I have a lot of work to do on the blog tonight and was delayed thanks to mom insisting I take her to the mall so she could find something for a memorial the entire family is attending on Friday. Suffice to say the plans I had for this evening have been pushed back to about 4 a.m. with all of the shit I have to do. I understand, mom doesn’t like dad driving at night and she’s not confident with her driving skills at this time so I have to drive to her place to pick her up and take her to the places she wants to go. I grit my teeth, but I do it. Gotta do it. She’s the only mom I have.

Anyway, let’s do some late night links then I have a slew of press releases for tonight, then some housekeeping for tomorrow since the megalinks will most likely be late again with all of the stuff I have to do at work and for the memorial.

Starting with Stephen Wilson of the Associated Press who has a scathing statement from the International Olympic Committee regarding the U.S. Olympic Network.

Seattle Times Olympics beat writer Ron Judd wonders if the USON announcement might undermine the U.S. bid for the 2016 Olympics.

Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times says the U.S. Olympic Committee’s actions only stand to hurt Chicago’s chances to host the Games.

Meg James of the Times says USON is already causing headaches just mere days after the formal announcement.

Ray Frager of the Sports Media Journal says a Baltimore sports talk show has been told to fix things. Keith Thibeault of SMJ talks about ESPN’s Ball Track technology that will be unveiled at the Home Run Derby.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record feels Ball Track could be like Fox Sports’ glowing puck if not used correctly. Ken writes that Army football has a new home in the Hudson Valley.

Laura Nachman recaps the memorial for Philly sports anchor Gary Papa.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Darren Pang joins Fox Sports Midwest as an analyst for the Blues, moving current analyst Bernie Federko to ice-level.

Norm Sanders of the Belleville (IL) News-Democrat also writes about Panger coming from Phoenix to join the Blues.

Back to the L.A. Times, Mark Medina writes that Candace Parker lands her own SportsCenter promo later this month.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the local ESPN Radio affiliate is making some lineup changes as of Friday.

Fabio Pereira of the Hollywood Reporter says mixed martial arts is growing thanks to UFC and its Ultimate Fighter series on Spike.

The Big Lead gets ESPN’s official statement on Erin Andrews taking a ball to the chin during the Wednesday’s Dodgers-Mets game.

Dan Levy of On the DL wonders in the Sporting News if ESPN hates the San Diego Padres.

Dave Kohl from the Major League Programs blog looks at classic offerings on CBS Sports as well as the decline of ESPN Classic.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball makes an announcement of a new content partnership.

That’s going to end our links for now. Stories that will be part of the Friday megalinks are already out so I’ll stop with the links and work on a bunch of press release posts.

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

Enter Roy Halladay – if not to Boston, then possibly New York. Boston Sports Blog has this as much about keeping Halladay out of the Bronx as getting him to Boston. One If By Land reminds us that Halladay could be a Yankee soon enough even if there is no trade. NESN’s Boston Red Sox blog suggests it may take six prospects to get Halladay and that the Sox system doesn’t have enough to woo the Jays. Say what? That’s one more than MLB Trade Rumors has the Cardinals ready to offer. My kingdom for a cool head. Here’s one: unless Halladay can hit .300, Tom Caron will pass.

Caught Off The Wall isn’t surprised that neither the Sox or Yanks have inquired about Halladay, given the anticipated asking price. Fenway West is deathly afraid of Halladay going to the Yankees but gets huffy at the prospect of Clay Buchholtz being involved in bringing him to Fenway. Rich Levine thinks maybe Buchholz ain’t that young anymore. Fighting Words has Buchholtz hearing that giant sucking sound of Dusty Brown and Aaron Bates being swept right up to the parent club.

Once again, Tim Wakefield is tops on the team as he won his eleventh game the night after Josh Beckett got his tenth. Sox Tea Party has Wakefield’s All-Star nod ruffling a few feathers over there in Bristol, while Over The Monster entertains the crazy idea of Wake starting. Keep Your Sox On defends the Wakefield selection on the basis of lifetime achievement and intangibles. An 11-3 record with a serviceable 4.14 ERA won’t do it, eh? Full Count has A.L. Manager Joe Maddon discussing who will catch Wakefield in St. Loius.

Yes, it’s mid-July and that can mean only one thing. Toeing The Rubber has this year’s installment of Jonathan Papelbon looking to close in the All-Star Game. Hmmm, one the one hand, we’ve got Pap throwing 30 pitches last night to retire three of the six batters he faced. On the other, Mo Rivera throws 11 pitches against a better Twins lineup in a perfect four-out save. You make the call. Speaking of heart attacks, A Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory is not happy that camera mischief made Papelbon’s outing last night even more stressful than Pap was making it.

Amid perceived turmoil in the Sox rotation, Bostonist Sports Redux has Josh Beckett their shining constant. The Bottom Line says Beckett is locked in and should start the All-Star Game. Peter’s Red Sox Forever loves to see Beckett every fifth day. Unlike Heidi Watney, Surviving Grady likes his Beckett served unfriendly.

Around the everyday lineup, Mazz loves the consistency Jacoby Ellsbury is adding to the bottom third of the order. Hacks With Haggs has Jason Bay trying to shake his June swoon. And while Theo shops Julio Lugo to other suckers, Sox & Dawgs says you can catch our shortstop of the future in Lowell.

As for shortstops of the past, that warm reception for Nomar on Monday night? Touching All the Bases says you can thank Orlando Cabrera. Small White Ball is ready to forgive and forget and can’t understand any lingering hatred for Nomar. SoxSpace News never wanted the standing ovation to end. Eric Ortiz wonders if Manny could expect the same reception on his return to Fenway.

Patriots

A little on the quiet side, as our bloggers are getting in some last-chance vacations. Wicked Good Sports has the changing of the guard at linebacker imminent. It Is What It Is has Junior Seau willing to go another round in New England. Blaug likes having Seau as a hedge against injuries. Pats Pulpit’s list of five wish-list players include two linebackers, neither named McGinest or Seau.

Sammy Morris is Pats Chowder’s AFC East breakout player of the year this season. And a Reissless Reiss’s Pieces brings us Matt Light in a pinch-hitting role.

Celtics / NBA

Celtics Stuff Live says the C’s are pushing all their chips into the middle of the table by giving Rasheed Wallace a mid-level exception offer. I *Heart* Celtics is sure Wallace will rack up minutes as a bench player, while Celtics Hub is uncomfortable with talk of Rasheed starting.

Fresh off the scent of Wallace, Gary Tanguay has been on Grant Hill’s trail, but it’s not looking as good. Green Street catches up with J.R. Giddens, who is looking at an important summer league in Orlando.

And finally, a couple of links too amusing to exclude simply because they don’t involve our C’s. Thanks For Playing likes Trevor Ariza’s attempt to link himself inexorably to LeBron James for life. The Dagger has Professor LeBron getting schooled on the hardwood by a student, but where’s the proof? Deadspin reports that Ron Artest has wanted to wear purple ever since he saw Kobe Bryant in the showers last year. I bet that’s one bar of soap Kobe held onto with both hands.

That’s all for today, but if I missed a site that has something to say, by all means, let me know about it at bob02878@yahoo.com.

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

Let’s do some links for the day.

We start with some stories about yesterday’s announcement about the U.S. Olympic Network.

Meg James of the Los Angeles Times looks at the new U.S. Olympic Network that is scheduled to launch next year.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand writes that the U.S. Olympic Committee felt it had to keep pace with other league-owned channels.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner has the USOC feeling that the new channel’s time has come.

Former LA Times writer, Alan Abrahamson, writing for Universal Sports says there are a lot of questions surrounding USON.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says USON could be a potential rival for Universal Sports.

Matthew Futterman from the Wall Street Journal says NBC Sports has to be looking over its shoulder at USON.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times writes that NBC Sports isn’t commenting about USON.

Steve Donahue of the Contentinople blog has USON partner Comcast saying the new channel will not hurt NBC directly.

Philip Hersh and Kathy Bergen of the Chicago Tribune write that the International Olympic Committee’s disapproval of USON might hurt the US’ bid to have the 2016 Summer Games in Chicago.

Eddie Pells of the Associated Press says the USOC is surprised at the IOC’s complaints about USON.

Brian Gomez from the Colorado Springs Gazette that the USOC is not concerned about the IOC’s disapproval.

Now to other stories

CNBC’s Darren Rovell previews what you’ll see on his latest special, “Inside Track: Refueling The Business of NASCAR”. It airs tonight on CNBC at 9.

Darren wonders if the tape of Jordan Crawford dunking on LeBron James will ever be released.

Darren says Kazakhstan is getting a boost from a company that is sponsoring Lance Armstrong’s team in the Tour de France.

Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Daily says Versus.com saw a huge traffic boost thanks to its streaming of the Tour de France.

Kristina Petersen of the Wall Street Journal reports that the Mountain West Conference has signed the Bowl Championship Series agreement with ESPN.

Gordon Monson of the Salt Lake City Tribune feels the MWC should not have signed off.

Glen Dickston of Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN will unveil “Ball Track” for the All-Star Home Run Derby on Monday.

Sports Illustrated picks up an AP story about the 20th anniversary of the Celebrity Golf Championship on NBC.

Mark Newman of MLB.com writes that the debut of the in-market streaming of the Yankees was a big success.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette says a local sports talk show will be taking the day off tomorrow and replaced with national programming.

Patrick Cloohan of the McKeesport (PA) Daily News reports that Stan Savran, a fixture on FSN Pittsburgh for 18 years, will be leaving the channel on Monday.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has the preliminary lineup when news/talk radio station WJFK flips to sports later this month.

In the Chicago Tribune, radio personality Steve Dahl remembers his role behind the infamous Disco Demolition Night at the old Comiskey Park some 30 years ago.

Lewis Lazare of the Chicago Sun-Times says ESPN Deportes Radio is looking for a Windy City outlet (scroll down).

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business feels sorry for Cleveland.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says ESPN is ranking the Brewers as fourth best odds to land Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says ESPN is bored this summer.

Friend of Fang’s Bites Tom Hoffarth talks about ESPN picking up English Premier League rights in the Irish Republic.

EPL Talk has surmised which English Premier Games will be seen on US television starting in August.

The Sports Media Watch says the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR race on the 4th of July did not do TNT any favors. And the SMW has some various ratings news and notes.

The Big Lead has a review of last night’s E! True Hollywood Stories on Baseball Wives.

Joe Favorito says sports and entertainment entities must use the right mix in targeting the youngest audience.

The Sports Media Journal’s latest podcast has Keith Thibeault talking with a TV sports anchor from one of the smallest markets in the country.

I think that’s going to do it for now. Back later.

From WEEI.com

From Getty Images

LJ's "Cartoon" on WEEI.com

LJ's Source

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

Tim Wakefield won his 11th game of the season last night, and David Ortiz hit a three-run homer, his 10th of the season to lead the Red Sox to a 5-4 win over the Oakland A’s at Fenway Park last night.

Nick Cafardo has Big Papi knocking in four of the five Boston runs last night. Michael Silverman has Papi providing the offense in support of Wakefield. Dom Amore has the Red Sox doing just enough to win once again. Harry Plumer has Ortiz returning to the big time. Robert Lee has Wakefield continuing his unforgettable season. Bill Ballou has Wakefield wrapping up the best first-half of his career. Jim Fenton has Wakefield and Ortiz teaming up for the win.

Steve Buckley says that Wakefield deserves to be the starting pitcher for the AL in the All Star game. Lenny Megliola is all over the ballyard in his column today. Amalie Benjamin says that we’re seeing the old familiar Big Papi. Brian MacPherson says that that Terry Francona predicted that we would see this. Daniel Barbarisi has more on the Ortiz of old coming back.

Sean McAdam says that the price for Roy Halladay would be very, very high. Rob Bradford says that you can count Josh Beckett among Halladay’s admirers.

Barbarisi has Jacoby Ellsbury working to ensure he doesn’t wear out on the basepaths in the second half of the season, as he did last year. Buckley has Manny Delcarmen getting used to hearing his name in trade rumors. Lee recounts another white-knuckle save for Jonathan Papelbon. Barbarisi has Nick Green unable to get his foot on the bag in a late inning play. Adam Smartschan says that the 2006 draft is starting to pay dividends for the Red Sox.

Check Bay Area Sports for coverage from Northern California on the game.

Cafardo’s notebook reports that the Red Sox have not yet inquired about Toronto ace Roy Halladay. The Herald notebook has Julio Lugo absent last night because of a serious family matter. Amore’s notebook has Jonathan Papelbon recording another shaky save. Plumer’s notebook has the Red Sox optioning Jed Lowrie to Lowell. Barbarisi’s Red Sox journal has more on why Lowrie is in Lowell. Ballou’s notebook has Green avoiding an error on the play mentioned above.

Celtics

The Celtics will introduce Rasheed Wallace this afternoon at 4:00.

Frank Dell’Apa and Marc J. Spears report that the Wallace deal is for two years plus a player option for a third. Mark Murphy says that the Celtics had the perfect pitchmen to attract Wallace. Scott Souza says Wallace is a perfect fit for the Celtics system. Ron Chimelis praises the move as well. Jeff Howe says that the Celtics are back to being a contender.

The Globe notebook  has Doc Rivers continuing to court Grant Hill. Murphy’s notebook has Lester Hudson breaking his finger in summer league play, putting his status with the Celtics up in the air.

Bruins

Stephen Harris has former BU star Jason Lawrence hoping to impress the Bruins in developmental camp. Fluto Shinzawa has David Krejci happy with his new contract. Mike Loftus has Lane MacDermid reminding some of his dad. He also has an interesting “inside” story on the drafting of Ben Sexton by the Bruins. Harris’ notebook has defense prospect Tommy Cross back on the ice.

 Misc

Dan Shaughnessy offers his thoughts on a wide variety of topics in the sports world. He’s also enthralled by the Dos Equis commercials with the most interesting man in the world. Warning…it’s also very Manny-centric, since Dan splits his time these days between Boston and Los Angeles.

Bill Burt also weights in on a number of topic, mostly Red Sox and Patriots, the latter of which he passes along a couple of rumors on.

Jeff Jacobs asks if you want hero worship from the sports media, or the truth.

David Willis isn’t happy with all the ads you see everywhere in the world of sports. Buddy Thomas has similar thoughts.

Michael Felger has a mailbag.

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

Cycling
Tour de France, Stage 6 – Versus, 8:30 a.m.

Golf
PGA Tour/John Deere Classic, 1st round – Golf Channel, 3 p.m.
U.S. Women’s Open, 1st round – ESPN, 2 p.m.

MLB

American League
Kansas City at Red Sox – NESN, 7 p.m.

National League
Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets – MLB Network, 7 p.m.

MLB Tonight: 1st to 3rd – MLB Network, 8 p.m.
Baseball Tonight – ESPN, 10 p.m.
MLB Tonight: Roundtripper Final – MLB Network, 10 p.m.

Entertainment
Attack of the Show (1,000th Episode) – G4, 7 p.m.
Big Brother 11 (series premiere) – WBZ/WPRI, 8 p.m.
Inside Track: Refueling The Business of NASCAR (hosted by Darren Rovell) – CNBC, 9 p.m.
Pitchmen/Pitchman: A Tribute to Billy Mays – Discovery, 9 p.m.
World’s Toughest Fixes: Solar Power Plant – National Geographic Channel, 9 p.m.
Naked Science: Tsunami From Outer Space – National Geographic Channel, 10 p.m.
Penn & Teller: Bullshit! – Showtime, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman – WBZ/WPRI, 11:35 p.m.
Body Language – Showtime, midnight

From WBZ’s release sent out last night:

WBZ News Radio will add another chapter to the history and heritage of its famous call letters. At 11:00 we will unveil a plaque honoring Gil Santos as the newest member to be inducted into the WBZ Hall of Fame.

Gil Santos retired from his morning sports anchor position in January of this year and WBZ News Radio is delighted to bring him back so he can see the permanent addition to the Hall of Fame wall on the front of the WBZ building on Soldiers Field Road. Gil was the voice of sports in New England for more than 38 years on WBZ. He’s covered an amazing 13 professional sports championships in Boston during his career. This will be Gil’s third hall of fame honor. He is already in the New England Sports Museum Hall of Fame as well as the Fairhaven High School Hall of Fame.

Gil becomes on the second member of WBZ’s Hall of Fame. Former WBZ morning news anchor Gary LaPierre was the first inductee in February of 2007 following his retirement in December of 2006.

Congratulations to Mr Santos for a well-deserved honor.

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

Comcast SportsNet, the broadcast partner of the Celtics will carry the press conference live, and will stream it on CSNNE.com. Gary Tanguay will anchor coverage from CSN’s Celtics studios and Greg Dickerson will be on-site for post press conference reaction.

Following the press conference, Michael Felger and Tanguay will have full analysis and Dickerson will have an expected one-on-one with Wallace on Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight at 6:30 p.m. The Boston Globe’s (for now) Marc Spears will breakdown the signing on the Late Edition of Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight at 10 p.m.

CSN’s sister station under the Comcast umbrella, NECN will also stream the conference on their website, NECN.com.

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

Let’s do some linkage today. Plenty of stuff to go over.

First, Sports Business Daily’s Tripp Mickle and John Ourand have details of the all-new U.S. Olympic Network which begins operation in 2010 and gets a big boost launching on Comcast.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times says the new channel will provide Olympic Sports 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Noted Olympics reporter, Ron Judd of the Seattle Times, says USON as it will be called, will be available on multiple platforms.

Wayne Friedman of Mediapost says USON will show live events and past Olympics through documentaries and movies.

But Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reports that the International Olympic Committee is already blasting the new channel.

Also from the Times, Ken Belson writes that Women’s Professional Soccer operates without a major TV contract and with a reduced budget than its previous incarnation.

Back to the Sports Business Daily which lists the Top 10 most viewed sporting events in the 2nd quarter of 2009.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand writes that ESPN is unveiling new graphics for the MLB All-Star Home Run Derby on Monday.

Christian Red of the New York Daily News talks with Laura Posada, wife of Yankees catcher Jorge Posada, about her debut on a new reality series about baseball wives on E!

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner previews a Darren Rovell-hosted special on CNBC about NASCAR and its future.

Paula Cee in the DC Examiner says local news/talk radio station WJFK could flip to all-sports any day now.

Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean talks with several NFL writers and TV analysts about the latest developments in the Steve McNair case.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says Fox Sports Ohio has taken care of an upcoming Reds-University of Cincinnati football conflict.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business is already tired of the Tribune sale/non-sale of the Cubs.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes about the All-Star Game continuing its incentive for the World Series and Tiger Woods outrating the Brewers-Cubs on Sunday.

Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post says ex-Colorado Rockies skipper Clint Hurdle plans to have more appearances on the MLB Network this summer.

Kelly Burgess of the Los Angeles Times tells us that ESPN will air Tony Hawk’s segment of the tearjerking series, “My Wish” on SportsCenter throughout Thursday.

The BBC reports that ESPN has been granted the rights by the English Premier League to show its package of games into Ireland. That package was held by Setanta Sports.

The Sports Media Watch has a look at the weekend ratings.

Evan Weiner of Examiner.com says the ACC is pulling its baseball tournament from Myrtle Beach, SC scheduled for 2011, 2012 and 2013 over the state’s flying of the Confederate flag at its capital.

I’ll end it there for now.

The celebrate the name change, the arena is hosting the “TD Garden Golden Ticket Giveaway” – a neat contest with a fantastic grand prize. Here are some details:

A major promotional contest celebrating the venue’s name change, the ‘TD Garden Golden Ticket Giveaway’ will coincide on July 16 for one day only. Five TD Garden Golden Tickets will be hidden inside the wrappers of free, limited-edition TD Garden chocolate bars. One of the TD Garden Golden Ticket winners will win season tickets to every TD Garden event, including regular season Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, and Boston Blazers games as well as concerts and family shows.Hundreds of other prizes will be awarded in the TD Garden chocolate bars including tickets and suites to sporting events, concerts, family shows as well as Garden Gold cards, TD Banknorth Visa Gift Cards and discounts to the Boston Bruins ProShop.

The chocolate bars will be distributed for one day only, July 16, at the TD Garden and select TD Banknorth store locations in Massachusetts beginning at noon, while supplies last. A total of 19,600 TD Garden chocolate bars will be given out, one for each seat in the arena. The TD Garden chocolate bars are free of charge, and each person who visits the designated locations may receive one chocolate bar. Exceptions to this rule will be made for certain cases such as radio promotion winners and those who participate in the TD Garden Insiders email club and social media program.

Season tickets to every Garden event? That’s a great prize. The chocolate bars are free? Bonus.

Existing exterior signage is starting to be removed today, as the arena prepares for the name change. On July 16th the new graphic identity of the new name will be revealed.

“TD Garden” will be the official name of the building through 2025.

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

Jason Bay hit his 20th home run of the season, and Josh Beckett picked up his 10th win of the season as the Red Sox beat the A’s 5-2 last night at Fenway Park.

Adam Kilgore has Josh Beckett proving to be the stopper that the Red Sox needed last night. Michael Silverman has the Red Sox All Stars leading the way for Boston last night. Daniel Barbarisi has Beckett loving Fenway Park. Paul Doyle  has more on Beckett enjoying the Fenway stage. Ron Chimelis  has Bay feeling a lot better about himself after this one. Bill Doyle has Beckett joining Tim Wakefield in the 10 win club. Bill Burt has Beckett and Bay finally looking like All Stars. Jim Fenton has Beckett continuing to look strong after his bad April.

Dan Shaughnessy applauds Terry Francona and the Red Sox for how they handled Dustin Pedroia’s family emergency the other night. Steve Buckley has similar praise for Francona and how he insisted Pedroia spend the night with his wife at the hospital. Mike Fine also looks at how Francona has cared for his players.

Ben Collins has Jason Bay getting back on track with a home run early last night. Buckley has Bay climbing out of his rut and displaying his power last night. Barbarisi has Bay believing that his slump may be over for now. Fenton also looks at Bay showing signs of slipping out of his slump last night. Alex Speier says that Josh Beckett has never been better than he is right now.

Silverman says that the Red Sox lineup might be a work in progress the rest of the season. Brian MacPherson looks at how Aaron Bates earned himself a callup. Barbarisi has Bates bringing his father’s memory to Fenway with him. Burt looks at the Anatomy of a rookie in profiling Bates.

Rob Bradford examines whether the Red Sox really have a shot at Roy Halladay.

Kilgore’s notebook has John Smoltz insisting that he’s pitching better than his 0-2 record and 6.60 ERA would indicate. Silverman’s notebook has Pedroia back in the lineup last night. Barbarisi’s Red Sox journal has more on Pedroia back in the lineup after a scary night at the hospital with his wife. Doyle’s notebook has more on Pedroia. Chimelis’ notebook  has more on Pedroia’s baby watch. Doyle’s notebook has more on Bate’s tribute to his dad.

Celtics

 Jim Fenton looks at the improvements made by the Eastern Conference contenders. Tim Weisberg says that there are two sides to Rasheed Wallace’s reputation. Mark Murphy has Eastern conference foes weighing in on the Wallace signing.

Murphy’s notebook says that the Celtics pursuit of Grant Hill might be a long shot. Frank Dell’Apa has draftee Lester Hudson trying to show in summer league that he is more than just a scorer.

Misc

Mike Loftus has a report from the first day of Bruins development camp, where the team’s three most recent first round picks are among the attendees. Stephen Harris has ‘08 first rounder Joe Colborne bulking up a bit. Fluto Shinzawa has ‘07 selection Zach Hamill hoping to impress the Bruins brass.

Mark Farinella thinks we could see Junior Seau yet again.

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell reports that Boston might not get an Ultimate Fighting Championship event until next year.

Greg Saulmon has a tribute to retiring Springfield Republican sports columnist Garry Brown.

Michael Felger and Curt Schilling go head-to-head on the topic of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Who to side with? Felger, I guess, though I think I’d rather root for nuclear annihilation.

Ken Fang has Wednesday’s Viewing Picks.

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

Cycling
Tour de France, Stage 5 – Versus, 8:30 a.m.

MLB

American League
Oakland at Red Sox – NESN, 7 p.m.

National League
Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets – ESPN, 7 p.m.

MLB Tonight: 1st to 3rd – MLB Network, 8 p.m.
Baseball Tonight – ESPN, 10 p.m.
MLB Tonight – MLB Network, 10 p.m.

Entertainment
Wipeout – WCVB/WMUR/WLNE, 8 p.m.
America’s Got Talent – WHDH/WJAR, 9 p.m.
UFC’s Ulimate 100 Greatest Fights – Spike, 9 p.m.
Primetime: Crime – WCVB/WMUR/WLNE, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman – WBZ/WPRI, 11:35 p.m.

In anticipation of his induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame later this month, NESN will air a special on Jim Rice on Saturday, July 18. It will air without commercial interruption. According to the release, some of Jim’s teammates, including Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn, Jerry Remy and Carl Yastrzemski will talk about Jim and his career.

In addition, the special delves into Jim’s childhood in South Carolina as the press release states:

Earlier this month, NESN cameras accompanied Jim to his hometown of Anderson, South Carolina where Rice introduces viewers to the people and places which shaped him as a ballplayer, and how they influenced his career with the Red Sox.

“Along with Red Sox fans everywhere, we are very excited that Jim is receiving the recognition he richly deserves as one of baseball’s all-time greats,” said Joel Feld, NESN’s executive vice president of programming and executive producer. “Jim humbly allowed us to follow him back to his hometown in South Carolina to document where he grew up and to meet many of the people that helped make him into the extraordinary player and person that he is today.”

The special, “Jim Rice: Journey to Cooperstown” will air July 18 at 9 p.m.

Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch

I have enough links to warrant an update today.

Starting with two links from the Sports Business Daily and thanks to the fine people there for opening these pages to the public.

Comcast-owned Golf Channel and Versus saw the biggest year-to-year viewership gains for a sports network as Austin Karp writes.

Erik Swanson talks to several media writers (all familiar names if you read Fang’s Bites regularly) about NBC’s tape delayed Wimbledon coverage.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that Versus is all over the Tour de France. Jim adds that Versus will have Ben Stiller on its Tour de France primetime show this evening.

Thom Weidlich of Bloomberg News reports the City of New York has settled a lawsuit with a Yankees fan. Thanks to Deadspin for the link.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Gatorade is releasing limited edition Michael Jordan bottles to celebrate his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Big Ten Network has quietly started a channel on Hulu.

Ray Frager of Sports Media Journal writes that Nike is timely with its ads.

If you live near the Chicago area or have Comcast SportsNet Chicago on DirecTV, Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business will be on at 6:30 p.m today to talk about the Cubs sale. Ed says the Cubs are still talking to interested parties as the sale to the Ricketts family is not final.

The Biz of Baseball’s Maury Brown says all living U.S. Presidents will appear in a video before next week’s MLB All-Star Game with President Clinton throwing out the first pitch.

The Big Lead reviews ESPN2’s SportsNation.

Chris Byrne of Eye on Sports Media has some post-Wimbledon thoughts.

Mimi Turner of the Hollywood Reporter says ESPN will launch its UK channel next month as well as one in HD.

Rick Kissell of Variety writes that golf and tennis led the ratings on Sunday.

Steve Clarke of Variety reports that the Wimbledon men’s final grabbed 50% of all viewers in the UK.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that CBS College Sports and the mtn. will get a boost from Cox Communications in Arizona and Orange County, CA.

That’s it from here.

Let’s give you links for today.

Starting with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand who looks at the ratings of Wimbledon, MLB and the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.

Here’s a story that bears watching. Beth Ann Baldry of Golfweek reports that a group of top LPGA players are calling for commissioner Carolyn Bivens to resign.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Staples will see a lot of exposure during the Michael Jackson funeral today.

I wrote a story for the Fang’s Bites at Boston Sports Media Watch page about Boston Globe Celtics beat writer Marc Spears leaving for Yahoo! Sports.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that NBC is setting up at the nearby Saucon Valley Country Club for this week’s U.S. Women’s Open.

A couple of stories from Tim Lemke of the Washington Times. He writes that Tiger Woods was a big draw to the AT&T National both in person and on TV. Tim also looks at the temporary stadium built for the Washington Kastles of World Team Tennis.

