As the hardreading staff has repeatedly noted (here too), the editors at the Boston Globe are pretty loosey-goosey in acknowledging that Red Sox principal owner John Henry also owns the paper.
Today’s edition just reinforces that slapdash approach.
FORT MYERS, Fla. – Jerry Remy has no plans to step down as color commentator on NESN Red Sox broadcasts and says he plans to stay in the booth throughout the season, even as his son Jared prepares to go on trial in October in the murder of Jennifer Martel.
“I’m planning on being in Baltimore Monday,’’ Remy said Thursday afternoon, speaking publicly for the first time since Sunday’s comprehensive and explosive Globe report on the criminal history of his son.
This is an unusual situation. Truly. There’s never been anything quite like it. It’s an awful and awkward intersection of Boston baseball folklore and the real world of murder, justice, family loyalty, and fan allegiance to the brand of the Red Sox and the persona of Remy.
Later in the piece Shaughnessy writes this: “Earlier this week, Red Sox (and Globe) owner John Henry told WCVB: ‘I’ve told [Remy] all of us in Red Sox Nation stand behind him. It’s a terrible thing he’s been going through, and we’re really glad to have him back.’'”
Score one for the Disclosure Dweebs. (Let us know if we should start a Facebook group, yeah?)
In the Sports section, though, it’s a different picture. From Chad Finn’s Sports Media piece:
No reason to oust Remy
Revelations lead to heated debate
In the days following Eric Moskowitz’s exhaustive report in the Sunday Globe on accused murderer Jared Remy’s sickening history of violence and the court system’s sickening history of not holding him accountable, there was little gray area to be found in a fierce if ancillary debate:
Should his father, longtime and legendary Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy, retain his job at NESN?
Based on the reaction early in the week I gathered from sports radio, television, social media, and e-mail, the vocal majority strongly believed Remy should resign or NESN should nudge him aside.
Finn made it clear that he stood with the minority, concluding “I can’t in good conscience suggest he should lose his job. There already has been far too much lost already.”
What Finn didn’t make clear is that John Henry is the boss of both of them.
Saturday’s local dailies present a nifty case study for those who worry that John Henry’s purchase of the Boston Globe will crimp the paper’s coverage of their kissing’ cousin Red Sox.
Sox seek OK to sell food during non-ballpark hours
It appears Red Sox Nation can’t get enough of Fenway franks.
The team is seeking city approval for a takeout concession on Lansdowne Street, near Gate C, that would be open during non-ballpark hours . . .
The team’s takeout concept is the latest in a string of non-baseball game money-makers designed to make the most of America’s oldest ballpark, which Red Sox owner John Henry this week said has a shelf life of another 30 years.
Far longer (we think) than the shelf life of a Fenway Frank. Not to get technical about it.
But the hardreading staff will wait to pass judgment until the Boston Sunday Globe is published, because of this (via the redoubtable Dan Kennedy’s Media Nation):
Boston Globe: Weekdays, 245,572 . . . Sundays, 382,452
Boston Herald: Weekdays, 95,929 . . . Sundays, 73,043
A piece in the Sunday Globe would get 50% more exposure than a Saturday piece, and roughly four times the circulation of Saturday’s Herald.
So . . . [snooze graf goes here]
At 11:45 Sunday morning we check out the Globe and . . . nothing.
Not good, Globeniks.
The concern people have about Henry’s Globe ownership is not so much whether Dan Shaughnessy will keep poking him with a stick, but whether the stately local broadsheet will be as vigilant about off-field matters such as these (also from the Herald):
[I]n December, the team won city approval to extend alcohol sales during baseball games and other events and to sell liquor on Yawkey Way.
The request to increase Fenway alcohol sales came less than three months after the Red Sox reached a controversial $7.3 million deal with the Boston Redevelopment Authority for an easement to shut down part of Yawkey Way for concessions during games and other events.
John Henry isn’t just a ballclub owner. He’s a real estate/media/financial mogul. The Globe needs to treat him as such.
Fact #1: David Ortiz is unquestionably the greatest clutch hitter in Boston Red Sox history. Fact #2: David Ortiz is 38 years old (at least). Fact #3: David Ortiz will make $15 million this coming season. Fact #4: David Ortiz wants more.
Let the Big Papirama begin!
Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy one week ago.
David Ortiz’s contract talk is selfish, offensive
David Ortiz was on Boston television the other night. Guess what he was talking about?
His contract.
Big Papi loves to complain about his contract. He’s never satisfied unless he has a multiyear contract. It’s about respect, I guess.
