Writer, horse racing enthusiast and gambler Jay Cronley is probably best known for the film 'Let It Ride' or the highly underrated '90s comedy 'Quick Change,' but the man featured in the 2009 Horseplayer's Issue of Trot Magazine
has come out and stated that he has a bone to pick with the mainstream sports media.
Via his column on ESPN.com, Cronley has sounded off on the mainstream sports media's insistence on over-analysis of mundane, relatively non-news stories when there is a wealth of true-to-form stories springing up with regularity in the horse racing industry.
"Turn on the television. Switch over from the weird site on your computer. Pick up a newspaper," Cronley wrote. "Sports story judgment is horrific. And that's on a good day. On a national level, anchors and reporters often seem more interested in 'Komedy Klub' material than thoughtfulness."
Cronley also went on to say, "Alley rats caged and subjected to hours of sports talk radio would experience ill health and go insane, simply from the tone alone. And local sports -- talk about slaphappy. Local sports on TV gets about three minutes between the weather and a tear-squeezer closer news story."
But the point that Cronley is trying to get at in his column is that on a day where horse racing's biggest star, Zenyatta, was in action, and another top thoroughbred (Quality Road) was defeated by a talented upstart in New York State, mainstream sports media instead covered "dented fenders in a who-cares NASCAR race; golfers positioning themselves for the FedEx Cup, whatever that is; WNBA results; coverage of college football media days; and this universal quote, 'We can do it.'"
To read Cronley's ESPN.com column, click here.
To read the April, 2009 Trot Magazine feature on Cronley, click here.
(With files from ESPN.com)