When the team added stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to go along with Paul Pierce before the 2007-08 season, there was suddenly hope to hang up banner No. A professional sportswriter should be speaking to the talk show callers rather than arguing as one of them, in other words. June 24, 2021 at 11:36 a. I made these my referee and judges, Hagler said, holding up his two fists. Bob Ryan The next bearer of Ray Fitzgerald's mantle. Its a pleasure having him cover the Red Sox. As an NFL writer for the New York Times, Battista specializes in news regarding the New York Giants and New York Jets. Maybe you have your reasons for putting Gammons on the list. In fact, not much in the Boston sports media hasnot even the photos on the wall. The Globe sports section was filled with lively language and writers wanted in. The difference between the two approaches was night and day. I dont see some of the older elitist being so inclined to drop down to the class of the fan. The mood on Main Street outside the Lake Placid arena that afternoon in 1980 was defiant, almost militant. You know that this man is obsessive about fantasy football because he's already starting to put out fantasy mock drafts one week after the Super Bowl. In a perfect storm of Boston Sports, he made his big splash just as Fred Lyn,n Jim Rice and the rest of the 75 cast were making theirs, just as a young TV-38 gambled on putting on 80 games instead of the dozen that the VHF stations would show, just as a then-fresh Dick Stockton was giving a slightly cynical air to play by play. He's a highly respected journalist. Weaknesses: Shallow use of statistical analysis, though the extent to which that is by choice versus dictated by an editor is unclear. All of which is to say that I owe Peter Gammons a debt that cannot be repaid. Occasionally over-rotates, a la Olney, on human interest stories. Borges, a Globe sportswriter for 24 years who was named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year four times and is a regular guest on a local sports radio station, was also barred from broadcast. There are two things that I really like about Evan Silva on Twitter. Thats where I discovered Leigh Montville. Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe had his moment Saturday as the 67th winner of the Spink Award. Meanwhile, sports talk radio station WEEI has stuck with many of the same hosts theyve had since the 90s, like Callahan, John Dennis, Glenn Ordway, and even Mike Adams. The US hockey team was about to play the Soviet Union in the Olympics but their countrymen seemed ready to go to war. It's great to watch a tactician go to work on a team he loves, and the breaking news and insight that Volin gives is awesome. He's honest and stays true to his opinions. Case in point is his focus on pitcher wins as the metric by which pitchers should be judged. Shauhnessy Got to absolutley love the contraian "curly red-head".!!! If your favorite team is in the NFC West, and you aren't following Mike Sando, you may be clinically insane. While Benjamin Volin mainly tweets about information regarding the Miami Dolphins, the information he does give is purely genius. Not agents or team sources, but the actual players. Which leads to the logical conclusion that he understands exactly what his place is in the market, and is filling it intentionally. Baseball could not, would not be the same w/o PG's insights and observations sending lots of warm wishes for MANY more years of PG's vision, intutiion and knowledge! very in your face, with a lot of good information. Bud Collins makes whatever he writes about interesting, regardless of whether it would be interesting outside his column. As forward-thinking as that sounds, the newspapers core approach to sports coveragewhich still relies on boilerplate game recaps, columns, and weekly notebooks offering bullet-point takes on the happenings from the various sports leagueshasnt changed much over the years. McAdam and several of his colleagues publicly called him out on this behavior, justifying their actions with claims that it was affecting Okajimas teammates. Good God. I swear that is a real article on that website. She is especially known for . And for the record, he was very gracious about my verbal implosion. Demonstrates an overreliance on certain friendly sources (e.g. It set the stage for Kevin Garnetts (pictured) Anything is possible! yell after winning the Celtics first title since 1986. Predictably, it provoked a strong reaction. Im 56 so that explains why I pick Roberts. The BU grad is the Boston Bruins beat writer for the Boston Globe sports section. and the Bruins. Turd one would think that this was Bruces attempt at playing to the masses after last week but you just never know. He was covering spring training in Fort Myers, Florida when he passed away. Solid reputation in the market both for integrity and rationality. His connections were