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2011 Approval Ratings – Ian Rapoport

September 27, 2011 By

Ian Rapoport covers the New England Patriots for the Boston Herald.

The Boston-born but New York raised Rapoport joined the Herald in July of 2009. He had previously worked for The Birmingham News, where he covered the Alabama football program led by Nick Saban.

The Columbia University graduate employs an energetic style to his coverage of the Patriots, having fun, yet still breaking his share of scoops along the way. He is prolific on Twitter and is very engaged with his audience. He’s been a regular guest on sports radio, and on TV with Comcast SportsNet.

Ian Rapoport 2011 Approval Ratings
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Filed Under: Boston Herald, BSM Approval Ratings

2011 Approval Ratings – Karen Guregian

September 12, 2011 By

Karen Guregian covers the New England Patriots for the Boston Herald.

A Chelmsford native and graduate of Northeastern University’s journalism school, Guregian began her career with the Lowell Sun. She joined the Boston Herald in 1984, and has remained there since, despite some rumored inquiries from the Boston Globe in recent years.

My first memories of Guregian are during her days covering the Bruins. She spent eight years on that beat, and has also covered the Red Sox before coming over to the Patriots beat a few years back.

She doesn’t do a ton of on-air appearances in this market these days, but I remember her doing sports talk radio before WEEI even existed, so she’s got plenty of experience.

Karen Guregian 2011 Approval Ratings
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Filed Under: Boston Herald, BSM Approval Ratings

2011 Approval Ratings – Ron Borges

July 26, 2011 By

Ron Borges is a columnist for the Boston Herald.

This is actually Borges’ first time in the approval ratings, the last time we did these, in 2008, Borges was unemployed, having left the Globe after the football notes plagiarism case. Borges had been at The Boston Globe for 24 years covering the NFL and boxing beats. Before then he had worked out in the SF Bay area, covering the Raiders, which spawned his unending admiration for all things Black and Silver.

Borges is a renowned boxing writer, having covered the sport for HBO in addition to the Globe. After leaving the Globe, he briefly wrote for his own site, RonBorges.com, while freelancing for various boxing and football publications. He was hired by WEEI.com in the summer of 2008, where he lasted for a month before bolting to the Herald.

His appearances on local sports radio and television are always contentious, and his recent foray into the world of Twitter is the perfect place for him to spout his opinion on all topics. He was featured in a 2006 edition of Boston Magazine.

Ron Borges 2011 Approval Ratings
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Filed Under: Boston Herald, BSM Approval Ratings

2011 Approval Ratings – Michael Silverman

July 12, 2011 By

Yes, that was the best picture I could find of Silverman. The guy is a ghost. Even the photo on his Twitter page isn’t of him.

Michael Silverman covers the Red Sox for the Boston Herald. He’s a lifer there, having come in with the illustrious 1989 class that included Michael Felger, Tony Massarotti, Bill Simmons and Paul Perillo.

He’s been covering the Red Sox since 1995. He’s not a guy you hear a whole lot from on the radio and television airwaves, though he does make some appearances. He doesn’t generally inject a lot of opinion into his pieces, but his tagline this season of the 2011 Red Sox being the Best Team Ever has gotten some play.

He was friendly with former Sox ace Pedro Martinez, which often made him a go-to guy on Pedro stories, even after the pitcher had left town.

Michael Silverman 2011 Approval Ratings
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Filed Under: Boston Herald, BSM Approval Ratings

Former Boston Herald Columnst George Kimball Has Died

July 7, 2011 By

Note – please read George Kimball: An appreciation by Michael Gee, now posted on the Boston Herald’s website.

George Kimball, who served as a sports columnist at the Boston Herald from 1980 to 2005, has died.

Kimball was 67, and had been diagnosed with inoperable esophegeal cancer in 2005.

Known most for his boxing writing, Kimball was especially prolific in the final years of his life, as he wrote the books Four Kings and Manly Art. At the Herald, he had been the main NFL columnist for the paper.

On the website TheSweetScience.com, Thomas Hauser remembers Kimball, and posts a profile he wrote of Kimball back in 2004.

The man led a fascinating life.

Other references:

Interview with Gelf Magazine.

Rebel returns to town (KUSports.com)

GeorgeKimball.com

George Edward Kimball (Wikipedia)

Filed Under: Boston Herald

2011 Approval Ratings – Steve Bulpett

June 23, 2011 By

Boston Herald Celtics/NBA writer Steve Bulpett is our entry for today.

Bulpett has been on the Celtics beat since the mid-1980′s, and the Herald proclaims him “the dean of NBA beat writers in continuous service with a team,” and also that he has “followed the Celtics as a home and away beat longer than anyone in franchise history.” (Others, such as Mike Fine have covered the team longer, but for some of that time only when the team was at home.)

