Is Andy Strickland On The Blues Payroll?

I’ve been as critical of the media as anyone. Most of that has appeared on our ghostly baseball twin, were the Media (with a capital m) is at best a facilitator in most of baseball’s tragic and momentus blunders. And at times it seems the media is a co-cospirator in the shennanigans. Not reporting things in baseball gets you into the writers hall of fame and insures your 50 year career. There is not a single epic writer of america’s pasttime (still alive at least) who couldn’t, in a drunken stupor or momentary lapse of judgement, simply stun an audience with stories of truths he had never revealed.

not just who drunk who and what bottle of bear shared a players bed. Team infighting, rumored drug use, gambling, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

To me it isn’t valid to worry about Strickland as Stickland (although some reporting of who all paid him money might be enlightening) does anyone who does NOT work for free and have the ability to say exactly what he thinks have the ability to tell the truth?

Can you or I, should our business life depend on continuing access and conversation with jammer, mckee, murray, and perron, take shots at them without considering our family’s next meal?

until sports actually has JOURNALISTS covering them, until the media who makes money off them spends the bucks and takes the hits that the entertainment, political, and forgein INVESTIGATIVE reporters do,

ALL paid for stories by career “reporters” are sanctioned by the people being reported on to some degree.

When they are NOT, you get the reportee (not the reporter) throwing his weight around as TOny did with the Post, as bobby knight does with anyone who doesnt like him, as whitey claims hernandez did to keep his true reason for being traded out of the press.

In addition to that, why is the Barry story in a book? the reporters who covered barry wrote a book you can buy that will expalin it all. I’m pretty sure most of that information (and/or facts) was accumulated during their paid profession. Why do i have to buy a book to read the “real story” (which isnt int he book anyway)?

Reporters love to work with innuedo and public perceptions while refusing to do the work needed to prove or disprove the situation. They LIKE it that way. I lost count of how many times I’ve heard ST. LOUIS media (who has little direct need to talk about Griffey jr) use the phrase “and the best thing about him is you never hear his name mentioned in any of those rumors” wtf?!?!

playing with rumors, using them in print ot make points about players without doing any reporting? that is EXACTLY the kind of crap that was happening in the media during the black sox scandle.

a bleeding century of sports “reporting” has done nothing but slide even closer to the sports bedroom and further away from the harsh light of reporting.

i think from now on, everytime someone who writes sprots stories calls him self a reporter, i’m just going to boo him

boooo!!

do some reporting and EARN that moniker you slack jawed tool of organized sports!!

EARN IT!!!

and now we return you to the regularly schedualed content….

I have much to say on this topic, but there are things going on that if you knew about them would make you look at sports reporting in a totally different way. I can assure you of this, but I cannot say more.

Three things I will say:

1. Strickland is funny. Simply because he will often provide information on his blog that makes you wonder why he brought it up, like “Christian Backman had pot pie for dinner last night. The chicken variety is his favorite.”

2. Some of the sports writers in St. Louis need to just stop writing anything about the Blues or hockey in general. Dan O’Neil for instance. This guy knows as much about hockey as Ken Wilson knows about humility. O’Neill uses hockey as a punchline. I don’t think he even considers it a legitimate sport.

3. You guys do a great job. There are a lot of good observations and plenty of humor and interaction with us other hockey fan smartassess. But I’ll take any info on Blues hockey I can get, whether it comes from you, Strickland, Norm Sanders in Belleville, Spector, Eklund, the Peoria newspaper or whoever — except the Post. The Post’s hockey coverage is always a day or two after everyone else has the same info and empty of any relevance. Did anyone notice they still haven’t updated Kariya’s statistics in the Blues stats? They’re still missing one assist. It’s been that way for a couple of weeks.

I don’t want to give people the wrong impression. I agree that sports writing and “reporting” is an odd relationship between the writer and the subject. There are things done in the business that news reporters would never do. And I totally agree that fans have to go to other outlets for Blues information. That’s how we got started.

My biggest beef is Strickland’s conflict of interest in having a story posted on the Blues Web site.

“My biggest beef is Strickland’s conflict of interest in having a story posted on the Blues Web site.”

It seems quite similar to the sitaution where many play-by-play and color announcers work for a station and also the team. They get to be on the inside of what’s happening in the organization (and will often tell you they can’t tell you everything they know) while also professing objectivity when they host a radio show. Look at Steve “Oh-god-please-stop-him-from-calling-the-Rams-games” Savard. He’s supposedly a sports reporter while also allegedly being a play-by-play announcer.

It’s been interesting for me to watch Andy here in St Louis, for basically the reason that Brad hit on here. During and after the lockout, Andy was about the only person in the mainstream media who was talking about the Blues. Hockey fans loved him for it and appreciated that ANYONE was talking about the Blues at that point.

