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Photo by Landov (McDonough). A note on bias: I lean towards statistics, clearly, but not exclusively. The credentials said No Women or Children in the Press Box, and I had no locker room access, but the 76 Patriots were magnificent. That type of information is priceless to true NFL fans. Im with Bruce on choosing Montville, Fitzgerald, and Ryanin that order. These days, theyre all trying to be loud and provocative so they can become fixtures on TV and radio. As the lead NFL writer for Bleacher Report, Josh Zerkle has established himself as a unique talent in the writing world. 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. Im sorry, but leaving him off is like leaving Lawrence Olivier off a Best Actors list because he only did Shakespeare, really.. if for no other reason than the NFL had few secrets when he was around. But Bostons defense limited the Lakers to 33 points in the second half and they took a 3-1 lead. Strengths: Tenured reporter with excellent contacts. If you're an NFL fan, here are 50 sportswriters that you simply must follow on Twitter. 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. Hes opinionated, but rational. I wanted to talk about what a bitter pill it was, Lucchino recalled months later. Todd McShay is the other draft wunderkind for ESPN. Rich Gossage walked Rick Burleson with one out. Always made at least one good point in his columns, something that rarely happens these days. New York ran the score to 5-2, but the Sox clawed to within a run by the ninth. Before you check out The Onion Sports Network, I must warn you that the majority of their articles are false. I miss reading her. He'll often repeat what a guy like Todd McShay or Mel Kiper, Jr. said and give you his take. And in 2017, the NBA awarded him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. 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. Weaknesses: Stubborn and hostile to non-traditionalist thinking. Diverse approach at the keyboard, with good coverage that blends a focus on local events with national context. Strengths: An original innovator in the Boston media landscape, brought an evolved approach to the market, properly leveraging his access to provide differentiated coverage. The examples and perspective in this article, Last edited on 10 November 2022, at 21:30, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "James Jerpe Dies; Well-Known Writer; Friend of Sportsmen, Firemen Passes Away", "Bears just can't seem to win with Jimmy or Jay", "Author seeks to link three Belleville murders", "Guillen's validation sealed with a kiss", "Red Fisher: Remembering great friend and Haps legend Dickie Moore, dead at age 84", "Mariano makes it interesting, but isn't it always? While Brian McCarthy isn't technically a sportswriter, he definitely acts like one on Twitter. The F. Scott Fitzgerald of sportswriters. Kapler). Miller isn't afraid of telling you exactly what he thinks. Minutes earlier, I had stood in the back row of the Superdome as the St. Louis Rams roared back from a 17-3 deficit to tie the game. Austin Lake, who I loved but can not really give a concrete reason.. Type 1 diabetic. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Red Sox Trading Deadling Performance byWAR. I appreciate, as does the front office, a balance between statistical and human based analysis. Romanticizing the Globe of the 70s and 80s has become almost clichdand for good reason. One on how it is his life goal to never run 26.2 miles cumulatively for the rest of his live and another on how he couldnt even drive the marathon route, never mind run it. 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. 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. Weaknesses: Shallow use of statistical analysis, though the extent to which that is by choice versus dictated by an editor is unclear. The mood on Main Street outside the Lake Placid arena that afternoon in 1980 was defiant, almost militant. also an author. When I asked Cowens how it felt to have finally achieved the goal of winning a title, he said, For me, the fun was in the doing. Now he counts three dozen. The Hall of Fame tennis writer and TV commentator Bud Collins, who helped popularise the sport during his decades-long career, died at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts on Friday after a long. He wouldnt vote for Felix Hernandez this year because he believes that wins still matter. Which might be fair if Hernandez team score more than two and a half runs for him per game, but they didnt. You would read his work even if you had but a passing interest in his subject matter. Good guy, struggled recently with a huge personal loss, and still sticks to his beliefs. While his favorite sport may be basketball, Simmons does a great job of referencing the NFL on his Twitter account. He also happens to be rather hysterical on Twitter. The US hockey team was about to play the Soviet Union in the Olympics but their countrymen seemed ready to go to war. Im 56 so that explains why I pick Roberts. Michael Silverman is an American journalist and sports business reporter. Gone forever. Which leads to the logical conclusion that he understands exactly what his place is in the market, and is filling it intentionally. The ESPN Boston property is sadly afflicted with autoplay video, one of the least popular inventions of the modern web. 