For Fanboys Only?

Not All of the Commenters on 38Pitches Kiss Curt's Behind

Looks Like There's Intelligent Life Living in Someone's Mother's Basement:

"A perfect example of life imitating art can be seen in many of the preceding posts. Shaughnessy makes fun of goofy posting by people who just luv, luv, luv their pro athletes and the response is more of the same. A great column that has been more than vindicated by the response!

There was a time, from the 60s into the 70s, when sports commentary in Boston consisted largely of slavish devotion to the athletes. That broke down and coverage became more reporting and less hero worshiping, influenced by two major factors: the Globe sports pages under Jerry Nason and Ernie Roberts attracted journalists not afraid to bite the athletes when needed and who provided well-written insight into games that they realized more of the audience had watched than had been watching in previous generations. The second factor, believe it or not, was Andelman, who was the first to roast sportswriters and their cozy relationships with teams and players and whose barrage of such criticism clearly had sports editors and TV news directors taking a second look at the way they covered sports.

Now, I fear, some fans demand a swing back to those days of yore when the function of sportswriters was to adore and heap praise. I for one am glad for the likes of Shaughnessy who refused to check the way the wind is blowing before writing." -- 3.27.07, objectivebruce, comment No. 159 on 38Pitches.com

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