But there is this twist: One of Joe Ricketts’ kids, Laura, is a lesbian. Technically, then, she will be one of the Cubs owners. “If that’s not enough of a reason to buy a bleacher seat to a Cubs game, I don’t know what is,” wrote Trish Bendix as part of her “L-Blog” page on Chicago Now, the Tribune’s blog site.

At this point, Cubdom doesn’t really care who owns the ballclub. If Laura Ricketts can produce a championship, hundreds of thousands of fans surely will show up for the next Gay and Lesbian Pride parade.

Wait what?  This quote is not being taken out of context, trust me.  He was literally talking about whether the Cubs would spend money on good free agents now and went right into this crazy “twist”.  So is the point that Cubs fans will keep coming to Wrigley because the daughter of the owner is a lesbian?  And when is Laura Ricketts going to start producing championships?  Does she have a controlling interest in the team?  Will she be running day to day operations?

h/t: Wrigleyville23

"I'm a giant, loudmouthed idiot."

Well that didn’t take long.  After railing against print media and how its dying, Mariotti left the Sun-Times to take his lucrative gig at AOL Fanhouse and focus more on his awful, awful appearances on ESPN’s Around the Horn.  Apparently he thinks that he can save print media from extinction, however, since he is now returning to it in the form of a weekly column for the Chicago Tribune:

I’ve learned that effective September 1, Mariotti will join the Tribune as a weekly columnist – this the same man who spent nearly two decades mocking the same venerable daily which now extends him a byline…Mariotti’s contractual non-compete clause with the Sun-Times officially expires at the end of August, one year after he quit his position. So you can expect his ink-jetted invective to begin emanating from the Tribune in September.

This guy clearly has no shame.  On the bright side, we can be sure he will provide plenty of fodder for Chicago sports bloggers and fans alike to rip on.  I’m curious how (or if) he will try to explain that writing for the Trib is somehow not inconsistent with his earlier bullshit about print media dying (side note: it is dying, but that’s not the point).  I hope he gets in another feud with Ozzie, that would be fun.

***UPDATE: Apparently the Tribune is denying these rumors, but I’ve got a gut feeling that Jay will be writing for the Trib in some form or another very soon.  We’ll see how this plays out.

NQTC has a sort of love for Jay Mariotti.  And by love I mean we hate the guy.  There is no bigger douchebag in all of sports media (I guess that’s arguable, but as a Chicagoan Jay pretty much takes the cake).  We make a special effort to cover anything that mocks Mariotti, as you may have noticed from our regular posts glorifying comments that degrade him on his AOL Fanhouse column.  In fact, it’s not a secret that Jay isn’t well-loved by most of the world.  In general I would say that most people would probably punch him in the face if they were given the chance.  I know I definitely would. 

Well Chicagoans, I have some good news: You can punch him in the face!  Or at least heckle him in person from behind some sort of thick protective glass.  That’s right, last week our old pal Jay started taping his Around The Horn segments from ESPNZone in River North:

This week, the controversial sportswriter began taping his daily ATH segements from ESPNZone in River North. Fans (he’s gotta have a couple, right?) and hecklers can check out Mariotti at work each weekday starting at noon. At least ESPN has enough sense to keep him locked safely behind glass.

Noon, huh?  If I race out of work and head over to River North, I can tell him how shitty a human being he is and still make it back to school in time for class.  I hope to see you all there.

I don’t see how this can end well.

H/T Shrek

obamaizadope said…

mariotti’s opinion is worth exactly what I pay for it..

victorkromer said…

Marriotti is a waste of a reporter, all he just did is copy Blakistones report, just sitting there talking shhiit about one of the best wide recievers to ever play the game…I hope he finds a team with an Elite QB and makes all you scumbag nobodys talkin trash eat your own words like a cokk meat sandwich.

gaetano said…

marriotti and romo r just pissed cause to tapped jessica and marriotti wife at same time

Now from Jay’s column about the Yankees and their troubles…

robeckstm said…

Jay u really really suck

That was simple enough.  Let’s try a story about Wade stealing the MVP from Lebron…

HD said…

By the way, I love ATH! [Ha! -ed.]

Damn, you guys are really slowing down with these!  All we have in that one is arguing about which player is better and one shout out for Around the Horn?  Only seven comments on this baseball story, let’s see what happens…

Murph said…

Look for my new Blog..

Jay Mariotti writes for Fan House:
And NO ONE CARES!

[This is looking good!]

I tried Jay I truly did. Everyone warned me you were a fool. Those yes you write exactly the way you talk and “act” On Around the Talking Heads. That all those people in Chicago were fools for throwing parties that you had quit your job. But they were right.

[Heyo!]

You are a sad carbon copy of ten earlier carbons of those great writers sir. you are the Paris Hilton of sports media.

Game, set, match to Murph!

From Jay’s column on the Jay Cutler Saga:

mikereason2b said…

Jay Mariotti, you are the biggest joke in sports media. It’s no wonder you lost you job at the paper and work for AOL. Nobody else would hire you you big dope. Why don’t you go back to your bum buddy at ATH so we don’t have to read your garbage online. 15 minutes of you on ATH is enough.

TJ said…

jay mariotti is an idiot, glad we ran him out of Chicago!

mikereason2b said…

Jay Mariotti bones Tony Realy!!!!

tb100000 said…

Nice hair piece on Around The Horn today Jay, you tool…

A couple things on these gems.  First, mikereason2b seems to have the right idea here: comment early and often.  Second, that last comment is the kind that I like the best.  Short and to the point, no need for vulgarity, with a blunt insult at the end.  The next post, which was published a while earlier created a lot of mind-numbing flaming, but there were plenty of great digs at the writer; here Jay implies impropriety in the Cassel trade.

Mike said…

Jay Mariotti you are a respected sports writer in this country and now you post this slop you call an article.  [wait, what? -ed.]

Pat said…

Jay is a respected sports writer? [k, thx -ed.]

force448 said…

Jay Mariotti is a big fat idiot

tunescribe said…

The column makes no sense. Mariotti alleges impropriety but can’t even define it and backs it up with nothing. Yeah, Belichick is all about screwing over his own team to help a buddy. What nonsense. If Mariotti is getting paid for this drivel I’m in the wrong business.

crzydav111 said…

please now jay you are a retard… go back to writing about go cart racing or ping pong thats more your style.

There are so many more, but I have already taken up too much space here.  We’ll have to make sure we get this feature up sooner next time, so we don’t miss so much comedy gold.