Comments on The Platoon Advantage: Peter Abraham Is Not a Plagiarist, But He Is An In...

Spot on. I made a comment on his Extra Bases blog ...

2012-01-19T12:03:03.610-06:00

Spot on. I made a comment on his Extra Bases blog last year how the Yankees didn't win a World Series until PeteAbe left as one of their beat writers. I said something along the lines of "Curse of PeteAbe"

He then emailed me about 5 times talking about all the championship teams he covered and how the next time i see him i should wash the windows of his car and he'll give me a dollar.

$20 says he was writing those emails from his moms basement

I've never had any personal interactions with ...

2012-01-17T18:30:05.660-06:00

I've never had any personal interactions with PeteAbe (that I can remember, at least), but he's always come off as an asshole on Twitter.

Engaging readers is a good thing, but not if you're going to be absolutely closed off and stubborn about every single thing. He seems to believe communication is a one-way street.

- -

On a related note, my CAPTCHA word was "boner."

ESPN would have never allowed such madness.

The title of this article is misleading. How you ...

2012-01-16T06:32:31.882-06:00

The title of this article is misleading. How you can prove the that Peter Abraham has never committed plagiarism? Until you provide further proof that he is not one, I am going to use what I call the Bagwell Assumption - that one is guilty until proven innocent - and assume that Abraham committed plagiarism at one point in his life.

Peter Abraham = Biggest Douchebag On The Internet ...

2012-01-14T01:30:22.309-06:00

Peter Abraham = Biggest Douchebag On The Internet

Here Abraham completely trashes Jim Rice for grouping Derek Jeter with ARod and Manny.

http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2009/08/21/is-it-too-late-to-vote-jim-rice-out-of-the-hall-of-fame-for-being-a-complete-no-class-idiot/

Here Abraham is accused of attacking a rival website anonymously

http://newstadiuminsider.blogspot.com/2008/06/peter-abraham-gets-exposed-by-nomaasorg.html

This next one is just plain creepy, saying something like this about a former coworker.

http://twitter.com/#%21/PeteAbe/status/145304266423275520

Notice the timeline with these next two links, just another "coincidence" I'm sure

http://sonsofsamhorn.net/topic/57134-sosh-photos-from-fenway-2010/page__st__40__p__3316176#entry3316176

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2011/01/shadows_of_the.html

Here Abraham claims Aceves was told he would be starting in place of Lester against the Orioles, and then a day later Abraham claims Francona confirmed Aceves would start in place of Lester against the Orioles. Neither claim was reported by anyone else, and both claims were proven false.

http://articles.boston.com/2011-07-05/sports/29739716_1_long-term-issue-long-term-head-athletic-trainer

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2011/07/francona_lester.html

It's interesting that a journalist would be so...

2012-01-13T01:29:08.259-06:00

It's interesting that a journalist would be so concerned with seeing their name and the word "plagiarism" in the same sentence yet so many of them have no problem publishing the word "steroids" next to the name of a professional athlete. You could argue that both are equally damning to careers.

Keep fighting the good fight, guys!

To Unknown: You are right, to constantly accuse w...

2012-01-12T23:13:26.419-06:00

To Unknown:

You are right, to constantly accuse writers of being a plagiarist is wrong. Just as wrong as accusing, or "waiting for more evidence" of a baseball player NOT using PEDs. Tell me, how is the person accused supposed to prove this negative? How did TCM using the same convoluted logic as these "suspected plagiarists" not make you guffaw and chuckle?

The Common Man bows to your clear comedic genius, ...

2012-01-12T18:13:04.399-06:00

The Common Man bows to your clear comedic genius, circa 1983 Eddie Murphy. Meanwhile, both your ISP and your local police department have been alerted to the threats to The Common Man's life, and you are in big, big trouble.

The Common Man -- please die in a fire.

2012-01-12T16:19:17.703-06:00

The Common Man -- please die in a fire.

To be clear, if you're telling someone to &quo...

2012-01-12T10:58:18.328-06:00

To be clear, if you're telling someone to "die in a fire," we don't have much sympathy for anything, within reason, that gets said back to you. You're clearly an idiot and that's not cool.

Check out the thread on SoSH about this, there are...

