Yes, the discourse around MLB writer Jake Mintz reporting Orlando Arcia’s “Ha ha, atta-boy, Harper!” trash talk after the Atlanta Braves’ Game 2 NLDS win has gone way over the top for something so minor and silly.
But now, it’s gotten ugly thanks to the shameful comments from MLB Network’s Alanna Rizzo.
Rizzo went on Thursday’s High Heat and delivered a misguided rant about Mintz that was wrong on so many levels.
It started with her saying “some jackoff” — which, really? — coming in to get a credential (“God only knows why,” she remarked) somehow ruins it for all the hard-working beat reporters who are in MLB clubhouses every day. She added that the clubhouse is “a sacred space,” which is most certainly not the case ESPECIALLY when reporters are walking around in it.
"And then some jackoff comes in at the end of the season that gets a credential, God only knows why. And the clubhouse is a sacred space." Alanna Rizzo went off on Jake Mintz's clubhouse reporting on MLBN's "High Heat" Thursday. pic.twitter.com/6dooqeLPnh
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 12, 2023
The name-calling is puerile and insulting. But let’s focus on the fact that Mintz did NOTHING wrong. As our Cory Woodroof wrote on Thursday:
The reporting above by Fox Sports’ Jake Mintz is typical sports journalism done in the postseason of a professional sport. He overheard someone say something newsworthy in a locker room filled with reporters, and he shared it. Quite frankly, it was a nice catch by Mintz that added flavor to his game story.
Even if Arcia didn’t realize he was being recorded, everything he said was fair game for a reporter to report on. There are legitimate television cameras rolling in MLB clubhouses after postseason wins. How is this surprising?
In other words, Mintz was doing his job. And he did it well. Arcia learned in that moment that when there are reporters around, you do have to watch what you say if you don’t want to see it print. It is no longer, as Rizzo said, “their space.”
And beyond that: Mintz covers baseball for Fox Sports. Whether he’s in the Braves’ locker room once during the season or 81 times for home games or anything in between does NOT reduce him to the slime on the bottom of some cleats, or as Rizzo scoffed so angrily, “These bloggers, or podcasters, or — not even journalists going into the clubhouse.”
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America said as much in its official response to Rizzo:
Statement from the BBWAA pic.twitter.com/X6ThJPk6CK
— BBWAA (@officialBBWAA) October 13, 2023
Rizzo and the MLB Network need to issue an apology. Journalists are journalists. There’s no hierarchy that tells us one is more worthy than the other, that the rules apply to some and not others.
That’s the “decorum” we should focus on here.
UPDATE: Rizzo apologized on Friday:
Alanna Rizzo gave "a very heartfelt apology to Jake Mintz and the entire BBWAA" pic.twitter.com/rT9tjSWLY3
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 13, 2023
