By Jeff Moss
July 13, 2011
DetroitSportsRag@gmail.com
Well, Receding Hairline-Gate took another dramatic turn on Wednesday when I had a back-and-forth email exchange with Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp. If you are new to this website or the story that I have been covering for the last couple of months, here is a brief synopsis.
On May 7th of this year, Justin Verlander threw his second career no-hitter for the Detroit Tigers.
Shortly after JV’s masterpiece ended, the Freep posted a column on its website written by Sharp.
In that article, the balding scribe got two factual pieces of information completely wrong. In the fifth inning of that Tigers/Blue Jays matchup, Edwin Encarnacion hit a line shot up the middle that deflected off of Verlander’s right forearm. The Tigers ace quickly picked up the ball and short hopped it to Miguel Cabrera at first base.
You can watch the video of that play right here: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=14564965
This is how Sharp described that exact at-bat you just watched: “The biggest scare was a weak tap between the mound and third base that Verlander fielded, turned and short-hopped a throw to first that Miguel Cabrera barely secured.” 
A weak tap that caused Verlander to seek medical assistance from the team’s trainer during the top of the sixth inning!!!!
If that wasn’t bad enough, Sharp also wrote, “No-hitters come so frequently now that their respective quality gets graded. There was nothing cheap about this one — if there’s ever such a thing as a cheapie no-hitter … There was nothing controversial …”
Nothing controversial?!?!?! Well, that Encarnacion play at first was close enough that Toronto’s manager decided to storm out of the dugout and argue with the first base umpire over the accuracy of the call.
Here is the Toronto Star’s account of the argument in paper’s May 8th edition:
“Jays manager John Farrell argued the call at first and felt Encarnacion was safe.
‘I saw him as safe … there wasn’t a willingness to see a different angle,’ Farrell said. ‘From the dugout, I thought he was safe. They said it was a bang-bang play and they called it as they did.’”
If you want more of the backstory on the DSR’s coverage this debacle you can click on the two links below because I am totally sick of rehashing the issue:
http://www.detroitsportsrag.com/mossisms050911.php
http://www.detroitsportsrag.com/mossisms071011.php
(Also, the Free Press has understandably removed the column in question from their site. As of this writing the link for Sharp’s abortion of an article is broken. But luckily some site called “Ongo” has it archived here: http://www.ongo.com/v/887512/-1/4823E9EF5E69E26D/drew-sharp-after-second-no-hitter-can-tigers-justin-verlander-become-mega-star-now)
Anyway, it was quite apparent to anyone ACTUALLY viewing the game that Sharp was not. So over the last couple of days I have been trying to get a response from either Not the Sharpest Drew or his editor, Gene Myers, regarding the paper’s stance on a columnist writing about an event that he clearly didn’t watch. While I never was able to get the Freep’s sports editor to address the issue, Sharp did finally email me back. Here is the unedited exchange that I had with the lazy moron:
Jeff Moss to dsharp, sports
11:33 AM (2 hours ago)
Not going to address this? Maybe the Metro Times will. http://www.detroitsportsrag.com/mossisms071011.php
Sharp, Drew to me
11:53 AM (1 hour ago)
I appreciate the obsession. Just make sure they spell my name correctly.
Jeff Moss to Drew
11:59 AM (1 hour ago)
Going to admit that you weren’t watching the game?
Sharp, Drew to me
12:02 PM (1 hour ago)
What game?
Jeff Moss to Drew
12:06 PM (1 hour ago)
Hahahhahaha. Like you don’t know.
Sharp, Drew to me
12:08 PM (1 hour ago)
Look, I’m busy. What game are you talking about?
Jeff Moss to Drew
12:11 PM (1 hour ago)
Busy with articles about why Jurjjen’s would suck in the AL even though he has a 1.34 ERA against the American League since he was traded to Atlanta?