Tracee Hamilton of the Washington Post is amazed at the subject matter on commercials that run on sports television.

Dan Steinberg of the WaPo’s DC Sports Bog talks about Wizards TV voice Steve Buckhantz’s signature call.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business tells us what the Cubs sale means for the team’s fans.

George Castle of the Northwest Indiana Times profiles MLB Network analyst Dan Plesac.

Tim Ellerbee of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says the SEC’s new contract with ESPN will put many of the conference’s football games into primetime.

Mel Bracht of the Oklahoman says CBS is going into the vaults to replay a 1963 golf duel between Jack Nicklaus and Sam Snead.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News writes about a local sports radio station juggling its lineup. Barry also looks at the latest person ousted from 4th and Long.

Penny Parker of the Denver Post talks with outgoing Fox Sports Net President Bob Thompson.

The Toronto Star’s Chris Zelkovich says a regular season CFL game beat out the Wimbledon men’s final in the ratings.

Kate Holton of Reuters says ESPN is going to launch a new channel in the UK to carry English Premier League games as well as some of its US programming.

A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin gets on the Kansas City Star’s Jason Whitlock for the character assassination of Serena Williams.

A bunch of links to the Sports Media Watch now. The ratings for the Wimbledon men’s final were down from last year, but still strong. The AT&T National beat Wimbledon in the ratings. A boring Wimbledon’s ladies final trailed last year’s all-Williams affairs. Manny Ramirez’s return to the Dodgers failed to bring any juice to Fox’s MLB ratings. SMW has some more ratings news and notes.

Joe Favorito talks about the mixing of summer sports to help build a brand.

That’s going to do it for now.

Cycling
Tour de France, Stage 4 – Versus, 8:30 a.m.

MLB

American League
Oakland at Red Sox – NESN, 7 p.m.

National League
Atlanta at Chicago Cubs – WGN America, 8 p.m.

MLB Tonight: 1st to 3rd – MLB Network, 8 p.m.
Baseball Tonight – ESPN, 10 p.m.
MLB Tonight: Roundtripper Final – MLB Network, 10 p.m.

Entertainment
The Superstars – WCVB/WMUR/WLNE, 8 p.m.
America’s Got Talent – WHDH/WJAR, 9 p.m.
Deadliest Catch – Discovery, 9 p.m.
Shouting Fire: Stories From the Edge of Free Speech – HBO, 9:45 p.m.
Primetime: Family Secrets – WCVB/WMUR/WLNE, 10 p.m.
Rescue Me – FX, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman – WBZ/WPRI, 11:35 p.m.

In a story that broke Monday evening, Yahoo! Sports which has been hiring writers left and right raided the Boston Globe and hired Celtics beat writer Marc Spears. The move comes as the Globe has been in flux as the New York Times Company has been battling the Boston Newspaper Guild over financial concessions.

Spears has been in talks with Yahoo! to join its staff for almost a year. The move comes at a time when Globe staffers wonder when, not if the death knell for the paper will be rung. So Spears took the opportunity to leave and one certainly could not blame him for doing so.

Marc tells The Big Lead that he’s looking forward to joining Yahoo. He helped to break the Rasheed Wallace to the Celtics story on Sunday.

So where does this leave the Globe? Frank Dell’Apa is the only one left to cover the Celtics beat. Could the paper bring Shira Springer back? Hiring from outside the company may not be in the cards considering the financial condition of the Globe.

It leaves the Herald with strength in numbers with Mark Murphy and Steve Bulpett. WEEI.com’s Jessica Camerato and contributor Jeff Goodman are teaming up to provide solid coverage of the Celtics and the NBA for Entercom’s website.

In addition, there’s Comcast SportsNet’s Gary Tanguay who’s been developing solid contacts as part of the C’s cable home.

It will be interesting to see what direction the Globe takes for the Celtics beat.

The Patriots have announced their schedule for the first week of training camp, set to begin later this month.

According to the team, training camp will kick off with double sessions on the following days:

• Thursday, July 30, 9:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.
• Friday, July 31, 9:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.
• Saturday, August 1, 9:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.
• Sunday, August 2, 9:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.
• Monday, August 3, 9:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.
• Tuesday, August 4, 9:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.
• Wednesday, August 5, 9:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.

All fourteen sessions will be open to the public, but in this rainiest of summers, you’d be well advised to double-check before making the trek to Gillette Stadium. Call (508) 549-0001 for the latest practice schedule updates.

Post from: Patriots Daily

Early Camp Schedule Set

As usual, I also scoured the upcoming schedule of all the ESPN networks in the hope that there might be a game, or even a “Sports Century” feature on Tom Brady or something, but no such luck. It’s all NFLN once again.

Thursday, July 2

2:30 PM – NFL Film Session: Super Bowl XLII- New York Giants vs. New England Patriots (HD)
(You know, I’ll probably skip this one.)

Friday, July 3

5:30 PM – NFL Replay: New York Giants vs. New England Patriots (Super Bowl XLII) (HD)
(This one too.)

Sunday, July 5

5:00 PM ET – America’s Game: 2001 New England Patriots (HD)

7:00 PM ET – America’s Game: 2003 New England Patriots (HD)

8:00 PM ET – America’s Game: 2004 New England Patriots (HD)

Tuesday, July 7

4:00 PM – Road to the Super Bowl: New England Patriots (2004)

8:00 PM – Game of the Week: Oakland Raiders vs. New England Patriots (2001 AFC Divisional Playoff) (HD)

11:00 PM – Game of the Week: Oakland Raiders vs. New England Patriots (2001 AFC Divisional Playoff) (HD)

Post from: Patriots Daily

Patriots on NFL Network This Week (July 2-7)

It might be hard to pin down the top ten moments from this decade, never mind the previous four. The list of moments as selected by the team can be found at the Patriots website, and you have the opportunity to put together your own list.

Here is the official release from the team about the voting:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 1, 2009

FANS TO DECIDE THE TOP 10 MOMENTS IN PATRIOTS HISTORY WITH ONLINE VOTE AT PATRIOTS.COM

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Football may be a game of inches, but it is defined in moments.

Starting today, Patriots fans can define the “Top 10 Moments in Franchise History” at Patriots.com.

There have been many memorable moments in the Patriots’ first half century of play and – in celebration of the franchise’s 50th anniversary season – a nomination committee took on the task of pooling together a collection of 50 snapshots in time that will take fans on a stroll down memory lane.

Fans will have the final say, creating their “Top 10 Moments” list by sorting and ranking their favorite moments from that list. Voting begins today and closes on Aug. 1.

The results will be announced starting in October with a series of features on “Patriots All Access” and in the pages of Patriots Football Weekly.

During the offseason and throughout the 2009 regular season, Patriots fans have been invited to discuss, debate and cast their votes in a series of 20 “Top 10 All-Time” lists on Patriots.com as part of the 50th anniversary celebration. The lists have chronicled all aspects of Patriots history, including the most recent “Top 10 Opponents of All-Time” list.

Now, focus shifts to capturing the most significant moments in the last 50 years. Some may have come with a kick, like Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXXVI, or with the spinning wheels of a tractor, like Mark Henderson clearing the path to victory in the “Snow Plow Game.” It might only have been one moment, but the memories can last a lifetime.

Elsewhere in Patriots news, one of my all-time favorite Patriots, Willie McGinest would love to come back and play his final season with the team that drafted him and for whom he played his first 12 season for. McGinest was the first draft pick made by the Kraft regime, and Jonathan Kraft has often sentimentally pointed that fact out. Can he still play? Not full time, but I could guess he might make a nice situational player, and his leadership and experience would be a plus.

Also, former Patriot Ellis Hobbs, traded to the Philadelphia Eagles during draft weekend, is making sure that he doesn’t burn any bridges with his former team. Hobbs was extremely complimentary towards the Patriots in an ESPN Radio interview, and might end up being the rare player that is actually more popular after being traded away.

We’re in July…that means by the end of the month we’ll be in training camp. Stay tuned for more details about our upcoming schedule as the month goes on.

Post from: Patriots Daily

What Is Your Favorite Patriots Memory?

Everybody needs a solid partner. Johnny Unitas had Raymond Berry. Wyatt Earp had Doc Holliday. Heck, even a solo guy like Michael Jackson had Quincy Jones.

In about a month my partner and I will be walking down the slope to the Patriots practice fields to check out New England’s first day of training camp (I married well, if I do say so myself). In honor of our wedding anniversary Monday, this edition of picks involves the top half-dozen New England pairings during the Bill Belichick era.

Bob Kraft & Bill Belichick: Um… yeah. In other breaking news, Pangaea looks ready to separate into continents. We take this match-up for granted now, but remember, it took a couple of bad break-ups to get these kids together (Kraft and Pete Carroll, Belichick and the NYJ). Since then, Kraft has done a great job of letting Bill do what he does, i.e., create an expectation of winning. A blessing to any Patriots fan, long-term or no.

Tom Brady & Corey Dillon: You might think of Brady eloping with a particular pass-catcher, but when it comes to receivers, Our Tom gets a bit fickle. He’s had plenty of top targets, but only one top rusher. In 2004, his first year with the team, Dillon ran for a club record 1,635 yards at 4.7 yards per tote. Meanwhile, Brady passed for 28 TDs and a 96.2 rating, his best numbers until the insanity of 2007 (50 TDs, 117.2 rating).

And, oh yeah: 2004 was New England’s last Super-Bowl-winning season. If that doesn’t get you at least a little intrigued at how Fred Taylor will do in Foxboro, well then I just don’t know what makes you tick.

Randy Moss & Wes Welker: More than Brady and any one receiver, this tandem brought spectacular numbers to New England’s offense. They met cute in 2007 (one traded for a second-rounder, the other for a fourth) and hit it off: Moss scored a record 23 TDs while Welker tallied a franchise-record 112 receptions. They made it through a difficult time (The Game That Shall Not Be Named) and even found success with new acquaintance Matt Cassel last year. Moss and Welker brought the type of fireworks not seen at Foxboro outside of the Fourth of July. They hope to have a repeat performance this year as they reunite with Brady. Call it a renewal of vows.

Rodney Harrison & Ty Law: The wily veterans got to a point in their relationship that they could afford to improvise, at times switching positions to confuse quarterbacks (such as with Peyton Manning in the January 2004 AFC Championship). When Law went down on the hellish Heinz Field turf in the fall of 2004, Coach Belichick did an amazing job of improvising with the likes of undrafted rookie Randall Gay, receiver Troy Brown and oddly-named Earthwind Moreland. Blame it on bad luck, bad officiating, or bad hands, but since that season, the Patriots secondary’s playoff effectiveness has been only slightly better than that of Roger Clemens.

Tedy Bruschi & Mike Vrabel: Now that he’s off to revitalize the Kansas City defense, it’s time to give Vrabel credit for what he and Bruschi did together for New England. Whether rushing Kurt Warner into an ill-advised pass in Super Bowl 36, holding down the middle in lieu of the failed Chad Brown/Monty Beisel experiment or catching touchdown passes, Vrabel did everything asked of him except stop aging. Bruschi enters his 14^th year in New England looking to continue contributing on the field and off, helping along the new crop of linebackers who hope to take the team into another era. This area won’t see a tandem like that in the foreseeable future.

If Belichick’s defense relies on its linebackers, the last pair from its three Super Bowl wins will be missed. How much they’re missed will depend on…

Belichick & Undrafted Free Agents: One aspect of NFL Draft weekend that New England fans have come to enjoy actually begins right afterward, when the Pats start picking up undrafted rookies. This year’s linebacker group will include Pierre Woods from Michigan, Gary Guyton of Georgia Tech and possibly Vince Redd out of Liberty. Whether it’s the linebacking crew or players like Gay, Mike Wright or BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Belichick looks like he sure can pick ’em, especially after others don’t.

Now a bonus pairing, in honor of my wife’s and my seven years together. Call it Six In One Plus One:

Patriots Place and The Fans: Yes, Foxboro Stadium had its high points, including its ability to amplify crowd noise (and its tendency to engender touching relationships – literally – with fans sitting on either side of you. Oh, you metal bleachers!). Still, what used to be little more than a plot of Astroturf in the middle of a parking lot is now a destination, a modern stadium surrounded by enough shops and restaurants to keep fans occupied between morning and afternoon training camp sessions. Plus, now that the hotel is open, we can watch practice, go to the spa, get some dinner and check out a movie.

My heavens. Maybe we should postpone our anniversary for a month. I’ll consult with my partner.

Chris Warner can be reached at chris.warner@patriotsdaily.com.

Post from: Patriots Daily

Six In One – Pats Pairings

This is why it is going to be hard closing down shop here at Shots. It was a comment from Dryheave this past Sunday:

What the hell are you writing?….a sequel to War and Peace?….The Great Wall of China was built in less time

Forgive me Sports Guy, but these are MY readers.

It was a fair question from a longtime commenter and THE Pete Shepard apologist.

I took a sabbatical and it’s turned into a residency. My first book has taken more of my time than I thought and it hasn’t stopped after the writing was completed as I naively believed it might. In fact, the post-writing responsibilities are more intense and probably more important than the actual creation. Marketing, revising and preparing for the September 8th release are daily focuses.

Those aren’t complaints by any means, those are realities of trying to maximize the oomph of book sales that all writers and publishers grapple with. It just doesn’t allow me to pontificate on Boston’s sports media in the depth I used to. Or to any degree at all.

So for all of that and a bit more, I’m posting at Scott’s Shots for the final time. Thanks, in all sincerity, for the opportunity to serve you.

I’m not sure many of you realize how long we’ve actually been together. This little blog started up when people were still asking, “What’s a blog?” And those people were just my technophobe family members. Now I’m going to feel like an outsider without my own blog.

The current BSM(W) archives only date back to March 2004, but if memory serves, we were with you by late 2002. We’re talking six and a half years of showing an odd, unhealthy obsession with the men, women and children who cover the local sports at all different levels. I aimed to be Jack Craig, Richard Sandomir and Rudy Martzke and I’ll never know why. It just seemed to fit and truth be told, I wasn’t half bad at it. Check the records - my philosophical thinking on the business was never that far off.

I’ll stop chest-puffing now and I promise to not get all-linky with you (browse the recent archives if you wish) and I’m not much for the extended goodbye.

If you paid attention, you know that Shots (through the magic of Bruce Allen Media) did contribute - in at least some small way - to this city’s evolution in Sports Web activities.

At first, I’ll admit that this space had more bluster than brains. I was a tabloid blogger for the most part - cheap shots and semi-informed opinions mixed with speculation and rumor. “The Track Gals” in a jockstrap, you might say. Oddly, it was very similar to a lot of the work put forth by the Deadspin-inspired bloggers of today. I was kissing Suzy Kolber and being with Leather long before that was even popular. (Way back to my SPORT magazine days, in fact)

Things changed however after about a year of tablogging and the thin-skinned and overlooked grunts who cover sports for Beantown’s nutty fandom began to discover a place to air their grievances privately and with protection. If they only knew, I used to think, that this space was nothing more than the continuation of college column at UMass which had been dormant for a decade. (I’m not ruling out a third incarnation at some point, so this is NOT a retirement announcement.) While my Campus Basement days were spent trying to woo unsuspecting co-eds to my lair through pithy columns and wild assessments, the 2002 version sought to tell every one how much they sucked at the jobs I knew I could do better than them and then try and woo unsuspecting ladies. (That part didn’t work in either decade, by the way.)

The Shots “community” really began to grow when I became less like Page Six and more like Romenesko (I wish). From there rhetoric eventually became reporting. Oh, sure I created messes for myself (Bonnie Bernstein) and explored messes made by others (Michael Gee, Ron Borges, John Tomase, Jessamy Tang). I stayed on top of the nearly-bloody Dennis and Callahan contract negotiations and had various levels of discourse with the aforementioned Bill Simmons, a recurring character who I began to find less and less appealing as he became more and more rambunctious with his lot in life as the World Wide Leader’s Teflon Don.

In other words, I did what the early blogists were supposed to do: I questioned why, commented on how and pushed the Fourth Estate’s Boston “toy department” to look in the mirror. I hate to think of how much of that early blogistry has been lost as we now traipse into all levels of un-charted territory with social media and technology walking hand-in-hand. There’s a lot of residue out there that needs be scraped away so the intelligent conversations can be heard. It’s a slow and tedious process for the most part.

But make no mistake, this thing is about to go in some wacky directions.

The message is no longer controlled by the guys with the ink and the paper - it can now be controlled by each individual athlete, coach, entertainer or random Tweeter. For better, for worse and undoubtedly forever. The battle to control the message will become more significant than the message itself and if you ask me, the whole model will be flipped on its head.

It is that brave new world into which I’m soon to be headed and the reason I have to give up this weekly therapy session I coyly passed off as a blog/column. But even if I wasn’t going to uproot the Shanty and pack most of its contents for a trip down south, it would be time to end this vice I’ve had for the last half-decade-plus. The thrill is gone a bit if you must know - my critical eye became no more than a glazed over one and you deserve more than that.

Bruce Allen has built this site and his “network” into a portal he should be very proud of. Where once I thought of him as the tech and links guy and site founder, I know think of him as the valuable media critic in a city where that title actually means something. [ASIDE: Outgoing note to Joe Sullivan, the hamstrung sports editor at the morale-less Globe: Give Chad Finn the media column permanently and let him really roll with it. There is room for more Dan Steinbergs at important websites and Finn could fiddle with that better than anyone on staff. BTW (that's by the way for the non-texters like yourself), thanks for all your correspondence over the years, Joe. Your job is tougher now then when I started this column and that's saying something because you were left on your own to try and figure out the Web without the proper resources or background. The print section (and boston.com/sports to a lesser extent) has been playing catch-up ever since. It's not beyond salvation, but it's not in very good shape either.]

I watched a changing landscape that revealed some truly sad examples of journalists (Borges, Ken Davis, Ken Powers) and sports-entertainers (Big Show meatheads/Butch Stearns/Steve Burton) in our midst. Fortunately it was also populated by some of the most genuine and down-to-earth people you’d ever want to know.

I have marveled at watching Mike Reiss go from the aw-shucks UMass baseball press box announcer to one of the most respected writers on the NFL beat. To watch his rise firsthand and to see the success he enjoys because of his sincerity is uplifting and reassures my faith in doing good unto others. Bob Ryan’s depth of knowledge astounds me at least twice a month. Gerry Callahan’s all-too-infrequent writing makes me wish sports talk radio never started spending stoopid money on actual talents. I know Lenny Megliola got a raw deal and Gee got (and provided) a lesson in how very careful you need to be in the Internet Age. If it were a perfect world, we’d have more of Charlie Pierce on sports and less of Bob Lobel anywhere.

My observations have led be to believe Michael Holley doesn’t get enough credit and that Glenn Ordway gets too much. I’ll never understand how 890 AM exists and I’ll likewise never know why NESN is run with such shortsightedness - but I’ll always applaud them for Heidi Watney and Tom Caron. I’d guess the Herald is in for a rude-awakening if their website doesn’t advance past the stone age and I’ll openly admit that WEEI.com has yet to become the game-changer I thought it would be. From my work here, I know live-blogging has not yet reached its potential and I wonder what the “next Twitter” will be.

More than anything though, I know that I poured my heart and probably way too much of my time into this endeavor and while it didn’t make me fabulously wealthy, it did prepare me well for the days to come. I may not have led the revolution, but I have no qualms proclaiming I was part of it. We all learned together, I’d like to think. Maybe we all grew a bit too. It’s been a remarkable experiment in new media on the micro level and one I don’t mind having been a part of.

In fact, I’ll really miss this outlet. I’ll miss the haters who scold and the likers who agree. I’ll probably even miss Dan Shaughnessy’s Mad-Libs (thankfully others will continue to keep tabs on Danny Boy).

I used to end the UMass incarnation of Scott’s Shots with what I now realize was my “catch-phrase” or “tag” and for old times sake I’d like to do the same now.

Keep your feet in bounds, and your eyes on the ball.

(Yeah, it never made sense back then either. See you on the shores soon.)

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Kentucky Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in September of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

Some notable players to participate in the Big 33 All-Star game include: Super Bowl MVPs Joe Montana and Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Matt Millen and Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The game will be seen Saturday at 7:00 PM ET on NFLN.

For Patriots-related programming this week, we have the following, which on the whole, is a much better schedule than we’ve recently seen:

Thursday, June 18

5:30 PM – NFL Replay: Miami Dolphins vs. New England Patriots (Week 16, 2007) (HD)

Monday, June 22

8:00 PM – Super Bowl Classics: Super Bowl XXXVI – New England Patriots vs. St. Louis Rams (with U2 Halftime Show) (HD)

12 MIDNIGHT – Super Bowl Classics: Super Bowl XXXVI – New England Patriots vs. St. Louis Rams (with U2 Halftime Show) (HD)

Tuesday, June 23

11:00 AM – Super Bowl Classics: Super Bowl XXXVI – New England Patriots vs. St. Louis Rams (with U2 Halftime Show) (HD)

9:00 PM – Game of the Week: San Diego Chargers vs. New England Patriots (2006 Divisional Playoff) (HD)

12 MIDNIGHT – Game of the Week: San Diego Chargers vs. New England Patriots (2006 Divisional Playoff) (HD)

There’s certainly alot to choose from if you’re doing some sports betting online this weekend.

Post from: Patriots Daily

Patriots on NFL Network This Week (6/17 – 6/23)

For our half-dozen points this week – and considering the drought of NFL action – it seems like a good time to take a look at the United Football League.

More football? Intriguing. You’re reading the words of someone who appreciates Canada’s wide-open-spaces version of the game, as well as Arena ball’s claustrophobic freneticism. (Good news, AFL fans: after having to sit out this winter, they’re trying to refresh for the 2010 season). It’s admirable that a group of businessmen want to start up another moneymaking league not called the NCAAs.

As a matter of full disclosure, I’d love to work as a UFL promoter. Maybe it comes from reading too much about Bill Veeck, but getting in on the ground floor of this thing looks exciting. Sure, it could be the XFL or the USFL, but it could also be minor league baseball: an inexpensive, up-close look at a beloved sport. 

With that in mind, six things for the UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue to consider. And yes, I had to double-check that spelling.

Name Your Teams: The league has proposed starting four franchises this fall, yet we have no idea what the team names are and won’t until mid-July. Delaying this could become a huge problem as branding becomes key. In the early 1990s, the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars made millions on memorabilia before the teams even hit the field. We’re a sports-nut nation: people enjoy new teams and tend to support their hometown franchises. Heck, if Boston started a WNBA team, you think they wouldn’t sell hats and jerseys?

 (I know the perfect name for that hypothetical squad, by the way: The Boston Banshees. As proof that no idea is original, I’ll note that this was also the name of a local cycling club.)

You’ll Thank Me Later: continuing on my naming hot streak, here’s my list of monikers for the proposed UFL team sites through 2010.

Hartford Locomotives – call them the Locos for short
Las Vegas Bats – avoids the tempting-yet-best-left-untouched gambling issue.
Los Angeles Mayas – Mysterious and powerful, with kick-ass graphics.
New York Squid – who messes with a squid? They come out at night and look weird.
Orlando Racerunners – a speedy lizard indigenous to Central Florida.
Sacramento Salmon – the Chinook swim up the Sacramento River annually.
San Francisco Kingfishers – a local bird known for its hunting ability.

Hey, Commissioner Huyghue, take any of these you like. I’ll just put them on my resumé. (A free t-shirt wouldn’t hurt, either.) Keeping with that theme …

Stick With Your Mascots. No matter what they are, eventually they stick with you. If you remember the debut of Wally the Green Monster in 1997, your probably recall cringing. Yes, Wally was better than an actual Red Sox mascot because socks don’t do anything except get dirty, get washed, or get lost. Still, having what resembled a nauseated, morbidly obese Muppet running around Fenway didn’t exactly inspire fan loyalty. Now? He’s beloved. Go figure.

The worst mascot ever was the 1996 Olympic symbol Izzy the Whatizit, which looked like a Saturday morning cartoon character inspired by Hieronymus Bosch. Why is Izzy the worst ever? Lack of commitment. Potential fans looked at that thing and thought, if the people charged with creating this monstrosity couldn’t take the time to figure out what it is, why the heck should I?

Seriously, they should have removed the lightning bolts, changed the shoes, and called it “Georgia the Blue Frog.” Nice and easy. The lesson: most names are kind of dumb anyway, but over time, they tend to grow on fans. Regarding the NFL, you don’t hear anyone asking questions like, “What, exactly, is a Packer?” or “What if Paul Brown’s surname had been Leibowitz?”

Although, you must admit, “the Cleveland Leibowitzes” has a ring to it.

David Beat Goliath: While the UFL has preached catering to underserved markets, their first four site proposals include Las Vegas (cool), Orlando (great), New York (what?) and San Francisco (unh?). Not sure where they’re going with those last two. Yes, the New York franchises actually play in New Jersey, and San Francisco hasn’t been a regular playoff contender since stone-washed jeans, but we’re looking at two of the more rabid fan bases in the NFL. Put in a simpler way, while someone who owns a couple of Niners jerseys may hesitate to plunk down the money for a Kingfishers jersey, a Sacramento native who’s a half-hearted Niners fan would be more likely to spring for a Salmons uniform.

Improve The Website: This has happened over the past few days (serves me right for not posting this column sooner). The league has added video from various tryouts and taped interviews with noteworthy players (ex-Patriot Jermaine Wiggins is a fine example). Still, the UFL should let their designers loose, with the type of video-game graphics that cause psychological damage in lab rats.

I’m also surprised at the lack of in-house media promoting a fan-friendly face for the UFL. A broadcaster commenting on league events would bridge the gap between the league board and the fans. (Again, I’m available: not only do I write about football, I used to work out.) It’s important to see and hear some of the tryout players and coaches in action; it would help to have a media type fill in the blanks.

If You’re Going to Blog, Blog: As of Monday the 15th, Commissioner Huyghue had blogged three times in June, putting him two ahead of the Globe’s Bob Ryan but far behind most bloggers.

Listen, I understand that this “information age” in which we live contains a hell of a lot of useless information. What I’d like is a twice- or thrice-daily accounting of what the commissioner is doing. Again, this might be a job for his assistant or the aforementioned media person: is he in New York? Is he planning a trip to Las Vegas? Has he decided on names for his freaking teams? Make no mistake: the tweeting (twittering, whatever) has been consistent. Maybe he could stick to that and cut out the blogging altogether.

I know I sound critical, but I want the UFL to succeed. It’s fun to take on a new team and get involved in its ups and downs. It’s also difficult to have too much football.

Chris Warner can be reached at chris.warner@patriotsdaily.com

Post from: Patriots Daily

Six In One – The UFL

There’s certainly some merit to the belief that the NHL would like young Mr. Crosby to seize the position of “face of the league” through a seventh game victory. But, is that truly what the league and its fans need now? Or would the league be better off with a victory by the Red Wings and a restatement of the value of dynasties, be they real or perceived?

For many years, the various pro sports have followed the marketing lure by ordaining individual players as the face of their respective leagues. We moved away from the days of the “Big Bad Bruins” or the “Broad Street Bullies” and into the days of “The Great One” during Gretzky’s tenure in the NHL. Gretzky was bigger than the game and brought the league attention that crossed prior boundaries. Since that success, the NHL has always pined for the next big star that it can anoint and recapture the glory of Gretzky. (Eric Lindros was going to be that guy, wasn’t he? ) Now, in Crosby, the NHL believes it has that next transition star. Since even before his arrival, the league has touted him as the next big thing.

It’s my belief that the NHL (and all the other leagues, for that matter) would do well to return to the days of giving the teams the top of the marquee and giving the players the second slot. While people recognize Gretzky as the unquestioned star of that time, most fans refer to the dominance of the Oilers of that period. Remember, they won without Wayne, too. In the same way, people remember the dynasties of the Islanders and the Canadiens more than they focus on the great accomplishments of Mike Bossy or Clark Gillies or whichever really annoying French guy was skating for Montreal at the time.