solid. I promise that this is the last ESPN Twitter account for right now. So it remained 2-0, not 4-0, when Bucky Dent broke his bat on a running fastball from Mike Torrez, then launched a slider into the screen. As my wife can relate, given that she had to step in and do the talking once I trailed off, stammering. Not to mention comprehensible. Who represents the pantheon of Boston sports columnists? Respect for the profession of sportswriting, then, I do not lack. Come on, he's the NFL Commissioner for crying out loud. The last two writers' elections produced just one entrant to Cooperstown David Ortiz and that stingy trend is expected to continue By Peter Abraham, Bob Hohler, Dan Shaughnessy, Michael. I found this out when my mom tweeted the other day that it was time to clean up my room before dinner. Wetzel is one of the classiest and most talented writers currently covering the NFL. FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Boston Globe baseball writer Nick Cafardo, who covered the Red Sox and the rest of the sport for more than three decades, died Thursday after collapsing outside the team's . I've also heard that when he blinks, he makes rainbows. What more could you ask? Whether its been in print or as a guest on WEEI and such, McAdam has exuded calm in a sea of irrationality. Currently, he works as a sports business reporter at The Boston Globe in Greater Boston. Marvin Hagler fights Britain's Alan Minter on September 27, 1980, at London's Wembley Arena. Columns are written, statements are made simply to generate buzz. He's easily their top analyst, even though the information he gives seems a little far off at times. The planets are aligned and the tomato cans are in place.. When Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy get animated about a subjectparticularly basketball and baseball, respectivelythere are no two writers whose work Id rather read than these two men. I just look at this as something for my portfolio of basketball experiences. And I regard this first Celtics championship I was privileged to cover as a highlight in my portfolio of journalistic experiences. Meanwhile, Texans running back Arian Foster fell into the columnists trap, using Twitter to call attention to Shaughnessys trolling foolishness. Tony Massarottis defection set it back, as did Sean McAdams abbreviated stint and subsequent departure for CSNNE. He covers every sport known to mankind in a humorous way, but he especially excels at mixing laughter and the NFL. Whats equally apparent is that his former ties rub some fans the wrong way. But the least I would expect from a sportswriter, particularly in an age where the commentary is growing more sophisticated at an accelerating rate, would be some basic logic to offset the emotionally driven opinions. He was that good. Will McDonough and I flew with the team and often played racquetball with the players. Peter Gammons isnt officially ranked here, because that exercise would be pointless. Craig Ellenport has been around the NFL for a long time. Like his more experienced colleagues, has not actively embraced statistical analysis although he has not taken a line against them, either. Today, the papers sports section remains synonymous with Ryan, now semiretired, and his fellow columnist Dan Shaughnessy. One of the best things I've seen on Twitter happened by Bowen after Ricky Williams retired. 5 John Feinstein - The Washington Post. Voice is balanced, neither strident nor fawning. Few people provide quality draft content on Twitter like Josh Norris. He was 62. For my part, Ive always appreciated the measured tone which hasnt, for the most part, been impacted by the impatience and urgency of Red Sox Nation. There had been four previous winners from the Boston chapter of the BBWAA: Peter Gammons,. Chad Finn, who like Speier and national writers such as Will Carroll, has enjoyed favorable attention from Gammons, is one of the remaining bright lights for me at the Boston Globe. The Boston Globe, New England's largest newspaper, has a habit of hiring journalists who fabricate information, misrepresent sources, or plagiarize writing. However, she's always good for league-wide information and is certainly worth following. For the second consecutive year, Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy submits a Hall of Fame ballot with only Jeff Kent marked, ignoring David Ortiz. Meanwhile, the sharp minds over at the national website Pro Football Focus informed their readers that the Texans blitzed on 48.8 percent of their plays, a decision that allowed Brady to pick their defense apart. But thats probably as it should be, and the relevant point is that hes not afraid of numbers, or of learning more about them. Instead of focusing on their craft they focus on their next ESPN-NESN-WEEI appearence and their writing suffers because of it. Finn, on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air. I