Mark Fainaru-Wada is not the Third Man

November 19th, 2007 by Tuffy Posted in baseball, media, mlb |

… but he’s close.

Mark Fainaru-Wada joined forces with Lance Williams to break many of the steroid stories for the San Francisco Chronicle and then write “Game of Shadows”, the definitive tome of Bonds-bashing in our time.

A few days before Bonds was indicted, Fainaru-Wada (but not Williams) was hired away by ESPN to become their Morley Safer as they pretend to exercise the verb ‘journalism’ for awhile. Good for Mark; a lucrative paycheck is worth sharing a locker with Stephen A. Smith. (And I’m sure an ESPN gig is not a material benefit for accepting illegally obtained grand jury information.)

However, what happens when Mark Fainaru-Wada writes his first piece about the Bonds saga? He’s tag-teamed with T.J. Quinn.

At the Chronicle, it appeared to be the best example of team journalism since Woodward and Bernstein or perhaps that time the Hardy Boys decided to start a neighborhood newspaper and discovered what Old Man Hanson was doing with the local dogs that barked just a little too long each night. (Spoiler alert: Around the Horn.)

Now it’s just a little creepy. Is Mark a strict adherent to the buddy system? Is he the wheel man and always needs a shooter for the dirty work? Does T.J. Quinn have to carry Mark’s bags on the road? Or is this a sneaky way for Mark to halve his word count?