At the risk of over stepping my bounds here, I'd guess a real big difference might be in their paychecks as well. Because unfortunately, the most financially successful sports writers are the ones making the most asinine statements in an effort to garner the most attention, and thus, income. I'd imagine it's really tempting to go down the Marriotti route whenever possible. agreed. mariotti is an attention whore, and he wants to be known nationally (which is why he appears on "who can yell the loudest" every day on espn), and no one outside of nsbb cares about who bats second. plus, mariotti's so busy trying to get famous, it's not like he's in the trenches in mesa trying to get interesting stuff...he just writes about what he thinks someone in LA or NY would care about with regard to the cubs.