Congrats! It's a MOY!

I am glad to see Cherry up there. As much as I love the guy, he is starting to lose it. I vote for him. Not so much because of the post game tirade, but for his constant insisting that Darcy Tucker was the Leafs best player last season and previous years.

Maybe it's time to expand the MOY to multiple categories. Eg. column that insulted the most people at once; shortest period of time between columns that totally contradicted each other; most references to 1967 in one column/week/month/year; etc.

Also, can you explain how the word "mittenstringer" came to be used in this context? I've search your archive of articles for some explanation of it and found nothing. A google search sends me back here. Curious minds want to know.

Hey lb71,

You forgot to vote!

We did think about adding some more categories this year, but we waited to long to get around to doing it, so we're just going with the overall winner for 2008. I think we'll definitely add some categories for next year.

I'll let Till handle the origins of the term Mittenstringer, as he coined it. As far as I recall, it was a joke at the expense of Simmons...his futile efforts to grasp the basics of baseball stats reminded us of those kids back in public school who needed to have their mittens tied to their coats so that they wouldn't lose them. Or something like that.

Our archives are effed up right now. I can access a bunch of our old posts. Hopefully we will sort it out soon.

I'm going to go off the board here and nominate Mike Toth.

With a skillset that seems to have maxed out at the highschool A/V club level, I'm amazed that this man has a job, nevermind multiple opportunities to "share" his sports knowledge with the Toronto market (like suggesting Gretzky for Leafs GM or complaining that sports fans in Toronto want to talk about the Leafs - http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2008/01/10/toth_leafsnation/).

In 2007, Star Readers annointed him Toronto's Most Annoying Announcer. With CoxBloc's help, I'm hoping we can add MOY 2008 to his list of accomplishments.

Toth is a good choice. The radio guys are generally under-represented at Cox Bloc, and since Toth was dissapeared from the tube over at Sportsnet, we haven't really paid much attention to him.

However, if I'm ever hard up for content I know I can just head to sportsnet.ca and dig up a gem from Toth's column. Like the time he suggested that Gary Carter would be a better manager than John Gibbons because he recorded more RBI in his playing career.

I vote for Cherry. I'm really, really tired of his repetitive shtick, his getting weepy over non-hockey related stuff (soldier casualties, firemen, what have you) and his stupid feud with crosby.

He used to be an entertaining cranky old bastard, now he's just a crank.

My vote is for Rosie. She's just so terrible. The worst.

Wow, this is a tough one. I really think it has to come down to Cox or Berger.

On the one hand, Cox is awful pretty much every day, while Berger has long stretches of decent (if generally uninteresting) reporting.

Berger is also an actual reporter, who has to travel with the team, watch practice, go into the locker room, etc. Cox doesn't do any of that as far as anyone can tell. I'm not even sure he actually writes anything any more, or if he has an elaborate "mad-lib" style program that just spits out a Cox column after you enter a few keywords.

On the other hand, Berger's twin towers of "How can you care about sports when kids are dying?" and "You are all idiots and you're making me rich" are like the Montana-to-Rice of bad sportswriting.

Gah... I defer my vote for now. Will have to weigh this more.

Because he manages to sound like a guy whose mother was murdered by MLSE and her body parts violated by Leafs fans everywhere, I have to vote for Damien Cox.

Even though I wrote a guest column attacking Berger, I vote Damien Cox for 2008 MOY. I don't think it's that close.

The reasons are many:

* Consistency: Terrible nearly every day, on nearly every topic.

* Staggering unfairness: Selectively edited quotes and cherry-picked (or context-removed) stats/facts.

* Cowardice: Often disappears (or writes about tennis, Argos, or other weird nonsense) when the Leafs are doing well. Reappears with smug condescension after a couple of Leaf losses.

* Bad politics: The Leafs' glory days were reflected by their refusal to let Ali fight at MLG? Homophobic Tlusty slurs?

* Horrible reporting: Wrote columns that the Leafs were keeping JFJ and losing out on Burke mere hours before the exact opposite of what he predicted transpired.

The others are bad enough to be even odds to take the '09 crown. But Cox is the champ in my view.

berger gets my vote for the 2 or 3 articles he wrote when he stopped taking his meds and started hearing voices again. i still can't believe that shit made it to press (well, internet press anyway). cox will always have a special shit-stained place in my heart though. fucking prick.

and thumbs up on including grapes on the ballot. in the past i've let his many indiscretions slide since he's usually mildly entertaining (in a drunk/senile grandfather sort of way) and because he does occasionally make good observations about how the game is actually played. but this year he's lost it. unless Wilson took a crap on Rose's grave or something, his bitterness towards the Leafs is downright bizarre. don't even get me started on his obtuse stance on Sundingate.

