Sports Columnist Moonlights as Pathetic Internet Troll

Despite what you see on The Wire (or in the news since April), Baltimore is a city with a ton to offer. I would go on about the city itself, but it’s a little outside the realm of what we do here at Bird’s Eye View. Instead, I’ll note that this town has both a NFL team and an MLB team, which means that there is plenty to talk about.

For instance, I could talk about how disappointing it was that the Orioles dropped a series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, when that team is directly in front of them in the wild card standings, and the Orioles’ playoff sand is getting short in the glass.

Or, I could talk about what training camp has told us about who, in the stable of receivers the Ravens have at this point, will step up to be a solid #2 contributor behind Steve Smith, in the passing attack.

Instead, I’m going to talk about something Baltimore doesn’t have. Baltimore is a town that does not have anything better to fill its newspaper’s column space with than Mike Preston. Preston, who writes for the Baltimore Sun, tweeted this out on Sunday night:

Regardless of the O's improvement during the past two seasons, Baltimore has been and will always be a football town.

— Mike Preston (@MikePrestonSun) August 9, 2015

As a Baltimore sports fan, it’s sad to see that some people get off on pitting people’s passions for one against the other. Instead of celebrating the fact that Baltimore has a resurgent Orioles team accompanying the perennially great Ravens team across the parking lot, Preston, and those like him, seek to put up walls between people. It’s dumb. But that’s not the worst of it.

It’s lazy.

Preston, apparently, can’t wow us with his insights in column format. His opinions cannot be enlightening or entertaining. Since he can’t bring quality writing to The Sun, all he is left with is to provide that paper with clicks, by moonlighting as a common internet troll.

I’m not interested in the conversation as to whether Baltimore is a football town or a baseball town. I’m interested in asking why Baltimore isn’t a town with better quality public discourse when it comes to sports. Maybe it’s because some of the “talent” in traditional media, like Mike Preston, can only reach the lowest common denominator.

Of course, part of it is that Preston is pulling his best Carly Simon – he wants this to be about him. So here you go, Mike. We’re all talking about how wonderfully controversial you are. Congratulations, you are such an important figure in the local sports scene. Thanks for showing us that your signature move is to act out in public.

You could argue that I’m just as bad: feeding the troll with attention.

Maybe. But maybe it’s also true that I can love the Orioles and the Ravens, and not give a damn about how well or poorly Mike Preston’s clicks are this week. I can simply sit back and enjoy the fact that, as a very mediocre blogger and podcaster, I have never had to stoop that low.

Go Birds – all of them.