Angels blogger booted by SB Nation after hateful Josh Hamilton post
The lead Los Angeles Angels blogger at SB Nation penned a hateful post Monday night after the trade sending Josh Hamilton to the Texas Rangers was completed.
The blogger known as Rev Halofan called Hamilton a “coddled hillbilly” among other things in his post at Halos Heaven, then punctuated his send-off with “Happy snorting.”
And now, SB Nation has said “happy trails” to the blogger, saying the post “crossed the line between fanaticism and good taste.”
The blog post was taken down after a social-media firestorm Tuesday, but it captured by Reddit’s /r/baseball community. Among other things, the post says:
Josh, when you finally die of a drug related matter it won’t be Arte Moreno’s fault. It won’t be the fault of the good fans in Anaheim who figured out your little game. They might have Donnie Moore’s karma on them but they won’t have yours. As much as I would like to say the blame for your future fate lies with the enabling national media and coddling players union, I think of Steve Howe’s face crushed against his truck’s windshield on a lonely interstate highway with crystal meth in his bloodstream and I know that all the blame will be on you, all of it, as it was with Howe. I can only hope that when you do yourself in, which you will, that, mercifully like Howe, you take nobody else with you.
Good bye Josh, today is the first day of the rest of your life and you used it to announce to the world that nothing will ever be your fault. Happy snorting.
Charming, eh?
SB Nation, to its credit, acted quickly in both removing the post and ending its relationship with Rev Halofan (aka Mat Gleason). Tyler Bleszinski, the founder of SB Nation/Vox Media, wrote the following:
Last night a story was published on one of our team blogs that crossed the line between fanaticism and good taste.
We take pride in the fact that our team blogs are allowed to express themselves and their rabid following of their teams unencumbered by the traditional editorial process. It’s what we’re great at and what makes us unique. But when someone does cross that line of good taste, we need to make sure that our readership realizes that we don’t embrace the culture of pure wild, wild west.
We took the post down and we have mutually agreed to part ways with the blogger in question. We thank him for his years of service to his community and look forward to opening a new chapter at that blog. We in no way endorse the post. We realize that this could happen again in the future and we will always act when that line is crossed.
Gleason started Halo Heaven in 2003, according to this “Meet the Blogger” profile published on the site. It became part of SB Nation’s blog network in 2005. Gleason is a known provocateur — outside of baseball too. He’s also an independent art critic in L.A. and he’s been called a “contrarian” and “divisive” by the Los Angeles Times.
Tuesday afternoon, Gleason posted a personal send-off on Halos Heaven under the headline “Whoops!” He wrote that the blog would go on with a new editor. He wrote that he didn’t want to live a “restricted life. And he wrote that he stood by everything he posted.
The post was live for a short while, but was soon deleted. A fitting farewell.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
