Why So Grumpy?

 

The Plain Dealer sports section is receiving a lot of criticism among us bloggers for being negative.  The columnists are not Cleveland reared for the most part, and they seem to be looking for something bad to point out, such as a story about Troy Smith’s troubles while a 10th grader at St. Edward High School.  If the point of that story was to show how Smith turned his attitude around, that would have been fine, but it was more to tell the story of another high school sophomore who was injured by the Heisman Trophy winner.

 

Another example of this growing curmudgeonism is Bill Livingston’s rant on Dick Vitale not making the Basketball Hall of Fame.  My first thought is why does this make "Livy" (as cleveland.com refers to him) so happy.  I realize that many people do not like Vitale’s schtick, the calling everyone "BABY", and his overhyping of coaches like Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski or Texas Tech’s Bobby Knight.  However, I don’t think it’s an act.  The former University of Detroit coach loves the game of basketball, and unlike the guys in the PD Sports Department, he is unafraid to show his joy for the sport.

 

Does Livingston begrudge Vitale’s celebrity?  Seriously, why did he have to go into jump for joy mode regarding the omission of Vitale from this year’s list of inductees?  It’s not a building dedicated to professional basketball or college hoops, it’s the hall for the entire sport.  Certainly, the ESPN announcer has done plenty to promote the game he loves.  Livingston is older than I am, so I can understand that he doesn’t get Vitale’s act, and I have to admit that he can wear thin with me as well.  However, we should all have the same enthusiasm for their job as Dickie V. has.  His love for the game is catching.

 

Livingston loves basketball as well.  He’s covered the game for a long time, and his is an opinion I respect on hoops.  He’s practically alone in the mainstream media in saying how important Zydrunas Ilgauskas is to the Cavaliers.  He doesn’t get carried away by a couple of losses in a row by the wine and gold.  He has a sense of the history of the game, and can realize who is all hype and who really can play the game.  But, because his love for the sport manifests itself differently than Vitale is no reason to be happy he didn’t make it to Springfield.

 

The best thing would have been to say nothing.  No sports fan wants the city’s only newspaper to be throwing roses at the town’s sports franchises.  There should be criticism where it is merited.  However, there should be credit given as well.  There is something wrong when baseball writers from all over the country consider the Indians one of baseball’s better teams, but the local newspaper almost unanimously picks them for fourth place.  Who’s opinion do you hold higher?  Bud Shaw or Peter Gammons?

 

Hear’s hoping the stick in the mud sports section in The Plain Dealer can turn it around and change.  Between the negativism in the paper and on the local sports talk shows, it’s a wonder sports fans even bother to get out of bed in the morning.  It’s okay to smile every once in a while.  By the way, here’s hoping Dickie V. makes it to the Hall in 2008.

 

MW