FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
I'm Farai Chideya. And this is NEWS & NOTES.
It's sports time, our special sports Bloggers' Roundtable. As always, our very own Tony Cox is at that.
Hey, Tony.
TONY COX: Hey, Farai. You know, we've got an awful lot to cover in today's Roundtable. The World Series is at hand. The Colorado Rockies with the big story. But that was before Josh Beckett threw the first pitch in game one Wednesday night. So who's the story now?
Isiah Thomas gets booed at the Garden in New York, and it may have nothing to do with the way the Knicks are playing. To clown or not to clown in the end zone? That debate just got even hotter with some recent comments from writer Jason Whitlock of FoxSports.com. And lastly, reaction from you, the listeners, to our first sports Bloggers' Roundtable. Some think we're still a work in progress. We'll see.
Here to help us move through these topics and more are: Justin Grant, he writes the blog Alpha Sports; we're also joined by D.K. Wilson who writes for the blog Sports On My Mind, he also goes by the name D-Wil; and our third sports blogger is Gregory Lee, he is the online editor for the Boston Globe.
Gentlemen, welcome to the Roundtable.
Mr. JUSTIN GRANT (Blogger, Alpha Sports): Hello.
Mr. D. K. WILSON (Blogger, Sports in My Mind): How you doing?
Mr. GREGORY LEE (Online Editor, Boston Globe): Hello. How are you, Tony?
COX: Greg, let's start with you and your Boston Red Sox. They bounced back and steamrolled Cleveland and then ran into the hottest team in post-season baseball, the Colorado Rockies, winners of 21 of 22 before they flew into Fenway. And, well, let's say they're not hottest team in baseball today, having been bombed to 13 to 1. And Josh Beckett could probably run for mayor if he won it right now.
But putting aside Wednesday night, do you think, as a writer - not as a Bostonian - that Colorado is still the story of the post-season?
Mr. LEE: Well, I still think Colorado's run was improbable and is still a story in terms of what - how they got to the World Series. This year, no one really, really thought or expected them to be in this position given that they are a very young team.
The pitcher for game two, for example, is a rookie they called up about two months ago. So you know, as a team, they're still trying to learn and developing. They were a surprise team. It's still a good - it's still a story. The big story around the country would still in Boston, you know, in New England area, the Boston - the Red Sox still the top story. But after the performance by Josh Beckett, it kind of calmed down the great story so far of the Colorado Rockies.
COX: Yeah, I was going to ask the other guys, D-Wil, starting with you, what the bloggers who follow baseball outside of Boston are saying about Colorado and now their chances?
Mr. WILSON: Well, Colorado is seen usually by bloggers as a very good feel-good story. And people actually have given them a chance to win the World Series. I personally feel that the eight-day layoff will hinder any chances in winning the World Series, and not only for their batters, but for their pitchers as well.
Pitchers are used to pitching on five days of rest. They have their various ways as well. And if we saw it last night and we saw that their pitchers were -the pitchers let the ball out over the plate a lot, which is something that they probably normally wouldn't do under normal circumstances.
COX: Well, Justin, I'm going to come to you, but on another baseball topic, if you don't mind. And it's this, on another team and another city.
New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, presumably, has picked his new manager to replace Joe Torre who - well, he wasn't really fired. Let's say he was shown the door and decided to walk through it. In any cases, a replacement could be named by Friday. Who do you think it's going to be?
Mr. GRANT: Well, you know, for me, I'd love to see the Yankees go the tough route and picked Tony Pena as their manager. But I don't think there's anybody in the baseball world who believes that's going to happen.
I think they probably take the safe pick and go with Donnie Baseball. He - and unfortunately for him, this is a bit of a transitional period for the Yankees. So I mean, I don't know if he'll be in there for the long haul. He's too much like Joe Torre. You know, they want - they complained it that they didn't have enough fire. And that's why to me, a guy like Tony Pena will be the logical choice, and also, the fact these are Spanish-speaking minority, leading the court with New York Yankees that would be an amazing sight. But I see them go on with the safe pick and taking Johnny Baseball.
