One Hard Way to Play Ball: Russell Martin Plays Catcher, the Toughest Position in Baseball
For Catcher, Mastering Mind Games Within the Game
Rob Dibble apologizes, 8/15/2010.
1 drink if Bobby Sunshine:
says “young man”
says “beautiful day”
says “youngster”
says “good head on his shoulders”
says “See. You. Later.”
complains about Strasburg’s draft bonus
complains that Strasburg has never pitched a big-league inning
Drain glass if Bobby Sunshine:
says “jamjob,” “jam sandwich,” or some other jam variant
says “How far it this one going to go?” & ball is not HR
makes fun of stats
1 drink if Kenny Powers:
says “Niiiiiiiiiiiiice”
says “trust his stuff”
says “smackem yackem”
pines for the X-Mo camera
says “lunch”
tries to break down a batter’s swing
Drain glass if Kenny Powers:
emits a Paciorek-like subhuman wail when things go the Nats’ way
rides the officials for the Nats not getting calls
denigrates bloggers or people on Twitter
Auletta examines Obama’s relationship with the mediaNew Yorker press release
With Cable, the Web, and Tweets, Can the President — or the Press — Still Control the Story?
In the January 25, 2010, issue of The New Yorker, in “Non-Stop News” (p. 38), Ken Auletta examines the Obama Administration’s fraught relationship with the media. The President’s chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau, tells Auletta that the President is on a mission “not just to change politics in Washington but to change the culture of Washington, and the media is part of it.” Auletta draws on dozens of conversations with Administration officials and Washington reporters to illustrate how this mission has not been entirely successful, as both the President and the press struggle to deal with the new media landscape.
Auletta writes, “The news cycle is getting shorter — to the point that there is no pause, only the constancy of the Web and the endless argument of cable. This creates pressure to entertain or perish, which has fed the press’s dominant bias: not pro-liberal or pro-conservative but pro-conflict.”
* Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, tells Auletta, “What used to drive one or two days of coverage and questions is now readily subsumed every few hours.”
* David Axelrod tells Auletta, “There are some really good journalists there, really superb ones. But the volume of material they have to produce just doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for reflection.”
* The New York Times’ Peter Baker says, “We are, collectively, much like eight-year-olds chasing a soccer ball. Instead of finding ways of creating fresh, original, high-impact journalism, we’re way too eager to chase the same story everyone else is chasing, which is too often the easy story and too often the simplistic story — and too often the story that misses what’s going on.”
* NBC’s chief White House correspondent, Chuck Todd, in a typical day does eight to sixteen standup interviews for NBC or MSNBC; hosts his new show, “The Daily Rundown”; appears regularly on “Today” and “Morning Joe”; tweets or posts on his Facebook page eight to ten times; and composes three to five blog posts. “We’re all wire-service reporters now,” he says.
* The former White House communications director Anita Dunn says, “When journalists call you to discuss a story, it’s not because they’re interested in having a discussion. They’re interested in a response. And the need to file five times a day encourages this.”
* Jay Carney, Vice-President Joe Biden’s spokesman, tells Auletta that budget considerations now keep reporters from travelling with politicians. “Eventually, there’s a loss of what the public knows.”
“This White House, like others, does its best to manipulate press coverage,” Auletta writes, and is known for its discipline.
* Regarding the Obama team’s ability to stay on-message, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos says, “You can cover a story and talk to four or five high-level officials on the same story. . . . There might be a slight difference in tone, but the message is always the same.”
* Rahm Emanuel, the White House’s chief of staff, sees press coverage as “a political strategy,” Baker says. “He’s as relentless in working reporters as he is in working congressmen. He cajoles, lobbies, berates, and trades information because he understands it’s better to work with the media than to shut us out.”
* “People approach their news consumption the way they approach their iPod: you download the songs you like and listen to them when you want to listen to them,” Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, tells Auletta. “That infects our strategy in where the President goes and where he doesn’t.”
* In the campaign, David Axelrod says, “you want to be responsible,” but “by and large the only thing you have to worry about is getting elected. In the White House, you have to deal with the events of the day.”
“But being the most transparent White House in history doesn’t mean the media is given the full access it was led to expect,” Auletta writes.
* Noting that the Administration has cut back the frequency of the usual morning “press gaggle” at the White House, the former press secretary Michael McCurry says, “They successfully cut off the impromptu access the media had before.”
* Dunn tells Auletta, “For us, transparency has never meant that we put our internal decision-making on display. We didn’t during the campaign. We try not to here. Transparency is what the decision is, and why it was made. The process by which it was arrived at is not central.”
“Obama’s efforts to reason with the press have at times given way to outright combat,” such as with Fox News, Auletta writes.
* The intent of excluding the network from a tour of five back-to-back morning shows in September, 2009, “was to send a message to the rest of the press corps,” Dunn says. This message, a correspondent at another network concedes, “has had some effect.”
