Yeah I loved Dan's line that the judges agreed that Brady was involved in the Pats deflating the balls. Yep, that is EXACTLY what they ruled on!
We can agree to disagree about the CHB but please, one of Nicky's most enduring crappy qualities is that he's lazy. Tries hard? I don't see him doing that at anything other than calling his go to binkies.Ripping on Cafardo is funny and entertaining because in the long run he's just a harmless dummy who tries hard but fails at thinking.
Shank is a different animal entirely.
I feel the complete opposite way because I don't think that many people know just how bad Nick Cafardo is and they think that just because he's writing the Globe Baseball Notes that he's just as smart as Gammons or Whiteside or Edes. It's kind of like when I was a kid and I thought that Mike Greenwell was just as good as Williams, Yaz and Jim Rice because LEGACY.Ripping on Cafardo is funny and entertaining because in the long run he's just a harmless dummy who tries hard but fails at thinking.
Shank is a different animal entirely.
But that POV is being a hideous troll!Say what you want about Shaughnessy (and he's been on what I see as the wrong side of many arguments) but at least he a. has a POV (which is what Cafardo often lacks) and b. will rarely use unattributed quotes.
But you know that he's a troll AND most of his readership know that too, so when he does troll it falls on mostly deaf ears. Getting mad about Danny Shaughnessy is kind of passè now, it's like getting pissed that Billy Joel wrote another stupid song or that Jim Belushi is starring in another hacky three-camera sitcom. From their previous output the collective conscious knows that these guys generally suck. Who really pays attention to these guys anymore?But that POV is being a hideous troll!
But you know that he's a troll AND most of his readership know that too, so when he does troll it falls on mostly deaf ears. Getting mad about Danny Shaughnessy is kind of passè now, it's like getting pissed that Billy Joel wrote another stupid song or that Jim Belushi is starring in another hacky three-camera sitcom. From their previous output the collective conscious knows that these guys generally suck. Who really pays attention to these guys anymore?But that POV is being a hideous troll!
True, because he's actually a good writer who threw his talent away to become a clown.Like I said even when Shaughnessy trolls he does it with a clever turn of phrase*
Like I said even when Shaughnessy trolls he does it with a clever turn of phrase* or some sort of reason that reminds you that hey, this guy is a decent writer. Whether that last part makes your angrier or not, YMMV, but for some reason it makes me want to read him more. I don't need the entire sports section to be an echo chamber and every once in awhile he does bring up a decent point from the other side that I may have not considered.
* The one thing that I do hate about Shaughnessy is that sometimes he just won't let go of something and will type it over and over and over and over again.
The idea things haven't worked out for Shank is... hilarious. He's rich off a best-selling book. He's one of the few remaining local newspaper columnists with a national profile. He is going to be inducted into a HALL OF FAME.True, because he's actually a good writer who threw his talent away to become a clown.
I think of what he could have been if he used his talent for productive purposes and contrast that to the troll he became. Then again, he'll be a part of the BBHOF soon enough so maybe it worked out for him?*
*No.
I assume by "this" and "it's" he means the appeal hearing. If so, he is indeed correct. But then, in the very next line:Sorry, Patriots fans. This was never about Ideal Gas Law. It’s about labor law.
That not only contradicts what the majority stated in their ruling, but it also contradicts Shank's previous sentence. Unless he is claiming that the Patriots and Brady are guilty of violating labor law. The conclusion on WEEI was that Shank has a personal vendetta against the Krafts, and has had one for quite some time.The judges think that Brady and the Patriots are guilty.
Article on LeBron from todayThe last time Cleveland was Titletown was in 1964 when brainy quarterback Frank Ryan and all-world running back Jim Brown led the Browns to victory in the NFL Championship game against the Baltimore Colts. The first Super Bowl was not played until 1967. The Browns have never been in the Super Bowl — unless you count the Ravens, who moved to Baltimore from Cleveland.
That was only the beginning of the Browns’ torture. They dropped back-to-back AFC Championship games to the Broncos in the 1986 and 1987 seasons. The first one was lost on a field goal in overtime after John Elway drove the Broncos 98 yards in the closing seconds to tie it. The second one was lost when Browns running back Earnest Byner fumbled near the goal line on the way to the potential tying touchdown. Instantly, Byner was Cleveland’s Bill Buckner. But unlike Buckner, Byner never found redemption because the Browns never got back to the championship circle.
The Indians are forever the Indians and they haven’t won a World Series since 1948 when they beat the Boston Braves. In 1997, the Tribe took a one-run lead into the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series, but reliever Jose Mesa blew that lead and the Series eventually was won by a 5-year-old franchise, the Florida Marlins. There was something quite unfair about that. Greater Miami does not have any long-suffering baseball fans. Cleveland has millions of fans (they once sold out 455 consecutive games at Jacobs Field) who’ve been waiting for the Tribe to deliver a World Series win. On it goes. Today’s Indians have the great Terry Francona, but not much payroll, not enough talent, and an often-empty ballpark.
Cleveland’s last championship came in 1964 (three years before the first Super Bowl) when Jim Brown and quarterback Frank Ryan led the Browns to a 27-0 win over the Baltimore Colts in the NFL championship game.
