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What a stupid . Seriously, who thought it would be a good idea to even write such trash, let alone publish it?
This was in my newspaper Tuesday. People were outraged. He apologized today. The apology and a sample of the comments are at the end. Hit the link for more comments.
Many odd things have happened in sports the past 18 years
Whicker column: Here's a primer for someone who has missed nearly two decades.
Mark Whicker
Columnist
The Orange County Register
It doesn't sound as if Jaycee Dugard got to see a sports page.
Box scores were not available to her from June 10, 1991 until Aug. 31 of this year.
She never saw a highlight. Never got to the ballpark for Beach Towel Night. Probably hasn't high-fived in a while.
She was not allowed to e a volleyball. Or pitch a softball. Or smack a forehand down the line. Or run in a 5-footer for double bogey.
Now, that's deprivation.
Can you imagine? Dugard was 11 when she was kidnapped and stashed in Phillip Garrido's backyard. She was 29 when she escaped. Penitentiary inmates at least get an hour of TV a day. Dugard was cut off from everything but the elements.
How long before she fully digests the world she re-enters? How difficult to adjust to such cataclysmic change?
More than that, who's going to explain the fact that there's a President Obama?
Dugard's stepfather says she's going to need a lot of therapy — you think? — so perhaps she should take a respite before confronting the new realities.
So, Jaycee, whenever you're ready, here's what you've missed:
•Barry Bonds, who was just leading the Pirates to their second NL East le, wound up breaking Henry Aaron's home run record. How did such a skinny guy manage that? We'll deal with that later.
•Well, actually, some baseball players began taking drugs in order to hit more home runs and throw faster fastballs. Football players, who had cornered the market on most of their drugs, began driving drunk, slapping their wives, selling drugs, and killing people. The baseball players caught more grief.
•Michael Jordan did indeed win the big one, and five others.
•Yeah, this golfer really is named Tiger Woods.
•Stock car drivers now marry international models and are invited to the White House.
•Domed stadiums, like the ones in Houston and Minneapolis, are considered obsolete, or at least unfit for baseball.
•John McEnroe became a respected television analyst, just as tennis adopted a replay system that eliminated the need for McEnroe to argue.
•Magic Johnson is a billionaire businessman, and most of us have forgotten just why he had to retire.
•You missed absolutely no Servite victories over Mater Dei in football.
•Or World Series championship for the Dodgers.
•Or Stanley Cup championships for the Kings, even though Wayne Gretzky took them to the Finals in 1993.
•Mike Tyson now makes fun of himself in movies.
•The Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup in '07. Yeah, a hockey team came to Anaheim. Yeah, they built an arena in Anaheim.
•I know you've had trouble digesting all this so far, but they also built a basketball arena at USC. Honest to God.
•A guy from East L.A. named Oscar De La Hoya now makes boxing contenders rich and famous. Just as he did when he was boxing.
•The Angels won a World Series. When you learn who they beat, you'll understand why.
•Speaking of the Giants they did not move, but they did get a new stadium downtown. The Florida Marlins, who did not exist when you left, won two World Series and are getting their own ballpark. Even if you were there, it's hard to believe.
•For the most part, fans have stopped doing The Wave.
•In fact, you don't see many beach balls in Dodger Stadium or Angel Stadium anymore.
•The two NFL teams that we used to have? They've been gone for 15 years. You haven't heard anyone complain about that? Neither have we.
•Jackie Autry isn't in charge of the Angels anymore, as you might have surmised by looking at the standings.
•Joe Torre now manages the Dodgers, after a fruitful detour through New York. Tommy Lasorda? Sure, he's around. He hasn't called?
•You disappeared a couple of months before John Daly came into our lives at the '91 PGA. Who's John Daly? Never mind.
•Todd Marinovich showed why careers aren't played on paper.
•USC is one of college football's elite programs, three coaches later.
•The Red Sox won two World Series, which proves that history is bunk. The White Sox even won one. But not the Cubs.
•Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played but never threatened Vladimir Guerrero's record for most consecutive swings.
•One blessed constant remains: Vin Scully.
•And ballplayers, who always invent the slang no matter what ESPN would have you believe, came up with an expression for a home run that you might appreciate.
Congratulations, Jaycee. You left the yard.
*********************
Whicker responds with regret over Dugard column
Mark Whicker
Columnist
The Orange County Register
For Tuesday's Register, I wrote a column that clearly offended and outraged large portions of our readership.
It was not my intention to do so. But it's obvious that I miscalculated the effect the column on Jaycee Dugard, and the events that she might have missed during her captivity, had on those who read, buy and advertise in our newspaper.
For 22 1/2 years at The Register, I feel like I've had a good and direct relationship with our audience and I think most of the regular readers know how I go about reporting and commenting on sports.
This column appears to have disconnected that bond with at least part of our readers. For that I apologize.
