Hall of Shame Bakeoff: Joe Fitz vs. Dan Shaughnessy

January 12, 2013

No Hall of Fame inductees for you!

And – wait for it – very different takes in the local dailies.

Dan Shaughnessy’s Thursday Boston Globe  column:

46171382H6239713A Hall of Fame ballot without a whiff of PED usage

The poison ballot remained on my desk, unopened until Dec. 31.

I knew what was in there. Hardball anthrax. Nothing could be gained from tearing it open. Only bad things could come of it.

But I am a card-carrying member of the much-loathed Baseball Writers Association of America. I’ve been honored with a Hall of Fame ballot since 1987. It’s the most important responsibility that comes with membership.

And it has become the worst exercise of the year.

On Wednesday, one day before the Oscar nominations are announced, the BBWAA will announce the results of this year’s Hall of Fame election. It’s going to be another dreadful day for the BBWAA, for baseball, for Mom, apple pie, and America.

I voted for Jack Morris, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell, and Curt Schilling.

I did not vote for the greatest home run hitter of all-time. I did not vote for a guy who won 354 games and seven Cy Young trophies. I did not vote for a guy who hit 60 or more homers in a season three times. I did not vote for a catcher who hit 427 home runs. I did not vote for a first baseman who hit 449 home runs. I did not vote for a guy who hit 569 homers and cracked 3,020 hits. I did not vote for a guy who hit 70 homers in a season.

 

Joe Fitzgerald’s Boston Herald  column today:

Hall of Fame BaseballWhy I cast Hall of Fame vote for Clemens

When a few folks discovered this writer had a vote in last month’s Hall of Fame balloting, there was not only an interest in the decisions he made, but also a demand to know what he was thinking if he wasn’t on the same page they were, as if a disagreement was intensely personal to them . . .

For what it’s worth, here’s why Roger Clemens received a vote here, a vote that had much less to do with baseball than it did with adherence to a principle.

First of all, if Clemens used a performance enhancer, it was not to have a Hall of Fame career, but rather to extend one.

The key word there is “if,” though very little doubt exists in the court of public opinion. Thankfully, the court of public opinion isn’t where we look for justice.

The law tried to nail Clemens twice and it failed both times.

But that made no difference to many of the writers who would ban him, explaining suspicions were sufficient to deny him induction.

Suspicions? Is that all that’s now needed to convict someone?

Sorry, boys, it doesn’t work that way, or at least it’s not supposed to.

Different strokes for different papers.

Good, yes?

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Barney Frank(enstein)

January 9, 2013

From our Call and Response desk

Yesterday a Boston Globe editorial called on Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint Barney Frank (D-I Love Me) to fill the interim U.S. Senate seat created by John Kerry’s departure for the State Department.

New Congress.JPEG-087bdPatrick should take Frank up on his Senate offer

‘DOES IT matter, in the case of Congressman Frank, what I would have preferred?” quipped Governor Patrick, after Barney Frank announced to the nation — on “Morning Joe,” no less — that he is seeking Patrick’s support for the four-month interim appointment to replace Senator John Kerry. Yes, Frank can be obnoxious, even to his friends. And as a retiring congressman who relishes the idea of never again going before the voters, he’s as unleashed as he ever has been. Washington, watch out.

But as Patrick acknowledged, Frank is an excellent candidate for interim senator. Choosing him would serve two important purposes. First, since he’s emphatically ruled out any future election, his selection would allow the voters to choose a permanent senator without having one of the candidates anointed by the governor. Second, he would be effective immediately as a senator, since he’s about as knowledgeable on federal budget issues as anyone in Congress. That’s crucial because budget cutting will be the prime agenda item for the next four months.

 

Paging Fannie Mae. Paging Ms. Fannie Mae.

Today Joe Fitzgerald responded in his Boston Herald column.

Andy Samberg Barney FrankBarney Frank’s wit dulled by peevish trait

Here’s why Barney Frank is no favorite at this address.

No, it’s got nothing to do with philosophical or lifestyle issues, because total agreement has never been the litmus test for admiring someone here; if it were, this writer would have spent his career surrounded by a very small circle of kindred spirits.

Indeed, Barney, of all polar opposites, should have been easy to admire here because of his mastery of the language and an agile mind that churned out memorable quips . . .

Barney had the stuff of a bon vivant, a hail fellow well met, a joy to be around. Instead he was too often an unpleasant sort, as if an anger festered within him just waiting for an excuse to be unleashed.

Even the Globe, in yesterday’s fawning editorial urging Gov. Deval Patrick to grant Barney’s wish for a four-month interim appointment as John Kerry’s successor, thought it necessary to note, “Yes, Frank can be obnoxious, even to his friends.”

Great. That’s just what’s needed in the nation’s capital right now, an obnoxious presence in an atmosphere where cordiality is desperately needed.

 

In a previous incarnation, the hardreading staff had occasional contact with Frank at the local public television station. Every time, he would walk in the door in full complaint – Why am I not on the set yet? I don’t have time to wait around. Are you going to hurry this up?

Our response tended to be, “Congressman, no one wants to get you out of here faster than us.”

Not sure that extends to the U.S. Senate, though.

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Our Condolences to Joe Fitzgerald

November 1, 2012

The hardreading staff has had its differences with Boston Herald columnist Joe Fitzgerald over the years, but we have only sadness over the loss of his beloved wife, Carol.

From Jessica Heslam’s lovely tribute in today’s Herald:

‘I can’t imagine a better marriage’

For Herald columnist Joe Fitzgerald, she “swept” him off his feet.

