DoY Award Winner Announced by Marlin Maniac!

The vote has been tallied, and the Marlin Maniac is ready to announce the Douchebag of the Year award.  This brand-new, just-invented prize was created to recognize the single most memorable piece of jackass journalism noted during the previous season.  Please note that yours truly is responsible for the only ballot cast to select the winner.

This year’s nominee also wins the coveted “Popped Collar” wreath on his trophy because he actually managed to destroy a career as a result of his typewriter malpractice.

The winnah and world champeen?  Our man Sean Gregory over at that bastion of the sporting press, Time.  Assigned to write an article about the move of Ozzie Guillen from Chicago to Miami, Gregory took an out-of-context remark that was immediately walked back, and made it the opening line of his article.  Using Guillen’s quote the way he did, Gregory’s clear intention was to whip up as much hysteria as possible, and to paint Guillen in as negative a light as he could.

Since then, I don’t think I’ve seen one article with Ozzie as the main topic that didn’t mention Gregory’s article. Now, citing the “controversy”, the Marlins fired Ozzie.  By phone. Too bad for Larry Beinfest that he’s not a writer.  He could have been a serious contender for the DoY.  It really takes an epic absence of balls to fire a key guy in your organization via telephone.

Congratulations, Mr. Gregory.  You’ve earned it.  Take it home, put it on your mantle, and then go into your bathroom and look yourself in the eye. Ask yourself if Ozzie Guillen was actually in the tank for Castro and you were breaking the story about the equivalent of David Duke being named as CEO of the NAACP, or did you inflate a retracted quote from a Venezuelan with a heavy accent and use it in a way that you hoped would create the most controversy possible?

That kind of narcissism truly deserves an award.