42 replies to this topic

[CoolPapaBellhorn]

Deadspin has it now, but they cite a forthcoming Philadelphia Inquirer piece detailing the allegations.

Quote

The Philadelphia Inquirer's top investigative reporter, Nancy Phillips, has written a story containing what we're told are allegations of child molestation against sportswriter Bill Conlin, a longtime columnist at the rival Daily News. Conlin resigned just moments ago, according to a source at the Daily News.

[bosockboy]

Jesus it never ends.....

[RingoOSU]

Guess they'll have to rename it the J G Taylor Spank award.

[Average Reds]

Could not happen to a nicer guy.

[HomeBrew1901]

bosockboy, on 20 December 2011 - 02:12 PM, said:

Jesus it never ends.....

Tell me about it, at least this stuff is getting reported now and he won't be able to do it again, and hopefully this causes more of the abused to come forward and report it.

[SocrManiac]

The rash of sports-related molestation charges coming out is reminiscent of the Catholic Church's dark times about ten years ago. Just unreal.

[StuckOnYouk]

I'd be curious to know if he wrote any articles about sandusky and if so, what was his take. I would assume every sports columnist has written something about it, no?

[Zedia]

StuckOnYouk, on 20 December 2011 - 03:11 PM, said:

I'd be curious to know if he wrote any articles about sandusky and if so, what was his take. I would assume every sports columnist has written something about it, no?

Just happened to see this via twitter.

Edited by Zedia, 20 December 2011 - 03:21 PM.

[bosockboy]

Wonder if there were ever any batboys involved here? Hall Of Fame expulsion?

[Vinho Tinto]

Good Lord!

I only remember him as a regular on Dick Schaap's Sports Reporters

[amfox1]

Here's the Philly Inquirer story:

http://www.philly.co...s_children.html

Quote

Three women and a man say they were molested as children by Bill Conlin, a Hall of Fame baseball writer and Philadelphia Daily News columnist.

In vivid accounts, the four say Conlin groped and fondled them, and touched their genitals, in assaults in the 1970s, when they were from ages 7 to 12.

[PortageeExpress]

The story is up now.

The lack of action by the kids' parents (after learning of the abuse) is mind-boggling:

Quote

She told her son not to tell his father - "his father had a terrible temper," she said - and forbade him to return to the Conlin home.

But she continued to allow her daughter Karen to spend time with Conlin's younger son, Peter. "I thought he was just interested in boys," she said of Conlin.

[Remagellan]

PortageeExpress, on 20 December 2011 - 04:47 PM, said:

The story is up now.

The lack of action by the kids' parents (after learning of the abuse) is mind-boggling:

It was a different time back then. The parents undoubtedly wanted to spare their kids from having to appear in court to accuse him and make their "shame" public, and probably thought that if you sternly warn someone like Conlin to stop, that would be enough to make them stop. Unfortunately that sort of innocence is part of the reason why we now know that these monsters will continue to indulge their sick desires if not locked up.

[Average Reds]

The story is quite remarkable, in the sense that the "kids" all seem to have reported it at the time and no one did anything about it except to try to keep Conlin away from the victims.

The most amazing thing to me is what happened when one of the victims - Kelley Blanchet, who is now a prosecutor in New Jersey and is also Conlin's niece - decided to attend the funeral of her aunt (Conlin's wife Irma.)

Quote

But when Conlin's wife, Irma, died in 2009, Blanchet decided to attend the funeral. Conlin gave the eulogy and made reference to the couple's grandchildren. Blanchet, who did not know her uncle had grandchildren, said she began to worry about the children's safety, and decided to tell some of her relatives what her uncle had done to her.

She said she told a female relative, who in turn confided that Conlin had abused her for years when she was a child. The relative, she said, told her that this led to a long estrangement that ended only after he wrote her a 10-page letter of apology.

After this incident, Blanchet decided that she and others could no longer stay quiet, so they went to prosecutors in Gloucester County and gave sworn statements. The prosecutors apparently managed to uncover more victims, but none were within the statute of limitations. After the Penn State case broke, the group apparently decided to bring the story to the press.

The entire thing is a bit surreal.

Edited by Average Reds, 20 December 2011 - 06:38 PM.

[nattysez]

It's hard not to read his Sandusky article as an end-of-life victory lap -- "I know first-hand that while everyone talks a big game, when it comes time to tell the cops about predators, people wimp out."

What a sociopath.