Sorry, but it’s also tone-deaf, selfish, and offensive.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, Gerry Callahan wrote this:
David Oriz can wait
With Papi destined to stay, Ben should avoid long-term deal
First off, let’s paint the whole picture.
David Ortiz didn’t just demand a contract extension from the Red Sox on “Sports Final” with Steve Burton on Sunday night. He demanded a contract extension while holding a white Chihuahua on his lap. And he didn’t just demand a contract extension while holding a white Chihuahua. He demanded a contract extension while holding a white Chihuahua that was wearing a yellow sweater.
Chihua-whatever.
Cut to yesterday’s Christopher L. Gasper Globe column.
Ortiz contract request fair, not foul
Ask and you shall receive, or if you’re Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, ask about a contract extension and you shall receive criticism, ridicule, and indignation for daring to ask . . .
Ortiz has drawn the ire of some Red Sox fans and media members [read: fellow Globie Shaughnessy] this winter for having the gall to repeatedly express his desire for a one-year contract extension with a year still remaining on the two-year pact he signed in November of 2012. Ortiz made $15 million last season, and is on the books for another $15 million this season.
Sometimes athletes just can’t win. Failure to express unequivocal desire to stay with a team beyond your current contract brands you disloyal, selfish, and greedy. Expressing a clear preference to stay with a team before your contract is up makes you insolent, selfish, and greedy.
The Broncos are going to beat the Patriots Sunday.
Sorry, that’s just the way I see it. I am not rooting for the Broncos. I am not into Satanic worship. Please do not kill my whole family. I am often wrong (remember the 2013 Red Sox, destined for last place?) and hopefully for New England fans, I will be wrong again.
The Patriots have proven folks wrong time and again. Overcoming doubters is the foundation of the Patriot franchise.
Doubting the Patriots this weekend is hardly a daring position. They are significant underdogs in Vegas. Most of the national TV panel guys will pick against New England. Some of the handicapping local car dealers will pick the Broncos. There might even be a footy-pajama fanboy or two with doubts about the Patriots’ ability to beat Peyton Manning.
So I am a doubter . . .
A doubter? Not in Denver, Danny Boy. There you’re a hero. You even made the homepage of the First-and-Orange BroncoBlog (look lower left).
You don’t see the Boston Herald being fêted in the Mile High City, do ya Danno?
No.
Final word goes to Roger Bournival at Dan Shaughnessy Watch (“We read him so you don’t have to”):
For what it’s worth, Tom Brady is 10-4 in head-to-head matchups with Peyton Manning. If Shank thinks the Patriots are going to lose, that’s all I need to take the Patriots.
The Red Sox crazy-ass 7th inning stretch last night – walk, single, wild pitch, infield hit – pulled Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy’s chestnuts out of an open fire.
As the hardreading staff previously noted, Shaughnessy wrote off the Tampa Bay Rays after Game 2 of the ALDS. The Rays promptly won Game 3, and led Game 4 after six.
As the hardreading staff has noted, Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy may have given a kayn aynhoreh (evil eye) to the Red Sox with his Sunday victory dance (headline: “Is it really necessary to go to Tampa?”).
Because it wasn’t just that the Sox lost last night to the Rays, but how they lost.
Red Sox infielders collide to botch ground ball in ALDS loss
Dustin Pedroia may have been a little too eager.
A costly infield blunder by the Boston Red Sox in the bottom of the 8th inning of their ALDS Game 3 matchup in Tampa helped the Rays score a go-ahead run on Monday.
With runners on first and second and one out, Rays shortstop Yunel Escobar hit a ground ball just to the left side of second base. Sox shortstop Stephen Drew and second baseman Dustin Pedroia both moved to field the ball. Drew scooped it up as Pedroia dove toward him, and Pedroia’s apparent effort to pull up wound up jarring the ball from Drew’s hand as he prepared to throw to first.
Exhibit B: Jose Lobaton’s walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth against Sox ace closer Koji Uehara.
Ouch.
Today’s Total Amnesia column from Shaughnessy (headline on the web last night: “A crushing loss for Red Sox against Rays”):
It hurts, but how badly?
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Red Sox were inches from a clean getaway. They had mirrors on the ceiling and pink champagne on ice in the visitors clubhouse at Tropicana Field.
And then . . .
The Worst . . .
Loss . . .
Ever.
OK, that’s an exaggeration. There is nothing devastating about a 5-4 loss when you are already leading a best-of-five series, two-games-to-zero. Jose Lobaton’s walkoff splash blast into the fish tank Monday night against heretofore unhittable Koji Uehara probably will end up being a mere footnote in the Red Sox’ inevitable march to the 2013 World Series.
