A supremely interesting article that runs in ironic contrast to the general theme across ESPN.com.

I happen to wonder if the Seattle-based Caple doesn’t still harbor some love for A-Rod from the shortstop’s now-charmed days in the city of the Mariners.

At the same time Caple puts a lot of this in perspective. We’re really angry about the steroids, legitimately, but then use a number of other very personal items (some of them awful decisions, some of them not at all) to degrade his entire character. Maybe it’s even true, but no person deserves that kind of treatment in the media, particularly not the apparent psychological evaluation Selena Roberts offers.

From an e-mail I just sent to ESPN.com Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber…

I just read the most awful thing IN an actual ESPN.com article on the NBA All-Rookie team.

“The rookie of the year award and All-Rookie team are sponsored by T-Mobile.”

Read the quote in its full shameful context.

As an aspiring journalist, this nearly makes me cry out of hopelessness. Honestly.

How can ESPN.com include this in an actual news article? It’s an advertising tagline under the guise of news. It’s unconscionable and I think whoever’s responsible should be fired immediately. I’ve had enough of seeing ESPN personalities pretend to interview sports celebrities for commercials, also (think Trey Wingo and Ryan Howard). They’re being paid to parody themselves as journalists and to degrade the entire profession.

I hope I’m able to receive a response on this and that some kind of action happens. I hope that ESPN responds to any recommendations you have. It would set an important standard for their eroding journalistic credibility.

As I write, I’m obsessively following the Mariners-Angels game on ESPN GameCast. Welcome to the life of a Seattle fan abroad (this makes the dearth of nationally televised Seahawks games hurt hard).

I wonder if I’m caught up in the same frenzy as most other Mariners fans or observers. I’ve found it laughable how quickly attitudes about the Mariners have shifted. Somehow Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times and the crew of columnists there have suddenly found the bell of hope, conveniently timed after a nice road win streak. These same men just two weeks ago termed the Mariners a “rebuilding” club and many other similar epithets. So when they write about the M’s defying early expectations, remember that these guys, expert journalists without any apparent willingness to take a risk, had those same low expectations.

You see, I wish I had made time to write my predictions for this season on the blog. I’m not at all surprised by the Mariners’ start, though apparently these guys are pretty willing to change their tunes eight games into the season. I’m not surprised that the Mariners are winning, and I’m not surprised that there are still major problems (like the lack of an offense impressive beyond its timeliness). Above all, I would have written that the Mariners will be fun to watch. They won’t stand for mediocrity – anyone, even Griffey, will lose playing time or lineup status with poor performance. They have two many young, hungry players to let that happen, and they have leadership that now understands this.

So here’s my state of mind, and my suggestion for you: don’t be surprised, but don’t be overwhelmed, either. Just enjoy the ride and continue to love baseball!

Another excellent Outside the Lines article from ESPN.com. Several years ago I read “My Losing Season,” a memoir about life as a son, basketball player, and cadet at the Citadel by Pat Conroy. Then I read “The Lords of Discipline,” a less-direct examination of life at the Citadel, a military academy in South Carolina.

This article looks at Conroy’s reconciliation with his father and with the Citadel after years of antagonism. Great insight into family, tradition, and the intersection of sports with life.

Capturing the sport of badminton at its best! Leave it to the New York Times for an artistic look at sports.

A short, ungrammatical rumination on what it’s like for an old man to turn 21: here. Reminds us that Greg Oden and his sense of humor belong in the NBA for years to come, and reminds me that somehow this man is older than me.

Also worth checking out Oden’s blog post for the comments from fans – does a blog comment break down some barriers between athletes and fans? I think so.

I thought Joe Torre was above stirring classless controversy. Maybe he is, but his publisher Doubleday isn’t. Regardless, let’s try to put Torre’s claims in perspective.

What does it really mean for A-Rod to be A-Fraud? It means he wasn’t himself and that he tried to copy Derek Jeter. Somehow we’re expected to blame this for the Yankees’ losing ways? Even when A-Rod, despite obvious playoff foibles, has produced numbers that could leave him as the greatest ever when he retires? He hasn’t slowed down with the Yankees.

So, yes, maybe A-Rod isn’t the greatest person in the world, and that probably has significant impact on the Yankees’ clubhouse culture. But Torre will not benefit from calling out one of his former players. It ultimately has to be, as the article states, an overarching issue with management.

As we all know, the Yankee model hasn’t worked for a decade (if you define “work” as winning a World Series), so Torre’s claims aren’t really that new.

Slow down. Take a breath. Get ready for spring training and prepare to put an artificial news cycle behind us.

Published Jan. 21 (with an accompanying video).

It is fascinating to trace the tenuous (potential) line from Henderson to Michael Irvin to Terrell Owens. Maybe we only read this article on Hollywood Henderson because of the Cowboys’ recent failures. But then Henderson reminds us that he’s a badboy of a different sort.

He got sober. He didn’t change his ego, but he milked it to get sober.

Henderson also reached the Super Bowl three times. Owens hasn’t done it with the Cowboys. Neither has Tony Romo. The media creates much of the Cowboys’ mystique, of course, through the increased lens, but Jerry Jones creates it as well.

Largely because I had previously read very little about Hollywood Henderson, the article proved worthwhile, even though it doesn’t offer too much insight into Henderson’s current character beyond the giantesse of his ego.

Most comments about the new ESPN.com design, which was about a year in the making, likely focus on the increased video/audio components, or at least their bump in publicity.

However, my favorite aspect of the new site is the “Editor’s Choice” feature. Today it asks whether yesterday’s hit on Willis McGahee was merely legal violence, or against the rules. Maybe I respect the feature simply because it says “Editor” above, or maybe it’s a worthy replacement of the endless “SportsNation” promotions, which don’t provoke much insight. For example, today’s SportsNation question: “Which team is more likely to return to the playoffs next year? The Eagles or the Ravens?”

Um, after this NFL season, we have no idea. We can speculate endlessly about Donovan McNabb’s health or Joe Flacco’s maturation, and we will, but it ultimately comes down to offseason moves, health, and a host of other decisions or strokes of luck. Meanwhile, the editor’s choice feature asks a significant judgment question with actual implications.

As a professional journalist, ESPN’s Ed Werder knows that anonymous sources do not have much legitimacy. Why? They do not have the boldness to speak out with their name, and accordingly their account of events may not be true. They’re protected from absolute accountability by their anonymity.

Anyway, Werder wrote another article about the Dallas Cowboys’ locker room dynamics. I wrote at the end of the NFL regular season about his first foray into the topic.

This new article from Werder is predicated on tips from anonymous sources about planned discussions about Terrell Owens. But the headline reads “Sources: Cowboys may release Owens.” In other words, “Ed Werder: Hears Speculation and Decides it Will Make Front Page of ESPN.com.” Maybe I’m exaggerating, and maybe the Cowboys will release Owens. Werder bases his argument off the “beliefs” of two sources with the Cowboys about opinions of executives within the Cowboys organization.

The article ends up being a lot more about Jason Garrett than about Terrell Owens, because there’s more of a story there. Misleading headline for an article based on speculation. Not a great recipe for quality journalism.