“Odd Man Out”: BronxBanterBlog.com Update

On February 19 BronxBanterBlog.com author Alex Belth posted a favorable review of Odd Man Out, after interviewing Matt McCarthy. I posted a reply warning Mr. Belth that the book had credibility issues, but he blew me off with a post accusing me of being “self-serving.”

Two weeks later, The New York Times published its review exposing all the inaccuracies in McCarthy’s book, and I waited to see if Mr. Belth would do the right thing.

It took a while, but he finally has.

Belth published a blog today that first allows McCarthy to respond to the NYT article, but then gives NYT reporter Alan Schwarz an opportunity to respond to McCarthy’s claims that Schwarz wouldn’t allow McCarthy to offer a “point-by-point rebuttal.”

Click Here to read Belth’s blog post.

Here’s what Schwarz had to say about McCarthy’s repeated claims that he wasn’t allowed to defend himself:

Mr. McCarthy’s claims that he was denied an opportunity to, in his words, ‘rebut’ his own errors are not only preposterous but adds to his growing list of outright falsehoods. Our interview spanned more than an hour and was comprised mostly of my describing to him every substantive error — sometimes literally showing him things like transaction logs that proved he had the wrong person involved in some distasteful scene, and a copy of his own original contract that proved one quote-laden episode with Tony Reagins to be completely fabricated — and explaining its relevance to the larger picture. He offered explanations for each of them (and I put the most relevant ones in the article so that his side was fairly represented). This went on for probably 10 or 12 of the most substantial errors, with my explaining at every juncture that, while some were clearly not that big of a deal, they called into question the veracity of many other, less provably false scenes that real people said had not happened as he described.

I said that I would be happy to quote portions of the journals he said corrorborated what he had written in the book; he declined to let me do so. I asked to speak with the teammates he claimed supported him; he declined to say who they were.

At the end of the interview, I asked Mr. McCarthy if there was anything he wanted to add, anything that was important given what the story was going to be about. He thought for a moment and said no. I then told him that if he realized there was anything he wanted to add or clarify, that he had my cell phone number and I would be available to him all day for as long as he wanted. He said OK. I have not heard from him since.

Schwarz goes on to accuse McCarthy of lying about their conversation, and notes that he has an audio recording of it.

It appears that the jig is about to be up for Matt McCarthy.

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