guarantee that if you follow Lombardi, you'll learn more about football than you'd ever thought possible. This would help eliminate the legions of nitwits and cowards who shred anything and everything in their path while hiding in their mothers basements. You'll certainly learn a few things if you follow Schefter. If you happen to be a big fan of the New York Giants, Ralph Vacchiano should be your main man. Having met him, I mistook him as a hoop centric guy, but he quickly correctly me, and said Beisbol been berry berry good to me. The better part of that story, is that we were both sharing a beer. Its partially offset by his discovery of the asset that is Alex Speier who heads this list and is clearly cut from the same cloth, but less Bradford cannot be spun as a positive for Red Sox fans. The credentials said No Women or Children in the Press Box, and I had no locker room access, but the 76 Patriots were magnificent. His defense of the gamer the post-game writeup which is about as useful as an appendix these days is one example of his affection for the way things used to be done. He is easily the least well known of all sportswriters on this list, but he absolutely deserves to be followed on Twitter. Not an industry innovator. It was 4 oclock in the morning when sparring partners Robbie Simms and Danny Snyder went to their room to get the American flag. Always. What still sets them apart is access, which Speier uses brilliantly, getting everyone from Anthony Rizzo to Keith Law to Mike Hazen on his podcast. Patriots beat reporter and writer for the @BostonGlobe. i remember those columns as being classicwould love to re-rea that one from 84. Was this review helpful? As a young reporter at the Des Moines Register (I was raised a Red Sox fan in Iowa by my Malden-born and Manchester, Conn.-raised father), I had access to the sports wire services. The worst of the worst? He's always got more inside information than anyone else, and he's also able to add a wealth of information to the draft and scouting of prospects. He passed away in January 2003 and was best known for his coverage of the Patriots and the National Football League. They are often rude, crude and way out in left field. It was full of tid bits and humor and occasionally an inside scoop. All yo have to do is read Shank or Nickles dreadful impersonation of his Baseball Notes after he left to see that he was different and what he did was deceptively difficult. Still miss that Sox postgame show he, Upton Bell, and Joe Fitzgerald used to do on 38. My first paid journalism gig was writing about high school sports at the Globe, and it was the perfect way to learn how to do the job of a sports reporter. Even if they wrote columns in Boston they were really reporters first and foremost. It appeared the series would be tied at 2 when the Lakers took an 18-point halftime lead in Game 4 in Los Angeles. Find breaking sports news on baseball, football, basketball, hockey . If thats what you like reading, enjoy. The sun was still above the left field roof, blinding Piniella. Its bad enough that media outlets still overpaginate their content in an attempt to articifically inflate viewership metrics, but when the payoff for that click is a few words, well, you become the definition of a poor customer experience. if for no other reason than the NFL had few secrets when he was around. View all posts by Bruce Allen. He'll often repeat what a guy like Todd McShay or Mel Kiper, Jr. said and give you his take. Editor-at-large in Globe Opinion, former editorial page editor Bina Venkataraman. Winning titles was nothing new for John Havlicek and Don Nelson, but for Cowens, veteran rebound ace Paul Silas, and young backcourt stars Jo Jo White and Don Chaney, it would be a career first. Boston sports fans have seen broadcasters come and go over the decades, but only some are remembered as legends, the guys who we let into our homes like knowledgeable uncles who can talk. His analysis is always spot on, he never jumps to conclusions and is generally one of the nicest individuals you could follow on twitter. The Celtics proud franchise was in the midst of an NBA championship drought. The second thing I like about him is his commentary to what other people say. And if I must say so myself, his work generally turns out rather awesomely. Ill also have a prize for a random commenter in this list, but I havent picked out what it will be yet. Not thrilled to say it, but Borgess boxing writing probably should be up for consideration. As reported by the New York Times, the Globe's political writer, Robert L. Healy, and Jack Driscoll, the editor of The Evening Globe, recruited Mr. Barnicle to write a column. Good usage of both historical precedent and numbers to form and/or supplement his arguments. Those were the best of a very good lot. Whenever you have enough respect to garner the nickname "The Rev," you know you are good at what you do. There