2012-01-12T06:30:14.925-06:00

Check out the thread on SoSH about this, there are hundreds of posts about this very thing

This comment, is of course, no knock on Mr. Abraha...

2012-01-12T00:15:56.376-06:00

This comment, is of course, no knock on Mr. Abraham's character...don't know the man...but doesn't his picture sort of look like Bluto on the old Popeye cartoons or the big wrestler on the Bugs Bunny cartoon?

You are entitled to you opinion and I, for the mos...

2012-01-11T22:47:25.542-06:00

You are entitled to you opinion and I, for the most part, enjoy reading them. However satirical in nature you felt your "plagiarist" concept was, to CONSTANTLY accuse writers of this is wrong. Now, as far as Bagwell goes, I harbor NO malice at any writer who wants more evidence before putting someone in the Hall of Fame. Bagwell has 13 more years on the ballot and I suspect within the next 3 he will be in-good for him.
Yes, you are allowed to criticize me for being critical of you and I will be willing to take if you are decent about it. Just remember, we like your wit, your insight and for the most part your logical observations.

Missing the satire component is pretty inexcusable...

2012-01-11T20:54:51.543-06:00

Missing the satire component is pretty inexcusable for someone who calls himself a writer. But the blatant overreaction seems to speak more to the fact that he knows that he regularly "lifts" work from others. I. DIDN'T. USE. THE. "P". WORD.

Wow.

Back when I followed Pete on twitter, he made a co...

2012-01-11T19:38:07.775-06:00

Back when I followed Pete on twitter, he made a comment about how he was glad that a particular game was finishing in a tidy three hours. Now, the Red Sox do play a lot of long games, but this is the guy's job and I thought him complaining about it was kind of gauche. So I responded and said something like "I'll gladly take your position if it's too tiring to watch baseball." He responded with something snarky and I ignored it, since I already knew he was kind of a jerk and I figured avoiding a flame war was wise.

A couple days later, he sent me a DM that said "I'm still waiting. When did I say it's too tiring to watch baseball games?" As if I had a responsibility to continue the conversation over an offhand comment I made (if perhaps a little jerky on my part). Not to mention I couldn't direct message him back since he wasn't following me.

Just the persistence over something so petty, with me who isn't anyone important, was pretty amazing.

And, lest we forget, he was listed as a contributo...

2012-01-11T19:28:25.528-06:00

And, lest we forget, he was listed as a contributor to the hatchet-job on Tito this fall - the painkiller, etc. article that got just about everyone (especially Gammons) riled up.

Pete Abe doesn't plagiarize? Hmmm, obviously ...

2012-01-11T17:21:40.771-06:00

Pete Abe doesn't plagiarize? Hmmm, obviously you've never visited SonsOfSamHorn.

I want to personally thank Peter Abraham for givin...

2012-01-11T16:40:43.156-06:00

I want to personally thank Peter Abraham for giving this dude another reason to feel self-righteous. Congrats, you're a full-fledged interwebs martyr!

Thanks Ben, Always good to have more perspectives...

2012-01-11T15:22:48.304-06:00

Thanks Ben,

Always good to have more perspectives on this than just ours.

For what it's worth, I found Pete Abe to be fr...

2012-01-11T15:21:09.274-06:00

For what it's worth, I found Pete Abe to be friendly and accommodating in my lone interaction with him. He answered a question I sent him, recommended some other writers to talk to, and went so far as to get me a quote from a player for a story I was working on. He also lamented "the disconnect between mainstream media and independent sites" and told me that in his opinion, we're all working toward the same goal (to provide information).

Obviously, his interaction with me shouldn't have any bearing on how anyone views his interactions with TCM or Bill, which I won't comment on either way. Maybe he responds much differently to one type of questioning than he does to another. Still, since (rightly or wrongly) we're making judgments based on small samples of behavior here, I thought I'd chime in with one internet writer's positive Pete Abe experience, just to even the scales.

Wasn't there some prattling about him lifting ...

2012-01-11T15:07:05.050-06:00

Wasn't there some prattling about him lifting stuff from Sons of Sam Horn as well? I seem to remember a lot of eye rolling there...

You know whats funny? He is a plagiarist and a lia...

2012-01-11T15:06:09.497-06:00

You know whats funny? He is a plagiarist and a liar. He's an embarrassment to journalists everywhere.

