Poor Dan Shaughnessy.
He’s feeling persecuted right now. All you get-a-lifers are coming after him, and making him feel bad.
Being wrong is OK by me, but I was bombarded Thursday by fans consumed with a message of, “You need to eat crow! How could you have been so wrong?’’ I’m hoping all those folks went to Vegas in March and are now collecting thousands.
So the voice of New England sports, who likes to brag about when he writes a scathing column and then shows up in the locker room the next day, can’t take accountability to his customers for when he is epically wrong? He has to hide under the “no one else saw this coming either” excuse? (If you did go to Vegas and bet, are you allowed to taunt Dan?)
In February, he already had his mind made up about the team:
Sorry. The juice glass is half-empty today. These guys could be really bad. And really boring. “Scrappy” doesn’t sell in Boston in 2013. Not after everything that’s happened. For $170 million, a little more prime-time talent would have been nice.
Failed predictions are not a big deal. Everyone makes them. It’s true that very few people had any expectations for this team. There are a few differences though.
Shaughnessy and his colleagues in the media – notably a certain afternoon radio duo that rhymes with Elger and Assaorotti – once they had established their narrative, they had to keep it going, and try to keep proving that they were smarter than the unwashed fans. They seek to ruin the fan experience, and bring the attention on themselves. It’s also not just that the predictions are made, it’s that they’re made in the most dickish way possible.
Shaughnessy is the professional here. He’s the alleged sports authority in Boston. He’s the one getting paid – very handsomely – to give his opinion. So when it is proven to be wrong, not just a little bit wrong, but historically wrong, he’s got to strike back at his customers and tell them they were all wrong too?
A wise Boston-based NFL reporter recently tweeted that “People in our business are supposed to tell the public what news is, not the other way around.” Based on that, does Dan think it is impossible to believe that some people actually based their opinions on the potential of the Red Sox on what HE told them? (If they did, they’re morons, but that’s another story.)
After all, as he said in February he had spent “Two weeks and too many hours in the Sox clubhouse” actually observing the team and what was going on. I know we’re talking about Shaughnessy here, but is it impossible that people read what he wrote, and concluded that since he had been there for two weeks, he might know better than they did how good/bad this team was going to be?
In any event, he’s supposed to be the expert. He failed. Now he wants us to forget it all, and join him as he writes glowing tributes about how great this team was, and if you bring up his original predictions about them, well, too bad, because YOU didn’t know either.
The thing is, despite his protests, he loves this. He lives for this. He’s on Gresh and Zo right now “defending himself” against all this backlash. He’s soaking it up, basking in the glow that even though the Red Sox just won the World Series, people are thinking about HIM.
I need to go shower now.
By the way, Bill Ballou at the Globe’s sister paper in Worcester back in March predicted that the Red Sox would win the AL East in 2013.
So, 2013 has to be better than 2012. It’ll be better than 2011, for that matter. The 2013 Red Sox will be AL East champions, and I’m willing to put money on it.
Can anybody loan me a nickel?
(Thanks to Lance for pointing this out.)
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Somewhat related – does it bother anyone else that media and media bloggers who spent the entire season dumping on the Red Sox and their players (and the other teams in town) now have no issues composing odes to how great it is to be a sports fan in Boston, and how these Red Sox define Boston? They spend every waking hour figuring out what to complain about, and what #hotsportztake is going to be most infuriating, but then turn into puddles of mush when the season is successful.
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They don’t make ’em like this anymore:
Top of the World – Leigh Montville’s column on the Red Sox win.
Papi and After – How about 93-year-old Roger Angell still cranking out baseball writing?
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How did things shake down on Wednesday night, numbers-wise?
https://twitter.com/stevelepore/status/396109982350848000
Nationally, the Red Sox game did a 11.3/18.
More information from FOX on game six:
- Boston led all markets with a massive 55.2/75, the best MLB rating in the market since Game 4 of the 2007 World Series.
- Boston peaked with a 59.5/84 from 11:00 -11:30 PM ET during the Fenway Park on-field celebration. Red Sox hub Providence followed with a 44.1/61.
- St. Louis delivered a 37.9/55 followed by Hartford (27.8/41), Fort Myers (16.6/27), Kansas City (14.4/23), Tampa (13.4/21), Memphis (13.3/19), Las Vegas (13.0/22), and Richmond (12.9/22) to round out the top 10.
- For the six-game series, St. Louis was the top metered market averaging 40.6/60 while Boston came in at 39.6/60.
- According to figures released by Nielsen SocialGuide, World Series Game 6 was the most social program of the day with 1.6 million tweets from 623,000 unique authors. The 2013 World Series drew 4.3 million tweets, up 86% from the 2012 World Series and more than three times the number of tweets compared to the 2011 World Series.
- According to Facebook, the 2013 World Series generated 32 million interactions from 11 million users. The Red Sox won the team buzz battle 62% to 38% over the Cardinals during the six-game series. World Series MVP David Ortiz was the most buzzed about player with nearly four times the comments, likes, and posts compared to any other player.
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Finally, Chad Finn’s media column from today- Fox should go bold in replacing Tim McCarver – has plenty of media notes and observations from the series.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
.8 rating for the Celtics…who the heck watched that game?
