It was almost a year ago that Jay Mariotti resigned from his position at the Chicago Sun-Times. In the meantime, Jay has tried his hand at blogging and continued his appearances on "Around The Horn". You would have thought that those jobs were enough, but apparently Mariotti hasn't annoyed the city of Chicago enough in his mind. Mariotti is officially heading to the Chicago Tribune this September. Sports by Brooks has the scoop....

I’ve learned that effective September 1, Mariotti will join the Tribune as a weekly columnist - this the same man who spent nearly two decades mocking the same venerable daily which now extends him a byline. I do expect a seamless transition period though, considering the Trib set up Mariotti’s inbox long ago. (Uh, Jay, I thought ‘newspapers were dying‘?)

Mariotti’s contractual non-compete clause with the Sun-Times officially expires at the end of August, one year after he quit his position. So you can expect his ink-jetted invective to begin emanating from the Tribune in September.

It’s an interesting hire, considering Mariotti and the Tribune have very different motives with the move. The Tribune is bringing in Mariotti to fight off the startlingly advance of ESPN into the Chicago sports media marketplace. (Ironically, Mariotti also happens to be a prominent employee of ESPN.)

I'm sorry Chicago. I know how you must feel right now, and I can't sympathize with you enough. It's like a patient being told that he/she has beat Cancer, but now they've gone into remission, and it has returned. You can fully expect Mariotti to use this position to trash the Sun-Times, every chance he gets. Good times.

Official: Jay Mariotti Moving To Tribune On Sept. 1 (Sports by Brooks)

And no....it's not with his writing. In yesterday's Around The Horn Showdown, Jay Mariotti decided to bring out a prop, an actual baby, and the kid did not seem to like being held by Jay. Fast forward to the one minute mark of this clip to watch the hilarious action....

My favorite part is after he get the win, and hands the kid back, that he says the baby is from Nebraska. Like it isn't his fault that the baby cried....it's a Cornhusker! Too funny.

I'm not entirely sure why Jay Mariotti decided to wait a whole two weeks to chime in on the Raul Ibanez/Blog thing, but I'm more interested in the premise of his article. Mariotti is now about the 30th mainstream media member to comment that "steroid guessing is bad journalism", but forgetting what he has written about the subject in the past. Before we get into all of Mariotti's accusations about members of the Cubs, let's look at what he wrote late last night....

Yes, given the staggering bulk of guilty names and relentless flurry of new information, we all wonder to ourselves if every major leaguer who has played since 1995 used steroids. But that doesn't mean anyone has the right, legally or ethically, to start speculating for public consumption just because he has a functioning computer, a miniscule niche in cyberspace or a column in the dying newspaper industry. The methods of dissemination may have changed, but journalistic standards suddenly shouldn't go to hell.

If you know an athlete who uses steroids, convince us that it's true with corroborated material.

If not, please keep it to yourself.

Okay then. That's certainly an opinion someone can get behind, and if people want to follow that journalism tenet, I obviously have no problem with it. What I do have a problem with, is when it comes from someone who wrote the following:

The joke isn't funny anymore. Every time I ask Sammy Sosa about ster-oids, he uses a four-year-old punchline about his favorite vitamins. "I take my Flintstones once a day," he says, smiling as always.

But now that baseball's worst-kept secret finally is out of the medicine closet--vast numbers of players are juiced up on 'roids--it is incumbent upon Sosa and other prominent big-leaguers to start speaking up and taking a responsible stance concerning the sport's latest self-destructive issue. Very simply, he needs to tell the truth. If he hasn't used steroids, tell us. If he has used them occasionally, tell us. If he uses them regularly, tell us.

He really should just grab the cup, piddle in it and send it to the lab. It's the only way Sammy Sosa ends all suspicions, quiets the riffraff, blows away the steroid clouds and lets us resume enjoyment of his immaculate career, currently in an innuendo warp. He is sadly mistaken when he says, "The whole world knows that I am innocent."

For some reason, mainstream media members continually forget the words they wrote, if not days ago, at least a few years ago. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, what is wrong with speculating? Sports as a whole is speculation, and whether it's who used steroids?, or will Albert Pujols win the Triple Crown?....What's the big deal?