It's impossible to unring a bell or to bring back a column that has already been transmitted. In many ways the damage is done. I'm hopeful that I can be forgiven for this lapse of professionalism by those who were affected most profoundly.
I'll try to earn back the trust of those customers in my future endeavors.
Again, I regret this incident and apologize to all concerned.
The following are some samples from readers' comments in response to Mark Whicker's column:
E-mails
•I am writing in regard to the "sports" column Mark Whicker wrote and the OC Register published on September 7, 2009. The fact that Mr. Whicker used a young woman's life tragedy in an effort to make a column reminiscing about some events in sports he finds interesting relevant to the OC audience speaks poorly to his skills as a journalist and his empathy as a human. The fact that the editor found it appropriate to publish speaks poorly of his judgment.
Tiffany Beverly
•I just wanted to say that Mark Whicker's recent column filling Jaycee Dugard in on what she missed while abducted is one of the most atrocious, insensitive sports columns I've ever read. He completely trivializes the terrible ordeal she went through by offhandedly mentioning a bunch of stupid sports facts from the past 18 years, as if missing out on all of those is her biggest concern at the moment.
Ben Jacobs
•I just came across Mark Whicker's article about Jaycee Dugard's kidnapping and sports highlights from the past 18 years. I found the article to be offensive, insensitive, and ill-conceived. The Dugard kidnapping is a tragedy, which Whicker seems to have exploited for no reason other than to fill column inches. I'm sorry that the Orange County Register feels it appropriate to publish this sort of material.
Jacob Lee
Online comments
•Unbelievable. This is journalism at its worst. Mark Whicker attempts to make a few witticisms at the expense of a young woman who was kidnapped at age 11, sexually abused, mentally tormented, and held captive for 18 years, and no one on the editorial staff raised an objection? I didn't see one comment here that found Whicker's column appropriate. I guess the general public has more common sense and compassion than the staff of this paper. There are some things that are off limits for jokes - the kidnapping of little girls is one of them.
•There is a essay that comes out every year at about this time, talking about what the current college freshman know and don't know. It's a mildly amusing conceit used to highlight all the changes that has happened in the past 18 years. I recommend to the writer that if he would like to write another retrospective piece on the changes in the past 18 years, he should stick with that conceit. Don't reminisce about the people who died 18 years ago and what they've missed. Don't take a lighthearted account about what any kidnap victims who sustained years of abuse might have missed. Otherwise I'm afraid the writer may repeat the mistake he made with this column and write another loathsome, tasteless, witless, and sincerely unfunny column.
•Great! I'm sure her and her family appreciate that! I'm also sure that after all of her years in captivity that she was rushing to find and read your column. Surely the weight of the world is taken from her shoulders now.
What a stupid . Seriously, who thought it would be a good idea to even write such trash, let alone publish it?
I really don't see the point of the first column. At all. Why would an 11 year old who's been tortured for so long even care about sports?
I don't think he wrote that in evil spirits in the least bit, especially with the knocking out of the yard at the end. People over react.
Yeah, this is unbelievably stupid and insensitive. Like Cry Havoc, I don't see any purpose for writing this story. Readers of his column already know all this stuff, and he writes to her as if she's reading the article. Just stupid...
I took "You left the yard" comment as a backhanded play at her captivity and escape. Otherwise, how else did she leave the yard?
Good gravy. What was he thinking? That's just awful.
I can understand the idea crossing the guy's mind as a sort of, "Hey wouldn't it be funny..." kind of way. I can't understand how he could go through the process of actually writing it out and submitting it for printing without a huge warning light going off in his head at some point that this was a bad idea.
Jeff Vexler and Wally world ups forum.
Or an editor catching it.
I question his thought process and maybe he doesn't know if he realized the yard could appear to be her captivity and not a baseball field or something. I heard about it on the radio this morning and everyone was bashing and calling for him to be fired and such. Just think he said sorry, and meant it, and it's not a big deal.
There's way more offensive stuff in media and life. Boohoo.
The article wasn't as much offensive as it was just dumb and pointless. It was just a piece of crap.
well obviously the politically correct meter was buzzing, but i hate politically correct bull .
kudos to the author. you write something like that to garner attention, and mission accomplished.
WGAF about political correctness, it was a dumb article. People always pull the political correctness card even for bull that has no purpose or isn't even funny.
I concur. Common sense failed him.
Ridiculous. He forgot to mention the Lakers 4 Championships.
Controversy creates cash.
I didn't have a problem with it until this:
I think, more than anything, this is what makes the article offensive. Taking a jab at someone who has had to go through such an ordeal is not in good taste. However, this guy isn't the only one to blame. The editors obviously didn't think much about it either since they allowed this to be printed through their publication. They should be held accountable as well.And ballplayers, who always invent the slang no matter what ESPN would have you believe, came up with an expression for a home run that you might appreciate.
Congratulations, Jaycee. You left the yard.
You want offensive???? Look at my tan!
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