But then I think he may have gotten too close to his subjects and that’s where he turned off a lot of his fans. Much like your favorite local band, when they change a little to sell-out and get big, it takes some of the luster off of them.

When Andy stopped reporting objectively and started reporting as an insider, it came off to a lot of people as smarmy. The nerdy kid who somehow got in with the cool kids and then started snubbing his nose at his old pals in the Chess Club.

This is actually the main reason I’ve never sought press credentials for GT staff. I think it’d change the way we write if we got to know any of these people on a personal level. It’s hard to bash a guy for his on-ice performance when you like him persoanlly off-ice. Similarly, if your on-ice hero turns out to be a real dick off-ice, it’ll change the way you write about him.

Plus, we’re all basically rabid fans who write very subjectively and have never tried to be journalists who are reporting objectively.

Andy clearly has a lot of hustle, but I think Brad’s right: he hurts his own credibility when he injects himself into the story and when he issues reports that have the feel of, “this just in from the Cool Kids’ Club, where I’ve been hanging with the players”.

That is what has turned off a lot of his former-fans, in my opinion.

Strickland has never seemed to me to come off an too much of an insider. I appreciate the info we get from him that might not otherwise make its way to us.

I also understand that there are times when information is best left unsaid. If he were to tell us a player tweaked his knee and a good low hit on the left would put him out of action for a while, wouldn’t we rather some cheapshot artist on the other team not get wind of it?

And gallagher, I definitely appreciate what you’re saying about getting too close. I’d never want to be around some of these players enough to learn what collosal jerks they can be. Some of the players I’ve met – Bob Bassen, Rick Zombo – have been real class acts. Some – Tony Twist – not so much.

Pagan, I think you’re talking about a valid issue with journalists working for a team and doing an outside media gig, like Savard, like Mike Bush before that. One big difference is everyone knows going in that Steve Savard is employed by the Rams. Just like everyone knows that Kelly Chase and John Kelly are employed by the Blues. When they do postgame shows or call-ins, you know where they’re coming from but they have built some credibility with fans by being honest when the team sucks.

Remember when John Hadley was hired by Mike Martz to do some statistical breakdowns? It was just a weird, awkward, strange situation.

The end of my post is kind of the goal of writing the whole thing. I hope Strickland comes out and says what his affiliation with the team is. Will this be a regular occurance? I’d like to know.

The Boss wrote:

"This is actually the main reason I’ve never sought press credentials for GT staff. I think it’d change the way we write if we got to know any of these people on a personal level. It’s hard to bash a guy for his on-ice performance when you like him persoanlly off-ice. Similarly, if your on-ice hero turns out to be a real dick off-ice, it’ll change the way you write about him.

Plus, we’re all basically rabid fans who write very subjectively and have never tried to be journalists who are reporting objectively.

Andy clearly has a lot of hustle, but I think Brad’s right: he hurts his own credibility when he injects himself into the story and when he issues reports that have the feel of, ‘this just in from the Cool Kids’ Club, where I’ve been hanging with the players’."

Sean, I understand your position re: press credentials, but I think you’re underestimating some of us… well, me, specifically.

Objectivity is a big part of what I try to do. I won’t deny that I tend to focus on the optimistic, but I also won’t deny that there are dozens of reasons for optimism these days, especially when your focus is the player development aspect of this team.

I won’t deny that my main goal in life is to work in the player development aspect of the Blues’ organization, either in some kind of administrative role in the scouting depaertment, or as the Media Relations guy in Peoria some day. Both of those positions require an ability to support the prevailing organizational trends, no doubt… but both also require a certain amount of objectivity, and as a student of journalism, I strive with every article I write to bring the objective, unvarnished truth to the folks who read what I write.

When I go to Peoria and talk to Dave Baseggio, or when I write letters to GM’s of junior teams and AD’s of college teams asking for information about the players, I’m doing so as an objective reporter looking for the facts about the player, and what they can bring to the Blues in the future.

Unlike Strickland — whom I really don’t care for, and for exactly the reasons you specify in the last paragraph I quoted above — I’m not about kissing anyone’s ass for access or a “feel-good” story… never have been, never will be.

The guys in Peoria know that about me, and I believe that I’m respected there because of it. I was told once about the press box code up there, that what’s said there stays there, and once was all that I needed to be told about it.

I’ve had lots of off-the-record conversations with players, management, coaches and scouts, from lots of different teams, up there. There are lots of things I could have worked into articles, a la Strickland and his “hey, look at me, I’m an insider” schtick… but I don’t do that, and I WON’T do that.

