I have to share this: My correspondence with an ESPN "Sportswriter"

[Tweed]

Okay, so I read this article:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page3/story?page=philbrick/simpsons

It's poorly written that makes me think of the "I go to my college newspaper meetings once a month and write for the sports section because I like sports and there is free food" kind of article. Later I find another one of his articles and it gives his E-mail address and says "Mike Philbrick is a rare contributor to Page 2" (Page 2 is ESPN.com's less sports journalism and more shoot off your mouth type section, Page 3 is an even more amateur version of Page 2).

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So I send him this E-mail:

Subject Line: "Mike Philbrick is a rare contributor to Page 2"
"Thank God for that too. Your latest Simpsons article? A joke about how NBA players don't try then a joke about baseball negations? Wow, I think I've been transported to the 90's. Hopefully they keep you on Page 3. Maybe they will even invent Page 4, just for you."
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Five minutes later I get this:

"Thanks!

I'll let you know when we we're looking for editors when we launch Page 4."
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I reply:

"Awesome,

I could use a nice cushy job where I do crap"
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I leave to enjoy my Friday evening. It was getting late. My girlfriend and I had a splendid time at this cheap Italian place with great atmosphere. I also had a great deal of reading to do this weekend, my radio show, and two games of Floor Hockey. I don't check my E-mail until now. In my mailbox I find this:
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Time marked 1 minute after I sent my second reply:

"And at the end of the day you'd work here in a second if you could. Come on you know you would."
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I reply:

"I wouldn't work there if it meant my life would be pathetic and I would be staying at the office/home on Friday nights sending E-mails out."
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Mike:
Seriously less than 30 seconds later:
"Oh, so that was your entourage sending e-mails out on your behalf last Friday?

Wow! I guess you are better than us."
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Tweed:
"Man you crack me up. Are you ever not by a computer? Do you always check your E-mail like an uber geek? I just got your E-mail now because I've been out all weekend. It's nice to know that if everyone in my life dies at the same time, I can turn to you by sending you an E-mail and you'll get back to me in 2 minutes or less.

As for your last line, you guess correctly my friend. Good Night!"
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Mike:
It's called Super Bowl week .. some of us at ESPN.com have to put in the hours so the rest of the world can avoid their jobs come Monday morning.
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I liked his closing line. At least he has somewhat of a sense of humor. I enjoy it when I correspond with writers of all kinds and end up having a string of replies.

[WindRavenX]

1. ESPN has horrible, horrible writers

Good for you. Sometimes reading espn.com online articles makes me cringe.

[nickgutierrez]

2. I'm already better then most of these hacks.

But his last line did crack me up. :)

[fujiyama]

3. Man you are so mean

;)

but so damn right. They get paid for crap like that? Then again it's ESPN. I'm not expecting them to hire very creative writers. Hell, if they can write half way coherent English sentences, I suppose that's good enough.

[crispini]

4. That is absolutely adorable.

I love it when people get snarky on other people (and then report it here). I have a huuuuge soft spot for Aaron Brown because of this. Never gotten one of his flames though; guess I'm too damn nice....

[Tweed]

6. Yeah, I've read some E-mail exchanges from Brown

He's a funny guy when it comes to that area.

[NewJeffCT]

5. I got one good several years back...

I used to write articles about high school basketball and became fairly well known in the Northeast and I frequented a couple of college sports online bulletin boards. So, naturally, fans of local colleges would ask me about such & such a player and if he would be good for their program.

well, one day, I posted a lengthy summary of some of the top players - maybe 50 players and a paragraph about each one (I didn't do the whole thing - myself and 3 other guys all contributed) and, lo & behold, our summary of one player (current Detroit Piston Richard Hamilton, who was in high school at the time and later went to UConn) ended up in a local newspaper word for word, uncredited.

So, the next year came along, and I decided to pull a fast one. I had just watched an episode of the 'X-Files' that featured some guy from Africa who was a strange vampire. His name was Samuel Aboah in the show. So, in that year's lengthy online summary, I posted about a 6'11" African phenom named Samuel Aboah whom many think could be the next Hakeem Olajuwon, only he was just having Visa problems getting to the US. Completely fictitious, but had scraps of truth from other players in there to make it sound real.

Sure enough, local sportswriter mentions Samuel Aboah in his article.

[Tweed]

7. Oh that's genius

Gotta love responsible journalism. I think FOX News took some notes from that guy.

[MrModerate]

8. Cut the guy some slack . . .

I've seen worse writing on Onion (not often), the Wall Street Journal (every day) and, well . . . here.

He ain't so bad -- and he did have a comeback or two.

[Floogeldy]

9. Skip Bayless is good ***