Caple

Remember when Jim Caple was a decent writer? A big Red Sox fan, sort of funny. Maybe the emergence of Bill Simmons (who's funnier, and a bigger fan) set him off, but he's been terrible for a few years now. Anyway, his latest article sort of pissed me off -- I'm getting tired of cheap, unfair shots against Red Sox fans. So I wrote him back.

I just read your article "White Sox, Astros Deserve This". I completely agree with the title, but was surprised to find half the article was spent attacking Red Sox fans. Which is fine -- I'm used to it. But what's imcomprehensible to me is that your complaint is that we obsess about The Curse. "The Curse" was something entirely made up by the sports media, and many of us fans found it ridiculous and or annoying. We saw it for what it was -- something for you guys to write about. But now that "the Curse" is no more, you turn around and attack us for having obsessed about it. Incredible.

Okay, the "half the article" comment was a major exaggeration, but it otherwise feels like a fairly reasonable message overall. I very quickly got this well-thought out, well-typed response:

RIght. It was all us. We're the only ones who focused on the World Series drought. Which is why I got a recent email from someone whose address was sox1918@ aolcomor some such thing.

Wow, defensive much? Anyway I stared at my computer screen for a while trying to figure out what the hell he was trying to say. I finally responded with:

I'm sorry, but you just totally changed the subject -- nowhere in my message did I reference the World Series drought. I made it very clear I was talking about "The Curse". In my opinion, caring about the last year your team Won It All is not the same as obsessing about "The Curse". No, it's just being a fan. On my television at this very moment are a couple very happy White Sox fans holding up a "1917" sign. How is that different than putting a "1918" in an email address?

Then to show I wasn't nearly as pissed off as he was, I lied and said I was a big fan of his writing, etc. Anyway, he chose to ignore that, and the question I posed to him, and instead rattled off this response (which reads more like a schoolyard taunt than anything else):

right. and was it someone in the media who spray-paintedd ''reverse the curse'' on the overpass?

So there you have it. Modern sports writing in a nutshell: 4 numbers in an email address and 4 letters spraypainted onto a sign, and you have all the evidence you need to write an article attacking an entire fanbase.

(In his defense, judging from the typos, he may have been drunk.)