What the league needs now is a classic hero/anti-hero confrontation. It needs a strong dynastic force like a Champion Red Wing team. Even better, they need that team to deny St. Sidney from the Cup. The celebration when we see someone reaches the top of the mountain is often far less interesting than watching the climb to get there. While there would be a great amount of celebration if Crosby hoisted the Cup, isn’t it better for the NHL if the drama of St. Sid winning his first plays out a little longer? Better still if the Red Wings oblige and play the unmovable force against which he has to play?

The NHL shouldn’t focus on signature moments, because moments are too fleeting. The NHL should focus on signature events. Events like the high quality Stanley Cup Finals being played between two good teams who happen to have several great players. The events may not have the “where were you when” panache of a signature moment, but they have staying power that outlasts the individual accomplishment.

Mr. Crosby’s got many great days ahead of him (unless the NHL’s New York based PR machine decides to anoint John Tavares next year and Sid gets pushed to second fiddle). The league needs an iconic championship team against which its many subplots can play out. It needs a Red Wings championship.

You say Ray Bourque finally holding the Stanley Cup over his head in 2001. I say, great, but that was after the game concluded.

You say Bob Nystrom scoring the Cup-winning goal in overtime in 1980. I say okay, but that was only Game 6 of the series and is probably not even recalled by casual fans.

You say Bobby Orr flying through the Garden air after winning the 1970 Stanley Cup in overtime. I say it was Game 4 of the series and the Blues were basically an expansion team, not to mention that was almost 40 years ago.

Other than those, I can’t think of many other modern Stanley Cup moments that are forever etched in the minds of hockey fans. Friday’s Game 7, however, has the ingredients to provide one of those rare, memorable moments badly needed to help promote and market the game going forward and one player in particular has the potential and ability to make that moment happen——- Sidney Crosby. Crosby entered the league as the newest “Next Great One” and has lived up to the enormous expectations but has been hearing, if not seeing, the footsteps of Alexander Ovechkin the past couple of regular seasons. Game 7 gives Crosby the chance to distance himself from Ovechkin and truly make his North American face the undisputed face of the league, much to the delight of the NHL league offices.

The 1950 Detroit Red Wings were the last team to win the Stanley Cup in overtime of Game 7. Imagine it’s overtime of this year’s Game 7 and Crosby gatheres the puck in the neutral zone, dekes a defenseman and performs an acrobatic move to slide the puck past Chris Osgood, winning the Stanley Cup over the hearty defending champions. A mega-star would be born and the NHL’s marketing division would immediately cancel all summer vacations.

The sport desperately has been awaiting a magical moment. What do you say, Sid?

As we head into the news abyss of NFL vacation time, six players on my mind this week:

Where There’s A Wilfork: Anyone else concerned about the contract status of Vince Wilfork? Because it sure scares the bejeebus out of me. Thinking that rookie Ron Brace can take the place of Wilfork this year undervalues the impact that number 75 has had on opposing teams (both literally and figuratively).

Maybe the Pats need money to sign a veteran pass-rusher like Greg Ellis. Makes sense. But it’s worth asking if a defense with Wilfork and, say, Pierre Woods on the outside is stronger than a Brace/Ellis combination. For whatever it’s worth, I think it is. It would feel awful to look back on 2009 and see this team as one top-level player away from gaining its fourth Super Bowl, much like the 2006 Deion Branch-less Patriots. So, please: sign Vince. It’ll be worth it.

Grading Pass/Fail: When New England went out and signed former Pat Patrick Pass, it told us a few things. Mostly that – despite plenty of chatter to the contrary – the Patriots need a fullback.

If anything, Coach Bill Belichick wants options. Former Pat Heath Evans never caught more than 10 passes in a season, but his blocking improved steadily in his time at Foxboro. BenJarvus Green-Ellis lacks the same receiving skills as Pass. Russ Hochstein? Really? We’ve got to stop looking at last December’s performance against Arizona, a warm-weather team who would rather have been collecting tolls on the turnpike than making tackles at Gillette. Right now, as the all-around fullback New England would want, Pass looks like the best option.

Seems a shame they didn’t give a longer look to former PD Q&A subject Tony Fiammetta, though. We would have totally had an in with him. Sigh.

Vinny, Vidi, Vici?: Not sure whether linebacker Vinny Circiu will make the team, but he’s got a solid chance to get a spot on special teams. While New England will miss players like Larry Izzo and Kelley Washington, it looks like they are cultivating a new crop of special teamers who have a chance to contribute as backups. Add 2008 starter Paris Lenon to the group (leaving all Lions jokes aside), plus stalwart receiver Sam Aiken and second-year pass-rusher Vince Redd (seven special teams stops in five games), and new coach Scott O’Brien has some bodies to throw around.

Go Fourth, Young Man: New Patriot Greg Lewis has been something of a forgotten man of late, especially with the return of Tom Brady and his two favorite receivers (Randy Moss and Wes Welker, for those of you new to this whole NFL thingy), plus the signing of zephyr-like vet Joey Galloway. Lewis, who joins Welker and Sammy Morris in the “If the Pats can’t beat ‘em, they sign ‘em” group, hasn’t garnered a lot of reports from camp this spring. Spring debates over whether or not Lewis would be a suitable third receiver have morphed into summer discussions over his special teams work.

In other words, this team is freakin’ loaded.

New Kid On The Blocks: Penn State’s Rich Ohrnberger joins the ranks of what New Englanders hope will be a class of underrated offensive linemen. As it’s near impossible to judge his ability when he’s kept from hitting anyone, we’ll have to wait and see how Ohrnberger (and Sebastian Vollmer and George Bussey) work out once the pads get donned.

Far be it from me to make a prediction (I think my call on safety Marcus McClinton making the team more or less puts the kibosh that happening again soon), but with plenty of contracts up in 2010, it’s a good year for the kiddoes.

Back In A Flash: Kent State quarterback Julian Edelman remains one of the more intriguing picks of the draft. The former Golden Flash has shown great quickness and agility in running routes at receiver, and according to reports from the usual suspects (Mike Reiss, the PFW guys, etc.), Edelman has spent a lot of time with Coach O’Brien working on special teams. At the very least, he’s got a shot to make the Michael Bishop school of preseason excitement. If he sticks with the team, he’ll become a fan favorite within about 24 hours.

That’s all for now. Next week, we’ll try to put together some thoughts about non-NFL football, which may be coming to a stadium near you.

You can email Chris Warner at chris.warner@patriotsdaily.com.

Post from: Patriots Daily

Six In One – Roster Realities

Once again this weekend there are some Patriots replays available on NFL Network. One of those however, is last season’s week 13 stinkbomb against the Pittsburgh Steelers, being shown multiple times. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be skipping that one. Maybe it’s just my Patriots bias, but it seems to me that most of the Patriots games they show on NFLN are games that they lost. The Ravens game from next Tuesday is an exception. In that one, you get to see future Jets head coach Rex Ryan call the ill-fated timeout that gave the Patriots another chance…

Also, Mike Reiss from the Boston Globe is scheduled to be in the NFL Network studios today to talk Patriots.

Here’s the on-air Patriots-related items this week:

Saturday, June 6th

• 2:00 PM – Game of the Week: Indianapolis Colts vs. New England Patriots (Week 9, 2006) (HD)

Sunday, June 7th

• 4:30 PM – NFL Replay: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New England Patriots (Week 13, 2008) (HD)

• 12:30 AM – NFL Replay: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New England Patriots (Week 13, 2008) (HD)

Monday, June 8th

• 8:30 AM – NFL Replay: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New England Patriots (Week 13, 2008) (HD)

• 2:30 PM – NFL Replay: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New England Patriots (Week 13, 2008) (HD)

Tuesday, June 9th

• 5:30 PM – NFL Replay: New England Patriots vs. Baltimore Ravens (Week 13, 2007) (HD)

• 9:00 PM – Game of the Week: Chicago Bears vs. New England Patriots (Week 12, 2006) (HD)

Post from: Patriots Daily

Patriots On NFL Network This Week (June 5-9)

By Bruce Allen, Patriots Daily Staff

…along comes Rex Ryan.

When Eric Mangini was fired following yet another New York Jets stretch run collapse, some might’ve thought that perhaps the animosity between the two franchises would take a little breather. Maybe the games this season wouldn’t be quite the over-the-top storyline-filled dramas that we’ve come to expect. Maybe it would just be about football.

If we’ve learned anything over the years, it is that Patriots/Jets is always going to be contentious, no matter who the faces on the sidelines are. Whether it was Weeb Ewbank, Joe Walton, Bill Parcells, Herman Edwards or Mangini, the games between these two franchises have always been circuses.

It seems clear that Rex Ryan aims to keep it that way.

The new Jets coach was a guest on WFAN’s Mike Francesa show yesterday, and when the subject of the Patriots came up, Ryan showed he isn’t afraid providing bulletin board material for opponents:

Francesa: You know this division has been dominated by Tom Brady and the Pats in a very big way and you also know it’s you know, you know what’s going on, you know that the Pats have a deep hatred for many reasons for the Jets and they love to beat nothing more than the Jets. How about the relationship and how about the idea of the Pats and their dominance does that mean anything? Is that something you specifically have to attack, because they have been such a dominant figure in this division?

Ryan: Well believe me we’re going to attack ‘em. There’s no question about that and you know whatever you know you gotta take it from then. And you know, I think last year obviously Miami wins the division…

Francesa: Well, no Tom Brady…no Tom Brady

Ryan: No Tom Brady and all that, and obviously, I think he makes a huge difference. You know there’s no question he makes a huge difference. And I played him before and things like that, we played with a team that won five games, and if I don’t call a timeout we beat them, at least that’s what everybody says, so I’ll accept that. But, I’ve got confidence that we’ll give them everything they want and maybe a little bit more, so we’ll see what happens.

Confidence is good.Quiet confidence has historically proven to be a better strategy than the in-your-face style, but this is the son of Buddy Ryan we’re talking about here. That was just the opening salvo, and pretty benign, overall.

Francesa: So do you think it’s important to send a message to that team or they’re not any different than anybody else in the division or does it means something because of the way they have dominated the division?”

Ryan: I think we already have sent a message to them, so that they can read between the lines.”

Francesa: Oh, you think you have sent a message to them?

Ryan: Oh yeah! No question. Yup.

So what is this “message” they’ve sent up to Foxborough? Messageboards are abuzz…was it a kneebrace with a fish inside it? Was one of the lesser-known Kraft boys kidnapped? Where there hang-up, crank calls placed to Belichick’s office? Was “stealing” Larry Izzo the zinger? WHAT WAS THE MESSAGE?

Francesa: In what way?

Ryan: You know, they can figure it out and when they come here the second week of the season we’ll see. ‘Cause see, I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick’s, you know, rings. You know, I came… you know, to win. Let’s put it that way and so we’ll see what happens. I’m certainly not intimidated by, you know, by New England or anybody else and so, you know again, I’m not a guy that is going to say well, this guys that. Hey look, Tom Brady is a hell of a quarterback, no question. I’ve got great respect for him, but I also have a great deal of confidence in the people we have in this building. Again, if that team can beat us, if New England can beat us, then they must have one hell of a football team.”

There’s a whole lot of rambling going on there. I just know that when the two teams meet and Bill Belichick’s holds out his hand full of Super Bowl rings, Rex Ryan is not kissing them! No way, no how.

And yeah, if the Patriots somehow manage to beat this Jets team, a team without an experienced quarterback, then we might as well give them the Super Bowl. Yeah, the Super Bowl is in week two this season. Didn’t you know?

Speaking of rambling:

Francesa: Coach, I would say that is music to everybody’s ears here in New York I would say. They loved hearing just what they just heard, you know that?

Ryan: Well again they’re probably…you know, they probably want to win as bad as I do, and I think, you know, we’re gonna put a team out there that they can be proud of and again, you know we’re going to try to have from the first day, the most physical team in the National Football League. I really I truly believe if, at the end of the day, if we can accomplish that then we’re going to be really successful and again, you know how I feel about it and that New England whether it’s New England, Miami, Buffalo, us, anybody else – Pittsburgh – anybody else. We’re all under the same salary cap so for me to sit back and say that, well, you know we’re going to… you know, let’s just, you know, kick and scratch and maybe be .500 you know, maybe we’ll see.. it’s their first year in the program… – that’s ridiculous.

What’s ridiculous is that Ryan went on, and on, and on after this, I just cut it off at that point. He went on to say how the Jets have the best coaches in the National Football League, the best facilities in the National Football League, the best support staff in the National Football League, and the best fans in the National Football League. You get the picture.

Earlier in the day, Ryan had taken another little jab at the Patriots during the Jets OTA media session, as reported by Roderick Boon:

So as Ryan talked about Harris and how he needed some stitches to close the cut on his lip, he couldn’t help but joke around in the same way that he’s done since he arrived on the scene.

“I don’t know how many,” Ryan said, referring to the number of stitches required to get Harris’ cut under control. “We’re keeping that from New England.”

Ryan is a sportswriter’s dream. He’s going to be entertaining, and fill their notebooks with quotes like the above. His last head-coaching experience was in 1993 with Morehead State. He has never been a head coach at any level. He has a rookie quarterback in Mark Sanchez, and the other quarterbacks currently on the roster are Kellen Clemens, Erik Ainge and Chris Pizzotti. The defense may well be very good, but unless he is hoping Sanchez can be Joe Flacco, then it could be a tough year for the Jets offense.

It also appears that he has the Patriots on his mind, perhaps more than he should. With all his talk, he’s at least guaranteed that one tradition will continue.

The Patriots/Jets games will continue to be fueled by animosity. Really though, could it ever be any other way?

Post from: Patriots Daily

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Stop Hating The Jets…

Word has it that today Rodney Harrison will announce his retirement from the NFL after a stellar 15 year career in professional football.

The good news is that we’ll be able to keep in touch, as Harrison is expected to immediately catch on as a television analyst with NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

So comes to a close a grand career – the only man to ever record both 30 career sacks and 30 career interceptions – that saw three Pro Bowl nods and two unforgettable world titles as a New England Patriot.

It’s one of the oddities of life that our last discernible memory of Rodney Harrison as a Pat may be his ill-fated defense of the Eli Manning pass that somehow stuck to the side of David Tyree’s helmet in Super Bowl XLII.

I’ve thought about that play. I wouldn’t have wanted another Patriot defending that pass. If Rodney Harrison of all people couldn’t stop that completion, it wasn’t going to be stopped.

But that single play falls well short of telling the whole story; Harrison was the consummate strong safety as a Patriot. A true presence inside with his physical, often chippy play (if he had remained a Charger for the last six seasons, we would have hated him, yet we loved him because he was ours, despite his flaws. That’s a real tribute to his effectiveness as a very valuable asshole…a champion asshole), Harrison also possessed the speed and range to duplicate that presence even in the deepest recesses of the secondary. I’ll never forget the time he grabbed a Ben Roethlisberger pass and raced the length of Heinz Field for a particularly delicious touchdown (the vaunted Steelers flat quit the play once he caught the ball) in New England’s second AFC Championship win in Pittsburgh.

I’ll also never forget that picture of Harrison after his first world title as a professional, taken from the playing surface of Houston’s Reliant Stadium. He stands triumphant, his arm in a sling, as red, white and blue streamers fall from the domed ceiling after the game’s close. He’s emotional in victory, just as he was when the clock was running, and the outcome was in doubt. In many ways, that single picture sums up the whole Rodney Harrison experience, at least as it pertains to his time in New England; broken maybe, a raw, exposed nerve yes, but most definitely and defiantly unbowed.

Even the HGH suspension at season’s dawn in 07 can’t dim what Harrison, a fifth round pick in 1994, accomplished as a pro. Here’s another thing I’ve thought about – I’m done judging whether this drug or that is legal when it comes to ballgames. These guys know the risk, and we fat asses in the stands ought to know the score by now. We as a nation opted for better living through science a long time ago, and believing this segment of society indefinitely exempt simply because they’re chasing a ball across a lot is – at best – naïve. Just as naïve as believing that this is somehow effecting the outcome of the competition; let’s just say it’s still a level playing field, and call it good. I got too much to think about as it is.

Anyway, Harrison paid the price (a four-game suspension during a historic 16-0 regular season), just as he did as a player every time he took the field. From my end, this was a fundamentally decent man and professional who I’m convinced did everything in his power, day and night, to make sure he and the rest of the New England Patriots were as successful as they could possibly be.

Like a lot of Patriots fans, I unabashedly loved the guy, and I’m sad to see his time here come to an end.

Yet at the same time, I’m pleased to see someone moving on so gracefully, and laying the groundwork for the team to do the same. I happened to see videotape of Harrison’s 08 season-ending injury today, and I couldn’t help but think that an even-slightly younger and healthier Rodney might not have been as discombobulated by a scrambling Jay Cutler as the present day one was. But the even-slightly younger and healthier Rodney didn’t live here anymore. Confronting a reality like that is done better sooner rather later for everybody concerned.

Yet today is a day for reflection, not planning. And our reflection is that for the fans, and for the organization itself, Rodney Harrison was a real treat, from the first play to the last. It has been our collective privilege to bear witness to all of it.

Final thought – in the big picture, and on balance, I think history-altering free agent signings like Rodney Harrison (and Mike Vrabel and Roman Phifer and Mike Compton and Anthony Pleasant and Antowain Smith and…you get the picture) should count a lot more than second and third-tier misses like Monty F***ing Beisel and Dealtha O’Neal. On balance. In the big picture. I. Am. Just. Saying.

Yeah, it’s been a whole four seasons since you were fortunate enough to get immediate and ultimate gratification from the personnel machinations of New England’s executives. But a great many of you have taken this “drought” as an excuse to gleefully show the worst side of yourselves; the side that’s a spoiled, whiny, self-involved, pathetically typical know-it-all asshole, convinced they know better than the men who on their own turned our meager fan existence into one of arguable NFL significance.

By the way, that’s the bad kind of asshole, not the good kind. Not the good, loveable kind, like the inimitable Rodney Harrison.

Scott Benson can be reached at scott@patriotsdaily.com.

Post from: Patriots Daily

On Rodney Harrison, and the Big Picture

In order to predict the winner of the series, we’ll follow the wisdom of Original Six-raised (Boston Latin and Harvard) philosopher George Santayana’s, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This series shapes up as a repeat of the Oilers – Islanders Finals from 1983 and 1984.

The high-octane 1983 Edmonton Oilers were hockey’s New Kids On The Block in the ’83 Cup Finals and poised to knock the three-time defending champions from the throne. However, with the likes of playoff tested Billy Smith, Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies and Denis Potvin, the Islanders would have none of that and not only defeated the Oilers but swept them, surrendering only six goals in the four game series.

Fast forward one year to the 1984 Cup Finals and the same two combatants are back again, this time a rapidly aging Islanders team one year older and a maturing Oilers team one year wiser. The teams split the first two games in New York and then ventured west for three games in Edmonton. The series never returned to Long Island because the Oilers vanquished the honorable champs in three consecutive blowouts, thus ending the Islanders dynasty and beginning one for the Oilers.

Power Play thinks this year’s Finals shapes up in much the same manner. The Penguins should benefit greatly from their experience in last year’s Finals and use it as a springboard to leap-frog the venerable Red Wings this year.

Penguins in 6

Well, that was a huge bummer, eh?

Talk about an anti-climax. The last thing I or pretty much anyone to whom I’ve spoken would have predicted for Game 7 at the Garden the other night was that the weary Celts would be blown out of the gym. The Celtics had history, experience, their home crowd and a seemingly mentally weak opponent all working in their favor and they still managed to drop one of the biggeststinkbombs of the season. So I guess that means it’s time to reflect now that enough time has passed that I can clearly wrap my head around it all. But before we go any further, let me put out one, small disclaimer. This will not be another one of those, “If only KevinGarnett had played, then they may have won it,” columns. So many supposedly shrewd, intelligent writers have mailed in that kind of drivel in the last couple of days, it’s made my eyes bleed. Really, guys? You think ifGarnett had played, the Celtics might have beaten the Magic? Wow, thanks for such astute, expert analysis. Now I know exactly why they lost.

No, here at the BSMW Full Court Press, we don’t believe in insulting our readership with such simplified obviousness. Everyone who has ever watched a sporting event knows that if the team thatlost’s best player didn’t play, that’s probably a huge reason why said losing team went down. Apparently, a lot of our local bastions of basketball knowledge forgot this.

Anyway, let’s not waste any more time discussing such nonsense. I’d prefer to examine how the Celtics got as far as they did and why. The series against Orlando didn’t have nearly the drama or suspense or sheer joy of the first-round series with the Bulls. But there were plenty of twists and turns. On one hand, you could argue that the Celts should have lost in five games. Orlando had both Games 4 and 5 wrapped up before going completely mental and spitting the proverbial bit. On the other hand you could argue that the Celtics should have won in six games. When Paul Pierce stepped to the line with 2:03 left in that game, just after the play of BrianScalabrine’s life (his “in your face” stuffing of Rashard Lewis on the low block that couldn’t possibly happen 99 out of 100 times) the Celtics had a chance to jump ahead after having held the Magic to just four points in the previous four minutes. Pierce, who shot 85 percent from the stripe in the series, missed enough big ones both against the Bulls and the Magic that when he clanked up both attempts, it wasn’t really surprising. What was surprising was that Orlando, which had virtually cornered the market on not being able to capitalize on pretty much anything up to that point, saw an opening, somehow flipped a switch on their collective mental toughness meter (which at that point was hovering around zero) and ran off an 11-2 run to escape with an 83-75 win and force another Game 7.

In hindsight, that was pretty much it. Like several Celtics fans I know, I figured the whole Game 7 at home thing would be enough to carry them. I thought it was a fluke that the Magic had kept their composure and managed to take advantage of such a huge chance at the end of Game 6. They had blown their wad in doing that, it seemed, and there was no way such a fragile group could summon the requisite chutzpah to beat a defending champ on the road in a deciding game, even a defending champ as tired and depleted as the Celtics.

Of course, that wasn’t remotely what happened. Instead of yet another Game 7 triumph, the Celtics completely wilted when it mattered most. I won’t waste too much time belaboring this point, but under the circumstances, considering the losses in personnel and the subsequent alternatives, reaching the ultimate game of the conference semifinals was a major accomplishment. It’s a bit astounding that they got as far as they did. That by no means absolves them of their performance on Sunday, but it is worth noting.

It was awful, really. Even though Ray Allen played by far his best game of the series, everyone else was basically out of it. Pierce was doubled anywhere on the floor at which he touched the ball and had no answer for it. Kendrick Perkins had his worst game in weeks, disappearing on offense and even missing three straight layups on a single possession at one point. Rajon Rondo hit a couple of jumpers but lacked the explosiveness he displayed earlier in the playoffs and was mostly ineffective, not to mention the fact that he was schooled by the not-really-that-good Rafer Alston. I would mention the bench, but there isn’t one, although one particular yokel earlier this week was shouting at me about how Doc Rivers should be ashamed of himself for employing an eight-man rotation, even though pretty much every coach since the beginning of time has done the same come playoff time (including Doc Rivers last year), and that Mikki Moore and Tony Allen should have played more in Game 7. Whatever, it was the worst-case scenario and not too many of us saw it coming.

But even though they absolutely stunk on Sunday, it’s hardly the last or most pertinent thing we should remember about this particular Celtics team. Instead, the focus should be on how admirable their overall performance throughout the last few weeks has been. I’m not a huge fan of trafficking in cliches, but this team showed a massive amount of heart, the heart of a champion. They outlasted Chicago and its Energizer Bunny youngsters and they came within one game (or a couple minutes, going back to Game 6) of bouncing an Orlando team with far more talent and athleticism while using Scalabrine as their sixth man/main backup at center and both forward slots. They were so thin that they had to take Big Baby (who is about to get PAID) out after one foul as opposed to two. They were forced to rely on Stephon Marbury at times, and even though he rewarded them for it in Game 5 and was by all accounts a perfect soldier during his time here, he was still too rusty and out of his element to live up to it.

All that, and they still were this close to winning the right to get swept by LeBron and the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals. They were tired and banged up and practically patched together with duct tape, yet they just missed winning two playoff rounds. Not too shabby. Of course, the end was bitter and disappointing. But it was a hell of a ride and for that, this group, the 2008-2009 defending NBA champion Boston Celtics, should be commended.

It’s nice to see the Bruins develop a rivalry with the Hurricanes, pretty much courtesy of Scott Walker’s sucker punch of Aaron Ward. Ward was engaged with Matt Cullen before Walker crashed the party (Third Man In) and popped Ward as he was still trying account for Cullen’s whereabouts. In any event, a regular season Carolina game in Boston would generally be a ho-hum affair and just another night on the NHL calendar, albeit with a fair number of Hartford Whalers jerseys in the crowd. Thanks to this series, and specifically Mr. Walker, that will probably change starting next season. Disdain for the opposing team is always good for hockey.

“The most dangerous lead in hockey is a two goal lead.” No truer words can be found. Sure, a two goal lead is great, but it gives a team a false sense of security that can lead to a tie score in less than 90 seconds. Every time the Bruins went up by a deuce in Game 6, Carolina seemed to be on a five-on-five “power play” in the Boston end of the ice with the Bruins missing easy opportunities to clear the puck out of their zone of a countless number of occasions. Tim Thomas was spectacular while denying the Hurricanes the chance to make it a one goal game and blowing the roof off the RBC Center.

Steve Montador can scare the living hell out of any Bruins fan when handling the puck in his own end, but the guy clearly can skate and is effective in the transition game and jumping up into the play in the offensive zone.

Dennis Wideman has been a disappointment this series. Like Montador, he’s not to be trusted in his own zone with the puck, but he usually compensates for that with his offensive skills in the attacking zone. However, even in the offensive zone things don’t seem to be going his way as of late with the puck always seeming to be jumping over his stick or him making an errant pass on the power play. His inability to put the puck on net is now becoming legendary for “Wideleft.” He’s still a skilled a player and can hopefully gain some confidence going forward.

Patrice Bergeron is playing some sound hockey right now. His direct passes to Recchi and Kobasew for goals in Game 6 were pinpoint and almost indefensible by Carolina.

The Hurricanes clearly have no answer for Milan Lucic, who can impose his will on them any time he wants, and that seems to be every time he’s on the ice as of late. How can this guy not be consider the successor to Chara as captain of the Bruins?

Byron Bitz has done a stellar job and his physical play will probably keep Blake Wheeler on the bench for Game 7. Perhaps the Bruins might even give him a normal hockey number during train camp in September?

Okay, prediction time. Power Play has always maintained that a team failing to close out a series in Game 6 at home rarely wins Game 7 on the road and that should hold true Thursday night in Boston in front of what promises to be a raucous crowd. If Carolina doesn’t score first they’re in a heap of trouble as things could spiral out of control for them very quickly. Prediction? Bruins 5, Hurricanes 1.

NESN led off its Wednesday night broadcast with confirmation of Jerry Remy’s lung cancer, a rumor that had been circulating in Boston media circles for several weeks. Remy apparently had surgery “late last year” and is now experiencing setbacks in his recovery. Remy missed portions of spring training and the regular season and has been out of commission since the weekend series in Tampa.

. . . Remy had this brief comment at his Twitter page. Ken Fang is also all over the developing story.

More to come.

Here is Jerry Remy’s statement posted at Sawxheads.com on Wednesday night. The comments sections is filling rapidly. [Remy has a partnership with sawxheads' parent company, TruMedia Networks, and sits on its board of directors, according to this article. Membership has its privileges, we suppose.]

Personal Update from The RemDawg
May 6, 2009

In November I had a very small, low-grade cancerous area removed from my lung. I was fortunate that it was discovered at an early stage. Except for the surgery, I required no additional treatments. I left the hospital with a clean bill of health.

Unfortunately, following the surgery, I developed a bad infection further compounded by a case of pneumonia. It was the pneumonia and the infection that set me back. This all happened just as I was leaving for spring training.

In hindsight, it was a mistake to go and I am paying the price for it now. As NESN announced, I am taking a leave of absence so that I can fully recover.

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for the outpouring of concern you have given me recently. I honestly appreciate it. Secondly, I want to emphasize that I am in good shape now.

