Hal McCoy should know better

I don’t like the St. Louis Cardinals. Tony LaRussa is an egotistical maniac that thinks he invented the game of baseball. Chris Carpenter reminds me of the characters on those ridiculous shows my wife watches at night (90210 and others whose names I do not know). Carpenter is as big a drama queen as you will ever see in baseball. From complaining about his balls to embarrassing a teammate on national television, he is the poster-child for the whiny little bitches.

Despite all of that, I would never wish injury upon another athlete. Neither would Jonny Gomes.

As news broke yesterday about Adam Wainwright possibly being out for the season, people wanted reactions from the Reds. Rather than asking Gomes to sit down for an interview, Hal McCoy decided to write his interpretation of what he thought he heard Gomes singing as he walked through the clubhouse.

Whether McCoy’s intentions were to induce controversy or not, that is what he did. By erroneously reporting something overheard in the clubhouse, he violated the trust of every player and coach that wears a uniform. Publicizing clubhouse banter that falsely makes a player look bad is bush-league. McCoy is better than that. At least, I thought he was.

It does no good to link to McCoy’s original article because the paragraph in question has been removed. However, it was present long enough for much of the baseball world to destroy Gomes based on the second-rate journalism tactics of a beat writer.

One of the other writers, John Fay, tried to sort out the situation on his blog.

“I heard it. I honestly don’t remember exactly what he sang. I didn’t report it because I generally don’t write what players say aloud or sing in the clubhouse. I only use what I get in interviews.”

McCoy has since posted a follow-up article in which he says he regrets writing about the incident. He also gets what I perceive to be a little dig in at his fellow reporters.

“He denies he was singing about Wainwright and said he was singing something else. I’m not the only one who heard ‘Wainwright’ in his song, but I won’t throw anybody else under the bus.”

You mean other than Gomes?