has to be a willingness to put yourself out there and make statements without knowing what youre talking about, Rich Levine, an online columnist for CSNNE, told me. Theres good money, after all, in broadcast. If you're an NFL fan, here are 50 sportswriters that you simply must follow on Twitter. Send me an email. Jackie McMillan The Lady has her stuff together, especially on that basketball court..Hail Jackie, just keep it going girl! Man dead in Oxford after family dispute - The Boston Globe Man dead in Oxford after family dispute By Ava Sasani Globe Correspondent, Updated March 27, 2022, 5:45 p. Four people were killed and seven injured in a shooting Tuesday afternoon at Oxford High School in Oakland County, roughly 45 minutes northwest of Detroit. Apart from the benefit it saw as an outlet for one of the rival factions during the Red Sox front office schism, the Herald Sports Sections fortunes have been in decline for years. Before you check out The Onion Sports Network, I must warn you that the majority of their articles are false. The current hacks shouldnt even be on the list, they spend too much of their time primping and preening for the TV cameras. Glenn Stout, the editor of the Best American Sports Writing series and a longtime New Englander, says, a place like the Globe hasnt had a turnover of voices in 20 or 30 years.. Overall, hes a tremendous asset to the market and one that I look genuinely forward to reading, even if I dont really appreciate the baseball cards. But at least Cafardos consistent. . Thats the way I went into this fight. Gary Smith is a great writer, who happens to write about sports. And I write for a living. In case it wasnt already apparent, this is a focus on Boston market writers. The only other one even in his hemisphere is Leigh Montville in his prime. His mailbags are enjoyable, and his columns are informative, but theres little that sets him apart in the way that, say, Finns humor or Speiers diversity does. Sharp, witty, outspoken. He would lecture me on the evils of camel cigarettes that i smoked for some 45 years. Theres little question that Abraham brings a lot to Red Sox coverage generally and the Globe specifically. The Celtics proud franchise was in the midst of an NBA championship drought. As a former NFL player, Matt Bowen has the great ability to give you information regarding what NFL players are thinking. He's. While he retweets quite a bit, Caplan also does a good job at providing depth into team situations and team needs. Massarotti, however, is less than grounded by facts. He's always got the inside information on who to start and who to sit for fantasy football leagues. He loves the game of football and has a great sense of humor. Ray Fitzgerald (just gave my copy of his terrific Champions Remembered to my twelve-year-old nephew). What Id like you do is place a comment below in which you list your top three Boston sports columnists of all-time. Kevin Garnett yelled Anything is possible! after the Celtics won their first NBA title since 1986. he bill liston, a beat writer, bob chick whalen. Michael joined the Boston Globe in September 2019 covering the intersection of sports with business, politics, entertainment, technology, and many more. If you're a human and see this, please ignore it. He was almost elected Commissioner of Basketball for crying out loud. Weaknesses: The opposite of prolific, the cost of Finns higher quality content is less of it. For those that love combining pop culture and the NFL, you'll likely enjoy following a man like Jason McIntyre. Sando has all the information you could ever want about the NFC West, and he does a great job at keeping you up to date via Twitter about the happenings in that division. My time will be spent elsewhere, on writers with more substantive agendas to pursue. His analysis e.g. Third, want to pick someone current so I pick Reynolds from the ProJo because he reminds me of Roberts although several of his Saturday pieces relate to RI only folklore. The playoff run was tougher than the teams 66 regular-season wins might have suggested. As the public relations man for the NFL, McCarthy is an elite source for the most secretive information. Bowen tweeted what a stiff arm from Williams felt like. Ray Fitzgerald. Of course, you're likely to get complaints about the quality of looks at the Playboy Mansion, but it is definitely worth it for the NFL business information you'll receive. He spent the beginning of his career actually working for NFL teams and has since turned back to writing about them. The players, who called him "Scoop," alternately respected and resented the Boston Globe writer. @PFWAwriters. He cites sources, gives insight and has great knowledge about the game of football. Strengths: Edes doesnt let his ego get in the way of the story, which can be a rarity in this market. When it comes to the world of NFL, Eisen is as respected as they come. Tom