St. Louis Blues Beat Writer: Out With Old, In With…Older

The St. Louis Blues have been lucky enough to have one of the best beat writers in the business associated with them. Now, the writing talent may not go away, but the quality of the coverage might be in question.

For those that are unaware, the St. Louis Blues will be getting a new beat writer from the Post-Dispatch. After 12 years covering the team, Jeremy Rutherford decided to move on to a different challenge.

After 20-plus years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, including the last 12 as the Blues beatwriter, I'm leaving the newspaper next week (1/2)
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) August 24, 2017

Now, before we get into the meat of my argument, let it not be said that Rutherford was some sort of hockey god. He came into the job similarly to the man following his footsteps, having already spent eight years at the Post-Dispatch, and learned on the fly.

Like any good reporter, he stuck to the facts, got good quotes and put out some good articles. Being humble, he will say (and often has on Twitter) that his opinions were often wrong but he was quick to offer them when asked since he was around the team more than anyone.

Regardless of his previous skills, he became a trusted source of information to the fans and an invaluable source of story ideas and material for fan writers like myself. He will be missed if he is truly leaving either the area or the sport.

Now enter Jim Thomas. Thomas is another veteran of the Post-Dispatch. He was both fortunate and unfortunate to cover the St. Louis Rams for their entire run in the city and he covered the NFL and college sports before and after their arrival/departure.

As a writer, there is nothing wrong with Thomas. He has a knack for creating a good story and knows how to track down leads and information. The worry is, by his own admission, he knows next to nothing about the sport.

He won’t be the first reporter asked to take on a beat they are unfamiliar with and he won’t be the last. It’s just discouraging to go from a writer that had earned our respect to a new one.

The fear is that he’ll come off as a football guy trying to describe hockey. Perhaps it is only in my head, but I feel it would be easier to go the other way around.

You could take a hockey writer or a soccer writer and have them cover football and it would be fine. Doing it the other way around might have a learning curve due to the different vernacular, different schedules and, as Thomas said, tougher deadline schedules.

As far as Thomas goes, I have no doubts he is going to do his best. You don’t keep a job in the newspaper business for as long as he has been around if you cannot learn to do something different.

On top of that, Tom Timmerman is going to continue to flesh out the Blues section of the paper as he had with Rutherford. Jeff Gordon will be keeping tabs on the team for his columns as well.