Coming back

Well, I've obviously been away for a long time. It's my intention to get this thing up and running again and start regular posting. We'll see if I actually follow through.

Posting today about the amazing story of Colleen Bellotti, wife of Oregon football coach Mike, angrily confronting Portland Oregonian columnist John Canzano over a column he wrote about their son. Canzano writes about the whole thing in his blog, and the New York Times chronicles it, too.

Adande officially to ESPN.com

Wasn't a well-kept secret, rumored when he took the buyout at the L.A. Times, but J.J. Adande has started writing a column for ESPN. com. David Davis writes about it on SoCalSportsObserved.

Blogging here and me

Going to be brief today, a busy day.

Actually, brief is better than what I've been doing. This blog has often been neglected, as you can see.

June is a travel/vacation month for me, so I've been looking here even less than usual. But I really intend to use this forum more regularly starting in late June/early July, and not just for passing news.

So keep checking back; hopefully, the links are helpful (and more are always welcome), and we'll start doing something interesting here soon.

Christine Daniels interview in Newsweek

Lorraine Ali does an interview/Q&A with L.A. Times reporter Christine Daniels, and it's published here online in Newsweek.

I worked with Christine when she was Mike Penner back at the Times back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A great colleague and friend -- although like many of us, we lose touch when there are thousands of miles between -- and I wish her nothing but the best.

Dave Nightingale dies

Dave Nightingale, an old-school baseball beat writer for the Chicago Daily News and then the Tribune has died at 72, the Tribune reports. Dave's son, Van, is also in the newspaper business. Condolences to the family.

Washingtonpost.com sports editor dies

William C. Grant, sports editor of washingtonpost.com, dies at 53 from melanoma. He was known as an extremely hard worker who loved his job, the obituary says.

Courant's Alan Greenberg dies

Alan Greenberg, a highly respected -- and beloved in the business -- writer for the Hartford Courant has died at 55 of an apparent heart attack.

There's a thread with a lot of shocked posters here on sj.com.

Borges suspended for two months

The Boston Globe has suspended veteran writer Ron Borges for two months without pay after passages from a Tacoma writer's story appeared almost identically in a football notes column by Borges. It's the natural progression in the always slippery practice of notes exchanges. Dan Shanoff says that practice should be ended, and me makes a good point; in the print-only days, there might have been some value to readers in such exchanges, but these days, when anybody can read anything on the Internet, what's the point? And here's Deadspin on the whole mess.

The Chronicle/Balco case

The first post of a message board thread on sj.com, called 'How do we feel about the Chron guys now?'

sfgate

L.A. Times

These two opinions aren't so positive.

Are we, as a group, having any second thoughts about the support these guys got? Obviously, it was based on the information we had.

Thoughts? Seems like a worthy topic for here, given the "sticky" thread back in those early days.

End post.

The thread itself is slow; somebody asked me about that. I think some people are simply confused about what to think after all the support Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams were given within the industry. Given all we know now, are a lot of people having second thoughts?

Or maybe it's just the holiday.

More on Van

The passing of Van McKenzie has created one of the most inspiring threads in the history of sportsjournalists.com. I'm sure it will stay near the top for quite a while, but you can get it here as well.

Meanwhile, this was taken out and made a sticky, the getting-more-famous-by the-minute "Vanifesto" that Van wrote when he was hired to return to the Orlando Sentinel.

A legend leaves us

Van McKenzie, one of the most important sports editors of the past 50 years and an equally large character, has died of cancer at 61. His obituary in the Orlando Sentinel -- his last stop in a 'nomadic' career (to say the least) -- describes the man who influenced the business for four decades and whose stamp will remain on the way sports sections are produced and how they look and read long after he's gone.

I never worked with Van, but I knew him through APSE, played poker with him a few times, ate dinner or drank with him a few times. And I certainly worked with others whose careers were profoundly influenced by him. And I don't think I ever heard anybody say a negative word about the man -- quite a feat in this business.

Wilbon: More ESPN, less Post

After signing a big new deal with ESPN, Michael Wilbon tells Harry Jaffe of the Washingtonian that he won't be leaving the Post altogether but won't be writing two or three columns a week for it anymore, either. "I might write columns for the Web. I might have a blog. I might do something with Tony [Kornheiser] on the Web. I’ll do whatever Don Graham and Len Downie want me to do. ESPN did not create the Wilbon-and-Kornheiser brand. The Post did."

Berkow to retire

Highly decorated and respected writer Ira Berkow is retiring from the New York Times' sports department. He intends to continue writing, though. The memo announcing his departure is posted on Romenesko.

End of the year

First of all, a Happy New Year to everybody.

My resolution as it pertains to this page is to keep it more up to date and relevant in 2007. I now have all the tools needed at home to do so, and I'm going to make the effort. I promise. Hopefully, even when we're between new posts, the links are helpful. And keep those coming; I haven't said no to anybody yet.

Anyway, Carl Bialik and Jason Fry of the blog The Daily Fix at the Wall Street Journal give their Top 10 columns of 2006. It's an eclectic mix.

Tribune's Adee leaving sports

Bill Adee, who has a long career in sports at both the Chicago Sun-Times and then the Tribune is going to become the new "associated managing editor for innovation" there.

Don't know Bill well, but have always heard good things about him. Should be a pretty interesting job as newspapers continue to try to catch up on the Internet.

To vote or not to vote

In Friday's Chicago Sun-Times, Jay Mariotti says it's time sportswriters stopped voting for awards of any kind -- MVP, Hall of Fame, anything. In Newsday on Sunday, Jim Baumbach writes about writers and editors on both sides of the debate.

Jemele Hill debuts

Old and bitter vs. young and open-minded lightning rod Jemele Hill has written her debut column for ESPN.com.

Predictably, a thread was been started on sportsjournalists.com, and it's expanding with record-breaking speed. And predictably, it not only addresses the merits of her first column but takes more shots at her personally.

UPDATE: Subsequently, it was not even locked with record-breaking speed. It was taken down altogether. So the link I had above is gone.

I think we need more Jemele Hills stirring things up in this business, but of course that's not going to fly with with the increasingly grumpy sportswriting establishment, many of whom are simply jealous over the opportunity she has gotten and the money she's making but who, of course, would never admit that.

Their denial doesn't make it less so.

More fun in Chicago

Some people don't like it when columnists and rival papers -- or, God forbid, columnists at the same paper -- take shots at each other.

Me, I love it.

Latest out of Chicago, where the Sun-Times' Jay Mariotti and Rick Telander have been known to go at it, is a print dustup between the Tribune's Rick Morrissey and Telander.

Morrissey doesn't like the fact that the Sun-Times has replaced the 'o' in Chicago in its nameplate with a Bears helmet and palm tree (the unbeaten Bears are trying to get to Miami for the Super Bowl, get it?)

Telander doesn't like the fact that Morrissey doesn't like the fact.

Some pretty good sniping. Of course, Tribune Co.'s ownership of the Cubs doesn't come up at all.

Oregonian hires somebody to investigate -- itself

The Oregonian has hired former Mercury News sports editor Craig Lancaster to investigate its relationship with the Trail Blazers. He's going to report it independently, and it will be edited by somebody outside of sports (maybe the paper), and they'll print it and let the chips fall where they may. Read all about it here at truehoop.com.

Paper protests UT ban of reporter

The Dave Hooker saga continues. Tennessee banned the Knoxville News-Sentinel reporter until Oct. 23 for doing an unauthorized interview with a player. Today, the paper formally protested. As you might expect, there's quite a lively thread about this on SJ.com.