He’s back and he’s bad…
Former Kansas City Star sports columnist Jeffrey Flanagan has hooked up with Fox Sports and has already administered a bit of corporal journalistic punishment to his former employer and the local sports media.
“I ran into Jeff just now at the Woodside pool and I said, ‘Hey, congratulations, I heard you joined the Fox Sports team online,’ ” says Stanford’s Craig Glazer. “And he told me it’s a subsidiary of Fox Sports and that, “I will just be covering Kansas City. In fact, you can read my first story right now.'”
Flanagan’s kickoff piece for Fox was a humdinger…
“Glass says he didn’t order Hillman’s Firing,” the headline reads.
“Almost immediately after Royals general manager Dayton Moore fired Trey Hillman last week, speculation swirled that the move must have come from the top, as in from owner David Glass,” it begins. “After all, just a few days earlier, Moore had offered assurances that Hillman indeed was the ideal manager to lead the Royals now and into the future.”
Flanagan’s scoop comes at the expense of the Star’s sports department and other local media who dropped the proverbial ball. Why nobody else here thought to make the obvious follow-up call will likely remain a mystery.
“He just said he couldn’t believe that the Star’s sports didn’t bother to call Royals owner David Glass to see if he approved the firing of Trey Hillman,” Glazer says. “He said it’s Sports (Journalism) 101 – when you fire the owner of a football or baseball team – to call the owner and ask what his position was on the firing. He said it just shows how messed up things are at the Star right now. He said he thought it was very unusual how the Star handled it – David Glass is not hard to get a hold of and he couldn’t understand why nobody at the Star made the call.”
Following the posting of this story, Flanagan weighed in with a more measured take:
“I’m not trying to bash anybody,” Flanagan says. “I was just surprised that after a week nobody had done the story. Including radio and television.”
However you cut the cake, Flanagan is back, bad and has every intention of reestablishing his mark on the local sports scene.
Flanagan now says he wasn’t trying to pin the tail on the Star’s sports donkey (he has a book deal with them). However, it seems clear – if only between the lines – that were he still writing for the Star he’d have nailed the call to Glass in the first reporting of the story. Because it wasn’t done for a week, Flanagan did the honors.
As for his saying he did not intend to (publicly) diss the Star or anyone else –
Nino Brown
Glad to see Pookie, er Jeff, has a job. Without him as my No. 1 customer, I was going to have to sell off The Carter. But now that he’s got a steady stream of income, my real estate investment is safe once again.
derickmistersports
Great news Jeff, good story too. Keep them coming.
Ross
First of all, no way Glass fesses up to ordering Hillman’s firing.
Regardless – Bob Dutton made it very clear in his initial article on 5/13 about the firing that it was Moore’s call. Not the Glass family’s.
So, other than not being surprised at the fact Glazer is trolling men’s lockerooms at local fitness clubs, what’s the story here again?
And fix your typos Hearne. It’s embarassing. Mix in a grammar/spell check maybe…
__________________
HC: Hey Ross, Bob Dutton made it clear? Sounds like something a defensive Star newsie or editor might say. Btw, how does one make something clear without so much as attempting to speak to the one person in question. Dutton had a Sixth Sense?
Agree Glass would be very unlikely to give a candid/honest answer. Still as a journalist reporting a news story, you’re still supposed to ask. Or at least to put in the calls and report they were not returned or comment was declined.
Cleaned up the typos for you. There was a lot of post story tap dancing going on after the first version went up and some of the last second adds were a bit sloppy.
Newbaum Turk
There is a reason Flanagan got this story and it has nothing to do with nobody else called Glass. Fox has exclusive rights to the Royals (think Fox Midwest) so Glass will speak to Fox only. I know for a fact at least one radio station tried to get him on. Flanagan’s comments are totally misleading and if you know anything about media and contracts, total bullshit.
smartman
The only mark Flanny made on sports journalism was a skid-mark. Jeff makes Hendricks and Penn look like Woodward and Bernstein when it comes to any real relevance and insight.
Mdubowy
“Top of The Morning” Jeff. Enjoyed your work, miss reading your stuff. Without you, Whitlock is all they have. Smartman I disagree with you here, Flannigan was a breath of fresh air in the mornig for me and many others. Glad you found a spot at Fox.
downtowndavy
I agree with the guy above me, Jeff Flanigan was a fun read in sports. I will be reading your column on Fox Sports. When is it in?
TigerVIP
Did anyone ask Dan Glass if he ordered the firing? I’m betting David stays out of the way for the most part on the baseball decisions but I’m also willing to bet Dan Glass listens to his dad very closely when he speaks. So Flanny, did you think to ask Dan Glass?
KellysGuy
Jeff haven’t seen you at Kellys much lately. We got lots of sports stories here for you. Glad to see you back on track.
hearne
FYI to the good Turk: in the print journalism racket, if the reporter calls someone like David Glass to request a comment, they write that Glass either did not return calls or could not be reached. Glass can’t take a call from the Star – which he would have undoubtedly returned – if nobody places one. Talk radio is another matter entirely.
JimmyD
Didn’t Flanagan get knocked the fuck out and get ambulanced off the field in 810’s first turkey bowl game?
KCMO staffer
Jeff want to do radio for us now that you are a Fox guy? We’d love to have you on in the morning?
jojo
who cares who glass talked to.
Obviously the jack off doesn’t talk to anyone
who knows anything about baseball.
This rickety old team is put together with
smoke and mirrors. Bring in 4 or 5 new
starters each year…bag some salaries….
keep managers who have no brains…bringup
players from AA ball before they’re ready to
take major league pitchers and ruin them forever…go to the trash heap to get a catcher
who has a burned out arm…hire a pitching
coach who can’t get his signal straight…
bring in a blind third base coach…lie to
season ticket holders about returns and
exchanges…sell crumby food for a buck….
this guy doesn’t need to talk with this
flanagan…he needs to talk to a bsaseball guy
who can turn this team around in 2 years
or to the guy who bankrupted the texas rangers
so he can see he’s on the wrong path in this
town.
Glass is an idiot…and whetehr he fired
hillman or not…its irrelevant because he’s
on a wrong slide to having to bk this franchise.
If it keeps up…watch this whole thing explode
nmext year when the guy has no cash left in the
bank to invest and bud selig and some out of
town group have to rescue the team.
We;’re headed that way…it inevitable the
way this guy is running this deal.
I saw the financials and changed my mind on
this guy. He’s running it without the proper
guidance and if they lose greinke/butler/
desjesus/pod/and other players in 2010
and 2011 look for an empty royals stadium.
I can only imagine what the kaufman sisters
are saying now about glass…its not pretty.