Daily News tries to sling the slime

By Mike McGann
Posted Saturday, October 7, 2006

Once again, the New York Daily News fails to cover itself with glory by calling Steve Trachsel's wife. The Mets' pitcher's spouse was not amused — nor should she have been.

How low is too low for tabloid journalism? And is the Daily News making itself part of the story, invading Trachsel's privacy the day before he makes a key start against the Dodgers?

Whether or not is ultimately has an impact, it is something to consider.

Wow, that must have been another fine moment in journalism, a kind of Woodward and Bernstein moment. Some brilliant assignment editor at the New York Daily News gets the buzz that the reason Steve Trachsel needed to go home was because of marital issues.

So, of course, the day before the guy is supposed to pitch game three of the National League Division Series they decide to call his wife up and ask her about it. Like her husband, Sarah Trachsel told the Daily News guys to get lost:

“That’s none of your business,” She said, probably to Michael O’Keefe. She went on to inform said scribe (because, somehow journalist seems out of place, here) that she and her husband were not getting a divorce. She ended the interview with those classic words, left usually to telemarketers and scandal sheet reporters: “Don’t call here again.”

Good for her.

Since the whole Paul Lo Duca scandal (largely invented by the folks at the Daily News and the New York Post, it appears) petered out, it seems the tabloids have been on the lookout for the next juicy, messy Mets’ story. Apparently, a feel-good story about a baseball team rising from the ashes, led by a home-town hero, isn’t enough for the tabloids. And people wonder why newspaper circulation continues to fall.

Sure, the fact that Steve Trachsel needed to go home — and missed a start — is legitimate news. It was made clear that it was a personal issue — and it was a reasonable request made by an employee for time off at a non-crucial time. The why, frankly, is no one’s business, as Sarah Trachsel pointed out.

So why not respect their privacy? Obviously, the rest of the team did, as no one else leaked what the issue was — and all of them showed concern and respect for Trachsel’s decision to head back to California for a couple of days. Maybe the Trachsels are having problems — or maybe they’re trying to conceive or a do a hundred other things privately as married couples do — it’s none of our business and it isn’t germane to baseball or winning a playoff series. Trachsel came back in time, when he said he’d be back, left with the blessing of management and pitched a solid side session. Whether he gets hit hard in game three or not, the trip really won’t be the issue.

As someone who is accused of being a bit regimented in terms of his routine, if Steve Trachsel is fine with it, who is anyone else to question it?

As I noted during the Lo Duca debacle, this doesn’t sound like the work of Adam Rubin, the Daily News Mets’ beat writer. In fact, knowing how it is with beats, having someone else call a player’s wife will undoubtedly make his life harder in the clubhouse. Still, it’s pretty slimy — the kind of thing Bob Raissman would be all over a broadcast outlet about if it happened there.

If this is journalism, maybe bloggers aren’t such a bad thing, eh?