So here's the interview. And as one might imagine, the Sun-Times is having a lot of fun with this. Over at their Sports Pros(e) blog, Kevin Allen has uncovered Schollmeyer's Facebook page. Take a look:

Allen and I agree that this is our favorite portion of the interview:

MA: Describe Jay Mariotti the coworker.
JM: I'm the best teammate you'll ever have — if you're in this business for the right reasons. If you're a columnist who's lazy, boring, political, doesn't write the tough piece, you'll hate me. If you're a beat writer who courts the favor of the people you cover and knows more than you report, you'll hate me. If you're an editor who doesn't have vision and guts, you'll hate me. But if you care and have a soul, we'll get along great."

I don't know why this just occurred to me, but I suddenly realized that both Jay Mariotti and Dennis Miller are natives of Pittsburgh. Make of that what you will.

Local Writer Pens Love Letter To Former Sun-Times Columnist Jay Mariotti [Chicago Sun-Times]
Mariotti Unplugged [Michigan Avenue]

But what would transpire between these two bitter rivals in the aftermath should they run into each other somewhere in a non-work environment? You know, like, in a sauna.

This is not slash fiction:

“I was taking a sauna, which I do like once every ten years, and who walks in but Jay Mariotti. I swear to God. If God is my savior, if he is (he probably doesn’t want to save me, but) there he was. He almost freaked out. There were other people in the sauna. I probably shouldn’t even go on about this, but it was an hour ago. It was one hour ago, and he just started babbling.

I don’t think it’s fair for me...I’m telling you so much...it’s just surreal. I think if my eyes don’t deceive me, if he’d seen the Yeti or...Michael Myers sitting there, I don’t know, it would have been about the same. But you’d have to ask him that.

The first thing out of his mouth, ‘well, let’s just bury the hatchet.’ I had not said a word. Hatchets or anything – I didn’t have a hatchet in hand. Nothing.”

Telander didn't go on to say if this chance encounter resulted in an "Eastern Promises"-style throw-down or if the metaphorical hatchet was buried, but the surreality of this scenario even taking place trumps all possible outcomes. Well, maybe not the nude knife-fight one but still...

Rick Telander [On The DL]

• Our Long Civic Nightmare Is Over. It should come as no shock, given that the paper he works for is about two months away from a toe tag. At the time he signed his new three year contract extension (believed to be worth an absurd $6 million) in June, we joked that it was like Steve Young’s $40 million deal with the LA Express. Jay had better have gotten the money up front. He didn’t, but in the end, he left it all behind anyway. Who knows the real reason? It can’t really be that he sees the Internet as his future. Can it? [Desipio.com]

• Star Sports Columnist Mariotti Suddenly Quits 'Chicago Sun-Times' . The sudden resignation is the latest blow to the personality-driven tabloid. Its most famous writer, film critic Robert Ebert, has been disabled by health problems for the past three years, and its best-known political columnist, Robert Novak, has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. [Editor & Publisher]

• We Made Him More Famous. To honor the ongoing resurgence of hockey in Chicago, I’m going to call this one a sister-kisser. As a long-time supporter of this site’s mission, I would be remiss to not openly rejoice and celebrate the apparent removal of Jay Mariotti’s name from the Chicago sports landscape. After all, it was not Jay’s lack of professionalism, smug attitude, or annoyingly pervasive careerism that drove most Jay the Jokers to despise the man — it was the fact that his smarmy persona was endorsed and embraced by a well-known masthead entrusted to the city we hold dear to our hearts. But something feels wrong about stepping away from this once-hideous scene and going to have a cocktail or ten. To do so feels as if we would be following in the tepid footsteps of so many cabin-dwelling teens in horror movies, the ones who just knew that, after a brief scare, that noise was just a tree branch and not a hideous monster that was about to hack them all to death. Those kids should always grab the machete and check outside before going upstairs to get it on in the hot tub. But they never do. [Jay The Joke]

• Mariotti Fires Self; Blog Continues Existence Anyways. It's official, people. We finally got it done. Sort of. Not really. He's probably just taking some time off to write a shitty book and moving to Sports Illustrated or something. Anyways, check out that picture in the link: what the fuck is up with that lighting? Is he holding a flashlight against his chest (pointing up at his face) and telling ghost stories? [Fire Jay Mariotti]

• Mariotti Apparently Unaware That Thousands Of Newspapers Are In This "Web Site Business". After intense, thorough research by the investigative branch of the Hernia, we've come to learn these crusty, outdated newspapers that now former print columnist Jay Mariotti speaks of, also have accompanying Web sites, some of which resemble their own newspaper; same colors, same logo and amazingly, even the same writers. Wow. We'd like to personally thank Jay for resigning, otherwise we wouldn't be privy to such interesting, seemingly new information. [The Sports Hernia]