While physically I have no issues, the past few months have been emotionally draining, and exhausting for both my family and I. Along those lines, I would like to thank NESN and the Red Sox for allowing me to take as much time as I need. I am not certain exactly when I will return, but I will keep you posted. I want to make sure that when I do return I can be with the team all the way to the 2009 World Series!

I hope that by stating all this publicly it will emphasize the dangers of smoking to everyone, especially children. So, once again, I appreciate all your support and I would like to emphasize – if you don’t smoke, don’t start, and if you do smoke, try to quit! I don’t say that lightly because I know how difficult it can be.

Thanks,
Jerry

Contents of the NESN release that was posted at 6:59 p.m., just prior to the game’s start:

BOSTON, MA – NESN announced today that Red Sox color commentator Jerry Remy will take a leave of absence for an indefinite period of time so that he can fully recover from the effects of cancer surgery.

“I want to focus on completing my recovery so that I can return to work without distractions or interruptions,” said Remy, adding that he had hoped for a more immediate return but experienced a setback due to an infection and subsequent case of pneumonia.

Remy, a former smoker who underwent surgery for lung cancer late last year, said he hopes his experience will serve as a cautionary tale about the adverse health effects of smoking. “I hope that disclosing my bout with cancer will reinforce the dangers of smoking to every member of Red Sox Nation, especially children,” said Remy, who joined the network in 1988 and has teamed with play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo since 2001.

“Jerry is beloved, and on behalf of everyone in Red Sox Nation, I want him to know that he is in our thoughts. We will sorely miss him in the broadcast, but the most important thing is that he takes all the time he needs to recover,” said Sox chairman Tom Werner.

“As part of the NESN family, we want Jerry to concentrate on his health and getting well. When he’s ready to return, his place in the booth will be waiting for him,” said NESN president Sean McGrail. “In the meantime, we ask everyone to respect Jerry’s privacy so that he can focus fully on his recovery.”

Red Sox studio analyst and Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley will join Don Orsillo in the booth during the remainder of the team’s current home stand that ends May 8. Studio analyst Dave Roberts, the former Red Sox outfielder and post-season hero, will provide color commentary during the team’s subsequent West Coast road trip that ends May 17. No decision has been made yet about who will join Orsillo in the booth beyond that date.

SHOT’S INSTANT ANALYSIS, 7:20 p.m. Wednesday:

First and foremost, our best wishes to the Remdawg as he battles back.

The news of Remy’s illness may come as a public shock, but many in and around the Red Sox organization have been speculating quietly about the reason for his absences. Shots was able to confirm the illness earlier this week but decided to hold off on the story out of respect to Remy and his family.

There had even been some industry hub-bub that the recent Boston Globe Magazine Neil Swidey cover profile on Remy was softened in deference to the popular analysts and Sox Pop Culture icon. That would certainly explain why Swidey almost completely avoided any of the anti-Remy sentiment, referring only to one anonymous message board poster’s criticism of Remy’s salesmanship. More likely, Swidey was blinded by his “homeboy’s” rise to stardom and inadequately equipped to offer the complete and total view of Remy. (He did mention Remy had stopped smoking, but went no further along those lines. More likely than not, Swidey knew of Remy’s surgery and his battle but for whatever reason(s), glossed over the issue. Tough call on that one for the writer and the Mag’s editors, I’m guessing.)

With Remy gone from the booth, it will inevitably grow his legion of supporters - and not just out of sympathy for his medical battle. So far, in relief work, Dennis Eckersley has been simply brutal. Eck is clearly better suited at the desk as an analyst. Dave Roberts has shown hints of promise, the Tony Mazz audition wasn’t spectacular and Buck Martinez was likely a stopgap move. Regardless, the bottom line is NESN will be too thrifty to fill the big shoes of Remy with a competent replacement.

The focus for now, rightly so, will be on Remy and his health. But it will be interesting to see who - or how many - analysts Don Orsillo is forced to break in and carry.

• Shots is currently in Final edits on his forthcoming book, but the Remy news is too big to overlook. Our return date is still up in the air as several real-world projects are filling our days and nights. Thanks again for all your support and patience.

• Best question asked by a loyal reader during my absence: “Can Dan Shaughnessy write any column without a Red Sox reference? Just wondering.”

. . . Better yet, how many of his readers had any clue who Thurston Howell III was?

Not all the resulting news of the Globe’s stay of execution is good folks. We still have Shaughnessy’s lame act.

And where on earth is Basketball Bob during a double playoff run? Sure would be nice if Joe Sullivan communicated with his readers once in a while, wouldn’t it?

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Kentucky Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in September of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

In hindsight, the timing may have been by design as it gave Thomas a “vote of confidence” by team brass prior to the start of the playoffs. Chiarelli may have realized that the weight of impending contract negotiations may not be ideal for a goaltender gearing up for what was expected to be an extended playoff run. A few soft goals or bad games in the playoffs could potentially have a goalie thinking of future years rather than the task at hand.

Thomas has been more than effective and has looked comfortable in the six playoff games thus far and credit must be given to team management for acting swiftly and decisively in identifying Thomas as a key ingredient for their playoff success this season and going forward, presumably in tandem with the grooming of Tuukka Rask.

I don’t know about you, but I feel like tonight should be Game 8.

It seems really hard to grasp that the Celtics’ first-round series against the Bulls is over. By the time the third overtime of Game 6 rolled around, I figured that the two teams would just keep playing each other forever, or at least until someone keeled over. And now, it’s over. Let the withdrawal symptoms begin.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy the Celtics won. I’m ecstatic about it, actually. The fact that they were able to stay on their feet throughout all seven of those games plus all seven of those overtimes and wind up the ones that didn’t get knocked out wassupremely impressive. Both teams were so totally staggered, so banged up and so running on fumes by the time Saturday night rolled around, being the one who gave out first was nothing over which to sulk. They showed tremendous character and fortitude in outlasting the Bulls and should be not only commended, but remembered for it, no matter what happens next.

Which leads us to that very question: what is going to happen next? We know that the Orlando Magic, their monster of a center and their wildly oversensitive head coach will invade the Garden tonight for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. And that’s about it. Just as the last series proved to be impossible to predict (even in the end, when it seemed the Celtics and Bulls couldn’t play without at least one extra period, they finished Game 7 in regulation with barely a sliver of the suspense found in the previous three games), what the Celtics may do against Orlando is a complete mystery.

There are at least a couple of possibilities. They could be completely spent from the energy, both physical and mental, expended against the Bulls. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen and Doc Rivers can talk all they want about how playing a ton of minutes doesn’t matter because they’re all basketball players and that’s what they do. Tack on the amount of time played by the Celtics’ starting five to the amount they’ve all played over the course of the season, plus all of last season, when they participated in 26 playoff games, and you have a truckload of minutes. Enough minutes that would add at least a little bit of weight to even the most well-conditioned player’s legs. And on top of that, there’s the emotional toll after a series that featured so many highs and lows that even the most stoic, bloodless guys had to have felt them. The Celtics are exhausted and they may be too gassed to stay with the Magic.

Or, they may be recharged and re-energized. There’s no doubt that the Celts are flying after coming out on top against the Bulls. Even for a team that has been to the heights that the Celts have reached, winning such a battle, especially while playing severely undermanned, has to be totally elating. Now, after showing the kind of heart and resolve on display against Chicago, perhaps they see themselves as world beaters and will play as such. Or maybe they’re just so happy to be rid of the Bulls (especially the hideous Brad Miller andJoakim Noah) that just seeing a different uniform on the other side of the floor will carry them. Who knows?

What is clear, or at least clearer, is that the Celts are going to have to deal with a better, more experienced group. As well as the Bulls played all series long, particularly the duo of Ben Gordon and Derrick Rose, they don’t have anyone who even approaches Orlando’s Dwight Howard. Howard, who on any particular night may well grab 25 rebounds and block seven shots, is an absolute beast, a prototypical center for this era of the pro game. As well as his will to rebound and defend at the highest possible level, he is extremely quick and is able to get around pretty much every big man he faces with ease. He has harnessed that quickness and applied it to his offensive repertoire to the tune of 21 points a game. He can post up or face up and be just as dangerous regardless.

If the Celtics want to win, they may just have to live with giving Howard what he wants. As we all know so well, the Celts’ front line is thin. Kendrick Perkins will have the task of checking Howard and he has to stay out of foul trouble, not just so there will be less need forMikki Moore and Brian Scalabrine on the offensive end but on defense as well, where each of them will be eaten alive before fouling out in 10 minutes. Big Baby Davis had one of his better games of the season against Howard and the Magic, outplaying him on both ends, but that was with KevinGarnett backing him up. Big Baby emerged as a true threat against the Bulls and the Celtics will need all they can get from him in this round, so the less time he has to spend grappling with Howard the better. Howard’s going to get his, so the Celts just have to ensure that everyone else in blue doesn’t.

After Howard, the Magic thin out. Hedo Turkoglu is their next best player, and although he has proven to be somewhat of an assassin at big moments both in these playoffs and before, he’s been playing on a bad wheel that may or may not affect him, particularly when it comes to driving to the basket. The point guard isRafer Alston, a journeyman equally capable of throwing out a great game and a stinker. Rashard Lewis, the team’s highest paid player, was quiet in the Magic’s first-round win over Philly and has appeared to be rather passive in big games. Their starting 2-guard a rookie named Courtney Lee who can really shoot, is out with a fractured sinus. No one on their bench is all that scary, unless you count Duke alum/slow, no-position, long range gunner J.J.Redick scary. Second-year big guy Marcin Gortat, did put up 11 points and 15 boards in place of the suspended Howard in the clincher against the Sixers so given the Celts’ depleted frontcourt, they may need to pay him some mind.

The point is that these are the guys the Celts have to make beat them. Despite Howard’s mammoth presence up front, the Magic are a perimeter-oriented outfit. They shoot three after three after three with a lot of screen and roll up top to freeTurkoglu and Lewis for open looks, as well as a fair amount drive and kick stuff too. There won’t be as much ball movement as the Bulls employed and Orlando doesn’t have nearly the team speed that the Bulls had. Although they will get out and run from time to time, these factors play into the Celts’ hands.Rajon Rondo, who must be considered among the league’s elite point guards after his performance against the Bulls, shouldn’t have too tough a time against Alston, and both Pierce and Allen are likely to be able to operate a little bit more freely against the Magic’s D, which won’t be as quick or aggressive as the Bulls’ was. Orlando probably caught on to the fact that Pierce’s worst moments in the last round were when he was trapped or at least doubled at the three-point line so seeing that approach won’t be surprising. And a more consistent effort from the bench, thin as it is and Eddie House’s perfect Game 7 notwithstanding, would be nice, though saying that is like hoping for rain in the midst of a drought.

So that’s what next. I’m not particularly ready to leave the Bulls series behind just yet (and by the way, as great a series as it was, and man was it amazing, it was not one of the best series of all time for the simple fact that it was just the first round – move it up a couple rounds and we’re onto something) but as gratifying and meaningful as it was, it’s now history. It was one step, even if it felt like 20. And now, another task is at hand. It’s a task the Celts will handle – they take the Magic in six.

As the number one seed, the Bruins will face the lowest remaining seed remaining after two Game 7s finish tomorrow evening. Let’s take a quick look at the three possibilities next in line for the Bruins.

Rangers # 7: Couldn’t close out the Capitals in Game 6 at home which will be prove to be fatal for them. Teams rarely recover from this missed opportunity and go on to win on the road in Game 7. The 2001 Devils and the 2004 Flames both had a chance to win the Stanley Cup on home ice in Game 6. They both squandered the opportunity and lost Game 7 on the road. Ditto for the Rangers tomorrow night.

Hurricanes # 6: They’ve played the Devils honorably thus far. However, beating Marty Brodeur in his home building in a Game 7 will prove to be a daunting task. They’ll play with grit but will ultimately lose a close, hard-fought game.

Penguins # 5: With the Rangers and Hurricanes predicted to be on the short end of their respective Game 7s, the Pittsbugh Penguins, along with their explosive offensive arsenal will be the lowest remaining seed still standing and be headed to Boston later in the week for the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.

Four games down and it feels like 24. One blowout sandwiched among three total nail biters, the most recent of which was an absolute classic. What more can the Celtics and Bulls possibly give us? Yet there are at least two, potentially three more games to play (and believe me, this series is going seven) and if those games follow anything close to the same path the rest of the series has, ESPN Classic may have to rethink its strategy of showing nothing but reruns of the World Series of Poker. The series has had its fair share of intriguing plotlines, from the explosion of Derrick Rose to Rajon Rondo’s taking the next step, to Paul Pierce’s surprising amount of lethargy in three of the four games to the emergence of Joakim Noah as a supervillian (the thought here is that he’s involved in at least one fracas before the series is over). And as entertaining as each of the first three games were in their own ways, none of them combined added up to what we got from Game 4, a relentlessly “can you top this,” type of contest that alternately blissfully and painfully seemed to never end. It was playoff basketball at its finest, one of the best, most competitive games of the year, a true test of wills that ended with the Bulls winning 121-118 in double overtime.

Early on, things were mundane at best. It took Pierce, who was absolutely blistering hot to start Game 3, until almost halfway through the second quarter to score his first points. Kendrick Perkins, who seems to have Noah’s number in the low post, was the Celts’ most reliable option at this point, and he, along with Rondo, carried the load while Pierce was taking his time waking up in time for the noon central time start and Ray Allen got untracked. Meanwhile, as happened so often during the season, the bench turned a slim, first quarter lead into a 16-2 Bulls run practically on cue in the early stages of the second quarter. It was quite dispiriting to see Stephon Marbury and Mikki Moore, after each of their solid performances in Game 3, return to the ranks of the irrelevant at best, hopelessly lost/overmatched at worst.

The Bulls were certainly not the same team that stunk out the gym in Game 3. They were much looser, more focused and calmer. Their energy, which was nonexistent Thursday night, gave the Celts fits, especially on the defensive end, particularly when it came to Pierce. And speaking of energy, the game also marked the official emergence of Tyrus Thomas as a certifiable beast. Thomas was all over the place, adding to his league-leading playoff blocked shot total, in on every rebound, ferocious on defense, particularly down low and pretty much just jumping through the roof. All the talk about Rose and his enormous talent is certainly justified, but if Thomas, who also has hit a few big shots in the series, continues to develop, he will be an all-star several times over.

Pierce and Allen both hit a few shots in the waning stages of the first half but for the Celts, it was all about Rondo. He hit the break with 11 points, six rebounds and six assists, and continued to be the best player on the floor wearing a green uniform. On defense, he was a one man swarm, holding Rose pretty much in check (at least temporarily) while keeping up his furious pace on the glass and doing all of the little things that any team needs to win. On the ABC telecast, both Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy were falling all over themselves praising Rondo for everything short of doing cartwheels, all of it perfectly justified. And even though Pierce made just three of 10 shots and Allen took only four in the half, the Celtics were ahead going into the locker room.

The second half started quite similarly to the first, with the Celts confounding propensity for sluggish starts rearing its head again. They missed nine of their first 10 shots in the third quarter but were bailed out by the Bulls’ youth and inexperience. The hosts couldn’t get out of their own way, committing seven turnovers and sending the Celts to the line 12 times in the quarter. Worse, Rose was playing passive which made up for the facts that Pierce again couldn’t get going and Big Baby, such a crucial offensive weapon for the Celts since his man doubles off him and he’s wide open all the time, was suffering through a horrendous shooting day. It seemed as though the Bulls wouldn’t be able to capitalize on their best chance of the day to send the Celts home and the Celts took advantage when Pierce got hot toward the end of the quarter and they ended the frame on a 12-0 run.

The fourth quarter was when things started to enter a different realm. Big Baby and Bulls’ big man Brad Miller got into a near-scuffle and it ignited Rose. Suddenly, the player who owned Game 1 was back. Rose was trying to take the game over and if it wasn’t for Rondo, who was careening toward another triple-double, he may well have done it. Meanwhile, Perk, who averages 1.5 moving pick fouls per game, committed his second one of the game and fouled out. I love Perk and how he’s developed over the past couple of years, but it would not be asking too much for him to learn how to set a legal screen. Anyway, his expulsion from the proceedings robbed the Celts of their only real shot blocker and their second best rebounder (if anyone wants to argue that Rondo is not their best right now, please feel free to bring it). This lack of a defensive presence in the paint opened things up for Rose even more and he took advantage.

Down the stretch, with Rondo still controlling things and Big Baby’s shooting struggles extending into the post, where he missed three layups between the final quarter and second overtime, Allen started to make his presence felt. He hit a three in the final two minutes so naturally, with the Bulls up three with just under 10 seconds to play, it seemed a foregone conclusion that he’d be getting the ball. What wasn’t so obvious was that the Bulls defense on the play would be so bad. Both Noah and Thomas got caught in a screen set by Big Baby and Allen’s look from the right wing was wide open. He buried the shot and we were on to the first OT.

Soon after extra session No. 1 began, Rondo had the triple-double. He’s now averaging one for the series, only the fourth player to ever do that, and the first Celtic since Larry Bird in 1986 to have two in the same series. Allen drilled a couple more from long range and Rose was beginning to lag. When they went up five with two minutes left, it felt like the Celts would survive. But Ben Gordon, who put on the best Andrew Toney impression in Game 2 since Andrew Toney, had bounced back from a sore hamstring to make a couple of big shots in the overtime, including a swooping runner high off the glass over both Big Baby and Tony Allen that defied logic. Ahead by two, Pierce made a free throw then missed his second one of the series that would have ended the game with nine seconds left. Just as it was a no-brainer for Allen to take the shot at the end of regulation, so too was it that Gordon would get the ball at the end of the overtime. The Bulls called his number, he barely shook free of Pierce, launched an off-balance bomb from the right wing and nailed it. What goes around comes around and we were headed for another extra frame.

There was some suspense in OT, version 2.0, but not as much as there had been. The Celtics were the team that seemed to have had its spirit broken, not the youthful, inexperienced Bulls. John Salmons, who was awful in the first half, made two big shots, scored six of the Bulls 11 points in the frame and rung up two huge defensive plays on Pierce, one a strip while Pierce was driving with the Bulls up two and the second a partial block of Pierce’s last-second three-point heave. Rose and Gordon each had a couple more big moments and even though Pierce made a huge three to cut the Bulls lead to one, making the thought of a third overtime very real with about 15 seconds left, it just wasn’t going to happen, despite the heroics of both Rondo and Allen. Both teams had multiple chances to win and both teams probably should have won before it was all said and done. The Bulls just made one more shot than the Celts did, the way it usually goes down in the best games.

So what do the Celts need to do going forward? They need Pierce to play more like he did in Game 3, for starters. Sure, the Bulls are playing him extremely well, trapping and harassing him when they can and siccing defensive maven Kirk Hinrich on him when they can’t. But his energy and intensity just don’t seem right which is very confusing. He must step up, which we all know he can if he so chooses. They also need to tighten up defensively. They were positively demonic on D in Game 3 and for stretches yesterday. But there were missed assignments and slow rotations at crucial points yesterday as well and that sort of thing needs to be eliminated.

Still, there isn’t that much to complain about. It was a very tough loss and naturally, it’s far better to be coming home up 3-1 than tied 2-2. But it was such a great game, so worthy of all the praise one can dish out, so exhilarating and infuriating and exhausting and magnificent all at once that the final outcome seems less important. It will be pretty hard for any of the remaining games to live up to Game 4. But it can’t hurt to hope.

Tom:

Great end to the first half. Good to see the team extend the league with Rondo on the bench. Was the celtics demise greatly exagerated?

Mike:

The Celtics were being counted out by most experts. Going in to tonight’s game, the Bulls were even money to win this series. And what about all that talk of Pierce being too tired, too run down and the victim of over 200 games in the past 20 months?

The key to the first half was Pierce getting off early and the Celtics playing their championship defense. It seemed like Boston was creating turnovers on every other possession, and they got to just about every loose ball.

Rondo turned in another awesome effort and even Marbury created a spark off the bench tonight that we all expected from Day 1.

Tom, what do the Celtics need to do in the second half to continue their success?

Tom:

Defense and ball movement. The first half defense was great. The bulls shot 33% and they were taking at least 15 seconds a possession in order to get a shot off. Keep the defensive intensity and the hustle to loose balls. On offense, it’s the ball movement. They had about a five minute stretch in the first half when it was Paul Pierce isolation offense from 2005. There’s no need to repeat that again.

Give me your two things that make you confident and two things that still concern you going forward?

Mike:

I really like how Rondo is running the team. Right from the get-go, it seemed like Rondo was running after every defensive board. Rose has received all of the publicity this series, but Rondo has clearly outplayed him. He has been the MVP of the series so far.

I also loved the way the Celtics came out and played defense. You expect it from Rondo and Perkins, but even Big Baby was moving his feet and blocking shots. The Bulls had over 20 turnovers. Many of those were self inflicted, but the Celtics force many more with their aggressiveness.

It’s tough to criticize a team that wins on the road by 30, but I’m a bit concerned about their big man situation. As noted before, Mikki Moore is a human foul machine and is really the only reserve big man. I know Scalabrine is back…but he hasn’t played in two months.

Tom Scott:

Big Baby had a great game, he is getting better and better. The man is incredibly light on his feet. He looked good with that finger roll the other day and tonight he had some nifty moves. As an aside, with NFL draft coming up, could big baby have become Antonio Gates? He’s got great feet and is quicker than he looks.

The other plus item was clearly the defense. They came out with much better focus on defense. I think part of it was the “us against the world on the road” metality but the other half was effort. They shut down the lane, challenged most shots and made the Bulls work hard.

On the downside, Pierce and Ray Allen had a combined total of one rebound and zero assists. They did play good D tonight but it would be nice for them to contribute in these other categories. The Celtics’ best games this year involved these two stuffing the stat sheet

Prediction for Game 4?

Mike:

To beat the same team they just blew out on the road will be a tall task for the Celtics. Chicago will have three days to think about how bad they were, which should prove to be the ultimate motivation. Saying that, if the Celtics play stellar defense and the starters stay out of foul trouble, there’s no reason they shouldn’t have a good chance to win.

Editor’s Note: With two playoff games in the books, I’ve solicited the contributions of two former writers for the Full Court Press to chip in with playoff coverage. Last season, they gave us their back and forth opinions in a regular column called the “Give and Go”. Thankfully, Mike and Tom “the Chest” Scott are back. As noted in the past, these guys are all about the basketball.

Tom Scott:

With Game 2 over, another thriller, the question is – Are the bulls a good #7 seed or are the Celtics just a bad #2 seed?

Mike:

There have been many first round series that have been much closer than anyone expected. Off the top of my head, I can remember the Celtics being involved in quite a few. There was Cleveland back in the mid-eighties. Indiana in 1991 and 1992.

Having said that, I think the Bulls are comparable with the Hawks and the Heat who are the #4 and #5 seeds respectively. Since the acquisitions of Brad Miller and John Salmons, Da Bulls are playing well over .500 basketball. Chicago could be this year’s Atlanta.

So what is/are the Celtics’ problem(s)?

Tom Scott:

Chicago is even better than that. They might be equal to Orlando. They finished the season 14-7 since March 4th. Orlando was 15-7 and the Celtics were15-6. So clearly they came together after the trade while Rose got used to the league (what rookie wall?). They really remade that team nicely by getting rid of Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden and Nocioni. Brad Miller and John Salmons really round out the team. Salmons is playing good defense on Pierce. They are definitely a team on the rise.

That being said, Boston’s problems really arise from one major issue – Defense. The Bulls are getting transition points all of over the place by out-hustling the Celtics on the break. After the first 8 minutes of Game 2 until the end of the half, the Bulls were pushing when they could. It also helps that they are more athletic than the Celtics.

The help defense is also a problem. Without KG, they are not able to rotate quick enough and to help protect, like when Rose blew by Rondo all throughout Game 1. Then Chicago put up 115 points in Game 2 and they shot 50%. This is way above the average they allowed all season.

I also have to wonder: What happened to the bench?

Mike:

I agree. The Boston defense over the last two games has been their biggest problem. Giving up 115 points per game is not going to win you many playoff games. Also, Ben Gordon was getting far too many open looks. The Celtics didn’t really pay attention to him until it was too late. He was totally “en fuego.”

Regarding the Boston bench, they obviously didn’t do a great job in the first half of Game 2. Once Rondo and Perkins came out of the game, the Celtics blew their double digit lead almost immediately. It seems like the only players I truly trust off the bench are Eddie House and Leon Powe. Um, make that just House as we won’t be seeing Leon on the floor anytime soon after he tore his left ACL.

Rondo and Perkins were superb in the first half. Their replacements, Stephon Marbury and Mikki Moore? Not so much. I’ll start with Moore. You would think that he should be able to match up with Noah (athletic, slim build) and Brad Miller (a jump shooter). But Moore is a human fouling machine that can’t rebound and can’t seem to grasp the Celtics’ defensive concept.

As for Marbury, not only is he tentative going to hoop, but he somehow lost his outside shot. We know he can’t play on the ball defense, so the Celtics appear to be left with Sebastian Telfair all over again.

Doc Rivers didn’t do the starters any favors either. It seemed like House was the only significant bench player who received minutes in the second half. By the end of the game, it seemed like the offense was stagnant probably due mostly to fatigue. Pierce wasn’t going to the hoop at all. Then again, I’m not sure I can attribute that to fatigue or the lack of calls he’s been getting all series from these minor league NBA refs.

All that said, if there was one guy who should have played more, it’s Tony Allen. As hot as Gordon was in the fourth quarter, why wouldn’t you put Allen on him? I asked the same question in Game 1 when Rose went off for 36.

What’s your forecast for Game 3? Will the Celtics’ road woes from last year’s playoffs continue?

Tom Scott:

I agree on TA. I was wondering if he was hurt. He would have been a good matchup for Gordon and would have been useful on Rose on Saturday.

I think they can win one in Chicago but I’m not sure it will be Game 3. The crowd will be crazy and the team will definitely feed off that. I guess the biggest hope is that perhaps the Bulls will read their own clippings and may not have the same focus they had in Boston. Conversely, maybe the Celtics can rally around themselves and try to survive in a hostile environment.

Ultimately, they need the defense to be better and they need the offensive movement they had in Game 2. Ray Allen finally decided to move in the second half and it showed. In Game 1 and in the first half of Game 2, he stood around. He wasn’t doing what made him successful, i.e. coming off picks, moving and finding the soft spots.

What happened to Pierce in Game 2? He looked out of the game.

Mike:

Pierce looked like he was exhausted. How else to explain why he got his jumper blocked by a point guard, Derrick Rose, late in the game? He also was very hesitant to drive to the basket all throughout the game. Then the few times he did, the refs didn’t give him a single call.

Pierce played 43 minutes on Saturday. This is fine, because the game went into overtime, which added 5 minutes to his total. But Doc really put a lot of pressure on the starters Monday with his non-existent substitutions. I remember Doc blew a game by leaving his starters in all second half during Game 2 in 2005 versus Indiana. He’s lucky it didn’t cost him on Monday.

Tom Scott:

Pierce got outhustled on the block and the out of bounds save and looked like he was out of energy. Now with Powe out, using the bench effectively will be important. They need to continue with rotating substitutions rather than bringing on four bench guys at once. They’ll probably use Marbury on Rose but they might be better off letting him take Hinrich to the hoop and abuse him a bit. Generally speaking, Stephon and Eddie House both need to step up big on Thursday.

Coming attractions on FCP: More “Give and Go” with post-game analysis of Game 3

Potential Game 7s would be held on Tuesday, April 28 for the other two tight series in the East, meaning the earliest the Bruins could start the second round would be Thursday, April 30. A win tonight in Game 4 would give the team at least one full week worth of rest. Yes, an argument could be made that their momentum would be halted, but let’s look back to the Bruins regular season and see how a similar situation played out.

The Bruins were plodding through the month of March looking like a tired, dead team. However, the schedule maker was kind enough to grant them six consecutive days off in late March and the refreshed squad responded with six straight wins.

It’s no secret that Tim Thomas tends to wear down after enduring a heavy workload and the NHL playoffs is the ultimate test of endurance. Giving the Bruins (and Thomas) a week off in late April could prove lethal to other NHL teams in late May and early June.