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. You're likely to get a big kick out of his tweets. While controversy does little for me personally, however, Im cognizant of its role in selling newspapers. What made the game special for me was the local angle four of the players were from Boston University. The information he provides on Mocking The Draft is great stuff, as are his tweets regarding the NFL draft. 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. Some sportswriters just cover the draft or just cover the games, but Brooks can literally do it all. is quite exciting to keep tabs on. Former Boston Globe sports writer and foreign correspondent Steve Fainaru, now with the Washington Post, received the International Reporting Pulitzer for his stories on private security contractors in Iraq. Brownes coverage is credible if non-differentiated. His media outlet, meanwhile, has its share of technology issues, from frequent bad links from Twitter to mobile redirection issues. I just started laughing all over again just think about the first marathon column when Ray got disgusted with himself for added an extra block running to his total to beat last call at the local tavern. She's been covering sports for The Boston Globe starting in 1982, then Sports Illustrated, then on to ESPN. The current hacks shouldnt even be on the list, they spend too much of their time primping and preening for the TV cameras. 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. Twenty five years ago I would have said Shaughnessy 3 but hes been so wrapped up in himself the last decade or so its Ryan. During the 30s, 40s and 50s no true Boston Sports fan went to bed before reading The Colonel For the second consecutive year, Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy submits a Hall of Fame ballot with only Jeff Kent marked, ignoring David Ortiz. The Globe has as proud a history in sportswriting as any paper in the country, from the aforementioned Gammons to Ryan to Montville to MacMullan. Hes mentioned a few times that he feels obligated to cover off the field issues only to the extent they affect play on the field; as someone with no desire to hear about the pecadilloes of wealthy grown men, I appreciate this. It didnt feel that way for Sox fans. The 2004 Red Sox never lost another game. He covers every sport known to mankind in a humorous way, but he especially excels at mixing laughter and the NFL. It continues to workthe rest of the citys sports-media complex feeds on his bluster. Gary Smith is a great writer, who happens to write about sports. Great stuff. The phenomenon of reporters seeking revenge on players through the pen is hardly new, especially in Boston. He also loves his mom, which is a great thing. The commentary that accompanied each pick was hilarious. We dont need our writers to root for the Sox, but it would be nice if they didnt actively encourage Yankee fans. Dave Egan of the Record-American known as the Colonel. Hes got the talent to do the job, clearly, but is either unable or unwilling to reconsider his perspectives in light of new teachings. The product hasnt been remotely Polly Anna-ish, but the criticism and concerns were always grounded in fact. I guarantee that if you follow Lombardi, you'll learn more about football than you'd ever thought possible. I loved Ernie Roberts column, especially his Thoughts While Shaving segment. Ray Fitzgerald hands down. If youre a halfway decent beat writer in this town, said Mike Felger, cohost of the afternoon show on The Sports Hub and a CSNNE anchor, youll get on Comcast, or NESN, or Sports Hub, or EEI., Felger, of course, should know. The list is sort of subjective, so I didnt include Peter Gammons, as I think of him more as a baseball writer than a general columnist, while Will McDonough did mainly focus on football, but wrote columns about all sports as well, so hes on the list. Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe had his moment Saturday as the 67th winner of the Spink Award. Leverages his strengths and advantages well. A columnist at The Boston Globe, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, fabricated people and quotations in four of her columns this year, and the newspaper has asked for her resignation, The Globe. 