Still, it hurts. And it gives pause.
As does Shaughnessy, who ditches his former bravado and concludes this way:
After the Sox rallied to tie it off Fernando Rodney in the top of the ninth, Lobaton came up with two out and nobody aboard and found the fish tank in right-center. Ballgame.
“I can’t say enough, the way we came back after giving up the lead,’’ said Farrell. “Just an exciting game. Well-played game. Still, we played a very good game tonight.’’
Perhaps. But it doesn’t feel good at this moment. This was the Red Sox’ first postseason walkoff loss since the Aaron Boone/Grady Little game of 2003.
Gulp.
If that turns into the Big Gulp, you know who to blame.
It’s called a kahn aynhoreh, “the magical phrase uttered to ward off the evil eye” according to The Joys of Yiddish.
And Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy failed to say it in his front-page piece in today’s Sports section.
Is it really necessary to go to Tampa?
Do we really have to go to Tampa/St. Pete? Can’t we just forgo the formalities and let the Red Sox advance to the American League Championship Series on sheer style, dominance, karma, and duende?
The Duck Dynasty/ZZ Top/Fidel Castro Red Sox look unbeatable at this hour. They bested the fatigued Rays, 7-4, at Fenway Park again on Saturday night and will send 12-1 Clay Buchholz to the mound to finish the series Monday.
And it gets even worse at the end:
It makes you want to fast-forward to the Fall Classic. Do you want the Dodgers (Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford), the Braves (who played here in Boston until the early 1950s), the Pirates (lost to the Red Sox in the first World Series in 1903) or the Cardinals (Series opponents in ’46, ’67 and ’04)?
That’s getting too far ahead. For sure.
But putting the Sox in the ALCS is not too far ahead.
Bring on the Tigers. Bring on the A’s.
This one is over.
Seriously, boychik? You’re actually saying that? First of all, if any town should appreciate the possibility of improbable comebacks, it’s Boston. Beyond that, even though there’s almost no way the Rays will come back, the accent is on almost. Shaughnessy should know that.
If the unthinkable now happens, you know who to blame.
Vin Scully, the legendary 85-year-old broadcaster who has called Los Angeles Dodgers games for lo, these last 64 years, has just re-upped for 2014, and the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy paid tribute to him in Sunday’s edition.
Vin Scully simply the best broadcaster of all time
Ted Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Bill Russell, Leonardo Da Vinci, Jim Brown, Winston Churchill, Bobby Orr, Yo-Yo Ma, Muhammad Ali . . .
And Vin Scully.
The best who ever lived.
On Friday, the Dodgers announced that Scully will be back as team broadcaster for his 65th year in 2014. A humbled Scully, now 85, gracefully participated in a press conference, telling the assembled media that he wished the Dodgers had simply released the news with a single line in the evening’s game notes.
The jury is very much out on David Ortiz in the local dailies.
From Nick Cafardo’s piece in today’s Boston Globe:
Steady progress has David Ortiz feeling upbeat
FORT MYERS, Fla. — David Ortiz feels more optimistic that he’ll be in the Opening Day lineup after running the bases Monday and feeling as if he can manage the expected soreness in his Achilles’.
“It feels good,” Ortiz said. “When I get going I’m fine. The problem is once I cool off, I start to get sore, but the doctor said it will go away. It’s just part of the treatment, part of [when you] start doing things. The injury, you got to start getting used to. That’s why we practice over and over and over and over. So you can get to that point . . . it’s a good day. I was moving pretty good. I don’t think I can run faster than that. Let’s just see how things go later on tonight.”
Not so fast there, Big Guy.
From Gerry Callahan’s column in today’s Boston Herald:
Aging David Ortiz may be Sox’ Achilles’ heel
Much depends on Papi’s health
If he were playing Old Man Basketball at the Y, we’d take him across the street for a couple of beers and let him down easy. It’s not the end of the world, we’d tell him. You can still play golf. You can still walk the dog. You’re still reasonably young and healthy, and you’ve got your whole life ahead of you.
You just can’t do this anymore.
For a tiebreaker we turn to this random thought from the Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy:
The David Ortiz Achilles’ situation is especially alarming given that he sustained the injury rounding second base in front of a home run hit by Adrian Gonzalez. That’s like Tony Soprano straining his Achilles’ walking down the driveway to pick up the morning newspaper.
violence and the court system’s sickening history of not holding him accountable, there was little gray area to be found in a fierce if ancillary debate:
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