Where have you gone, Sidd Finch?

Do you think Sports Illustrated would have the stones to pull a fast one on its readers anymore?

For the uninformed, on April 1st, 1985, SI published an article by George Plimpton about a skinny, hiking-boot wearing, meditating kid who threw 153-mph fastballs. He called himself Sidd, after Siddhartha. If you haven't read it, the link is above.

I don't think there is any way that today's version of SI would do that. It's too afraid, too risk-averse, and too afraid to print anything longer than three pages. Between the Internet, ESPN, writers moving around, and SI's being owned by a giant conglomerate that includes ESPN, ABC, Disney, and CNN, the magazine has changed. It acts like a website in print form.

What SI won't seem to realize is that I already have websites. I need SI to use its resources to give me what I don't already have. Really good writing, long form articles, the story behind the story. I don't need a half a column to profile Twins shortstop Nick Punto, written by a nameless "staff writer." I need eight pages profiling Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, written by Joe Posnanski, a great article written in a style that we see increasingly less of.