A Lynn and Swampscott native, Bulpett went to the University of Dayton to study law, and ended up with a journalism degree. He also was an intramural basketball teammate of Dan Patrick. Yet to be lured to the Twitter world (though I think he’d be terrific on there) , another Boston sports media member who despises socks…

You can spot a very young Bulpett sitting on press row at the Garden in this terrific SI shot featuring Doc Rivers and Larry Bird. Bulpett is in the white shirt, a few feet away from an attentive Bob Ryan.

Steve Bulpett 2011 Approval Ratings
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Filed Under: Boston Herald, BSM Approval Ratings

2011 Approval Ratings – Stephen Harris

June 3, 2011 By

Continuing our Bruins theme, today we bring you Boston Herald Bruins writer Stephen Harris.

Harris is a Herald lifer, first covering the Bruins beat back in 1979. During a period in the 1980′s he was the Red Sox beat writer for the paper, but for the most part, he’s been covering the Bruins. Harris is the lead writer on the beat, doing the analysis and overview pieces for the paper.

He is also the closest that the Herald might have to an Olympic writer, having covered seven Olympic games during his career with the paper

You don’t see him on television, you don’t hear him on the radio (all that often anyway,)  so he might not be well known to you, but if you’re a longtime Bruins follower, you’ve surely read his work in the Herald.

He lives west of Boston with his wife and two sons.

Stephen Harris 2011 Approval Ratings
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Filed Under: Boston Herald, BSM Approval Ratings

Mainstream Media Review: BostonHerald.com

May 12, 2010 By

As Bruce is on vacation this week. BSMW will be featuring reviews of some of the websites and content from several Mainstream Media outlets this week.

The Boston Herald is firmly entrenched as the second newspaper in Boston, and despite the financial setbacks common in the newspaper industry these days, has remained a solid spot for Boston sports fans to receive the latest news on their favorite teams.

The Herald’s website has been pretty consistent in its look and feel over the last several years. There is a lot of information, but it is fairly easy to sort through. The BostonHerald.com sports homepage gives you the top stories of the day in the top section, with individual sections for ten other sports below that. A widget in the top right allows you to choose from the most recent sports headlines, or the most popular articles from that day. Below that is a window showing a few of their recently updated blogs.

Navigation is fairly straightforward, each team/sport has a link at the top, and when you go to each sub-page, the recent articles are lined up in the middle column top to bottom, with various widgets (team standings, blog links, top articles, etc) scattered in the sidebars.

In terms of the content, the Herald has shown a willingness to experiment. This season for instance, they have pretty much abandoned the typical “game story” in favor of the “Red Sox Recap” which highlights a number of the top storylines from the game, noteworthy stats, quotes, and a peek at the next game. (Not all that unlike what Jon Couture has been doing the last two seasons over at the Standard Times.)  The Red Sox beat is manned by stalwart Michael Silverman, newcomer Scott Lauber, and the controversial John Tomase. Tomase of course is best-known for the “tape-gate” scandal, details of which don’t need to be rehashed here. To his credit, Tomase has attempted to keep his head down and just do his job since coming on the Red Sox beat, but the fallout from the incident continues to taint his converage in the eyes of many readers, some of whom swore off the Herald forever in the wake of the incident.

Football coverage is handled by veteran Karen Guregian and Ian Rapoport, who joined the paper prior to last season, and immediately proceeded to start filling up his blog The Rap Sheet with everything Patriots related (and sometimes not). He’s been a great hire for them – a top-notch reporter who can also have some fun with his job. He’s been refreshing, as unlike many of his colleagues, he doesn’t take shots, and even when people disagree with him, I’ve never seen him get nasty when interacting with readers on Twitter on in comment sections.

The Celtics and Bruins beats are truly the old guard. That’s not meant as an insult. Between Stephen Harris and Steve Conroy on the Bruins and Steve Bulpett and Mark Murphy on the Celtics, there is about 100 years of Boston Herald experience between the four of them. All of these guys are old-school, solid reporters, who do their jobs under the radar, putting the attention on the teams they cover, rather than themselves. Of the four, Bulpett might make the occasional multi-media appearance, but most of the time, these four are just reporting and commenting on the teams they are assigned to.

Columnists include Steve Buckley and Ron Borges, who are both well known to Boston fans, probably for much different reasons.

The Herald attempts to promote breaking news with a yellow banner at the top of the page. Sometimes the news isn’t always “breaking,” but rather the most recent story. The screenshot above is an example of this. The struggles of Victor Martinez for the first month of the season wasn’t exactly breaking news, but instead, they decided to put the banner up to promote a rather nondescript Scott Lauber article on Martinez’s struggles.

The Herald website hasn’t quite embraced technology the way Boston.com has, videos are less common, chats less frequent, and they don’t really have an internet-only side other than the blogs. The content is generally pretty solid, and if you’re a diehard Boston sports fan, the Herald might not be your first stop in the morning, but it definitely should be on your list to visit sometime during the course of the day.

