Okay, so harsh. Yea, but not my words. I’m of course quoting Brett Myers who will certainly get his share of media backlash after yesterday’s locker room mishap:

When Myers was asked about the two home runs, he said they were really “just pop ups.”

A reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer questioned whether Myers really thought they were pop ups, and Myers got angry.

“You’re not even a beat reporter, you’re a fill-in, you don’t know anything about baseball,” said Myers, who then called the reporter “retarded.”

The Inquirer reporter asked if Myers could spell retarded, and Myers stood up. Burrell then restrained Myers, and Myers refused to speak any further.

I believe Myers probably called the dingers “pop ups” because Philly’s ballpark is a little more homerun friendly than others. Well, so here comes the part where I am supposed to criticize Myers for losing his temper, not acting professionally, and utilizing a very un-politically correct phrase. But here’s the kicker: I think he’s right, the guy was a retard.

Now, I am aware of how un-PC that is, and I should probably use another term but Brett got me started and I can’t really help it if I agree with him. See, I have quite a few issues with sportswriters in general - there are some very good ones out there, but there are probably more worthless writers than good ones. Sportswriters are a funny breed as their entire living is based on and solely reliant on following around sports starts like pet dogs. Their lives are essentially equated to worship and devotion, yet many of the sportwriters out there seem to have some strange, self-deprecating approach to the job where they tend to ask ridiculously stupid or painfully obvious questions (”how does it feel to lose the biggest game of your career?”) and seem to take joy in insulting, badgering, and bringing down the same athletes who seem to be the only reason these people aren’t waiting tables at Denny’s.

But do we even need them around anymore? Box scores and game reports are in real time now, games are televised nationally and with the satellite packages one might be able to watch every major sporting event in a calendar year; plain and simply, if we wanted to know how the game went, we’d watch the game. Writers in the locker room is a practice that follows the games back to the days when television coverage was spotty at best and there was no such thing as the internet. Meaning what exactly? It means that locker room reporters, and probably 50% of sportswriters - mainly those whose jobs it is to go to a game to get a quote - are useless. I’m sorry, but I don’t give a flying crap about what Brett had to say after losing the game; if he comes off the mound, takes a dump on home plate, and runs around the bases with his pants on his head I definitely want to know about that. I don’t need to know his thoughts on an off game though.

Being someone who played sports in high school and college, I know damn well that the modern day athlete relies on adrenaline to function competitively on the highest level. So let’s see, jacked up, pissed of pitcher meets beat writer with a chip on his shoulder? That’s sitcom material right there; and a bad one at that. I like the fact that Brett fired back and I’d expect nothing less from a teammate or player on my favorite team. Plain and simply, the sports writers don’t belong in the locker room anymore; it’s more Jerry Springer than ESPN and even Jerry Springer got old after a while.

Furthermore, if anyone criticizes Brett Myers for being unprofessional, how about the sportswriters who antagonized him, the ones who asked dumb questions actually hoping for an outburst like this? How professional is that for a news organization; they are supposed to report the news, not help make it. Honestly… it’s times like this when I can actually understand why Barry Bonds is such a d-bag to the press: they deserve it sometimes.

Wow, that turned into a rant pretty quickly… not exactly what I set out for but I’ll take it.