Rox Pile
Fansided

The Colorado Rockies’ Beat: Bad Denver Sports Media, Part 1

By Bobby DeMuro

facebooktwitterreddit

May 20, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies first baseman W. Rosario (20) makes an error in the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Here’s your semi-regular dose of assorted piping hot takes on the local media outlets that cover the Colorado Rockies.

More from Colorado Rockies News

Nobody has ever accused those covering the Colorado Rockies for old media outlets (they call it “legacy media,” no irony to the legacy they’re leaving behind) of being, you know, good.

That’s certainly not true of everybody at newspapers. I generally like the beat writers at the Denver Post, and I appreciate their work; Troy Renck was an incredible Colorado Rockies’ beat writer. It’s no wonder he’s now on the Denver Broncos gig. The Post needs him in their most visible slot.

In his place, Patrick Saunders and Nick Groke do fine in their own right, especially considering the awful Colorado Rockies’ team they have to cover. There’s a reason I bring up Renck, though.

Renck was incredible, funny, patient, and gracious on Twitter. Other than him, there are way too many legacy media folks who are awful on the social network, like this freakin’ guy. It’s now 2015 (!) and Twitter has been around for nearly a decade (!). I just don’t understand how it’s possible to be a sportswriter of any capacity and suck at something as simple and important as Twitter. Today’s case in point: Mark Kiszla.

[ Related: Cristhian Adames oughta be the Colorao Rockies’ starting shortstop ]

Kiszla has a history of incredibly stupid “hot takes,” and then bashing the websites that call him out on his hot takes (God forbid self-realization where you can take even hyperbolic criticism in stride!). He comes back up every few months peddling some new horribly over-done fake outrage (a few weeks ago he swore Jon Gray would never earn a big league victory), and today, he comes up regarding Twitter.

It all started with this post by Connor Farrell, written yesterday afternoon as Pizza Rat exploded all over the Internet (not literally, you guys; figuratively exploded). Recognizing Connor’s creative genius, and that he is likely destined to become the next great American sportswriter a la Grantland Rice Mark Kiszla, I tweeted the post to Kiz and his lil’ buddy Woody Paige:

Ten minutes later, I checked Kiz’s account to see if he was (rightfully) sending all of his love to Connor regarding the incredible rodent investigative work on behalf of our glorious Colorado Rockies.

Instead, much to my

delight

terror, I found this:

That’s kind of sad. I like being blocked — any time somebody gets #MadOnLine to the level of blocking you, it’s hilarious and a quirky Internet badge of honor — but it’s about what he was blocking. It’s one thing if we were tweeting hateful, inappropriate, or otherwise awful comments, but we obviously don’t do that (and you should never either; that’s dumb and counterproductive). As far as I can tell, we were blocked after sending a satirical post about a rat carrying a piece of pizza down a flight of subway stairs. Sports!

[ Related: A reason to still watch the Colorado Rockies ]

Maybe if that’s block-worthy, maaaaaybe you’re too focused on the public’s perception of you to be a public figure. If you’re on that level, hey man, maybe Twitter isn’t the best place for you to be. Twitter, in all its beauty and madness and insanity and perfection, is a crazy, absolutely stupid-but-glorious wild west. Sometimes it’s amazing, and sometimes it makes Azealia Banks look palatable by comparison. Welcome to the Internet!

I’ll grant that maybe Kiz is too out of touch for it; I’m sure a few years ago the Post implored him to join kicking and screaming, with the “develop your brand” talk. Or maybe “engage the community” horse manure. Or, perhaps it was the “self-promotion” spiel. He never had a chance!

Also — no shade — maybe he doesn’t know how to (a) ignore, which is the easiest response; or (b) hit mute (you’ll never see a reply and we’d have never known you essentially blocked us by muting!). But this isn’t about using Twitter; this is (again) about media new and old. And that’s something we’ve written about before.

[ Related: Thoughts on the Colorado Rockies’ uniforms ]

I find blocking hilarious since it’s… cowardly? Childish? Passive-aggressive? All the above? But it means wer’e doing something right by not appealing to legacy media. That’s good! The future is in, well, the future. Journalists who haven’t adapted to change are digging their own grave with every misunderstanding of online culture and minute spent #MadOnLine.

Twitter — really, all media worth anything in 2015 — is a conversational two-way street; fans talk to reporters, reporters talk to fans, both talk to players, everybody talks about Pizza Rat. Kiszla didn’t cut his teeth on that two-way street. He grew up in the days where you printed a physical paper every morning (!!) and if a reader got really fired up, maybe a letter would go out. But that ain’t today, and it ain’t the future. Whatever the case, believe me, I’m praying that he will read this and admonish us more than a year from now in a passive-aggressive tweet.

More from Rox Pile

Home/Colorado Rockies News