Yes, the day is finally here.
The Boston Globe clearly considers Dan Shaughnessy the star of its sports department, putting the columnist front and center whenever a big sports event is catching the attention of even the most casual of sports fans. Shaughnessy gets the call for all the front page stories during the baseball postseason, and even now with football and basketball. He is used by the paper to be the voice of Boston sports.
Shaughnessy grew up in Groton, and is a graduate of Holy Cross. He started his professional career with the Baltimore Sun in the late 1970’s, serving as Orioles beat writer. He moved on to the Globe in 1981, where he covered the beat for the Red Sox and Celtics before moving to the columnist role. He is a seven time Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year, and eight times he has been selected as one of Americas top-ten sports columnists by Associated Press Sports Editors.
Shaughnessy’s feud with Curt Schilling has been well documented, and as has his role in the (short lived) resignation of Red Sox GM Theo Epstein following the 2005 season. His formulaic columns, ripjobs and contrarian opinions have earned him the title of The Most Hated Man in Boston, though I have a feeling he’s not as hated by the average fan as we might think he is. His work has inspired his own watchdog blog, the entertaining Dan Shaughnessy Watch.
He is a frequent guest on national sports shows such a Jim Rome, and is a frequent guest on stations all across the country.
Shaughnessy has written at least 11 books, including The Curse of the Bambino
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Boston Sports Media Watch 
WHAT??!! There are 3 people who actually APPROVE! of this guy?
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Amazingly the Jortsfather has always been a fan of the Big Show Shank, the “i’ll always email you back” Shank, the beatwriter Shank, and the Baseball Sunday Notes column Shank. I disapprove the columnist Shank, the “i run a mile a day” Shank, and the Schilling Shank.
At the end, i’d miss the guy if he wasn’t in the Boston media since he’s certainly worth discussing. Approved.
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Where to start with Shank-a-roo? A lazy man’s lazy man. Long ago stopped liking sports. Uses more tired and dated cliches than you can shake a curling iron at. Warren Zevon, Back to the Future, Bruce Springsteen, and on and on and on. Pop Culture ended for the fright wig wearing grouch back in the 80’s.
One of the original media whores, popping up like an afroed jack in the box on any and all TV and radio shows. Must have dozen’s of 1099’s at the end of the year.
Once seen walking in a hotel lobby wearing a bathrobe and heading back to his room with two complimentary glasses of white wine. Cheap as the day is long. Throws dimes around like manhole covers.
Will encourage you to call him to engage in verbal fisticuffs.
Needs to take the Globe buyout and dissappear like fellow negative hack Ron Borges.
Can’t DISSAPROVE enough!!!!!
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Take a look Bill Simmons, this is your future.
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Nicky, Are you Sports Gal #1?
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Ah, fresh meat.
He’s disapproved because he started a small argument with my friend for some idiotic hatchet job he did on Walpole high. You know you’re a jackanapes when you pick fights with HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS.
And then there’s the whole Curse of the Bambino claptrap.
Thanks. Now where’s the Giant Forehead?
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Reminded me of that great quote he had about how covering high school sports was better because you could corner high school kids in the locker room much easier than a pro athelete.
creepazoid.
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He’s already got the hair, just give him a big pair of floppy shoes and point him in the direction of the circus….DISAPPROVE!
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In honor of Shank I’m too lazy to write an original comment.
Glory days, oh they’ll pass you by Shank, was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. A good writer has a good work ethic, Shank has tired references.
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Will Dan have his daughter be voting at libraries across Massachusetts and soliciting positive comments from friends and relatives for the thread? Or does he only do that for amazon?
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The English language lacks the proper invective for this sad, absurdly bitter clown-faced excuse for a writer. Suffice it to say that CHB’s position at the top of the pantheon of the Globe’s sports department is exhibit A, B, C and D for why the Globe’s business fortunes are down into the toilet.
The man who famously declared “The Curse isn’t over until I say it’s over! I wrote the book!” needs to learn that his relevance and indeed only reason to continue drawing breath is over.