Brady after leading the Patriots to a Super Bowl win against the St. Louis Rams, in 2002. [5] Plus her basketball writing was the best. Boston Globe Magazine Annalisa Quinn. Enter a Crossword Clue Sort by Length His media outlet, meanwhile, has its share of technology issues, from frequent bad links from Twitter to mobile redirection issues. Its not that all the old-timers are badits more that its bad that there are so many old-timers. Twitter has taken the world by storm. Shalise Manza Young: Yahoo Sports columnist/former Boston Globe Patriots beat writer Two Writers Slinging Yang 01:06:43 Play Audio Add to Playlist Share Report On the highs and lows of Belichick, Brady and the dynastic Patriots; on whether columnists ever need to admit they were wrong; on the ills of social media and the future of the industry Dave Cowens was renowned for his intensity, but he played with particular passion in Game 7 of the 1974 NBA Finals versus the Milwaukee Bucks because he felt he had let his team down with a 5-for-19 showing in a losing Game 6. He also loves his mom, which is a great thing. Weaknesses: The move to CSNNE has lowered his visibility for this fan. All-Pro tight end Russ Francis, nursing an injury, wasnt going to play much, so he brought his guitar to Tampa. Witness the limitations of its technology infrastructure. The tabloids also had Mark Murphy and Steve Bulpett covering the Celtics since the days of short shorts, and it even hired Ron Borges as a columnist after he departed the Globe following a plagiarism scandal. Another Pulitzer winner with New England ties is Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein, who won for commentary. National writers (Law, Olney, etc) are excluded from this ranking, though I may do a similar national list at a later date. Better, hes genuinely funny in an understated way: think the Sports Guy less Vegas humor, reality show references and sexist jokes. Glenn Stout told me that, 20 years ago, he might have been able to come up with a dozen Boston sports-media personalities. also an author. And while hes not in the camp attacking statistics, neither has he embraced them the way that peers like Speier have. Jerry Remy hit a rope in his direction; Burleson respected Piniellas baseball guile and held at second, minimizing the damage. It all came together. All the Boston teams did back in 2002 often in spectacular fashion. Leigh Montville was like an artist with the typewriter. He continued to write columns for The Evening Globe, then the Boston Globe, until 1998. 7. He was the first Boston sports columnist that I truely adored, and the Globe has been the same since he left. In addition to being the all-time NBA scoring leader, he is currently fourth in assists, and he has always been about T-E-A-M. 4. Heres my list, which are all guys Ive actually read: Fitzgerald (You need this book.) Analysis is frequently emotionally driven. Snyder held the flag high and promoter Bob Arum stood and began to sing God Bless America and everyone in the room maybe 25 people stood and sang with him. Everything had been skewed against the visitor from Brockton, Massachusetts Minter in his Union Jack trunks, the promoters with their sly tricks, the nationalistic crowd that rioted at the end but the two judges had made the final decision. There was nothing like it and there probably wont be either since the nuggets of info he dispensed he was able to keep to himself all week. . Good or bad, it doesnt matter, he wrote on his website, Boston Sports Media Watch. You're likely to get a big kick out of his tweets. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. A fellow Boston Globe writer named John Powers once noticed that Ryan didn't include many quotes in his game stories. Will Mc in by a landslide. Miserable for more than a decade, they were thought of as somewhere between laughable and preposterous. The picks were not the real attraction. For being such a respected writer, King has quite the sense of humor on Twitter. In 2007, the year in which Sabathia won the Cy Young, Cafardo gave him a fourth place vote, with Beckett getting the nod for #1. Since columnist Michael Holley left the paper for a radio gig at WEEI eight years ago, its hard to think of a single distinctive voice the paper has developed and held on to. I fondly remember the Will McDounough Sunday column. My parents made me a Red Sox fan, but it was Peter Gammons that made me a baseball fan. 8 Frank DeFord - Sports Illustrated. Todd McShay is the other draft wunderkind for ESPN. Glenn Stout, the editor of the Best American Sports Writing series and . Its just that too many of our sportswritersahem, sports personalitieshave become adept at using these 21st-century tools to serve up what is little more than the same old slop. Will McD gets the nod here. As the lead NFL writer for Bleacher Report, Josh Zerkle has established himself as a unique talent in the writing world. Since