A slow sports day with none of the locals in action last night as we settle into summer. A few thoughts from the Ivory Tower:

1.) You know things are slow when the big sports radio debates right now are A) The DH and B) whether Boston fans are smug and oboxious after all the success of the local teams.

2.) Football writers are reaching for stories at this point. Mike Reiss and ESPNBoston have been doing a series of short profiles on little-known members of the Patriots organization, and Tom Curran has apparently been profiling DJs.  The lockout needs to end, soon.

3.) Actually heard on WEEI yesterday afternoon:

Mike Adams (Very angry over the common use of the term African-American): Not all black people in America can claim their ancestors came from Africa! What if they came from Haiti???

Caller: Um Mike, most of the ancestors of the Haitians were also brought over as slaves from Africa…

4.) From all accounts, the third Boston Sports Blogapalooza was another success, with participation from Albert Breer, Pete Sheppard, Jessica Camerato and A. Sherrod Blakely among others. Hats off to Joe Gill from Boston Sports Then and Now for organizing these.

5.) I find it a little odd that the Boston Globe has been pumping up The Tradition (not a knock on the event, it is a great night for Boston sports put on by The Sports Museum), yet completely ignored Drew Bledsoe’s election to the Patriots Hall of Fame.

6.) Expanding on point number one above, (the B point) this conversation was jump started by a column in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday by John Gonzalez.  (Boston fans have become obnoxious) Yes, that is the same John Gonzalez who used to write for Boston Magazine, and who infamously wrote the glowing feature on Ron Borges back in 2006.

7.) There was a change at the top of the SB Nation Boston website last week, as editor Ryan Hudson moved on to become the social media head for SB Nation, while Gethin Coolbaugh was promoted up to take his place as editor of the Boston site.

8.) I plan on doing a review of Grantland at some point, even though it isn’t strictly Boston sports media. I want to give it chance to find itself a little more, rather than posting a knee-jerk reaction that I saw so many of, some written and posted mere hours after the site went live.

9.) The midday shows are the weak spots for both WEEI and 98.5. Some days you may find neither station worth listening to. During that same time slot however, you now have a pair of online options for Boston sports radio. There is ESPN Boston Radio with Adam Jones which airs weekdays from 12:00 to 2:00 and there is The Meat Locker with Pete Sheppard on HurricaneRadio.net which also airs from 12:00 to 2:00. The latter show is a work in progress, with the technology not always cooperating, but has had some entertaining callers.

10.) It’s been fill-in day on 98.5 with the station’s Who’s Your Caddy? charity golf tournament going on. The morning show was hosted by Dan Roche and Sean McAdam, and it was nice to hear some good Red Sox talk on that program. Gresh and Zo were filled in for by Rich Keefe and Nick Cattles.


26 thoughts on “Piecing Together A Tuesday Post

  1. Not surprisingly, Mike Adams butchered a point that has some level of validity. If you're Haitian, I'm sure you still don't appreciate someone throwing in "American" as a way to describe you, even if you can trace your roots back to Africa. The same goes with people from Europe who are of African descent, such as Mickael Pietrus, Thabo Sefalosha, or even Tony Parker, who's father would qualify as "African American" but there's nothing American about Tony.


    1. Heard something similar this morning. Jade McCarthy on NESN's Sports Desk show (replayed from last night), referred to Willie O'Ree as the first "African American" to play in the NHL. Actually, Ms. McCarthy, O'Ree is Canadian. Despite the original rant coming from Adams, this PC mania gets a little ridiculous.


  2. Bruce, in regards to #1 on your list.

    The afternoon offering yesterday on 98.5 was shoe-peeing radio at it's best.

    Trying to pin everything back on Ortiz because he's a diva.

    Ripping Youk's comments (which were moronic).

    But to milk it for 4 hours I found downright lazy.

    The YOURABSOLUTELYRIGHTMIKE portion of that program has RUINED the 6-7 baseball show, which I enjoyed last year

    It's an additional hour of him beating the same drum that he's beaten the past 4 hours and offers very little in the way of new insight. (He's still beating the Sox should have re-signed Victor Martinez story to death).

    Now, the only time I listen is if I know someone like McAdam is appearing.

    I can't believe this guy was a beat reporter for all those years – mindroastingly lazy.

    When was the last time he set foot in a clubhouse? Early 09?

    As good as that show was covering hockey – it's really struggling covering baseball.


    1. I couldn't have said it better myself. I agree with everything and have had all the same thoughts. Since the Bruins season has ended 98.5 has really struggled to adjust its focus and bring the same level of sportstalk over to baseball.

      The Baseball Show isn't nearly as good as it was last year. Sounds like Tony is just mailing in the 6-7 hour trying to get his day over with and run out the door.


      1. Rick, what do you mean Massarotti is mailing it in? You should hear him wax poetically about Red Sox, first baseman, Alex Gonzalez.


    2. I used to like Mazz when he was on EEI. Maybe it was because he was focused on baseball and not doing the side kick routine that he does right now. I can't stand the tough guy Mazz or the Boston accent Mazz. I know the latter is a routine but they both sound contrived and I don't think that is the real Mazz. He would be better off being the opposite of Felger and challenging him more often. That I would listen to.

