Crunch Time

The Crunch have given Lindsay Kramer full access to the team since day one.  Now in the best regular season/playoff run in team history he has decided to go after the Crunch and imply that they are cheating by playing Goehring instead of LaCosta.  Was the LaCosta injury story was the only one worth writing about on gameday yesterday?  Now today it continues in the blog with this statement: Crunch mouthpieces who took exception to my story in Tuesday's paper keep bleating that won't happen, that either LaCosta or Munro will either be so banged up at various times that Goehring will always have that injury exception to play. I have no idea how they know that ahead of time, but OK, whatever.

So what's next with the LaCosta story?  Does the Syracuse Substandard (former the Herald Urinal) hire a private investigator to follow LaCosta around after practice to see if he hits the golf course, goes for a jog, etc. and run a story trying to show that he is healthy?  Is the hope that the AHL will come down on the Crunch for not playing LaCosta and force them to play Munro or LaCosta to ensure an end to this magical run since February?  Someone please tell me what Kramer's agenda is with regards to the Crunch?

I also found it in poor taste to write a story about Yates getting fired if he didn't win the Manitoba series.  If I was Yates I would have given the reporter a  mohawk and thrown his a$$ out of the lockeroom (with the assistance of "the injured" Dan LaCosta).

In closing I would like to thank the Substandard for putting the Crunch on the top fold of the sports page this moring for the first time in the playoffs.  Of course the Crunch made the top fold today because the lost 8-2 and took a "Major Step Backward."  To bad the newspaper could have written in the smaller headline that the Crunch still lead the series 2-1 and a crucial Game 4 is tonight at 7 o'clock.  Nice job Lindsay!!!

I agree with almost all of your comments, especially the Top Fold business.  They win all of these games and they get the bottom fold each time, lose one and suddenly the SU sports staff determines this is the one game that should be publisized above all else. 

On one hand I appreciate Kramer's objectivity but on the other it looks like he has it out for the Crunch. Okay enough already about the LaCosta injury.  We get it Kramer. All of the hockey fans know what's going on.  How many more articles are you going write about it. 

Lindsay - Running out of material - here's a newsflash why don't you write about the awful job linesman Brian Lemon did last night.  His offsides calls were terribe. And if you didn't think that was important in the 2nd period he made a big difference. One against the Crunch negated a scoring opportunity and a non-call for the Marlies allowed them to score.  He's either too old or too biased to be a linesman.

Kramer's just pi$$ed that Bobby Mac called him out on the Shootout Show last night.  And yes, the timing of the article was very suspect.

Bud Poliquin's not much better.

Still, one could argue that at least the Crunch get press, unlike the Philadelphia Phantoms, where coverage usually consist of 3 sentences in the Daily News, hidden among the ads for strip clubs.

Stripes55:

Bud Poliquin's not much better.

Stripes55:

Kramer's just pi$$ed that Bobby Mac called him out on the Shootout Show last night. 

I wasn't able to listen...what happened? Can anyone fill me in?

Basically, Bobby talked about the story, and how it's really strange that Kramer wrote this at this point.  He also mentioned that Kramer's been waiting for something negative, since he really hasn't had anything negative to write about in 2 months.  He may have a point - bad news does seem to sell more papers, and the fact that the article on last night's loss was more prominent....well, that's been the Sub-Standard's usual practice for 14 years.

He also said something about Poliquin telling him that he sees the playoffs as a book, and there are different chapters, and that this was a "beautiful chapter", at which point Bob seemed to roll his eyes (amazing how you can convey that on the radio), and made a comment like "Look Bud, we're not riding in a VW bus".  Classic stuff.

 Not sure if this is an ongoing feud between BobbyMac and Kramer, or something new, but it made for entertaining radio last night....

I personally don't think lindsay is that wrong at all...his last update was dead on. fact is, when lacosta is cleared, goehring will have to sit. Big deal. Lacosta earned the spot before his recall to columbus, and his latest injury.

