FanHouse Jay Mariotti

From The Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

I don't know if you've been paying attention, but there are some things going on in this country right now that are far more important than whether or not the Cubs will win the World Series, or whether New York will collapse on itself should the Yankees miss the playoffs.

No, I'm not talking about the new Beverly Hills 90210 - though it's nice to see Lori Loughlin getting work - I'm talking about the upcoming election for President of the United States. Yeah, you've probably noticed in the last few weeks that all your favorite crappy sitcoms and celebrity dancing shows haven't been on in favor of a bunch of people giving speeches in front of sycophants. We call these the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

For the first time in my life, I've paid pretty close attention to both of these conventions this year. You see, even though I've never been shy about my feelings about this country of ours, and those who have been chosen to run it, I've never actually exercised my right to be a factor in the decision.

That's right, at 27 years of age, I have never voted in a single election. Not for President, not for Governor, not even for Student Council President in high school. So when November 4th rolls around in two months, I will be stepping into a voting booth for the first time, and though I'm somewhat excited about it, I still face a pretty tough question.

Just who am I voting for?

Until he resigned this week, Jay Mariotti had been the second most famous columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times. The paper's most famous columnist, Roger Ebert, is the latest to tell Mariotti, "Good riddance."

An open letter from Ebert to Mariotti includes the following:

What an ugly way to leave the Sun-Times. It does not speak well for you. Your timing was exquisite. You signed a new contract, waited until days after the newspaper had paid for your trip to Beijing at great cost, and then resigned with a two-word e-mail: "I quit." You saved your explanation for a local television station.

As someone who was working here for 24 years before you arrived, I think you owed us more than that. You owed us decency. The fact that you saved your attack for TV only completes our portrait of you as a rat....

On your way out, don't let the door bang you on the ass.

Ebert is a brilliant writer and is at his best when he's skewering his subject, whether it's a badly made film or, in this case, a former colleague.

If you read the comments here at FanHouse or at a lot of other sports blogs, you probably know a guy who posts under the name PeteJayhawk. Now hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans know him as well.

That's him, at the top of the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times, being welcomed back to the paper after sending an e-mail saying he would start reading again now that Jay Mariotti no longer works there. His e-mail exchange with Sun-Times editor Michael Cooke is below:

[From Gaines to Cooke]
Sir:

I wish to inform you that due to recent developments on the Jay Mariotti front, I will now read your newspaper. In fact, I picked one up on the way to work this morning. Not a half-bad rag, I must say. Bully on you.

Regards,

Pete Gaines

[From Cooke to Gaines]
Every cloud has silver lining .. and this one is golden.

THANK YOU !

That note atop the front page is part of an informal PR campaign in which the Sun-Times is publicly saying "good riddance" to Mariotti. Some of it is funny, but I have to agree with A.J. Daulerio at Deadspin: It's rather gutless of the Sun-Times brass to rip Mariotti now that he's gone. If the bosses had a problem with Mariotti, why did they just sign him to a three-year contract?

While most of the blogging world has been celebrating the resignation/firing of Jay Mariotti at the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday, it's not just those of us who read him that are happy to see him go. The Chicago White Sox have long been one of Jay's favorite targets. Whether he's ripping on team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, manager Ozzie Guillen, or even play-by-play announcer Hawk Harrelson, Jay never had anything nice to say about the organization.

So when the news reached the White Sox in Baltimore on Tuesday night that Jay's reign of terror was coming to an end, the Sox were quite happy to hear the news.

''When people wish the worst on people, you have to be careful because the baseball gods are going to get you,'' [Ozzie] Guillen said. ''He was not asking just for my job, he was asking for thousands and thousands of people's jobs over the years. I'm not going to say I will get the last laugh because I will get fired from this job. But the day I get fired is the day I lose interest in this game.

There are some headlines I never expect to see when I'm flipping through the newspaper in the morning, or just surfing around the internet. It happened to me this morning in fact when I was reading the Chicago Sun-Times and found out that Jay Mariotti is stepping down as the paper's lead sports columnist (and Chicagoans everywhere wonder who will tell them their teams suck).

Then there are those headlines I read that don't surprise me at all, and I saw one of those this morning as well. It read: Royals Jose Guillen restrained from heckler. The only shocking thing about that headline is that the Royals actually have fans, because we already know Jose is bat-poop crazy.

Kauffman Stadium security removed the fan, who started in on Guillen after he stopped at first base in the second inning after hitting a drive off the wall in left field.

"When I got that hit to left field, that guy started saying all kinds of stuff. 'Why didn't I make it to second?"' Guillen said. "Hey, I hit the ball hard. People who know baseball know the guy (Rangers left fielder Marlon Byrd) made a nice play. I had no chance to make it to second. I can deal with that."

Jay Mariotti, the Sun-Times columnist who for years has been Chicago's best-known sports writer, has resigned from the paper after 17 years. He indicated that he plans to take his writing to the Internet.

