Fluff: Herron, What SI Paid Conrad

Even if I can't for the life of me figure out how one finds individual articles on the Columbus Dispatch's website, I think enough of their "tale of woe" profile of Crew new-boy Andy Herron to pass it on (if the link takes you to an index page, hit the link about the earth shaking). For the record, I've always kind of liked Herron and wonder whether the Chicago Fire didn't screw up in letting him go; Herron, for his part, points to a "communication problem" with Dave Sarachan.

Elsewhere, there's plenty of good stuff in Steve Davis' freelancer* for MLSnet.com - whether it's Toronto FC's incredible season-ticket sales or word from Chivas USA's player pool - but the item that stuck with me was this:

"Conrad played briefly in Poland, where those European keyboards can be tricky, with goofy characters and letters in odd places. He got frustrated writing direct mails at the cyber cafes, which charged by the hour. So he vented all his angst in a rambling, clever 1,500-word e-mail sent to many recipients - which became the genesis of a freeform column he began penning for SI.com."

"'They weren't paying me, so I didn't feel bad about ... writing about whatever I wanted,' Conrad said."

Yeah, I know enough about how little money there is to be found in soccer writing, but, the cheap bastards! Anyway, I loved those columns.

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