Although this has nothing to do with the Bulls or even the Celtics, I thought it was worth mentioning nonetheless:

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal had a piece that embarrassingly fawned all over the Los Angeles Lakers and their semi-passionate fan base. My favorite nugget of information gleaned from the article was the fact that, according to one Los Angeles insurance carrier, at least 350 pets in the LA area are named after Kobe Bryant.

Hmm. Actually, I think it makes far more sense for Celtics fans to name their dogs after Kobe because it would provide everyone with a constant source of amusement whenever discipline was required . “Oh no! Kobe Bryant just peed all over the floor! Bad Kobe !” Or “No! No! No! Kobe , how many times have I told you not to eat your own poop!” Or “Fer Crissakes, Kobe Bryant just ran away with my dirty underwear again!” And finally: “Kobe, leave that poor woman’s leg alone! That’s disgusting!”

Moving along, some might call this the blatant recycling of old material. I prefer to view it as a fond reminiscence of those heady days of the title run of last spring. Here are some random Rolling Observations I made during a couple of the playoff games I attended last year. They’re about a few specific players that I happen to find myself missing these days:

Kevin Garnett (from Game 1 of the Cleveland series):

Anderson Varejao draws a hard foul. While at the line, the crowd starts a “Sideshow Bob” chant. It’s funny because it’s true. Sideshow Bob can’t cover Kevin Garnett either.

Leon Powe (from Game 1 of the Atlanta series):

Just when the crowd seems to be getting a little sleepy, Leon Powe wakes them up with an eye-popping jam against double coverage, including Josh Smith. I’m pretty sure Leon Powe could muscle a slam through a truck full of fast drying concrete. This from a guy who couldn’t get on the floor at the beginning of the season. Now he’s clearly an important (if unheralded outside of Boston) part of the rotation.

James Posey (from Game 1 against Atlanta):

After a Joe Johnson three, James Posey responds seconds later with his own three, then grabs the rebound on the next defensive possession. This reminds me of the words of his former coach Pat Riley offered earlier this season in the bowels of this very building. After a drubbing by the Celtics, when asked to reflect on the loss of James Posey (due to salary cap considerations), Riley said, “James Posey is a big shot, big game, big time player.” True, that.

Sam Cassell (from Game 1 against Cleveland):

Sam Cassell knocks down his first jumper after talking some smack to Delonte West. Although I couldn’t catch the full exchange, it was something about West’s mother being overweight and crashing through the wall yelling Kool-Aid.

and:

After a Cleveland miss, Sam Cassell of all people tears away the rebound and is subsequently knocked to the floor by Ilgauskas. The big Lithuanian knees Cassell in the head for good measure, but Cassell knees the Cavs in the groin by knocking down his free throws.

Coming attractions on FCP: The revival of the “Give and Go” by Mike Brilliant and Tom “the Chest” Scott

The NBA: Where Immense Frustration Happens. Ugh. Where to begin? With some salient facts, I suppose, which are as follows:

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Boston Celtics at home in Game 1 of their first round playoff series, in overtime, by a score of 105-103.

Bulls rookie point guard Derrick Rose submitted a performance for the ages. In 49 minutes of play, he recorded 36 points on 12-19 shooting to go with 11 assists. He also hit all 12 of his free throws.

Rajon Rondo was almost as magnificent with 29 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists.

Ray Allen, meanwhile, was horrid. Yes, he missed the shot on a good look at the end of overtime that would have tied it for Boston but it was his overall line of 4 points on 1-12 shooting (including 0-6 from deep waters) that spoke volumes. With Kevin Garnett out, the Celtics simply cannot afford to have Ray Allen become invisible for another playoff series.

Joakim Noah hauled in 17 rebounds to go with his 11 points and 3 blocks. Noah in particular seemed to swallow up Glen Davis whenever Baby approached anywhere near the basket. Brad Miller grabbed another 12 boards off the bench. For the game, Chicago out-rebounded Boston by a margin of 66-57. The effort by the Bulls on the glass was certainly among the primary deciding factors.

Paul Pierce had a lackluster first half, scoring only 4 points before coming alive in the third quarter and beyond. For the game, he finished with 23 points on 8-21 shooting. What he’ll be remembered for most, however, was missing the second of two free throws with 2 seconds left in regulation. Hitting the shot would have sent the Bulls packing. Instead, the miss left the game tied at 97 all. In the subsequent overtime, Tyrus Thomas seemed to become Ray Allen by connecting on multiple contested outside jumpers whereas Ray Allen seemed to become Tony Allen, suffering form a sustained poor shooting touch as well as a nasty case of butterfingers at the most crucial of times.

Now for some musings beyond the numbers:

I think anyone watching the game had to feel very early on that the Celtics were not submitting a playoff level of intensity. Doc Rivers admitted as much during his in-game comments to ESPN. I remain mystified by this. As a team without its emotional leader and defensive anchor, the Celtics obviously realize that their margin for error, even against a lesser team like the Bulls, has shrunk considerably. Therefore, one would think that no one in a Celtics uniform would ever be seen – on the parquet floor, no less – TAKING PLAYS OFF. And yet that’s exactly what happened on numerous occasions over the course of the game.

Take, for example, the last play of the first half. With time winding down, Ben Gordon launched a three point shot from the top of the key. When the shot left his hands, only Brad Miller moved towards the basket. When the shot bounced wide to the left with one second left, it fell into the hands of the advancing Miller, who laid it in easily just before time expired. Replays showed that no Celtics players were even in the lane when Miller received the ball, with most of them still stuck to the floor exactly where they were when Gordon launched the shot. It was an inexcusable collective lack of effort that ended up costing the Celtics dearly later in the game.

There were other examples, such as a Rajon Rondo drive just inside the three minute mark of the third quarter. On that play, Rondo took a deep rebound and charged full steam up the court against a back-peddling Bulls defense. Again, replays showed that the only other Celtics player even within twenty feet behind him was Ray Allen as the lagging trailer. Meanwhile, the other Boston players – Pierce, Davis and Kendrick Perkins – all jogged up the court behind the play. Left alone, Rondo stubbornly charged hard into the heart of the Chicago defense with the hopes of drawing a foul. He turned the ball over instead.

These are the plays that I cannot erase from my mind, and believe me, there were others worthy of scrutiny. Look, we all know that losing playoff games at home is going to happen. It just shouldn’t ever come down to a lack of proper effort. Yes, it’s true that Derrick Rose played out of his mind. It’s also true that the officials were regrettably a factor. Hell, an entire article could be devoted to exploring their gross incompetence displayed over the course of this game. Leading the charge was Bennett Salvatore, the man you may well remember for calling the ludicrous offensive foul against Paul Pierce in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit last year.

Regardless, if we’re going to assign blame, accusing fingers should be pointed first and foremost at everyone in a Celtics uniform not named Rajon Rondo. Outside of the young point guard, who nearly dragged his team to victory all by himself, all other Celtics players were guilty of either inexcusably dogging it on occasion or submitting a sub-par overall performance. Ray Allen, as noted above, was beyond ineffective. So too were Eddie House, Glen Davis, Stephon Marbury and – to a lesser degree – Paul Pierce.

In the wake of the news that Garnett was likely a scratch for the playoffs, the Celtics players to a man said all the right things. Don’t count us out. We’re still playing for a title. Sounds great in front of the microphones but now it has to be backed up on the basketball court. That includes the entire forty-eight minutes of the game, by the way. Forget all the doomsday prognostications about Cleveland or even Orlando. Chicago is the team that presently stands in the way of a successful title defense. Get past them and maybe we can resume discussing of likelihood of an upset against the vaunted Cleveland Cavaliers.

To be continued…

Woke up this morning all ready to do some serious Celtics playoff analysis. There were visions of the KG-fortified Celts bludgeoning their way back to the Finals and a rematch with the Lake Show dancing in my head. I couldn’t stop thinking, “finally.”

Then I turned on the computer.

Now, I’m feeling rather confused about the whole thing. I mean, aren’t you? Not only did we discover that KG would not be returning from his endlessly shape-shifting knee injury for the playoffs, but then came word that GM Danny Ainge had a heart attack and was in the hospital. The actual games and all that would go into them don’t seem nearly as interesting, appealing or important anymore. Ainge is going to be fine – word is, he’s resting comfortably at the Mass. General and will be home in a couple days. But his situation takes the conversation to an entirely different level, rendering any analyzing of matchups or strategy or what have you far less meaningful, at least temporarily. KG’s injury is just bad timing for his team, bad luck for him. It’s also just an injury. What happened to Ainge is far more serious, and transcends the game.

The show must go on, though. Just as KG will recover, so will Ainge, and the games will be played, starting tomorrow with Game 1 against the better-than-you-think Chicago Bulls. They pay me the big bucks to write about stuff like that, not to get holier-than-thou on all 12 of you. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at five playoff-oriented issues regarding the Big Ticket-less defending champs on the eve of the postseason.

1. THE BIG GUYS BETTER BE READY TO PLAY D

News Flash – the Celtics will miss Garnett the most on the defensive end. There’s simply no replacing the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, which was more than evident in the 22 regular season games he’s missed since the injury happened. His absence on defense will be magnified in the postseason because at this point, so many games become bruising, half-court battles of attrition. This is where Big Baby Davis, Leon Powe and Mikki Moore come in. Big Baby, a free agent who was hardly a regular contributor and seemed ticketed out of town on Opening Night, has made himself into a highly skilled and valuable offensive player and now looks like a guy at whom the team will have to throw some money. Leon is another guy you don’t need to worry about on offense while Moore has shown a nice shooting touch since his arrival from Sacramento. But on the defensive end, all three combined might not be as good as Garnett. Davis is the furthest along – he doesn’t ever seem too lost on D. But Leon has a rather maddening tendency to miss a rather important rotation or two and Moore is, to put it extremely kindly, a foul machine. This troika, along with Kendrick Perkins, has quite a bit of work to do if it wants to even approach recouping the loss of Garnett on defense. The perimeter will be well secured most of the time thanks to Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and the defensive demon, Rajon Rondo (as well as Stephon Marbury, hopefully). How the healthy bigs perform will reflect a lot on how far the Celtics advance.

2. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER TO PLAY PHILLY

It’s not like the Bulls are the second coming of the ’96 champs or anything, but they pose a bigger threat to the Celtics than the Sixers. The Bulls extricated themselves from nearly two full seasons of serious underachieving when they banished Andres Nocioni and Drew Gooden (since resurfaced in San Antonio) to Sac-town and rid themselves of arguably their worst acquisition of that stretch in Larry Hughes. In came Brad Miller and John Salmons, two talented, hungry dudes who were stagnating in the depths of the Western Conference. A team that was floundering at the all-star break then seemed to turn itself around, ending the season with eight wins in 11 games while getting clutch, consistent play not only from alpha dog Ben Gordon but from promising youngsters Tyrus Thomas and Derrick Rose. The Bulls are relatively young and fresh-legged. They have the guns to run up and down the court with Rose, Joakim Noah and the freakishly athletic Thomas leading the way, or they can slow it down and have Salmons (38 points in their St. Patty’s day win over the Celts) and leading scorer/wizened veteran Ben Gordon generate the offense. They also have the experience of upsetting another defending champ in the first round just two years ago when they dispatched D-Wade, Shaq and the Heat with a few of the same guys under taskmaster Scott Skiles. In short, there is a wealth more talent and know-how here than in Philly. The champs will win the series, but not without a fight. Celtics in 6.

3. EVEN WITHOUT KG, THE MAGIC AREN’T THAT SCARY

Odds are that while the Celtics are dispatching the Bulls, Orlando will be doing the same to Philly, which was mired in a crushing, six-game losing streak down the stretch before needing overtime to barely beat the LeBron/Mo Williams-less Cavs on Wednesday. Assuming both outcomes are fulfilled, it’s hard not to like the Celts’ chances, KG or no KG. A month ago, the Magic looked better than the Celtics, looked like they would have home court in a series between the two teams and even looked like they could potentially give the Cavs a run if given a chance. Now, they seem a bit lost. Tied with the Celtics in the standings 10 games ago, they went 5-5 down the stretch, giving three games and guaranteeing a potential Game 7 here. Dwight Howard, who is capable of looking eerily like Moses Malone with a bit of Bill Russell sprinkled in, seemed to fade as the season wore on. His April averages of 16 and 12 were his worst of any month of the season. And his primary running mates, Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis, were hobbled by nagging ankle and knee injuries in the season’s final weeks. Even if all three are operating at peak efficiency, is there enough defense here? Will their offensive style, reminiscent of the Hakeem Olajuwon-led teams on the ‘90s on which four guys stood around the three-point line and Olajuwon roamed the post, hold throughout the tournament? Will their weaknesses in the back court hurt them? It’s likely that some combination of these potential problems will creep up in a slugfest against a team as focused and determined as the Celtics. Can the Magic work through it? I don’t think so, not yet. They’re too much finesse, not enough toughness.

4. IT MAY NOT BE SO BAD TO BE UNDERDOGS AGAINST CLEVELAND

If the Celtics can survive the first two rounds and meet their fated opponent the Cavs, they will be huge underdogs, as well they should. Not only are the Cavs better, they will have home court and if you haven’t heard, the Celtics haven’t won in Cleveland practically since the halcyon days of the Richfield Coliseum. But it remains to be seen how the LeBrons react to that kind of pressure. The Celtics will be playing with house money. To have gotten that far will be even more improbable than winning 62 games amidst all of the tumult of this season. The Cavs will be the team that’s supposed to win. The Celtics were anointed as such last year and even though there were some very serious bumps in the road, they proved to be up to the challenge. It’s likely that the Cavs will be as well – LeBron is so unbelievably good and so amazingly tough that he may be able to single-handedly keep them from losing if it comes to that. It probably won’t, but under the current circumstances, the Cavs either getting psyched out or psyching themselves out may be the only chance for the Celtics to beat them outside of LeBron breaking his leg while participating in one of those wacky pregame rituals they’ve adopted.

5. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE HEART OF A CHAMPION

Grasping at straws? Hardly. In fact, it’s fair to say that the Celtics showed even more heart and passion this season than they did last. In winning those 62 games, the Celtics did it not just having to deal with Garnett’s injury, but also huge shots to their depth thanks to injuries to Powe and Davis. Rondo had to battle ankle problems for half the season yet he still took the proverbial “next step.” Rivers had to turn Marbury and Moore from insurance policies into regular contributors far faster than expected. And Pierce, who had what is most likely his best all-around season, had to maintain his usual workload while also guarding the opponents’ best perimeter guy and getting everyone’s best possible effort every night, more than 20 times without Garnett at his side. It certainly helped that Ray Allen played like a true, unquestionable Hall-of-Famer all year long and that the Celtics got off to such an incredibly hot start and maintained the pace for as long as they did (remember when they were 28-2?). Naturally, if they want to win again, he is going to have to carry them. I don’t think that they will, but I have no doubt that he can.

Power Play’s Ouija board will now do its best to try to predict the long and winding path of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Round 1:

Boston over Montreal in 5
Washington over NY Rangers in 7
New Jersey over Carolina in 6
Pittsburgh over Philadelphia in 7

San Jose over Anaheim in 5
Columbus over Detroit in 7
Vancouver over St. Louis in 6
Chicago over Calgary in 7

Round 2:

Boston over Pittsburgh in 7
Washington over New Jersey in 6

San Jose over Columbus in 5
Chicago over Vancouver in 7

Round 3:

Boston over Washington in 7
San Jose over Chicago in 5

Stanley Cup Finals:

San Jose over Boston in 5

In what seems to be annual rite of spring (in the years the Bruins qualify for the playoffs), once again it’s an Original Six postseason showdown between Montreal and Boston.

MYTH: In the modern era of hockey the Canadiens completely own the Bruins in the playoffs.

FACT: Not true.

Sure, in the last 40 years the Habs have punched the Bruins’ ticket to their summer vacation on 14 different occasions (’68, ’69, ’71, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’84, ’85, ’86, ’87, ’89, ’02, ’04 and ’08). However, it almost seems forgotten that the Bruins knocked out Montreal five times (’88, ’90, ’91, ’92 & ’94) during that same span. Defeating the Canadiens in the playoffs is challenging, yes, but far from “Mission Impossible.”

This series will go to the better team, the Bruins. Ken Dryden, “Too Many Men,” Steve Penny and the 2004 collapse will be distant memories for another spring when all is said and done. Boston has the edge in goaltending this time around, Markov is a key injury loss for Montreal and this spring has a trace of Bruins karma in the air. The Bruins may not have enough to win the Stanley Cup, but they certainly have the ability to dispatch Montreal in this series, probably sooner rather than later.

Game 1: Georges Laraque makes his physical presence known but the Bruins don’t get snookered into taking dumb penalties and win the game handily, 4-1.

Game 2: Saturday night in Boston and Causeway Street is loaded with Canadiens fans. Many of them don’t even make it into the TD Garden because the casual Bruins fans want in on this hockey buzz they’ve heard about. It’s a much tighter game this time with the Bruins winning 2-1 in overtime.

Game 3: Price is out and Halak is in for Montreal. The Canadiens backs are against the wall and they respond with a solid effort, beating the Bruins 4-2.

Game 4: Pivotal game of the series. The hockey world expects a Montreal victory but the Bruins rise to the challenge and eek out a 3-2 win.

Game 5: Not as many Montreal fans on Causeway Street this night as it’s “Dead Men Walking” for the Canadiens and they knew it the moment they didn’t win Game 4. The Bruins cruise, 5-2, and the light at then of the tunnel for the Bruins becomes a bit brighter.

Stop the presses! Stop the rumors! And please, stop the silliness.

Basketball Bob Ryan has kindly offered up explanation for the Case of His Mysterious Face from a few weeks back.

You may all now resume the search for the real killers of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman or whatever it was you were doing.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Kentucky Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

As of this morning, March 30, the Eastern Conference standings are as follows:

#1) Boston, 106 (TB, OTT, NYR, @ OTT, MTL, @ BUF, @ NYI)
#2) Washington, 99 (NYI, BUF, ATL, @ ATL, @ TB, @ FLA)
#3) New Jersey, 98 (@ NYR, @ PIT, TB, @ BUF, TOR, @ OTT, CAR)
#4) Philadelphia, 92 (@ TOR, TOR, @ OTT, FLA, @ NYR, @ NYI, NYR)
#5) Carolina, 91 (NYR, PIT, NYI, BUF, @ NJ)
#6) Pittsburgh, 90 (NJ, @ CAR, @ FLA, @ TB, NYI, @ MTL)
#7) NY Rangers, 87 (NJ, @ CAR, @ BOS, MTL, PHI, @ PHI)
#8) Montreal, 86 (CHI, @ NYI, @ TOR, OTT, @ NYR, @ BOS, PIT)
#9) Florida, 85 (OTT, ATL, PIT, @ PHI, @ ATL, WAS)
#10) Buffalo, 82 (@ ATL, @ WAS, NJ, DET, @ TOR, @ CAR, BOS)

I have put in bold print the games I think each team will win. If the Power Play Ouija board is accurate, the following will be the final standings in the East. Also, feel free to give each time another point for an overtime loss if you want.

Boston, 116
Washington, 109
New Jersey, 108
Philadelphia, 104
Carolina, 99
Pittsburgh, 96
Montreal, 96
NY Rangers, 95
Florida, 95
Buffalo, 90

Based on the tie-breaker of most wins, give the sixth seed to Pittsburgh, the seventh to Montreal and the last playoff spot to the Bruins first round opponent, the New York Rangers.

Bruins – Rangers
Capitals – Canadiens
Devils – Penguins
Flyers – Hurricanes

The Bruins and the Rangers facing off in the playoffs for the first time since 1973, almost hard to believe it’s been that long.

by Jeremy Gottlieb

There, now that’s more like it, eh? A nice, tidy, four-game winning streak and with 72 games down and 10 to go, the Celtics seem to have returned to their happy place, or at least something that resembles it. KG is back, Ray Allen shook off his tender elbow and is still shooting lights out, Stephon Marbury has yet to take a blowtorch to the locker room and Tony Allen is still a ways away from returning. It would seem that entering the regular season’s home stretch, the Celtics are right about (or near) where they need to be. And with a crucial, playoff-esque showdown with Orlando on the schedule for tonight and the postseason just three weeks away, what better reason is there to examine the state of things for your defending World Champs? So with that in mind, let’s take a look at five issues at the forefront of the final days of the regular season.

1. THE SWAGGER IS BACK

All it took for the Celtics to at least slightly resemble their old selves was (HELLO!!!) the return of Garnett. When it was reported that he was on the team plane down to San Antonio last weekend, it was a foregone conclusion that he’d be getting some run against the Spurs – the guy can’t even sit on the bench at home games when he’s out due to his competitiveness so how much sense would it make for him to fly to Texas only to stay at the hotel? Anyway, even though he only played a handful of minutes (and will apparently continue to do so for at least a few more games), his mere presence made the Celtics look like a different team than the one that had been staggering through the previous several games, mixing and matching lineups, displaying zero defensive intensity and generally looking lost. Sure, the Spurs were/are struggling without their sparkplug Manu Ginobili, but they still trotted old standbys Tim Duncan and Tony Parker out there to play at home against Garnett at half speed and Paul Pierce suffering through a dreadful shooting night and still lost (of course, it helped that they missed so many foul shots down the stretch). That win, coupled with the win against Miami last week propelled the Celts to two blowouts over doormats Memphis and the Clippers, no small feat considering that just weeks earlier, without Garnett, the Green either were beaten or made to sweat profusely by both. So, headed into tonight’s game, another winning streak has been borne and just at the right time. Even if KG only plays 20 minutes tonight, as he pretty much has for the last three games, those are 20 minutes in which the Celtics will be the better, more intense defensive team, will be more cohesive on offense and will be 20 minutes in which rookie Bill Walker and foul machine Mikki Moore don’t have to be out there as much. That gives the Celtics the edge, even in Dwight Howard’s house.

2. PIERCE IS STILL THE MAN

Since Garnett’s return, Pierce is 8-29 for 24 points. That’s three games worth of stats. In the final game prior to KG coming back, a thrilling overtime win over Miami in which Pierce was forced to completely take over in the fourth quarter and OT despite the fact that the Heat were playing without MVP candidate Dwayne Wade, he scored 36 points on 14-23 shooting. It should also be mentioned that in the St. Patrick’s Day game at Chicago (you know, the one in which the Bulls inexplicably wore green), which just so happened to be the night before the Miami win, Pierce went for 37, again hoisting a slew of shots just so his team would have a chance. The point to all of this, of course, is that he expended so much energy in those two games (with Ray Allen hurt against the Bulls and out against the Heat) that he’s stepped on the brakes somewhat since then. There is no need to be alarmed, however. He did go 3-16 in the San Antonio game, but took six and seven shots respectively against Memphis and the Clippers, both blowout wins. With the Celtics nearly at full-strength (the only key contributor missing is Leon Powe), Pierce can afford to kick back a bit when the situation deems fit, especially against powder puffs like the Grizz and Clip joint. There has been not a whisper about any kind of injury, he’s simply a bit spent, as coach Doc Rivers confirmed after Monday night’s contest. This is completely understandable given the hits the Celtics have taken since the all-star break. It seems like everyone except Pierce has missed at least some time over the past month and that, combined with mixing in the new guys who are trying to learn the system without actually practicing it, has put an onus back on the captain’s shoulders not seen in these parts since Al Jefferson/Ryan Gomes days. Pierce will be fine. He is fine. It’s only a matter of time before he explodes in the final quarter of a close game and leads the team to a win again. It may even happen tonight. You can count on it.

3. THE BENCH? STILL???

Is anyone else starting to get bored with seeing the horrors that occur in almost every game around the beginning of the second quarter? That’s bench time, folks, and you know what that means. It means fasten your seatbelts. In the Miami game, with Eddie House, Marbury, Gabe Pruitt, Walker and Moore on the floor to start the second, everything went into complete vapor lock. A 15-point, first quarter lead was a two-point deficit within nine minutes and the Celtics would eventually be outscored 33-15 in the period. It was completely predictable that Rivers then left the starters in throughout the third quarter and Pierce and Rajon Rondo for the fourth. Then in the Clippers game, most of the same crew surrendered a 19-5 run in the second, this time allowing a 31-18 first quarter lead to be whittled to two at the half. One has to think that by the time the playoffs come around, having been here for nearly two months, that Marbury and Moore will have learned enough to be more consistent on both ends of the floor than they have been over the last three and a half weeks. Given that they both were needed to contribute immediately upon arrival thanks to all the injuries the team has suffered, it is completely reasonable that they’ve had their fair share of tough moments, but such things can’t happen in the postseason. It would be nice to see Moore make one rotation on defense without fouling someone; hopefully, it’s only a matter of time. The fact that he was signed means he must have something to offer, right? And now that Garnett is back and Big Baby has willed himself into a valuable weapon at both ends, the need for Walker – who it says here will be a very solid pro someday – to do anything more than clean up is gone. Still, the issues the Celtics have had all season with their reserves continue to linger and it’s getting awfully late.

4. SAINT STEPH

Um, yeah, so I was wrong on this one. So far. Actually, I take that last part back. I was wrong about what Marbury would bring to the team and I’m pretty happy about it. For all of the apparent insanity over the years, Marbury has never been dumb, which is why he must realize that this is his last chance. If he flips, as I incorrectly predicted he would, he’s gone right away and every other team in the league wonders, “If he can’t step into line there, how would he possibly step into line here?” It’s perfectly plausible to assume that he’s seething about being a reserve, averaging 17.6 minutes a game. But he has to know that making a big deal out of it, or shooting off his mouth, or pouting, could mean the end of him. And on the court, he’s shown flashes of his former, all-star self, enhancing the possibility that he could really be a big help in the playoffs. I hope it turns out that way. And then, when he signs a multi-year deal with Milwaukee or Memphis or Golden State in the offseason, he can do all the freaking out he wants.

5. HOME SWEET HOME

The Celtics don’t seem to outwardly care that they probably have no shot at home court throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs. I’ve read several quotes from Rivers and some players unequivocally stating that it doesn’t matter where the games are played, they can win anywhere. Of course this is what you will hear and read, but do they really feel that way? Remember last season when no home court would have meant losing to Atlanta in the first round? Or to Cleveland in the second round? Of course, they figured it out by the time the Detroit series came around, winning twice at the Palace, including the clincher. And the huge comeback that turned the Finals came in L.A. But even with those wins under their belts and a 25-12 road record thus far this year, there is enough doubt to suggest that having to win a Game 7 in Cleveland instead of here won’t be so easy. Just the same, the Celtics would probably much rather not have to play an elimination game in Orlando either, lending more importance to tonight’s matchup, with only one game separating the two teams in the standings. Repeating as champs is hard enough. The Celtics will need every advantage they can get their hands on if they want to do it, the home court advantage the most important one.

I’d like to report that I’m back in full force at this space, but I’m still in the editing process and as I’ve said from the beginning of this amazing project, I can’t justify devoting time to my love (Scott’s Shots) over my real-life job.

Thank you for your continued support and hopefully by the time the Nantasket Beach concession stands open for business, we’ll be back dissecting the local and national media scene on a regular basis.

The Re-Launch of WEEI.com

That sound you heard last Monday morning was BostonHerald.com’s sports offering plunging to the depths of irrelevance. That was the day Boston became a two horse town as far as mainstream media sports sites go. With its total overhaul and Entercom’s apparent commitment to make WEEI.com “. . .the new sports page in town,” as the site’s VP/GM Tim Murphy said, the site is now fully ready to compete with the region’s sports-on-the-web leader, Boston.com.

“We didn’t want the site to be just ‘radio good,’” said Murphy in an extensive March 13 pre-launch interview and “walk-through’ of the new site with Shots. “We’re redefining what a sports page is. I like our chances of being the No. 1 (destination for Boston sports fans) in time.”

Boasting aside, what the new WEEI.com does offer is clean navigation, a comprehensive mix of audio and text and, in time we’re told, a healthy dose of video. It is vibrant, well laid out and deep.

Some of the initial slow loading and optimization issues faced last week are beginning to disappear and a spokesman for the site said, “optimizing load times is a normal 1-2 weeks process for a brand new site.”

For the most part, the beta testing of 100 guinea pigs and the months of design which Murphy oversaw seem to have struck gold. This is what happens when good planning, clear vision and proper investments meet creative and forward-thinking people.

