So Long To An Excellent Foe

After seeing that most of the reporters at the Olympics were out of web based papers, Jay Mariotti decided to call it quits. He leaves the Chicago Sun-Times after 17 years at the paper.

I say good riddance. Don't let the door hit you where they split you.

Jay Mariotti started out as a well respected journalist. I have many of his Sun-Times articles from the early nineties in scrapbooks about the White Sox. He was opinionated in those articles, but you were interested in what his opinions were. They were interesting and made a specific point.

Increasingly since then, Jay turned into a blowhard, who's opinion became gospel to only himself. It was sad to see such a promising columnist turn to hate by using his dictionary to throw insults and pure vile at many of Chicago's sports figures. As the years went by, he had less and less nice things to say.

Mariotti had legendary wars of words with both Ozzie Guillen and Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. I'm sure they will both be dancing in the street of Boston tonight. Mariotti was the one who complained enough about Ozzie's mouth to get him sent to sensitivity training. Sure, Ozzie could use that, but I don't think it should have been over what it was over.

Jay had a unique background for sports reporting. He hated sports. He knew sports, but never followed any. He said that he never rooted for any team growing up and never had a favorite sport or player. This was supposed to give him some type of edge, that no other sportswriter had. Jay had no vesting interest in anything, so the theory went that he could be objective and fair.

That plan backfired. It failed with every vile induced diatribe that poured out of Jay's keyboard. It's no secret that he was not well liked. Jay was like the friend who knows everything and is never wrong. If you call him on something, he will beat you down with such anger fueled garbage, that you will agree with him just to end the conversation.

Jay Mariotti benefits no one as a sportswriter. I don't hide the fact that I strongly disliked him. Hate is a word I try to never use to describe my feelings toward someone, but Jay would come close to breaking that rule a few times.

I appreciate the fact that Jay was able to stay so long after making enemies with most of Chicago. His writing style would remind you of Dick Cheney crossed with Debbie Downer. It was intelligent, but filled with hate and downtrodden messages.

I am thankful that he is out of my daily paper. I may even renew my subscription because of this. Thanks, Jay, for brightening my day! Happy trails!