#34. But, point taken. I shouldn’t have impugned his alma mater

Yes and no. As others have said about Miller, it never hurts to do a little research. Just because some of us may not have heard of Hillsdale College doesn’t mean that it’s a place not worth knowing about.

Because Hillsdale College is a school that does something … well I don’t know whether to call it notable or infamous.

It is one of the very few colleges in the country (the only one that I know of) that refuses to accept Federally based student financial aid money. Because schools that accept such aid are required by the Federal government to comply with Federal regulations.
http://www.hillsdale.edu/CollegeHistory/

One might admire Hillsdale for its independence. On the other hand, among the regulations that Hillsdale objects to are “Title IX” regulations, which prohibit colleges from discriminating on the basis of gender (with certain exceptions, such as single-sex colleges). They also decline to report their student body’s ethnic breakdown, or at least I don’t see it on their website nor in their College Board data.

Hillsdale’s website strenuously stresses its policies of non-discrimination.

It is for you the reader to interpret all this as you will.

That policy of non-discrimination I believe also includes a strong refusal to pursue affirmative action policies. Hillsdale College is a darling of social conservatives:
http://tinyurl.com/2ytp4n
Or for more details on the soap opera-ish melodrama of the school’s President and his affair with his daughter in-law:
http://tinyurl.com/2boc5u

Granted, none of this applies directly to Miller. But a student who has chosen to go to Hillsdale has made a distinctive choice, just as (or even more so than) a student who chooses Reed College, Caltech, or Oral Roberts University.

Oh, and as for author Derek Zumsteg’s credibility on attempting to finger an issue from a thousand or more miles away from the ballpark, here’s an excerpt written by Zumsteg from the book’s acknowledgements: “Thanks are due to my agent, Sydelle Kramer, who was willing to help me figure out which book idea I could do well with, whip up a good proposal and find it a home.”

Among other things, the columnist is displaying his ignorance, because that’s a huge part of a literary agent’s JOB. They’re in it to help talented writers figure out the business side of publishing, which includes deciding which of a set of ideas is most marketable and suited to the writer’s abilities and putting together a proposal to showcase that idea to publishers. There’s nothing remotely strange, embarrassing, or credibility-reducing about it. I know because I’m an agented, though as-yet unpublished, fiction writer, and my agent and I have these kind of discussions all the time. It’s not about selling out by chasing trends that don’t interest me, but rather strategically considering what kind of book would make a good follow-up if the manuscript she’s currently shopping sells, which of several ideas I’m enthusiastic about is best for the current state of the market, etc. It’s NORMAL. It’s what agents and writers do all the time because writing may be art but publishing is BUSINESS.

What I really enjoyed today was the Brad Lefton article (note: Lefton is described as “a bilingual journalist who covers Ichiro and the Mariners for the Japanese media”). Lefton gives us this all-time classic of Ichiro quotes, regarding the upcoming matchup with Dice-K.

“I hope he arouses the fire that’s dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul,” he says. “I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger.”

This raises a number of questions in my mind about fires in Ichiro’s soul which may or may not still be dormant, and also about the extent of bilingual journalist Brad Lefton’s translation skills. Also, why does Japanese media need Brad Lefton to cover Ichiro from St Louis, when there are dozens of Japanese media following him everywhere he goes? Mostly I hope Ichiro was just talking about baseball when he gave that quote.

It must be hard for sports writers, who have defined themselves as “journalists” and have the related restrictions on what they can do, to see this wave of blogging, where people can just say whatever they want without worrying about players ignoring them in the clubhouse and messing up their deadlines. Hence the “it was just rosin” this year, and “it was a dirt stain” during the playoffs last year.

I’ve seen or read more than one reference to this story that called Derek “some blogger” or “an internet blogger” but I’ve never heard them call the New York Times “some print newspaper” or ESPN “some TV network.” At some point they’ll have to pull their heads out of the sand and acknowledge that bloggers can have a valid opinion and aren’t just all making stuff up to be controversial.

Schilling’s blog serves a variety of purposes, talking up: his 38 studios GMG site, his gratefulness at being successful in baseball as an occupation as well as doing something he loves, honoring his family and Christianity, his work for ALS, cancer research, and childhood/disabling diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy, and many other topics.

Shaughnessy has sneered repeatedly at Schilling’s direct-to-the-fans remarks after each game he’s pitched, his observations on his team and other players in MLB (nothing controversial), and his stated purpose in his first blog entry being avoidance of creative editing by Shaughnessy and others: “…that getting ripped for something I say here will be getting ripped for something I actually said–with the entire contents of my comments included.”

He must not have an editor to point out how unprofessional that makes him look.

Oh, and as for author Derek Zumsteg’s credibility on attempting to finger an issue from a thousand or more miles away from the ballpark, here’s an excerpt written by Zumsteg from the book’s acknowledgements: “Thanks are due to my agent, Sydelle Kramer, who was willing to help me figure out which book idea I could do well with, whip up a good proposal and find it a home.”

This guy’s a complete tool. He’s not only petty, but he doesn’t understand the concept of humorous self-deprecation.

Scott Miller…that’s one byline I’ll bypass from now on.

But, point taken. I shouldn’t have impugned his alma mater but rather the knuckleheaded state he was from! (tongue in cheek!!)