[Andy Merchant]

Remagellan, on 20 December 2011 - 04:58 PM, said:

It was a different time back then. The parents undoubtedly wanted to spare their kids from having to appear in court to accuse him and make their "shame" public

I agree 100%. A similar incident happened to a few members of my junior high basketball team in the early 1980's. The perpetrator was allowed to walk away scott-free without the police being involved when he should have had a nice stay behind bars. The worst part was that this happened right under my nose and I had no idea that it was going on. I was just a kid, but it never occurred to me back then while adult hindsight has shown me that a few warning signs were there.

[Van Everyman]

Statement from the Baseball Writers Association of America -- specifically, the Department of We Really Don't Get It:

Quote

Statement on Bill Conlin, winner of the 2011 J.G. Taylor Spink Award:

“Bill Conlin has been a member in good standing of the BBWAA since 1966. The allegations have no bearing on his winning the 2011 J.G. Taylor Spink Award, which was in recognition of his notable career as a baseball writer.”

-Jack O’Connell, BBWAA secretary/treasurer
Dec. 20, 2011

Link

[Rough Carrigan]

Conlin always came across on tv like the perfect bully, just civilizing himself enough to be acceptable in whatever forum it was. You couldn't help but imagine that in another circumstance, with no one or no likely repercussion to keep him in check that he'd be a complete and total asshole. And so he was.

[Rough Carrigan]

nattysez, on 20 December 2011 - 08:29 PM, said:

It's hard not to read his Sandusky article as an end-of-life victory lap -- "I know first-hand that while everyone talks a big game, when it comes time to tell the cops about predators, people wimp out."

What a sociopath.

That really is startling phrasing given what now appears to be true.

It somehow reminds me of the 1st or second season of Saturday Night Live where Belushi appeared in a fake commercial about a Rape Hotline "Because after a man's committed a rape . . and feels bad about it, a man might need to talk to someone." Conlin probably didn't realize it was a joke and wrote down the number.

The brazenness of his practically inviting attention with "I know first-hand . . " is amazing.

[Mr Jums]

nattysez, on 20 December 2011 - 08:29 PM, said:

It's hard not to read his Sandusky article as an end-of-life victory lap -- "I know first-hand that while everyone talks a big game, when it comes time to tell the cops about predators, people wimp out."

What a sociopath.

Rough Carrigan, on 20 December 2011 - 10:53 PM, said:

That really is startling phrasing given what now appears to be true.

It somehow reminds me of the 1st or second season of Saturday Night Live where Belushi appeared in a fake commercial about a Rape Hotline "Because after a man's committed a rape . . and feels bad about it, a man might need to talk to someone." Conlin probably didn't realize it was a joke and wrote down the number.

The brazenness of his practically inviting attention with "I know first-hand . . " is amazing.

It seems to me that you are reading what natty said, the "I know first-hand..." as if it were a direct quotation from Conlin. Unless I missed it in the article (or I'm misinterpreting your post Rough) he did not actually say that. Natty was just saying that Conlin's description of the bystander effect in the Kitty Genovese case reads as if he were saying that.

[PBDWake]

Van Everyman, on 20 December 2011 - 10:08 PM, said:

Statement from the Baseball Writers Association of America -- specifically, the Department of We Really Don't Get It:




Link

And yet, we'll see the morality clause invoked to keep people who may have used steroids out of the Hall of Fame.

[twibnotes]

Perhaps Conlin and Sandusky can share a cell someday and do mock interviews.

[Judge Mental13]

I hope Sandusky and Conlin are not cellmates, I hope that their cellmates are extremely large gentlemen who have a fetish for older fellas.

[RingoOSU]

Van Everyman, on 20 December 2011 - 10:08 PM, said:

Statement from the Baseball Writers Association of America -- specifically, the Department of We Really Don't Get It:




Link

Fuck the BBWAA, and the hall of fame. So here's where we stand. Gambling.. NO BANNED FOR LIFE. Child molestation? Nothing to do with baseball, we're good.

[B H Kim]

Unfortunately, the statute of limitations has long since passed on Conlin's crimes, so he won't be spending time in any cell.

[Nuf Ced]

B H Kim, on 21 December 2011 - 09:01 AM, said:

Unfortunately, the statute of limitations has long since passed on Conlin's crimes, so he won't be spending time in any cell.

Unless newer allegations are uncovered, he will be pilloried in the court of public opinion and made a social pariah. Just have to hope that's enough for people to keep defenseless children away from him.

