Mark Whicker of the 'OC Register' Pens Sports Column Featuring Jaycee Dugard
Mark Whicker, sports columnist for the OC Register, probably wishes he could delete Monday's column now. (ocregister.com)Mark Whicker has been a sports columnist for the OC Register for years, but we're wondering how much long that may last. You see, Mark Whicker published a column this Monday, September 7, 2009, that looks at the last 18 years of sports highlights and oddities. Which is fine, and a totally normal thing for a sports column to be about.
But Whicker decided to use the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard as the lens to view the past eighteen years, and things just get weird, sad, and a little offensive.
Whicker begins his column:
It doesn't sound as if Jaycee Dugard got to see a sports page.
Box scores were not available to her from June 10, 1991 until Aug. 31 of this year.
She never saw a highlight. Never got to the ballpark for Beach Towel Night. Probably hasn't high-fived in a while.
She was not allowed to spike a volleyball. Or pitch a softball. Or smack a forehand down the line. Or run in a 5-footer for double bogey.
Now, that's deprivation. It goes on to list some of the wackier and more memorable moments in sports, including Barry Bonds breaking the home run record, John McEnroe becoming a television analyst, and the Angels winning a World Series. The column ends with this amazing kicker: "And Ballplayers, who always invent the slang no matter what ESPN would have you believe, came up with an expression for a home run that you might appreciate. Congratulations, Jaycee. You left the yard."
Commenters at the OC Register have quickly let their displeasure be known, demanding a public apology from Whicker.
Commenter briangilespopsup leaves this underneath Whicker's article : "I don't know if I've ever read anything that deserved a public apology more than this. To use a woman's traumatic, terrifying experience as the premise for an irrelevant post about sports is disgusting. I can't imagine if you had spent two seconds contemplating what she actually went through that you'd have even considered writing this.
Another commenter, bill45, quips , "Here's another thing that happened while she was imprisoned in that hellhole. Sportswriting in this country went down the tubes."
UPDATE: Whicker was interviewed by Mark David Smith over at fanhouse.com, where Whicker says he was "surprised" by the reaction to his piece. In an e-mail response, Whicker writes, "Obviously I mis-read the emotional component of this story because the reaction really has been quite extreme. I think the intent of the column was still valid. I could have changed some ways of expressing it to make it more palatable, I suppose."
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