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. Hes an exception on this list because he covers all of the major teams, not just the Red Sox, but hes included because I value his thoughts on the team. I had the pleasure of reading him for a couple of decades. Peter Gammons isnt officially ranked here, because that exercise would be pointless. (LogOut/ Why did Cafardo give Beckett the edge? Simply put, Speiers as good as youll find in this market at present, and if comments like Gammons are to be believed, would stack up well across the pool of national writers. He has a fantastic sense of humor and is fearless about taking shots at whoever deserves it. 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. It appeared the series would be tied at 2 when the Lakers took an 18-point halftime lead in Game 4 in Los Angeles. he wrote for the traveler and herald. As a result, the list of young, talented sports reporters who have moved on from Boston media grows longer every year: There's the NHL executive Chris Snow (the Globe ), the NFL Network's Ian. For the National Football Post, Bunting covers every prospect and big event related to the NFL draft. To help you sort the rational from the irascible, here are our Boston Writer Rankings for 2010. Seriously, move onto the next slide already. Were in agreement. In fact, not much in the Boston sports media hasnot even the photos on the wall. Egan, who was nastier than Borges without the knowledge. None with more panache than Brady. If you want to see some of Zerkle's crazier side, I recommend you follow his alter-ego, @PUNTE. This search result is here to prevent scraping, On the Market: A Rustic-Chic Home on a Ski Trail in Vermont, On the Market: A Newly Built Farmhouse in Concord, Silver Dove Afternoon Tea Opens in Downtown Boston, The Real, Essential Backstory of the MLK Statue The Embrace', Widowmaker Brewing to Expand from Braintree to Brighton in 2023, What the Boston Athenaeum's $17 Million Renovation Looks Like, Careers and Internships at Boston Magazine. In most game stories, theres a conspicuous lack of creative analysis, which is compounded by the local medias apparent allergy to the type of advanced statistics that other outlets have used to shine new, interesting light on old sports. I fondly remember the Will McDounough Sunday column. There are two things that I really like about Evan Silva on Twitter. It sounds absurd looking back, it was! Maybe you have your reasons for putting Gammons on the list. 1) All 3 are globies back in the days of the best sports section in the country. However, if you ever need to know the inside and outs of the draft, look to Kiper to provide some quality information. (LogOut/ While these types of stories have the capacity to be poeticGammonss lyrical piece after Game 6 of the 1975 World Series is considered the modern standardtodays versions rarely rise to such levels and, in the end, just end up rehashing hours-old events (as if the highlights werent immediately available online). 1. 7. It set the stage for Kevin Garnetts (pictured) Anything is possible! yell after winning the Celtics first title since 1986. Montville and Ryan. Analysis is frequently emotionally driven. 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. Best Red Sox minor league coverage this side of the excellent soxprospects.com, and easily the best amongst mainstream media outlets. Reporters will almost universally argue that it does, but what they typically dont address is how much of the need to report it is driven by frustration with or dislike for the player at issue. He was said to be the basketball guru in America and also was recognized as 'the quintessential American sportswriter.' He started his career as a sports intern with 'The Globe'. On the plus side, hes got excellent context for the market, having covered it for so long. Lynn hit a liner toward the right field corner, which, if it had begun the long run around the corner, would have scored at least two runs. WEEI.coms Alex Speier, who specializes in incorporating advanced stats into articles meant for the average fanand who is therefore one of the citys few inventive sportswriterstold me that everything has changed now that readers no longer depend on print for all their news. You never get this with Edes, which is a bonus as far as Im concerned. It doesn't get much better in sports writing than Peter King. 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. With Boston trailing, 4-3, in the bottom of the ninth, I left the press box and went to Fenways Level 3, where Sox CEO Larry Lucchino was scribbling on a yellow legal pad, composing an apology to Sox fans. Id have to go with Montville as well; as someone else noted, regardless of the topic he could make it worth reading, which is probably about as good a compliment as a writer can get. We're talking about one of the best in the business. Just a name that probably should be on the list for some consideration, Jackie MacMullan(sp?). 