ROB DIBBLE: STILL A JACKASS

Some of you may remember former major-league pitcher Rob Dibble.

The fiery reliever spent seven seasons in the bigs, and has been able to cultivate a career for himself in broadcasting.

While co-hosting the old Dan Patrick Show (the one that used to be on ESPN, that is), Dibble made a name for himself by blasting anyone who dared share an opinion about baseball without having played the game at a high level.

Since he got canned at ESPN, I haven't had the misfortune of hearing much from him.

When the baseball season started in April, my free preview of MLB Extra Innings allowed me to discover Dibble working Nationals games. Not surprisingly, he is still a jackass.

ESPN.com columnist Rob Neyer, who was a many-times guest and great friend of my old radio show, noted Dibble's displeasure with a called third strike during Randy Johnson's 300th win last week, which came against the Nationals.

Really, I just wanted an excuse to write about Rob Dibble. For years, I was less than a fan of his work at various networks. So you can imagine my shock, when I realized that I sort of like him in his current role with the Nationals. Yes, he's still a blowhard who believes that if you didn't play the game, you don't know anything about it. But he's got a good voice, he's quite a bit smarter than you probably think, and he's not been pulling his punches while the Nationals have become the biggest joke in the game.

Hardly a cheap shot. In fact, everything Neyer wrote about Dibble and wonderfully competent partner Bob Carpenter was accurate.

Dibble, naturally, went off. He did it on Twitter, as noted by The Big Lead.


I'll admit some bias in this case. Neyer was great to me for a number of years.

However, anyone who knows anything about baseball media also knows that Neyer has been around the pro game longer than Dibble has, and he's written more really good stuff about the game than Dibble could ever hope to read (assuming, of course, that Dibble bothers to read stuff other people write about baseball).

Oh, and most people also know that Rob Dibble is a richard. Always has been, and always will be.

I've never bought into the elitist argument that you have to play a sport at a high level to know anything about it. The fact that one of the best managers in baseball is former journeyman player Terry Francona -- and former small-college player Bill Belichick is one of the most accomplished coaches in all of the NFL -- should help you understand how this works.

Dibble can continue to wage a useless war against good people if he wants to, but since he works for the Nationals now, it's doubtful anyone will pay attention.