This is a tough one, considering the field. So many worthy candidates. I've got to go with Cox, with an honorable mention to Berger, who really douched it up in 2008, and Toth, as MF37 pointed out.

Also, I think Donald S. Cherry deserves a MOY Lifetime Achievement Award for all the nonsense that has been coming out of his mouth for years. He's nothing if not consistently batshit crazy.

Varry,

You make a compelling case. Don't forget Cox's numerous flip-flops, such as the McCabe "can't call it a bad trade / what a bad trade" episode, as well as "The Leafs must get a top five pick / Fletcher is an idiot for trading into the top five".

I have to second Varry Galk's post and add my vote to the man for which this forum is named.

Did anybody happen to read a mail bag entry someone sent from Dallas Texas with the name Luanne Platter attached to it (King of the Hill)?
And he didn't even get the joke?
In fact, I think he's the joke for the reasons Varry illustrated above....

Working Class Howard for the win!
the fact that all you tried in vain to get him fired should at least guarantee him the MOY award. Cox can be bad, but at least hell admit some mistakes and acknowledge his readers from time to time. Berger is by far the Biggest Douche in the Universe. and the creepy mustache is the icing on the cake!

DGB: I'm also having a tough time choosing between Cox and WCH. Damien is consistent, but Howard's highs (or lows, if you prefer) reach peaks that Cox can't reach.

Cox and Berger are staring to pull away from the pack a bit. I was a bit surprised yesterday when Grapes shot out to an early lead.

Yerry: WCH is a good choice, but to be clear, Cox Bloc had no part in that petition to get him fired.

No Feschuk????

You can't vote for Toth...they said the vote is for journos...not pithy hacks who make their living as idiots (that said why is Grapes in this??)
Anyway...Cox has to be it this time around...the bumbling ineptness of his alleged writing makes the people that run things on Bay Street seem like they did well this year...

I didn't vote right away because I wanted to think about it a little. I will vote for Working Class Howard because anyone who is the beat reporter for the team and admits he doesn't watch all the games deserves the award.

I will always vote for Don "TOO MANY MEN ON THE ICE 1979" Cherry.

I am going to throw one in for Cox. I think it is guys like this that make me hate the leafs even more.

OK, after careful consideration I'm going Cox.

At the end of the day, I think Howard is trying too hard to be hated. It comes naturally for Cox.

Can we nominate a collective? Because, if we can, the good people at Sportsnet surely deserve some sort of distinction. Mike Toth's been mentioned a couple times, but what about Jim Lang? As far as I'm concerned he makes Toth look like Walter Cronkie. Plus (and this is personal bias, admittedly, but I feel it warrants a mention), choosing a UFC fighter as athlete of the year is just so...bushleague, for lack of a better word. Not to mention covering UFC in general--but again, this could just be bias speaking.

But ANYWAY, in keeping with established nominees, I can't see anyone but Cox for 2008. He makes me hate my own favourite team; that's a tough feat to accomplish (the Leafs are more than capable of doing it on their own), and the only way it can truly be celebrated is with the MOY award. Plus, as someone else mentioned, the "smug condencension" is worthy of acknowledgement in its own right. Berger et al. put in solid showings; I'm satisfied in the knowledge they'll be back with guns blazing this year. But there's only one Damien Cox. He's my guy.

There can be only one. And since Mike "Bad Touch" Boone still toils to soil coverage of nos glorieux, I'm putting my finger on TEH COX.

TEH COX.

Marty York has got to the worst sports reporter in the world. I'm going to give it to him, unless I'm wrong and he's not a columnist at all, just a conceptual art major from OCAD who's hijacked the Metro's servers and keeps Yorkie tied up in the basement. If this turns out to be true, you didn't hear it from me.

Let's see: in today's column he suggested that he's got inside information from "NBA sources" that the NBA is close to folding or something, and then cited more "NBA sources" that told him a trade that turned out to be nothing more than a blog comment should be happening later this week.

This is the trade: http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/83950-knicks-deny-three-team-trade-rumor

Cox for sure, mainly for the reasons Varry outlined.

Good to see Cherry making the list, though. Over the last few (10?) years, he's gotten less respected-coach-turning-a-practiced-eye-to-the-subtleties-of-the-game-(with-the-odd-fight-thrown-in-for-good-measure), and more right-wing-old-crazy-man. It's been sad to watch, really.

Must be Cox.

Howard I find virtually unreadable, but Cox is as close as a media reporter can come to actually being evil... He actually trades on getting facts wrong, on contradicting himself, and raising readers blood pressure.

There comes a point in the midst of an article where you realise - "Ooops, I'm reading Damian again."

Anyone who can make me nostalgic about Al Strachan deserves a special kind of recognition. MOY.