DISAPPROVE. MOST STRENUOUSLY DISAPPROVE.
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A hack’s hack. ‘Nuf sed.
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If there’s a word (and there are many) I could use besides “disapprove” consider them used. Like others have mentioned, invited me to call him after receiving my email questioning of his many ridiculously biased articles where he spews venenous hatred toward a member of a local team. He cannot take constructive criticism as he feels himself beyond reproach. After several rounds of this, which he soon turned to personal attacks on me (as if he’d know anything), I thought we might end up meeting in the back of the schoolyard to settle our dispute. How I wish. He’s a hack, a joke, a self-righteous blowhard who just needs to go away.
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Disapprove! A blowhards blowhard… He has a rotation of about 2.5 columns that he reuses to suit the sport, etc… He’s the epitome of a sports journalist who loves it when the story is……HIMSELF!? The father of capitalizing off local sports highs & lows by excreting unreadable books a month before the holiday season.
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Cartel of the Keyboards.
The Sox own him and his children.
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May have contributed to the further dumbing down of Sports Talk Radio in Boston by having the Globe ban its writers from Weei appearances.
“The Curse isn’t over until I say it is.”
DISAPPROVE X Infinity!!
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just awful. out of touch, has been completely played out for years.
i dont bother reading his stuff.
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I’m sure this has already been said and will likely be repeated, but Shaughnessy just doesn’t seem to enjoy sports. Why would I want to read a sports column written by a guy who holds my dream job yet refuses to appreciate any of the enjoyment the subject of his writing can offer?
I do feel he is a talented writer, but nobody likes the turd in the punchbowl.
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What evidence do you care to offer to demonstrate that he is a talented writer?
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He’s bitter, jaded, maddeningly contrarian, and stopped liking his job a long time ago. He frequently mails in uninsprired work at best. I wish he would quit his job at the Globe so someone who actually enjoys writing about sports could take his place.
If all this can be put aside and the body of his work can be viewed objectively, I do not think he can be simply written off as a talentless hack. He may be a cynic and a jerk, but I do feel he once had the capability to be a decent writer. This is likely a moot point since he has long since decided he enjoys his role as the villian.
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Dan brings new meaning to the word “lazy.” The man hasn’t had an original thought in 20 years and his irrelevant columns read like they take all of five minutes to throw together–just brutally awful stuff. Of course, on the odd occasion His Laziness gets a burst of energy (for him) and delivers one of his patented, nasty, agenda-driven revenge efforts–OH, LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! It’s not about sports or my readers, IT’S ABOUT ME!! This clown’s shtick got lame years and years ago.
Lazy Dan’s arcane references are excruciating and his stale act is just plain tired. Dan, take the buyout, please. You’re an embarrassment and have been must-miss for years now. There’s so much better, more thoughtful, more intelligent stuff on the internet these days that soon, dinosaurs like Lazy Dan will be a thing of the past–which is a very, very good thing.
DISAPPROVE A MILLION TIMES OVER OF LAZY DAN!
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47 people approve of this guy? And people wonder what is wrong with this country…
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Sadly, he will regard all the negativity towards him as a badge of honor- nay, courage for his “unpopular” positions. Stopped caring about him or much what he wrote after he panned the Pedro trade on Sports Final. Just a silly, fading non-entity.
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He does have the talent to be a good writer, but his talent is made irrelevant by his agenda-driven recyclotron 5000 that causes him to spit out the same basic bile driven columns under different titles. It’s really a shame that his talent is so wasted.
In fairness, I have made it a point to not read his columns since 2003, so I really can’t comment on anything he has written since then.
I do highly recommend the boycott approach, however, It’s done wonders for my blood pressure and has probably saved him from having to hear me yell “You Suck, Shaughnessy” in the Fenway concourse area like I used to when I saw him there. Now, seeing him is a bit like seeing an old high school teacher you hated. You know who it is, but he’s completely irrelevant.
Disapprove.