Also, what's worse in your mind? Writing out a debate with your friend about a player you have on your fantasy team, and trying to defend his stats? Or telling a player in a national publication to send his pee to a lab? Sure it was Sammy Sosa, and we all know how that turned out, but back then it was complete SPECULATION.

It's also funny to me that someone who has been taken for task about doing zero research by both clubs in Chicago, is calling out people for laziness.

Steroid Guessing Is Bad Journalism (Fanhouse)
Letter To Chicago Sun-Times (White Sox and Cubs)

Oh my god! I can't believe he actually pulled it off!!! Rapper Lil Wayne actually beat three of our country's finest sports writers to take the ATH....ummm....well I'm not exactly sure what he won, but who cares! Here are the highlights....

All kidding aside he was a bit to quiet, but maybe it seemed that way because Mariotti and Paige are so damn loud, but he was actually pretty good. Plus that LT "face time" bit was actually pretty funny. Good on you fellow blogger.

Video: Lil Wayne On Around The Horn

If there is anyone out there crazier than Woody Paige, Lil Wayne is probably the guy. The rapper has already appeared on First Take multiple times, and has his own blog on ESPN.com, but ESPN has decided that's not enough. Wayne will be on the panel of tomorrow's airing of Around the Horn. Seriously....

Fresh off his four wins at the 2009 Grammy Awards Sunday night, rapper Lil’ Wayne will be a panelist on ESPN’s Around the Horn Tuesday at 5 p.m. He will match wits with regular reporters Woody Paige, Jay Mariotti and Michael Smith in the 30-minute sports debate program moderated and scored by Tony Reali. Lil’ Wayne, who contributes to ESPNthemag.com and has appeared on ESPN's First Take and, led performer nominations with nine and won four -- Best Rap Album (for Tha Carter III), Best Rap Solo Performance ("A Milli"), Best Rap Performance by Group or Duo ("Swagga Like Us"), and Best Rap Song ("Lollipop"). He will appear on ATH from Los Angeles.

I guess you can't really make that show anymore annoying than it already is, and Lil Wayne is actually pretty good during his appearances on First Take. With that said, this seems to be inline with a lot of the other current gimmicks on the network to garner ratings for certain shows.

Set your TIVOs now, folks!

(Via ESPN PR)

S2N broke the news to you in the post below, but I just wanted to delve a little deeper into this very interesting Monday in the Sports Blog World. Jay Mariotti has said for months, following his departure from print media, that he was looking to start up a blog. I think a lot of people thought that he was being snarky and sarcastic, but apparently that wasn't the case. Jay Mariotti is your newest writer at Fanhouse. Seriously.

He already has his first column up, titled "Sunnier Times in New Mainstream Media" (See what he did there? So clever!), so let's take a look at some of the highlights, shall we?

Expect me to zealously comment on national issues while spanning the country and world to cover events. Sometimes, my pieces will appear via video, so you get to know me even better than the guy who schools Woody Paige every day on ESPN. The difference is, the column won't go through the 20th-century, ink-and-newsprint monkey grind where you hope the truck driver doesn't stop at Dunkin' Donuts and the delivery boy doesn't hit your dog on the ass. The column simply will go from my computer to an editor to you.

I'm working for a company, AOL, that attracted 54 million unique visitors to its programming content sites in November and ranks fourth in traffic among Internet news sites. As established writers keep moving Web-ward, it will cause consternation among a few members of the sports blogosphere, some of whom think they own the Internet when, as everyone knows, Bill Kurtis owns the Internet. I've never bought into this "mainstream media vs. bloggers" blood war because, in my mind, we're all writers. The best young writers provide compelling takes on sports. The losers wake up each day and attack (choose your ESPN target), an approach that can't attract much audience beyond a few neurotic souls in sports media. Now hear this: I'm a bit too busy to hate bloggers or, really, anyone but terrorists and certain Illinois politicians. I just think they should be writing about Steve Smith, not Stephen A. Smith.

