Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Dick Griffin, and the voices in his head

(We use the photo above with all due deference to the inebriated scoundrels at Drunk Jays Fans, and their weekly Gibbers and Griffins Awards. Because really, there is no photo that could represent how we feel about Richard Griffin more than this one.)

Trudging our way through today's Dick Griffin Wednesday Mailbag Happy Time!, it occurs to us: just who are these sycophantic Griffin fans? How did they get out of their straight jackets long enough to scrawl crayon notes of effusive praise to Toronto's laziest and most self-aggrandizing baseball writer?

Today's reader mail featured classic nuggets like "Love your column" from Phil Rossel of Barrie, and "Love the Column, can't wait for Wednesdays" from Ricky B of Markham, or "I enjoy your column; especially memories of your days with Les Expos" from J. Reaves of Toronto.

(BTW, did you know that Richard Griffin used to work in the Expos' PR department? Because he only mentions it a couple of hundred times per season.)

We don't want to insinuate that these Griffin acolytes are maybe a figment of someone's imagination (or the product of someone needing to fill electronic column inches once a week.) We'd never suggest he's faking his mail bag entries...that's for two-bit punks like Marty York.

But we would say that if those letters came from actual living breathing Jays fans, then maybe Dick could see fit to edit out the flattering puffery, and get directly into the softball questions. Unless, of course, he feels a burning need to demonstrate to his employer that readers really really really like him.

Reading these complements is like having a friend foist their kid's report card on you, to prove how smart their little ankle-biter is, even though you can see that the kid over in the corner mining for nose nuggets and wiping them on the wall. (Hey, in a few years, maybe that kid will write for the Star him/herself!)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I've wondered the same thing about the kudos to Griffin. Maybe he inserts the comments into each email.

Unknown said...

Ah, I see I should've read the entire post before offering my comment. Guess I was too impatient to vent about Dick Griffin.

Stoeten said...

Hahaha!!! That photo still cracks me up. I was practically on the floor when I found it. Thanks for the nod. I think my feelings on Griffin have been well documented.

halejon said...

I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote the question about Glaus...same insight and fact-checking skills.

"In fact with RISP (runners in scoring position) and RISP with two out the O-dog has more homers over the last two years than Glaus"

Not that anyone cares about scoring position when you hit a bomb, but Hudson has a higher % of solo shots and wayyyy fewer with RISP over the last 2 years.