David, Costas holds up Dan LeBatard as a yardstick? Pathetic, LeBatard is entertaining, seems like a nice guy. But he is an idiot. If that's the hurdle I've yet to come across many sports blogs that fail to clear.

"He should have been great, but now he's just a bitter old man."

Ouch!

In fairness to Costas, he's mostly right. Typical comments sections in high-traffic newspaper blogs are filled with tripe. 9 posts out of 10 don't add anything to the conversation. When I read David O'Brien's AJC Braves blog, I never read the comments that aren't made by O'Brien.

So in the limited context of newpaper blogs, which in my experience have higher traffic levels, lower standards of moderation (bad policy to tell a subset of your readers that they're idiots and can't post on your blog even if it happens to be true), and more of a "venting" atmosphere than a "discussing" atmosphere, I think Costas is mostly correct.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but this blog is one of those which I would hold up as a contrast to the type Costas seems to be talking about.

Oh, and I would also say that a lot of the popular sports media (which guys like LeBatard, who Costas brought up as an example of how a REAL journalist acts) is a much better reflection of the sentiment (it "confuses simple mean-spiritedness and stupidity with edginess. Just because I can call someone a name doesn't mean I'm insightful or tough and edgy. It means I'm an idiot.") that Costas attributes to the blog comments.

The real question (to me) is "chicken or egg?" Are commenters on these blogs just following the examples set by the Plaschke's and Mariotti's of the world? Or are Plashke and Mariotti successful because that's the way people like to think about sports?

Costas is just another media coot in an ever growing list of media coots that refuse to acknowledge that mass media and how people get their information has changed. Whether he knows it or not, he has already been overtaken by An Army of Davids

I'll give him a pass. He has several dozen built up from his "Scottie Pippen on the grassy knoll" line.

Nice blog entry, David. You don't hold back...but that's good. When I see you make these kinds of observations, I give it credibility because I know you have the experience and knowledge to do so. As for Costas' comments, I was disappointed in him. I always figured he was classier than that. He lumps all bloggers in the "working in his mother's basement/get a life" pigeon hole. I would have hoped that he would stay away from stereotyping bloggers. For some reason, he is offended because people take the time to answer an internet poll about which NBA West team won't make the playoffs. Why is he offended...because only Bob Costas can tell them the answer? Why does he conclude that answering a simple poll means bloggers need to "get a life?" I better stop the length of this comment or I will have spent too much time on blogging, according to Costas.

I remember enjoying Costas on the 'B' games on Game Of The Week as well. But my last memory of Costas as a baseball broadcaster is negative - during the 1996 post season he was comparing the Cy Young candidacies of Andy Pettite and Pat Hentgen. He said that while Hentgen had a better ERA than Pettite, Pettite's was really driven by a couple of bad outings so if you threw his worst 2 or 3 outings out, he'd have the better ERA. I yelled at the TV "So what would happen if you threw out Hentgen's worst 2 or 3 outings?!"

A minor issue to be sure, but it seemed to me that Costas lacked some objectivity when the Yankees were involved.

But perhaps I'm being unfair since I tend to lose objectivity when the Yankees are involved as well...

I've always been a Costas fan--but you'd have to be blind not to realize he has an ego that is hefty enough to duel The Barry's for world domination. I suspect that on occasion it interferes with his objectivity.

Remember when CBS canned Brent MussBurgher BurgherMeister from his Sombertown gig? He said ,"I can't believe the network conspired to fire me!"

Remember Howard Cosell and how bitter he became about most sports, in particular boxing, the sport which was genesis to his fame, covering the likes of Ali, Frazier and Foreman?

For you locals of NYC, when did Mike Lupica go from "Shooting From the Lip" in his sports column, and writing very good, emotion emoting pieces about our locals, players and accomplishments, to whats beginning to sound like an old bitter political pundit auditioning for Hannity or Combs' job?

Costas? Say it isn't so. I really enjoyed him and Joe Garagiola in the 80's on NBC's Game of the Week. I just hope he doesn't get carried away with himself. We are all intitled to our opinions in this country. Bob Costas risks becoming the village idiot thinking he has a monopoly on opinions.

2 things.
first, costas sort of ripped on blogs, but was really talking about newspapers letting themselves be dragged into talk radio territory by posting comments from readers. and he's right. comments sections on any newspaper sports section are pathetic. want proof? read the one following that miami herald article where costas is called a "jewbag."

saying that most blogs suck and that 99% of reader comments are pathetic doesn't make one anti-internet, or anti bloggers. it makes one right.

but point number 2 is that costas is easily the best living baseball broadcaster, and the fact that he doesn't do every world series game is a crime against humanity. (with apologies to vin scully, who is a god amongst men, but his best days are behind him.)

Thiis is what happens when you have to host tape-delayed Olympics for decades on end and pretend to care. Even the best would be turned bitter by that.