FanGraphs Audio: Rob Neyer Exclusive Interview Exclusive
Episode 430
Rob Neyer has been an internet baseball weblogger since before the word weblog actually even existed. He’s also the guest on this edition of FanGraphs Audio.
Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.
You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.
Audio after the jump. (Approximately 1 hr 10 min play time.)
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Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Could you say exclusive more?
Neyer is the worst.
In retrospect, this is a pretty pathetic insult, but I’m sick and not up to my usual level of snark. Neyer is still a misogynist asshole though.
I’m assuming based off when he defended Damon Bruce? Or something else? Honestly curious.
That’s part of it. My issue with him started when the comments in an article he wrote at sbn was hijacked into an abortion debate. Rather than shut it down or moderate the comments into a less divisive direction, he let the conversation continue until it got quite heated. When I found it, there were already a lot of comments. I offered my point of view, namely that as a presumably largely male group, they should mind their own business and let women decide how to deal with our own bodies. As a woman, this is not a hypothetical argument to me, and I admittedly got quite angry.
Neyer’s response was to delete my comments and give me a warning for swearing. This is when I learned that to Neyer, men’s opinions are valuable and interesting even when they have literally nothing to do with the article in question, but a woman expressing her views about a political topic that affects only cis women and trans* men should be silenced.
The fact that he went on to defend Damon Bruce’s blindingly stupid and blatant misogyny (which was aimed at a fangraphs writer, in case anyone missed that) merely confirmed my opinion.
Neyer has also posted a huge number of truly terrible pieces in the name of clicks (imho this is the worst: http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/10/18/4852744/nlcs-los-angeles-dodgers-bryan-stow-frank-mccourt-ownership-change).
Basically he’s a bad person and a sensationalist hack.
I’ll give him credit for (per him) responding “East Kenyan” when asked about his country of ancestry, as a good use of snark/fighting through political correctness.
But articles like the Stow/McCourt one don’t add to the quality of the “Great Internet Library”, IMO. And letting a comment board get that badly derailed is simply inexcusable. One reason that Fangraphs is my most visited site is that they don’t let it get to that stage – when a great article on why there are no Muslims in baseball got super-ugly, the comment board was closed and the offensive comments never again saw the light of day.
Though I don’t know enough about him to fully categorize him as a bad person, Neyer has progressively become more of a hack. Perhaps he is planning to go for Dan Shaughnessy’s job once he retires.
Neyer just will entertain any argument from any position, which can come across as insensitive. My impression has always been then he has a heart, and that his intuitions and actual reasoned opinions are pretty liberal and open to anyone.
The idea of uncertainty and debate is just more interesting to him on controversial topics than taking a position. I took enough philosophy courses in college to recognize the personality type. So yes, he will value the process of a hypothetical debate even when the very idea of a debate over a topic is emotionally difficult to people, which is obviously rude in some public contexts, but its not like that makes him a bad person — just a curious one.
I’ll agree that some of his topics are not as interesting or insightful as he thinks they are, but well, I don’t think he’s a hack I just think he likes to throw novel ideas out there and see if anything sticks, which I don’t think is a bad thing. He’s open to changing his mind, and in general never even concludes definitively on most of writings, which is why he’s 10 million miles away from someone like Shaughnessy, come on.
Yeah, the Shaughnessy comparison was overboard on my part. Some of his recent stuff has crossed the line further than I would have expected, but I think he’s much more aiming for Bill James 2.0 than a hack Boston sportswriter.
And now you just hijacked a Fangraphs comment thread into an abortion debate. Good job!
Well, that’s disappointing. I only read him on ESPN and his books. I liked him but I thought his quality of work suffered over the years. The last thing I read of his, I think was the Damon Bruce article. But still disappointing to hear.
Neyer is not only my favorite baseball writer but one of my favorite writers period. I don’t know what happened on some comments section, but if anything when his writing had touched on politics it has seemed as though he’s a pretty reasonable guy. Even were he not, his baseball writing is great and speaks for itself.
I liked the part when Cistulli kept trying to awkwardly end the podcast.
The first three minutes were so boring I had to shut it off. I really wish there was a good baseball podcast out there that didn’t devote inordinate amounts of time to mindless chitchat, pathetic attempts at humor or goofy sound effects. I just want to someone to talk baseball. Alas, I haven’t found one yet. As a media professional, I’ll all you podcasters a tip: If it’s boring, cut it. Too short is better than too long.
Try listening to Dave Cameron’s weekly appearance sometime. You shan’t be disappointed.
I am sure Carson appreciates the tip. I like it, though. It’s his voice and his style. It wouldn’t be the same as a straight business podcast.
I enjoy the Fangraphs podcasts — some get more off topic (baseball, that is) than others, but I usually don’t mind.
I also listen to the ESPN daily baseball podcast. I admit that I liked it better when Eric Karabell hosted (with Keith Law and Mark Simon), but it is still really informative in its current incarnation, as run by Buster Olney.
Apparently I’m the only person who enjoyed this episode.
I enjoyed it as well. Perfectly Reasonable and openminded.
BTW, toes are digits.
Griffey Jr. is one who lost a lot of spots on the “best all time” list because of injury. Probably Pujols, too.
Not sure that this comment applies to this topic, but I just read Neyer’s post about Damon Bruce. Comments are closed for that. So, my 2 cents: Hate speech is exactly the kind of speech that the 1st Amendment was written to protect. You don’t need the 1st Amendment for people to say, “I love puppies,” or “The USA is great.”
It exists so that people can freely espouse unpopular ideas. As the quote goes, “I may not agree with what you say, but I shall defend to my death your right to say it.”