I went to espn.com today partly because it's my home page and partly because it's my home page and i saw this huge E TICKET story on Manny Ramirez written by Bill Simmons. I don't know how i feel about Bill Simmons, i think i used to like him and now i am probably tired of him the way that you get tired of a tv show in it's 8th season when they no longer really have funny jokes or good storylines but you watch because it's just part of the habit. You are still Tivoing the show but not really ever watching it. Then a moment arrives when you make a decision and you break up with that show and delete the season pass. I did that recently and probably 6 seasons too late with ER.
I guess what i am saying is that essentially is that I currently treat Bill Simmons like an episode of ER on my Tivo. A quick glance out of habit and then fast forward and hit delete.
I decided since i could not avoid this massive expose on Manny to take a look. The article is supposedly telling the story of the real villian behind the Manny leaving Boston saga. I think the point is that Simmons is revealing something here that we didn't know. I'm not sure. Like I said, I did treat it like an ER episode, read some, got annoyed and stopped reading and now i am writing this..
Simmons main points are that the media didn't like Manny and were bias against him because he wasn't old school. Is that news? Second and probably first, Scott Boras manipulated Manny. Scott Boras manipulated someone? Really? Come on stop hating. SB? The Borman? Big Scott? No way. Manipulate? That's like Playa hate and Scott Boras.. we all know, Scott Boras Playa Love.
Simmons examines this story like Oliver Stone looking at clips of the Zepruder film. It's ridiculous really. He even has footnotes. Was my term paper due to ESPN.com and i never turned it in?
Maybe this is a little pot calling the kettle it's proper color, since we spend all day blogging about some large man in a radio studio and get angry about it, but we have about .0000001 of the readers ESPN.com has. I know that Simmons is a big Red Sox guy, but my central question here is why does this story deserve so much space? What is he revealing that is of interest?
I think what bothers me the most is this attempt to try to throw it off on us as some high value journalism which it is not. They even put it not only under the E Ticket banner but Outside the Lines, like it was a bit of news. Where is the news? What exactly is the story?
Ok, i am now going to go to sleep. I will wake up and only write about things that Mike Francesa does that bother me. Thank you for reading. Please if you are not sleeping, do so.
And Now, A Note From Brian Powell
13 years ago
9 comments:
I was a little put off, too. And felt like I had to write a term paper in response, myself. :)
Good thoughts. I think Simmons didn't quite hit the mark.
Sorry, Lt. Sam,
And I know you qualified what you wrote...But I (still) really like BS. There is such a (an internet) backlash against him. I'm still reading the Manny Manipulated feature, but I'm reading it because I enjoy where Bill Simmons goes as a writer. I don't think he's a parody of himself, nor am I worried that he's encumbered by David Foster Wallace as I've seen certain online criticism tend toward.
It's apparently not popular to say Bill Simmons is an interesting read. So be it. It's very cool to slam ESPN: there is shrewdness in realizing that. But I still like BS and harbor no apologies for having never having read him in the late nineties when he was the "Boston Sports Guy". I don't care. I don't think he's washed up. When I read him, I don't think I'm passing a vote about the overall aesthetic standard of prominent American internet writers. I look forward to what he writes, even if it makes me an unfortunate, meathead populist or something.
But hey, I don't mean to go overboard. I love Manny myself, and I realize you weren't really going wild against the shit I chose to talk about.
Plus I'm drunk as a skunk. My nerves were as tight Mike Francesa's old pants as I watched the VP debate. So it went beer (a lot), wine, beer (a lot).
i don't hate on bill simmons. i do think that his style has become a little repetitive. he can still write things that make me laugh but i really didn't feel that there was anything fresh here. i have no desire to just bash him just to bash him but when he writes an opus on manny that has nothing interesting in it, yet it is still disguised as some piece of hard core journalism then i got to blog it out.
the debate went ok wt. sober up.
5 seasons in, I'm still a big fan of House.
really bigjf? just was watching the other day and found myself completely bored. the storylines are the same each week and not enough outside stuff going on with the characters to make it worth staying with. i might be jumping ship on house
Simmons is still a worthwhile read but this piece was disappointing. He acted like he had a big revelation and went on and on about it. I think the orginal blog post on this blog said he acted like he had discovered the Zapruder film. That's a good comparison.
idk what to tell ya, lt. sam. I've always enjoyed it, still do.
Post a Comment