      As for the baseball show – I agree with these other points. It was much better last year. I only listen when McAdam is on. Last year he was routinely interviewing the opposing teams beat writers and other well respected baseball writers throughout the country. It made it less provincial and more entertaining. It's too bad. It was a good show.


  3. Bruce, I finally am checking out Pete on Hurricane radio. Is it wrong that I missed his voice? Meat's got his faults, but they're no questioning that he has one of the better radio voices around these parts.


    1. Pete's got great timing as usual….he gets a good plug from Bruce and today he's got a "Best of the Meat Locker" from last week up on his Hurricane Radio show talking about taking the tarp off the field at Fenway during the Padres game.


  4. Totally agree on the 10-2 vacuum that now exists in this market Bruce. Mutantsky has "settled in" but comes off like the Funnybot of radio show hosts, from his demographic references to Adam Sandler movies and mild-mannered commentary. It's a bad match with Merloni who I think would be better with another host — but not this one.

    On the other hand there's Gresh & Zo which is entirely useless unless they have a decent guest on or it's football season (about the only time they have any insight into what's happening).

    I find myself tuning elsewhere routinely now at mid-day.


  5. Bruce:

    Regarding #5. You seriously are asking why the Globe is giving virtually no ink to the OFFICIAL NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS HALL OF FAME selection. Here I will put your mind at ease. Were the Tradition honoring Drew Bledsoe and the Pats HOF honoring Ty Law the Globe would either be trotting out Ty Law's cousin stories or ignoring him altogether. At the same time we would know everything and anything there is to know about wine making in Montana and how that region of the country stacks up favorably with Bordeaux.


  6. Adams angst with the term African-American to describe a black person would be better understood if he simply pointed out that there are tons and tons of white African's who are now American's. In other words, the term African American should no sooner speak to ones skin color than Italian-American, French-Candadien or any other such designation speaking to someone being exclusively white, brown, black etc…. It's really a dumb term.


  7. What's funny is I listened to both the Roche and McAdam show and the Cattles and Keefe show and both are better then what 98.5 normally has on now. Go figure.


  8. I pity the three guys who get stuck in a foursome with Gresh today. You couldn't pay me enough to be a member of his captive audience for 18 holes of golf.


  9. I have found myself simply not turning the radio on in my office the way I did even a couple of weeks ago (to 98.50). The Bruins gave them built-in content for months and now they seem to be totally at a loss. I don't think any of them (hardly) know or like baseball and that's a real problem; plus, can they not book any Red Sox players/mgt? (Is the team contractually obligated to only speak with 'EEI?) I've felt for a while that 98.5 has been a bit like GW Bush — born on third base and thinking they hit a triple. They lucked into the Bs and they had Pats content prior to that. With hockey done and a lock-out still a possibility, what will they do? Anyway, I am finding just about all of them virtually unlistenable … T+R are reverting back to zoo radio, Gresh and Zo are just plain old bad, Felger and Mazz are tedious … oh, right, DA. Anway.


      1. Umm…. the name of the site is called BOSTON SPORTS MEDIA WATCH so I mentioned someone who is in the BOSTON SPORTS MEDIA. My guess is you have no idea what site you have been posting on all this time. Why am I not surprised?


        1. "Media" includes radio, newspapers and the internet. TV is only a small facet of the diamond that is Boston Sports Media.

          Why am I not surprised you don't know that?


          1. Ahhhhh yes, and I mentioned someone who is in the television portion of the BOSTON SPORTS MEDIA. I guess what I am going to have to do is stop getting into discussions with people who have less intelligence than a rock.

            Lesson Learned.


          2. tl;dr…Can you show me where your intelligent rebuttal is? Saying TV is a small facet of the Boston Sports Media just confirms that his opinion on Taylor Twellman seems to be revelant to this site. Or am I missing some hidden meaning in that statement? I agree that he can turn the channel if he doesn't like Taylor Twellman just as easily as you can skip over his comment if you don't like it.


          3. Sure, I could…but I choose not to. If someone is annoying you on the TV, radio, internet or whatever medium, you can just stop watching reading or listening to it. In this culture of media saturation, people seem to forget that from time-to-time.


  10. Gresh and Zo are totally worthless when it's not football season. For all the mistakes that I believe that WEEI has made lately,at least they never gave Fred and Steve their own show. That is what Gresh and Zo is…that is the Hubs version of Fred and Steve. Just listening to two football guys talk about the Bruins was torture for me. Moving on…where is Michael Holly…really? Did he ever re-sign more years of did his contract run out at the end of Spring? I thought I remembered hearing that he was only had a few months left in his deal when they moved him to the Big Show. My hope is that he bails on the sinking WEEI ship and reunites next year with Dale on the HUB. I think their is definitely lining up of the stars for Dale to head for the Hub. One of them being that at some point maybe next year Gil and Gino will finally retire from the Pats broadcast and Dale would be a natural fit since he's a pbpg without a permanent gig and has done the games for them before.


    1. Ugh! No way do I want to hear Dale's Flanders voice on the Pats broadcast. I agree Gino and Gil are way past their expiration date but there's got to be somebody better than Dale.


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