The Bobcat Nation

The following is an email I sent to Andrew Hinkelman of the Chronicle and his response. What are the thoughts of the BobcatNation members?


Mike,

It is a common misconception that the hometown newspaper should be a mouthpiece for the local sports teams. I, nor will anyone else at the Chronicle, go out of our way to be "positive" about the Bobcats, Icedogs, Hawks or any other team we cover, and we should never, ever be "fans." We are here to report the facts and provide analysis and commentary, the latter of which I did in my debut column.

The delivery may have been sarcastic, but I believe the criticism to be fair. There is a segment of Bobcat fans out there that has an irrational hatred of Bobby Hauck, and I felt they deserved to be called out for it. Yes, he can be surly and he may not have the recommended daily allowance of tact, but why is that of such great concern to Montana State fans? I just don't get it.

Thanks for writing and reading,

Hink.

on 10/6/05 4:47 PM, email to Andrew Hinkelman:

Mr. Hinkleman:

You may have gotten the response you were targeting and feel successful. But I don¹t think your approach of being critical of Bobcat Fans is what the Chronicle would hope inspires area readers or Bobcat fans. On the contrary, you have set yourself and the paper up for ridicule. The Chronicle has made some great strides in their reporting on the Bobcats, so I ask why would you come in and set them back through you sarcasm? I don¹t understand this approach. I don¹t know you from Adam, don¹t know if you are a good reporter or not, and don¹t care if you are or are not a Griz fan. But I do care that you are a positive Bobcat fan and report as much and do it fairly and positively.

Well at least he confirmed the crappy attitude displayed in his debut article for the Chronicle wasn't a fluke.

Here's a clue "Hink" nobody asked you to be the state sponsored newspaper of the Bobcats, Hawks, Icedogs or anybody else. Nobody is asking you to record a false history for them. Your very own Sports Editor has told me that he wishes the Chronicle to become the "word of the Bobcats" and have everyone come to the Chronicle for their Bobcat news. Newsflash, you piss off all your readers with a high and mighty better than thou attitude and I don't care if the whole damn paper is nothing but Bobcat articles, nobody is going to want to read it.

Now I know that Jeff Welsch is on here occasionally, so I would think this guy may be also. To him, ask your new boss, while he may have taken some flak from some when he has written things critical of MSU he also found many supportive of his opinions and thanked him for taking the chance to bring it up(his article on the BBall attendance, or lack thereof comes to mind immediately). If you see something in the program that needs criticized then do it tactfully and you will probably get some support from Cat fans. Call them out and act like you are better than everyone you are writing to and you will quickly become irrelevant.

Nor will I say anything "POSITIVE" about the Chronicle from now. He pretty much characterized everyone at the Chronicle with that statement. Any Chronicle writers want to say anything about that on here? If not, then my respect for the Chronicle is ZERO now.

This was a pretty sorry response from Hinkelman, one that will certainly cause me to lose any positive respect for the Chronicle if that is what they support. Maybe Hinkelman and the Chronicle should take a few notes from Rial Cummings, who though a strong spporter of the Grizzlies, also is very positive about their opponents. But none the less he writes very positively about the Grizzlies and this base on facts about the team Mr. Hinkelman. I believe this reporter the Chronicle hired needs to hit the road...

Yes, he can be surly and he may not have the recommended daily allowance of tact, but why is that of such great concern to Montana State fans? I just don't get it.

Thanks for writing and reading,

Hink.

Also, if this is how you feel why exactly was it worth your time to print an article telling off this segment of MSU fans? You essentially admit you wrote your article to the lowest common denominator and got caught up in a stupid rivalry argument, yet "you should never be considered a fan." Please. Tell you what, you want to call out the fans for this, sign up here I'll be happy to direct you to several smack board threads dealing with this topic. I don't expect BobcatNation and eGriz smack topics to be turning up as the lesson of the day in my sports page.

There is a segment of Bobcat fans out there that has an irrational hatred of Bobby Hauck, and I felt they deserved to be called out for it. Yes, he can be surly and he may not have the recommended daily allowance of tact, but why is that of such great concern to Montana State fans? I just don't get it.

I love that he is "calling out" Bobcat Fans- someone over at the Chronicle should mention that the majority of his readership are Bobcats and a person should never “call out” those that pay your salary.

I also am a little mystified that he doesn't understand how Cat fans don't like Bobby. He hit on the points, "surly" and "tactless." That isn't a combination that wins over the hearts of those that already have a reason not to like you (being the head coach of the Griz). For a guy that has been reporting on Montana sports for years it is hard to believe that he "just don't get it." If you don't understand the rivalry between these two schools, then maybe writing about sports isn't your bag. Maybe try obituaries.