• Jay Mariott: Savvy?. Mariotti has somehow managed to parlay his column writing into some level of sports media celebrity status. So, for him, there’s not much risk in quitting the newspaper business now, despite not having a clear future. In the short run, he can continue to milk ESPN for appearance fees. In the long term, he’ll dupe some site into overpaying him for content as he avoids going down with the newspaper industry. [The Sporting Blog]

• But Who Will Tell Me How Bad Our Teams Suck?. Is today the greatest day in the history of the world? Why yes, yes it is. I'll miss you, Jay. Seriously. I know you may find this hard to believe, but the odds are if it hadn't been for reading you regularly in the Chicago Sun-Times growing up, I never would have gotten into writing about sports. You pissed me off enough that I felt the need to share my own opinion instead of just bitching about yours, so for that, I thank you. Good luck in whatever you do next. [Foul Balls]

The Chicago Tribune caught up with Mariotti after he'd sent his letter of resignation to get the skinny on why, after recently signing a lucrative 3-year extension with the Sun-Times, he decided to leave:

Just back from Beijing, where he covered the Olympics, Mariotti said in a phone interview that he decided to quit after it became clear while in China that sports journalism had become "entirely a Web site business. There were not many newspapers there." He added that most of the journalists covering the Games were "there writing for Web sites."

Mariotti, whose public battles with fellow staffers, team owners, managers, coaches and rival columnists are legendary, didn't disclose any specific plans except to say he will continue doing his regular stint on ESPN's "Around the Horn."

He said he "is talking with a lot of Web sites" and added that the future of his business "sadly is not in newspapers."

I'm flabbergasted. More on this later today, obviously, but for now, let's marinate in this new reality: Jay Mariotti... Quits...Newspapers dying..."Talking to web sites"...head exploding.

Jay Mariotti leaves the Sun-Times [Chicago Sun-Times]
Controversial columnist Jay Mariotti resigns from Chicago Sun-Times [Chicago Tribune]
Jay Mariotti resigns from his position at the Chicago Sun-Times [Awful Announcing]

The Chicago Sun-Times ran a front-page story today about the firing of Chicago State baseball coach Husain Mahmoud for some egregious resume fabricating, but was it their story? It appears the Sun Times' story ran a little late compared to the ones published on June 12th by Babes Love Baseball and College Baseball Blog.

The Sun-Times piece does not mention either of the blogs in the story — so where did they get their big scoop from?

Michael David Smith looked into the matter, politely e-mailing the writer of the Sun-Times' story, David Newbart, to find out if this man let these blogs do his dirty work for him. He says, "Of course not, you silly typist!":

I've been working on this story on and off since mid-May, well before your blog post. We got the tip from the alumnus (I'm assuming he's the same one that contacted you) containing references to wikipedia articles, which we had to independently verify. We did our own original research on the topic, including talking to the Cincinatti Reds, Major League baseball, experts around the country who maintain records of the football leagues he mentioned, sources at the university he attended and others with the summer baseball leagues he mentioned. As it turned out, he did play for one of the teams he claimed, but after it had left the Continental Football League.

For a variety of reasons, we chose not to publish this sooner. Part of the reason for the delay was due to the fact that we didn't want to run the story without speaking to him or getting a statement from the school.

That seems reasonable. But it would also appear that the during some of his research — which included fact-checking Wikipedia articles — that a simple Google search using "Husain Mahmoud" and "Chicago State baseball" would've yielded the results of the two blog posts. In the Times' piece Mahmoud explains his oversights this way: "It's been 30-some years ago since most of this stuff,'' said Mahmoud, formerly known as Hallie Buckner. "I may not have been exactly correct on some of the leagues and different things like that because it's been so long ago.''

Maybe David Newbart suffered this same temporary amnesia? It appears to be contagious in the Chicago area.

Sun-Times Scoop Broken Weeks Ago By Babes Love Baseball, College Baseball Blog [AOL Fanhouse]
CSU's Baseball Coach's Pants Are On Fire [Babes Love Baseball]

The Chicago Sun-Times announced earlier today that Katie Hamilton, a 22-year-old college student, won its "Zell No" video contest. The newspaper says her entry "chastises [Tribune CEO Sam] Zell for pondering the sale of Wrigley Field's naming rights." What the paper didn't seem to realize was that Hamilton is an intern at the Chicago Tribune. Yes, that Tribune. The one that Zell owns.

The Tribune was doing quite a bit of crowing Wednesday night over their shenanigans, forgetting that they are still owned by Zell, who could convert the entire operation into a meat processing plant on the slightest whim.

Anyway, below is a submission I liked better. And I'm sure it would have won if the youngest kid's guitar had been plugged in.

Trib Takes Sun Times' Prize [Chicago Tribune]
Chicago Tribune Claims Win In Chicago Sun-Times Video Contest [USA Today]