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Buzz Bissinger

Edgy DC Jun 19 2011 04:29 PM

I've been reading Top of the Order, a baseball paperback in which 25 writers submit an essay about their favorite player. It's pretty good for travel reading, with each guy taking a different approach. One guy was a schoolboy teammate of Tom Seaver and wrote a fun Go to Hell, Mike Piazza-type story about their ongoning friendship as Seaver became a world-class winner and he became... somebody lucky (and unlucky) enough to know Tom Seaver. It's got a lot of Mets content. Besides Seaver, there are essays on Garry Templeton, Mookie Wilson, Rickey Henderson, Pedro Martinez, Dave Kingman, and Jeff Kent, plus a lot of guys on the periphery of the Mets story. Then I get to the essay by Buzz Bissinger on Albert Pujols. What's with this guy? I've read a few articles by him here and there, never got around to his books, and saw him make two-thirds of a fool of himself on that Costas program. Is he always this much of a contemptuous snot? I mean, am I misreading some sort of irony here? I realize that sports reporting these days is opinion-rich and fact-poor, so I want to like anyone who even postures at doing his own research and finding his own story, but this guy was pushing all my buttons. With I knew about him first and injecting himself into the story, and East Coast elites don't appreciate or deserve and St. Louis is an oasis of decency and curses to all who would sully his excellence with intimations of the era destroyed by the cheats around him and Holy heck, the work ethic of this guy (apparently, nobody else studies film of their swings) and the sideswipe at Bill James and the nobody ever loved a woman like Albert. I mean, what the Hell? Can I read an appreciation without this huge chip on the shoulder of the writer? I don't really read Deadspin and I guess I'd kow the answer if I did, but, is he... always like this?

Frayed Knot Jun 19 2011 05:05 PM Re: Buzz Bissinger

The thing about his east-coast elites comments is that he's a Philly guy. Born there, went to school there, still lives there. He seemed to have hooked onto the cult of LaRussa and maybe the Pujols stuff is simply him repeating whatever Tony is feeding him. The anti-Bill James stuff seems almost universal to me among those sports writers who aren't strictly baseball guys. Throw up a 'Bill James ruined baseball' Facebook page and I'd bet 90% of the sports geeks in America would 'LIKE' you within days but only because there's no 'MARRY' you button. It's an avenue that gives them another way to condemn the sport as not being what it once was or up to their standards. 'Friday Night Lights' for my money was one of the better sports-themed stories in the last several decades but I don't know that I've read much of him aside from that and only caught that anti-blogger rant on TV in part and well after the fact (even he later backed off what he said that night and began blogging) so I don't really have much else to add here.

metirish Jun 19 2011 05:30 PM Re: Buzz Bissinger

Is this the asshole that made a holy show of himself in attacking the Guy from Deadspin on Costas?

Frayed Knot Jun 19 2011 06:04 PM Re: Buzz Bissinger

metirish wrote: Is this the asshole that made a holy show of himself in attacking the Guy from Deadspin on Costas? Yup. He's a legit writer of books ['Friday Night Lights', 'Three Day in August'] and in magazines/newspapers, but he seems more than a bit crotchety as he manages to be rail at both the new turks who won't stay off his lawn and the more established older guard who HE thinks are old and crotchety.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 19 2011 06:13 PM Re: Buzz Bissinger Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 19 2011 06:20 PM

FNL is great; he stays out of the story entirely, and ends up with a story that's compelling theater and something like a Texas high school The Wire. He also churned out A Prayer For The City-- a great inside-baseball look at the mayoral campaign that shot Ed Rendell to the seat/national prominence, along with absurdly extensive access to the candidate and his staff. Also also, weirdly, for someone who gained so much prominence for the "GRR BLOGS" blow-up on Costas, he's become an ultraprolific/active Twitterer.

G-Fafif Jun 19 2011 06:19 PM Re: Buzz Bissinger

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: FNL is great; he stays out of the story entirely, and ends up with a story that's compelling theater and something like a Texas high school. One of the best sports/sociology books ever written. Makes his being such a crank that much more disappointing.

Ashie62 Jun 19 2011 06:23 PM Re: Buzz Bissinger

Can't he just be ignored? The hell with him then, right?

Frayed Knot Jun 19 2011 06:32 PM Re: Buzz Bissinger Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 19 2011 08:55 PM

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: FNL is great; he stays out of the story entirely, With the small exception of him going off on a tangent about how the west Texans who adopted GHW Bush as one of their own and supported him for Prez (the book took place in '88) after he moved there from his New England roots to enter the oil biz were basically too stupid to know that his policies were going to mean more harm for them than good. Fine with me if you want to think that way, but it just seemed out of place in an otherwise detached account. Plus it kind of brings up an irony about the aftermath of the whole book which had the town-folks labeling Bissenger as the eastern elitist when they didn't like how they sounded in black and white print.

metsguyinmichigan Jun 19 2011 08:33 PM Re: Buzz Bissinger

I saw him on a panel discussion at an education writers conference around the time Friday Night Lights came out. He dropped F-bombs on the crowd, which freaked people out. But I was intrigued after hearing him talk about moving out to Texas for a year to write the book, and it is an amazing read. I don't think anyone will ever get that kind of access again -- the people in the town were expecting a more positive book. That said, I haven't read any of his other stuff save for a "return to Texas" piece his did to mark a milestone of the book's publishing or something. He's a profane and not especially insightful tweeter.