Bill Conlin, Philadelphia Daily News columnist, surf enthusiast, and, well, Deadspin contributor, has been suspended from his television stint on Philly Comcast's Daily News Live show (pretty much Philly's version of ESPN) pending further review, after he made some comments on air that some viewers found "insensitive."

Here's the rundown, per NBC10 news:

Conlin was reacting to someone named Raul from Vineland, N.J., who sent in an e-mail commenting on the Philadelphia Eagles.

Regarding a question posed to coach Andy Reid on Tuesday about quarterback Donovan McNabb's shoulder injury, the question from Raul read aloud by the host was: "Are you serious? It was a stupid question. It's tendonitis. Way to go Philly media. You guys do a great job over-analyzing everything."

"Amazing that guy would leave the blueberry harvest to send that off," Conlin said a short time later.

Now, the question: Was Conlin making a statement about Vineland, N.J. residents, or was he making a racial implication about the author of the e-mail ("Raul"), characterizing him as a migrant worker? Tough call. It's probably safe to say that if the person who wrote the email was named "Jack" or "Barry" or "Voldemort," Conlin might have made a different quip.

Right now, Conlin is suspended from the show, pending further investigation by DNL into the remark, but Conlin has already came out and flatly denied any racial connotations connected to the comment.

Remember, Conlin was already given a wrist slap by his employers at the Daily News after his e-mail flame-war with Crashburn Alley's Bill Baer last November, after Conlin wrote to him "The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler's time on earth-I'm sure he would have eliminated all bloggers."

So, here we are again. Maybe Conlin should consider applying for the Deadspin editorship? We absolutely hate blueberry harvesters.

Daily News Columnist's Remark Stirs Controversy [NBC 10]
Bill Conlin Offends More People, Gets Suspended From DNL [The Fightins]

Every weekday until the start of the season, a different writer will preview his/her team. We asked a gaggle of writers, from the Web, from print, from books, to tell us, in as many or as little words as they need, Where Their Team Stands. This is not meant to be factual, or dispassionate, or even logical: We just asked them to riff on why they love their team so much, or what their team means to them, or whatever.

Today: The Philadelphia Phillies. Your author is A.J. Daulerio and ... Bill Conlin.

A.J. Daulerio will be the senior writer at Deadspin starting March 31. Bill Conlin covers the Phillies for the Philadelphia Daily News. Their words are after the jump.

For Christmas this year, I received that shirt you see in the right hand corner. It was a gift from my well-intentioned fiancée, who decided that she'd invest in something sports-oriented. It is a thoughtful gift, isn't it? It is very well-made and its colors suggest the Phillies baby blues of the 70's, replete with red and white racing stripes on the arms. And the number: 22. Why, that's the number worn by Jay Loviglio in 1980. Then it was Bobby Dernier's number for a while. Now? It's mine. I'm sure my first reaction when I unwrapped the shirt was the way a parent reacts when their toddler gives them heartfelt, but completely useless presents like a shoe box full of grass or a broach made of bowtie pasta. My second reaction was pure bewilderment — when had I expressed my desire to start dressing like Jermaine Dupri?

Look, I'm a Phillies fan, but I've never been much of personalized jersey guy (except in unique circumstances, of course). It's always bothered me that Philadelphia sports fans have this odd tendency to buy team jerseys, then put their own surnames on the back. You can get away with this if you're a famous singer or a politician, but not a Jewish mortgage broker from Bryn Mawr. (Honestly, you're not helping the cause if you take the Taxi Crab to Broad and Pattison then show up sporting a Flyers jersey with the "Schwartzenstein" on the back.)

And this isn't even a jersey. It's a button-down shirt that looks like a jersey. This is just awful.

But I wore this shirt-jersey (shirsey) to a New Year's party this past year, fully expecting to get mercilessly ridiculed (or, actually, I was hopeful she would). But each time I forced people to comment on the shirt, even with a generous amount of ironic build-up, the reaction was oddly ... positive.

"Seriously? Are you looking at this thing? Do you honestly think anyone can pull this off if they're not a member of Boyz II Men?"

"It's kind of awesome, actually."

Granted, some of these guests were full-blown ape-fisted Phillies fans and by that point this was a few drinks into New Year's Eve, but ... come on. Not even a snicker?

The reason this wasn't as big a joke? The Phillies were winners. They won the N.L. East. Remember? In dramatic, holy shitballs-fashion. So this New Jack shirsey was tolerable because it still served as a reminder of last year's breathtaking fall.

And in order to look forward to this season, you have to look back. For many Phillies fans, the first time they heard a Harry Kalas homerun call hooks them. The first looong drive walk-off sticks to your insides for the rest of your life. But when you start to pick up the paper and read about the Phillies the first guy to leave that sort of mark was ... Bill Conlin.