I, nor will anyone else at the Chronicle, go out of our way to be "positive" about the Bobcats, Icedogs, Hawks or any other team we cover, and we should never, ever be "fans."

Why in the hell would a local newspaper not be positive about local sports teams. He should listen to the dumbass griz football announcers. They go completely overboard, but at least you know that they are fans of the team they are covering.

There is a segment of Bobcat fans out there that has an irrational hatred of Bobby Hauck, and I felt they deserved to be called out for it. Yes, he can be surly and he may not have the recommended daily allowance of tact, but why is that of such great concern to Montana State fans? I just don't get it.


.

Well, "Hink", maybe if someone at the Missoulian allegedly refused to call your beloved paper the "Bozeman Chronicle", and only called it the "Chronicle" because you don't "deserve to have the name Bozeman on your paper", then you might know how "irrational" some fans are.


Bottom line is, you are a reporter. If you don't understand the irrationality of some fans, do some digging and report on it.

I just sent this whole conversation to Jeff and staff. I wanted him to know what was happening.

Could someone please link the story that has everyone all fired up?

Maybe we at BobcatNation need to direct many of these feelings by way of letters or emails to the Chronicle. Or... and this is a dreadful thought.... maybe one of the Chronicle is a memeber of BobcatNation and reads the threads! Letters and emails to the Chronicle!!!!!!

CatFamily wrote:Maybe we at BobcatNation need to direct many of these feelings by way of letters or emails to the Chronicle. Or... and this is a dreadful thought.... maybe one of the Chronicle is a memeber of BobcatNation and reads the threads! Letters and emails to the Chronicle!!!!!!

Jeff Welsch, Chronicle Sports editor, is a member here and reads and occasionally even posts here. Through a quick member search, it appears that "Hink" also has signed up as a member here recently, though has not posted. Trust me, they will see this, question is will they care or just write about the bad Cat fans in their next editorial.

To Jeff, if/when you read this, from our email conversations previously I know you are a good guy and really want the Chronicle to be an improved source of info. Why is it this is the second article in the last few months to deal with what is really just a silly rivalry argument? Just seems there is so much better to write about or opine about than this. Leave the rivalry smack to the message boards.

PapaG wrote:Could someone please link the story that has everyone all fired up?

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ar ... 02hink.txt

Here's the story:






Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Hinkelman: Getting to know you, me
By ANDREW HINKELMAN, Chronicle Sports Writer

Hi. I'm the latest new guy in the Chronicle sports department.

But I am not new to Montana. I spent the last two years in Kalispell covering, among other things, the Griz football team.
(Horror!)

Last year I went to eight of Montana's 10 home games, and even traveled to Chattanooga last December to cover the I-AA championship game.

(He's one of them!!)

And we might as well get this out of the way up front - I don't hate Bobby Hauck.


(Get a rope.)

Sure, between the start of the season and the end of the season Hauck can be as interesting as watching a House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation meeting on C-SPAN, but the rest of the time he's pretty personable.

And the way he has managed to get in the heads of some of you Bobcat fans through his vocabulary choices would be humorous if it weren't so, you know, sad.

There are some people out there who parse his transcripts with the fervor of conspiracy theorists reviewing the Zapruder Film, looking for some perceived slight to Montana State. If that's all it takes to stir things up, I'd hate to see the response to some real trash talking.

So now that I've alienated most of the readership, perhaps even caused a few subscription cancellations, let me say this - I also covered the Bobcats, and I was accused by both Bobcat and Griz fans in the Flathead Valley of being biased, a pretty good indication of overall neutrality.

In truth, my loyalties lie in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and my alma mater, Oregon State, keepers of the worst nickname in sports, Beavers.

(You can imagine the types of fun had in the newsroom by testosterone-adled, college-aged headline writers every time the Beavers and Trojans played each other.)

So there you are, a brief introduction to the mind of Hink.

At my last stop, this column routinely featured a top 10 list, running through the previous week's hot stories. It's an idea stolen from any number of writers and I'm not too proud to now steal my own idea from Kalispell.

---

This week's top 10, Debut Edition, abbreviated to seven because the preamble took too much space:

n 7. Don't celebrate good times. The debate over end zone celebrations is raging anew this year, centered mostly around the antics of Cincinnati's Chad Johnson (a former Beaver, by the way), Terrell Owens and Joe Horn.

For whatever reason, such displays offend some people's sensibilities, and they insist that a player scoring a touchdown should "act like he's been there before."

OK. But if the player should act like he's been there before, then I think the crowd should do the same. I mean, we've all seen it before, so what is there to cheer for? That way we can reduce sports to the joyless physical exercise so many people seem to want.