Verlander’s no-hitter. When did you start watching that game? The 7th or 8th inning?
http://www.detroitsportsrag.com/mossisms071011.php
http://www.detroitsportsrag.com/mossisms071011.php
Sharp, Drew to me
12:23 PM (1 hour ago)
Yeah…and if 95 percent of his starts were against American League teams, he would be Brad Penny — a two time All-Star in the National League who won 58 percent of his games there not throwing particularly hard and painting the corners, but Penny is 13-14 in the American League, a decent No. 4 starter. That’s what Jurrjens would be and that’s why the Tigers thought he would be expendable.
Not too hard to figure out if you’re looking at it objectively and not like a fan.
I assume you mean this year’s no-hitter. I’m pretty sure I started watching when I learned that he had a perfect game through five.
What’s the point?
Jeff Moss to Drew
12:26 PM (1 hour ago)
http://www.detroitsportsrag.com/mossisms050911.php
You called a ball that was RIFLED by Edwin Encarnacion a weak tap between third and the mound.
You said there was no controversy in the game. Shit, I am not re-writing this again. Read my damn article. Deadspin and The Big Lead are going to love this.
Sharp, Drew to me
12:38 PM (1 hour ago)
Oh, you’re a blogger. I just figured you were simply another obsessed reader.
My apologies for the confusion.
Make sure Deadspin and Big Lead spell my name correctly.
Jeff Moss to Drew
12:50 PM (1 hour ago)
You wrote a column about a game you weren’t watching.
You fucked up the facts on the biggest play of the game because YOU WEREN’T WATCHING.
And to protect your ass the Free Press has taken down your article.
Are you in that big a denial?
Sharp, Drew to me
1:16 PM (41 minutes ago)
This is more than a little funny that you seem to be getting so worked up.
Dude, if you’re upset because I didn’t recognize you or your blog, I apologize.
But as I’ve learned over the years, it doesn’t matter how many actual facts you provide a critic that proves their assertion wrong, they’re simply going to believe what they choose to believe as fact so it’s not really worth the investment to argue. I have neither the time nor the interest because it would be a futile discussion. I know the truth. That’s good enough for me.
I receive close to a hundred emails a day from readers, primarily ripping me, and I’m always amused that if they find my argumentative positions so offensive then they’re perhaps better off not reading me anymore. But they keep coming back for more. I would simply ignore someone who angered me to that point because it’s not really worth the emotion — especially considering that it’s just sports.
But that just makes me rational, something foreign to the sports fan.
Good luck with the blog
Jeff Moss to Drew
1:22 PM (37 minutes ago)
This has nothing to do with your opinions.
Are you that dense that you cannot see what you did here?
In the email time stamped 12:23 pm, Sharp wrote, “I assume you mean this year’s no-hitter. I’m pretty sure I started watching when I learned that he had a perfect game through five. What’s the point?”
What is the point? What is the fucking point? Are you shitting me?
The point is YOU WROTE A COLUMN FOR A MAJOR DAILY NEWSPAPER AND YOU ADMITTEDLY MISSED OVER HALF OF THE GAME!!!!!!
And not only did you miss the first five innings, you failed to disclose that in your column!!!!
And what is so important about Sharp beginning his view of the game in the SIXTH INNING??
Well, the Encarnacion “weak tap” that wasn’t “controversial” occurred in the BOTTOM OF THE FIFTH INNING.
How in the hell could someone who admittedly missed Verlander’s first 15 outs of the game know if anything controversial occurred or not? By my math, ya missed 55 percent of JV’s putouts!
The same paper that once published a column by Mitch Albom that he wrote on a FRIDAY for an event that took place on SATURDAY is now in the habit of allowing their columnists to write pieces on their couch that they admittedly are half paying attention to.
I am shocked Sharp didn’t go the distance and write that Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson were in attendance at Rogers Centre cheering Verlander on in their blue and orange Tiger swag.
It was also nice to see that Sharp maintains the same level of accuracy in his emails that he does in his mailed-in columns.
