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Originally posted by KSig RC
Totally agree - Lupica's the classic "I'm hearing . . . " sportswriter, where he's constantly running half-truths or gossip columns. Few writers can get away with that sort of thing, and Gammons is not only the original but the oracle.
Gammons isn't 'hearing' from Joe Busboy or Larry the Training Staff Outcast . . . he's 'hearing' from Littlefield and DePodesta and the Theo himself.
For me, it comes down to who's actually a journalist - and even among the pseudo-journalists, Lupica compares negatively to someone like Mitch Albom (who I can't make ear references to, for obvious reasons), who uses his soapbox for the occasional, y'know, positive reason. This is hyper unfortunate, when you consider that Albom does it out of DETROIT - Lupica can't even use the biggest stage on the planet.
It's admirable that the guy doesn't want to 'specialize', on one level - but the reality is that Gammons is the best ever at what he does, while Lupica is a talking head, someone trying to be a celebrity voice rather than a sports journalist.
This rant got long quick, whoa.
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When it comes down to it, there isn't really anything special or outstanding about Lupica as a sportswriter. He's good at what he does, he has a lot of readers and he has the name recognition thing going for him.
Gammons is a journalism legend though; I think that his many years in television may have delayed his induction into the Hall, since most (if not all) of the Spinks award winners had made their marks exclusively in print.