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Among the most offensive things the Globe sports staff will do this year was running Shaughnessy on the front page the day after Lester’s no-hitter.
Shaughnessy wasn’t even at the game, nor did he bother to make the short drive to the park when he saw what was going on. Wrote purely off NESN and called it a night.
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disapprove for reasons stated above and because
he used his contacts within the Red Sox organization (Tom Werner) to get his daughter the internship she wanted in Hollywood.
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I learned a couple of things reading Bruce’s write up. Its news to me that Shaunessey “writes all the front page stories during the baseball post season” because I don’t read anything below his name. As many have already written, he’s the #1 customer at USPS. The only time he exerts any energy is when he’s spewing acid-puke on someone or something.
And, this guy has written 11 books?!!! How he gets any book deals is beyond me!
His “standing” on the Boston sports media scene shows us what a sad state of affairs we have here.
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Full confession, I liked the CHB – when I was in High School in the 80’s. Back then his cliches were actually topical and I hadn’t read the same drivel from him 72 times already.
I’ve been boycotting him for several years now, I won’t click his link (and don’t read much of anything on paper) so his sorry-ass rationalization that “he must be doing his job because people don’t like him” holds no water here. In general, I wish Schilling would STFU & pitch, but I love his open disdain for this stiff.
DISAPPROVE
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I don’t know what’s worse, his bitterness or his laziness. Can’t write 200 words without crapping on somebody. Wish I could disapprove x100.
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All you need to know about the CHB is that after the Sox beat the Yankees in 2004, he was everywhere screaming that the “Curse” wasn’t over until they won the World Series. “I should know, I wrote the book!” A loser’s loser. One of the most bitter, spiteful, unhappy hacks in Boston sports media history, and that’s saying. It’s sad that his stank is now rubbing off on Bob Ryan.
DISAPPROVE.
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He should stick to being a panelist on the Jim Rome Show
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reading the othe rcomments is really comical. Dan Is The man…and is purely THE best sportswriter in boston period. You may not like what he says….but then again the truth usually hurts!
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DUKE (or is it Dan?) Truth? You’re joking right? Can you name the last time he wrote something relevent? Or how about the last time he had an original insight? I’d love to know Dan.
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Shank really nailed it with Ortiz, too bad that fat bag of crap took playing time away from Giambi and Millar. Sox fans would have been wise to heed Dan’s warnings and get Ortiz gone before he brought the whole team down with him.
What has this guy ever been right about? A fake curse? Trash day in Newton? The 3-2 kid? What? Carl Everett? Yeah that was a tough one.
I think Bruce should have posted his two columns 10 years apart each about Sox pitchers leaving the park before the final out; one was about Clemens fiery ethic forcing him to leave the park early because he was so tough and cool. The second about Pedro leaving the park early because he was…. Dominican.
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I can’t tell if “Duke” is Dan or his daughter, so please forgive any pronoun troubles.
I don’t think that my opinion of Shaughnessy comes from disagreeing with his opinions. I’m a person who likes reading contrary opinions. What I find unacceptable is opinion without knowledge, name-calling as a way to fill column space, and junior-high-level posturing posing as fearlessness.
Is this all Shaughnessy’s fault or partially the responsibility of his enablers? Hard to say, but the proof is on the page and any reasonable review of his work would yield the judgement that it’s pitiful by any standard.
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Dan, please – link a column demonstrating what you say to be true.
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DUKE=Shank
sad, just sad.
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Disapprove. I liked him when I first started reading the sports section, because I thought his writing style was fresh. Then, two years later, I realized that he simply recycles columns and cliches.
I will say this in his favor. As a sports columnist for my college paper, I wrote to him to ask for advice about breaking into the field. He kindly called me, read my columns, offered feedback, etc. We stayed in touch for awhile, and without fail, he responded to every phone call. It was pretty classy.
But, if we’re voting on the basis of writing and reporting talent, then I have to stick with disapprove.