In his continued defense of his asinine assertion that Jair Jurjjens would be a .500 pitcher in the American League he stated that Brad Penny wasn’t a particularly hard thrower in the NL and resorted to “painting the corners.”
Anyone who knows ANYTHING about baseball is fully aware that when Brad Penny broke into MLB with the Florida Marlins, he was a POWER PITCHER.
But I digress. This isn’t a story about Sharp’s idiotic OPINIONS, it is a breakdown of the man’s journalistic malpractice and a newspaper that allows it to occur.
(Even after Sharp admitted to me that he didn’t watch the first five innings of the game, the Freep’s official Twitter account responded to the budding controversy with this gem: “The @drewsharp col wasn’t removed, was archived. We archived bulk of content after 30 days. Confirmed Drew watched game on TV.” Meanwhile, the Freep’s explanation is total bullshit as almost all of Sharp’s articles over the last few years are still viewable on their site.)
I will say I loved how Drue Scharp repeatedly used a condescending tone to label me as a “blogger.” It must have killed him that he had to refrain from a “living in your mom’s basement” blast.
(And because of Dreue Sharpp’s OBSESSION with having his name spelled correctly if “Deadspin” or “The Big Lead” picked up on this story, I am now going to refuse to spell it correctly for the balance of this post.)
Yep, I am just a blogger. But in this day and age I sure as shit would rather be in a group that includes Bill Simmons, Tommy Craggs and Will Leitch than lumped in with someone like you. An extinct dinosaur whose slothfulness is one the reasons less and less people are reading ACTUAL newspapers.
Which leads me to the question I have been getting a lot regarding my obsession with seeing this story through. Why do I care so much?
Well, I find it appalling that a paper I used to love as a kid has turned into a giant pile of shit.
I remember the glory days of the Freep when Mike Downey had the lead columnist gig and was regularly writing entertaining and witty articles.
Even in the first few years of the Mitch Albom Era we were spoiled in Detroit with one of the best young sportswriters in the country.
But now we are cursed with a sports section that employs three atrocities.
One of whom writes a column as frequently as the Lions win a playoff game. Frodo Albom gave up on being a sportswriter a LONG time ago and is now more concerned with his radio gig, writing plays about deceased Tigers broadcasters, helping Haitian earthquake victims, lobbying Michigan’s governor on tax credits for the film industry, appearing on “The Sports Reporters” (even though he is no longer one) and penning novellas that make Jude Law’s character in “A Road to Perdition” look like he is not obsessed with DEATH.
Then you have the curious case of Michael Rosenberg. A little nebbish of a man who displayed in the Michigan-RichRod Practice “scandal” that he is nothing more than Lloyd Carr’s bagman.
A guy whose “comedic” articles make you wonder if they were written by a character in Billy Crystal’s “Mr. Saturday Night.”
And finally there is Schaarp. A dude who has been bitterly air mailing columns into the Free Press since he ended up taking on shrapnel as collateral damage during the whole Mitchgate affair. A man who obviously is frustrated with his failed broadcasting career.
I mean, can you imagine how it gnaws at the guy that Rob Parker is a fixture on ESPN’s “First and Ten” while Terry Foster is on the highest rated sports show in the Motor City?
But Dreww shouldn’t be too upset. Just like he told me in my email, “It’s just sports.” That is a wonderful frame of mind for a SPORTS COLUMNIST. Why take my job seriously since I am just covering dumb jocks for irrational sports fan?
Here is a challenge for you, Druwe. We have both appeared on Fox-2’s “Sportsworks” program in the past and I’d love to debate you regarding this issue, your Jar Jar rationalization and how the Ohio State football situation isn’t benefitting U of M and MSU.
If Dan Miller will give us the forum this coming Sunday and you can get away from Weezie, Lionel and Mr. Bentley, how about we go toe-to-toe in WJBK’s Southfield studio?
I am sure mommy will grant me permission to exit the basement for a couple of hours.