He's the writer that pulled you into the wondrous haze of Phillies baseball. Each of his columns reeked of hot dogs and the late night post-game boozefest at the local crap tavern. He was there; he was part of it. Even if he wasn't actually cooze-chasing with the players anymore, he still wrote like he did. At least you know he did at one point. It made the team more likable, more human — this was your team. He ripped the guys that needed it and doled out compliments only in small doses, because as poetic as his baseball beat could be, he absolutely wasn't soft. When you're young and first gaining an appreciation for both baseball and writing, Conlin was mesmerizing. He even made the ugliest of Phillies squads amusing. (Did Conlin just compare John Felske's managerial style to some failed WW I general?) So at the start of what would most likely be another memorable Phillies season, it seemed only fitting to ask him if he'd help out. But would he?

That's the thing about Conlin: even though he can be the grouchiest son of a bitch at times, the man's not going to turn his back on a Phillies fan. Even a lowly pamphleteer.

He agreed to participate and share his thoughts on the upcoming season ... and send along pictures of himself surfing.

AJD: So, is this Mets/Phillies rivalry the best one you've ever seen?

CONLIN: 1975-83 Phillies vs. Pirates was intense, combative and needed no help from the media. Those Pirates of "Fam-i-lee" fame played with "attitude" before the term became a buzzword. Mix a squad heavy with talented blacks and Latinos, add a little coke, sprinkle liberally with greenies, turn up the volume on the clubhouse sound system, put a permissive players manager like Chuck Tanner in charge and step back and watch the line drives fly. You know it was intense when a laid back guy like Mike Schmidt charged the mound and broke a knuckle on the bony head of Bruce "The Assassin" Kison. Phils were in awe of the Big Red Machine, who swept them in '76 and went downhill after they lost Pete Rose and their pitching collapsed. Once the Pirates were moved out of the East, the Mets should have become the natural rivalry, but until the Phillies got into their current almost-good rut, it seemed that whenever they were decent, the Mets were wretched and visa versa. Now it appears destined to become the real deal.

AJD: Does having a woman like Anna Benson (presumably) in this city cause a distraction in the clubhouse? Has there ever been a player on the Phillies who had an equally (potentially) distracting wife or girlfriend?

CONLIN: I don't understand how a trophy wife would cause clubhouse problems unless she insists on sharing Benson's locker. It becomes a problem if the other wives bitch about her at home. It becomes a real problem if she pullls a Mary Jane Johnstone and the club lets her fly charters with Kris. Mary Jane flew every charter with Jay, accompanied by two tiny toy poodles she carried in her handbag and her presence in the road hotels really put the club's large number of chasers in deep stealth mode.

(Ed. Note. Mary Jane Johnstone was wife of Phillies former outfielder Jay Johnstone. Probably best known for his rain delay antics and his appearance as the first batter called out on strikes by Lt. Frank Drebin in "The Naked Gun.")

AJD: Last year, Inquirer writer Sam Carchidi almost got the crap kicked out of him by Brett Myers? Did you ever come to blows with any of the players?

CONLIN: When I went on the beat in 1966, I was 32 years old and was still an active surfer, 6-1 and about 225. Ashburn once wrote in his Bulletin column that I was stronger than a lot of guys on the ballclub. I was never physically threatened by any player, although traveling sec Eddie Ferenz and I went a few no-decision rounds one night in Montreal during a Molson's induced argument. Ferenz once cold-cocked reliever Dick Selma, knocking him onto the baggage carousel in Newark Airport. In 1986 I was inducted into the Ocean Rowing Hall of Fame. These photos were taken around 1970:

AJD: Last year I talked about how Burrell's engagement might impact his play and brought up his alleged lady-killer past. Out of the guy's you've covered, which Phillies player got the most ass?

CONLIN: Bo Belinsky without a close second. How can you match a stable that included Ann-Margret, Connie Stevens, Tina Louise, and Mamie Van Doren, And then the guy marries (and divorces) Playmate of the Year Jo Collins, then tree heiress Janie Weyerhaeuser. On a trip to LA in 1966, I took him surfing at a famous Orange County break called Cotton's Point (Nixon later bought the Henry Cotton Estate the point was named after and turned it into the Western White House). To show his gratitude, Bo took me clubbing in Hollywood after the game. The details are classified. Here is Bo from that day. He was an ungainly but fearless surfer:

(Ed. Note: Bo Belinsky!)

AJD: Oh, what do you think of that shirt?

CONLIN: Nice enough to get you beat up at Shea...

