Are Baltimore fans hostile to Female Reporters?

[scOtt]

Using a term like "golddiggers" doesn't help the "we're not sexist" argument...

The question isn't if Baltimore likes good reporters or dislikes bad ones. The question is (or at least, should be) would you have treated these females the same if they were males of the same talent/opinions? Frankly I don't remember idiot male reporters inspiring the same venom (maybe Nestor?), but we also didn't have them shoved down our throats quite as much.

It's just the vibe I get from her. Seeing Jen interviewing players, she's blatantly flirting with them. I saw Anita a lot less, but I got the same vibe.

Britt I know, is from Michigan, Amber I kinda assumed she was local but I really don't know... Point is they put in the work and are solid reporters. Not good for a girl, but good for a reporter. Debbi Taylor (I looked it up) is good for the Nationals too. Like I said... you could be a Martian (male or female) give us good coverage and we will love you. Dog it (Royle and Anita), or be a total downer (Vecsey) and we'll run your ass out of town.

[Hank Scorpio]

It's just the vibe I get from her. Seeing Jen interviewing players, she's blatantly flirting with them. I saw Anita a lot less, but I got the same vibe.

Britt I know, is from Michigan, Amber I kinda assumed she was local but I really don't know... Point is they put in the work and are solid reporters. Not good for a girl, but good for a reporter. Debbi Taylor (I looked it up) is good for the Nationals too. Like I said... you could be a Martian (male or female) give us good coverage and we will love you. Dog it (Royle and Anita), or be a total downer (Vecsey) and we'll run your ass out of town.

Amber's local.

[scOtt]

I'm critical of Gary Thorne because of (what I interpret as) his obvious Red Sox love. I can't stand listening to him call Red Sox games because it feels like he calls each Red Sox home run with slobbery lust.

That being said, I believe Gary Thorne is a male.

This is a different argument. And one I kinda rail against (Nothing personal, Sammy).

Thorne calls Yankee homers loud and long. Calls Red Sox homers loud and long. Calls Detroit homers. Anaheim Homers. Oriole homers...

He calls them all with the appropriate amount of gusto as the game situation demands. IMO... He's NOT an Oriole broadcaster. He is a national broadcaster. Impartial to whomever is winning. I respect that a lot.

His butchering of names and calling sliders fastballs..... I respect that less...

But I respect Thorne's impartiality a LOT. He calls the big moments. Not the Orioles' big moments.

[NewMarketSean]

Using a term like "golddiggers" doesn't help the "we're not sexist" argument...

The question isn't if Baltimore likes good reporters or dislikes bad ones. The question is (or at least, should be) would you have treated these females the same if they were males of the same talent/opinions? Frankly I don't remember idiot male reporters inspiring the same venom (maybe Nestor?), but we also didn't have them shoved down our throats quite as much.

Uh, Mike Preston?

[SammyBirdland]

(Nothing personal, Sammy).

No offense taken. I respect your right to be incorrect on this one

[Old Sneakers]

Anita Marks also had huge problems in Baltimore. She didnt see to get us and we didnt get her.

Amber Theoharris on the other hand gets none or very little in critical attacks.

I cannot really speak for Jen Royle. I find her articles on MASN to be pretty solid. With Roch Kabatko being the headliner there it has to be tough for any writer to look good. I've read the comments your speaking of. I am sure Mrs Royle will grow on fans as a whole as time moves forward.

As for Anita Marks, I honestly do not know what to tell you. She grated everyone's nerves on the radio. She had Scott Garceau to play off of and help her grind out a quality show. She had a good time slot and couldn't make any headway. As bad as Spring and Summer 2009 was for Oriole fans there was a ton of things to talk about for a host. That was too much for her. I really suspect it has nothing to do with Baltimore and she will fail regardless of where she goes. Until she matures and learns how to actually become a broadcaster it will be unbearable for an audience.

Amber Theoharris is a completely different personality that plays well in good times and bad. She is intelligent, capable and focused. I would go so far as to say she is a good person to model a career after in sports journalism. Yes, she has been in Baltimore for a lengthy amount of time. However, even when first starting out she was smart enough to respect her audience and tried to put forth a quality broadcast.

[crissfan172]

This is a different argument. And one I kinda rail against (Nothing personal, Sammy).

Thorne calls Yankee homers loud and long. Calls Red Sox homers loud and long. Calls Detroit homers. Anaheim Homers. Oriole homers...

He calls them all with the appropriate amount of gusto as the game situation demands. IMO... He's NOT an Oriole broadcaster. He is a national broadcaster. Impartial to whomever is winning. I respect that a lot.

