Comments on: What’s Wrong with America? Buzz Bissinger

By: Brandon H

Brandon H — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:06:03 +0000

Do you think Bissinger and Moore would get into an argument while maintaining to agree on an absolutely senseless theory?

I do.

By: Marc Schneider

Marc Schneider — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:04:24 +0000

Bissinger is a true nitwit. He wrote a piece in The New Republic touting Ed Rendell for VP based on the notion that we want a VP that says whatever comes to mind, no matter how offensive or off the wall because, well, we like candor and wouldn’t it be great to have a VP that didn’t care about the ramifications of what he said. Great thinking, Buzz. I understand he will be donating half the proceeds of his latest book to save workers’ jobs at GM.

By: Buzz Flewhart

Buzz Flewhart — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:03:04 +0000

Three points for using the word “schadenfreude”!!

By: walsh

walsh — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:31:42 +0000

obviously, there is nothing that Bissinger says in this op-ed that has any worth whatsoever. while he is clearly so far off the mark in everything he says here, i fault the new york times more than him. it is one thing to write an op-ed filled with asenine and troubling sentiments but it is entirely different for it to be published in the largest newspaper in the world. do they not have editors at this paper? it is a joke that somebody could read this and actually AGREE with its thesis. i hope the times took a beating for printing this horribly thought out piece.

By: David Simons

David Simons — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:09:39 +0000

As you say, Mr. Bissinger (“Buzz” to his buds) is a successful writer, but he isn’t a good one. I slogged through Three Nights and noticed long dry patches punctuated by overwriting (“The kind of existential hit that would have kept Camus and Sartre in the money, if they had played baseball”) and misused cliches. Son, there’s no shame in not knowing what the Maginot Line is, but if you really don’t know, don’t use it in a sentence about a pitcher’s windup and its effect on base stealing. At least he double-checked the Wikipedia entry on the Hammurabi Code before dropping that bomb.

By: Norman Oder

Norman Oder — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:06:06 +0000

Appearing on the Brian Lehrer radio show in NYC on July 14, Zimbalist did a lousy job defending his public statements supporting the Yankee Stadium deal and his not-peer-reviewed study endorsing Atlantic Yards (the arena + 16 towers project in Brooklyn).

Had there been an equal debate, Zimbalist would have been flattened. He continued to insist that the Yankees deserved praise for paying for their stadium, without acknowledging the host of special benefits to the team. He continued to insist that Forest City Ratner was using only as-of-right benefits for Atlantic Yards, despite ironclad evidence to the contrary.

More here:
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2008/07/sports-economist-zimbalist-criticizes.html

By: Peter D

Peter D — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:36:22 +0000

I love your ‘blog, and, as usual, I agree with your post (and I also loathe Buzz Bissinger), but I’d like to add something: baseball players are paid a lot of money because, for whatever reason, people are willing to pay a lot of money to watch baseball. But one could also argue that Bissinger is paid for the exact same reason: people pay money to hear what he has to say. There are enough people with enough money who value style over substance, and thus prefer aggressive quasi-controversial knee-jerk platitudes (or petty sentimentalism) to thoughtful (and correct) insight, that this guy has such a large audience. This could be due to our poor education system, a deeper vein of anti-intellectualism in our culture, or whatever; in any case, Bissinger knows his audience and caters to it. Whether he is baiting them or if he really believes the bullshit he spews is irrelevant–neither would excuse his irresponsibility in publishing this op-ed–but the fact that we are dismayed by it really reflects that–as Bissinger does in his article–people like you and I value something, namely, non-stupidity, that the economy as a whole does not.

By: Brian G

Brian G — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:30:22 +0000

“Take the salaries of these players and apply a 10 percent cut — half of what is being lopped off at G.M. — and you could easily save the 80 jobs that are being lost at The Chicago Tribune for a savings of $9 million. It’s a pie-in-the-sky suggestion.”

This is a suggestion? How? In what way is this a suggestion? What exactly is being suggested?

step 1. MLB Owners cut every players’ salary by 10 percent.
setp 2. The tribune hires 80 employees.

I think we’re missing at least one step.

By: Peter D

Peter D — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:29:50 +0000

I love your ‘blog, and, as usual, I agree with this post (and I also loathe Buzz Bissinger), but I’d like to add something: baseball players are paid a lot of money because, for whatever reason, people are willing to pay a lot of money to watch baseball. But one could also argue that Bissinger is paid for the exact same reason: people pay money to hear what he has to say. There are enough people with enough money who value style over substance, and thus prefer aggressive quasi-controversial knee-jerk platitudes to thoughtful (and correct) insight, that this guy has such a large audience. This could be due to our poor education system, a deeper vein of anti-intellectualism in our culture, or whatever; in any case, Bissinger knows his audience and caters to it. Whether he is baiting them or if he really believes the bullshit he spews is irrelevant–neither would excuse his irresponsibility in publishing this op-ed–but the fact that we are dismayed by it really reflects that–as Bissinger does in his article–people like you and I value something, namely, non-stupidity, that the economy as a whole does not.

By: Brian K

Brian K — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:46:14 +0000

Well done JC. Having read both your book and Mr. Bissinger’s book on baseball, you have proven again that only one of you is worth reading.

I find Mr. Bissinger’s comments annoying bordering on self-serving. Why do people like him and Mike Lupica continue to bite the hand that feeds them? Baseball is a Six Billion Dollar business. Sure players make a nice percentage of that, but owners are taking home a substantial piece of that pie as well. Considering that there are only 30 teams and roughly 1,200 players on an MLB payroll, the individual owner is bringing more home. Finally, if watching baseball players perform their craft were as popular as watching auto workers, people like Mr. Bissinger would not paid his handsome six figure sum to write.
What do you say Buzz? How about you put your money where your mouth is and give back 10% of your book profits? If it good enough for the players, it should be good enough for you. I am guessing not. Therefore, until I hear otherwise, you have again proven to be a misinformed, pompus, mean-spirited hypocrite.