Let the record show that this will be the last time I ever rip Murray Chass in this space. I confess that I’m growing a soft spot for the man. No, he shouldn’t have lashed out at Tom Verducci on hearsay, as he did last week. Of course not.
But add up the sum of the Murray Chass parts at this point — the blog-hating blog, the cliched blinders-on criticism of the stats community, even just the way he’s continuing to work despite no professional affiliation or advertisers. It can be infuriating and obnoxious and just downright silly, but I think more than anything, it’s sad.
I didn’t always view it this way. Back before this blog existed, I wrote for SNY’s The Nooner blog under the pseudonym Duke Casanova (a tribute to two great men named Raul). Murray Chass wrote a post about Mike Piazza’s bacne and I responded with an angry Fire Joe Morgan-style screed for that site’s “The Editorial Whee!” feature (hence the first-person collective).
Anyway, since I’m bored of speculating about what Cliff Lee’s currently thinking and uninterested in weighing in now on the Mets’ social-media efforts, and since the Nooner blog no longer exists and ripping Murray Chass is currently en vogue, I re-posted the Murray Chass teardown here. Check it out.
I agree that at this point, Chass is more to be pitied than to be hated. Though I suspect Verducci begs to differ…
if that is the way the winds of change are blowing, let it be known that I also blow.