Reviewing the Press

How CubsTalk.com got listed as part of the news feeds on Yahoo! is beyond me. Now, there are many wannabe sportswriters on the internet. The reason most of them don't have paying gigs is that their writing is... um... how can I put this? Bad.

I had the unfortunate experience this morning of clicking on this headline:

Brenly Won't Be Voice of Cub Fans

One James Renwick of CubsTalk penned a diatribe that says Brenly is bad, and bad all over (being familiar with that adjective gives one proper perspective). Breaking down a few of James' "points":

"(I)n 2000, even as he was broadcasting the games, Brenly openly campaigned in the press to replace Buck Showalter after the Diamondbacks fired their only manager in team history at the time.
...
Politics are a dirty business, and Brenly has made it to the booth with dirt smeared all over his face."

So Bob campaigned for an open job? How... uh... APPROPRIATE! Dirty politics is trying to get a job that's open!?!?!? In my world we call that INTERVIEWING. James does note that Bob was eventually hired and won a little thing called a World Series Title.

James continues, bashing, predictively, mind you, Brenly's style.

"Don't expect to hear Brenly criticizing a Baker decision (after all, Baker gave him his first big league coaching gig). Don't expect to hear Brenly talking about disappointment (in a typical broadcast in Arizona, Brenly's favorite term was "Bad Luck"); in fact, don't expect him to say much of anything that you didn't already know."

Now, I loved Steve Stone. But Steve had gotten quite repetitive at the end of his run, the innumerous visibility checks being the most obvious example. Will he bash Baker? Funny. He just might. After all, some have predicted that Brenly may be a manager in waiting. Oh wait, that won't happen. James tells us that Brenly only campaigns for jobs AFTER the job is available.

"What we want, and what we need, is that voice of reason; that voice that lets us know that we are under-performing; that we are not playing good baseball; that we are sometimes flat out bad, in fact. We want that, if for no other reason, than to curse and scream at the TV our disagreement.

Bob Brenly is not that voice."

Well, if James knew anything about Brenly's previous work in Chicago, he'd know the exact opposite was true about his broadcasts the last time he worked here.

James rambles on to create a pithy little Bob Brenly drinking game. It's not even worth commenting about.

What's obvious is that James is pissed that Steve got canned. I was to. The solution? Bash the new guy preemptively.

Here's an idea. Take a stiff drink before you read CubsTalk.com. And read the rest of the Cubs Blog Army. Their thoughts are more cogent and more amusing. Even without the Yahoo! connection.