[terrynever]

Rough Carrigan, on 20 December 2011 - 10:47 PM, said:

Conlin always came across on tv like the perfect bully, just civilizing himself enough to be acceptable in whatever forum it was. You couldn't help but imagine that in another circumstance, with no one or no likely repercussion to keep him in check that he'd be a complete and total asshole. And so he was.

I covered Penn State football with Conlin during the 1970s. He was a perfectly normal guy, sort of the George Kimball of Philly, only with more writing talent. We were together on New Year's Eve in New Orleans when Clemente's plane went down and his sadness was palpable. I considered him a friend. So once again, just like with Paterno and Penn State, people you thought you knew, you really didn't.

[nattysez]

Rough Carrigan said:

1324439620[/url]' post='3903414']
That really is startling phrasing given what now appears to be true.

It somehow reminds me of the 1st or second season of Saturday Night Live where Belushi appeared in a fake commercial about a Rape Hotline "Because after a man's committed a rape . . and feels bad about it, a man might need to talk to someone." Conlin probably didn't realize it was a joke and wrote down the number.

The brazenness of his practically inviting attention with "I know first-hand . . " is amazing.

Sorry Rough - I was paraphrasing Conlin. He didn't say exactly what I wrote. I should've been more clear.

[Old Fart Tree]

Well, fuck that guy. It's kind of sad how many people are turning out to be total shitheads these days.

[terrynever]

Conlin has been portrayed as a verbal bully by some people since the news broke. Truth is, he sometimes paid for what he wrote. Back in the late 1960s after mocking the Phillies in print, Bill got on an elevator during a road trip. Three Phillies got on at the next floor and by the time the elevator reached the lobby, Conlin was laying in the corner, having been pounded on by the angry players. To his credit, he took it as part of the job. You write bad stuff about players, sometimes you pay the price. If athletes did that today, they'd be arrested and the story would be all over the Internet.

[Rough Carrigan]

Wasn't there some writer who worked in Philly for a year or two who said that Conlin and a couple other of the long time writers there acted like a junior high school clique on steroids trying to make the other guy write things the way they did?

[PortageeExpress]

terrynever, on 21 December 2011 - 10:36 AM, said:

Conlin has been portrayed as a verbal bully by some people since the news broke. Truth is, he sometimes paid for what he wrote. Back in the late 1960s after mocking the Phillies in print, Bill got on an elevator during a road trip. Three Phillies got on at the next floor and by the time the elevator reached the lobby, Conlin was laying in the corner, having been pounded on by the angry players. To his credit, he took it as part of the job. You write bad stuff about players, sometimes you pay the price. If athletes did that today, they'd be arrested and the story would be all over the Internet.

Do you have a source for this?

[terrynever]

PortageeExpress, on 21 December 2011 - 10:55 AM, said:

Do you have a source for this?

Yeah, a good one. Bill Conlin. He used to tell the story on himself to much guffaws. He got beat up by a Penn State assistant athletic director once, too. That might have been a one-punch affair, if memory serves.

As for Rough's inquiry, I have no real evidence, not having worked in Philly in 30 years. (I actually worked in the suburbs.) A sports writer from my Pawtucket paper did eventually become a Philly baseball writer. He found Conlin to be gruff on the outside but eventually my friend was accepted by the old-timer. Conlin stayed way too late at the dance, writing until he was 77. His writings for the past decade were way too fixated on the old days, and he made himself look silly by arguing against sabremetrics, saying he preferred to believe what he saw with his own two eyes.

Edited by terrynever, 21 December 2011 - 11:16 AM.

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

TN, did it ever occur to you he was lying/exaggerating the story to enhance his own perceived toughness? I would have trouble believing a single word out of his mouth considering he's been covering up his own misdeeds for years.

Conlin's writing that I've seen was beyond awful, his TV appearances were reminiscent of Skip Bayless and he appeared to revel in his own ignorance and bullying. Like Mariotti getting arrested for domestic violence, Conlin getting into legal hot water doesn't make me sad in the slightest.

[terrynever]

Smiling Joe Hesketh, on 21 December 2011 - 11:22 AM, said:

TN, did it ever occur to you he was lying/exaggerating the story to enhance his own perceived toughness? I would have trouble believing a single word out of his mouth considering he's been covering up his own misdeeds for years.

Conlin's writing that I've seen was beyond awful, his TV appearances were reminiscent of Skip Bayless and he appeared to revel in his own ignorance and bullying. Like Mariotti getting arrested for domestic violence, Conlin getting into legal hot water doesn't make me sad in the slightest.