Basically, what I want to say here, is that I consider myself to be an objective reporter on a subject that has a very specific focus. I am working hard to try and establish myself as an authoritative source on issues within that specific focus, and you, Sean, have been a great help to me in that regard with giving me as much free rein as you do, and with getting me a shot on Brian Stull’s radio show last year. That, I feel, led directly to my being sought out for an appearance on “The Pipeline Show” earlier this year, and I believe that the more I work at this, and the better I get at it, the more opportunities will present themselves.

I believe that my goal of being an authoritative, objective source of prospect information can, and does, mesh well with “Game Time’s” goal of being an independent source of information on the Blues, one that provides a more irreverent and comedy-oriented viewpoint than the “mainstream” media… but make no mistake, I am working towards the goal of becoming a member of the “mainstream” media, on my own terms, and with my own chosen focus.

That may or may not ever happen, but it is what I want.

Thank you for giving me the stage to work upon, in order to make that happen for myself.

B.

Brad, I can understand where you’re coming from as someone who works to maintain their distance from the team and the credibility that comes with being able to speak your mind.

I just don’t feel like Strickland owes me any explanation. I’m used to reading and hearing stuff from sports “journalists,” whether they be super credible or barely tolerable (Hadley). I never take anything to be 100 percent. Some things are just fun rumors to speculate on, others are little pieces of information that don’t mean much, others are total news scoops, and some information is flat out wrong. I think the onus is on the fans to decide how much credibility they want to give to any one source and to pay attention to enough different sources to get a feel for what’s really going on.

Besides, I think it’s pretty obvious that Strickland is a little too “in” with the team. Why else would he defend putting a slug like King on a line with Weight, the intagibles that Ruchinsky brings to the table, and the offensive powerhouse that is Christian Backman?

GTPD,

Being that you are Game Time’s prospects guy and we’re talkign about Strickland, who’s affiliated with Hockey Buzz, what do you think about Bill Metzler’s reports there?

Pagan wrote:

"GTPD,

Being that you are Game Time’s prospects guy and we’re talkign about Strickland, who’s affiliated with Hockey Buzz, what do you think about Bill Metzler’s reports there?"

I’m not sure what to think about Meltzer, to tell you the truth… he pilfered part of my interview with David Perron for his blog at NHL.com, and used it without attribution… but he did e-mail me and explain why it came out that way (after I “fiormally” protested about it there, and here), so I accept his version of the story.

At the risk of sounding like I’m blowing my own horn, I think I could do what Meltzer does — or what Strickland does, for that matter — as well, and as competently, as either of them, with the little formal training I already have. Let me get my BA in Communication (emphasis on journalism), and I have no doubt in my mind that, given the opportunity to do so, I could outdo them substantially.

A break is all I ask for… I’ll make of it what I’m capable of making of it.

B.

unfortunately for us we don’t live in a real hockey town. though we’ve got homegrown kids who’ve played in the NHL and are in the minors, college, junior levels that are NHL prospects.

If we had a local St. Louisian in any of the other sports tearing up a league as a prospect they’d get a front cover story in the sports section. So why haven’t we seen it down with Pat Maroon? He’s tearing it up with the London Knights.

What we get reported to us here is the watered down meant for fourth grade children with learning disablilties copy where the journalists don’t talk about strategy or what might have been go on on the ice in the room or at practices. We get the sanitized euphinistic version like we’re children who can’t handle the truth.

To those ass holes that think we can’t comeprehend the game I’d like to extend to you…my middle finger. Let’s take a small inventory of some current players that are in the NHL or are prospects from ST. Louis:

Paul Statsny
Yan Statsny
Neil Komandoski
Pat Maroon
Ben Bishop
and some others I haven’t heard about(sorry I haven’t lived in St. Louis for about tens years splitting time between Chicago, Alaska and Iraq).
Oh and McKenna he should be netting it in at least the AHL.

BTW anybody else bothered Cash is getting more starting time down low than Marek??? Cash even sucks in the AHL.

GTPD,
I think your piece is one of the few that is an exception to what I’ve said. You are objective and not attempting to be humorous, unlike a lot of the rest of the publication. That said, you’re work with Peoria in obtaining interviews and press credentials and relationships with the people there makes sense.

I meant more like from my perspective: it becomes much more difficult for me to make fun of Jay McKee’s early-onset osteoporosis or Peter Cajanek’s butter-like qualities if I meet those guys and decide that they are good people. I’m sure they are, but if I have even a casual friendship with guys, I’m likely to pull up on them when I should be blasting away.

I have met David Backes. And he is absolutely dreamy.

Thanks, boss… I understand perfectly, and want to thank you once again for all that you’ve done to make it possible for me to take real, tangible steps towards my ultimate goals.