COX: Well, Greg, how do - how would you rate that job? It's New York, it's the Yankees. But it's New York and George Steinbrenner. I imagine that the challenge must be part of the lure, you think?
Mr. LEE: Yeah. Any manager who has - you know, likes challenges would accept that challenge being a New York - a Yankees manager. It just doesn't - it takes a tough person to deal with, you know, Joe Torre's show over the last 12 years, the temperament to have that job. You know, it's a high-pressure job. It's a high risk, you know, it's a thankless(ph) job, basically, I mean, being the manager of a team that has the highest payroll in baseball.
And you expect it to win every year. So it's really - it's a thankless job in terms of what, you know, Joe Torre has done in his 12 years. And anyone who takes that job will have to, you know, face the same challenges that Joe Torre did over the last dozen years.
COX: Let's go into football, to the NFL where so far, New England and Indianapolis are in a league of their own. But one of the issues carrying off the sports blogs this week has been a reaction to an ongoing controversy and that is end-zone celebrations and to be more specific, the impact of the hip-hop culture on the behavior of young black athletes.
Now, it all started with a story this week written by Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star and Foxsports.com. Whitlock, who is black, says that the hip-hop flavor in football may be costing black jobs in the game. He cites what he calls outrageous celebrations in the end-zone as an example of vulgar behavior.
Now, the result, he goes on to say is that the elite teams, and he mentions the Patriots and Colts specifically, have few - fewer black players than other teams because they won't tolerate ignorant behavior. And here's a quote from him. "African-American football players caught up in the rebellion and buffoonery of hip-hop culture have given the NFL owners and coaches a justifiable reason to whiten their rosters."
Now, Justin, I'm coming to you. I mean, D-Wil, coming to you. But before you answer, bloggers this week, even those who think Whitlock has a point to some degree, are taking issue with his attack on hip hop as the reason for everything people don't like about young athletes.
Mr. WILSON: Well, that's true. I really feel Jason Whitlock may be out of touch with what, quote, "hip-hop culture" really is. And it's a blanket phrase that he has thrown around liberally. He also interchangeably uses it with thug, which is another way of - an easier way to say something much more derogatory about black people and about young black men.
So Whitlock's pretty far off base as far as that's concerned. And that's relatively generally agreed upon. His larger points about end-zone celebrations et cetera and about the Colts and the Patriots', quote, "whitening their teams" is equally off base.
If you look at who constitute their teams, the mainstays of the New England Patriots recently, the main additions to their team, Corey Dillong and Randy Moss, both of whom were known as quote, "malcontents" on their previous teams -Dylan with Bengals, Moss with the Vikings - are now, quote, "model citizens" with the Patriots.
And that has as much to do with the players in the locker room, the coaching staff, the management, et cetera, as it does the players themselves. It actually speaks to how professional those players actually are as - and how dysfunctional their previous organizations where.
COX: If you're just joining us, this is our Sports Bloggers Roundtable. I'm Tony Cox. We're talking with Justin Grant who writes the blog Alpha Sports, D.K. Wilson writes for the blog Sports On My Mind and Gregory Lee is the online editor for the Boston Globe.
Justin, you know, this argument even got a little personal recently when Chad Johnson of the Bengals was interviewed by former NFL receiver-turned-broadcaster Keyshawn Johnson who took the younger Johnson to task for his end-zone antics. But the fact that the criticism came from Keyshawn seemed to raise more than a few eyebrows, considering Keyshawn's own behavior when he played. Not to mention the fact, Justin, they're cousins, aren't they?
Mr. GRANT: And, you know, to me, that - it strikes me as real odd that the ESPN would have a cousin interview another cousin. That strikes me as a bit of a conflict in interest.
Mr. LEE: Exactly.
Mr. GRANT: Looking back at this whole Whitlock situation and the end-zone celebrations of hip hop, Whitlock is definitely ignorant about the hip-hop culture. But I think he has a point. And I don't - I think his - while his analysis - he and NFL is fatally flawed, I think it actually applies right now in the NBA.
We could see from David Stern's institution of that dress code that his court response didn't care much for the hip-hop culture. And we can also see with the globalization of the NBA that they're trying - it looks to the naked eye that they're trying to wean themselves off of reliance on so-called talent from the hood.
