Some of you may have noticed a surprising lack of finger-pointing, chicken little the-sky-is-falling, columns filled with ridiculously childish 5th grade nicknames gracing the pages of your local paper. It seems everyone's favorite windsock blowhard is taking a vacation, or at least that's how he described it Monday morning on Mike North's radio show. I missed the interview, well, because I make it a point to miss everything that Mike North has to say. The interview did not go unnoticed by the White Sox VP of Communications Scott Reifert, however, and he followed up in his blog.
During the interview, he again criticized me (imagine that) when responding to a question from North about his contact with the team. North quoted from a recent article in the Chicago Reader that mentioned "emails" that had been sent to me.
To clarify, the columnist has never sent me an email. His preferred method of communication is voicemail, and I have received some strong ones over the years (imagine that). Many probably wouldn't get past the MLBAM censor to be posted here, but there have been a couple recently that we have debated making public, solely to show everyone just who and what we deal with when it is not vacation season.
We might have that debate once again ...
During his interview, the columnist also criticized the Chicago Tribune's media writer for not calling him or his editor before writing articles about the issue. I can't speak for the general public, but I sense some irony here. Is he asking the Tribune writer to talk personally to his sources (in a sense to "show up")?
Is that ironic or is it just me?
It should be noted that the Chicago Tribune writer in question, Teddy Greenstein, is probably my favorite writer at the trib. Maybe it has something to do with the beat he is assigned (college sports & sports media), but that's not the entire reason. He is very thorough and evenhanded, always giving both sides of the story. I especially enjoy his appearances on Chicago Tribune Live, where he is often the only rational guest on the 4 person panel. Some may say that doesn't make for good TV, but I'll take honest, well-reasoned opinion any day over the crap that clogs Around the Horn and the like.
As usual, Jay the Joke has been all over this for the past few weeks.