Well then. I'm not one to tell a company like AOL, who has been through the ringer numerous times and has always come out on the other side, how to run their business. AND, I'm not one to use the phrase "jump the shark", because it has "jumped the shark". BUUUUUT....I do wish you good luck with your recent hire.

Why? Well because they've gone out and hired one of the most despised men on the Internet, are attempting to take one of the sole reasons bloggers became popular, and turn him into one its stars. It's so mind blowing that I can barely even think right now. This is beyond meta. Hell, Jay Mariotti is one of the reasons that this blog has done so well in its under three year existence.

Sure, on the surface it looks like I wake up every morning, try and find something to make fun of ESPN about, and then watch as the hits roll in. But it's much deeper than that. People like Mariotti, and throughout print media, started to get lazy and make the World of Sports about them and not the players or the game. Blogs were started by intelligent young writers looking to provide a better outlet, "Watchdogs" for the "Watchdogs" were formed to come up with a new checks and balances system, and then people like Mariotti cringed, fought back and groaned.

Now he's "one of us", and that my friends is the very definition of irony.

Sunnier Times In New Mainstream Media (Fanhouse)

Can't let the weekend go by without mentioning the media news that Deadspin broke yesterday: the former Chicago Sun-Times columnist and Around The Horn panelist that everyone loves to hate is debuting at AOL Sports in some capacity tomorrow (DS says he's going to be on FanHouse, the banner at the site just says "AOL Sports".)

You may remember Mariotti's hissy fit of a resignation a few months back, obviously, followed by what seemed like waves of missives from his former co-workers about how they won't miss him. It's pretty clear when your paper features a subscriber who returned because you left (along with allowing the beat writers and columnists to trash you), people aren't really that fond of you.

I know it's only encouraging him, but I'll probably read Mariotti's debut at AOL for the same reason I read Whitlock at Fox Sports: just to see how blatantly wrong and off-base he can be, while getting paid for it.

On The DL has been doing the Lord's work for quite some time now, but this could be DL and Co.'s greatest interview yet. Levy talked with Chicago columnist Rick Telander yesterday and naturally, the subject of his war with Jay Mariotti came up. Not only did it come up, but the latest story is just about the funniest thing I've ever heard....

“I was taking a sauna, which I do like once every ten years, and who walks in but Jay Mariotti. I swear to God. If God is my savior, if he is (he probably doesn’t want to save me, but) there he was. He almost freaked out. There were other people in the sauna. I probably shouldn’t even go on about this, but it was an hour ago. It was one hour ago, and he just started babbling.

I don’t think it’s fair for me...I’m telling you so much...it’s just surreal. I think if my eyes don’t deceive me, if he’d seen the Yeti or...Michael Myers sitting there, I don’t know, it would have been about the same. But you’d have to ask him that.

The first thing out of his mouth, ‘well, let’s just bury the hatchet.’ I had not said a word. Hatchets or anything – I didn’t have a hatchet in hand. Nothing.”

It's amazing what can transpire when two guys are naked in a sauna. That's pretty much the only place that Telander wouldn't have punched him in the face, and how funny is it that they just ran into each other like that. Of course there's much more in the interview including Rick lacing into Mariotti's writing style, so head over to OtDL for the rest. Mainstream Media continues to amaze me everyday.

Rick Telander Holds Nothing Back (On The DL)

At the time of his resignation from the Sun-Times, Jay Mariotti talked all big and bad about staying in television and finding an Internet position somewhere on the web. Well apparently he couldn't find a website, or that was just a cover up, because last week strong rumors surfaced about him attempting to gain employment with rival paper, the Chicago Tribune.

I'm here today to tell all of you Chicagoans that that's not going to happen and that Sun-Times lawyers have put a kibosh to the whole idea....

Discussions between former Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti and Tribune Co. about a possible role at the media company have ended, Mariotti said late Tuesday.

He said lawyers from the Sun-Times threatened to sue if he joined the company, claiming a jump to the competing news outlet would violate a non-compete agreement.

Mariotti and Tribune "talked about television, about the Internet, about the newspaper,'' he said. Mariotti said that discussions about working for Tribune Co.'s Chicago Tribune newspaper became a stumbling block. "The Sun-Times' lawyer threatened me with a lawsuit in 64-point type. Things sort of stalled,'' he added.