Well, the punch line to his story was he got beaten to a pulp. If anything, it was a self-deprecating story whose moral was one that all sports writers know: If you write bad stuff, be prepared to face the music in the locker room the next day. That only goes for beat writers, of course. The modern radio talk show people like Felger and Mazz and even Michael Holley rarely venture inside a locker room anymore.

I appreciate your linkage to Mariotti. The cases are similar. Two overblown scribes with massive egos. I have no syympathy for either, too. But what Bill's case, and Paterno's, has taught me is that any of us can ruin our names and our legacies with one major blunder, especially in an era when nothing is shoved under the rug. The good news is, most of us are really good people who don't make those kind of misjudgements.

[Awesome Fossum]

I'm not sure "one major blunder" is an apppropriate description for Conlin's transgressions.

[Average Reds]

terrynever, on 21 December 2011 - 11:37 AM, said:

Well, the punch line to his story was he got beaten to a pulp. If anything, it was a self-deprecating story whose moral was one that all sports writers know: If you write bad stuff, be prepared to face the music in the locker room the next day. That only goes for beat writers, of course. The modern radio talk show people like Felger and Mazz and even Michael Holley rarely venture inside a locker room anymore.

I appreciate your linkage to Mariotti. The cases are similar. Two overblown scribes with massive egos. I have no syympathy for either, too. But what Bill's case, and Paterno's, has taught me is that any of us can ruin our names and our legacies with one major blunder, especially in an era when nothing is shoved under the rug. The good news is, most of us are really good people who don't make those kind of misjudgements.

The reason I don't buy the story is that it does reinforce his "toughness" even if he's seen as a victim. If you believe him, he quite literally "took one for team" and then acted like a stand up guy by not saying anything. (Except for telling all his friends in the media.)

The other reason I don't believe it is that it simply doesn't ring true. There have been many instances of athletes or coaches getting hot and popping a writer (which is why I believe the story about a Penn St. AD) but I have literally never heard about athletes ganging up on a sportswriter and beating him to a pulp, if only because the risks involved for the players are high, and the odds that they were going to be exposed are also high. I mean, you beat up a member of the media and I think it's a pretty good bet that he's going to write about it.

On course, I can rip off a number of examples where people make up stories about themselves being attacjed to either excuse behavior that they are trying to hide or to glorify themselves. Seems likely that this is one of those.

And to Awesome Fossum's point, the stories indicate that Conlin was likely molesting a lot of kids over a period covering decades, so you might want to rethink the notion of "one major blunder."

[Harry Hooper]

Rough Carrigan, on 21 December 2011 - 10:53 AM, said:

Wasn't there some writer who worked in Philly for a year or two who said that Conlin and a couple other of the long time writers there acted like a junior high school clique on steroids trying to make the other guy write things the way they did?

Rough, I think that was written up on a sportswriters' message board { http://www.sportsjournalists.com ?}

[Eric1984]

The reporter who got frozen out was Michael Bamberger, then of the Inquirer and now of SI. Conlin wasn't involved -- he was no longer the baseball beat writer. I'm pretty sure he was a columnist by then, which presumably kept him in town more often to be close to his young victims. It was veteran writers from other Philly-area papers. Here's the memoir (good piece. It would actually really suck on many levels to work as a major league baseball beat writer):

http://sportsillustr...11214/index.htm

[Corsi]

Pretty interesting back-and-forth between Conlin and Daulerio before the news hit:

http://deadspin.com/...lestation-story

[terrynever]

Corsi, on 21 December 2011 - 04:49 PM, said:

Pretty interesting back-and-forth between Conlin and Daulerio before the news hit:

http://deadspin.com/...lestation-story

Wow, that's pure Conlin right to the bitter end.

Edited by terrynever, 21 December 2011 - 05:06 PM.

[Freddy Linn]

Another victim

Quote

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said Conlin repeatedly abused her when she was about 7 and lived in the Whitman Square section of Washington Township, Gloucester County. She was a childhood friend of Conlin's son, Peter, and often spent time at his house nearby. It was there, she said, that Conlin molested her.

...

She said Conlin groped and fondled her as she sat in his living room watching television. And she said he assaulted her in an upstairs bedroom after inviting her to see a litter of kittens.

[terrynever]

In the end, this guy says, we only know ourselves:

http://www.philly.co...never_knew.html