My thoughts on Matt Harvey, who is not just a writer but New York City Bureau Chief!

Kudos to my old friends at the
Daily News for another great cover!

Happy Labor Day! We do have something to celebrate that wasn't in existence last year. And that would be The Players' Tribune, Derek Jeter's sports website. As my friend Dean points out, "Players Tribune has been a boon to ghost writers and PR flacks alike. On Labor Day we should celebrate this new entity that creates work for background scribes." How true!

And you know, I still don't understand the business model for this site. How does it make money, since there is no advertising on it? Do the players pay for the access to it? Is Matt Harvey paying $$$ to get his "New York City Bureau Chief" title at The Players' Tribune?

As I have said before in this space, I never say "we" when I talk about the Yankees, as I ain't playing. But pretending to be a "bureau chief" for this publication when all Harvey does has been to have all of three ghostwritten stories published on the website is ridiculous. That would be like me calling myself a "right fielder" because I got stuck in that position in fifth grade gym class!

Is Harvey assigning stories, managing journalists, and taking out a red pencil to copy edit pieces? No? Then how is he a bureau chief? Maybe I should start calling myself the New York City Bureau Chief for Subway Squawkers! (Sorry, Jon -- I am stealing this title for me!) And speaking of Jon, he wrote a very funny column today about Matt Harvey -- click here to read it.

Anyhow, after a very controversial weekend, in which Harvey said that "This limit was 180 [innings] -- that is what Scott has, err, Dr. Andrews had said," Harvey "wrote" at The Players' Tribune that he actually would be pitching in the playoffs. (An aside: as somebody who has worked as a ghostwriter for athletes myself, there is an art to doing so. But whoever is doing this for Harvey doesn't even try to sound like him!)

Harvey only has Harvey to blame for this debacle. Maybe they ought to trade him to, oh I don't know, the Yankees or something. Seems fair to me!