Remember back in February, when Bill Simmons went on a Twitter tirade about Duke refusing to access Shane Ryan of Grantland? Well, Simmons is at it again, and his target this time is the St. Louis Blues.

Baker had no immediate tweet about Simmons’ snipe at the Blues, and I couldn’t find a response from the Blues. But really, is anyone surprised that Grantland got denied media access again? This is the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they’re likely credentialing a lot more journalists than usual… journalists who cover the team and the league on a daily basis. While Baker is Grantland’s resident hockey columnist, she essentially writes between one and three columns a week about the league, with coverage more plentiful over the last two weeks as the playoffs have started. 

Furthermore, it’s not even as if Baker and Grantland have been doing a lot of coverage of the St. Louis Blues. Doing a search on Grantland for “St. Louis Blues”, I get a total of three results…. the most recent of which is from October 28th. If you search for “Blues” you get 65 results. However, the most recent result from Baker (the person who was supposed to be credentialed, mind you) or anyone referring to the hockey team is from November 10th, and the reference is a passing mention to Ken Hitchcock being hired as the team’s coach. That was nearly six months ago.

In summary, Simmons is just being petulant again, and I completely understand why the Blues wouldn’t credential someone who hasn’t said a word about their team in six months. I’m just wondering which league or team Simmons is going to start whining about not credentialing next. Maybe it will be the Olympics, since Grantland has spent so much time talking about Olympic sports in recent months. Maybe the PGA won’t credential Grantland for the US Open, and Simmons will start a crusade against golf. All I really know at the end of the day is that Simmons is managing to come off really, really bad by sniping at various teams for not giving credentials to his writers that barely cover the teams on his site.

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.