What a pathetic answer to try and find a silver lining when there isn't one, protecting the guilty, blowing off all the comments asking for a simple apology.
It's very sad to think you need to insult a town to "revive a rivalry" The kids in this State have been doing fine for 100 plus years without Mr.Vinson.
I appreciate your efforts in trying to soften or even validate the message sent by Mr. Vinson. However, I am discouraged by his obvious lack of understanding of what team sports is all about and the effort that every young person puts forth to make their team a success. Where was the editor when this one was going to print? Granted, we can’t all be winners…all the time, but the true winners are those that exhibit pride in their team and still encourage others to perform at their best. These young people didn’t deserve to be the subject of ridicule and rejection…which was clearly the message sent. As a former Helena resident, I was consistently in the stands cheering on my local teams. I knew the coaches and athletes. I recognized their talents. That, is what made me proud. There was never a need or desire to diminish the efforts of the day’s less fortunate team. Helena has produced some great athletes, and yes a number of them have gone on to further their education and athletic endeavors in Butte. What’s happened to that “Hometown Helena Pride” when you’ve chosen to lessen the efforts of the young people who were once part of the Helena “team”?
Windmueller's attempt to justify Vinson's insensitive, inappropriate, and poorly written article adds insult to injury. Now is the true test of their character - do they continue to try to justify this, do they ignore it and hope it goes away, or do they do the right thing and take responsibility for this inappropriate article and issue a true apology? We'll see.
"Sports is one of those things that unite us. You fight your heart out on the field, the court, the rink, then shake hands and remain friends. That should be true of the supporters as well as the athletes themselves."
This is a quote from Vinson when he was introduced as a sports writer for the IR. Based on his recent booze-soaked article bashing Butte, it does not appear that he understood these words when saying them, but it sure sounded good at the time.
Nice try Jeff. Vinson's column was a slam against Butte, plain and simple. Your attempt to downplay that more boring statistical mumbojumbo is only making the IR look more pathetic.
"Nary a winning record to be found"...."Butte's one playoff appearance was the boys soccer team's surprising run to the state tournament"....."haven't much to crow about recently."
And your comment - "For starters, it has rallied support for Butte teams." Don't patronize us. We have ALWAYS supported our teams win or lose.
The arrogance of Helena bleeds through it's newspaper every day. At least in my lifetime; I have not witnessed Helenans to have a fraction of the class that Butte has. I am not surprised by this article or the classless journalism.
Thank you Mark Vinson for making Helena fans look like snobby poor-sports. Your article was classless, unnecessary, and irrelevant. Props to Pat Ryan for showing Vinson what true sportsmanship is!
"Rivalry Renewed Thanks To One Little Column." C'mon. The I.R. is attempting to give itself way too much credit here for its couple of "little" commentaries. Leave the rivalry stuff to the great teams, fans, traditions
"RIVALRY RENEWED?" I was never aware that it was gone to begin with. Lame attempt at an apology Jeff! Mark must be holed up somewhere that the boss-man has to back-pedal and try and smooth things over for him. HAHAHA!!! Mark=Wimp!
Another thought about the rivalry renewed. I went to Butte High, and while I was in school our biggest rival was Anaconda! We loved to play basketball against Missoula Hellgate and Missoula Sentinel. I can still remember the starting lineups from each of those schools. Helena High? Couldn't give you one name that played basketball there in my era. Yes, there is a great rivalry between Tech and Carroll, but that goes back a long ways to a story about Bob Petrino. I'm sure if Mark Vinson were a great reporter, he could dig up that story....oops, it would take some journalistic talent to do that. Does Carroll basketball have the fierce rivalry with Tech basketball? I don't think so. I don't think a rivalry was "renewed" as a result of this article. Maybe a new rivalry, but certainly not renewed.
ilvhawaii24, if the intent was to increase Helena readership of a somewhat so-so newspaper, there are many ways to go about it without slamming others. I'm know Helena has had its share of victories against schools/teams from places other than Butte. Rather than focus on Butte, why didn't he focus on the positive coming out of Helena? That would have enlightened him, and the the readers in Helena, about what happening in the community, and boosted support for the local Helena teams. From Mark's article, and the follow-up by Butte's Pat Ryan, I know who to watch for coming out of Butte. But who is there to cheer for that is from Helena? Let us hear about them, and stop this nonsense of slamming other communities, their kids and fans. Teams win, teams lose--so be it. Yes, I am from Butte, and so proud of it.
What a crock! I now see why Mr. Vinson was able to publish his insult laden article in the first place. You sir, DO NOT GET IT! Your article includes an apology half way through but then you immediately go into a rant about all the good you have done through insulting a bunch of young athletes and infer that you have actually inspired a bunch of young athletes to greatness or that it was actually a ploy to get young readers interested in Newspapers again. Pleeaaasse!
I feel very sorry for those folks who called in and provided positive feedback to Mr. Vinson. SAD SAD SAD.
None of the comments I read were positive and none of them were overblown. If you are going to spout off in Montana and attack kids you better be able to adequately apologize or defend yourself because you are going to get called on it.
The apology didn't even come from Mr. Vinson. Come on Mark - apologize to the City of Butte cause this article is not even close to being an acceptable apology.
Let's not forget that the Butte High softball team came in here full of seniors and picked to win it all and early in the season without our all-state short stop, not only did The Lady Bruins beat them but they shut them out. Butte never fully recovered from that loss. Later they didn't even place at the state tourney.
While I admire your attempt to put a positive spin on the original article, the last part of this article simply makes excuses for Mr. Vinson. His article crossed the line of a good, clean ribbing from a cross-state rival into a flat out insult to the athletes (most of them hard-working kids, by the way), parents, and fans of Butte. It was inappropriate and unprofessional. I hardly think that you and Mr. Vinson are inspiring anyone to participate in sports or read newspapers. Butte already supports their teams and certainly did not need your help. If you are not planning a sincere apology, just stop!
It was a very unfortunate, classless article by Mark Vinson. And now his boss has had to apologize for him. Come on Mark, suck it up and apologize for yourself. Butte and Helena enjoy our sport rivalries but, push comes to shove, we are positively there for each other.
It's very sad to think you need to insult a town to "revive a rivalry" The kids in this State have been doing fine for 100 plus years without Mr.Vinson.
Just remember: "Pride comes before a fall"
"Sports is one of those things that unite us. You fight your heart out on the field, the court, the rink, then shake hands and remain friends. That should be true of the supporters as well as the athletes themselves."
This is a quote from Vinson when he was introduced as a sports writer for the IR. Based on his recent booze-soaked article bashing Butte, it does not appear that he understood these words when saying them, but it sure sounded good at the time.
"Nary a winning record to be found"...."Butte's one playoff appearance was the boys soccer team's surprising run to the state tournament"....."haven't much to crow about recently."
And your comment - "For starters, it has rallied support for Butte teams." Don't patronize us. We have ALWAYS supported our teams win or lose.
I feel very sorry for those folks who called in and provided positive feedback to Mr. Vinson. SAD SAD SAD.
None of the comments I read were positive and none of them were overblown. If you are going to spout off in Montana and attack kids you better be able to adequately apologize or defend yourself because you are going to get called on it.
The apology didn't even come from Mr. Vinson. Come on Mark - apologize to the City of Butte cause this article is not even close to being an acceptable apology.
Keep up the good work Mark!