"At one point last week, there were lawyers on both sides looking into this,'' Mariotti said. "It's daunting to put together a deal. This [lawyer's letter] got thrown out in the middle of everything. We both decided that we can't do what we wanted to do.''

So you've got that going for you Chicago, which is nice. Seriously though, I know you have to do what's in the best interest of yourself at times, but that's one slimeball move right there. You re-sign with the Sun-Times back in June, head to Beijing for the Olympics, comeback saying you want something new and that newspapers are dying, you resign, you wait not even a month before trying to sign with the city's rival paper. You would think that the media in Chicago would be sick of him by now, but I guess controversy brings readers.

Oh and if you really want to have some fun this morning be sure to read the comments on the page linked below. Here are just a few....

If Mariotti goes to the Trib, then I might as well get all my news from The Onion.- JTO

I never thought I'd ever say this but: HOORAY FOR LAWYERS!- Uncle Bouncy

I would stop reading the Trib if they hired that sleazeball.- Dennis

Former Sun-Times columnist Mariotti not joining Tribune (Chicago Tribune)

Randball came across the Chicago Sun-Times press release this afternoon in regards to Jay Mariotti quitting his role at the paper, and it could quite possibly be the funniest statement ever written. From RB via Poyneter...

Topic: Miscellaneous items
Date/Time: 8/27/2008 1:19:18 PM
Title: Sun-Times' statement regarding Jay Mariotti
Posted By: Jim Romenesko

Release from the Sun-Times

August 27, 2008

Chicago Sun-Times Editor in Chief Michael Cooke issued the following statement today regarding the resignation of sports columnist Jay Mariotti:

The Chicago Sun-Times had the best sports section in the city before Jay Mariotti came to town -- that's why he signed up with us -- and his departure does not change that.

We still have the stars -- respected veterans such as Rick Telander, fiery newcomers such as Greg Couch, quirky voices like Carol Slezak, not to mention seasoned beat reporters tracking the Cubs and White Sox toward their eventual collision in the World Series, plus the Bears, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, and all the other teams that make Chicago the sports center of the nation. We could have a World Series in Chicago in a couple of months ... talk about excitement!

The Chicago Sun-Times and suntimes.com will continue to have the scores and the stories before anyone else, anywhere, and the deepest and most comprehensive stats and standings. We wish Jay well and will miss him -- not personally, of course -- but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days.

A paper, like a sports franchise, is something that moves into the future. Stars come and stars go, but the Sun-Times sports section was, is and will continue to be the best in the city.

Hahahaha. With that one jab, Michael Cooke just became my hero. It's sad that his industry is dying, and that Mariotti wins out in the end because he'll always have an opportunity to spew his nonsense at ESPN, but that's just downright hilarious. Bitter much?

Update: Mariotti is still doing ATH from the CS-T newsroom. They must not hate him THAT much....

"All these celebrations in and around Chicago. What's going on today?"- Jay Mariotti

Sun-Times' statement regarding Jay Mariotti (Poynter)
Jay Mariotti will not be missed by his editor (Randball)

For years, I never understood how Mariotti kept a job in Chicago. He bashed the teams, the fans and mailed in articles for the better part of the last two years. He was really the epitome of everything negative in mainstream media, but worry not Chicago, you don't have to deal with Jay the Joke any longer.

Mariotti, whose public battles with fellow staffers, team owners, and rival columnists are legendary, didn't disclose any specific plans except to say he will continue doing his regular stint on ESPN's "Around the Horn.''

He said that he "is talking with a lot of Web sites'' and added that the future of his business "sadly is not in newspapers.'' Mariotti said that he sent a resignation letter to Cyrus Freidheim, Sun-Times Media Group Chief Executive and Sun-Times Publisher. When asked via email by the Tribune whether Mariotti had resigned, Sun-Times Editor Michael Cooke responded, "You're kidding?''

"They accepted it,'' Mariotti said of his resignation. "It was my call entirely.''

