Pistol Pete
I’m not sure I buy into that axiom about nice guys…
On that note, one of the nicest Kansas City Star guys I’ve ever known – Jim Fitzpatrick – fired both barrels of his sawed-off journalistic shotgun into the second nicest Star guy I ever worked with Pete Grathoff.
So yeah, even nice guys can be a bit cranky.
Still, I was more than a little surprised, given that both these guys are shoe-ins to land the poster child gig alongside the definition of the word “milquetoast.”
Not in a bad way, mind you. Cuz while neither of them would ever be described as “macho,” there’s nothing wrong with that.
And to my knowledge they probably had little more than incidental contact at the newspaper, given that most sports dudes come in far later in the day and were quarenteened in a part of the old headquarters far removed from the main newsroom where “Jimmy C” used to hang.
That said, who doesn’t like looking at a grisly car wreck…or a nerd pillow fight?
So it is that in a recent column, Fitzpatrick wondered aloud about who the dozen rich dudes were that choked out 100 grand each to play golf at the Kansas City Country Club with Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino. That Grathoff had reported on in the Star.
Fitzpatrick managed to flesh out three of ’em – Don Wagner, Alan Atterbury and Tom Devlin, but fell short of the mark in fingering the other nine.
Which didn’t stop Jimmy C from calling out Pistol Pete for being lazy and not serving up the nine names even thought Fitzpatrick couldn’t find ’em either.
“I said Pete Grathoff – who writes under the ‘For Pete’s Sake’ handle – is one of the laziest reporters I’ve ever seen,” Fitzpatrick wrote, adding, “Let me explain:
Jimmy C
“In April, (Grathoff) wrote a story about the Kansas City Royals’ supposedly lowering concession prices,” Fitzpatrick continued. “A couple of days later, I went to a game, visited several concession stands and could find no evidence of any price reductions; they were as outrageous, egregious and preposterous as ever.
“That led to this exchange of emails:
“Me to Pete: I published a blog post last night about what appears to be non-existing concession price reductions at Kauffman Stadium…I think a follow-up column is in order; if stadium management is playing games with the public, you have a responsibility to let KC Star readers know.
“And that was the last I ever heard of it,” Fitzpatrick writes. ” ‘Thank you for the heads up.’ In my Decline of Journalism course, I think I’ll ask Pete to be a guest speaker.”
That’s telling him!
Trouble is, aside from Grathoff’s self-penned LinkedIn bio, he’s never really been much of a force journalistically at the Star. In fact, missing in action on Grathoff’s resume – in other words, he left it out – is his role as mild-mannered copy editor – a dude whose job is largely to check spelling and punctuation errors in other reporter’s writings.
More recently though – in the wake of servere staff cutbacks – Pete’s taken to serving up sprightly sports tidbits…while apparently filling in elsewhere.
The bottom line being, Pete’s never really been thought much of as being a full time reporter or columnist…especially when in 2013 he got caught up in Star columnist Steve Penn’s lawsuit against the newspaper for being fired for plagiarizing press releases..
Here’s what I reported at the time:
“While potential witness Pete Grathoff is officially listed as a copy editor and page designer in the Star’s sports section, he clearly works as a reporter and columnist as well, penning an expanded calendar column dealing largely with – wait for it – press releases.
“That appears worrisome for the newspaper in that Penn was fired and offered up to public ridicule by the Star for appropriating the odd press release passage in his column.
“Just how worried is the Star about Penn likening Grathoff’s possible use of press releases to his? So much so its lawyers motioned to exclude Grathoff from the trial in part because he’s ‘not a reporter or columnist.’ ”
None of which prevented Grathoff from describing 0n LinkedIn that for his entire tenure at the Star he’s been a “Sports Writer.”
“I am a real-time sports reporter who writes about breaking news regarding Kansas City’s teams,” Grathoff begins. “I also have a blog that focuses on the lighter side of sports, including viral videos, off-the-field events and what players share on social media. For the past four years, I have been the most-read writer at KansasCity.com.”
Looks like wading through all those press releases finally paid off for Pete…far more so than it ultimately did for Penn.
What it did not do was earn nice guy Pete a pass on getting knocked around by nice guy Jimmy C.
Talk about inside baseball…err, I mean, golf.
I know a guy, actually play golf with him, that is a big deal in Royals Concessions – I asked him about the high prices and he says they have to do it, to stay competitive with other teams. He says, in New York (It’s been a couple of months since I had the conversation, so … I am hazy…) it’s like 20 bucks for a beer and 20 bucks for a hot dog.
Where does the money go?
He says, players.
I will ask him for details if you want. Gonna see him next week on the course.
Go ahead and ask him, Chuck…then be sure and report back to Jimmy C and Pistol Pete!
They will have to read it here, I am persona non grata in the rare air they breathe.
Steve Penn was a phony, race baiting plagiarist whose oeuvre compared favorably to Jenne Osterraceheiser and Lewis DoNoGood.
Unreadable, predictable, misanthropic slog, directed overtly and covertly at “Whitey”.
The last photo in your post is of Glenn Rice not Steve Penn.
Oops, that’s true…another dude who got in major trouble at the Star but somehow managed to hang onto his job!
There you go; Steve Pennis far better looking, better dresser, too!