Filed Under: Boston Herald

Bodden Is Back With The Patriots – Or Is He?

March 9, 2010 By

Last night there was quite a ruckus on Twitter as two very respected football reporters Michael Lombardi and Adam Schefter both reported that Leigh Bodden would be re-signing with the Patriots. Both guys are right far more than they’re wrong, especially Schefter, whose word I pretty much take as gospel these days. Meanwhile, Bodden’s agent, Alvin Keels was posting that nothing was done, or even agreed to.

We’ll see what happens today. If I had to bet, I’m siding with Schefter/Lombardi.

Speaking of the NFL free agency period, while Mike Reiss, Tom Curran, Christopher Price, Shalise Manza Young and Albert Breer have all done their usual solid jobs, I think the star of the first few days has been the Herald’s Ian Rapoport. He’s consistently brought good information, and angles and insight that some of the others have missed at times. The Rap Sheet has become a must-follow destination for Patriots fans, and he has been tearing it up on Twitter as well.

Otherwise, it’s a fairly slow day today with both the Celtics and Bruins off last night.

Selection of Tom Brady Makes 2000 Draft One to Remember - Jeff Howe concludes his series of reviewing the Patriots drafts under Bill Belichick with the coach’s first draft, one that is memorable for a certain sixth-round selection.

Patriots air of infallibility is waning - A good article from Tom E Curran, but headlines like that one really turn me off, and many times make me not want to even look at the article underneath the headline. Who ever said the Patriots were infallible? Who? C’mon. The article itself is candid, frank, without pushing silly agendas, but the headline is just dumb. (I know, Curran probably didn’t create it.)

Fielding more than his share of bad hops - Gordon Edes looks at how Dustin Pedroia used baseball as his focus when off-field things weren’t going so well for him last season. I also enjoyed this blog entry from Edes on Jose Iglesias in which Edes is giddy as a schoolboy over the potential of the phenom shortstop, and wonders if the Red Sox should put him right in the majors to start the season.

Why some Red Sox pitchers like throwing to some Red Sox catchers - The title of Rob Bradfords article this morning explains it all.

Big performances: Young trio impresses - Michael Silverman has a trio of young, gifted and intriguing outfielders making an impression on the Red Sox yesterday.

Beckett, Martinez on learning curve - Sean McAdam with another strong notebook from the action of yesterday.

La Russa still mover, shaker - Bob Ryan talks to Tony La Russa about his 33 years as a big league manager.

Hits like this don’t belong in hockey - Mike Loftus weighs in on the hit that Penguins forward Matt Cooke laid on Marc Savard Sunday.

Marc Savard fuzzy on details - Stephen Harris gets props for catching up with Savard at the Pittsburgh airport yesterday to talk to him about the hit and how he’s feeling.

Lockdown defense steadies KG - Chris Forsberg says that Kevin Garnett’s defensive performance down the stretch on Sunday night should be encouraging to Celtics fans.

Relentless defense critical to Celtics - Steve Bulpett says that the Celtics performance on defense in the last six minutes Sunday night showed that they are still capable of locking down an opponent, and that gives them no excuses going forward.

Also check out Greg Doyle’s Q&A With UNH TE Scott Sicko, who has gathered some interest from pro scouts.

Elsewhere, I was also disappointed with the news that Alice Cook was tossed at Ch. 4 after 25 years of service to the station. With the decreased amount of time that newscasts are giving to the sports segments, it makes sense to keep the rosters small, but I always enjoyed the job that Cook did, both with the sports reports, and on the Patriots pre and post game shows.

Filed Under: Boston Herald, Morning Links, WBZ

Scott Lauber To Join Boston Herald

February 25, 2010 By

Haven’t gotten official confirmation on this, It’s official. Scott Glauber will be joining the Boston Herald to cover the Red Sox sometime in the middle of March.

Ian Rapoport of the Herald posted this on Twitter earlier this afternoon:

Congratulations to @ScottLauber, who has joined the Boston Herald’s Red Sox reporting crew. Welcome to the party…

Scott Lauber currently covers the Philadelphia Phillies for The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware.

The quick bio on The News Journal website reads as follows:

Scott Lauber is starting his fifth season on the Phillies beat for The News Journal. A native of New Jersey and a graduate of Boston University, he previously wrote for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor and the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., where he covered Jose Reyes, Jason Bay and David Wright when they were minor leaguers in the New York Mets’ farm system. He also co-authored a book, “Phillies Confidential: The Untold Inside Story of the 2008 Championship Season,” with former Phillies outfielder Gary Matthews.

As a Boston University senior in 1997-98, Lauber covered high school and college sports for the Herald.

Update: Michael Silverman has also welcomed Lauber:

Big welcome/follow to @ScottLauber, who will be joining Herald’s baseball staff soon. Smart guy, already changed his Twitter avatar

Filed Under: Boston Herald
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