[Note: The alternate title is "She Likes Me, She Likes Me Not"]So, as I sit here tonight pondering things and sketching out new plans for this website for future blog-posting series, I just happen to notice that I have recently raised the ire of a well-respected colleague regarding a blog that I wrote not too long ago. Great to see that she still reads my blog from time to time despite removing it from her blogroll.
I went back and re-read the blog in question and came to the conclusion that perhaps I wasn't vitriolic enough on the would-be Penguins owner. I could have done better in displaying my dissatisfaction over the recent Penguins ownership drama. After all, you might have noticed that I live here in Pittsburgh and love my hometown very much. I have a lot of emotional ties to how the future of the franchise plays out. It would almost be expected for me to react in that manner. I was suckered in to believing that this self-made millionaire was going to help keep the team in Pittsburgh and bring his blackberry technology to our brand-spanking-new arena to help it grow into a dynasty franchise that it already has the potential to be. What that blog entry should have was an angry podcast that would rival Mike Valenti of WXYT 1270 AM.
What I don't seem to understand now is this is coming from someone who has prided herself on being on the cutting edge of the punk counter-culture and then has the unmitigated gall to claim that her sensibilities have been hurt? I don't buy it for a loonie's worth.
Granted that my new nickname for said ex-Penguin bidder does sound tasteless and juvenile to bring my professionalism into question, but actually it really isn't all that different from what another hockey journalist colleague has labeled "bald-silly". A gentleman worth 200x my talent and fame has also come out and slammed Balsille in his nerdiness to the K-Fed degree on that spectrum. So, I wasn't standing alone on this.
So, despite my nickname for him, the facts show that Mr. Balsillie came out of this being exposed for what he really was - a carpetbagger and a liar.
And that is just where the name fits.
I have tried to educate some of the K/W population on a Myspace Blog as I continue to build a network of friends and broadcasting colleagues that there is a new all-time low in hypocritical nonsense framed with the dumbing down of the Penguins franchise. But in the next two-faced breath insist that the team should move north? Why do you want this team to fail so badly yet salivate over the chance the team is relocated? Jealousy rears it's ugly head once again. What is this nonsense with the numbers game? We are happy with 16,000+ when before these seasons the franchise could only draw in the 4-digit range. It is a vast improvement that this city and franchise will gladly accept. Traditionally, the weeknight games don't draw very well until the students come home for the holiday season anyway. Look for the games against Atlanta and Toronto to be near sell-outs.
The last laugh was made in this debate another couple of posts back where I was first told by the media that Sidney fans were slipping away, but with recent polling data and the All-Star voting results as proof to the contrary. I do understand where my colleague is coming from. She's consistently a "hype-hater". I will never fault her for that.
I suppose in my somewhat pathetic desire to earn her respect, it is intended repayment for her strange connection that helps me become a better person and a better journalist where most everyone else so far has failed that level of inspiration.
As I march ever-forward to my ultimate destiny, weather or not I am ever going to earn her respect is left to being a fantastic conundrum. But I am not going to lose any kind of sleep over it.
[Via: TUC]
2 comments:
I read both posts. I really think you're obsessing and overreacting. How does referring to something you wrote as being tasteless and juvenile (and it was) make her oversensitive? If you're a member of the media as you claim to be, you can say things like that and expect to be taken seriously. It's crass and lowbrow.
One sentence written about you and you fly off the handle with a stalker-ish post? Get a life dude. You obviously have too much time on your hands.
I read TUC and your blog on a regular basis. I can fully understand why you would coin a new moniker for Balsillie but c'mon, if you step back and look at it with an "outsiders eye", you must admit that it was indeed a bit childish and juvenile? So she called you on it, so what? No harm done... But I do agree with the previous comment, I think you might be overreacting a smidge... Everyone understands where your comment came from and you vented a little, everyone does it. So it should be no surprise to you that someone else might call your comment for what it was. And that's it, done and done.
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