The new site is already using its potential to tout upcoming radio highlights - witness the Bill Simmons on D&C Monday morning plug that was posted in the “This Just In” box on Sunday night. The ability to use the site to promote the radio station and vice versa will truly be the biggest asset WEEI.com will have over its competition. Complete and total saturation with the ability to completely dictate the region’s sports discussion is both a powerful position and a scary concept (mostly on the radio side with the all-too-might Big Show’s mob of meatheads).

With a staff and contributors that still lags behind Boston.com (but surpasses, in most every way the Herald), WEEI.com editor Rob Bradford and his lieutenants have shown glimpses of brilliance in both reporting and analyzing - even before the re-launch.

Experiments that haven’t worked have been abandoned - see: Leitch, Will - and personalities who drive traffic like Mike Felger and Curt Schilling are easy to find and promoted prominently through the lead story picture box. (That box is still having loading issues which lead to blurry, unviewable pictures but those kinks will be worked out with further optimization.)

The aforementioned “TJI” box is placed in a strange position for our tastes, but Murphy explained the concept of the placement thusly, “(The) ‘This Just In’ widget was intentionally designed to overlap the lead story block. It never overlaps the core of the image. Subjective area to assess, but we think it offers a compelling visual while also bring TJI, a differentiating content feature, into a premium position on the homepage.”

Fair enough and a great example of how everything was very well thought out and conceived. Almost no stones seemed to have been left unturned.

Advertisers, according to Murphy, have been receptive to the new look. The site’s serious attempt to challenge Boston.com and the Verizon-sponsored re-launch along with a growing preferred partners list would indicate the ad community’s willingness to dabble with the packaging of radio and web sides to maximize exposure and penetration.

Some early signs that should worry Murphy and Bradford is the slacking already being displayed by some shows’ individual pages in terms of updating audio and some not-yet-ready-for-prime time and inconsistent blogging.

They must also either make a committed effort to utilize the LeeINKS space or abandon the idea all together. That is just the kind of offering that Murphy talked about with us when he said every morning while he was growing up, he’d eat his cereal and read the Globe sports page. A quick A.M. romp around the webosphere for Boston-centric stories and oddities could be hugely popular - and cereal appointment reading But not if it’s ignored for days at a time and not clearly defined.

That’s probably the biggest critique we can offer at this point: when building a new site and creating site loyalty, the consistency and quality of the content is HUGE. (And will lead to the high Time Spent Viewing numbers Murphy wants to deliver - “We want this site to be a much ’stickier’ experience and show advertisers much more engagement through users’ commenting and other (strategies) to keep them at WEEI.com,” he said.

Murphy would be wise to remember, there’s just too many local and national offerings out there to steal readers and page views and once users are let down a couple of times, they may never return. You have one chance to make a first impression.

Still, if the site maximizes its potential and utilizes all its new bells and whistles to the fullest, it will indeed be the revolutionary creation Murphy is envisioning.

What Exactly is CBS College Sports Trying to Be?

While serving as the cable home for the Tournament and “complementing CBS Sports’ exclusive live game broadcasts with over 75 hours of coverage,” the CBS College Sports Network did more confounding during the Tournament’s first two rounds than complementing.

What the network promised would be “exclusive in-progress game highlights, live look-ins and press conferences from every team at every site from the first-round through the Championship Game,” was instead, on Thursday through Sunday’s offering a complete head-scratcher.

With such a unique opportunity to augment the yeoman’s effort consistently put forth by its Sugar Daddy, CBS, the cable outlet put forth a product that felt and looked low budget, haphazard and discombobulated.

Let us count the ways that CBSCS disappointed:

1. It started from jump street when Thursday introductions of three in-studio, guest coach analysts showed IUPUI coach Ron Hunter on-screen as the frazzled host was clumsily giving the credentials of Marist coach Chuck Martin. It only got worse from there, although in fairness Hunter, Martin and Hofstra’s Tom Pecora did their best under some clearly difficult circumstances. Stage tests and rehearsals were apparently not employed by the network formerly known as CSTV (for whom Shots did freeelance work with over the past two seasons).

(Hunter actually shone throughout the weekend and Martin’s debut was also quite promising. Pecora went a little too hard for laughs, but his bluntness was appreciated. It took us two days to figure out who Tim Miles was in his underwhelming appearance.)

2. The in-game shows were billed as being hosted by Adam Zucker and Tracy Wolfson - both of whom were passable - but a constant rotation of other throw-ins from the shallow CBSCS stable only confused matters. Analysts were here one game, gone the next and if there was any pre-scheduling of on-air time, it wasn’t apparent. Almost every analyst spent more time looking for the camera with the red light on than analyzing and the one who did understand camera position - Steve Lappas - has never taken to the medium despite the network’s repeated efforts to make him TV-friendly. That’s a project that needs to be abandoned.

When Lappas got paired with current Drexel coach Bruiser Flint on Saturday night’s desk, the awkwardness of the duo never dissipated. (Flint, who is phenomenal on TV, was replaced as the UMass coach by Lappas, in a move that signaled a decided downturn in Minutemen basketball that has take years to recover from.) As Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports pointed out, “it was sort of akin to having Mike Davis and Bob Knight discuss the brackets together.”

3. The self-touted “Live Look-Ins” from CBSCS were a complete disaster with most coming at inopportune times or for too short a period. Now that all games are available FREE on the Internet, it would make sense to give viewers extended “looksies” into riveting games on CBSCS. We know CBS refuses to use the once-popular split screens, but does that mean CBSCS can’t? There’s definitely a sponsor who would buy up that space, wouldn’t you think?

Quite simply, it just seems that CBS doesn’t know what to do with CBSCS, so they’re throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what - if anything - sticks. (Viewer call-ins DID NOT stick and must be discontinued immediately. Callers ranged from school kids to morons who wanted to know how far their team could go in the “playoffs.” Ugh.)

The coup de grace came on Sunday night when three down-to-the-wire contests were being decided but the wizards at CBSCS found it more necessary to show not one but TWO, re-packaged features on Tyreke Evans of Memphis and Blake Griffin of Oklahoma. To call it mind-boggling is being kind.

When they finally did go to live look-ins for the fantastic finishes, the CBSCS feed was almost a minute ahead of the national feed on CBS. What a disaster and what an embarrassment to the mothership at Black Rock.

[On a positive note, the rising star Carter Blackburn proved to be the most capable studio host all weekend and his second year of play-by-play work for both CBSCS and CBS (where he gave first-round breathers to aging Dick Enberg) should have him high on every major, respectable broadcasters list for new and emerging talent.]

The potential for CBSCS in future Tournaments - and maybe even this year as they continue through the Final Four - is limitless. If used properly, with pre-planning and clear guidelines, it can truly enhance the viewers’ experience of what is already a phenomenal event. Left in its current state, however, the network’s supplemental coverage does nothing but frustrate viewers and diminish the overall product shown to the nation.

. . . Over at CBS, Greg Anthony gets the most-improved award for his in-studio work. Partner Seth Davis got the most-annoying award when he referred to Greg Gumbel as “Gregory.” And the netowrk had its share of audio problems, most glaringly with Jim Spanarkel who sometimes couldn’t be heard at all.

Dan Shaughnessy, Cartographer

The site dedicated to such things does a pretty good job of critiquing Danny Boy for this laugher of an offering from Friday.

But there’s probably some good to be done from piling on in this instance. Emailers to Shots were equally appalled by the Curt’s BF’s assertion that, “New England’s history in the NCAA basketball tourney is ancient and rare.”

Shaughnessy bases the column on a completely fraudulent premise based in poor geography and worse institutional memory. Does anyone edit the man? And couldn’t he have had the decency to, I don’t know, write something that justified the expense of sending him on the road? Wouldn’t it have been nice to see a senior-year-unsung-hero Tyrese Rice column from Dan? Or maybe a Rakim Sanders of Pawtucket, RI piece? Or is Rhody too small of a state to be considered New England. Or how about something on the UVM transfer (oh look, another New England basketball school) Joe Trapani? Oh, wait, he’s from Connecticut and since that’s not part of New England, well, he probably doesn’t merit an introduction to the once-a-year BC followers who pop up annually.

I really hope Shaughnessy brings a t-shirt back from Minnesota for his chief enabler, sports editor, Joe Sullivan. You know the one. It reads, “My editor sent me to Minnesota and all I produced were two lousy columns that I put next to no effort into.”

Is there not anyone who talks with Shaughnessy about what he might be writing on? Don’t co-workers like Bob Ryan or Tony Massarotti get embarrassed by the drivel their cohort hands in while they actually still get after it? Things are tough all over and morale at newspapers is below sea level - but it can only be compounded for Globies who have to watch as Shaughnessy skates by on three out of every four offerings.

None of the Globe’s college hoops coverage bodes well for this weekend’s East Regional. Let’s hope Adam Kilgore comes up North from FLA and that Ryan doesn’t get sent to Memphis, Indy or Phoenix.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Memphis Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

After less than six months of publication, the Boston Globe on Friday informed its “OT” magazine staff that the weekly publication will cease immediately.

The Globe confirmed the closure with this posted at 8:07 p.m. as Shots was working the story. Four part-time editors and designers were let go according to Johnny Diaz’s story. Part-timer Mark Cofman, who edited the magazine, is among those relieved of duties. The four part-timers cited completely ignores the contributors who were also affected including: Maureen Mullen (Red Sox), Tom Wilcox (Patriots), Scott Souza (Celtics) and Danny Picard (Bruins).

Two Globe sources confirmed the decision to Scott’s Shots on Friday evening before the Globe posted its piece, although it is still not known whether any form of title will continue on-line . The Diaz story only says that Chad Finn and Tony Massarotti will continue their work with Boston.com and the paper.

The story neglects to address what the sell-through on the thin, 13,500-copy run each week was, only claiming to have been available at 400 outlets.

Voice and email messages left for Globe spokesman Bob Powers in the 7:30 p.m. hour - before the Globe posted its excuse article - were not returned as of posting time. An email to Sports Editor Joe Sullivan was also not returned. Both are quoted in the Diaz press release story.

Emails to a few “OT” staffers were not immediately returned either.

It would appear the oversized, newsprint tab fell short of both sports editor Joe Sullivan’s and VP of strategic planning Jay Fogarty’s high hopes from when the publication’s birth was announced in late September of last year.

Fogarty may have sealed the magazine’s fate when he boasted of the new publication: “”It reads more like a Sports Illustrated than a daily newspaper.”

As Shots pointed out at the time:

There shouldn’t be a single new media venture that tries to emulate SI because SI doesn’t even know what it is right now. Fogarty needed to emphasis the additional avenue that OT gives advertisers to get into people’s homes - and stay there for a week. The Globe’s ability to package its print and digital offerings is what will ultimately decide whether “OT” has a sudden death or a long life.

That packaging evidently never was produced.

Ironically, the magazine had just received its best injection of buzz with Chad Finn’s widely discussed piece on WEEI. Insiders, however, say the magazine was too much of a financial drain and indicated newsstand sales were weak at best. Clearly the “Bob Lobel Addition” wasn’t a boon.

• Once again, the Globe and it sports department decision-makers are guilty of not reading tea leaves properly and not giving a new concept a true chance at success. The recently reincarnated “Globe 10.0″ got virtually no support during its NESN run from a marketing standpoint and OT was treated to in-house ads and not much noticeable advertising beyond that. The web-based “Globe 10.0″ will almost assuredly suffer the same fate without a title sponsor and/or 15-second ad spots. (It hasn’t helped any that Bob Ryan has been on what Tony Massarotti termed in Friday’s webisode “sabbatical.” The draw of the show is Ryan and to have him miss substantial parts of the first two weeks of the offering is poor planning. Lack of explanation only compounds the problem.)

• The print run was shockingly small and it says a lot about how big a failure the attempt was. Not being able to cover costs on that likely is a sign that sell-through was abosllutley abysmal and that advertising revenue was close to nil. The venture didn’t even get six months to prove itself.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Memphis Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

BREAKING NEWS, DEVELOPING

UPDATE, 3/6/09 -

This release circulated on Thursday. Other follow-ups are here It’s puzzling to me that the story didn’t get more play locally - my inbox says there’s alot of irate folks looking for answers and $$$$:

CSB School of Broadcasting To Cease Operations

QUINCY, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CSB School of Broadcasting announced late yesterday that it would be closing all 26 of its campuses immediately as it plans to cease operations and to file for bankruptcy protection. While CSB’s operations have been dramatically impacted by recent changes in the private student loan market, the decisions taken yesterday are a result of recent actions taken by its lender, National City / PNC Bank, including the seizing of bank accounts held by CSB. CSB, which had been working to come up with alternatives to continue to fund the business, was surprised by the recent actions of its lender. Without access to cash, CSB has been forced to shut down operations. CSB will now promptly seek protection under applicable insolvency laws.

David Banner, President of CSB, commented that “I am extremely disappointed that, after 44 years of operations, CSB will not be able to fulfill its mission of providing a quality education to students interested in working in the broadcast industry. I am also disappointed that the actions of our lender precipitated this sudden disruption in the lives and careers of our students and employees.”

Inquiries regarding CSB and the insolvency proceeding may be directed to David Banner at CSBinformation@gmail.com or (646) 248-2027.

Nationwide, students attending the nation’s oldest and largest broadcast-training school were greeted on Wednesday with flyers posted on locked doors indicating the Connecticut School of Broadcasting (CSB) “has shut down all operations until further notice.”

The letter apparently was posted at all CSB’s CSB’s 26 locations, including the Needham “campus” locally, the Farmington operation in Connecticut and the Charlotte, NC post of CSB.

The message printed on CSB letterhead, according to a person who had seen the announcement (and now, the WTNH photo) read:

“We regret to inform you that CSB has shut down all operations until further notice. If you are a CSB student someone at Corporate will be in contact with you in the coming days.”

Founded in 1964 by Boston-local Dick Robinson, CSB was sold in July of 2006 to “DLJ Growth Capital Partners, an affiliate of DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (DLJMB), a private equity investment affiliate of Credit Suisse,” according to a July 10, 2006 Business Wire story. “(which) is partnering with Brian Stone and Scott Knight, founders and General Partners of KNIGHTSTONE Media (KSM)”

Messages left at Knightstone late Wednesday night were not immediately returned to Shots, nor was one for the Boston campus Director, Steve Williams. A voice mail was also left for one of the listed instructors at the Needham outlet, but was not immediately returned.

Reached after 11 p.m. on Wednesday night, Dick Robinson’s son, Jim, who now works with his dad at the Robinson Media Group (located in the Robinson Media Center that houses the Farmington CSB unit) said it’s a sad day for him, his dad and their family.

“If this is the ending, it’s sad to see it end this way,” said Jim. “I feel for the students, the instructors, everyone. The only thing I had heard was that there was going to be some downsizing. It’s just shocking right now, for everybody.”

MORE TO COME. UP TO HERE POSTED AT 11:47 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A fledgling blogger and CSB student, Jason Hancock, in Charlotte, NC posted this irate summary is at his website on Wednesday:

“The school that I was attending the Connecticut School of Broadcasting got they’re (sic) loan pulled by a bank today and were forced to close they’re (sic) doors, and I’m really pissed off about it right now.”

(Jason is clearly a recipient of the Pete Sheppard (Class of 1987) CSB scholarship for spelling and grammar.)

The school has produced a large quantity of broadcasters and technicians nationwide and under Robinson’s reign, the school was at a manageable 13 campuses when it was sold. That number has ballooned to 26 since in less than three years since the sale by Robinson.

“We were approached a few times over the years,” said Jim Robinson. “But we wanted someone who could take it to the next level and we thought this group was capable of that.”

Evidently, the current economic climate and perhaps, over-expansion, has spelled doom - at least for now - for CSB.

• Not to be rude, but where on Earth will sports talk radio now find its moronic, talentless flash boys?

• Look for State Attorneys General everywhere to latch onto this one quickly.

• Another local connection with YouCastr and CSB.

• Tough break for the Ivy Leaguers. What do you bet they blame Bernie Madoff?

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Memphis Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

In an interview with the New York Times yesterday in which he disclosed the news that he was to sign with Celtics, Stephon Marbury was asked to discuss his thoughts regarding his role as Rajon Rondo’s backup. His response?

“I’ll just let my game speak for itself.”

Not, “I’ll do whatever is asked of me to try to help win a championship.” Nothing of the kind, in fact. Just the words (or variations on the words), I and me.

And thus, the Stephon Marbury in Boston era begins.

This move stinks so bad I can smell it here in Somerville, a few miles from the TD Banknorth Garden. The Celtics are going to bring in the league’s single biggest knucklehead in their quest to repeat. Batten down the hatches.

It feels awfully strange to think that such a bad guy will be a part of this team, as genuine a group of good guys that you’ll find in all of pro sports. The Celtics rationale for making the move is completely understandable. The depth that played such a huge role in last season’s title is not as strong thanks to the absences of James Posey and P.J. Brown. There is no one on the roster that can adequately back up Rajon Rondo (Vaya con dios, Gabe Pruitt). Marbury has put up all-star caliber numbers throughout his career and to get such a talent at such a low cost is a no-brainer.

It would seem that the next logical question is: How much are those factors worth? The Celtics aren’t guaranteed banner 18 by making this move – they may have a better chance at it, but obviously, that’s all. There probably will be no better options, especially in light of the rule that no one signed after Sunday is eligible to play in the playoffs, another pro to making the deal.

And then there are the cons, starting with the fact that for all intents and purposes, Marbury is a total and complete malcontent certain to be overcome by ego and selfishness if things aren’t satisfactory to him. I’ve talked to a couple people this week who have likened the circumstances to those of the Patriots acquiring Corey Dillon prior to the 2004 season. It’s not close. Dillon played for the worst team in the NFL for seven years, dutifully put up big numbers and seethed over the losing. After a few outbursts near the end of his tenure in Cincinnati, he was branded a bad team guy, as if the Bengals absolutely sucking for all that time had more to do with him than anyone else. He came to Foxboro, didn’t say a bad word all year, put up one of his best seasons and won a Super Bowl.

Marbury has played for four teams and managed to be banished from each one. He is a perpetual complainer. He is eminently unlikeable. The only time he has ever been in a winning situation, he flipped out over not being the highest paid/most visible/go-to guy and forced his way out of town. Teams routinely get better after he leaves (check out the Nets, Suns and Knicks’ records in his final year with each of them as well as the first year after he’s gone). He cannot/will not be coached (see Larry Brown, Mike D’Antoni, Don Casey, Scott Skiles and Flip Saunders for more information). He epitomizes the stereotype of the modern, me-first athlete and if that wasn’t already evident in his play throughout the years, it was unmistakable in his behavior toward the Knicks this season, from his refusal to play when needed to his hard-headed unwillingness to surrender $1 million in his buyout negotiations of a contract worth more than $20 million. He is so toxic, he couldn’t even get along with his brother from the coaching/executive division of human team incinerators, Isiah Thomas, who enabled and coddled him more than anyone this side of his old stomping grounds in Coney Island.

Everyone, both with the Celtics and who supports the move is saying all the right things. Everything stays in house. The locker room is policed by Capt. KG and his lieutenants Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. If anyone steps out of line, they will have to face those three future Hall-of Famers. The winning culture and mutual respect will force Marbury to stay in line. The financial commitment is relatively small, making it an easy option to send him packing if he doesn’t comply. This is his chance to prove to any doubters (meaning, pretty much all observers) that he can function in a winning atmosphere, that he’s capable of subverting his massively over-inflated opinion of himself for the greater good. Etc.

It doesn’t matter. To repeat, Marbury has gotten himself run off of four teams. His exploits are not comprised of isolated incidents. They are all part of a large pattern that suggests an irredeemable quality. He has never played for a team on which he didn’t commit some act of loserdom, so why are the Celtics the exception? He’s such a negative that I can’t even describe him without resorting to double negatives.

Anyway, what’s done is done. He has been signed. He’s on the team. The experiment has begun. Perhaps, he will be a good soldier, come off the bench, play 15-20 minutes a game, score about 10 points and dish out three or four assists, smile and keep his mouth shut. Maybe, when Garnett is healthy, the two of them will rekindle some of the magic of their youths in Minnesota. Who knows? He may be just what the Celtics need to stave off Cleveland and the Lakers and win another championship. I hope he is. And I will gladly declare mea culpa if needs be.

I just can’t see it, though. I see him lasting a month here, maybe less. And then we can all move on and pretend the time the Celtics brought in the league’s biggest knucklehead never even happened.

Shots is not quite ready to re-start regular Friday posts, but the confluence of buzz surrounding Chad Finn, Dan Shaughnessy, Bill Simmons and Dick Albert offered too many fish in too small a barrel for my blogging soul.

In the meantime. . .

• Let’s not look lightly upon Chad Finn’s widely viewed takedown of the Guest Street Goons.

When a single post generates more comments (and possibly more hits) that Boston.com’s uninspiring “OT” blog has probably had in its existence, it’s worthy of our collective attention. (The festering soap opera will be given even more plot lines on Friday when Finn takes part in a Noon chat at Boston.com.)

Beyond the agreement (from the sane) and outrage (from the LCDs) Finn sparked, his unrestrained attack on Entercom’s Sports Leader (radio side) could also signal the proverbial gauntlet having been thrown by the Globe. If there’s going to be a sports media war in this town, it certainly isn’t going to include the Boston Herald or any other of our local pretender sites.

It will be waged by the fledgling WEEI.com and its radio sibling against Boston.com. They are the only two with the brains, brawn and Benjamins to dig trenches and support troops.

While insiders on Morrissey Boulevard indicate the Finn column wasn’t part of any calculated strike against Entercom, the overnight metrics it has surely generated will certainly (hopefully) have heads spinning throughout the newly-formed New Revenue Team . If they can’t recognize a potential revenue-generating feud against 50,000 watts of ignorance, the NRT will be DOA.

The time is right for both sides to start rattling some cages and separating themselves from the have-nots. Why not stoke the flames between long-time rivals when the consumer is hungriest for distractions from the bleakness of reality?

WEEI.com has a well-rounded (if Leitch-less) roster of contributors and once they finally get around to introducing the new design, WEEI.com will be in a position to consistently compete player-for-player with the Globe. (Although Bob Ryan remains a trump card for the Old, Graying Lady.)

Likewise, the Globe has seen the power of the Internet on the sports side (see: Reiss, Finn, et al) and a good, old-fashioned media war against the loudest shouters of ‘em all (WEEI’s radio rabble-rousers) has potential to be, as one of our favorite PR guys likes to say, “a game-changer.”

The reaction to Finn’s missive is no aberration - this city has strong feelings about the lone, true sports talk radio station in the region and the build momentum off that passion would behoove both media conglomerates.

It’s a shame really, because the role of a fight-picker should really be played by the tabloid in town, but the Herald missed the Internet boat and have been swimming out to it - against the raging tide - ever since. From its sporadic early blogging days to the lack of the simplest of website innovation (hello, original video??), the Herald is positioned to be nothing more than the little paper that could - or perhaps can’t. God Bless the Herald for staying scrappy but to think they can ever be anything more than a periphery player with the skeletal staff they employ is pure lunacy.

(I’m still having trouble believing this, but it is confirmed by two separate parties with intimate knowledge that the Herald has been interviewing candidates for a slot containing the Pats’ beat. How they can get away with bringing in new blood - even with unfilled positions - is a bit baffling. Even more perplexing? The number of candidates willing to wend their career through Wingo Way. A risk at any paper, for sure.)

As for a WEEI/Globe escalation of activity, I say, “Bring it on.” Something has to shake up the status quo in this town and if Chad Finn’s WEEI Manifesto is it, then let ‘er rip.

(We feel it necessary to vividly separate the radio side of WEEI from the Web side and to emphasize that distinction in no uncertain terms. Tim Murphy and Rob Bradford have taken a reasoned approach to grabbing market share with WEEI.com. The real culprits we blame for Idiot radio are the majority of Big Show non-talent.)

That said, the battle we be joined on the websites and we’re anxious to see how far both sides will be willing to go.

• You’ve got to admire the commitment and unyielding efforts by the DSW gang in its dogged pursuit of pointing out the lowlights of the current portion of Dan Shaughnessy’s once-esteemed writing career. I do, however, wonder why they get to have all the fun? Seems selfish to me, so I figured I add to DSW’s long-list of self-plagiarism from the increasingly nasty, Shaughnasty:

Thursday’s offering from Curt Schilling’s BFF, reminded us of a column we’d read before. Maybe even twice before. Sure enough, his Thursday column is another in the long line of what we’ll call, “Dan Discover Collegians In Awe and Taking Pictures” pieces. Witness, the annual Shaughnessy-penned columns we are treated to in late February/early March:

March 2, 2007
Hed: Red Sox Feast on Collegians

Dan’s Checklist:
1. Use of “pasty” in some form to describe fair-skinned, winter-paled student athletes from the Northeast
Yes. “Beckett faced seven pasty-white Northeastern University batters. . .”

2. Reference to photos and/or autographs which players will relish for years
No. But did get to reference the “indoor” workouts of the college guys, something he uses again in ’08’s masterpiece.

3. Quote from a player (preferably a senior) indicating the supercalafragilisticness of playing against big-leaguers
Yes. “It’s an unbelievable experience,” said senior captain Dan Milano. . .

February 29, 2008
Hed: Mismatch made in heaven; Northeastern Gets a Whiff, and is Simply Awestruck

Checklist:
1. Use of “pasty” in some form to describe fair-skinned, winter-paled student athletes from the Northeast
Yes. “The pasty Eagles and Huskies. . .”

2. Reference to photos and/or autographs which players will relish for years
Yes, both. “. . . there will be photos. And autographs. . . ”

3. Quote from player (preferably a senior) indicating the supercalafragilisticness of playing against big-leaguers
Yes. “This is living the dream,” added (senior Ted) Ratliff. . . “These are guys we idolize.”

February 26, 2009 (linked above)
Hed: Lasting Images for BC

Dan’s Checklist:
1. Use of “pasty” in some form to describe fair-skinned, winter-paled student athletes from the Northeast
No. And to his credit, Dan did get rolling with a bit of a new angle focusing on an oft-injured sophomore - but he abandoned the theme immediately after the jump and got back into his comfort zone from the Shaughnessy Mad-Libs collection.

2. Reference to photos and/or autographs which players will relish for years
Yes. In large doses. “. . . for the rest of his life (Dane Clemens) can tell people he got David Ortiz out.. .” and later, “. . . a lot of photo-ops around the cage.”

3. Quote from a player (preferably a senior) indicating the supercalafragilisticness of playing against big-leaguers . . .
Yes. “This is awesome,” said Eagles first baseman/closer Mike Belfiore.
(Sadly, Belfiore is listed as a junior. Maybe next year when the lefty reliever/first baseman is a senior and Dan recyles like Cambridge, he can be quoted again!)

. . . Heck, everyone who writes long enough starts to repeat themselves. We acknowledge that. But even beyond repetition and an apparent lack of “institutional memory,” the bigger question is how - for three straight years - can Dan not dig up a better column angle than “pasty boys play against idols?”

Is it really too much to have a guy search under the tarp for something different? Is it?

And if it is, why the heck does he need to be there in the first place? Just run a “Best of. . . ” and save the crucial budget dollars.

. . .On top of his lack of creativity, Shaughnessy (and Joe Sullivan) are guilty of not including a 17-percenter-like disclaimer that Dan’s son Sam is listed as a sophomore for the BC club. If there’s not an ethical reason for such a tag-line to the yearly column, there is certainly a moral obligation. It’s not exactly going to take up the space of a brilliant new Shaughnessy witticism. Here it is for use with next year’s edition: “Editor’s Note: The columnist, Dan Shaughnessy, has a son, Sam, who currently plays for the Eagles baseball team.”

. . . Still waiting for word of further departures from Sully’s Staff, but for now it’s worth noticing the lack of Jim McCabe (now at Golfweek in another of the long line of unexplained or un-mentioned goodbyes not worthy of an editor’s note). With the biggest sports story of the week - Tiger Woods’s return - the Globe used an un-datelined recap from mystery staffer Michael Whitmer on Thursday and the website was using AP as of 3:00 a.m. Friday morning on Tiger’s flameout.