My most recent favorite was when a fantastic sports writer--Gordon Edes--sends out a tweet saying "Ortiz has officiallly accepted arbitration".

4 minutes later, here comes Peter Flabraham. "Via the #RedSox, Ortiz has officially accepted arbitration."

This type of stuff happens all the time. But what's so ironic about it? Gordo responds "Per Red Sox? That's a good one. Sox have not said anything re Ortiz."

Abraham hacks other journalists, is known for having "sources" that are simply his own convoluted ideas or what he hears other reporters discussing...hell, he's been known to rip off Red Sox message boards (you know the one).

The guys a douche. The sooner he loses his job, the better off Boston is.

Back when he was working for LoHud and doing their...

2012-01-11T14:59:19.013-06:00

Back when he was working for LoHud and doing their blog, he made some stupid comment during an All Star game thread. I called him out on it, and told him to "die in a fire".

He emailed me (which he got via my IP address from a post months before -- lots of digging by him) and said both my ISP and my local police department had been alerted of my "threats to (his) life", and I was in big, big trouble. Yeah, just like his "boss just called (him)".

Dude's been accused of plagiarizing message board posts, and has been called out more than once by a nationally-respected baseball scribe for stealing people's tweets and saying "a major league source reports...", when all he did was steal someone else's scoop.

Did I mention he's incredibly thin-skinned for a fat guy?

His "insult + retweet" pattern finally c...

2012-01-11T14:40:06.762-06:00

His "insult + retweet" pattern finally convinced me to stop following him - not surprised to hear that pettiness extends further into his professional life, although I now feel morbidly compelled to re-follow him just to see his response.

As someone from the Boston area who has tried very...

2012-01-11T14:23:17.773-06:00

As someone from the Boston area who has tried very sparingly to interact with him online, I can't even put it wittily: I can't stand him, encourage others not to read him, and am not surprised by this at all.

Less germane to the immediate subject, so it didn&...

2012-01-11T14:11:59.922-06:00

Less germane to the immediate subject, so it didn't fit in the piece above, but I did want to tell my own "Pete Abe is an ass" story:

So last year, Abraham wrote a column explaining his Hall ballot, which omitted Bagwell. The links to it appear broken now, but he basically said "I want to wait for more research on the stats from that era." I noted in a few places here's one) that that didn't seem plausible to me--Abraham's smart enough to know Bags' numbers made him a slam dunk. Well, Pete saw one or more of those comments and DMed me: "I meant what develops in terms of research into the stats of that era, not steroids. I'm always avail. to ask rather than assume." That didn't make any more sense to me, so I asked again. "Research into how best to evaluate stats of that era. weighing them against previous eras etc."

So the same vague response over and over, basically. I emailed about it, and he gave me a larger version of the same thing (which I won't quote here--probably going to run out of space as it is). I dropped it.

Then later, someone else on Twitter mentioned something about it, and I responded with something like "careful, he got angry when I suggested that earlier." His response, again by DM:

"please stop making assumptions and spreading lies. not angry w/ you. just corrected you. people like u make interaction self-defeating."

Then there was an email exchange, wherein I tried to figure out why he was so sensitive on the subject. Some highlights:

"So far you've taken it upon yourself to mischaracterize my points twice in public forums. Why I have no idea. But it's experiences like this that cause 95 percent of journalists not to communicate with readers. I'm starting to see why they think that, unfortunately."

I hadn't mischaracterized anything; I acknowledged his explanation, and simply pointed out that I didn't find it plausible. When I responded with that and the following comment: "Wondering why someone with apparently translucent skin is publishing his opinions on the internet to begin with. If you can't handle a respectful and coherently expressed opposing viewpoint, every dissenting comment you get from some barely literate blog reader must just push you to the edge."

Then from Pete: "And now you're rude. Excellent.

Happy holidays,"

To which of course I responded that he was the one who was accusing me of "lying" and "mischaracterizing" things and making assumptions when I most certainly was not, and that one might call that rude...but that was the end of it.

And the kicker, of course, is that with his column this year, he admitted doing the exact same thing I suspected he was doing, which got me accused of all those things.

So nowhere near the same level as this, but essentially, he's an incredibly thin-skinned, intellectually dishonest, uncomprehending buffoon.