Yeah, that was Dan Shaughnessy on the 6:30 edition of CSN’s Sports Tonight program last night. As Gary Tanguay explained in his blog yesterday, CSN’s partnership with the Boston Herald (they were a sponsor of New England Sports Tonight) has expired, and that partnership was what had kept Globe writers off the show. Tanguay says that Tony Massarotti will be back on the show as well.
Tanguay’s blog has had some interesting entries as of late, as he tries to give us more “behind the scenes” type narratives about what’s going on at CSN.
Due to a scheduling conflict, Troy Brown will not be making his scheduled appearance tonight on Sports Tonight, as had been reported on the Herald’s Point After blog.
Yesterday Curt Schilling blasted Manny Ramirez on a call-in appearance to WEEI’s Big Show. Schilling’s remarks irritated me at first, simply because this is a topic we’re all sick of, and we know full well Manny was a major disruption near the end of his Red Sox tenure. Manny’s gone now, and his teammates have moved on, and have been playing their best ball of the season (well, except against Tampa) and I just didn’t see why Schilling, who hasn’t thrown a pitch all season felt it necessary to talk more about it.
On reflection, I think I have a bigger problem with how two-faced Schilling is with this stuff. When Manny was his teammate, he defended the guy to death to these very same radio shows. When Manny and Youkilis had the dust-up in the dugout earlier this season, Schilling was calling the media fools because this stuff happens all the time between teammates, and we just don’t see it. He’s defended Manny’s work ethic in the past, and played the role of good teammate.
Incidents like yesterday show that he really was just playing that role, since as soon as Manny is gone, Schilling can do an about-face and start telling all sorts of tales. I don’t like that.
It’s become customary when criticizing Schilling to acknowledge his huge contributions to the 2004 World Series championship, and to a lesser extent, the 2007 title. OK, duly noted. I’ll always be thankful that we had Curt Schilling on those clubs, and he turned in some legendary performances in his time here.
However, now that his career appears over, I’m rather sick of him. I’ve taken 38 Pitches out of my RSS reader, simply because I’m not interested in what the guy has to say. I’d rather get out now while I still have that great respect for him as a player, rather than keep reading, and totally losing all fondness for the guy.
Back to Manny for a moment, Joe Posnanski, the KC writer who has gained a huge following here in Boston simply because he puts out great stuff, has a piece on SI.com entitled The genius of Manny Ramirez. It’s a lot of stuff we already knew about Manny in better times, but also has some interesting perspectives on Ramirez as a person. Jerry Crasnick of ESPN says Manny has made a huge difference to the Dodgers both in the lineup and in the clubhouse.
Tony Massarotti wonders if David Ortiz is returning to form just in time.
TBS has announced their MLB Postseason Broadcast Team, and both Don Orsillo and Dennis Eckersley will be a part of the coverage.
Peter May on Yahoo! Sports has a feature on new Celtic Darius Miles, who says “I would have come here (to Boston) for $5 and a bag of Doritos.” No joke.
Jim Corbett of USA Today has a look at Randy Moss taking on a leadership role with the Patriots in the absense of Tom Brady.
Jeff Pearlman has a must-read feature on former Angels outfielder Lyman Bostock, a budding star who was murdered during the 1978 season.
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