Mr. McLane is swell
At what point does a sports columnist cross the line into less-than-objective worship of the people he's supposed to be covering?
I ask that in all honesty. I'm not entirely sure. But this homage to Drayton McLane seems excessive:
But this isn't about McMullen's legacy. This is about McLane's word. He values his fans and his commitment to them.
McLane, one of the best owners in baseball, is the man who made former Astros manager Jimy Williams rewrite the lineup card for the final game of the 2003 season.
More than 30,000 fans had bought tickets in hopes of watching a game with playoff implications. That game was meaningless in the standings, so Williams was going to give some of his stars the day off. To McLane, the game wasn't meaningless because fans had bought tickets. He saw the lineup card and had Williams put the stars back in.
Fans had paid to watch Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman, not September callups. McLane wanted the fans to get some of their money's worth. Only Craig Biggio remained out of the starting lineup that day.
Drayton is swell (or is that Mr. McLane to the admiring scribe?) -- and he probably appreciates that reminder appearing in the city's only newspaper when quite a few fans are beginning to wonder if it might have been more swell if he had locked up a few more hitters, some relievers, a Major League caliber catcher, and a functional first baseman in the offseason.
Normally, I wouldn't pick on a single instance of this sort of cheerleading, but Jose de Jesus Ortiz has been less than a diligent, skeptical journalist before with regard to Drayton McLane. Is it possible that sometimes journalists can get too close to the people they cover regularly? Please feel free to enlighten me in the comments.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/15/05 09:49 PM | Print |
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