(And not for nothing, but I can't help wonder if there would be as much outrage over end zone celebrations if Johnson, Owens and Horn were white.)

n 6. Television rant. Ruining baseball's playoffs for the fifth season in a row with his tired, buffoonish schtick: Chris Berman, ESPN.

n 5. Television praise. Proving he's the best play-by-play man on TV, simply for not having killed Tim McCarver: Joe Buck, Fox.

n 4. Not knowing when to quit. So is what's happening to Brett Favre and the Packers an example of why so many people seem to care so much about when a great player retires? Is the 2005 Brett Favre going to replace the 1973 Willie Mays as the most-cited cautionary tale? Because things have gotten real ugly, real quick in Titletown.

n 3. They're baaack. The NHL - aka the dumbest sports league in history - returned last night. Can't help but feel ambivalent, yet at the same time excited. The lockout that wiped out last year was the biggest middle finger ever extended to fans, but I know my love of the game will bring me back.

n 2. What is this, the BCS? Since when did baseball start deciding division championships based on tie-breakers? I thought one of the endearing charms of baseball was supposed to be that if two teams were tied after 162 games, you played a 163rd to figure who is the better team. Now they have tie-breakers?

Boston and New York should have played on Monday to decide the AL East championship. Yes, both teams would still make the playoffs, but first round matchups could have been altered, perhaps even home field advantage. Instead the soul-less head-to-head record determined the Yankees to be the victors. How exceedingly lame.

n 1. Speaking of the BCS ... The single biggest fraud perpetrated on the American sporting consumer, aside from every Mike Tyson pay-per-view fight since he fought Holyfield, is the Bowl Championship Series.

And it's not so much how the BCS crowns a fake national champion, it's how university presidents lie to us about how much class time their student-athletes would miss in a playoff format.

I've wondered how presidents like Geoff Gamble, George Dennison and others in Divisions I-AA, II and III feel when their counterparts in I-A are essentially saying they care more about football players.

Sports writer Andrew Hinkelman is at hink@dailychronicle.com or 582-2690.

We need more sportsmanship these days. Head coaches should lead the way. BH did not show our athletes the proper respect after his first Cat-Griz game. He put some of them down, which goes beyond being surly. It was pretty hard to miss. So Bobcat fans resent him. But like all of us he's learning how to do his job better. People will let go of their resentment in time. Last night the host on the BH show was really enjoying the misfortunes of the ISU QB. BH kept it respectful. Why is this issue worth a column anyhow? There's so much to write about that deserves attention, and will inspire sportsmanship. Good attitudes take time and patience. I know some people that are never sarcastic. I wish I could master that discipline.

Mike Carignan

mchammer wrote: Why is this issue worth a column anyhow? There's so much to write about that deserves attention, and will inspire sportsmanship.
Mike Carignan

Exactly.

bump...don't want this to get lost yet.

CatFamily started this out by demanding that a newspaper reporter be a positive Bobcat "fan." Hink properly replied that he is a reporter, not a fan. Fans, by their nature, are not objective. A reporter shouldn't be disrespectful of anyone, but if he or she has an agenda, i.e., a favoratism underlying his or her writing, readers won't get news or facts, they'll get spin, whether it's sugar-coating facts that are bad, or bad-mouthing when things are good. Reporters who are "fans" are generally covering up for the fact they are bad reporters.

He doesn't understand the rivalry because he's a Beav. He thinks the Beav's actually have a rivalry with the Ducks.

Anyway, it will be hilarious to read his periodic columns trying to convince a Bobcat fan to embrace Hauck...that should be good for a back spasm or two over the coming weeks! Hey I know, this would be really funny. "Hink" should interview Hauck and then he could report about how respectful Hauck is toward Bozeman and the Cats.......because hauck is so rational about how he views the Cats. What a crack up!

GFGriz wrote:CatFamily started this out by demanding that a newspaper reporter be a positive Bobcat "fan." Hink properly replied that he is a reporter, not a fan. Fans, by their nature, are not objective. A reporter shouldn't be disrespectful of anyone, but if he or she has an agenda, i.e., a favoratism underlying his or her writing, readers won't get news or facts, they'll get spin, whether it's sugar-coating facts that are bad, or bad-mouthing when things are good. Reporters who are "fans" are generally covering up for the fact they are bad reporters.

Definately he did reply how he is a reporter not a fan, but his lack of respect and lack of class are what is bothering everyone. We all know that Jeff Welsch isn't a raging Bobcat fan, but he does a great job of covering the Cats, remaining objective, and remaining respectful of fans. "Hink" showed no class with his article and and even less class with his response.

We aren't asking him to be a fan, we are asking him not to be a JERK.