"I'm a competitor and I get the sense this marketplace doesn't compete,'' he said. "Everyone is hanging on for dear life at both papers. I think probably the days of high stakes competition in Chicago are over.

"To see what's happened in this business...I don't want to go down with it.''

It's probably a relief for most Chicagoans to see him go, but dammit if the guy isn't dead on in his reason for leaving. All this ultimately means is that he'll be on ATH more and coming to a podcast/webisode near you in the not so distant future. Chicago wins but America loses.

Now if we could only get him to jump off that ledge in the photo above (I kid, I kid).

Sun-Times columinst Jay Mariotti resigns (Chicago Tribune)

It's not often that you see mainstream media members completely trash a production by other people in the business, so this article by Jason Whitlock was a welcome change. In fact he takes each individual to task on why they don't work in the format and praises the only person who deserves it, Cris Collinsworth....

NBC executives must have missed the memo: The Big Show era is dead. ESPN killed it. Every Tom, Dick and Stu Scott wannabe beat the other side of the pillow, cold and Pooh season and en fuego to death.

It ain't coming back.

What's worse is that Football Night was already hamstrung by an overcrowded set featuring talking heads with limited insight about, connection to and passion for the NFL....

....Nope, Football Night has just one star — Cris Collinsworth. He loves the game. He immerses himself in the game. He's willing to be outspoken about the game. He's just not on camera enough because the show has to make room for all the guys moonlighting as football experts. Collinsworth has no one to talk to on his level. I'd bet he's the only person on the show who actually watches game film.

Dan Patrick, a brilliant broadcaster, won't help. He's a clever radio host, but he's not a football guy. Patrick will be one more person on the show who has little real interest in the game.

I'm sure all these guys are football fans. Hell, they probably operate great fantasy teams. But they'll all contribute to one big, sloppy mess on Sunday nights. In terms of relevance and chemistry, the NBC show will lose more ground to Terry, Howie, Jimmy and Curt Menefee.

The whole piece is spot on and rather entertaining (the Mariotti dig in the beginning is hilrious) and worth a read. In the end, it's not the trashing part that I care about, it's the honesty. Having this many people on a telecast is distracting and completely over-doing it. It would have made sense to bring on Dan Patrick if they were getting rid of a few people, but adding him to the calvecade of random individuals is just going to make things worse.

NBC's cast of thousands is a bad act (FOX Sports)

Amidst co-worker hatred of him and annoying article after annoying article, the Chicago Sun-Times has re-signed the despised one Jay Mariotti. From what I've learned over the past few weeks this really isn't a surprise and look for every other Sports writer at the Sun-Times to quit leaving Jay The Joke all by himself*.

Jay Mariotti has agreed to a contract extension that will keep the award-winning sports columnist at the Sun-Times through May, 2011, Editor-in-Chief Michael Cooke said today.

"The Sun-Times sports franchise is a robust, influential brand locally and nationally. It's the one place for independent, politically unimpeded sports commentary in Chicago," Mariotti said. "The Sun-Times provides for a strong base from which to connect with readers while I continue my television work and branch into other broadcast and Web ventures."

Mariotti regularly will write columns for the Sun-Times while traveling to major national and international sporting events and covering the thriving Chicago sports scene.

I'd like to say this surprises me but it really doesn't. I know that controversy sells but I'd like to challenge all of Chicago to just try and ignore the guy and I'll do the same.

Mariotti signs Sun-Times contract extension (Chicago Sun-Times)

I had a post last week about how I'm amazed that a writer who no one seems to like continues to write articles on Ozzie Guillen that don't speak for the fans. Everyone chimed in and said that he speaks for no one in Chicago. Well today you can add Jay Mariotti's colleagues to the list of people that can't stand the guy. Via Teddy Greenstein at the Trib....

Now Mariotti is taking body blows from his own colleagues at the Sun-Times. The situation heated up to the point that Editor-in-Chief Michael Cooke stepped in last week to symbolically separate Mariotti from fellow sports columnist Rick Telander, after Sun-Times editors refused to run columns Telander filed for the Wednesday and Friday papers.