* Major Garrett, Fox’s chief White House correspondent, insists that he and Fox are not being punished by the Administration, but adds, “The door is not shut for me. It’s just not opened first for me.” When Auletta asks Garrett whether he felt torn between his journalism and his network, he does not answer for a full twenty-seven seconds. “The human answer,” he finally says, “is that I do the best I can.”
Auletta notes that some members of the press corps, as well some Administration insiders, question aspects of the Obama press strategy.
* Chuck Todd thinks that Robert Gibbs and the White House “have been slow on political stories. Everything with this Administration has been reactive.”
* Axelrod concedes that there are limits to the effectiveness of using the President on every message. “We’ve got the greatest running back of all time, so the tendency is to want to hand off to him on every play. We need to involve all of the other members of the team. If I were to rethink the last year, I’d like to spread the load around a little and use other members of the Administration.”
In some cases, the Administration has been able to circumvent the mainstream media. Beginning in the campaign, Obama’s team has had a “superior grasp of new media,” Auletta writes, and has used it to connect directly with citizens. Pfeiffer says that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube allowed the campaign to “go around the filter” of the press. But Auletta reports that, in an age of instant news, both the White House and the media have lost control.
* When Sarah Palin claimed that the Democratic health-care bill would institute “death panels” to determine who received care, “we thought it was absurd,” Pfeiffer says, “and there was a perhaps naïve view on our part that, if a major political figure says something that is entirely untrue and ridiculous, the press would treat it as untrue and ridiculous.”
* Auletta writes that, in the debate over the health-care bill, “the White House lost control of its message, as David Axelrod acknowledges.” “We’ve always done better when the story did not center on congressional wrangling,” Axelrod tells him.
Reporters seem unaffected by Obama’s criticism of their methods.
* Garrett acknowledges that “there’s more than a grain of truth” to Obama’s criticism. But at times, he says, “this critique of the media is entirely self-serving. It’s designed to get us back on our heels, to make us tentative about legitimate lines of inquiry.”
This is a five-part series offering a first-person account by David Rohde of his seven months as a captive of the Taliban in Pakistan. Mr. Rohde, a New York Times reporter, was kidnapped with two Afghan colleagues on Nov. 10, 2008, as they traveled to an interview with a Taliban commander outside of Kabul, Afghanistan.
The articles are based on Mr. Rohde’s recollections and, where possible, records kept by his family and colleagues. For safety reasons, certain names and details have been withheld.
Fairfax, Va.: Redesigns are great and I do enjoy the new format. But I still find there’s too much coverage of the Redskins and not enough of the Caps. Is this something on your radar to address?
Matt Vita: Another comment on the re-design. Thanks. As for the coverage of the Redskins vs. the Capitals. We hear a lot — pro and con — about the amount of space we devote to the Redskins. They are the biggest sports story in town, and we try to cover it thoroughly. As for the Caps, they are a terrific story, and one that we devote a considerable amount of energy covering. Just recall last spring’s playoff drive. I think what’s happening now is that it’s still football season, so the Caps may seem to be getting less prominence. That will change as autumn turns to winter.
* * *
Chicken or the Egg: Which comes first?
I wish that the Post’s Sports section did a more balanced job of covering all four of the regions pro sports teams.
I’ve seen various Post editors and writers defend their choices to cover the Redskins ad nauseam, occasionally at the expense of the other pro teams. And the Post defends its choices by using web traffic and statistics to point out that readers to go the Redskins info.
Sure they do, I’m not likely to come to washingtonpost.com for Nats news, because most days, you guys don’t have any. So, which will come first, the chicken or the egg?
Matt Vita: Thanks for your comment. While the Redskins do indeed receive a considerable amount of coverage, we provide terrific coverage of all the sports teams in D.C., including the Nationals.
* * *
Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.: What was behind the decision to remove the section listing results of area sports teams (i.e., of major leagues - NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, NCAA) on the front page? I really liked the left margin summary of scores and results. It was a quick read and provided a reference to any accompanying article.
In fact, I believe that I have not seen the result of a DC United game on the front page for weeks. Surely, somewhere in the front page filled with stories about NFL quarterbacks or the New York Yankees, you guys could include some small blurb about previous night’s results for area teams …
Matt Vita: Yes, we did stop listing scores on the front of the Sports page with the re-design. Except for Monday’s paper, when we publish the NFL scores at the top of the page in the new navigation bar directing readers to stories inside the section. It was a judgement call.
* * *
Reston, Va.: Why does swimming have a special place and graphic on the Post’s sports web page?
I think most people are interested in the Capitals, the Redskins, the Wizards, the Nationals and their leagues, golf, tennis, soccer.
So why give swimming such a standard spot? Is some swimming organization paying for placement? Is a sports editor a swimming fan?
Matt Vita: That spot refers swimming fans to an experimental web page we launched last summer on the local swimming scene. It also has stories from Amy Shipley, one of our reporters who is one of the top writers on swimming nationally. And this winter it will be the place to go for high school swimming results in the Washington area. Check it out.
