By DSR Staff
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
January 2, 2013
[Editor’s Note: After a one-year hiatus, the DSR has revived our year-end awards given out to the Detroit Media. Instead of one long article presenting all of the recipients at once, we will be rolling these out over the next few days. And yes, the Raggie Trophy is a Detroit snow globe, a “Made in Detroit” coffee cozy and one of Moss’s wife’s unused tampons.]
Best Detroit Sports Beat Writer
David Mayo — MLive.com
To be quite honest, we aren’t sure if David Mayo of MLive.com was the best beat writer in 2013. The possibility does exist that his competence is a mirage.
Ya know when you go to a bar and there is a group of girls hanging out together and a couple of them are built like Rikishi and the other one, if not the prettiest in the face, is at least thin? That chick might be a five, but based on the company she keeps she is an artificial seven or eight.
The Pistons beat writer for Booth Newspapers is the beneficiary of this sort of phenomenon. His fellow Pistons beat writers are Vincent Goodwill at the News, Vince Ellis at the Freep and Keith Langlois, who works for the team. One of those fools is paid by Tom Gores directly; the other two just act like it.
Mayo, meanwhile, is a pretty good writer who doesn’t drink the Joe Dumars’ Kool-Aid like the rest of his media brethren who cover this franchise for a living.
For example, a couple of weeks ago, Vince Ellis was defending Dumars regarding the disastrous Arron Afflalo trade from a few years back. When followers blasted him for perennially defending Dumars, Ellis’ defense was that he had criticized Joe D. for the Darko pick and the Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva signings.
Like those moves were in any way defensible.
And Goodwill is an absolute lunatic who gets so aggravated by anyone questioning the Pistons GM that his Twitter avatar should be a picture of Dikembe Mutumbo’s index finger.
If you ask Goodshill a reasonable question about the Pistons passing on Trey Burke or if Greg Monroe should be dealt, you can expect one of the following responses …….
“Wanna get blocked?????
“How about blocked????”
“Blocked. #smh”
Given his competition, merely being somewhat competent at his job would make Mayo look like the lovechild of Frank Deford and Jim Murray by comparison.
And Mayo also gets extra credit for his impressive coverage of boxing, especially of Grand Rapids’ own Floyd Mayweather.
Finally, this Raggie should be seen as an apology and an olive branch from the DSR to Mayo.
Back in 2009, Mayo was charged with growing marijuana and operating his home as a “drug house.” Mayo eventually ended up pleading guilty and was sentenced to three years of probation and community service.
The DirtSpurt had a lot of fun with this conviction, going as far as to nickname the writer “Puff the Magic Mayo.”
And then we remembered that EVERY MEMBER of the DSR committee believes marijuana usage should be legal and the poor guy never should have been prosecuted in the first place.
If Mayo deserved our derision for anything, it was for his return column in which he admitted he was a weed addict. Is there even such a thing? In reality, there are those who like marijuana moderately and those who REALLY like it a lot.
The guy credited God and Narcotics Anonymous for keeping him “sober.” We hope that column was total bullshit and just a means to keep his gig.
Seriously, if we had to spend seven or eight months in close proximity to Ellis and Goodwill, we would be getting lit up more than Bill Maher and Woody Harrelson at a Willie Nelson concert.
Honorable Mention: Tony Paul – Detroit News, Kyle Meinke — MLive.com
Best Sports Talk Radio Show — “The Discussion” with Matt Dery
Worst Sports Talk Radio Show — “The Drew Lane Show”
Best Local TV Anchor — Lindsey Hayes — Fox Sports Detroit
Best Media Twitter Account — Tony Paul — @TonyPaul1984
Worst Media Twitter Account — TIE (@TerryFoster971 and @VGoodwill)
Worst Article/Column of the Year — Pat Caputo — Oakland Press
Best Article/Column of the Year — John Niyo — Detroit News
Best TV Broadcast Team – George Blaha and Greg Kelser — Fox Sports Detroit
Worst TV Broadcast Team – Mario Impemba and Rod Allen — Fox Sports Detroit
Best Radio Broadcast Team – Dan Miller and Jim Brandstatter — 97.1
Worst Radio Broadcast Team – Dan Dickerson and Jim Price — 97.1 Best Beat Writer – David Mayo — MLive.com
Worst Beat Writer – John Lowe — Detroit Free Press
Worst Columnist – Jeff Seidel — Detroit Free Press
Worst Media-Related Restaurant Disaster – Coming Soon
The Jamie Samuelsen Award – Jamie Samuelsen — 97.1 and Detroit Free Press
Craig Monroe Memorial Award — Bill Shea — Crain’s Detroit
Best Columnist – John Niyo — Detroit News