After choking down that tripe today, I hope that he never takes another potshot at Paul Friesen, since he's pretty much dropped to that level. After 14 years of covering the same team and the same fanbase (and many of the same fans, for that matter), you would like to think that a reporter wouldn't use his forum to effectively insult and marginalize the very fans that help to pay his salary. Of course, that assumes that there are people who still actually buy the BS -- er, PS -- and don't just read it online. That aside, it seems neither smart nor professional to mix in phrases like "mouthpiece" or explaining it again in a slow manner. That smacks of journalistic laziness. You're not working for Deadspin, The Big Lead or Crunch Clubber Lang, Kramer. Keep the personal insults to a minimum. You're paid to be above that. On the other hand, if I fire off a profanity laced tirade to Friesen, suggesting he be anally violated by a gorilla with AIDS...well, no one's paying me to read what I think. I'm just some knob with internet access. I can get away with it.

I would also suggest that lifting (or "borrowing", in journalistspeak) ideas, content and the like from a message board is also pretty low brow. But that's a whole other matter altogether. To Bobby's credit, he is incredibly accessible and actually will make the occasional posting here. To the best of my knowledge, and I do apologize if I am wrong, I don't think that Lindsay has ever made a public appearance here. I'm not sure why...if one freely peruses and "borrows" our conversations, points, ideas and opinions, at least say hello to us.

At the end of the day, this whole Kramer v. Bobby deal is like Coke and Pepsi. You don't have to like one or the other, or you can like both. Or you don't have to like either. As fans, we have the ability to say that "player X sucks" and that "reporter Y/announcer Z sucks", and no one cares. Hell, no one SHOULD care. But when guys in the media start doing it in a public forum, that's different. Objectivity shouldn't end at the end of the third period.

I don't think the Lindsey Kramer articles are all the bad.  I mean some are, but you are not going to agree with everybody all the time.  I don't always agree with Bobbie Mac's summary of a game either.  But I like to hear from both of them.

He is right that once LaCosta is ok Karl is gone.  Yeah that sucks.  I don't think anyone is happy about it that is a Crunch fan.  But that is the situation.  Personally I've found that's been a big topic when you talk to any crunch fan, before the article was published.

I thought he had a good point also about no weekly Crunch show, and there is one for the Chiefs.  I think that would be a really fun show to have.

Once lacosta gets a game or two under him it'll be "karl who?"

Well, I wouldn't go that far...but that would be a nice problem to have.

Why not? We seem to win for the most pat nomatter who's in goal. We beat lake erie with munro in, we beat bingo, we won how many games after lacosta came back and wa splaying before he got hurt...we'll be fine. Goehring has played well, but, I find it hard to believe that this team would all of a sudden sink just because lacosta comes back in net, when he earned the job before karl even did. Goehring has done a nice job, but, lacosta has playued aweosme when he was in net as well. Problem is lacosta will be rusty like munro was, so his first game or two back in could be rough ones...but after that we'll be fine.

This whole situation is kind of sad.  As a professional sports team, negative or unwanted press at points IS EXPECTED.  I'd much rather read what Kramer has to say than the times we get Bud "SU sports only" Poliquin to spurt off his mouth. 

The thing is, criticism and negativity are things that realistic sports fans and reporters have once in a while.  Sure, we want to think positive, but after a game like last night there was bound to be negativity.  How was that met by Bobby Mac?  Denial, arguments, and degrading comments.  After the first few callers, I had to turn off the radio, as if anyone said something negative, it was returned with a comment about them being Lindsay or a Post Standard reporter.  Sure, is someone says "Karl is horrible and sucks" that's one thing.  But when people argue about changing points of the game and such, that's opinion on both sides.  Why bother taking callers if you have your own set opinion and cannot respect others? 

Do I agree with everything Kramer says?  No.  Do I think having stuff that isn't consistently "happy fluff" is a good thing?  Yes. 

I have just two questions to ask.......Crazywill who?  And Stripes old buddy, do you have any of those addresses of the strip clubs down in Philly? Come on people, what Kramer says or what BobbyMac says isn't the final say on anything. The facts are all out there, use your own judgement as to who you want to believe is right or wrong here. All in all its small potatoes. The boys just have to keep playing their butts off and try to win hockey games. Winning has a way of healing everything. Forget about the sideshow, get out to the rink and cheer you ass off. As fans thats what we can do to help the team.