• I’m not saying a thing about him being a prima Donna and I’m even going to give heavy praise for both the Dooze Farewell and his latest for the Mag.

But I will mention how confused I am by the new “Follow Your Sports” ad campaign for the “new” ESPN.com. The former Boston Sports Guy is not a sport I care to follow, thank you. Although with all his subtle jabs and double meanings, it is sort of like a scavenger hunt and I’m sure that’s got a pro league somewhere. (Oddly silent stretch from the FBSG’s own special site for spit-balling the teacher.)

• Why was I sadder to see Dick Albert go than Bob Lobel? And how much longer before the sweeping of the local TV oldies is fully complete? Preemptive bye-byes to Mike Lynch, Mike Dowling, Jack Williams and probably a few of the Boomer Broadcasters. Just don’t take our Maria, you hear me?

• Finally! Mazel Tov Tom, Gi and the entire blended fam.

This will undoubtedly be the thing the Big bOzos cling to: “. . .Her three dogs also wore matching Dolce & Gabbana floral lace collars. . . ”

You know what, if my bride-to-be looks like Gi and I’m as in love with her as Tommy appears to be, I’d wear the damn collar myself. Not afraid to admit it either.

• I really hope Bobby Knight realizes how good he’s going to be if he sticks with TV and how insane it would be to take another head job. Once they get him away from brutalBrent Musburger and with Dan Shulman (they’ll be together for Cal-UCLA on Saturday night), he has the potential to be Al Maguire-like with a couple more ounces of self-deprecation and another year of seasoning.

. . . Hubert Davis, on the other hand? He’s got to rig of giggles before he can take the next step.

• Too bad no one in Boston has the stones to have written this one. I just want to know how Danny got Doc to accept this reclamation project. Phil Jackson wouldn’t have been force-fed the volatile guard. Neither would Gregg Popovich.

I’m just sayin.

• “Globe 10.0″ on Boton.com wasn’t quite ready for its ‘webut,’ but they’ll get it worked out. At some point, a sponsor will want to attach itself to the re-incarnation of what NESN quit on. It’ll just take some time.

. . . Hey, and what happened to NESN’s “The Instigators’” technilogically-enhanced set and the Podiums of Instigation? Now Mouthy, Bingo and Brick are on the Jordan’s furniture love seats and each combatant leans forward on the edge of their seat to roughhouse about the hockey topics. Sit back, fellas. Relax a bit.

• I admit it. I got a chuckle out of the debut of the “Heidi Watney and Snackfood Sophia Fight the Gator” webisode. But the unfortunate wording at the NESN site (and in Watney’s blog) makes an unnecessary and careless “stalker” reference. This is what happens when websites have little or no editing or oversight, but still behave like the operations that do. It happens everywhere a media entity (usually TV) tries to get all bloggy and edgy by having “talent,” interns and wannabes create content.

The general rule for mainstream (read: multi-million dollar subsidiaries) sites has to be: if it’s borderline offensive, use something else. It’d be nice if the blogosphere would adhere to such guidelines, but we know that horse has left the barn.

• This was awful news for UVM athletics and a very valued member of the Shots Loyalists. Fortunately, he too will “bounce back.”

• Great to share some time with you. Now back into the Editing Cones of Silence.

Enjoy the Madness.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Memphis Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

Manny is now seen as a total villain, a clubhouse virus that victimized the Red Sox during his days in Boston. Worse, the Boston media minions who unfairly pulverized Ramirez for 8 years somehow feel vindicated. There is no question that the end in Boston was surely the fault of Manny and his agent Scott Boras. However, that does not erase the unwarranted hell that the Boston media piled on Ramirez almost from the beginning of his tenure in Beantown.

In terms of a love-hate, roller coaster relationship, Ramirez and the New England press broke new ground. Simply put, Manny and the Boston media made Kevin Federline and Britney Spears look like Howard and Marion Cunningham.

It began quite literally at the beginning. In March of 2001, during Ramirez’s first Spring Training with Boston, Boston Herald writer Steve Buckley scribbled a good old-fashioned hatchet job when Ramirez initially resisted a move to left field.

Buckley wrote, “We all knew it wouldn’t last. We all knew there would come a day, Manny being Manny, that he’d clam up and ask to be left alone, that he’d find himself a little hiding place in the clubhouse, a place that would be off-limits to the knights of the keyboard.”

He continued, “The fans are going to be watching him, inspecting him, scouting him, before making a determination about whether or not they like him.” Buckley went on to write that Sox fans “zero in on the very best players … and fire away.” In truth, Buckley was describing his own kind. Rushing to judgment on a star player is the modus operandi of the Boston media.

Here was Buckley’s summation of Ramirez based on just a few days of the player’s first spring training. “This guy is getting paid $160 million over eight years and now he’s saying he won’t even play left field in meaningless spring training games … He owes it to the fans to make an effort. Beyond that, he owes the fans an explanation. This is a joke.”

The “joke” that Buckley referred to continued. In 2003, Sportsradio WEEI’s Glenn Ordway said that the Red Sox should not and could not bring Manny Ramirez back to Boston for the 2004 season. Of course, they did, and later that year, Manny won a little award called the World Series MVP.

Even on the road to that prestigious honor, Ramirez still took it on the chin. The Sunday before the 2004 All-Star break, Ramirez missed a start due to a hamstring injury and WEEI’s Larry Johnson unleashed a tirade of trash on the Red Sox slugger.

He accused Ramirez of being a bad teammate and questioned whether the injury was real. In addition, he criticized Ramirez’s desire to play in the All-Star Game.

Perhaps the height of Johnson’s idiocy was his assertion that Ramirez’s teammates were upset with Manny. This was based on a pregame conversation between Curt Schilling and Ramirez, caught on camera by NESN.

The video showed the teammates engaged in polite conversation, but there was no audio. For all Johnson knew, the two could have been discussing an episode of “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Johnson’s attack on Manny was premeditated. At the top of the program, cohost Craig Mustard revealed that Johnson was licking his chops waiting to snipe at Ramirez. “We have our show,” Johnson told Mustard.

Of course now, Schilling is flapping his gums, saying that he did not like Ramirez and that the two had some physical confrontations.

Schilling has a habit of speaking out before and after the fact. He spouted off on steroid use in baseball, but then was mum at the Congressional hearings on the same subject. When they were teammates, Schilling actually defended Manny at times. In fact, when John Kruk criticized Ramirez’s home run bat flip, Schilling said that the ESPN analyst was just trying to stir things up.

Now that Ramirez is gone, all bets are off. I don’t doubt Schilling’s veracity, but I do think that his own abrasive personality was probably just as much to blame.

In a 2005 interview, Kruk, a former teammate of Schilling in Philadelphia, said, “I’m not around the Red Sox, but I’ve talked to people who played with Curt and they do resent that he talks so much. In fact, a former Phillies teammate still wants a piece of him.” Hmm, so maybe we should just call the Schilling-Ramirez tiff a push.

The media assault on Ramirez continued in 2005. Then-Eagle-Tribune scribe John Tomase penned a scathing column, completely eviscerating Ramirez. He questioned the man’s heart, doubted his dedication to team and blamed him for the high ticket prices at Fenway Park.

Confirming the fickle nature of Ramirez’s relationship with the media, this time it was Tomase who was absolutely skewered by talk radio hosts. It was nearly laughable to listen to fellow media members grill Tomase, specifically the ever flip-flopping Ordway.

The fact is that all of Tomase’s criticisms had been voiced previously by others, but timing is everything. In 2001, Ramirez had yet to prove himself as a Red Sox player. In 2003, the team had lost to the Yankees in the ALCS and Boston was still mired in its curse malaise.

Many of Tomase’s points were valid and proved to be prophetic, but he chose to state them at the most popular point in Red Sox history.

In 2005, WEEI’s Sean McAdam opined that Ramirez was faking a quad injury, and later that year, when Ramirez made his seemingly yearly trade request, he was booed roundly by the Fenway faithful.

That night, WBZ-TV’s Bob Lobel theorized that Pedro Martinez, who left Boston for the Mets the previous off-season, convinced Ramirez to demand the trade. Lobel stopped short of blaming Martinez for the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the eruption of Mount St. Helens and Chevy Chase’s talk show, but I’m sure that was coming.

In 2006, Buckley continued his personal agenda against Ramirez by trashing the outfielder for missing that week’s All-Star Game so he could be healthy for the second half of the season. So, let’s review. In 2004, Larry Johnson trashed Manny for wanting to play in the All-Star Game and in 2006 Buckley trashed him for not wanting to play. How do you win?

FSN (now Comcast SportsNet) “Sports Tonight’s” Mike Felger joined the anti-Manny movement in 2006. In the wake of an injury to the slugger, Felger stated, “I don’t think (Manny) is truly injured to the point where he should miss games.” Felger referred to Ramirez’ injury as a “Quote, unquote meniscus tear, because I don’t believe it’s really that torn.”

Herald writer Michael Silverman responded, “(Ramirez) brings it upon himself unfortunately because he doesn’t discuss these things.” Same old stuff. Ramirez didn’t talk to the media, so idiotic doubts and insulting judgments reigned.

On the same show, Felger discussed an injury to Tim Wakefield, but did not question its validity. Why the double standard for Ramirez? Was it because Wakefield is one of the more media-accessible members of the team?

In the end it doesn’t matter. Ramirez is gone, and his reputation is hurting him in his fight for a multi-year contract. His bitter last weeks and final exit from Boston was not the fault of the media, it was his transformation from Manny being Manny to Manny being Angry.

The end makes it easy to peg Ramirez as the bad guy, but before 2008, it was the Boston media who irrationally trashed the guy. As quirky as Ramirez was, he was always a tireless worker, good teammate and solid citizen, undeserving of all the media-created insults and intrigue.

John Molori writes for Patriots Football Weekly, Boston Baseball Magazine, New England Golf Monthly, Methuen Life Magazine and BostonSportsMedia.com. He is a contributor to the “Papa Joe Chevalier Show” at KLAV AM 1230 in Las Vegas and papajoetalk.com. He hosts the “J-Team Radio Show” at AM 980 WCAP and www.jteamradio.com. Email John at MoloriMedia@aol.com.

Joe Torre always seemed just a little better than the people and things around him. He carried himself with a quiet dignity and appeared to have wisdom beyond us mere mortals. He was legit, the real deal, a rock.

That is why it was so utterly sad to watch Torre on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” this past week trying to twitch and fidget his way out of the backlash generated by his book “The Yankee Years,” co-written with Sports Illustrated scribe and MLB Network regular Tom Verducci.

Parts of the book criticize some of Torre’s former Yankee players and colleagues. It is a typical kiss and tell, behind the scenes hatchet job, conveniently released now that Torre is 3000 miles away managing the Los Angeles Dodgers.

During the Letterman gig, Torre went so far as to imply that some of the information in the book was written by Verducci, not Torre himself. Letterman, clearly trying to help Torre, went along with that line of B.S. It may be true that Verducci contributed much to the book, but Torre’s name comes first, and therefore, he is responsible for every word between the covers.

The contents of Torre’s latest venture into the often-crass world of sports authoring is no surprise. He is merely the latest jerk to sell out those with whom he once worked daily.

In 2003, “60 Minutes” interviewed ex-Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor regarding his own piece of literary slop . The Q and A spurred much unnecessary controversy. In truth, LT really didn’t tell us anything that we didn’t already know.

Regarding bounties in the NFL, Taylor offered, “That’s just part of being the [expletive deleted] rough and tough football player. You get no pay for doing a cheap shot. But if I hit you straight up, yeah we’re going to get paid for that.”

The bounty issue is an old one. Current Fox analyst and ex-Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson used to go toe-to-toe with former Eagles coach Buddy Ryan on bounty accusations.

Regarding Taylor’s bounty comments, NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders stated, “We passed the hat around. Guys put in $100 here, $100 there. You knocked the guy out, but it was not initiated from the team or the coaches.” Added CBS’ Dan Marino, “We did that with touchdown passes too. Big play, big touchdown passes, players would put it in a pool.”

Taylor also discussed prostitution in the NFL, stating that teams would send women to their opponents’ hotel rooms to tire them out before games. He also reiterated that he and many NFL players spent as much as $1000 a day on drugs.

Was this news? Face it folks. CEO’s at business conventions send women to other guys’ rooms. The NFL is not the only bastion of bad behavior. As for Taylor’s drug use, it is about as surprising as Monday coming after Sunday.

All of this was, to quote William Shakespeare, much ado about nothing. The bottom line is that Lawrence Taylor was trying to trigger sales for his new book. What we saw on “60 Minutes” was the same tired old rant of a gifted athlete hell-bent on self-destruction.

In 2005, “60 Minutes” interviewed former NFL tough guy Bill Romanowski. Known for his dirty methods and pharmacological diet, Romanowski showed regret for his brutal play and admitted to taking steroids and human growth hormone provided by Victor Conte of BALCO infamy.

Romanowski’s performance was from the Lawrence Taylor school of thought. Step 1: Show a sensitive side preferably accompanied by tears. Step 2: Admit to character flaws. Step 3: Drum up interest in your soon to be released book, “Romo. My Life on the Edge.”

In the interview, Romanowski talked about breaking the finger of Dave Meggett during a game. “All I could get was a finger and, at the time, I thought it was his, but whatever it was, I just snapped it and I could hear a scream at the bottom of the pile,” he stated. How nice.

We learned that Romanowski’s hard-hitting style resulted in twenty “documented” concussions and possibly permanent brain damage. According to CBS, Romanowski’s brain showed “profound slowing of cognitive function.”

In truth, Romanowski’s brain functioning was questionable long before the interview. Throughout his career, he was a cocky, swaggering ass. He regaled anyone who would listen about his gross intake of a smorgasbord of pills and supplements. His teary admissions of using steroids and feeling regret for his past were about as sentimental as a Motorhead concert.

“I compromised my morality to get ahead, to play another year, to play two more years, to win another Super Bowl,” the ex-Niner, Bronco and Raider said in an almost heroic tone. Please. This interview was completely laughable.

The fact is that Romanowski was being utterly Cansecoesque, cashing in on the steroid scare and feigning regret for his cheating ways. The same way the washed up Canseco’s “Juiced” book blew the lid off baseball’s steroid secret. Canseco, to some, is now viewed as some sort of hero, but in truth, he wrote the book just to satisfy his own thirst for lost glory.

You can almost understand why has-beens like Taylor, Romanowski and Canseco decide to put poison pen to paper. They have an almost psychopathic drive to share their bitterness and anger with all of us. They are desperate for attention and money. In many ways, Torre’s indiscretion is worse. He is a manager, and a wealthy and working manager at that. He is supposed to be the father-figure on a team. He is supposed to be the one who eliminates in-fighting. He is supposed to be the one person on a team whom everyone should be able to trust.

Torre’s book is a shameful stab at a financial windfall, and Verducci is no better. For years, he has criticized Barry Bonds for being a bad teammate. Now, Verducci is profiting from Torre being a bad manager. I guess stabbing teammates and colleagues in the back is OK if it lines your pockets, right Tom?

On the Letterman show, Torre looked tired, worn and frazzled with all the negativity surrounding his book. He tried to dodge, deflect and dance around the blame. Yes, Joe Torre always seemed just a little better than the people and things around him. Turns out he’s as bad as any in the bunch.

John Molori writes for Patriots Football Weekly, Boston Baseball Magazine, New England Golf Monthly and BostonSportsMedia.com. He is a contributor to the “Papa Joe Chevalier Show” at KLAV AM 1230 in Las Vegas and papajoetalk.com. He hosts the “J-Team Radio Show” at AM 980 WCAP and www.jteamradio.com. Email John at MoloriMedia@aol.com.

It is intrinsic in the game plan devised by defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau to take every opportunity to hurt the opposition whenever possible. Latter day Steeler football is all about blindside hits and helmet first shots. They rely on the consistent ignorance of NFL officials and the blind eye of the league to get away with it.

Steeler fans and the national media who seem to genuflect at the mere mention of this organization should stop sidestepping the issue and embrace what their team is, a band of thugs, no more, no less.

The media is especially guilty. In the wake of Ryan Clark’s dirty hit on Baltimore running back Willis McGahee late in Sunday’s AFC title game, announcers Jim Nantz and Phil Simms immediately exonerated Clark calling the hit perfectly legal. Their replays showed that Clark’s hit was clearly helmet-to-helmet, but Steeler love had taken over the broadcast booth. Clearly, this legendary team could never administer a dirty hit. Please.

It’s no surprise that Simms let Clark off the hook. He has, in the past, cowered, or shall I say, Cowher-ed similarly. In the first half of the 2002 AFC title game between the Steelers and New England, Simms failed to take a stand when Steelers linebacker Jason Gildon rolled over onto Tom Brady’s legs nearly injuring the Pats’ QB.

Later in the half, when Lee Flowers delivered his infamous dirty hit to Brady’s leg knocking him out of the game, Simms was again mum.

In the second half of that game, New England’s Ty Law shoved Hines Ward while the two were out of bounds. Referee Ed Hochuli tagged Law for unnecessary roughness, but failed to call Ward for a blatant facemask.

CBS showed several replays of the call, and not once did Simms remark on the obvious facemask. But this is Steeler football, baby. Smile to the cameras. Hire a coach that sucks up to the media and loves to be on TV, and you can get away with anything.

Monday, on SIRIUS NFL Radio, Randy Cross and Solomon Wilcots also defended Clark’s hit on McGahee. Wilcots said that there was a little helmet to helmet contact, but stood up for the Steelers. Cross actually said that helmet to helmet hits on a runner do not exist, whatever that means. The pair then chuckled about Willis McGahee being “liquified.” Yeah guys, seeing a player carried off on a stretcher always tickles my funny bone. Later in the show, Cross and Wilcots seemed more concerned about the health and state of Clark than McGahee.

Pittsburgh’s recent history of cheap shots is the stuff of which championships are made. The Steelers’ only Super Bowl title since the Reagan administration was a direct result of perhaps the most fiendish hit in recent memory.

Flash back to the 2005 NFL Wild Card playoffs, Pittsburgh at Cincinnati. The Bengals had finally put together a great season led by quarterback Carson Palmer. They looked every bit the championship team until Pittsburgh’s Kimo von Oelhoffen delivered a vile hit damaging Palmer’s ACL, MCL and PCL. The cheap shot ended the Bengals title hopes and changed the balance of power in the AFC North for the rest of the decade.

Once again, the Steeler apologists immediately absolved von Oelhoffen of any wrongdoing. In true Steeler fashion, von Oelhoffen said he did not mean to hurt Palmer, the same way Ryan Clark sat on the Pittsburgh bench Sunday night seemingly remorseful about his hatchet job on McGahee. Sorry guys, in both cases, the damage had already been done. Palmer has never truly recovered from that hit, and has battled other injuries ever since.

The beloved Steelers of course went on to win the Super Bowl against Seattle in one of the worst officiated games in Super Bowl history. Most of the bad calls, of course, went in favor of Pittsburgh. First time Super Bowl referee Bill Leavy and his crew negatively affected the outcome of the game in embarrassing fashion.

They missed several offside calls against Pittsburgh, called a phantom hold on Seahawk Sean Locklear nullifying a big reception by Jerramy Stevens and called a bogus block below the waist on Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck.

A called fumble by Hasselbeck was correctly overturned by replay, but a clear helmet first hit by Deshea Townsend on Hasselbeck with 6:20 left in the game went ignored. Another dirty Steeler hit, another non-call by officials, another bogus Steeler victory.

The Steelers are not only dirty, they are gutless. At least the Raiders of the 1970s accepted what they were. Jack Tatum, George Atkinson and the gang admitted that they were out to injure and maim. The Cowher-Tomlin Steelers seem to want it all. They want to be respected as a hard-hitting football team that does things the right way, yet on the field, their record of questionable actions speaks for itself.

The towel waving Steeler fools and the merry band of Black and Gold boosters in the media can try to cloak the cheap shots in fabled glory. Bill Cowher can sit at the CBS anchor desk flapping his chin about hard nosed football, and Mike Tomlin can feign concern for victims of his brand of football. Their words are meaningless. On February 1, the Pittsburgh Steelers may in fact be crowned the NFL’s champs. In truth, they are nothing more than a bunch of chumps.

John Molori writes for Patriots Football Weekly, Boston Baseball Magazine, New England Golf Monthly and BostonSportsMedia.com. He is a contributor to the “Papa Joe Chevalier Show” at KLAV AM 1230 in Las Vegas and papajoetalk.com. He hosts the “J-Team Radio Show” at AM 980 WCAP and www.jteamradio.com. Email John at MoloriMedia@aol.com.

To his credit, Rice handled his selection with the same class and aplomb with which he handled his rejection. The fact is that Rice should not have had to sweat it out year after year, while borderline Hall of Famers like Tony Perez, Gary Carter, and Rich Gossage were inducted by the BBWAA.

Despite his selection, Rice still stands as the ultimate reason why Baseball Hall of Fame voting should not be solely under the jurisdiction of baseball writers. This often self-centered and biased horde is neither worthy nor able to be the lone arbiters of immortality. Give them a vote for sure, but let there also be input from players, coaches and baseball executives.

There were many who felt that Rice’s delayed selection was a product of his frosty relationship with the media. At best, the Red Sox slugger was cordial to the press. At worst, he was impenetrable. In short, Rice’s only real crime was being silent. In a 1993 interview with Rice, I asked him why he was so seemingly aloof and his response was surprisingly simple. “I was very protective of my work habits,” Rice said. “I didn’t want anyone to know what I did to achieve the success I had.” What a jerk, huh!

Guys like Larry Bird regularly sidestepped silly questions from the press, and when Bird did respond, it was usually sarcastic. Others like Carl Yastrzemski were about as pleasant as Nick Nolte in detox. Even the beloved and worshipped Ted Williams had a relationship with the media that would make Ike and Tina Turner look like Ozzie and Harriet. All these men are deified in Boston, while Rice was ostracized.

Rice arrived in Boston in 1974, at the height of racial unrest in a city not especially known for its tolerance. Don’t you think that a young man from the southern town of Anderson, South Carolina might have some trouble adjusting to life in a northern metropolis like Boston? Don’t you think there might be some tendency to withdraw and be careful and selective as to whom he trusts?

In 1975, Rice put together one of the best rookie seasons in memory (22 HR, 102 RBI, .312 avg.), but it was fellow rookie Fred Lynn that grabbed Boston’s headlines and hearts. Almost from day one, Rice was overlooked and undervalued by the media. His serious nature and focused veneer only added to the distance. He was a misunderstood talent, and few members of the predominantly white media ever cared to ask why.

And that brings us to today, Rice’s day. Last week, Tracy Ringolsby, a member and former president of the BBWAA, penned a hatchet job of Rice clearly designed to sway voters away from Big Jim Ed. In the column, Ringolsby expressed dismay that Rice would probably “slip in” to the Hall of Fame and said he was “confused” that Rice could actually get the 75% of the vote needed for induction. Judging from the lack of intelligence in his column, Ringolsby is confused by a lot of things.

Ringolsby wrote, “The Hall of Fame is for the elite of the elite of the elite.” He is entitled to his opinion, but later on in the column, he says that the dubious likes of Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and Dale Murphy are more qualified for induction than Rice. Dawson? Raines? Murphy? The elite of the elite of the elite? I can only guess that Ringolsby believed “Ishtar” to be Oscar material.

It gets worse. Ringolsby further states that Rice was the best player on the Red Sox only in 1978 when he hit .315 with 46 home runs and 139 RBI. Again, you can look at the stats and fully debate that assertion. In addition to ’78, Rice was arguably the best Red Sox player in 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1983 and 1985.
Ringolsby’s point is pointless. Since when is being the best player on your team every year a prerequisite for induction? Ringolsby essentially contradicts himself by saying that one of Rice’s drawbacks is that he was intentionally walked just 77 times in his career.

So, let me get this straight. First, Ringolsby says that Rice was surrounded by players better than he, and then he trashes Rice for not being intentionally walked more often. This is indicative of why writers should at least share the vote.

Carlton Fisk, Dwight Evans, Yastrzemski, George Scott, Tony Armas, Mike Easler, Bill Buckner and Don Baylor are just a few of the players who shared the lineup card with Rice in his Red Sox career. Are you going to walk Rice to face that group of sluggers? And since when are intentional walks a ticket to the Hall? Much of the media has dismissed Barry Bonds intentional walk rate as a bogus product of steroid use, yet Ringolsby actually uses that worthless stat against Rice. I guess David Ortiz is swamp sludge because Manny Ramirez hit behind him all those years.

Ringolsby goes on to say that Rice’s stats declined in his last three seasons (1987-89). Again, outside of the steroid freaks, most hitter’s stats do not improve in the final years of their careers. The Hall of Fame is littered with inductees whose numbers dip with time. At least Rice left the game with his head held high and didn’t hang on like Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Tony Perez and others.

Ringolsby is nitpicking, trying to keep an old media grudge against Rice alive. His weak arguments and contrived logic are reason enough to revamp the Hall of Fame voting methods. Thank goodness that enough of Ringolsby’s colleagues did not share his small-minded views. This summer, James Edward Rice will go to Cooperstown, his rightful place, while Ringolsby remains miserably stuck his own spiteful place.

John Molori writes for Patriots Football Weekly, Boston Baseball Magazine, and BostonSportsMedia.com. He is a contributor to the “Papa Joe Chevalier Show” at KLAV AM 1230 in Las Vegas and papajoetalk.com. He hosts the “J-Team Radio Show” at AM 980 WCAP and www.jteamradio.com. Email John at MoloriMedia@aol.com.

For Favre, another season has ended with another huge interception that cost his team dearly. And once again, it is clear that with all of Favre’s plusses (incredible stats, leadership, toughness), he is equally dogged by some serious minuses (mistakes, poor judgement, false sense of invincibility).

In the wake of Favre’s 3 interception embarrassment against Miami in the final week of the regular season, much of the NFL media and fandom have been, predictably, sympathetic. Go to NYJetsChat.com and read the sad ramblings of a fan saying that the Jets’ fall was the fault of offensive philosophy, not Favre. Visit NewYorkJets.com and read editor-in-chief Randy Lange actually make a case for Favre’s return to New York. It appears that, as usual, Favre is getting a giant pass, even after one of the most pathetic performances in recent elimination game history, one that inevitably cost Eric Mangini his job.

On SIRIUS NFL Radio, the excellent Adam Schein expressed dismay that Mangini was able to score a new head coaching gig in Cleveland so quickly after the Jets’ collapse. Schein’s feelings are understandable, but he failed to pin any of the blame on Favre. Mangini never wanted to go the Favre route. He and the Jets sold their souls to the devil, in this case, one wearing a giant ego, three days of facial hair and Wrangler jeans. Schein can trash Mangini all he wants. It was not the coach who took the pipe in an elimination game at home against a division rival.

It makes me wonder why a guy like Donovan McNabb continually incurs the wrath of the press, while Favre goes unscathed. It may lend credence to McNabb’s contention that African-American quarterbacks are in fact judged differently by the press and public, but this is not about race. Guys like Tony Romo, Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Jake Delhomme, Jeff Garcia, Philip Rivers and others have all been justifiably skewered at one time or another, while Favre coasts.

Let’s face it, kids. If not for then-Patriots coach Bill Parcells’ inexplicable decision to continually kick to Green Bay’s Desmond Howard in Super Bow XXXI, Favre would be without a title. The truth is that over his career, he has hurt his teams as much as he has helped them, maybe more. In fact, the culmination of Favre’s 2008 season plays into a belief that I have long held, namely, that if given the chance, there are at least 25 quarterbacks in NFL lore that I would select ahead of Favre if starting a team.