The most famous one, already, is this one:

The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler's time on earth-I'm sure he would have eliminated all bloggers. In Colonial times, bloggers were called "Pamphleteers." They hung on street corners handing them out to passersby. Now, they hang out on electronic street corners, hoping somebody mouses on to their pretentious sites. Different medium, same MO. Shakespeare accidentally summed up the genre best with these words from a MacBeth soliloquy: ". . .a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. . ."

Charming! (And, according to Mr. Daulerio over at Philly Mag, something that might get him in some serious trouble.)

But here's another good one: Someone sent Conlin an email implying that he had "lost his fastball." Here was his response:

My fastball has slipped so much that when I attempted to accept the buyout on the table in 2002 (I was already 68), the editors took me to lunch and asked what it would take for me to keep working. I replied one less column a week and reduced travel. At a second meeting, they gave me a two column a week schedule, sharply reduced travel and a mandate to write mostly commentary. They also gave me a generous signing bonus, a quarterly performance bonus and matched the lump sum that would have accompanied the buyout package. They also continued the subsidy of my Florida condo that has been paying the taxes and monthly maintenance since 1987. By law, they had to begin paying me my full pension in 2004, so at age 73 I'm making the top salary at the paper plus collecting the biggest monthly pension check ever paid out. With the social security check my wife and I receive, I'm making ballplayer money for two columns a week. I suppose the fact that those two columns are consistently the most read pieces in EITHER paper might play a role in my good fortune. If that's what accrues from a lost fastball, I suggest you try taking a little off yours. . .I was forced to sell the condo in Cabarete, Dominican Republic, because we just didn't get there enough.

And then he ... ATTACHED PHOTOS OF THE CONDO!

You know ... it's pretty amazing newspapers are having so much trouble staying relevant.

The Conlin business has been circulating so much in the last few days that it's close to hitting the critical mass of actual protests; referencing Hitler will do that. Part of us feels bad for Bill; the man is 73 years old and probably thinks the emails are the equivalent of screaming at your computer. It seems extreme to severely punish (or even fire) the man for not quite understanding how the Web works; he's 73, for crying out loud. But then we read that "with the social security check my wife and I receive, I'm making ballplayer money for two columns a week" line ... and we feel less sympathetic. Let's see how it all turns out.

Bill Conlin Probably Just Shouldn't Use Email At All [Deadspin]

Today's fun entry: The Philadelphia Daily News' Bill Conlin, who wrote a ridiculous column that mocked sabermatricians, a column that was amusingly taken apart Fire Joe Morgan. Crashburn Alley emailed Conlin, rather gently, all things considered, and his response was somewhat less measured.

Know what, pal? Bash this. . .Tell your bloggers, my career against theirs ...

After another followup email, which wasn't particularly mean either (and written by a Phillies fan who explicitly revealed himself as such), Conlin kept firing.

Don't you need to contact the 30 electors-including the two Mets beat writers-who failed to give write a single first place vote instead of a commentator who does not vote for the awards. You're a Mets fan and you had your little bubble of arrogance and smugness burst. Your team choked big time, an epic gagaroo. At least the 1964 Phillies had an excuse-they were probably no more than the Cardinals, Reds, Braves, Dodgers and Giants that year. One question: When a Mets team chokes in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a gagging sound? Next time bring more to the table than wishful fan numbers that bear no semblance to reality. I wonder how it feels to be the Phillies bitch

As bewildered as we might be reading a major metropolitan columnist act like a crazed message boarder, we can't get over the first "my career against theirs" comment. Well, Bill, since most bloggers don't do this full time, and work from passion and analytical thought that you haven't had in decades, many of them are actually quite successful, coming from professions as diverse as law, medicine and politics. You write a column nobody reads for a glorified suburban paper from a perspective beamed straight in from 1963. So Bill: We'd be real careful about that whole career comparison.

Conlin's Losing Numbers [Crashburn Alley]

Bill Conlin Archive [Philly.com]
Conlin And Howard [Mike's Rants]
Donovan McNabb [Deadspin]

Apparently Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin didn't get the memo; the first line of his column today: "For the second straight week, Donovan McNabb played like a white quarterback." Umm. He goes on to try to pretend that he's not playing in the exact same stereotypes he's allegedly debunking, but he fails, talking about McNabb's "pocket presence" and his success with the West Coast Offense. We couldn't help but notice that no one said Redskins QB Mark Brunell played "like a black quarterback" last night, even though he was scrambling for first downs late.

By the way, Conlin also perpetuates the mythical story that Doug Williams was asked during Super Bowl XXII, "How long have you been a black quarterback?" For the LAST FREAKING TIME: This Is Not True.

McNabb Passing Critical Tests [Philly.com]
Urban Legends: Doug Williams [Snopes]