News Corp. tries to out Koufax?

[WiredTiger]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0221/1512135.html

Koufax is very upset and rightfully so.

[sweaver]

Yes, I thought it was a cheap shot, and I fully understand Koufax' decision to cut ties with the Dodgers, when its parent company News Corp would print such thinly-veiled accusations in one of its papers.

[JamesI]

If he is, what business is it of the news?

[KCBOOMER]

That's just it, it's business (i.e. they think it will sell papers).

[SmedIndy]

Ah, and this is the organization that also owns the "we report, you decide" network.

We'll I've decided that they're full of it....they report...I deride.

[Craig S.]

Koufax seems to be taking the high road. He's not out there making threats or counter-allegations, but just quietly severing ties because he feels they did something wrong.

More class in one man than in an entire corporation.

[Skip]

:agree:

[clemente21]

What a bunch of morons.

Hopefully they'll get out of the baseball business, and then Sandy can reinstate ties with the new ownership.

[Ytown Tribe fan]

When those scumbags sell the Dodgers, I hope Sandy comes back. He certainly can't blame the LA-side of the operation for such nonsense.

[LisaG]

he doesn't blame the dodgers, just the paper. and he's right. what a bunch of jerks.

[rza93]

New York Post is the worst newspaper in NYC. nothing but gossips and lies.

[LisaG]

.....crap is king, give me dirty laundry......

[Max Power]

Good for Koufax.

Now, for his sake, I hope the whole story dies down. He deserves better.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by Craig S.
Koufax seems to be taking the high road. He's not out there making threats or counter-allegations, but just quietly severing ties because he feels they did something wrong.

More class in one man than in an entire corporation.

Sandy Koufax always was a class act
Always

[pathogan]

...anyone remember what it was like before this piece of cheese got into newspapers and television? A sewer rat,and his entire corporate media empire is the same...and who cares what a 68 year old man does in his own house?and with whom?someone buy tyhe dodgers, and get BB off Fox, that noxious station and away from these ,these...

[rcartman28]

A shame they would try to drag a class act like Sandy through the mud like that....

.....so much for "Fair and Balanced Reporting".....
:finger:

[KCBOOMER]

Apparently all kinds of apologies are being offered by News Corp, but they are falling on deaf ears.

[gyb13]

huh?

;)

[pathogan]

Originally posted by gyb13
huh?

;)

nice to see you again:)

[gyb13]

thanks pat, nice to be back

[Fuzzy Bear]

Originally posted by rcartman28
A shame they would try to drag a class act like Sandy through the mud like that....

I love Sandy Koufax. The classiest athlete I have ever known.

The News Corp Dodgers are the most classless organization I know. They put the squeeze on Indian River County to buy Holman Stadium and Dodgertown and lease it to them for a pittance, removing it from the county tax rolls. If that didn't happen, they would have left a community that loved them and supported them for Arizona.

But to allow one of their own to be defamed by rumors, especially a man who, in no uncertain terms, has denied his own celebrity for the sake of privacy; a man whose personal example is beyond reproach, and a man who was, perhaps, the greatest Dodger of all time has got to be one of the lowest things a team has ever done.

I won't blame Sandy if he never sets foot in Dodgertown again.

However, I bet other organizations would love to have Koufax, in his quiet way, work with young pitcher in the spring in Florida. I hope that would happen.

Sandy is a quiet, private man, who has consciously rejected the limelight.

Baseball NEEDS Sandy Koufax. They need Koufax more than they need News Corp.

[Skip]

Well said Fuzzy. I have in the past at least questioned Sandy in the HOF due to brevity of career, but I would not ever question his character or class. And that is completely independent of whether he is or is not gay. Who gives a ....

[CubsInBrooklyn]

I can certainly respect what Koufax did, especially considering how private he's been.

What I do think is lost in all of this, though, is how sad it is that it still is considered "dragging someone's name through the mud" when a person is suggested to be gay.

I agree, who cares if Koufax is gay or not, but at the same time -- its unfortunate that there is an underlying "how dare they..." feeling to this story, as if he were accused of some huge crime...

[TimmyB]

I meant to post this a couple weeks ago. I was shocked when I read this because I don't usually consider SI's Phil Taylor to be a mediot. What shocked me more was I read similiar commentaries in other publications.

Revealing reaction: Koufax response reinforces stigma attached to gays in sports (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/phil_taylor/news/2003/02/24/hot_button/)

But let's save a moment's scrutiny for Koufax himself. Why exactly was he so irate over the blurb, which had passed largely unnoticed for two months until his reaction brought it to the public's attention? Is it because he's an intensely private man who was offended by a newspaper trying to delve into his personal life? Or did he take particular offense at the intimation that he's gay?
...which led to:
The view here is that Koufax would have been better served to ignore the item and let Leavy refute it, if it had to be refuted at all. If he has been diminished in all this, it was not because of the Post's item, it was because of his own reaction.

Taylor takes plenty of easy jabs at the Post in the column (as did every other column on the issue I read), but saves his sharpest critisism for Koufax.

I am left with the impression that even respectable journalists are offended (threatened?) when a subject "outs" bad journalism. (And seem to be compelled to hit back in defense of, if not their brethren, then at least their perceived slight against free journalism.)

Koufax was not diminished by this in the least.