His butchering of names and calling sliders fastballs..... I respect that less...

But I respect Thorne's impartiality a LOT. He calls the big moments. Not the Orioles' big moments.

I think due to some of the criticism he's received, he's been far more reserved for big plays by opponents recently than in the past. The truth of the matter is, though, that he's never really announced with any bias. When you're getting beaten down by the Red Sox, though, and he's talking about their players (like he does with every team), it naturally gets on your nerves because you know he grew up a Sox fan.

Personally...if he could just learn how to pronounce the word, "measure", I'd be satisified.

[TheBee]

Lazy reporting needs to be slammed regardless of sex.

[DuffMan]

I cannot really speak for Jen Royle. I find her articles on MASN to be pretty solid. With Roch Kabatko being the headliner there it has to be tough for any writer to look good. I've read the comments your speaking of. I am sure Mrs Royle will grow on fans as a whole as time moves forward.

Hi Jen.

[George]

I empathize with the women reporters. They are required to do a vacuous reporting job that makes them appear inane. A guy who had to do the same embarassing job to earn a living would appear similarly foolish.

Why isn't a woman doing play-by-play? Is a rare and special talent required to create and utter simple declarative sentences that describe what the person sees and hears on the field?

[DuffMan]

Gender isn't the issue here. The ability to do a good job is. Amber and Brit do a great job and their work shows this. Jen's doesn't and it shows, and I read her twitter one day and I thought it had been hacked by a 15 year old girls.

[Sports Guy]

First of all, Royle and Marks weren't from here, so people just hate because of that.

Secondly, when it came to football, Anita Marks was better than most of the men doing football in the area...She knew nothing about baseball but then again, neither do most of the men doing it either.

I have only heard Jen Royle a few times...But when I did, I was impressed that she seemed to know some stats, ie advanced stats.

I heard her get into with Conn one time and everything she said was dead on and he was just babbling.

Now, I do think she takes the Yankee/Red Sox stuff too far...Its what she knows, its where she came from and I think she needs to remember her audience more.

However, she seems to be more knowledgable about the game as most of the local reporters. Now, you can say that that only means so much but what it means to me is that her content is pretty good. It may be tough to get past the Yankee and Red Sox love but if you can and just view content, she seemed to be pretty good for the few times I heard her.

I think Ghiroli does an excellent job reporting but I don't have a clue as to what her actually knowledge base is. But she is light years ahead of Fordin.

Plus, she ain't too bad to look at.

Oh and btw, Royle is leaps and bounds better than ATH IMO. Amber is pretty hot but her interviews are increedible predictable and boring and I would bet that Royle has more knowledge.

[24fps]

Agree with the consensus on this thread, although having been away from the East Coast for many, many years, I wouldn't know Anita Marks or Laura Vecsey if I tripped over them. Jen Royle's stuff strikes me first and foremost as simply undistinguished on any level.

Anybody know if Amber will be back on the game broadcasts this year?

[birrman54]

When your business is to talk sports, and you can't be bothered to do basic research to support your articles - you're a hack.

Jen Royle falls squarely into this category. Her 'research' is wikipedia at best, her 'scouting' each rotation is basically listing how they've fared against division opponents last year.

She was *SHOCKED* that someone suggested they'd rather have JJ Hardy than Derek Jeter - she claimed you couldn't possibly have considered Hardy more valuable than 'The Captain'... of course if you look at WAR last year, turns out they're actually pretty damn comparable (2.5 for Jeter, 2.4 for Hardy) - and that's in a down year. I haven't seen any evidence to suggest she's aware of basic sabermetrics.

Matt Wieters is a career 2-for-13 (.154) with five strikeouts against Romero, Luke Scott is 1-for-12 (.083) and J.J. Hardy is 0-for-4. On the other hand, Nick Markakis is 8-for-26 (.308) with seven RBIs, Adam Jones is 8-for-23 (.258) and Vladimir Guerrero is an impressive 8-for-13 (.615). Jones, Markakis, Scott and Nolan Reimonld have each homered off the left-hander.

It's as if she thinks statistics is just the numbers used in baseball - not a rigorous mathematical discipline. If she thinks that paragraph actually gives us some insight into Ricky Romero's performance for 2011 - that's absolute bollucks.

I'd also point out that she's been in Florida all spring and hasn't written anything in 3 weeks. When you're paid to do a job that LOTS of fans would kill for you can't be surprised when they're critical of the work's quality.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Just to give a male example, there have been a couple times where Roch, getting annoyed at the commenters or message-board comments, lashed out. And people responded very negatively.

Since he already had that level of trust built up, though, he didn't lose his audience. People kept coming back and things worked themselves out.