She was home from college for the summer, working at a hamburger joint, when he first laid eyes on her in St. Johnsbury, Vt. — where he’d landed his first newspaper job at the Caledonian-Record.

“I can still remember now, the first time I saw her,” Fitzgerald recalled yesterday. “I was watching her from a little distance but just the way she smiled and her easygoing way — I thought, ‘Wow. This is one classy lady.’ ”

Carol Fitzgerald remained classy throughout the rest of her life.

After 46 years of marriage, and after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, Carol Fitzgerald died last Thursday. She was 65, a beloved mother and grandmother.

“It was like I was on a date for 46 years, that’s how I felt about her, and right to the very end. … I had the feeling, from the coon hunt to this room, and all this machinery, of what a lucky guy I’ve been,” Fitzgerald said. “She was remarkable.”

Joe and Carol raised three children and “shared a passion for old hymns and Southern gospel music.”

She had a big heart and a sweet spirit, Fitzgerald said, and he was “lucky enough” to marry her.

“The honeymoon never ended. At this point in our life, we’d sit every morning for an hour or two, I’d have two or three cups of coffee, and we would just talk about everything, about nothing,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s the good stuff.

“I can’t imagine a better marriage,” he added, “than the one we had.”

And we can’t imagine a better epitaph than that.

 

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Pesky Funeral Edition

August 23, 2012

The Boston Herald is decidedly not happy with the turnout for Johnny Pesky’s funeral by current Boston Red Sox players.

Or lack of turnout, to be precise.

It starts at the top of today’s front page (via The Newseum).

Next up: Joe Fitzgerald’s column.

Shame on Red Sox players

They’re the slowest-moving targets in town, easy to ridicule as they stagger to the merciful end of this dreadful season, but the Red Sox [team stats], as a team, could have hit one out of the park just by showing up at Johnny Pesky’s funeral.

That’s all they had to do, even if they didn’t feel a personal urge to show up, which might have been the case for many of them . . .

All they had to do was show up.

What a shame they didn’t, not for Johnny, but for them.

Not to get technical about it, but four current players did show up, as the Track Gals (and Megan!) pointed out in this item that had Sox management on the defensive.

Lucchino defends players who skipped Pesky funeral

Red Sox [team stats] president Larry Lucchino this morning defended his team for the small turnout at Johnny Pesky’s funeral earlier this week, saying it was “unnecessary to focus on that issue.”

“I think the people who knew Johnny best came to it,” Lucchino told WEEI’sDennis & Callahan.

Lucchino told the station that the team had more than 100 mourners at the service including front office staff, ownership, current players, staff and former players.

“It was a very impressive turnout,” he said.

But among current players only David Ortiz [stats], Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Vincente Padilla and Clay Buchholz were in the pews for Pesky’s final farewell. (Manager Bobby Valentine was also there.)

The Gals finish off the item (and the Sox players) with a flourish: “Despite the small turnout at Pesky’s final farewell, most of the team turned out that night for Josh Beckett’s  annual Beckett Bowl and concert at Lucky Strike Lanes and the House of Blues that night.”

To be sure, the Beckett Bowl is for a good cause, but ouch!

 

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Herald Still Mittsing in Action Edition

July 28, 2012

The hardreading staff was sure that after publishing zero pieces yesterday about Mitt Romney’s English muffin’, the Boston Herald would bounce back today with lots of zingy coverage.

No such luck.

The only mention of Romney in today’s paper was this lede to a piece headlined, “ROMNEY ROCKS PREZ ON GROWTH”:

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, knocked on his heels by Olympic gaffes overseas, was back on the offensive yesterday, blasting President Obama in the wake of a mediocre GDP report.

Unless there are some serious Mittigating circumstances, the feisty local tabloid has really screwed the pooch on this story.

But they’ve broiled the Chick(-fil-A) pretty good, although they did cut back to two-plus pages and five pieces today (vs. four-plus and eight yesterday).

The latest offerings include a taste test (apparently not online, but Popeyes won), a preview of the National Same-Sex Kiss Day slated for next Friday, reader reactions (“Mayor’s a turkey), a Joe Fitzgerald column decrying the intolerance shown to Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy, and a dueling mayors dustup (“Bloomberg fillets Menino over stance”).

Question for the Herald editors: Had your fill of this story yet? We have.

UPDATE: Saturday’s Boston Globe added this to the chix mix:

In online chat, Brown is brought into Chick-fil-A fray

Senator Scott Brown, who has earned kind words from Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino despite their differing political parties, treaded carefully Friday when asked during a Boston.com chat about the mayor’s spat with Chick-fil-A over its opposition to gay marriage.

“I disagree with what the CEO from Chick-fil-A said. I was glad he spoke further and said that his company does not discriminate,” Brown wrote from his South Boston campaign headquarters.

Noting that Massachusetts has strong antidiscrimination laws that could prevent problems should the company decide to set up shop in Boston, Brown added, “If they move forward with the location proposal, I trust the mayor and other officials will ensure that those laws are honored.”

Very diplomatic, no?

Saturday’s Wall Street Journal also checked in:

First Amendment Trumps Critics of Chick-fil-A’s Views

CHICAGO—The First Amendment is coming to the rescue of a chicken-sandwich chain that has drawn the ire of politicians outraged by its president’s public opposition to gay marriage.

One by one, local officials here and in Boston have revised their comments regarding the entrepreneur’s stance against gay marriage, tiptoeing between their disapproval of remarks he made on the subject and his right to say them.

Okay, then. We have democratic equilibrium at last.

Boston Herald editors: Do you read us?

 

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