Mariotti told the Chicago Tribune that he will remain on ESPN's Around the Horn, but that the future of sports writing "sadly is not in newspapers." He said he is "talking with a lot of Web sites."

The timing of Mariotti's resignation is surprising. Less than three months ago, he signed a three-year contract extension. It's also surprising, if Mariotti wants to focus more of his writing on the web, that he and the Sun-Times couldn't work out a deal to give him an enhanced online presence as the Sun-Times has with Roger Ebert.

Mariotti's final Sun-Times column underscores his relationship with the Chicago sports world; he opens by saying he doesn't like Bears general manager Jerry Angelo and that Angelo doesn't like him. But enough readers do like Mariotti -- even if what they really like is to disagree with him -- that whatever web site hires him can expect a bump in traffic.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has made many an enemy during his tenure in Chicago. Whether it's former players like Magglio Ordonez, opposing managers like Buck Showalter, or local columnists like Jay Mariotti, Ozzie has never been shy when discussing his feelings for others.

Ozzie's latest foe was Texas Rangers closer C.J. Wilson, whom credited Guillen with helping him pick up a save against the Sox a week and a half ago after using Ozzie's taunts from the dugout as motivation. Ozzie didn't much appreciate Wilson's theatrics on the mound while striking out Jim Thome and Paul Konerko, and he let C.J. know about it afterward.

"You can be cocky, be yourself or have your own showtime," Guillen said after the game. "But when you don't respect the opposition and do what he did, that's not professional. That's the reason I was screaming to him. When you're nobody and show people up like that. ... Wait till you're somebody in baseball, and then do whatever you want to do."

Well that nobody showed up again yesterday during the 8th inning of the Sox-Rangers game with two outs, two runners on, and the Rangers clinging to an 8-7 lead. Then the first pitch fastball he threw quickly turned into the American League-leading 26th home run of the season for Carlos Quentin, and the White Sox completed their comeback and won 10-8.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to see Ozzie do his own celebrating as he'd already been ejected from the game the inning before for arguing balls and strikes. The White Sox dugout did look to be a bit more rambunctious in their celebration afterwards, though, as Quentin gave the home crowd a curtain call.

There are lots of reasons for Cubs fans to feel -- even more than normal -- that this is The Year. The Cubs are in first place in a relatively weak NL Central; the team's offense is a finely-tuned OBP machine; and the first half's solid pitching is set to spike with the addition of Rich Harden. Things are good. Fingers are crossed.

Add another reason to the list: Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander sees an omen in the least likely places:

But until Friday, never had a pigeon from the Friendly Confines dropped a load on my shoulder. [...] Chase indicated where a fresh, warm mess lay on the left shoulder of my blue shirt. He then ushered me to the Cubs' bathroom and offered me a towel. So I ask you long-suffering Cubs fans: Is this not a sign? Is this not the year?

Brilliant, and I mean that sincerely. There's far too much talk about omens and signs and curses in Chicago; columnists like Jay Mariotti (Telander's sworn enemy) write them into the public record, and non-thinking fans buy in. Kudos to Telander for taking a shot at the idiots.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti is not popular. He's hated among readers, who often (I assume) read his columns out of masochistic self-spite. He's hated by teams and players. He's hated by the crosstown paper. And he's hated by the internet, perhaps most of all. Now, you can officially add his co-workers to that list.

Mariotti's feud with fellow Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander is well documented, but his latest swipe came at the expense of the Sun-Times' entire baseball staff, whom he called soft for not criticizing Ozzie Guillen with fervor. Because it's totally normal, and not at all obsessive, to call for the firing of a World Series-winning manager when his team is in first place. Right.

Mariotti's comments sparked a total newspaper catfight. Who wins when everyone buys the ink by the barrel? Find out after the jump. (Hint: we do!)

Everyone's favorite cranky manager, Lou Piniella, had a bit of a dust-up this week when asked a relatively innocuous question by a radio reporter. Asked if he considered taking Alfonso Soriano out of the lineup and inserting someone less likely to embarass himself in the outfield, Pineilla kindly reiterated that he was not stupid, and then mumbled his way out of the press conference. It was, like almost all things Lou Piniella, totally awesome.

Today, Piniella explains himself, and comes up with some pretty solid media juggles that Chicago's top two papers might consider:

"It's like me asking, 'On Sunday, with the Sun-Times, take (columnist Jay) Mariotti out. He's not writing a column today,'" Piniella said. "Or, 'Put the third subordinate behind him. Or doing it with (the Tribune) with (baseball columnist Phil) Rogers, (telling the sports editor) 'Don't use Rogers on Sunday. Use the third guy.' You'd look at me like I'm stupid, you know what I'm saying?"

In other words, like Mariotti and Rogers at their respective papers, Soriano is an untouchable who deserves to be in the lineup.

Whether Lou knows it or not, he just called for the removal of two of Chicago's least favorite columnists. Maybe Piniella is a blogger, after all. Though, to be fair, he seems decidedly undedicated to cruelty; he'll have to work on that if he wants to help us contribute to the downfall of society.