In the late 1980s, the Browns lost back-to-back AFC Championship games to the Broncos. In one game, they fell victim to John Elway’s historic 98-yard drive; in the other one, they were killed by a self-inflicted wound when Earnest Byner fumbled near the goal line. Today the Browns are a joke. They do nothing to reward some of the NFL’s best fans.
The Indians last won a World Series when Bill Veeck owned the team in 1948. In 1997, they took a one-run lead into the ninth inning of Game 7, only to lose to the five-year-old Florida Marlins when Jose Mesa blew the lead. Terry Francona keeps the Tribe competitive these days, but nobody goes to the games and there is concern about the long-term health of the franchise.
*secret handshake*I am a secret member of the Shaughnessy Youth. Don't tell anyone.
Today's:As pointed out by BSMW, Dan sure loves to plagiarize himself:
Article on LeBron from 6/1/2015
Article on LeBron from today
There's little doubt in my mind that he printed out his article from last year and used it to write his article in today's paper.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celtics/2016/06/18/why-all-hate-for-lebron-james/SrlPq7bm9WS1oXgitjCEyO/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe:socialflow:twitterI make no bones about my rooting interest in this game. I want Cleveland to win. For Cleveland. The poor city hasn’t won a championship in any major sport since 1964, when the Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts in the old NFL championship game. That’s before the Super Bowl was invented. While we’ve been wearing out the tread on duck boat tires here in Boston (nine parades this century), folks in Cleveland have been starving and suffering. Just ask ’em about Rocky Colavito, Jose Mesa and/or Earnest Byner.
If you want to double down on the humanizing thing, and can stomach Kirk Minihane, the CHB interview on the Enough About Me podcast also had that affect. For what it's worth.I thought that that interview was really well-done. It kind of humanized Shaughnessy a little bit, which may or may not be good. YMMV.
Not everyone has to like advanced stats to enjoy or talk about baseball. I mean, it's not his bag and I think that's okay. Baseball, and all sports for that matter, are big enough where you can have folks who swear by the numbers, those who don't and those who fall somewhere in the middle. I don't think he's as bad with his anti-stats biases as his colleague Cafardo is.Advanced stats "make [his] skull implode." He's still a fucking Luddite at heart.
Roger Angell is in a different category maybe? His body of work is amazing, he has been writing about baseball since 1962, and contributing to the New Yorker since 1944 (!!!). The Vin Scully of baseball writers?I mentioned this in the Cafardo thread but it's amazing to me that he got in and Boswell still hasn't. Maybe I overrate him, but he's pretty much second to prime Gammons for me.
Thomas Boswell is the James Boswell of modern baseball. It's disgraceful that DS got in before him.I mentioned this in the Cafardo thread but it's amazing to me that he got in and Boswell still hasn't. Maybe I overrate him, but he's pretty much second to prime Gammons for me.
BSMW has a nice writeup on this, but he's not in the Hall. He won the Spink award, but he's not in the Hall. He has no plaque. He won't be in any of the wings. And now he shares company with award-winners like child-molesting Bill Conlin, who also won the award.I really cannot believe that they put him in the HoF. He joins Bill Conlin and Murray Chass as guys who devalue the Spink.
This thing is about 40000 times less prestigious than his fellow media members are making out.That’s all. So this “Hall of Fame” award is the BBWAA voting for a BBWAA member. Only once has a non-BBWAA writer received the award, and that was Roger Angell in 2014. Now if any writer deserved to be inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame, it might be Roger Angell. But since Angell wasn’t a member of the precious BBWAA they didn’t honor him with the Spink Award until he was 94 years old.
Aside from the Pulitzer, which none of these dum-dums are getting, this is probably the highest recognition that a baseball writer can get.This thing is about 40000 times less prestigious than his fellow media members are making out.
Exactly. Jackie was on EEI this morning and she put it best. She does not consider herself a member of the basketball hall of fame. She received an award. However we all know CHB will consider himself a hall of famer and his humility perfectly sums up why we all hate the CHB.My point was that he's not in the Hall of Fame and no one should ever refer to him as a Hall of Famer. He got a circle-jerk award from other miserable assholes who are all part of the same little clique.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — They are like the Beatles and a handful of men who walked on the moon. They belong to an exclusive club and know things that no one else knows.
They are the men who have been enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Saturday in Cooperstown, I was allowed to salute the diamond gods from a temporary stage assembled atop second base at Doubleday Field. It was part of an awards presentation one day before Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr. were officially enshrined.
What in the name of Ty Cobb was I doing there, you ask? Good question. I was there to humbly accept the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, presented annually to someone who’s covered baseball for a long time. But let’s get this straight: The lucky baseball scribe who accepts the award is not “inducted” or “enshrined.” The writer is not a Hall of Famer. That title is reserved for players, managers, and the occasional owner or general manager who has had a seismic impact on the game.
Despite this important distinction, the baseball writer gets to live and hang out with the real Hall of Famers for four days at the grand Otesaga Hotel. We get to eat, drink, and share elevators with the gods of the game.
But we never stop serving as the eyes and ears of the fans, so here are some notes and vignettes from behind the curtain on Hall of Fame Weekend:
It's really worth a click.Can you post relevant paragraphs? I thought we had a long-standing site policy of not generating clicks for Dan?
LOved the story about Boggs quoting all his stats.....some things just never changeThis was a legit good column from the CHB.
Even if you don't like the guy, if you like baseball and the Hall of Fame, you should check it out.