WIP Blog By Joseph Santoliquito- A Blogger For Buzz
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This is intended to be fun—not to be taken seriously. Even with the razzing and back-and-forth with Penguins’ fans over the last week was fun. I took a few personal shots, but so be it. No one blew up my car, burned my house down or attacked my family.
Everyone left unscathed—save for a few bruised Flyers’ dreams.
But some of this stuff in the blogosphere can reach extreme proportions. There are personal attacks and character assignations made on pro athletes. Something you’ll never find in this place. I can care less what Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Donovan McNabb, Mike Richards, or any of a number of Philadelphia pro sports stars do in their spare time.
They want to hang out with the ladies—so be it. Want to throw down a beer bong, I say, go knock yourself out and enjoy yourself (just don’t drive afterwards). That’s private terrain, a pedestal in the media—in my opinion—that shouldn’t be broached.
It’s like everyone who caught a ball, threw a pass, scored a goal, ran down a basketball court or hit a tennis or golf ball has suddenly become open game.
That’s why I had to clap in the privacy of my basement den when I saw and heard Buzz Bissinger go off on HBO’s Bob Costas Now special a few weeks ago on sports media today.
This is not exactly an unbiased slant. As I watched Bissinger audaciously dissect and blow apart the self-important, and self-absorbed sports bloggers of the world, I sat there a few feet away with a hard copy of Bissinger’s excellent Friday Night Lights in my den bookshelf, on top of the paperback version of the book, which was on top of my folded copy of Buzz’s “Shattered Glass” piece.
I’m a huge fan of Bissinger’s.
So I didn’t care that he used some rather extreme language in getting his point across. In fact, I laughed. It was Buzz, doing a live blog on bloggers. He let them have it with both barrels, much the same way some of these so-called sports bloggers take anonymous potshots at athletes. Only Buzz wasn’t hiding behind any screen or faux username. He came at them—face and mouth first. At least that was my interpretation.
I heard on WIP early this week a remorseful Buzz talking about how guilty he felt by going off like that. I believe the term he used to describe himself was “crazy.”
I didn’t see that way. I thought he basically came at bloggers what bloggers have been dishing out.
Bissinger evoked a sacred name to me, and anyone who covers the boxing game, W.C. Heinz, one of the greatest sportswriters who ever lived. I’m sure many in the blogosphere wondered who the hell Buzz was talking about (God rest his soul).
Which is typical.
This venue, for many, is a source to get their names out there. To get “discovered,” like some Hollywood starlet in soap commercials looking for her big break. To become a sportswriter.
It doesn’t work that way. Try reading literature, some great novels, branching out in areas other than just sports. Because if you’re able to write, you’re able to write about anything. Not sit barefoot in your basement, and scratching your nuts in between banging out dribble about Manny Ramirez going 0-for-4, or Ryan Howard striking out too much. It helps knowing a little something about why these guys fall into these funks. How they manage to live every day with failure—because that’s the biggest thing a pro athlete has to deal with on a daily basis, the fact that they’ll fail much more than they’ll succeed. And the ability to rebound from that.
Not many can do it.
But apparently in bloggerworld—many can criticize.
You can train any zoo animal to do that.
So I thought why not reach out (not that he needs it) and support Buzz, this generation’s version of W.C. Heinz (Buzz, you can bitch at me later about that, you have my e-mail address). The volume of his voice may have been too high. His words a little cutting to some ears. But his message was crystal clear: “he won’t let the animals rule the roost.”
Leave it to the pros to do that.
A Man Of My Word
I lost a bet with a Penguins’ fans and have to admit something: I SUCK.
Okay, Pittsburgh Pat, if that’s your real name; there, I am a man of my word.
Joseph Santoliquito is an Emmy Award-nominated writer based in the Philadelphia area who can be contacted at Jsantoliquito@yahoo.com.
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