A little internecine warfare among the “cartel” this morning. While some have suggested that Vince McMahon might be behind this battle, Dan Shaughnessy comes out swinging today regarding the Red Sox relatively late postponement of Tuesday night’s game versus the Yankees. Dennis & Callahan picked up on the theme in their relatively aggressive interview with Sox President Larry Lucchino this morning.
The more significant issue brought to the fore by both Shaughnessy and D&C was the Page 1 advertisement for the Red Sox new travel services feature in yesterday’s Boston Globe.
From Shaughnessy
Speaking of no-win propositions, we’ve got a problem here at Daddy Globe. Those of you not living in caves know by now that the New York Times Co. owns us, and also owns 17 percent of the Red Sox. This conflict of interest taints everything we do on these pages and the Globe looks especially compromised on days like yesterday when we ran a Page 1 story entitled, ”Hit the road with the Sox and get . . .”Yesterday’s journalistic wet kiss included a nifty graphic detailing exactly what Sox fans get if they purchase an official team VIP road trip package. The story contained no inside info that couldn’t be gleaned by a fan with access to the Internet, but the timing was abysmal and the packaging worse. By any measurement, this was a Red Sox infomercial, a front-page story guaranteed to embolden those who believe the Globe is part of a Red Sox Cartel and certain to make life more difficult for Messrs. Snow, Edes, and all others who toil tirelessly to bring balanced coverage to our readers.
Notably, the Globe columnist uses the same metaphor (“wet kiss”) employed yesterday by blogging media critic Dan Kennedy with his quick take on the Globe feature. Boston Phoenix media critic Mark Jurkowitz also jumped into the fray. Kennedy follows up on the Shaughnessy angle today.
One loyal reader of the site made note of another phrase Shaughnessy chose to turn this morning.
Whatever happened to peanuts, Cracker Jacks, and Fenway Franks? You won’t hear ”Kill the ump!” or ”Yankees suck!” in the EMC Club. It goes something more like, ”Pardon me, could you pass the Grey Poupon?”
With a quick search, the reader found the following from the Globe scribe:
Oct 3. 2003
Indeed, there was a decided dearth of acrimony. Saturday’s rowdiness yielded to “Could you pass the Grey Poupon?” as Sox fans remained under control and the ballplayers behaved professionally.
Aug 16, 2002
Civilization has come to Foxborough. Football games in New England used to mean “hide the women and children.” Now it’s “Praise the Pats and pass the Grey Poupon>.”
May 21, 1999
The bleachers last night had that old-timey, World Cup/hooligan atmosphere. So what will happen in the next ballyard? Will there be fights in the stands, or will Boston-New York rivals take on a “Pardon Me, Do You Have Any Grey Poupon?” attitude when the games are played in a clean, spacious, modern facility?
January 12, 1998
And, given the friendliness between the teams (there are 49ers with connections to the Pack, and vice versa), there was a “Pardon-Me-Do-You-Have-Any-Grey-Poupon?” atmosphere.
April 20, 1997
How boring. No board-room bloodletting. No Draft Day Altamont. No Parcells playing Keith Moon and kicking down doors. This time it was just the polite Carroll turning to Kraft and saying, “Pardon me, could you pass the Grey Poupon?”
May 8, 1995
There he was again, failing to be a braggart or a jerk. Lemieux is far too calm and thoughtful for this role as Hub Hockey Bad Boy. Next thing you know, he’ll be asking us if we have any Grey Poupon. No wonder everybody hates this guy.
Nov 20, 1994
We had none of that here in Allston-by-the-Charles. We Are At The Grey Poupon Bowl, also known as Harvard-Yale, also known at ”The Game.”
Aug 14 1993
Before Darwin left in the seventh, we saw Rickey take a called third strike, ground to third and fly out to left. Darwin stared at Henderson for a long time after the fly ball in the fifth, but none of Darwin’s pitches came close to Rickey. Instead of chin music followed by a flurry of expletives, we got “Pardon Me, Do You Have Any Grey Poupon?”
Ouch.
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