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He has no problem calling people. I emailed him a question once and he called me. The problem is, he loves to just lecture for 15 minutes about everything he thinks he knows on a given topic, just to show you he’s smarter than you. He doesn’t want to solict an opinion or engage in discussion. A true worthless blowhard.
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Funny, I met him at an event once when I was a college journalism student and went up to talk to him briefly. (At the time I actually enjoyed his writing). He did talk to me but in the middle of a sentence he turned his head to some public relations flak and said “is the bar open yet?” Then he got a drink, so the conversation was a short-lived one.
The event was a Rick Pitino speech and there was a column about it by Shaughnessy the next day.
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I know it’s unpopular to say it, and I know his negativity is definitely a negative (ugh… need my thesaurus), but I don’t think CHB is as bad as everyone makes him out to be. I’ve met him in the past, and he’s an entertaining and decent guy in person. And I don’t think it’s fair to hold him to reporter standards, because that’s not his job. His job is to be the lead opinion writer on the Glob’s sports page. And in that role, he’s very effective — like him or not, he’s talked about, and talked about a lot.
So I think he’s doing precisely what the Glob is paying him to do, namely get people talking about him, thereby increasing readership. And I’m not going to blame the guy for doing what he’s supposed to do, even if it isn’t a choice I would have made myself.
I do wish he’d be more like Joe Poz…. but then I wish everyone would be more like Joe Poz, so there you go.
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Back in the day, when he covered the Sox in the 80s, I thought Shaughnessy was a decent beat writer who had decent sources and gave the reader decent information.
The sad part is that Shaughnessy peaked as just a “decent” baseball writer nearly 20 years ago.
And really, he ALWAYS had a poisen pen….even when he was a beat writer. I even remember a radio talk show host back in the 80s referring to him as “poison pen Shaughnessy”. And he seems completely incapable of letting old feuds die. I don’t think he’s ever had a nice thing to say about John McNamara. Hey, I agree the guy was a terrible manager, but I got over Johnny Mac the day the Red Sox finally fired him. Shaughnessy was still taking shots at him at least 10 years later–he still is taking shots for all I know (I don’t read him anymore).
And how about his feud with Bob Kraft? The Pats’ owner seemingly has gotten over Dan’s constant ripping of him in the wake of the Parcells fiasco in ’97, but as recently as last season, Shaughnessy referred to Kraft as “Amos Alonzo Kraft”. Let it go, Dan. Please let it go.
The problem with Dan, and all journalists in his age group is that they finished journalism school in the immediate post-Watergate era, when EVERY journalism graduate dreamed of becoming the next Woodward or Bernstein, and a story wasn’t considered a story unless some kind of controversy was involved.
Even sportswriters like Shaughnessy began seeking out “controversial” angles to their stories and beats, and even went to some lengths to stir the pot themselves if the pot seemed a little too calm.
I remember reading once–and I wish I could remember where–that the 1982-83 Celtics (the last Bill Fitch team and the least successful C’s team of the early Bird Era) attributed some of their team dissension to the fact that Shaughnessy, who was new to the C’s beat, was always in the lockerroom trying to stir the pot. That probably was a lame excuse, but still, that’s the first and only time I’ve ever heard that said about a sportswriter.
In recent years, as a columnist, all of the adjectives used to describe him so far in this comments section certainly do apply, but to me, his biggest flaw is his insufferable ego and haughty elitism.
The man simply cannot stand to be criticized, even if it’s constructive and not nasty criticism. He lashes out at his email critics with a rank immaturity that’s poorly disguised by his considerable vocabulary skills.
In short, this man had considerable talents once, but he’s wasted them, primarily because of his own caustic personality and an ego that doesn’t allow him to see his own flaws clearly enough.
Disapprove.
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Much like the Simons – Carly and Paul — it’s difficult to separate Dan Shaughnessy the writer/”personality” from the media machine that keeps shoving him down our throats. In terms of enduring impact on our day-to-day sports enjoyment, Shank is up there with The Cardinal, Joe Fitzgerald, and the Colonel, Dave Egan, in that he seemingly has been around forever — a fact of life like hurricanes and dog poop on the playing fields.
