Nah...
Next up "Who's supporters are hotter? McCain or Obama?"!!!!!
The Sun-Times has really beaten this "hottest fan" thing into the ground. It started as a photo contest, then there were some stirrings and articles were written, then more articles were written with stories behind the photos, then they moved on to cutest kids. And also somewhere in there some dudes started sending their photos in. It's been a crazy summer hasn't it?
You know, I, too, sometimes feel sorry for Jay. I mean, dude has a family, right? But then there are things like the Wikipedia incident and i lose that sympathy.
The best i could do was ignore him.
There's a columnist in New Orleans named Chris Rose. Before Katrina, he basically wrote a gossip column about celebs spotted around town. After Katrina, he wrote some good columns for those of us stuck outside the city. But it became the same thing over and over, the same maudlin schtick, ranging from tolerable to just God Awful. Meanwhile, he somehow becomes the "voice" of New Orleans and gets interviewed by ESPN, NPR, etc. Point is, it's amazing how a writer can find a schtick (in Mariotti's case, just being an arrogant a-hole) and ride it as far as he can. ANd that in itself kind of removes any sympathy as far as I'm concerned.
One less shouty jock-sniffer on the payroll. Maybe they can devote his, assuredly large, salary to actual newsgathering?
I wish they would, but I would bet that high-profile columnists, especially ones that attract a lot of hate (that is, attention), draw more readers than some barely recognized writer churning out 500-word articles about city zoning issues, no matter how important such articles are. I would guess that most people who hate, hate, hate this guy also read him nearly every time he is in the paper.
Mariotti, for good or ill, is a hard-working, prolific writer. Eric Zorn notes that the man worked hard in turning out a lot of copy. Mariotti's choosing of subject matter may have been lazy and he certainly showed no ability for reflection. As a writer, he can't be accused of that.
The way be beats some subjects into the ground makes him the sports columnist version of Bob Greene.
Next up "Who's supporters are hotter? McCain or Obama?"!!!!!
Easy One. Obama's. C'mon, Obama Girl? She may be brain-dead but she's a brain-dead hottie.
Mariotti, for good or ill, is a hard-working, prolific writer.
Don't confuse hardworking and prolific with good. You want a hardworking, prolific and GOOD sports columnist at the S-T, try the vastly underrated Greg Couch, who basically broke the Chicago Cubs-are-scalping-their-own-tickets scam by doing something that Mariotti rarely ever did: ACTUALLY TALKED TO PEOPLE!
And if you want another one at the S-T try Mark Brown.
Mariotti was a lazy blowhard who changed opinions at the drop of a hat and loved the sound of his own voice.
Two of the worst traits of a columnist.
He was not hard-working, or at least he hasn't been for quite some time. he's a lazy ass...how can a sports columnist never go to any sporting events? All of his columns are based on TV coverage. I understand why he doesn't want to hang out in lockerrooms, he doesn't want to be pantsed or givena swirly or worse. but he's so way too self-righteous for a guy who never faces the music, who dishes but can't take. i also can't stand guys who disdain the subject that they've chosen to write about so much. i know there's a lot to be jaded about in this world, in sports, music and film but take a look at 3 Sun-Times columnists. It's clear to me that Ebert loves movies, even more after his health problems. that love is reflected in his writing, not only about movies but on other topics. Then take Mariotti and DeRo, two guys with similar MOs. Their disdain for the subjects they cover is so much a part of their writing style that it makes it impossible to read them on a regular basis. Chicago has always glorified it's newspaper columnists but the legends...Kup, Royko clearly loved what they were doing
I thought his job was to provoke? He's a columnist after all, and the very nature of the job is to have an opinion, often a strident one. Sports fans seem to love nothing more than arguing about their teams and players and plays.
The way be beats some subjects into the ground makes him the sports columnist version of Bob Greene.
Oh GOD. Now I understand why sports fans HATE him so.
I won't miss Jay Marrioti.I didn;t take long to figure that his writing contained be very little reporting, a lot of provking, and giving nicknames to teams and sports figures. These nicknames were rarely clever or funny!
He just wasn't my guy to read in the sports pages.
I'll be honest I read him every time I read the suntimes. Which used to be regularly. I liked his criticism of the wsox cause it's good to get an outside perspective.
The job of a columnist is to provoke thoughts, not provoke rage and anger. Albany, you of all people should be glad to see Mariotti gone. It was Jaygate '06 that derailed the White Sox season. It was the equivalent of the '04 Cubs going after Chip and Stoney in the broadcast booth instead of worrying about what was going on on the field.
I didn't enjoy his criticism of the SOx as much as I enjoyed Ozzie and Hawk's asinine reaction to it. You couldn't write something as entertaining as some of those exchanges or Hawk's on-air diatribes.
I thought his job was to provoke? He's a columnist after all, and the very nature of the job is to have an opinion, often a strident one.
His job is to have an thought-provoking opinion, but it's pretty lazy to simply take a standard contrarian view and use that time and time again for no other reason than to incite anger.
If Mariotti really was interested in provoking thought, he wouldn't have asked that the comments section on his articles be shut down.
Gas, hegawn!
That said, I can't imagine anyone really caring that the Moron is not around anymore. He was easily the biggest chotch in Chicago sports, and most people with a brain realized that reading his windsockian horseshit was an exercise in futility.
:shrug:
I'm sure you'll get the opportuntiy to read his crap on ESPN.com, or some other page. It'll be great because he didn't talk to people in Chicago when he wrote about Chicago sports, so now he can not talk to anyone nationally while he writes about them.
His job is to have an thought-provoking opinion, but it's pretty lazy to simply take a standard contrarian view and use that time and time again for no other reason than to incite anger.
I thought I was the only one who noticed this.
The Jay Mariotti Stylebook.
1. Take the opposite view as the prevailing opinion. Always.
2. Feel free to switch to a diametrically opposed viewpoint at any time, even if it means completely rendering your previous column useless.
3. Nicknames are your friends, especially the ones you try to make up yourself. So what if they never stick.
4. Hate everything and everyone. Even the Great Wall of China is a potential downer ("Aw, man, it's so loooong. and it's hot out. and I gotta walk part of it. Man, this sucks.")
5. Lockerrooms are for losers. Your fellow staff sports writers will provide plenty of quotes for you. Kick back and relax.
I can't believe I forgot to link to Zorn's terrific post about Mariotti's columns on the '05 Sox. The epitome of what Jay Being Jay is all about.
Sorry, I just don't get the nuances to professional sports. Teams win, teams lose. We'd prefer the former and aren't happy with the latter. Everything else is pageantry. He gave people something to get riled about, which is what most talking heads strive for these days.
Albany, you of all people should be glad to see Mariotti gone. It was Jaygate '06 that derailed the White Sox season.
If tomorrow morning the Cubs, Bears, Sox and the rest all hung up their jocks and cups and the stadiums were plowed under for parkland I'd literally orgasm.
LITERALLY.
The Mariotti is dead - long live the Mariotti.
Jay is the perfect example of how a loud-mouthed, no-talent individual can succeed in this world. All you have to do is spit venom and make up (plausible) sources. Maybe Ozzie was right...
tommm
I actually doubt that even ESPN would hire him as a blogger. They are not serviced by AP so where would he steal his quotes from?