Wilstein and steroids

Steve Wilstein, the AP reporter who found the bottle of andro in Mark McGwire's locker and subsequently ended up writing "hundreds" of steroid stories as they became an integral part of the sports scene, discusses his retirement at 57 with Joe Strupp of E&P. Wilstein says one reason for his retirement was his father's ongoing fight with cancer, but he says the fact that he simply tired of writing about the abuse of performance enhancing drugs was a major factor, too.

'To hell with them'

I'm running out of energy/interest on the Mariotti front, but he talks about all the heat and criticism he's taking, so I pass the Chicago Reader story on to you with little comment beyond that.

More on ... you guessed it ...

Well, this Guillen/Mariotti thing isn't going away anytime soon, obviously.

Rick Telander weighs in on his Sun-Times colleague in this column, which Jason Whitlock describes on sj.com as "Telander knocks out Mariotti." As you'd expect, a lively debate is ensuing on several threads on that site.

Meanwhile, Mariotti's father rather eloquently comes to his defense in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review -- whether you agree or not is another matter, particularly since he never addresses the key point about whether Jay should at least show up at the ballpark now and then.

After vacation and then not generally having much to post about for most of June, things have certainly livened up.

By the way, with DSL/cable finally going to go into my condo sometime soon, I'm hoping to keep this site more relevant on a daily basis. We shall see, of course.

Morrissey on Mariotti/Guillen

Rick Morrissey writes in the Chicago Tribune about the Jay Mariotti-Ozzie Guillen business. He correctly notes that if you're going to rip somebody, you have a professional obligation to show up in that clubhouse or locker room now and then, preferably sooner than later.

One man's view

'Sports journalism critic' and Ball State journalism professor Scott Reinardy discusses the state of the business in this Minneapolis Star-Tribune Q&A. Not a lot new, really -- not enough reporting, sports writers should be good news reporters first, those in our business 'ignored' the steroids-in-baseball issue for a long time. I've said enough about the latter.

Ozzie vs. Mariotti

Ozzie Guillen apologizes, kind of, for calling columnist Jay Mariotti a "fag," in this Sun-Times story. This is Mariotti's take on the whole thing. Neither Guillen nor Mariotti is backing down -- and Mariotti shouldn't, although I'm not sure I agree completely with his stance on not having to visit the locker rooms of those you criticize (but he makes the point that he's subject to excess abuse when he does).

Simers profile

L.A. Magazine's RJ Smith writes about T.J. Simers in a profile that's finally online here. Not a great deal of groundbreaking for those who know him/about him, but an interesting profile of where he is in his career right now.