The last couple of days have seen an incredible amount of discussion around the Atlanta Braves’ clubhouse. That comes from a report from Jake Mintz of Fox Sports after the Braves’ win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2 of the National League Divisional Series Monday that Atlanta shortstop Orlando Arcia was mocking Philadelphia first baseman Bryce Harper in the clubhouse, saying “Ha-ha, atta-boy, Harper!”
That led to Harper twice staring down Arcia after hitting home runs in the Phillies’ 10-2 Game 3 win Wednesday. And that led to the Atlanta radio broadcast bashing Harper, and to a number of Braves’ players and (mostly) Atlanta-based media members criticizing Mintz for sharing Arcia’s comments. That then led to a number of other media members going off on those takes, saying that clubhouse comments are not off the record (unless specifically agreed to by the player and the reporter).
But while the media reaction outside of Atlanta has generally been in support of Mintz and critical of the Braves and the local reporters arguing against this, there have been a few media members from other markets who have chimed in to bash Mintz’s reporting of Arcia’s comments. And one of the most fervent takes on that front came from Alanna Rizzo on MLB Network’s High Heat Thursday, where she weighed in with some anti-blogger rhetoric seen much more frequently more than a decade ago:
“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
Here’s a transcription of that:
“And I am so irritated with all of these people, these bloggers, or podcasters, or, not even reporters, not even journalists going into the clubhouse. You’re ruining it for the rest of us, the guys that come in in the postseason and don’t have any clue of the pulse of the team. And it’s making it worse for the people that are there every single day covering this team on a daily basis.”
“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. And, remember, I’ve been in clubhouses for the last 16, 17 years. I remember I would go in there, get my job done and get out. That is their space. So for this idiot to go in there and take something out of context just to make him give himself a name is ridiculous.”
“And I completely understand what Travis D’Arnaud was saying, I completely understand what Kevin Gausman was saying. You guys can throw up the tweets right now about Kevin Gausman, what he was saying about the fact that they should be allowed to talk in their own clubhouse. Now, there are non-media areas in clubhouses, I understand that, but that’s ridiculous. You have to have some sort of decorum intact if you’re going to be lucky enough to cover a Major League Baseball team or a professional team.”
“This is what Kevin Gausman had to say. It’s ‘Players have to watch out, watch what we say in our clubhouse.’ And you know what? He’s absolutely right. That is their space. It is not a space to go in there and linger around and watch their televisions and, you know, just kind of, you know, hang out in there. That’s not your space.”
She then quotes Gausman’s tweet: “Some of y’all, man. All I’m saying is that you should not be allowed to quote a player, say you heard something like this in the clubhouse when you, the reporter, are not talking to that player.”
And she then bashes Mintz more.
“First of all, this guy, Jake Mintz, that’s not even a reporter. That’s taking away from true reporters and true journalists. Where were you on the random Tuesday in April in Cincinnati when this team was playing in Cincinnati. Where were you on a rain delay? And you have to sit in the press box for all of this time. It’s ridiculous.”
And host Chris “Mad Dog” Russo chimes in with a “You sound like me.”
Rizzo’s take itself wound up taking plenty of criticism from media figures. Some of the most notable there came from Baseball Prospectus editor-in-chief Craig Goldstein. (Language warning.)
go back to condescendingly telling people how to dress or whatever it is you do now
— Just For The Craic (@cdgoldstein) October 12, 2023
not to mention what was reported wasn't even BAD. I can't imagine a more anodyne piece of shit talk and I'm one of the worst trash talkers you've ever heard. I can't believe there's any reaction to this other than "stop being so fucking soft"
— Just For The Craic (@cdgoldstein) October 12, 2023
journalism/clubhouse gatekeeping a member of the BBWAA is fucking wild, dude
— The Chorker (@cdgoldstein) October 12, 2023
I'm glad folks are saying something against the asinine bullshit spewed on MLB Network, but it's probably appropriate for the BBWAA to say something, too. They shouldn't idly watch as someone one the league's broadcast channel hurls personal insults at members for doing their job
— Just For The Craic (@cdgoldstein) October 12, 2023
Another notable reaction came from Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post, who also reported the initial comment (but didn’t attribute it to Arcia), and stood up for Mintz Thursday:
Cameras were rolling. Recorders were rolling. In fact, last night, I asked Arcia if he knows recorders are rolling in the clubhouse. He said, through his interpreter, that “there are. I don’t know that they have to be there, but they are.”
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) October 12, 2023
Shouldn’t say that with cameras around?
2) Suggesting you shouldn’t report something said in the presence of MORE THAN A DOZEN reporters because it “wasn’t meant to get out?” is suggesting reporters should be protecting players from themselves. That’s not our job. It’s theirs.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) October 12, 2023
Willing to suggest that is why they lost the other day. Otherwise, why not laugh it off? And frankly, shouldn’t everyone in the Atlanta clubhouse have far greater concerns after an 10-2 loss than whether Bryce Harper is mad at their shortstop? They lost by 8!
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) October 12, 2023
And if the Braves let this be the story of their series, that’s on them. Win and it goes away. Period.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) October 12, 2023
And as Goldstein notes, much of Rizzo’s career has been working either for MLB Network (2012-13 and 2021-present) or for the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers’ local broadcasts on Root Sports Rocky Mountain and Spectrum SportsNet LA respectively. She did do local sports work for CBS affiliates in Wichita Falls, Texas and Madison, Wisconsin before that.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Rizzo isn’t a reporter, or that she can’t share her views on reporting etiquette. But it’s unusual to hear someone whose career has largely been as a reporter for local team broadcast and league network broadcasts come in on such a high ethical horse against someone working for a national media outlet (and yes, a MLB broadcast partner, but MLB isn’t producing Fox’s broadcasts themselves).
And Rizzo’s “Where were you on the random Tuesday in April in Cincinnati?” comment is rather absurd. The whole point of the postseason is that there is now a national spotlight on the remaining teams. And that should naturally lead to access for more than just the local reporters. Many around baseball regularly complain that the sport, and especially its playoffs, should receive more national attention, which flies in sharp contrast to attempts like this to gatekeep coverage to reporters around a particular team all year.
It’s also notable that Mintz and his @CespedesBBQ coverage partner Jordan Shusterman have been doing national coverage of MLB team for years (including on DAZN’s MLB ChangeUp). And they’ve been covering the sport nationally all season for Fox. And that’s included clubhouse interviews. So the “jackoff,” “blogger,” and “podcaster” comments are a little much, especially with criticism of people for those last two categories being so a decade ago.
If anything, the Braves’ clubhouse saga has once again illustrated that there is not universal journalistic agreement on much of anything. But the majority of journalists discussing the situation have weighed in in defense of Mintz, and in defense of Arcia’s comments in a media-accessible area not being off the record without an agreement to that effect. So that makes Rizzo’s take here, and especially the fervent level she went to, quite unusual.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter]