I still stand by all the stuff I said yesterday about Ken Rosenthal’s Pirates report and the art of rumor-mongering in general, but this business with John Russell and the Pirates seems to quickly be turning into a bad example of an otherwise sound theory.
To review: Ken Rosenthal reported on Tuesday night that John Russell was close to being fired by the Pirates. Team president Frank Coonelly denied it. That’s where my little essay fits in. But the story goes on!
Yesterday Rosenthal walked it back a bit, saying that Pirates’ officials still talked about Russell’s fate, but maybe Coonelly wasn’t part of those talks. Possible, but it certainly means that the likelihood of Russell getting canned was way, way down once it became apparent that the guy who would pull the trigger wasn’t on board, right?
Today is the topper: Rosenthal reports that, not only is Russell not likely to be fired soon, but that it’s possible he has been given a contract extension! Rosenthal is sticking with his report that those above and below Frank Coonelly still seem to want Russell gone, but if Coonelly is extending him, those sentiments are rather academic, aren’t they? At least for the purposes of running with a “Russell is on the hot seat” kind of report?
Look, I still think that Rosenthal is a good reporter and -- for the reasons I said yesterday -- one need not get off a story just because someone in power has denied it. But at this rate it seems like John Russell is going to own the Pirates before he gets fired by them, so maybe it’s time to excise the “but sources with the team say Russell is toast . . .” part of this article and go on to the next thing.