So while I don't agree that his analysis with the NFL right now is accurate, I think it does apply right now in the NBA.
COX: What about that, Greg?
Mr. LEE: Well, I totally agree with the whole argument, but it's really more an NBA issue with the hip-hop thing and how David Stern with his dress code. And he's very - he built the league the last 10 years based on hip hop. And from the time, you know, his - he's just trying this whole (unintelligble) morale.
Going back to Jason Whitlock, it's so ironic because the way that Jason writes is the way hip hop has been (unintelligible). Hip hop is a form of music that's more rebellious of nature and so to speak in terms of going against the grain. In terms of what hip hop speaks about what's going on in today's society. And that's the way Jason writes. He even dresses the way of hip hop. So for him to condemn hip hop in a way in the NFL is really a lie because he dresses, you know, with baggy clothes, the way hip-hop people - hip hop wear. He writes the way, you know, rappers write. And, you know, he responses…
Cox: It's hypocritical. It's hypocritical.
Mr. LEE: He's hypocritical. Very hypocritical about what the whole genre of hip hop and this whole issue he's written with - about Chad Johnson and end-zone celebrations because he is hip hop. He's in that generation. So it's so hypocritical of him to write that.
COX: Well, let me (unintelligible).
Mr. GRANT: And somebody - him. I'm sorry.
Mr. WILSON: This is - there's a larger issue here too.
COX: Hold on, let me just stress a point. Let me say before you go on that we tried to get Jason Whitlock on the program. We called him several times, e-mailed him several times without a response. Go ahead and make your comment quickly. There's one last topic I'd like to hit before we end.
Mr. WILSON: Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. That's okay, Tony. I'm fine.
COX: Okay. Well, it's this. Let me share a letter that we got regarding our recent Bloggers' Roundtable debut. One of the subjects we were discussing was how you can tell black sports bloggers from white sports bloggers. And the answer from the panel - that included you, Greg and you, Justin, as well was that black bloggers tend to be more hip hop in their writing style while white bloggers tend to use more frat-house humor.
Well, one listener called that ridiculous and scolded me for not calling you guys on it. So let me say that the sports blogs that I've read like anything else are actually wide ranging in style, and that's true, whether they're black or white. But it's also true, isn't it, that black bloggers often do use street jargon and text message shorthand hip-hop style. D-Wil, a real quick answer from you.
Mr. WILSON: Actually, I do not use that at all. I am a journalist. I come from a journalist background. I do - I abhor - actually, I don't like blogging. As a diary tool, that's fantastic. As a form of actual media communication, I don't believe that it has anything to do with journalism whatsoever.
COX: Let me ask the other guys because we have less than a minute to go. Greg, what's your quick take on that?
Mr. LEE: Well, I agree with him. I mean, blogging - it's just - it's a, you know, the true definition of the word blogging is in terms of pertaining what -you know, like journalism, like in a newspaper. We call it blogging on our Web site for the Boston Globe, but really, it's all journalism. There's no really slang or anything but there's no other word people know or define what, you know, the short news items are on the - in the newspaper Web sites for blogging. What Bill Simmons does, they call it a blog, but is it really a blog? It's more of a column but they call it a blog. So there's no real definition.
COX: Justin, I've got 10 seconds for your answer. Can you blog it for me in 10 seconds?
Mr. GRANT: Oh, absolutely. I really just think that blogging has - gave people a voice that normally wouldn't have one. We've really knocked down the traditional gatekeepers like the newspaper and things like that. So I like blogging.
COX: You did it in 10 seconds. That means we'll have you back. I really appreciate that.
Mr. GRANT: Oh, yeah.
COX: D.K. Wil writes under the name…
(Soundbite of laughter)
COX: D.K. Wilson writes under the name D-Wil blogging for Sports on My Mind, joined us from his office in Connecticut. Justin Grant, blogger Alpha Sports joined us from our studios in New York, and Greg Lee on assignment in Virginia.
I'm Tony Cox and this is NEWS & NOTES.
Copyright © 2007 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.