Bill Conlin's Aim Is Still Dead-On

Just as Philadelphia is getting into a full-on frenzy for Monday's Opening Day game, Bill Conlin's column brings a forecast as rainy as the one the Weather Channel has for tonight's first On-Deck Series game. If you haven't been reading much Phils coverage during the off-season, Conlin's been in great Clearwater form, but unfortunately, he feels the Phils are not. Sure, their strengths are still strong, but their weaknesses haven't shown any March improvement, and as per usual, Bill hasn't been pulling any punches in his Clearwater summaries. After reading this morning's assessment of the rotation, I'm not sure I need the La Colombe I'm brewing.

Today ol' 1 Chair makes sure we're all aware of the precipitous drop after the Phillies top two starters. Of course, we're all aware of this already, but somehow after reading Bill's barrage, I actually have less confidence in Moyer, Kendrick, and Eaton than I did yesterday, and he barely even discussed them. Great. At this point, you may be wondering why a blogger is extolling the virtues of Bill Conlin, who may have lost some favor with the Net generation over his comments on bloggers and blogging. Fact is, I actually like him more now.

Standing on the sidewalk outside the Blarney Stone on a cold night last month, three Philly sports bloggers (Daulerio, Milici, and myself) spent 20 minutes talking about Conlin—favorably. Daulerio even interviewed him for his Phillies preview at Deadspin, which is well known for being the root of all pamphleteer evil. No matter what he said in the e-mail exchange with Crashburn Alley, how masturbatory his prose can at times be, or how often I flat out disagree with a stance he takes, he still has at least three things that make him invaluable as a columnist: (1) He may still be the best writer in the Philly sports pages; (2) he's maintained a unique type of access that allows him to print candid statements and still have the trust of many if not all of his subjects; and (3) he has unparalleled experience in covering baseball.

Conlin's column today has two great examples of this second trait. In the first, he relays Charlie Manuel's unhappiness over the loss of Aaron Rowand, who Conlin paints as much less replaceable than many of us have opined after his departure. For the second example, I'll let him do the talking:

On his first warmup pitch of spring training, with the TV cameras rolling, Lidge caught a spike and did some damage to the meniscus of a right knee that had been surgically repaired after the season. So, the closer who swung to his first press conference on crutches was soon briefly back on them following a procedure in Philly aimed at repairing what was described as minor damage. One newspaper quoted Lidge and rehabbing free agent Kris Benson as blaming the condition of the Rich Ashburn Field mound on the setbacks suffered by both pitchers. "Bleeping pitchers got to blame something when they go horsebleep, don't they?" growled special adviser Dallas Green, whose role appears to have been reduced to talking monument.

And yet tomorrow, Manuel and Green will still give similar quotes to Conlin, because he's probably only printing a tenth of what they actually said, yet it's still some good readin'.

For younger and even middle-aged readers, Conlin's regular use of historic references may seem anachronistic and obscure, but perhaps more so than any other sport, baseball is a game deeply rooted in its own history and traditions, and he's seen a lot of history happen in real time. Conlin's conjuring of clubhouse memories may require a trip to the Google search box, but I've learned it's often worth the extra minute.

Anyone as opinionated as Bill Conlin will draw fire and ire from some, but as he'll quickly let you know if you push him, he's where he is for a reason, and he's not going anywhere until he calls it quits.

Comments

[johndewar]

Well done, sir. Agree with your view on Conlin and his work.

Some people may not like it, but Bill Conlin is damned good at what he does; we don't always have to like him or what his opinions are.

[theKrisheim]

in era of over hyped, loud-mouth talking heads and blog celebrities, conlin still stands out, that's all you need to say.

when he had his regular spot on "the sports reporters" i sorta had this proud feeling that philly sports were being represented by a great mouthpiece for the whole area.

[mike]

its not that Conlin's references are anachronistic and obscure, they're hack and an embarrassing writing crutch.

[Dustin DiStanislao]

We’ll start off with Cole Hamels and Brett Myers
Followed by a mix of Sixers and Flyers
Back will come, Hamels and Myers
And followed we hope by two nights of Flyers.

by: Dustin DiStanislao

[Pete D]

I think Bill is a crotchety bag de douche, but he does write a solid column. Anyone who can talk about playing tennis and whacking beers with Harry Kalas 40 years ago has some serious baseball cred. And what is a baseball writer who doesn't have a healthy appreciation for the history of the game.

[Chamomiles Davis]

After his team-up with the Balls for Deadspin's Phillies Preview, I must admit I managed to scrounge up some grudging respect for the man.