Comments on: A young blogger admits a mistake and apologizes

By: nukeladouche

nukeladouche — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:58:20 +0000

““We reach out and touch, through these nine programs, well over 100,000 children.”

Ouch.

By: stercuilus65

stercuilus65 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:27:13 +0000

Boo-hoo. Free speech, deal with it.

By: amandamartino

amandamartino — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:47:11 +0000

@buckybadger – Yes, sadly, you’re probably right. If he performs well on the field, all will be forgiven (or at least forgotten) by the people who cheer either for him or for the Rays. That doesn’t mean we should just ignore it.

By: buckybadger

buckybadger — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:41:08 +0000

I didn’t see the full original article and where it is awful to think that all will be forgiven as long as he makes a major league roster performs but doesn’t it strike a bit of truth to it? Haven’t we seen time and time again a professional athlete do something this horrendous and as long as they win they are forgiven in the public eye? I understand why people are upset as it sounds as though he minimized the incident but what angers me is that it is basically true. You can talk all “Holy than thou” but in the end if he performs on the field it will be forgotten. I think he should be tossed in jail for years but they don’t let me reside on such matters.

By: shanabartels

shanabartels — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:28:19 +0000

Oh there were people doing that? I guess I’m not surprised but ugh humanity.

By: shanabartels

shanabartels — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:27:31 +0000

I had never heard of Fansided until today. If that means I’m a snob about which baseball blogs I deem worth reading, then… well, yeah. I guess I am pretty picky.

By: amandamartino

amandamartino — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:50:58 +0000

Good for him. I don’t think being 17 excuses his glossing over the fact that a girl was raped and his article said “well as long as Josh gets people out we’ll all move on” but it does provide a bit of context for the original article, at least. I’m just glad he realized how poorly he came across and acknowledged it…I’m sure we can all think of sportswriters who are at least three times Robbie’s age and completely incapable of such a realization.

By: sportsdrenched

sportsdrenched — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:34:34 +0000

It’s a Fansided site. He’s probably the guy. If there is a corrdinator over him he doesn’t have much control. These sites are pretty much voluntary and from looking at his other stuff, I agree he probably wrote the apology.

By: blacksables

blacksables — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:31:28 +0000

Why does he need to apologize to you? He did you no harm. All you did was read some words he wrote that you found out about here. You didn’t have to read what he wrote, but you did in order to be offended, when you had the chance to ignore it. You chose the path, not him.

He’s apologized to the people he offended. It’s up to them to accept it. They only he offense to you was your self-important sense of right and wrong.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:24:13 +0000

Holy crap!

By: yahmule

yahmule — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:14:20 +0000

And since when are dead mother jokes out of bounds?

By: a125125125

a125125125 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:11:58 +0000

Calcaterra giving out writing advice? That’s rich.

By: tfbuckfutter

tfbuckfutter — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:54:31 +0000

The government is supposed to move on.

The public has no obligation to do so.

By: professormaddog31

professormaddog31 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:50:22 +0000

…if you want to call a slap on the wrist “serving time”…

By: manute

manute — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:45:09 +0000

Yeah, he’s like writing and stuff. And preparing for a possible career. What a loser.

By: butchhuskey

butchhuskey — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:44:18 +0000

I really wish I had known he was 17 when I wrote a very critical comment about sportswriters yesterday. Of course, being 17 doesn’t absolve him of all responsibility but I would have understood that the mistake he was made was one of naivety rather than pure insensitivity.

But although what he said yesterday was inappropriate, I do applaud the kid for writing his own blog and owning up to his mistake.

By: bh192012

bh192012 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:41:42 +0000

I thought we were supposed to move on after people serve their time. Guess Craig is for no tolerence now?

By: thon

thon — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:26:28 +0000

Nice to see someone is out there meting out justice to a 17 year-old blogger on a website no one reads. The annals will surely remember the day that guy really let that kid from “Rays Colored Glasses” have it.

By: cur68

cur68 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:21:22 +0000

I recall the incident you repeatedly bring up, ‘comm. You started it by saying shit about his wife and family. You’ve never apologized either. So get lost.

By: cur68

cur68 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:19:34 +0000

Yeah, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, I think. When I was 17 I don’t believe I could have carried it off at all. I’m more disappointed in the grown people who blamed the victim. This kid never did that and went out of his way to retract his article.

By: illcomm

illcomm — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:11:26 +0000

Craig. lol. coming from you who did make fun od my dead mother. your a joke Craig. where’s your apology.

By: jimmymarlinsfan

jimmymarlinsfan — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:09:20 +0000

I expect an apology from Craig when Loria and the Marlins win a World Series before the Braves do

By: tfbuckfutter

tfbuckfutter — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:08:22 +0000

If anyone has trouble identifying Lueke, just look for the windowless van parked in the Player’s Lot outside Tropicana.

By: shanabartels

shanabartels — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:02:46 +0000

Fair enough, but since his blog is affiliated with a larger network, I meant he probably heard something from the higher-ups wanting to be disassociated with that article. It is possible that he wrote it himself.

By: professormaddog31

professormaddog31 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:55:46 +0000

Perhaps the thumbs down are for the first part and not necessarily the second part. I happened to look at a few of young Robbie’s posts at that site and all of them are as professionally written as the apology post was. Also, the sidebar clearly states that he is the Senior Editor of the blog, so I would think that he would be the one doing the PR moves, not someone else.

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:40:55 +0000

BTW, if you click on Craig’s one link about why he doesn’t feel Mark Whicker’s apology is authentic- there is a link to this article with a picture and headline on the right hand side.

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/penn-st-tv-sanduskys-touching-tribute-to-kids-29981

By: shanabartels

shanabartels — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:38:08 +0000

Right. So the thumbs down on my comment are pretty amusing.

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:34:54 +0000

Maybe he’s innocent and OJ’s going to look for the real rapist as soon as he gets out of prison!

By: randygnyc

randygnyc — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:33:23 +0000

Shana- you’re not alone here. You’ll find most baseball fans, and HBT posters in particular, to be very civilized. There will always be an aberration, but by and large, this entire community condemns the behaviors of rapists, women beaters, drunk drivers etc.

By: shanabartels

shanabartels — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:27:27 +0000

Full disclosure: I didn’t read the full linked article yesterday because Craig’s synthesis of it was about as much as my stomach could handle. But I did read the apology just now, and I got the impression that the website’s senior staff probably influenced a lot of the language in it and encouraged (or forced) the apology to come out. I’m not saying it’s completely insincere, but the final paragraph and last sentence in particular pretty obviously didn’t come directly from a 17-year-old. At the very least, he had some help writing this, because parts of it almost look like a press release from a PR hack.

I just hope the kid will learn from this. Just like Craig always goes off on MLB sweeping the issue of intoxicated driving under the rug, as a female baseball fan I will tell you that I look at the rapists and wife-beating pieces of shit in the league differently from other guys. I can’t get past it. Ten out of ten times that Miguel Cabrera or Russell Branyan appears on my television, my first thought is, “Hey look, there’s a guy who likes to beat his wife. That’s great.”