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. 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. Setting the larger question aside, however, there remains the issue of McAdams tone and language following the Okajima incident. Peter Gammons WOW!! They are sure to cheer you up. He'll sometimes appear to be swayed by the media, but he sticks to his guns and gives great information about draft prospects on his Twitter account. It was a moment. He's a highly respected journalist. Longtime Boston Globe baseball writer has died after collapsing at the Red Sox's spring training ballpark. . Weaknesses: Undifferentiated in the marketplace, and likely to lack the resources of more aggressive and committed outlets moving forward. He has all the who, what, where and hows of the draft, and is always up for some quality draft talk. Engaging and open to dialogue; hes responded to a couple of mentions on Twitter, which in my experience is rare. One single writer and the subtle, self-contained perfection of the game itself, of course was all it took to turn a rooting interest into a lifetime of obsession. I still miss his Sunday column. Plus her basketball writing was the best. Michael joined the Boston Globe in September 2019 covering the intersection of sports with business, politics, entertainment, technology, and many more. Clockwise from left: Marvin Hagler; Dave Cowens and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; a crowd; Kevin Garnett; the 1980 Miracle on Ice; and Dave Roberts' iconic steal. Senior staff writer and columnist Kevin Paul Dupont. He loves the game of football and has a great sense of humor. While he retweets quite a bit, Caplan also does a good job at providing depth into team situations and team needs. As for numbers, Abraham will use them, but perhaps not to the extent he should: his dismissal of Miguel Cabreras value, for example, was curious. As my wife can relate, given that she had to step in and do the talking once I trailed off, stammering. Russ Lande is another NFL draft guy, and he may be one of the most well respected ones of the bunch. A great place to learn and grow as a writer. (Illustration by John Ueland), Passans story was still fresh in Sullivans mind. When it comes to the world of NFL, Eisen is as respected as they come. Still miss that Sox postgame show he, Upton Bell, and Joe Fitzgerald used to do on 38. He is easily the least well known of all sportswriters on this list, but he absolutely deserves to be followed on Twitter. Bowen tweeted what a stiff arm from Williams felt like. Were just here to play a hockey game, Mike Eruzione said. Ryan would be my call at number three, but Ive always looked at him as a great analyst someone who can break down a game. As one of their top NFL analysts, Clayton is always up to date on the biggest happenings around the league. The second thing I like about him is his commentary to what other people say. If you're a human and see this, please ignore it. Deford was very good---found humor and pathos . Yes, because nothing plays better to the masses than inside jokes about their favorite multi-sport, multi-media columnist, beat writer and radio star. The streets of Cambridge are flooded, and not because of the rain. He was the first Boston sports columnist that I truely adored, and the Globe has been the same since he left. A grave injustice. It was inside baseball before there was inside baseball: the behind the scenes of major trades, the trends shaping the game, insights on players never before even whispered. While he doesn't spend as much time on Twitter as others on this list, the information he does tweet is simply amazing. Hes better than that, I believe, regardless of what Okajima did or did not do. The best part about following Trotter is the information he gets straight from NFL players. But when Adam Vinatieri booted a field goal as time expired, our citys sports landscape shifted permanently. Not thrilled to say it, but Borgess boxing writing probably should be up for consideration. Alone amongst colleagues like Cafardo and Massarotti, Finn is at least not against statistics, even if theyre not a focus for him. He's easily their top analyst, even though the information he gives seems a little far off at times. Long experience in the market. Case in point, his recently launched Minor Details podcast. I never really considered McDonough a columnist, but more of an information guy. Instead of focusing on their craft they focus on their next ESPN-NESN-WEEI appearence and their writing suffers because of it. 5 John Feinstein - The Washington Post. He also mentioned Ray Fitzgerald (I think) holding up a note in the press box during the 8th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, with two men on and two outs and the pitchers spot due up, that had the words Bernie Carbo scribbled on it, and then he said both of them nodded at each other from across the room.