Laugh if you will. Storm me with emails and cheesehead-driven static, but it’s true. My list follows. It is totally subjective, and not at all based on statistics. Agree or disagree. Applaud or vilify, no matter. These guys, in no particular order, would all make my roster before the completely overrated Favre:

Bart Starr
John Unitas
Joe Namath
Terry Bradshaw
Roger Staubach
Fran Tarkenton
Joe Montana
Jim Kelly
Dan Marino
John Elway
Warren Moon
Tom Brady
Peyton Manning
Steve Young
Dan Fouts
Troy Aikman
Y.A. Tittle
Bob Griese
Phil Simms
Otto Graham
Sammy Baugh
Bob Waterfield
Bobby Layne
Randall Cunningham
Ken Stabler

Being as kind as I can be to Favre, I did not include a second tier group of QB’s, but you could make a case for the likes of Boomer Esiason, Donovan McNabb, Joe Theismann, Sonny Jurgensen, Norm Van Brocklin and Len Dawson. Make your own list if you want. Add or subtract from mine. The fact is that thanks to the sycophantic likes of NBC’s John Madden and NFL Network’s Steve Mariucci, the Favre lovefest is more propaganda than pragmatism.

Favre’s courage, love of the game and production could never be questioned, but his wreckless style and almost predictable interceptions are damaging to his overall career. In a foxhole, give me Favre anytime. In a close football game, I’ll take any name on that first list without question.

Wilbon deserves credit for putting the Favre soap opera in perspective. He is an old football player trying to hang on to a part of his life that is truly done. As for the Favre apologists, let them continue to pass the buck. If Favre passed it himself, the buck would surely be picked off and returned for six.

John Molori writes for Patriots Football Weekly, Boston Baseball Magazine, and BostonSportsMedia.com. He is a contributor to the “Papa Joe Chevalier Show” at KLAV AM 1230 in Las Vegas and papajoetalk.com. He hosts the “J-Team Radio Show” at AM 980 WCAP and www.jteamradio.com. Email John at MoloriMedia@aol.com.

Shots is heading back into the Seaside Shanty’s Sabbatical Seclusion room, but before we do we wanted to pass along further explanation of NESN’s end of game disaster with Boston College’s huge upset of previously-No. 1 and undefeated North Carolina on Sunday night.

FOX SportsNet’s Director of Corporate Communications, Chris Bellitti, had been looking into the matter at the request of Shots since Monday afternoon and on Tuesday just before 4 p.m. explained to us that, “NESN was taking the wrong feed for the game and we didn’t catch the error,” said Bellitti. “It was a problem on both ends.”

NESN has since removed from its website its apology to viewers that seemed to place the blame on FSN. In part, the explanation from NESN read, “NESN experienced a transmission problem at the end of last night’s Boston College basketball game that originated with the feed we received from Fox Sports Net. . .”

Said Bellitti, “I’m comfortable saying, for the sake of putting this to bed, that we will take the blame (for not checking the feed they were using). On the other hand, if NESN wanted to share the blame, we would also accept that.”

Bellitti said FSN wasn’t aware of the issue until Shots contacted them because the complaints would have been handled by NESN. He also said that it’s not uncommon for national broadcasts to have multiple feeds of the same game.

There is still no explanation from NESN as to why a scrolling message or on-screen explanation was not utilized to inform viewers of what was going on. That bit of neglect (both during the audio problems early on and for the game’s end) caused much of the residual anger from viewers. Shots has not been extended the courtesy of a return email from the NESN spokesperson who was contacted Sunday night.

NESN will air the UNC-Wake Forest ACC game of the week this coming Sunday at 8 p.m.

It appears BC isn’t scheduled for another NESN appearance until Jan. 20 from Atlanta against Georgia Tech at 7 p.m. That gives the NESNU professors two weeks to go back and master “Feeds Class 101.”

We know we say it regularly and then never follow through, but we really and truly need to get away from this blog for the sake of our “real life” projects. If I’m doing what I’m supposed to be and progressing as I need to, my visits to these parts will be infrequent.

It’s become apparent in the process of writing my first book that I get too distracted by all things under the Scott’s Shots purview. I have no idea how to break that habit but I know a good place to start will be to put this labor of love I like to call a “sports media column” on the shelf. There’s a lot swirling right now at The Shanty and the bottom line is that I have the opportunity to let book-writing be my full-time job for the next half-year and I don’t want the regret of having a non-revenue generating endeavor (Shots) hinder a family feeder (a motivational book with Memphis basketball coach John Calipari titled “Bounce Back”).

I hope you understand and appreciate your support. A couple a months of solitude and we’ll be back at you around March Madness time.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Memphis Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

ANALYSIS

While his agent, his employer (Entercom) and undoubtedly his lackeys who ride his coattails are rejoicing over the news of Glenn Ordway’s re-signing with WEEI 850 AM, the move is far from the “landscape” altering event Ordway’s agent George Tobia would like us to believe.

Instead, it means there will more of the same juvenile, inane and insulting sports talk radio that Boston listeners have been subjected to for much of Ordway’s lengthy tenure. The only saving grace may be that since Entercom opened the purse strings for Ordway that they may be cash-poor to retain the collection of meatheads that populate the WEEI studio during afternoon drive time. But even that is a longshot because the Pete Sheppards, Fred Smerlases, Steve DeOssies, Butchie Stearns and Brian Daubachs of the world know better than to bite the hand that feeds them, lest they be exposed as the frauds they are. Those elephants would work for peanuts because no other circus would be foolish enough to pay them.

As for those who continue to think Ordway was able to get a deal on par with what John Dennis and Gerry Callahan finagled last year from Entercom, I’d ask you to look no further than the Entercom stock price. On Monday, it was trading near a buck-and-a-half and has plunged to as low as half-a-buck over the past 52-weeks. There is no way a sane-thinking business person could ever suggest that Ordway didn’t have to take some kind of “hometown discount” because of the current fiscal crisis facing the nation. Ordway and Tobia read the tea leaves and knew there was no sense in playing hardball with a media company dangling by its frayed wires and they decided to get the most they could without ever seriously risking Ordway’s Big Chair spot.

In fact, there’s probably even some respect that needs to be paid to both Ordway and WEEI for not milking the re-signing as a way to temporarily boost ratings (although with the fill-ins available, that would have been a risky proposition). [Interestingly, Shots is told that Dale Arnold was the fallback plan to take over for Ordway if he bolted.] The D&C saga last year had a whole lot of contrived elements and anything of similar odor would have been frowned upon - even by the dolts who continue to fawn over Ordway and his assemblage of blabberers - especially with layoffs and cost-cutting affecting even the most rundown of regular WEEI listeners.

Shots is also told by well-placed Entercom and media sources that the reported $1 million per year is more of a “max-obtainable” figure than what Ordway’s base pay will be. While he will continue to hit ratings incentives, the insiders say, it will be difficult for Ordway to reach other performance-based thresholds, especially any that pertain to TV and/or the Web.

Still, whatever the lofty six-figure amount of money Ordway will be paid, it will, without question, make him the country’s highest-paid babysitter. If Ordway were ever able to silence his peanut gallery for good, then - and only then - would he achieve the “legendary status” of which Jason Wolfe gushed about.

• As for the TV component, we’re just not seeing how four hours of watching feeding time at the zoo is going to play for Comcast SportsNet or anyone else. (We strongly doubt snafu-suffering NESN is a serious player in the “Big Show on TV” sweepstakes and if there has to be any investment at all made by the McGrail/Feld group, it’s a non-starter.)

The WFAN simulcast that is so often cited worked because Mike and the Mad Dog were intelligent, entertaining and informative. None of those words come to mind when thinking of Ordway’s posse. A couple of options that may work would be a one-hour live-simulcast (maybe in the 5 to 6 hour) when the day’s premier guests could be featured and/or a one hour “Best of” re-cap later in the evening. (Heaven help the producer who has to mine for 50 minutes of gold from that show on a daily basis).

Similarly, we’re not seeing how well a web video simulcast would work unless there are in-studio guests that will be featured.

• Some housekeeping to tend to. . .

No, the return of Shots over the past week is not an indication that I’m back in full service operation of Scott’s Shots or it subsidiaries. I had promised at least one more 2008 post and I delivered it. (Wow, am I starting to explain myself in Simmons’s tone? Yikes.)

Then, NESN made a major mistake during the course of broadcasting an unexpected national story (BC’s upset of No. 1 UNC). I couldn’t just stand by and not delve into that a bit.

[As a minor follow-up to our earlier reporting on the incident, a national Fox SportsNet spokesperson had not heard of the situation, even after NESN had posted its Monday, "blame-FOX," non-explanation.

Shots' early afternoon phone call was, according to the spokesperson, "the first I'm hearing about it." As of the close of business Monday, FOX Sports Net was still looking into the matter.]

. . . Big ups to the Herald Dave Wedge’s better half, (Jessica Heslam), who did a nice job of cobbling together a NESN flub sidebar for the Monday print edition of the Herald. The sidebar drew heavily on Heslam’s prompt Sunday night post and included official comment from a NESN spinster.

. . . I will say it’s been nice to realize that some of you really do miss having us around. Okay, not “some.” But at least “one” of the crowd. Keep the clean comments coming and thanks for being there. I’d forgotten how passionate some of us are.

That said, some random observations:

• The ESPN.com re-design is solid. Nothing more. Put it this way, the one thing that I needed (Monday’s PTI episode) was no where to be found from the home page. Come on, People. You have a great product with PTI and you consistently under-promote it. Ride those two the way that Cardinal rode his pardner on Saturday night.

• Enough with college football already. Saturation point passed about a month ago with that whole traveshamockery.

. . . Then again, the Texas-OSU finish was compelling - except for you know, the non-compelling part where it didn’t mean a damn thing.

• Mariotti? One trick pony and he used his lone trick in the first column for AOL. I’ll never understand the recylcing that occurs in the business, but I do acknowledge there’s no stopping it. Lots of guys owing lots of other guys favors from wars gone by. Never gonna change in coaching and never gonna change in sports journalism.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Memphis Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

UPDATE: NESN has posted an “explanation” of its broadcast blunder as well as information on two scheduled re-broadcasts set for today at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. (The 1 p.m. re-broadcast is oddly void of a regular game clock, using only a score graphic in the lower right-hand corner. This was not the case in the original broadcast, so it seems even in trying to correct their error, NESN fell short.)

The posting at its website states, “NESN experienced a transmission problem at the end of last night’s Boston College basketball game that originated with the feed we received from Fox Sports Net. We apologize to all of our college basketball fans and will look into this problem to ensure that it does not occur again.”

Shots has left a phone message for a FOX Sports Net’s Director of Corporate Communications to get the FSN side of the story, but as some readers have already pointed out, the NESN explanation falls short when you consider that Fox College Sports Atlantic was able to stay with the game in its entirety (Channel 262 on some Comcast line-ups, including Shots’). NESN also does nothing to explain why there was no scroll or alert given to viewers when the snafu occurred. Shots is still awaiting reply from NESN spokesman Gary Roy on the incident. An email was sent to Roy last night at 8 p.m.

A Boston College athletics department spokesman had no comment on the matter when reached by Shots via email.

If a college basketball upset of mammoth proportions unfolds in Chapel Hill with BC dumping No. 1 and undefeated North Carolina, but the Boston market is deprived of seeing the end of said game, does the game really happen at all?

NESN viewers were left to ponder that very question after a gargantuan glitch prohibited anyone watching Sunday night’s game on the regional network from seeing BC put the finishing touches on its biggest regular season win in many a moon. The game was part of the ACC Sunday night hoops package and did remain on-air, in its entirety on FOX College Sports Atlantic (Channel 262 on some Comcast systems).

The final minute-plus of the game - which was still very much in doubt and hovering near a one or two possession game - was completely missed by NESN and viewers were not brought back to the contest until the teams were exchanging handshakes.

An email from Shots to NESN spokesperson Gary Roy on Sunday night seeking clarification on the bungle was not immediately returned.

The broadcast was doomed from the start as it was slated to start at 5:30 p.m., but NESN joined the game later after using a Program Alert scroll to inform viewers to stay tuned for the BC-UNC contest. Although NESN didn’t miss much of the start of the game, the first four minutes of game action were delivered without audio from Ron Thulin and Dan Bonner (and with no explanation).

While that issue was resolved by the first media timeout, it did nothing to prevent the switch from end-of-game action at 7:40 p.m. to an extended roll of NESN commercials, most of them in-house, hockey promos - talk about Instigators! BC fans were outraged for sure.

NESN offered no scroll explanation at all, no apology and no mention whatsoever at the network’s all-fluff website of the infuriating, embarrassing and unforgivable screw-up. Then, to add insult to injury, good soldier Heidi Watney prefaced the BC highlights on Sunday night’s “SportsDesk Lights Out” by bragging about, “a game seen right here on NESN.” More accurately, Watney should have said, “a game not seen in its entirety right here on NESN.”

Boston viewers will remember a similar snafu during the MLB playoffs on TBS in October. While this BC boo-boo is no where near as impactful, it is a stark reminder of just how little BC matters in this market. The ACC and BC Athletic Director Gene DiFilippo need to demand an explanation from the Red Sox broadcast arm and there needs to be compensation made - perhaps in the form of a re-broadcast of the game on NESN.

Beyond that, NESN has to develop a better system for alerting viewers of technical issues they are experiencing. Before the NESN apologists can get their excuses/spin out for this one, let’s all remember that the game remained live and uninterrupted on another regional’s delivery of the game.

• The gaffe was immediately noted (of course) on the BSM message board and at Jessica Helsam’s Boston Herald blog, The Messenger delivers what sounds like a sad tale of hoops watching in the Heslam household. The Eagle in Atlanta also entertained some irate BC folks in its comments section. Expect more of the same on Monday as people talk about the upset around the water cooler.

Happy New Year, Joel Feld (and Sean McGrail). Way to get ‘09 off to a rocking start at NESN.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Memphis Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009 and is now available for pre-order.

The cohost of SIRIUS satellite radio’s “Moving the Chains” and a contributor to both NFL.com and CBS Sports’ “NFL Today,” Kirwan is well versed on the business of running a franchise in today’s NFL. From 1989-97, he worked for the New York Jets as a defensive assistant and, eventually, the team’s director of player administration and salary cap manager.

Kirwan is never at a loss for insight on a host of NFL business issues, including how the Giants have dealt with the Plaxico Burress shooting incident. Says Kirwan, “Maybe it would have been a better plan to put him on indefinite suspension. Now, they’ve shown their hand as to what they will do.

“If you’re going to release him, you have to replace that talent with talent. His production has surpassed the issues, but when I saw him in training camp this summer on that exercise bike, I knew this was a guy who did not want to play. He says he was injured, but did not show up to have it worked on all spring. They still gave him the big contract.”

Kirwan says that management needs to weigh all options in making a decision regarding Burress. “The Mara family and Tom Coughlin have to evaluate their roster. If they feel they have the young talent to replace Burress, they might have some leverage. Maybe they could offer him a chance to stay, but at a reduced contract. If he refuses, they might be forced to release him. They also have to look at the free agent pool.”

Before joining the Jets, Kirwan served as an area scout for the Cardinals and Buccaneers. He has seen a major economic shift that affects whether a franchise stays with a troubled player. “It all started with the increase in guaranteed money,” says Kirwan. “Prior to the early 1990s collective bargaining agreement, there was no guaranteed money. Now, even rookies are getting 60% to 70% of their money guaranteed. Teams have lost their parachute because of the investments they are making in these players.”

When deciding whether to take on a player with some baggage, Kirwan says it is essential to know your coach and your quarterback. “Bill Belichick knew the culture of his locker room. He knew he had a quarterback that was not going to be bullied. That’s why they went after Randy Moss.

“Eli Manning flourished when Jeremy Shockey was out of the picture in New York. Shockey was a politician in the huddle and could be malicious on the sidelines. In New England, the best players are character guys, so you can take a risk here and there. Belichick is undervalued in his ability to communicate with players.

“He runs that tape of who (screwed) up in games and everyone gets a turn to have their balls busted. The players enjoy that.”

Kirwan is a strong proponent of New England’s business model in terms of personnel. He states, “Bill has signed key veterans for 50 cents on the dollar. They can bail on him and it doesn’t matter. Rodney Harrison did not sign with the Patriots for All-Pro money. Bill Parcells also takes more risks than people think. We haven’t heard a negative thing from Ricky Williams all year.”

Speaking of negative, that word does not even begin to describe the situation in Detroit. Kirwan says that the Lions organization has already made a key business blunder. “When they fired Matt Millen, they should have given $1 million each to (former NFL GM and personnel wizard) Ron Wolf and (ex-NFL coach) Dan Reeves as consultants. This is what most companies do.

“Wolf could have evaluated the scouting and player personnel end of things and Reeves could have attended practice and evaluated the players and coaches. Look, Dan Reeves worked with Houston. I know he helped them get (Gary) Kubiak as head coach.”

“Now, the Ford family is doing it, and nothing in their past hirings indicate they are qualified. You have to break the cycle of behavior or you’ll repeat it. What they should have done is ask New England for permission to talk to Scott Pioli. They need a guy who has done it at the highest level. Say, ‘Scott, what is wrong with this team? Tell us how to spend our money.’”

Kirwan’s business model in rebuilding a franchise is one that goes from top to bottom. He relates, “You have to evaluate everyone from the trainers to the doctors to the equipment guys. In 1997 when Bill (Parcells) came to the Jets, I knew I was qualified, but I also knew that Bill would let me go. We are good friends now, but he did not have time to teach me his way of doing things.”

The Patriots corporate brain trust will have a major issue facing them this off-season, namely, what to do with one Mr. Matt Cassel.

“You have to ask yourself about Tom Brady’s health, the fact that he is over 30, and that you have his replacement in Cassel. Are you willing to pay for that?” asks Kirwan, who cohosts his SIRIUS radio show with ex-Chicago Bears defender Tim Ryan.

“Once they decided to go with Matt in Week 1, they should have signed him to a three-year deal at maybe $2 million a year. They obviously knew he was going to be good, why not sign him? You have to sign players before THEY know they’re good. Matt had no idea that he’d be this good.”

Kirwan gives a glimpse into how the rest of the NFL, and prospective suitors, have followed Cassel’s progress. “After a couple of games, he was seen as a good backup which means he is worth about $2 million per year.

“After his first 400-yard passing game, GM’s said that he was looking at Matt Schaub money (6 years, $48 million from the Texans). After the second 400-yard game, they were comparing him to Aaron Rodgers (6 years, $65 million from Green Bay).”

“If you lay the franchise tag on him and try to trade him, Matt controls the trade. Let’s say the Lions call and New England wants a second round pick in exchange. That’s great, but if Matt doesn’t want to sign a long-term deal with Detroit, the deal’s off. No team is going to take Cassel short term. Also, if the college quarterback talent pool is weak, Matt has more leverage.”

Kirwan offers a possible solution to keep Cassel in New England. “I would go to Matt and offer him a two-year deal for say $10 million, and back end the deal with incentives should he start. After two years, if Brady’s health is an issue, you can keep Matt and let Brady go.”

While Kirwan praises the New England ownership, he is candid in discussing another NFL owner. Specifically, will Al Davis ever bring in a qualified football person to help rebuild the Raiders?

“I know Al on a personal level,” explains Kirwan who has spent time with Davis the past two summers. “At no time did I feel comfortable asking him that question. He is going to fly this ship by himself until the end. He had personnel guys like Ron Wolf and Bruce Allen, and coaches like Lane Kiffin, Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden, but he wore them out.

“Al might be the greatest owner/coach ever, but he has never built a system of trust with anyone. His legacy is such that it cannot be carried on.”

Kirwan sees a potentially similar situation developing in Dallas. “Jerry Jones is impulsive and likes to do things the fast way,” says Kirwan. “He counts on his personality to work with players. Jerry has had the opportunity to observe Al and he has to know that if he is not careful, that could be him. He now has the added pressure of turning that new stadium into a profit. Who knows how much he has leveraged himself on that?”

Kirwan was part of the Jets front office that hired Pete Carroll as head coach in 1994, and was consulted when Bob Kraft considered and eventually hired Carroll in 1997. He relates, “I told Bob that Pete was my best friend. Bob told me he wanted to hire Belichick instead of Pete, but Belichick was too close to Parcells at the time.

“Pete always tells me that several owners have asked him to return to the NFL. I respond, ‘Look knucklehead, you have the best job in the world. Stay put.’ I could see Pete returning to the NFL, but it would have to be on the west coast for the right owner.”

And just what makes such an owner? “Look, Bob Kraft came to New England after Parcells was already there, then brought in Pete Carroll and it was a disaster. Bob learned that lesson. I’ll leave you with this. (Eagles’ owner) Jeff Lurie realizes how to operate a team. He lets the football people run it and gets out of the way.”

John Molori writes for Patriots Football Weekly, Boston Baseball Magazine and is a contributor to the “Papa Joe Chevalier Show” at KLAV AM 1230 in Las Vegas and papajoetalk.com. He hosts the “J-Team Radio Show” at AM 980 WCAP and jteamradio.com. Email John at MoloriMedia@aol.com.

Popular Sports Show to premiere on AM 980 WCAP TONIGHT - Monday, October 6 at 6:30pm

A new era in interactive sports radio has resumed with “The J-Team Radio Show” on AM 980 WCAP Radio Boston/Merrimack Valley/Southern NH. This exciting program airs Sundays, 10am-Noon and Mondays, 6:30pm-8pm. Fans can listen online at www.jteamradio.com. The show will premiere TONIGHT, Monday, October 6 at 6:30pm featuring Hall of Fame CBS broadcaster Lesley Visser as a guest.

So, who is the J-Team? John Molori’s syndicated Media Blitz column has been published in major newspapers and websites throughout New England. Molori is also a regular contributor to several radio, television and Internet programs including “The Papa Joe Chevalier Show.”

He writes for numerous publications including Boston Baseball Magazine, Patriots Football Weekly. “Sports radio is still the best form of interactive media,” says Molori. “The J-Team is not about patting ourselves on the back or kissing up to the sports in-crowd. It’s about strong opinions and having a good time talking sports. We are thrilled to be at WCAP.”

Jamie Atkinson has been covering local and Boston sports since 1989. A fixture in the Merrimack Valley sports media scene, his wit and candor make for entertaining radio repartee. “Working with John and Jay is a blast,” says Atkinson. “They are very talented and we have a great chemistry. WCAP is the perfect home for our unique show.”

The third member of the J-Team is Jay Connolly. Connolly has gained a following in the region with several popular cable television programs, but for him, it’s all about the fans. “We are proud to join the WCAP family, and we want to involve the callers, as much as we can, to get their feedback and opinions,” says Connolly. “The listeners make this show great. We give them what they need, a voice in Boston sports radio.”

The J-Team’s website, www.jteamradio.com, is chock full of sports information, and allows listeners to get involved. The ever-growing web aspect will be a key as the show progresses.

Molori, Atkinson and Connolly have featured some excellent guests including ESPN’s Bob Ryan, Comcast SportsNet’s Mike Gorman and Laura Behnke, NESN’s Jack Edwards, sportswriter Mike Shalin, Boxer Vinny Paz, Sports Radio legend Eddie Andelman, sportscaster Dick Stockton and Patriots Football Weekly editor Paul Perillo.

The “J-Team Radio Show” will premiere on AM 980 WCAP Tonight - Monday, October 6 at 6:30pm.

The J-Team prides itself on truly listening to what callers and guests have to say, not talking over them with silly self-promotion or mindless banter. That’s “The J-Team Radio Show” Sundays, 10am-Noon and Mondays, 6:30pm-8pm on AM 980 WCAP, Everybody Gets It! For more information on the J-Team, advertising rates or to do a story on this interesting and exciting new sports program, please contact the J-Team today!

• Celtic revival
• Rising Stars, Falling Stars: Who’s hot and not in sports media?

Gorman trumpets arrival of latest Celtics’ renaissanceIn his nearly three decades as Boston Celtics television play-by-play man, Mike Gorman has seen more rebuilding projects than the folks from “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” This season, the Green is off to one of the best starts in team history, and once again, Gorman is front and center.“I have never seen excitement like this so early,” says Gorman, a Dorchester, MA native who calls Celtics action regionally on Comcast SportsNet. “Did you see Gilbert Arenas’s blog after the opening game of the season? He said it was as incredible a building as he has ever been in, and that he was not ready for that type of atmosphere.” A veteran of the New England media scene since his early days at WPRO in Providence, Gorman believes that the current Celtics are taking a cue from their successful local brethren. He states, “They have picked up the ball from the Pats and Sox and they are running with it. They are capitalizing on the success of those two teams and the organization is very conscious of that.“This is as good an ownership as I’ve been around. They have shown a willingness to spend money and when Danny (Ainge) has come to them saying he needed something, they have never said no. They also never gave any indication that Danny’s or Doc’s (Rivers) job was in jeopardy.”

Indeed, C’s owner Wyc Grousbeck and company have been patient almost to a fault with Ainge and Rivers. The fruits of this heretofore-questionable support now taste pretty sweet. “The ownership has given Danny a chance to do his thing,” says Gorman, whose “Gorman Points” blog and mailbag can be seen at www.comcastsportsnet.com.“He told me three or four years ago that he was going to collect some chips. Either those young players would develop, or he would trade them for established talent.

“If they had gotten the first or second draft pick, I think they would have taken Kevin Durant or Greg Oden and blended them in with Al Jefferson and the other young players. When that did not happen, Danny did a good job of putting another plan into effect. He had players that were desirable to other teams. He was never backed into a corner. Danny would have preferred to get Oden or Durant, but this option turned out even better.”

Playing the lead in this Celtic revival is Kevin Garnett. Gorman is as impressed with KG’s presence as he is with his performance. “After getting Ray Allen on draft night, Danny went back to Garnett and asked, ‘How do we look now?’“Garnett is an old soul. I didn’t know what to expect personality-wise. A lot of people have said that it would have been better to get Garnett when he was younger. I think we got him at the perfect time. He is motivated to win a title and Danny knew that.”

The versatility and leadership of Garnett conjures up visions of past Celtic stars. Says Gorman, “I was fascinated talking to Garnett. He is inclusive. It is we, not I. He is extremely sensitive as well. He told me that in his entire career, he has never felt so appreciated. He wants to give back.“We have a 7’1” guy who is our best rebounder, best passer, best defender and a great scorer. Only Larry Bird and Dave Cowens come to mind in that way. In college basketball, the coach’s personality dominates the team. In the NBA, your best player’s personality dominates the team.”

The Celtics’ fast start has fans licking their chops in anticipation of a playoff bonanza, but Gorman says that the journey might be as fun as the ultimate destination. “These guys are into the process of getting to where they want to be. There are in no hurry to get to May and June. They want to enjoy every practice and game. This is probably the best team that Ray Allen, Garnett and Paul Pierce have been on and they are going to make the Garden a tough place to play again.”

Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen are powerful offensive forces, but Gorman focuses more on their defense and team philosophy. “The goal of really good players is to make the other guys around them better. With KG and Ray, guys like (Brian) Scalabrine and (Kendrick) Perkins can focus on their strengths.“This team is so much better defensively. (Assistant coach) Tom Thibodeau has a reputation for coaching defense. I asked Tommy (Heinsohn) about the defense and he said that it is so much easier when the best player (Garnett) buys in.

“The top 8 players on this team can all play defense and they have all bought into this. I spoke to (WEEI midday host) Dale Arnold and he said, ‘Let’s see how things are 30 games into the season.’ I told him that he has not been around Kevin Garnett too much.”One guy who is benefiting from being around Kevin Garnett is Paul Pierce. In the past, Gorman has stated that Pierce is not built to be a vocal leader. With Garnett’s arrival, the Celtics captain can focus on playing, not public speaking.

“Sometimes, you love your job, but there is one part of it that you don’t like,” Gorman relates. “That’s how I see Pierce. With Garnett, Paul does not have to do that anymore. Paul tried to be the vocal leader, but it is not in his nature to stand up and speak in the locker room. Ray Allen is a great leader, but he is not very demonstrative. Garnett would give me a glare if he heard me say this, but ultimately, he will be the defining guy on this team.”

With success, comes pressure. Gorman recognizes that the great start has raised the bar for this team as the season progresses. “Doc welcomes the expectations. It’s great to develop players, but you look up and you’re 100 games under .500. Doc would rather hear people say that the Celtics should reach the Conference Finals as opposed to saying they might be an 8th seed and get knocked out in the first round.

“If this team loses a few games, they are not going to question themselves and turn it into a long losing streak. That’s what happened with the young players last year. People have asked how many games I think this team will win this season. I tell them that the