What has he brought to our regional conversation? In his earlier years, he was obviously trying to concoct a catch-phrase that he could market. “ThanksDad” “Jurrasic Carl” and several even less impressive trial balloons finally yielded a phrase that he did not come up with: “Curse of the Bambino.”
Humping that metaphor like a Tuscan trollop, Shank somehow developed a national profile. The curious part is that — until his acceptance into the Barnicle circle of Hibernian Hail Fellows Well Met — Shaughnessy has gained ever-higher profile based on the success of the local teams. Success that he has openly derided. One could fairly ask if he would have any platform at all if the Red Sox, Patriots, and (finally) the Celtics were .500 teams. There is no glory or mythmaking to be had from mediocre teams.
What do we know about him? Well, his sloth is well-documented as is his contempt for his readers and his region. He apparently fancies himself as a full-service commentator even as readers struggle to find an actual quote in his articles that isn’t from Werner or Luccino. He has a face made for radio and a voice suited for mime.
So the fact that he holds the Ray Fitzgerald/Peter Gammons chair at the Boston Globe shows how dramatically that newspaper has slid. The fact that deaf, dumb, and blind editor Joe Sullivan thought that the only person who could properly deliver word of John Lester’s no-hitter to the world would be Mr. Asleep At The Wheel says more about the newspaper business than Shaughnessy himself. That a once-great paper would commit fraud just to put Shaughnessy on the front page should be a firing offense.
So, what are the plusses? Small carbon footprint. Never arrested for a capital crime. Deep knowledge of boxed wine. The minuses? Well… a prickly public personality, a work ethic that would be considered sub-standard in any communist country, and an appalling musical taste (as anyone who documents his pop culture references can demonstrate. Lester Bangs he ain’t).
The truly sad part is that unlike Tony Mazz, for example, Shank doesn’t give any indication that he is aware of how pompous and smug his is in his own lazy puddle of stench. Not good enough for the Holy Cross paper; the “11 books” part of his bio makes me retch.
On the whole …DISAPPROVE!
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Incite without insight.
Is perfectly happy to dish out criticism (which is certainly his right), but CALLS PEOPLE AT HOME if they criticise him by writing a Letter to the Editor (as is the reader’s right). Skin so thin he’s practically translucent.
I think he still has some talent. But 90% of the time, for reasons that only he knows, he takes the path of least resistance, which is usually recycling some old column.
He truly believes that nothing is new, so that repeating himself is warranted.
I’ve dealt with him in person, and he was polite enough. But this vote isn’t about what kind of guy he is.
DISAPPROVE
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Dripping fangs of Disapprove!!
Always seems to mention Groton somehow in his
stories or at least he did when I used to read
his stories. Funny thing is, I live in Groton,
and everyone there HATES the guy! They always
mention Gammons,(Groton School guy,)in a positive
light, but when it comes to the CHB…they all
indicate that Newton can have that world class
A-Hole!
Irrelevant at best! An aging beat reporter who can’t
understand why he no longer can get close to the guys
he covers…Gee! what a surprise!..They all think he
sucks too! Ever think of that Dan??? (Duke!!)
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Boston has Dan Shaughnessy
Every other city does not
Advantage: Every other city
DISAPPROVE!
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He must have pics of the Globe senior people with farm animals. He has done nothing to earn or maintain his position at that paper. The number of random folks who say, “I won’t read his column” is indicative of his weakness in that role.
The column he wrote about himself running a mile a day should be mailed to anyone voting approve.
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I think that Dan always tries to convey a sense of ironic detachment. So many of his columns convey a sense of “[d]ear reader, this is what you may be interested in, but I’m really above it all. I won’t lose any sleep over Aaron Boone or Manning to Tyree.” I don’t think that he was always that way – the 1980s Celtics clearly still matter greatly to him. Maybe it’s because he no longer can see athletes unfiltered. But I think that the snark and the efforts to portray himself as above it all will prevent him from ever being as good a writer as, for example, Bob Ryan.
