2015 WFNY Author Spotlight: Best of Richard Pietro

WFNY is proud of our assortment of writers and are especially grateful to be blessed with its daily readership. As part of our year-end festivities, WFNY has put together an Author Spotlight series to allow the readers to get to know the writers a bit better by pulling back the curtain on their thoughts and pulling in some of their favorite pieces from the year.

We hope you enjoy a quick look back at Richard’s 2015 year and maybe find something you like that you missed the first time around. Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and we hope you continue blessing us by reading the site. Thank you.

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Who is Richard?

Writing didn’t come easily for me and didn’t begin with academics, but with the Beatles and my desire to write songs. Slowly, I came to realize it’s an excellent exercise in clarifying and refining thought. I grew to enjoy the process in school, and my career in government honed it in other ways. I like this quote from the 18th C. Irish author, Laurence Sterne: “Writing, when properly managed, is but a different name for conversation.”  And for me, good writing, from text messages, to essays, to Don Quixote, makes for good conversation.

Five works that best describe Richard from 2015

Analysis: For the Browns, draft season is THE season, Feb 5, 2015

The most important part of this [Best Player Available] strategy, however, is to recognize the fallacy that drafting for need works as well or better. It rarely does, simply because of the probabilities. And, worse, it perpetuates weakness as the basis of your strategy.

Appreciation of Cleveland sports history: Jim Brown, LeBron James and Cleveland, June 11, 2015

Cleveland doesn’t have a great many championship banners hanging from the rafters of its various sports venues, but Cleveland does have an association with two of the greatest players in the history of sports. And we’re watching one now.

Questioning assumptions in the world of sports: The Franchise Quarterback: An unconventional approach to conventional wisdom, Apr 20, 2015

What stands out most significantly about the franchise quarterback idea and its loss of meaningful relevance is the notion that a team has to get one in order to win. Not only is this not true, it’s actually a reversal of the cause and effect of the matter. It would be far more accurate to suggest that a team has to win — has to build and sustain a winning organization with strength up and down the roster — before it can hope to have what we now think of as a franchise quarterback … or before someone on their roster can become one.

Cultural values and sports: Can Johnny Manziel Come Back From the Celebrity Injured List? Mar 27, 2015

As Manziel moved along this path of stunning success, however, he dragged behind him the accumulating debris of fame and celebrity, like a man-sized magnet dragged through a field of shrapnel. Some of this was inevitable, part of the routine in the world of hyper-connectivity, omnipresent sports news and social media. But a good deal of it was embraced and exploited, not only by Manziel, but also by those closest to him. And at some point, the importance of being somebody and being seen seemed to outweigh the importance of seeing.

Rocking the boat of sports media: Browns ABC’s: About Browns Controversies: Week 3, Oct 2, 2015

Joshua Gunter/ The Plain Dealer

… the NFL is the most lucrative sports league in the world, which draws a large contingent of individuals who are engaged in a continual all-out blitz to take financial advantage of the seemingly insatiable appetite for the game. Sometimes the reporting on the game is entertaining and elucidating, but often not. Sometimes it aims to lift the level of conversation, but too often it aims at the lowest common denominator, attempting to inflame the passions with non-story stories.

Explanation of works

I’m not a sentimental writer. I turn off sappy love songs and walk out on contrived tear-jerkers. In the overblown world of sports coverage especially, I find it preferable for ideas, rather than emotions, to take center stage because so much of the “conversation” about kids games played by adults is over-wrought. That’s what’s so great about WFNY’s commenters. More often than not, they argue with ideas for the main course and conclude with humor for dessert.

Happy New Year!