As for the hand wringing on what the talking heads say…I understand that it is their job to drive conversation. it is why I generally like Felger and Mazz….they do it better than anyone else. Felger is self deprecating with all things except the Pats (which is why I come down so hard on him sometimes). So I can accept the negativeness turning into mush as they are proven wrong. What gets me is the thin skin…whether it is Ortiz calling out Shank because he has the audacity to suggest a 38 year old dominican might be using PEDs or whether it is Shank because he can’t handle criticism period. Give me Tom Curran’s approach any day over guys who can’t handle being wrong.
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Speaking of being being wrong..Do you think that this Sox World Series win was just them being lucky like 2004 and 2007?
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Yeah, obviously the Sox need new ownership. The signing of David Ortiz last off-season was a clear sign that they don’t care about winning and it will cause other free agents to avoid the Sox.
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For the record…my opinion of the ownership has not changed. I don’t think they are engaged. I do think Ben Charington is very good at his job and I have come around on John Farrell…but John Henry and Larry Lucchino still make my skin crawl.
As for Ortiz…lets just say I fall on the highly dubious side of that argument and as such a part of me has problems really embracing this win.
Winning cures most evils however in this case it just glossed over the institutional issues…they are still there beneath the surface. If you are blind to these things, then I enjoy the victory unencumbered. I smiled, but there is no real euphoria…I have been put off by the team and ownership for too long to just come back.
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Haha, yeah those institutional issues have really cause the team to be terrible this past decade. The franchise is in terrible shape, obviously, but everyone is just blind to it. The world series was faked on a sound stage, luckily my tinfoil hat picks up transmissions from Jupiter which explain the true awfulness of the Sox.
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The organization (Henry, at least) addressed some of these “institutional issues” by leaving the baseball ops alone to do its job. They clearly learned from the hiring of Bobby V and obsession with signing “exciting” players. But they sold bricks and bought a foreign soccer team, and for that they should be forced to burn in eternal damnation.
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He also claimed that Lavarnway would replace Ortiz’ production.
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…I watched a bit of the first quarter.
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Curran’s a real professional who isn’t afraid to make fun of himself. He can come across a bit snobbish at times–he’d do that on occasion when he came on Ordway’s radio show–but he’s allowed, since he knows his stuff and is pretty good at passing along relevant information (he was the first guy I looked to for news during the Hernandez crapstorm).
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Mazz and Shank are in a race to see who can be the first to get to 1,000 times stating that “everybody felt this way”. Mazz also trying to explain that he changed over in SEP in spite of picking against the team in every round. As if he gets to be the arbiter of when it was okay to believe in the team.
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Once John Henry gains control of the Boston Globe and fires Shaughnessy, will the Herald hire him?
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Not sure when this massive race to the bottom to see who can be the biggest s**t-stirring, contrarian, look-at-me DB all began with our local sports media folks, but it’s beyond help now. There are — thankfully — several notable exceptions to this Major League DB Club who do their jobs on radio, online, and in print the way they’re suppose to do it (Reiss, Curran, Karen G., Dale, the beat hockey writers at the Globe and Herald, and a small handful of others), but the rest of ’em should all be trussed, gagged, loaded in a good-sized sack, and tossed into a river. “Hmmmf . . . but . . . hmmmf . . . Mike, I . . . hmmmf . . . can’t . . . hmmmf . . . breathe.”
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Happily, the ‘Great Unwashed Fans’ are isolated from everything but the worst Shaughnessy has to offer thanks to the $0.99 pay-wall The Globe locks him behind. Also happily, it is nice knowing this richly deserved backlash is hitting its mark. Pay no attention to his ‘You Were Wrong, Too’ talking point. He knows…and the Red Sox do, too…that he is a chump. Did you see Ortiz call him out the other night in post-game comments after Game 5? Priceless! The thing to recognize is that Shaughnessy’s columns are devoid of actual quotes from the athletes themselves. This is because they universally refuse to speak to him, and he knows this. And when he does enter a locker room, you will find him cowering in the back like a small, banished child. He knows his place in the pecking order with the athletes themselves, and it is way…way…WAY down the list; he hopes you don’t know this, but it is true.
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Amazing, what did Ortiz say about Shaughnessy?
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After Game 5, Lester and Ortiz sat next to each other at the interview table. Ortiz asked, “Where’s that Shaughnessy?” Twice. For all to hear.
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” It’s also not just that the predictions are made, it’s that they’re made in the most dickish way possible”
No doubt about it. While many mediots shout, “FANBOY!” when people say they are negative. I’ve always said being critical of the teams doesn’t bother me so much. It’s IN THE WAY the Shaughnessy types do it. It’s the snarky,smartass,sarcastic style in which they deliver the criticism that draws people’s ire.
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Great article. I don’t understand why CSNNE uses that bore Shank on their Saturday baseball show – they should reconsider. He’s probably the only guy in Boston who was rooting for the Sox to get spanked. As far as Felger, don’t forget that he wanted the Bruins to fire Julien and Chiarelli, he said it was stupid to resign Chara, Bergey and Tim Thomas plus he said they should trade Lucic for a box of pucks and then they all go out and win the Stanley Cup so his track record sucks. In fact he and Assarotti suggested Henry should sell the Sox and leave town because he was spread thin financially from buying the soccer club so they’d never spend on the Sox again. Felgers track record tells us that he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about when it comes to sports. He’s an entertainer. The Contrarian.
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