Boston Sports Media Watch

I came across a couple of pretty interesting photos that I thought I would pass along. These show crowds gathered around a high-tech “electric scoreboard” for the 1912 World Series between Boston and New York:

Click For Full Size Version

Click For Full Size Version

Since the Washington Post was sponsoring this scoreboard, I’m assuming the photos are from D.C. Getting these type of “real time” updates must’ve been a thrilling experience for baseball fans of that era.

Come to think of think of it, this scoreboard doesn’t really look all that different from the online gamecasts that ESPN, CBS, Yahoo! and all the other online media outlets use today to pass along game information to those sitting in front of computers.

Would the crowds gathered together to watch in the streets back in 1912 be the equivalent of the Sons of Sam Horn message board?

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We’re back with another installment of infamous moments in Boston sports media history.

The relationship between the media and professional athletes has always been an adversarial one. Rarely however, has it gotten physical.

On September 9th, 1979, the Patriots had just routed the New York Jets 56-3.

These days morning talk show hosts and ESPN analysts would be eviscerating the Patriots for running up the score and showing poor sportsmanship- the Patriots scored 14 points in the fourth quarter when they were already up 42-3.

The atmosphere in the Patriots locker room following the game should’ve been light hearted, but cornerback Raymond Clayborn was miserable. He had a bad week, twice scuffling with teammates in practice.  

After the game, Clayborn was snapping at writers and bumping into them on purpose. Legendary writer Will McDonough of The Boston Globe took exception, saying “”Hey, Ray, there’s no need to do that.”

Clayborn reacted by jabbing his finger in McDonough’s face, poking him in the eye. McDonough then punched him twice, knocking him into a laundry cart and taking down a number of people with him.

The story immediately went into legend, with some accounts stating that McDonough had knocked Clayborn “out cold” with a single punch, and others describing more of a scuffle between the two.

McDonough was lionized among his colleages in the media for the incident, which was lauded as an example of “southie justice.”

From a Globe story after McDonough’s death:

”After that, he became a folk hero.” says Vince Doria, the former Globe sports editor who is now vice president/ director of news at ESPN.

”You know how when you’re a kid, you go around saying, `My dad can beat up your dad’?” says Sean McDonough. ”Well, after that, I went to school saying, `Never mind beating up your dad. My dad can beat up an NFL player.”’

What do you think would happen if a member of the media and an athlete got into a fight in the locker room these days?

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Periodically, we’re going to look back in Boston Sports Media history and revisit some of the more infamous moments that this group has foisted upon the general public.

The left fielder of the Boston Red Sox is a brilliant hitter, with few peers in the history of the game. However, he hasn’t always cooperated with the media, and has been known on occasion to perhaps not go all-out on the field. Often categorized as “aloof” or “immature”, his accomplishments at the plate seem to be overshadowed by these characteristics. Some are sick of his act, and decry the negative example he sets for our youth.

We’re talking of course about Ted Williams.

Williams was a particular target of Boston Record columnist Dave Egan, who ripped Williams with a style and frequency that would make Dan Shaughnessy blush.

In 1952, Williams was headed to Korea for his second tour of combat duty with the Marines. It was his last game before heading out, and many showed up at Fenway Park to pay tribute to him. They were well aware that this might be the final game of his brilliant career, he could be injured or killed in the war, and no one knew how long the war might continue. By the time it was over, Williams might be too old to continue playing.

It was under these circumstances that Egan took aim at Williams for being a poor example for America’s youth. (Excerpted from the Ted Williams Reader.)

… Swings left-handed like Williams. Wears his pants long, like Williams. Plays the outfield, like Williams. And will not wear a necktie even when the occasion insists upon a necktie, simply because the great man will not wear a necktie.

The skies will not tumble down upon us, whether a boy wears a necktie or not, but I have the right and the duty to ask where Ted Williams is leading this boy. Does he also refuse to tip his cap, does he feel that even the most indecent gestures will be overlooked, so long as he can hit a baseball with a piece of wood? Is he a rebel against conformity, simply because the man after whom he models himself has successfully rebelled, and may he expect to be honored by the municipal big wheels at a later date, if he follows the pattern set by Williams?

It seems disgraceful to me, that a person such as Williams now is to be given the keys to the city. We talk about juvenile delinquency, and fight against it, and then officially honor a man whom we should officially horsewhip for the vicious influence that he has had on the childhood of America…

Williams has stubbornly and stupidly refused to recognize this responsibility to childhood. The kid has set a sorry example for a generation of kids. He has been a Pied Piper, leading them along a bitter, lonely road.

So on the day that Williams was leaving to serve his country and put his life on the line, Egan rips him because he prefers not to wear neckties. He’s worried that America’s youth will be tarnished because Ted Williams will not wear a tie.

Manny’s got it easy.