he was one of the best to ever play the game, he has loads of knowledge about what really goes on inside the world of the NFL. Accepting at face value his contention that beat writers dont root for teams, its nevertheless unreasonable to expect that they dont root for people on those teams. The US hockey team was about to play the Soviet Union in the Olympics but their countrymen seemed ready to go to war. Leaving them off this list would be like leaving pumpkin pie off a list of the best desserts in the world. Egan, who was nastier than Borges without the knowledge. Bob Ryan is the standard bearer but Peter Gammons, Will McDonough and Dan Shauhnessy are soooo ever so close as well it's a tough call. Ya Im an old dog but I know what I like. One of them was Eruzione, the teams irrepressible captain. He was very, very good, and he never brought an agenda with him. Strengths: With MLB resources behind him, enjoys a substantial multimedia advantage over his peers, if not a similar local relevance and immediacy. When Will McDonough, Bob Ryan, and Peter Gammons began showing up on TV, they evolved from working writers into celebrities. However, if you ever need to know the inside and outs of the draft, look to Kiper to provide some quality information. Boston Globe Sports. Chad Finn tells us that Massarotti is no dummy, and I believe that. Type 1 diabetic. Help Select The Best All-Time Boston Sports Columnists, View BostonSportsMediaWatchs profile on Facebook, View 100226618267166606506s profile on Google+, A Fathers Day Miracle (for NESN to run again and again), Infamous Moments - McDonough Punches Clayborn, Distraught Arnold Wishes He Left WEEI When He Had The Chance, Remembering Tony Conigliaro the Sportscaster, Where Are They Now - 1510 The Zone Personalities, Tom Coughlin's Encounter with Bill Belichick after Super Bowl XLVI, #6 The Death of Will McDonough (and others), Formula 1 Presents Unique Opportunities for Disney Advertisers, ESPN Continues All-Women Led NBA Game & Studio Broadcasts in Celebration of International Womens Day on March 8, NCAA Womens Ice Hockey Post-Season Play Takes Center Ice on ESPN Platforms, LaLiga, Bundesliga and Eredivisie on ESPN+ and ESPN Deportes, Mar. Ryan probably sneaks on the list for consistency, if nothing else, but Im just a fan of his writing style. But Bostons defense limited the Lakers to 33 points in the second half and they took a 3-1 lead. Ater he retired joe became an official score keeper at Fenway.__My other choices are Timmy Horgan, Peter Gammons and Joe Fitzgerald. His piece on Tom Brady after Super Bowl XLVI was pure genius. Obviously, a lot of young lads weighing in here who do not remember the very best Boston once had Dave Egan, Record; Austen Lake, American; Bill Cunningham, Post and later Herald; Harold Kaese, Transcript and later Globe; Jerry Nason, Globe; Bill Liston, Post. With that context, herewith are the rankings. Marvin Hagler winning the. New York ran the score to 5-2, but the Sox clawed to within a run by the ninth. While Jay Glazer has moved more towards the MMA side of the world, he is still one of the top reporters in the business. As an aside, Massarotti in the past has requested that critics not hide behind anonymity: Somewhere along the line, someone needs to devise a system in which people who post comments on the internet are required to provide their real names and, perhaps, places of employment. His wit and snark and brutal honesty had my attention from the first column. Ernie Roberts, the bespectacled, gentlemanly editor used the region's smaller newspapers and college. 17. Secondly, McDonough. How could you omit Steve Buckley? Thats the way I did it.. I had the pleasure of reading him for a couple of decades. Now there was a stylist. Change). is quite exciting to keep tabs on. While that type of honesty is certainly refreshing, if you cry easily, you may want to stay away from his tweets. You are basically obligated to follow him if you're an NFL fan. (LogOut/ Just a name that probably should be on the list for some consideration, Jackie MacMullan(sp?). And hes certainly competent at doing so. And from a fans standpoint, I dont particularly care one way or another, and frankly tire of reading such claims from reporters which at some point come across as vindictive. He also covers NASCAR for the paper. You would read his work even if you had but a passing interest in his subject matter. I still can see him vaulting over the dasher, heading for open ice, taking a pass from the corner, and scoring the shocking goal that capped off the Miracle on Ice. The player-media relationship was much more relaxed back then. Weaknesses: His diverse responsibilities have led to an inevitable decline in production. All of which is fine, and none of which is my concern: it would be absurd to suggest that because Abraham took a new job, he should sever all ties from his years on the Mets and Yankees beats.