(The sports editor likes swimming, but not any more than he likes a lot of other things.)
* * *
Alexandria, Va.: When I was in Boston in June one thing I liked about the Globe is that their sports page had a pretty thorough recap of all the playoff hockey series that were going on, even though the Bruins weren’t even in it anymore. And that’s what I don’t like about the Post - if it’s not about a local sports team, it’s lucky if it gets a mention outside of a box score. With so many people hailing from different cities in this area, I would think the readership would support a sports page that a more in-depth coverage of sports in general.
Matt Vita: You make a good point. Boston is a great, great hockey town. Washington seems to be embracing the sport through the Capitals’ success. So this spring we’ll try to adjust as things move along, and try to provide more of the Stanley Cup playoff coverage, even in summary form, should the Capitals bow out earlier than they’d like.
* * *
Redskins: I’ll defend the Redskins coverage. That’s what I want. And I’m not alone in this town, and people should stop trying to pretend that this isn’t a football town. L.A. gives inordinate coverage to the Lakers. They are a basketball town. This is what happens when one of your franchises dominates a market.
Matt Vita: Someone defending the amount of coverage we give to the Redskins. So I just thought I’d share it with everyone.
* * *
Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.: I get that the annual Redskins drama is a big story and should be covered, but for such an awful team, the Post sure as heck devotes are rather ungodly amount of resources to covering the same story: “Redskins Lose, Team Trying Not To Panic.”
That said, you have an excellent collection of writers who do some really outstanding work. Dave Sheinin’s story last week about Nick Adenhart had me near tears on the metro, Mike Wise’s story last spring on Donald Brashear was nothing short of surprising, Boz continues to delight every day, and Barry Srvluga might be the best of the bunch.
Now, if we could just get less Redskins…..
Matt Vita: Thanks for the shout-out to some of our great writers.
* * *
Franklin Square, Washington, D.C.: What will be the policy of printing game stories for the Wizards and Caps? I was surprised to see the Wizards vs. Hawks exhibition game story was not in my printed paper but was part of Michael’s blog — not even worthy of an online story? Couldn’t have been a timing problem unless Atlanta’s moved. Will East Coast games be in the print edition and all others online?
Matt Vita: We publish all the game stories in the paper, and provide coverage on-line, including on the Capitals Insider and Wizards Insider blogs. What you are referring to is deadlines — some non-East Coast stories don’t make the early editions. In fact, some late-ending stories occasionally don’t even make the paper. When that happens, we do post a story on-line right away for readers who want to see what happened immediately. In the following day’s paper, we either re-print the game story or follow through with a second-day story for those editions that failed to get it.
* * *
Arlington, Va.: The Post does a good job covering Georgetown and Maryland but seems to do less so with George Mason, Howard, and George Washington. The latter would be an excellent team to cover, either a real happy surprise or a disaster that would make the Redskins current difficulties seem like just another story.
Matt Vita: Thanks for the compliment on our Georgetown and Maryland coverage. We do cover George Mason, Howard and GW, though admittedly devote less space to those schools. We have a fulltime reporter whose job it is to cover their basketball teams. It’s all a matter of scale.
* * *
Bowie, Md.: Why are the Ravens not seen as a team in D.C.? They are doing well, but seem to be shunted to the back pages always. Why do we have to have all of the negative stories about the Redskins in the front of the Sports page.
And what about D.C. United? They are likely going to be in MLS playoffs and in the CONCACAF Champions League playoffs. It’s a shame that the Post spends so much time on losing teams (the Nats and Redskins) and not much time on winners (Ravens and United). Just a thought.
Matt Vita: Thanks. It’s a perfectly valid thought. See my previous reply on the Ravens. As for DC United, Steve Goff, who covers them, is the best soccer writer in the country. He’s United fans’ best advocate for better story placement, and usually lets us know when we are under-playing things. If you haven’t yet, take a look at Steve’s Soccer Insider blog on washingtonpost.com. It’s a must-read for soccer fans in Washington and across the country.
Swing and a long one … deep left field … way back … warning track … wall … the leap … And the ball … is … GONE … GOODBYE!
USA Baseball held its trials for the 18-and-under National Team this week in North Carolina, and most of the elite prep players from the class of 2010 were there. I spoke with several scouts who attended, including multiple scouting directors, and here’s a summary of their reports on the best players there (the complete roster):
• Bryce Harper was, indeed, in North Carolina, and put on his regular show in BP. He wasn’t as good in games, although he improved after a four-punchout performance in the first game, and is still getting out on his front side too much; one scout thought it was obvious that Harper was still “pressing” as a result of all of the media attention in June. Behind the plate, he remains outstanding, with several raves about his arm strength and accuracy.
” Law - Harper and others compete at trialsJeff MacGregor writes about an MMA palooka. It’s not “The Boxer and the Blonde,” but it’s pretty goddamn good.