Chris D wrote:

“If we had a local St. Louisian in any of the other sports tearing up a league as a prospect they’d get a front cover story in the sports section. So why haven’t we seen it down with Pat Maroon? He’s tearing it up with the London Knights.”

I agree 100%, Chris. Any time a local kid plays well on a college basketball or football team, or in the minors as a baseball player, he gets big coverage. With Maroon, however… it’s, “who the hell is he?”

Bishop has been arguably the best goalie in college hockey over the last couple of years, but he gets almost no mention in the local fishwrap, either.

Chris D wrote:

“BTW anybody else bothered Cash is getting more starting time down low than Marek??? Cash even sucks in the AHL.”

I wouldn’t be concerned about these numbers, Chris:

Name GP Mins GA Shutouts Avg. W L SOL SA SVS %
1 Marek Schwarz 2 120 3 0 1.50 2 0 0 56 53 0.946
2 Hannu Toivonen 1 65 2 0 1.85 1 0 0 27 25 0.926
3 Jason Bacashihua 3 178 7 0 2.36 1 2 0 71 64 0.901

Bacashihua and Schwarz have been alternating in the early going, and it just so happens that Bacashihua has one more appearance right now than Schwarz. Schwarz’ numbers are better, but Bacashihua’s were pretty good also through two games, until he ran into the nemesis Chicago Wolves on Sunday.

The Wolves have had Peoria’s number in a big way for the last couple of years, and the Wolves fill the same role for the Rivermen as the Red Wings fill for the Blues — the team that they measure themselves against, and will need to beat consistently and decisively before they will consider themselves as having “arrived.”

B.

Brad Lee wrote:

“I have met David Backes. And he is absolutely dreamy.”

I still say that my daughter’s boyfriend reminds me very much of Mr. Backes. And Julie’s boyfriend is named Jim, which is Backes’ semi-official nickname…

Good/interesting post, Brad. I too reacted when I saw the article on the Blues site.

By the way, there’s a game tonight — I read Perron will sit once again.

It’s getting so that Perron rides the pine more often than Pinocchio’s girlfriend.

I’m in that boat where I’m just grateful for the info Strickland digs up. That said his style grates me horribly (be it voice on radio or in his writing — every time I hear him say “but you know what, hey” part of me dies). Admittedly, that is my issue, and I’ve sought counseling.

Judging by the story linked to in this post, if he worked for the Blues, at least an editor would keep every heading of his from Ending In An Exclamation Point!

Strickland is a douche bag plain and simple.

GT I know his numbers are good down there but supposedly the purpose of having Marek down there is to get him playing time like a starting goalie and build his consistency up till he can make a transition to the show. But Cash he’s more wortless than flipping the net upside down and shooting at the top on the ice. He’s benefitting from a minor league team that is full of NHL prospective dmen, most of which could at least be the seventh dman on most NHL teams. He’s still horrible. He had one good game in the show and he starts whining when they bring in some compitetion. Personally I would rather see Chris as the back up or switching every game with Marek. Besides I believe without looking at the stats and going from memory that Cash leads the Rivermen in losses?

Pat Maroon went to highschool with someone around here. He grew up here. The fact is people in St. Louis are racists towards hockey players and hockey in general… I’m laughing as I write that but it’s true. Bishop’s the only one who’s got any press and most of his press came when the Frozen Four came to town. I was on leave here and so I saw it but then again before I knew about stltoday I’d only hear anything if my Pops told me because I wasn’t in the country and before that I was in the country of Alaska. It’s a whole other place. Talk about hockey fans. In Fairbanks the local teams and especially the college team are treated like football players and royalty. It would be better to have a team in Alaska than it is in Nashville.
Anybody get in the blog war with me on hockeybuzz about Rucinsky?

I’m going to contact the Post-Disgrace and some local media outputs and see if they’ll set me up with a trip up north to do a piece on Pat Maroon. Probably won’t happen but maybe I can get the play.

i soap boxed once and lost a tough game so i have little more to say but i wanted to mention this.

conflict of interest?

how many ways does Mike Shannon get pai? AB? the cardinals? he does post game shows on local cardinal owned media ooutlets at his own restaraunt! The blues web site used to pay several locally connected sports writers for site content. the writers were not working for the post, but they were certianly writing elsewhere (as i suspect they must, i have very huge doubts a munth web column pays all the bills). and people already mentioned the tip of the rams interconnection.

i guess i’ll close with this.

the post dispatch—- earned disrespect

andy strickland—— usefullness often debated and his “toolness” has not stopped his readershi[

peoria journal star- I’d trust it over the other two choices

SOMETHING gotta be wrong with that situation, dontcha think?