The conflict started after Mariotti wrote last week of Guillen: "As you may have noticed through the years, I am the Blizzard's only critic in the Chicago media, mostly because my soft colleagues either fear Guillen's wrath, enjoy how he rips me, work for one of the Reinsdorf-controlled broadcast outlets or are afraid of getting on the chairman's bad side."

The next day, Sun-Times national baseball writer Chris De Luca led his column this way: "The same critics who avoid ever stepping into the White Sox's clubhouse are calling the Chicago media soft for not skewering manager Ozzie Guillen. They want Guillen fired yesterday. Sounds tough, but the rhetoric comes up a little, well, soft."

Telander also believed Mariotti had unfairly impugned his reputation and fired back in a Wednesday column that got spiked, according to media insiders. The paper explained to its readers in a box that Telander was taking the day off.

"I'm a big boy and I can handle this," he said. "The people I feel sorry for are the hard-working, talented journalists at the Sun-Times like Chris De Luca, Joe Cowley, Toni Ginnetti, Gordon Wittenmyer, Carol Slezak and Greg Couch."

This whole situation continues to amaze me. NO ONE likes anything this guy does. Not a single person enjoys his writing or his nonsense on television. I know controversy sells more papers, but you can reach a point of diminishing returns. In this case someone from at a rival city paper is writing about the dysfunction at your paper. That should be a hint that there's a Cancer in the midst.

Mariotti is no Terrell Owens, Pacman Jones, or Jeremy Shockey. This would be like the Matt Gutierrez knocking out Tom Brady in the locker room seven times and still keeping his job. Unbelievable.

Sun-Times colleagues go after Jay Mariotti (Chicago Tribune)
Even Jay Mariotti's Co-Workers Hate Him (Fanhouse)

I do my best to avoid all things Mariotti, but lately I've been reading a piece here and there. I know I shouldn't but White Sox fans keep dropping them in the inbox and complaining about them. Mariotti's latest effort is really no different than in year's past. It's his latest "Fire Ozzie" article and he seems to be finally fed up with the Sox manager.....

"I'm sick and tired to watch this thing for a year and a half," Guillen said in his latest rant, this one aimed at Williams.

The feeling is mutual, Ozzie. We are sick and tired of you. When you're in last place, you're miserable. When you're in first place, you're miserable. When you go out for a beer, you say you're miserable because you're afraid the guy next to you will yap that he got drunk with Ozzie, as you said last month. You are trapped inside this creepy character you've created. Whatever charm that may have been attached to the Blizzard three years ago, when the Sox somehow won a World Series, has been replaced by a reality that glory isn't worth the price of dealing with a madman.

The question I'm asking you today is that while Ozzie is far from a saint, does the majority of White Sox Nation want him fired? Mariotti writes this same column every year and puts "we" in just about all of them. For a guy who hates everyone in his city and everyone seems to hate him....he speaks for a lot of fans with these statements. I mean Ozzie won the city a World Series just three years ago, and I'm amazed that fans would want him fired. It's unfortunate they no longer allow comments on Mariotti's articles, and I'm amazed that he's not the who's been axed because of his personal vendetta against Guillen.

Time to fire Guillen, put him out of misery (Chicago Sun Times)

Around the Horn is like a trainwreck to me. I absolutely hate the format, can't stand the guests, and ultimately despise the show.....but I watch anyway just about everyday. Well I was watching yesterday during a segment where the "gasbags" were arguing about something NBA related when Woody Paige decided to go into a rant all while not answering the question at hand (pretty much par for the course).

Well host Tony Reali decided to question Paige and basically got snapped at by the the Denver Post writer. The fun starts 20 seconds in.

"They're not going to win tonight. You know that."- Paige
"I don't know. I mean that's why we ask the question. We don't know if they're going to win."- Reali
"Of course you don't know, that's why you're not here doing this."- Paige

I know this kind of stuff happens everyday on the show, but that seemed a tad bit defensive didn't it?

I'm warning you ahead of time to just skip this post entirely or you'll lose your mind like I did when this clip aired last night.

So wait....Brett Favre acted like a kid? I'm confused....you know what, screw it...I give up.

(Please don't ever subject us to this again ESPN. I beg of you.)