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Dan is a typical contrarian (the planets laziest intellectuals). It’s his gig and he clings to it out of an absence of any real thoughtfulness and because it pays the bills. Who finds people with either of these qualities worth an ounce of merit or distinction?
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Disapprove to “infinity”. Someone at MIT should figure out an autovoting macro to break the record.
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Disapprove, and let us count all the reasons why:
— Lazy
— Trots out recycled columns that are as predictable as the tides
— Carries on “tough guy” vendettas in the press with figures long removed from the Boston sports scene (e.g., I’m old enough to remember his constant references to “Laughing Boy” Bill Fitch years after he stopped coaching the Celtics)
— For someone who “earns” his living by constantly sticking shivs into other people’s backs, he is hysterically thin-skinned when confronted with factual errors in his own work
— Wears his a-holiness on his sleeve as some type of twisted badge of honor
— Has somehow deluded the geniuses at the 17 percenters that his petty prose is somehow topical and a “must read”
— Is a dinosaur whose personal calendar is stuck on 1983
Next time it’s offered, take the buyout, Dan.
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Why does this city have so many sportswriters who want to make themselves the story? Masserotti is the latest example, following Shaunessey’s footsteps by spewing venom and making his move for the spotlight. Borges was another in that line. Even Will McDonough, who I always looked forward to reading, crossed that line a few times.
I don’t think its coincidence. I think it is becoming a Boston tradition, as the culture these people have created now spawns more of that behavior. The need to become “insiders”, the emphasis on being the first to get the story and get your name out there.
Then we have sports radio, acting as the fertilizer that makes those weeds grow. Its another stage and chow line, and the bigger a**hole you are, the more time you get on the air.
Radio and the web allow for easy interaction between the writers and a fans (typically the most vocal and obnoxious of fans). Then you have opportunists like Ordway who jump to fan the flames, putting on his Interviewer hat and giving them a forum on the Big Show.
Who wants to settle for the dignity of quietly and humbly doing a good job by informing and/or entertaining your audience, when you can be the star?
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>Then we have sports radio, acting as the fertilizer >that makes those weeds grow.
You, sir, have got Yahtzee. Dead-on and well put.
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When Dan Shaughnessy looks in the mirror, he starts singing “I’ve Finally Found Someone”. Anyone who has to use his daughter to solicit positive reviews for his book on Amazon is a fraud of the highest order. The only difference between Shaughnessy and Steve Silva is the color of their teeth.
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you’d think when he looks in the mirror he would say, “damn…I really got to do something about my hair”
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Disapprove, but I still have more contempt for those who have literally never offered anything, anything at all to a discussion of a team or an issue. The confederacy of dunces of stearn, burton, Halloran, etc… will always be worse because they simply shouldn’t be employed as sport media figures while CHB has the ability to contribute something, he just rarely bother to actually do it.
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he’s everything I wish I could be
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You mean he did not take they buyout?
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Disapprove but only for his work up to ’03. Have not read an article by him since because he’s obviously lazy. Hated the fact the national media used him as a spokesman for the fans during the “reversing the curse” b.s. Could not avoid his ugly mug during the ’04 playoffs.
One major reason I canceled my Globe subscription. Joe Sullivan thinks he’s brave – and that’s a reason why the Globe is doing so poorly. Only people I know who read him now are retired and dying.
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An extreme ten thumbs down for CHB.
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RAMONE!!!!!!! DAN SHAUGHNESSY IS A PIECE OF JUNK!!!!!! AND A BOWSER!!!!!!
HOW DOES IT FEEL WHEN ITS AIMED AT YOU, CHB?
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Just a sad sad man.
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Three minutes after the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series in St. Louis, the 1,000+ Red Sox fans behind the third base dugout started a “Shaughnessey Sucks” chant.
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Oh, “Disapprove!”
NHL free agency less than five weeks away! Go Bruins!
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