The Decline of Newspapers has a price even in the insulated sports world

It has been known for a while now that the newspaper industry is in dire straits--already too many have gone defunct or web-only, and now the Boston Globe is in serious trouble as well.

When newspapers are in trouble they tend to cut non-critical sections, but who would have thought that baseball writers, so long some of the most stalwart in the newspaper community, would be paying the price?.

The above linked article is startling because of its immediacy, and because it points to an issue we probably don't notice here in New York.

The Yankees will never suffer from lack of (media) coverage. They are undeniably the biggest, most marketable brand in Major League Baseball and they do play in the media capital of the world.

Even so, the Yankees' writers have not been unscathed-writers at the Star Ledger, for example, have had a tough time. The casual fan who gets all of his or her news from Sportscenter may not have noticed it, but it's still true.

If it can affect the Yankees, then you know it will affect smaller and lest successful franchises, and as the article points out, Pittsburgh is down to a nine member press core. While I'm sure there's something to be said for the intimacy of working in a small core, its still hard to swallow.

Newspaper writers have been a part of baseball so long that they are as much a part of the game as peanuts and crackerjacks.

Of course, newspapers in the 1950s did not have to compete with fan blogs and ESPN.com-like 24 sports news coverage, and those avenues are certainly a healthy and growing facet of media coverage.

It seems such a paradox, that the new forms of media should lead directly to the old one that gave it its shot, but I guess, maybe, that's the price of progress.

Oh no, Mo!

From LoHud Yankees:

But Mariano Rivera is getting a second opinion on his shoulder today and every indication is that he will need surgery to repair bone spurs. It’s minor surgery, a scope. But no surgery is minor when you’re talking about a 38-year-old pitcher and shoulder issues are almost always more complicated than elbow injuries.

This is, of course, disheartening, even after the disappointment of this season.

Mariano Rivera is arguably the only Yankee that lived up to his contract signing of last off-season, not only equaling his career marks, but in some situations, exceeding them.

In some sense it's good this happened now, as opposed to in the middle of the season or in a year the Yankees needed him for October, but it doesn't change that well, because it's Mo, there's no spin you can put on it to make it seem routine, even if it is a fairly 'routine' procedure.

So here's hoping that if it does come to surgery that it goes well and he'll be ready come February/March 2009.



As to Joe Girardi vs. the Media, I have two thoughts:

1) Girardi should be more forthcoming to the media, even if it is just to say 'please don't come to me regarding injuries" and

2) After listening to the press conference the media did kind of exaggerate just how much Girardi blew up--can't imagine if it was Ozzie Guillen or Lou Pinella in the clubhouse...