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Vote: All Time Boston Sports Columnists

June 29, 2009 By

So last week, I had you weigh in on who your favorite all-time Boston sports columnists were. I enjoyed reading through many of the comments, and received several emails from others who enjoyed reading some names they hadn’t seen in a long time.

So from the comments, along with a number of emails I received, I’ve put together this list for you to vote on.

Best All Time Boston Sports Columnist
Total Votes: 637 Started: June 29, 2009 Back to Vote Screen

If you’re so inclined, you can also put them in order, or at least the top five, in your comments below.

Filed Under: BSMW Awards
  • Sluggo

    Ray Fitzgerald was the #1 columnist when the Globe had America’s best sports section. A stylist, tough but fair-minded.

    • Chutney

      Agreed, but if I had two votes, Ernie Roberts would get the other one. When he was gone, high school and college sports in New England lost their best and smartest advocate.

  • Beaker

    HAGG-ER-TY! HAGG-ER-TY! HAGG-ER-TY!

  • Steve

    Bruce,

    How can you have a poll of the all-time best sports columnists in Boston and NOT include Dan Shaughnessy? I know you and many others don’t like the guy, but there’s no denying his impact in this town. Regardless whether you agree or disagree with the majority of his opinions, there is no denying that Dan is regarded as an authority on the Red Sox on the national baseball landscape.

    SJ

    • Bruce

      Because I had him on the list last week of names to consider, and there wasn’t support for him there. That’s why he’s not on this list. Perhaps you should’ve made your case for him at that time. But your point is taken, in retrospect, he could’ve been on this list. Perhaps a write-in vote is in order…

      • Lance

        It’s the award for Best not “most influential” columnist. Like the athletes he purports to cover, if you’re not working on your game, you’re losing it. He clearly stopped working on his game a few years ago.

  • J.R.

    Since first falling in love with sports as a lad in the mid-1960s, primarily via the written word (and, to a lesser degree, Don Gillis on the old Channel 5), here’s one guy’s Top 5 All-Time Boston Sports Columnists list:

    1) Ray Fitzgerald
    2) Leigh Montville
    3) Bob Ryan
    4) Will McDonough
    5) Tim Horgan

  • Jon

    Where’s Callahan? Def top 5er

    • http://www.patriotsdaily.com Scott

      I think the poll for “Best miserable hateful ignorant ***hole” is next week.

    • Bruce

      Right. Probably needs to be in the discussion. How come no one brought him up last week? I’m not sure about “def” all-time top 5er, but in the discussion at least.

  • Funkhouser

    Haggerty has chunks of all those guys in his stool.

    • Tony

      Well am I right? Steve and Edie?

      • Jason Coyote

        You betcha, Frank! Wonder what Sinbad thinks?

        I imagine the ‘Haggerty’ statue being a bronzed pork chop (BBQ sauce optional).

        Scary to think I agree with AOB, but I say Montville is #1.

        I think the lack of more current columnists just goes to say that the field was deeper back in the day.

  • Nopointe

    This award needs to have a snappy name. The best pitcher doesn’t get the ‘Best Pitcher Award’ he gets the ‘Cy Young Award’.

    I nominate ‘The Haggerty’. Imagine a little golden Haggerty statue going out to the winner.

  • fishercat

    NO JERRY CALLAHAN? DO YOU EVEN REeAD THE HERALD!! A lONG LIST OF COMMIES AND PINKOS WItH NO TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTS AMONG THEM. JERRIES THE BEST SPORTS COLOMNIST IN THIS TOWN AND A TRUE PATRIOT!!!

    • Nopointe

      Columnist sounds too much like ‘communist’, Gerry likes to be called a patri-writer

    • http://www.patriotsdaily.com Scott

      I thought that said “SODOMIST”.

    • http://www.jonvssports.blogspot.com Jon

      Every time Putt Putt Twin Number Two hits a golf ball into the rough, it’s a slap in the face of Osama Bin Ladin and his evil liberal cohorts. God bless him!

      (fishercat is the Joe Haggerty of these comments!)

  • Ted Samuel

    I assume most of your readers have never read Roberts,Horgan,Egan, Kaese or Hirshbeg. They were all great as are the those others in your survey. Very tough to pick one but I went with Will McDonough because I could not wait to see his Saturday column every week.Must reading for a Boston sports fan.

  • Steve

    Bruce,

    Thanks for your response. I still think Dan Shaughnessy should be included, democratic way be damned.

    SJ

  • Angry Old Bastard

    1)Leigh Montville

    2)Ray Fitzgerald

    3)Tim Horgan

    That’s IT!

  • buttercup

    With Will McDonough leading, the English language and writers of merit everywhere have to feel like they were kicked right in the pizzuti…

  • Fred West Lynn

    Of the people included on the list, only one (Ryan) is actively writing a regular newspaper column. I don’t know if Bruce crafted the choices that way deliberately, but it does seem to imply that current writers – most of whom are subject to BSMW’s daily scrutiny and usually found wanting – aren’t worthy of consideration. I say let fairness rule! Put Callahan and Shaughnessy on the list and let’s see what happens.

    Two other comments. Including Ernie Roberts but not Larry Whiteside? Both were equally bland, but at least Whiteside was a trailblazer. What was the criteria for non-Boston paper columnists?

    • Bruce

      There weren’t any hard and fast rules for this. It was more based on reader feedback.

  • ozzy

    KKKallahan, Shank and the guy I would have voted for, Charlie Pierce should have been included. I know. Where was I last week

    And Ray Fitzgerald, for Christ’s sake. I feel the same way about him as Earl Weaver felt about Terry Crowley. I’m an old crock who actually read the guy back in the day and I cant remember a single fu*king thing he ever said. Talk about inexplicably overrated.

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  • Mattytars

    Will McDonough was the Boston man’s writer. He knew all the major players personally. I always remember him on the NFL Today starting off his sentences like “I just got off the phone with Bill Parcells…” or “Commissioner Rozelle just informed me that…”
    Funny thing was, he wasnt lying. Great writer and is sorely missed. Could pick out a liar/cheat/faker from a mile away. See Roger Clemens on that one.
    The Boston Sports Media hasnt been the same since Southie’s own passed away.

  • RonBorges

    Best: Peter Gammons – Sunday couldn’t come fast enough. He was a must read for baseball enthusiasts and a true gentleman

    Worst: Will McDonough – A old-time “muck raker” who built his career on destroying others. McDonough was as bad a reporter as the terrible Patriots teams he covered. McDonough ruined the 96 Superbowl for New England fans, he was a mouthpiece for Parcells, and an arrogant SOB

  • Steve

    RonBorges…whoever you claim to be:

    I’d like to know how did Will McDonough ruin the 1996 Super Bowl for Patriots fans? I could have sworn it was Desmond Howard who did it. McDonough merely reported the truth, that Parcells was thinking about bolting, which came to fruition. Would it have made you and other Patriots fans feel any better if McDonough fabricated a story about Parcells leaving? And by calling McDonough a “bad reporter,” you obviously are beyond clueless. He had more sources in the NFL than Pete Rozelle. Come to think of it, Rozelle was probably one of Will’s sources.

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