Nice column by Jay. He really summarizes what a jack ass Pappy has been in this eulogy of Pappy's radio death. He beats up Pappy bad. Jay basically said what most of us have been saying. But Jay did it in a very skilled way. Jay really is a good writer. This was well researched too. He really knows Pappy's history.
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mariotti/1023088,mariotti062508.article

This has to kill Pappy. For the first time, in his public life, he can't respond.

I like how he brings Mike Mulligan into this as they witnessed Pappy act like an ass hole to cops in New Orleans. That was done on purpose on Jay's part to get Pappy mad at Mulligan. The guy who takes his place. Very clever Jay. Salt on Pappy's open cut.

Everything Jay writes here is correct. What a jerk Pappy has been. It's amazing how he was able to behave this way for 16 years. His bosses, as Jay writes, never called him out. What a low class guy.

Jay has a point. Pappy's falling out with Reinsdorf hurt him with Score bosses. Pappy fell out of favor after the Guillen episode.

What a fool Pappy was for not taking the Score's offer. He tried to squeeze them and they took the offer of the table. It was there Pappy. Your bosses were gonna let you continue being an ass hole and give you 800k. You really are stupid. This time your stupidity finally cost you.

Jay can write pretty well, but I still think he's irked to high heaven that he's failed twice at sports talk radio.

When Mariotti starts writing about North, I become sympathetic towards North.

"where the program director's basic job is to shine Reinsdorf's shoes and serve his every whim"

But this one must kill North. Nobody will write the response he wants until he gets his next gig at WLS, WLUP, WCKG, WLIT or whomever thinks he is going to be good for their station.

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"It's IMPLIED penetration!"
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Do you want WSCR to bring back Mike North?
YES
3% [ 4 ]
NO
69% [ 70 ]
YES, BUT NOT WITH THE SAME SHOW
26% [ 27 ]

Total Votes : 101

Mariotti had significantly higher ratings than his Score competitors, B&B, at the time of his firing by ESPN.

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There are plenty of Pappy meltdown stories out there.

If you are writing about North, write about North, you dope. Why bring in the White Sox and Ozzie into the conversation? Jay is trying to spray to all fields and in the process inserting himself into the picture with mentioning the HBO episode.

Also, he rips into North for making a clown out of himself at press conferences. I assume he is referring to Pat Riley's hair comment. I thought Pappy's question was absolutely brilliant.

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"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

Jay Mariotti has zero credibility. I refuse to read it.

Again, Mariotti finds a way to bring Reinsdorf into a conversation he has no business being involved in. The other reports we've seen say the Score was ready to sever ties back in Feb. '07, long before the Guillen incident.

Bitter, bitter, twice fired Jay.

Grid, you are right on the money. Mariotti is green with envy. It frustrates him deeply that he cannot accomplish the trifecta of columnist/radio host/tv personality. He's got two.... but unless he learns how to speak into a microphone with warmth (and not sound like he hasn't taken a dump in a month) he never will be a "Triple Crown" media man.

I also am appauled by the whole "decency" thing. So Mike's crude. Big deal. Punch the button. Media folks should be championing the cause for freedom of speech. If the audience finds it disgusting, they can go some place else. Listenership will determine whether there is a place for it or not.

We're going to try to get Jay on today to discuss views on this. And Reinsdorf never once told us or had his underlings tell us we were going too hard on the White Sox. And we were as tough as anybody was on the team, without ignorantly slamming the park or the neighborhood like Jay or Skip Bayless did.

i liked jay on the radio, i always thought he had a pretty decent show. i like his column, and i like his espn stuff. he must be a pretty big prick to work with, for as much shit as i read and hear about him, and i dont have any reason to doubt any of that, but i always find him to have interesting takes on sports topics.

but hey, what do i know? i enjoyed rome too, and miss listening to his show. perhaps i am alone on this, but id take mariotti OR rome over the tirico/van pelt show.

Mac, I have to (sort of)slightly disagree with one point. I agree that people should decide for themselves what level of crudeness they will tolerate, but Mike's racist comments, while sometimes subtle (such as his recent attacks on the "whiners" in New Orleans), shouldn't necessarily be OK, simply because a large portion of the radio audience are willing to listen to them. That is part of the "decency" thing that I don't think ratings should enter in to.

Mac Wrote:


If you dont like what Jay writes then don't buy the Suntimes.

People can rip on Jay all they want, but the fact is he is the biggest name in sports media in this state. I read him, like him somedays, other days, I dont even finish the coulmn.

As far as todays column, I dont disagree with him and I think the heat he is getting here is due to him not loving the white sox 24/7, but dont you think he knew that? His thing is to sell papers, based on the reaction here, I think he earned his pay today.

Mac:

Stop making out with Grid for heaven's sake.

"This is what happens when visionary radio executives pull a schmo out of a hot-dog stand and turn him into a talk-show host. They dumb-down the city's intelligence quotient, narrow its vocabulary to a ninth-grade level and allow insensitivity to reign."

As much as I didn't want to listen to Pappy anymore, reading statements like this makes me wish the Sun Times would shitcan Marrioti as well. I get the feeling that Jay doesn't think anyone outside of the established sports media is capable or worthy of hosting a talk show. He also describes how he feels about most Chicagoans in the last sentence.

I find it funny Mac that all of a sudden you are North's biggest supporter when for years you talked about the guy, calling him "Hot Dog Boy" and what nots.

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Mariotti is a prick.

Mac hit the nail on the head.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

The editor who works on the Dangerous Talk manuscript is going to be putting in a lot of overtime.

Not that Jay wasn't correct in much of what he wrote about North's character, but he doesn't exactly ooze character and integrity himself. He's as classless as North, just in a different way.

And just to make sure I understand...

Teddy Greenstein: Employed
Mike North: Unemployed

Amen

Mac has explained that whole thing before and I believe him. I do however wonder at times if it was Dan Bernstein or whoever got the big money if there would have been love for Mike or if he would have continued to be referred as the hot dog guy who broke up a good thing.

I cant believe the love that Danny has for Northy. I got more shit here for sayin I could give a damn about his dead dog. This is the same prick who made fun of the Shiavo and Holloway girls on the air. Maybe if Dan were related to either one of htese girls he might think differently about dear ol Mikey. Thats way over the line more so than any racial slur.

Mike was a nice guy because he had money. It was good for business. Was he so nice when he hung out with his mafiosa pals? Mike's a tool and I cant believe that Danny Mac cant see past the steak dinners that Mike evidently bought for him to see the light.

I'm sick and tired of SPORTS RADIO guys like Dan McNeil telling us to turn the dial if we dont like it. I did until now but I missed my sports radio LOCALLY. I have it back now at least in part of the day. And For Mac to not see that MOST listened to North because they had no other local choice is absurd. I'm a fan Dan since the COS days but get real buddy.

MacNeil's arrogance is becoming annoying.

The only member of the Chicago media I dislike more than Mike North is Jay Mariotti.

Mariotti mails in the same, tired columns every week and I feel he has no high ground from which to throw lightning bolts at Mike North.

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Pot meet kettle.

Mariotti columns are almost always about one of two things:

1. The White Sox
2. Jay himself

Man, picking a side in a North-Mariotti feud is like deciding who to root for in a Yankees-Red Sox game.

I agree. WTF... why do I have Allen Bros. breath, when I had the all American dinner of 'a bowl of ice cream' last night for 'dinner'?

It's 'apalled' too people.

Unless your name was once Paul, then you can be appauled.

Actually its 'appalled.'

Which is why Jay is a complete pussy.

I also refuse to click/read it, fuck giving him ad revenue

In this battle I'd easily choose 'pappy'