Mariotti: 'It's about time'

Subject:

Comments:
: Sox on Mariotti's split: 'It's about time' : The self-proclaimed tough-guy columnist never faced his targets, and that's the main reason he was considered a coward in clubhouses : BALTIMORE -- Word of Jay Mariotti's split with the Chicago Sun-Times reached the White Sox' clubhouse minutes after their victory Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles, and the reaction could be heard outside. : Once again, Mariotti should've been there to witness it first-hand. : Ozzie Guillen -- the top target of the venom-spewing columnist who called for the Sox to fire their manager this season despite the team being in first place -- said his e-mail inbox had a record number of new arrivals by Wednesday afternoon. : It was a steady stream of digital high-fives. : ''When people wish the worst on people, you have to be careful because the baseball gods are going to get you,'' Guillen said. ''He was not asking just for my job, he was asking for thousands and thousands of people's jobs over the years. I'm not going to say I will get the last laugh because I will get fired from this job. But the day I get fired is the day I lose interest in this game. : ''Am I enjoying this? Yes, because he tried to make my life miserable. He did everything in his power to make my life go the wrong way, but he didn't make me miserable because I don't believe him. Maybe if somebody else wrote that stuff about me, then I would put attention on it. And that's what he wanted. He wanted attention. He has to thank me because I gave him a lot of [stuff] to work with. I know I helped him the last four years to make his money, and, obviously, he did not help me at all to make my money.'' : Mariotti spent the better part of his first day divorced from the Sun-Times acting like a scorned lover. He wants you to believe there was a greater principle involved -- one that somehow loomed larger than his ego. He wants you to believe that newspapers -- specifically the two biggest ones in Chicago -- are dying. : Once again, Mariotti was playing fast and loose with the facts. : ''It's about time,'' said Sox broadcaster Ken ''Hawk'' Harrelson, another favorite target of Mariotti's. ''I know one thing, when he got that [contract] extension three or four months ago, he wouldn't have signed that extension if the things he's saying about the Sun-Times now were true. So he's spinning it again. : ''We have some great newspapers in Chicago, and the Sun-Times has some great writers. He tried to give readers the perception that he was in the clubhouse getting all the stuff, that he was in the dugout getting all that stuff, when he was never there.'' : The Sun-Times was a vibrant, relevant newspaper long before Mariotti arrived 17 years ago. It remains one today. The Sun-Times has built its reputation as being a bulldog covering the city and being the No. 1 source for sports and entertainment coverage. You want to know about the Cubs, Sox, Bears, Bulls or Blackhawks, you read the Sun-Times -- either off the rack or on the Internet. : Much to Mariotti's surprise, there are bigger names at the paper. Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper enjoy the kind of international following envied by journalists everywhere. Rick Telander has a national appeal Mariotti never could match. There are hardworking reporters, editors and photographers who come to work every day, do their jobs the right way and somehow remember they're just a small part of a very big team. : One page does not make a newspaper. : A flip-flopper to the end : And now Mariotti says the printed page is a dinosaur. He has embraced the Internet as his new forum. : We're talking about a columnist who detested bloggers -- mainly because he was easy fodder for their biting humor. He acted as if he stood on a level above bloggers. Most of the better bloggers have the kind of wit he couldn't touch. : Are bloggers bad? Absolutely not. : But those of us who work at newspapers have one edge over the blogging world. We have access to the players, coaches, managers and front-office executives. We can talk to key figures on and off the record to get insight unavailable to others. It's a privilege most of us don't take lightly. To not use it to our advantage is a waste -- of our energy and the readers' time. : ''I think people stopped believing what he was writing because we let the fans know what the real situation was and how he was dealing with the athletes,'' Guillen said. ''Not just the White Sox or Cubs, all athletes. He never showed up. He just said what he wanted to say without ever showing up.'' : Not once in the last eight years can I recall seeing Mariotti in the Cubs' or Sox' clubhouse. With a press credential that allowed him access to every major sporting event and every major figure, he hasn't broken a single story in that time. He says Chicago is a weak market, the competitive edge gone. He has only himself to blame. : When Lou Piniella was hired by the Cubs, the Sun-Times reported it first. Mariotti had no role in that major story. He says the market has gone soft. If that's true, he played as big a role in the softening as anyone else. : He called his colleagues soft, forgetting we're the ones who had to face his targets on a daily basis. We were the ones who had to deal with the anger that he was too cowardly to face himself. We got the quotes that made up the bulk of his columns. : In spinning his story to the Chicago Tribune, Mariotti depicted the Sun-Times as the Titanic, and it was clear the self-proclaimed tough guy was knocking over the old women and children to be the first to jump ship. : ''I'm a competitor, and I get the sense this marketplace doesn't compete,'' said Mariotti, who will remain a regular contestant on an ESPN game show. : ''Probably the days of high-stakes competition in Chicago are over. To see what has happened in this business ... I don't want to go down with it.'' : Stand-up guy to the end. : Good riddance : Sun-Times editor Michael Cooke said it best. : ''We wish Jay well and will miss him -- not personally, of course -- but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days,'' Cooke said. ''A paper, like a sports franchise, is something that moves into the future. Stars come and stars go, but the Sun-Times sports section was, is and will continue to be the best in the city.'' : Today, it's a little better. : (STNG)

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL:

Enter verification code: