Advice on this Henry Schulman nonsense: GET OVER IT
posted in 2008 season |Holy cow, do the Tigers, and Tigers fans, and Tigers media have no other story lines going on right now?
A few days ago, a writer for the San Fransisco Chronicle, Henry Schulman, wrote “scrub” Ryan Raburn hit a home run. This offended Blake. (I do not say that to pick on Blake, merely to point out his blog is the first place I saw mention). Then I saw it pop up in comments on other blogs, and on message boards, and I thought it was getting out of hand. An out-of-town writer calls a Tigers backup a scrub? SO WHAT. And especially fans of Detroit sports, who happily refer to basketball players as “human victory cigars” like it’s some term of endearment are up-at-arms when a writer uses what is, more or less, a synonym for “backup.” Am I the only one who was not offended by the suggestion that Ryan Raburn does not get much playing time? He’s no human victory cigar — he was in a high-leverate situation, a late-innings tie game. A guy writing for Giants fans pretty succinctly summed up Raburn’s playing time, but probably should have just said backup.
Scultman has since apologized. Apparently a lot of Tigers fans felt the urge to make themselves look like Bostonoians before that happened. Curtis Granderson wrote about the matter Friday at his blog, and he handled it quite well. Then Todd Jones decides to use the episode for a column idea. Jones then uses his column to insult all sports writers, which is really too bad, but that is the kind of poorly written stuff I expect to find in a Jones’ column. It’s good to know Jones never picks up a sports section, or reads Sports Illustrated or Sporting News. He has no need for sports writing? Good for him. Fans on the other hand seem to crave writings from those on the sidelines (which, you know, includes bloggers, who, you know, need beat writers to get player reactions and uncover storylines inside the clubhouse). And quite a few athletes and entire leagues would love for even the small amount of ink spilled on Jones’ column to be written about them.
Anyway, three words of advice for the next time this happens: Get. Over. It. Are Tigers fans really that petty? I didn’t think we were. But I guess I was wrong. Because frankly, I can’t believe anyone put that much effort into getting offended. Was that really the best use of your indignation? Get offended by the team’s play for the first 75 games, play resulting in World Series contenders hoping to someday see .500 for the first time since being 0-0.
What a writer — hometown, out-of-town, poor columnist, or online — says is ultimately meaningless to the game between the lines.
Sphere It
I think YOU might be getting a little too offended, Kurt. Are Tiger fans really spending a lot of time on this? It takes only a few minutes to write a blog post or an e-mail to a sports writer. Talk radio is a bad example because they have to fill up hours of programming daily.
Are Tiger fans being petty? In the grand scheme of things, what was said was not that bad, but we’ve always been protective of our own. That’s a Detroit thing, not a Tiger thing. You mention the “human victory cigar” (a reference to Darko, I assume), but a couple things: 1) We Detroiters called him that, not some jack-off from San Francisco and 2) Darko was a #2 pick, well-paid, who when he did play did not appear to give his all. Raburn, on the other hand, is much less celebrated, yet gives his all whenever he is inserted into the lineup and plays good old-fashioned hard-nosed baseball.
As far as the players, it’s only natural to expect them to stick up for one of their own, and I think most baseball people are suspicious of the media, at least from my experience. Rare is someone like Curtis Granderson, who seems to have a good relationship. Most baseball types are more like Jonesie in that respect.
At the end of the day, I don’t think people spent a lot of time on this story. It just appears that way in the information age. There’s only so much that can be said about the team’s poor start anyways.
Thanks for kicking me in the crotch, Kurt.
Seriously though. I do tend to agree with you. I made my post *right* when that story was announced on during the Tigers game the next day with the Giants. My response was a knee jerk reaction.
The part of your post that got me the most was comparing us to Boston fans. Great point. If Mr. Schulman wants to consider Ryan Raburn or any other player a “scrub” or anything else he should be able to without being screamed at by everyone in MI.
However, you do have to admit that it probably wasn’t the best choice of words for the point he was trying to make.
I just don’t want Tigers fans to act like this.
I think this situation is very different. I don’t know of anyone that personally attacked Schulman, doing so would be doing the exact same thing he did.
Also, to agree with Joe above, I don’t think a lot of time was spent on this story. The only time I heard of it was the day after, people had their say and moved on. I think if you would have made this post that day it would have had more of a point but I think most people are past it already.
Schulman in today’s Freep (linked above): “In 20 years as a baseball writer, I believe I have shown more respect to players than I was shown by many Tigers fans who e-mailed me this week. One person even said he hopes I die. Now that’s class.”
That sounds different than Boston fans with Plaschke?
Look, fact of the matter is, the internet era makes it far too easy for anonymous emailers to fire off bile garbage like that, and something should probably be said as an answer to it.
Well that’s a shame. However, I don’t think there’s a problem with saying you don’t agree with the way a writer (or anyone) went about doing something. I will now take your advice and move on.
I hate it when mommy and daddy fight.
I just want more wins.
and more booze.
and more q-bert.
Over 500 by all star break is a real possibility.
Nothing is more ridiculous to me than when a professional journalist writes about all the vicious hate mail he receives, and whines about how classless said mailers are.
Yes, people hide behind the anonymity of the computer or typewriter and fire off a bunch of crap, but so? Are we in third grade now? Whatever happened to “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me?” Henry Schulman has no inherent right to be free of criticism. No one denies his First Amendment right to call Ryan Raburn whatever he wishes, but on the flip side, we all have the right to call Mr. Schulman a moron when he exercises a lack in judgment like this.
You get paid to write your opinions for a living. People are going to vehemently disagree, and the lowest common denominator always resorts to personal attacks. Get thicker skin or find a new job. If Henry Schulman had exercised some professional judgment, he never would have had to deal with the mean insults of Tiger fans and Todd Jones to begin with. Not so much fun when the shoe is on the other foot, is it Hank?
I think the point that needs to be made here is that Schulman is not a columnist, he is a beat writer. A beat writer’s job is to report, not comment, on what happened. I’m not going to say people haven’t gone overboard on this, but only a scrub reporter would’ve used terms like that in his article.
First off, Joe, I have an expectation that people treat each other with respect. You do not forfeit that write because you are in the public eye, whether you’re a ballplayer or one who writes about one. I do not apologize for holding people to high standards. I guess we can debate whether or not he treated Raburn disrespectfully by writing scrub. They’re doing it at Baseball Think Factory. But bottom line is, people have to quit being assholes just for the sake of being assholes. I know, I know, it’s a dream that will never come true. But I’ll keep saying it.
SF Scrub is right that Schulman is not a columnist. But a beat writer’s job is to analyze as well as report. He shouldn’t be giving an opinion on firing the manager but giving one on why the game was won is fine. He was selling the point the Giants got beat by the guys no one’s heard of. And bottom line here: scrub means bench player, the term he should have used in the first place. He could have gone with the less colorful but more accurate “the 74 OPS+ utilityman Ryan Raburn” I suppose.
Kurt, I totally agree in theory. Our society has gotten much less civilized and a lot more disrespectful over the years. I can’t argue that. The internet has hastened that trend.
However, it’s a bit disingenuous for a guy who left his professionalism at the door to complain about how rudely he was treated. People didn’t call him names because they disagreed with his opinion, people called him names because he started the name calling.
I will agree that people from all walks of life could stand to be nicer to their fellow man, but I am going to hold “professional journalist covering MLB team for 20 years” to a higher standard than random e-mail guy.
That wasn’t an apology, it was all puff, he didn’t do anything of substance, he acted like a child who’s parents made him apologize without explaining why they had to, and there’s no reason to wish him death, he’s going to die eventually, I doubt he’s a Highlander!