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These days “Sports Huddle” is a Sunday night (7-10 PM) program on WTTK 96.9 FM hosted by Eddie Andelman with sidekicks former ESPN producer Billy Fairweather and Boston comedian Mike Donovan.

The current show is less about sports than it is a weekly public airing of grievances by the aged Andelman and his cronies.

Back 30 years ago however, and “Sports Huddle” was cutting edge radio. Sports talk radio didn’t really exist yet, and while there were some shows devoted to talking sports, none were quite like Sports Huddle.

The following is a short article published on Jan. 29, 1973, which is available on the website of Time magazine.

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The Boston Badmouths

Club owners have the money and power. Players have their unions and the right to strike. Referees have the last word. But what does the forgotten sports fan have? Sports Huddle, that’s what.

Originating in Boston, Sports Huddle is a raucous weekly radio show dedicated to “looking out for the fans.” The proprietors-Mark Witkin, Jim McCarthy and Eddie Andelman-are an unholy trio of amateur broadcasters and professional fans. Every Sunday night from 7 to 11, they rail against everything from overpriced tickets and cold hot dogs to sportswriters (”Sock sniffers in the locker room”) and the sports establishment (”They’ve been abusing the public for years”). Their format is like the New England Patriots’ offense: haphazard. Their delivery sounds like three guys gassing in a ginmill-that is. loose and loudmouth.

It all comes naturally to Attorney Witkin, 33, Insurance Executive McCarthy, 44, and Real Estate Broker Andelman, 36. They were “discovered” four years ago when an executive from station WUNR overheard their loud banter in a Boston bar and invited them to sound off at a microphone. Sports Huddle was such an instant hit that six months later it was transferred to WBZ, a 50,000-watt station heard in 32 states and Canada. Before long, the station, which also broadcasts the Boston Bruins’ games, had some grievances of its own: McCarthy dismissed Bruin President Weston Adams Jr. as “the biggest jerk I ever met,” while Andelman described Boston Garden, the Bruins’ home rink, as “a pig pen, a garbage pit. Even Vincent Price wouldn’t shoot a horror movie there.” When WBZ, reportedly under pressure from the Bruins, dropped the show in May 1971, 2,000 Sports Huddle loyalists staged a demonstration in the station’s parking lot.

The show was quickly picked up by WEEK, a CBS affiliate, and a syndicated version is now heard on more than 50 stations across the U.S. Deluged with up to 20,000 calls a night, the three superfans attack what they call the “hidden injuries of class” by blasting everyone from politicians who hog tickets to the “phony, bigoted yachtsmen of the New York Yacht Club.” Though they have broadened their attack to suit their national audience, they still hit home the hardest. Among their favorite targets are Boston Red Sox Manager Eddie Kasko (”A mealymouthed marshmal-low”) and Bruin Star Bobby Orr (”He’s not the humble, gracious, Bible-touting kid everyone says he is”). While some of their high jinks are sophomoric or just plain silly (they once telephoned the commandant of the Buckingham Palace Guards to ask if he would trade two of Her Majesty’s finest for a pair of Patriot guards), WEEI’S triple threats are convinced that “the majority of our opinions are what the fans believe.”

Too Cheap. Their crusades can pay off. When Sports Huddle lambasted Richard Nixon for not congratulating the Bruins for winning the 1970 Stanley Cup, 30,000 listeners sent protest letters to the White House. The President responded with a congratulatory telegram and later, while driving in a convertible in Dublin, held up a sign saying BOSTON BRUINS ARE NO. 1. Claiming that the Patriots were “too cheap” to find a decent field-goal kicker, Sports Huddle launched a “Search for Superfoot” among 1,600 English soccer players; the winner, Mike Walker, a Lancashire bricklayer, was not only signed by the Patriots last season but appeared in eight games. In March the three superfans are going to Australia to scout some rugby players who can reportedly punt a football 70 yds. Andelman confidently says that when the “Kangaroo Kid” makes his debut in pro football next season, “he’ll be so good they’ll have to change the rule book.”

Sports Huddle fans do not take such predictions lightly. On the eve of the Miami Dolphins’ 14-7 Super Bowl victory over the Washington Redskins, the Boston badmouths consulted a psychic, a bookie, two Chinese abacus experts and assorted astrologers, then correctly predicted the winner of the championship game for the fourth season in a row.

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Some of these antics will sound familiar to longtime Andelman listeners, as he took some of this style onto his later gigs on WHDH, WEEI and WWZN.

The bashing of the Bruins is nothing new these days, but also remember that the Bruins were coming off their second Stanley Cup championship in three years when this article was written. It’s hard to imagine Bobby Orr being attacked on sports radio in Boston, but apparently, that’s exactly what happened.

Railing against sportswriters? Things have changed a bit there, as now, it is mainly sportswriters who appear on the programs.

I’d like to occasionally take a look back at the Boston sports media scene, looking at articles from the past and comparing them with how things are now. Stay tuned.

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