A rousing “hear hear” for letter writer Mike Koskiewicz’s comments [July 7] on Michael Miner’s Hot Type column on Ozzie versus Mariotti [June 30]. “Two-bit hack” is a bit kind. Miner writes that he’s “been writing about Mariotti since he arrived in Chicago 15 years ago.” Well, perhaps he has, but it sure seems as though Mariotti has gotten a free ride from media critics ever since he joined the Sun-Times as their answer to Bernie Lincicome, then the Tribune’s resident basher. Back then the two papers had the “Sports With an Attitude” versus “In Your Face Sports” BS going. Did they conduct some focus groups to determine that sports-section readers wanted columnists to insult, rip, and deride the teams, athletes, and events they were covering? At least Lincicome was/is a very talented, clever writer, and he eventually toned down the nastiness (e.g., the Doug Flutie columns). But Mariotti is just awful. Michael Miner, what exactly happened several years ago when Mariotti was out the door at the Sun-Times and then was back as the principal columnist? Were there Polaroids with farm animals involved? Please bring in Ed Gold to do a weekly skewering.
George Kovacs
Ukrainian Village