August freakouts: Steven Slater gives the stage to K-Rod
Today's tabloids, August 12, 2010.
9:51 am Aug. 12, 20102
Each day, the New York tabloids vie to sell readers at the newsstands on outrageous headlines, dramatic photography, and, occasionally, great reporting. Who is today's winner?
The New York Post: Wow, that's a lot of sports on the front of the Post this morning. The picture they've chosen for the wood this morning shows Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez celebrating on the field, as he sometimes does. But he didn't actually pitch last night, let alone celebrate. K-Rod, as he's known, has been charged with assault in the third degree and will be at Queens criminal court later today after a fight with his father-in-law in the family lounge at Citifield last night after the game sent the older man to Flushing Hospital with bruises and a cut on his face.
It would be just be another moment in the personal lives of the star players—K-Rod is working through a three-year, $39 million contract—but the Post makes a sports story out of it too: Before the fight he lashed out at reporters who asked if he were angry that he was called in from the bullpen in the eighth inning in a bases-loaded scenario. He wasn't happy with the question. (The Mets lost to the Rockies 6-2.) Nevertheless, the picture is the perfect one: He looks happy, or maybe angry, but mostly crazy—it's the kind of look that could be exertion, or a sort-of on-field mania. Is it possible that composure on and off the field are the flipsides of each other? The picture brings all that up, and it's pretty much perfect. The text now doesn't have a lot of work to do: "METS STAR BUSTED: K-Rod 'attacks' wife's dad at Citi Field."
Two boxes on the left tout lesser stories inside: Isiah Thomas has been told by the NBA that he can't maintain a consulting gig with the Knicks and coach a college team at the same time; and some Post reporter found a "bum" that takes credit cards. (Caveat emptor, guilty liberals!)
Daily News: What the Post does with a picture, the News attempts with text: "K-ROD MELTS DOWN" reads the very big, very black type. "Busted for hitting dad-in-law after tough Mets loss." There's an anodyne pitching snap of K-Rod in the lower left. We've said before that a front page can work when the Big Picture and the Big Text don't belong to the same piece, and that may have been the idea behind a skyscraper-tall box along the left side of the page featuring Jennifer Lopez and her impressive cleavage. The news is that it is not true that she is going to be a judge on "American Idol." Yawn. "FLY GUY'S SLOW BURN" is a bid for a Day 3 Steven Slater story, but it took me so long to figure it out that I can't imagine it'll figure in anyone's decision about which paper to pick up.
Observations: As sports stories go, the K-Rod bust is big enough for the front, and certainly has some crossover appeal to people who normally bin the paper when they get to the middle instead of flipping over and reading sports. It's just that you know it's August when there is so little to fight for space on the front. Couldn't the tabloids have had fun selling their Charlie Rangel Birthday Bash coverage on the front? Also the worm is turning on Steven Slater, and both papers have plenty of coverage: He was the diva, maybe! And he'd been a jerk earlier in the flight, passing out snacks to only half the passengers! Whatever they might have done, we're left to judge them on what they did.
The sub-touts are a wash, and this battle is about cover treatment of the K-Rod story. The text is anodyne in both except for the fact that the type is so huge on the News. It's not enough to compete with the Post photo.
Winner: The New York Post.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one baffled by the "slow burn" teaser -- I asked, who is this "fly guy," and is he a serial killer of some sort? I also could be wrong, but the inside hed on the News' K-Rod story was K-ROD GOES KRAZY, which to me sells it much more as a beat down rather than a game-losing melt down on the mound or something.
And, I think they are the only ones with the pic of the father in law getting loaded in the ambulance and his busted-up face! Waste.
The K-Rod headlines did not utilize the news well. Pitchers have meltdowns (on the mound, though) or get busted (to the bench with injuries). Insert the action. Let us know its bigger than the game.
K-ROD K.O.'s FATHER-IN-LAW
BALLPARK BRAWLER
FROM FASTBALLS TO FISTS etc etc etc
Post does marginally better than the NYDN on this one.