I’ve gotten a number of emails and commenters asking about the status of Pete Sheppard, who has been absent from Glenn Ordway’s Big Show Unfiltered for some time now.

Sheppard took to Facebook yesterday to clarify his status:

My friends…I will make this fairly short and sweet as I have gotten a number of mostly private messages via Facebook and Twitter over the last month regarding my “broadcasting” status…The only thing I will say is I recently received an offer that I simply can’t refuse that is outside the broadcast world and at this point in my life, I have to take it…I don’t know what the future will bring but I know right now I have never been happier and the people I will be working for are incredible…That is all for now…Thanks my friends for all your support, it will always mean the world to me….

Hopefully that answers things for now.  I wish Pete the best in his future endeavors.

************

The Red Sox are in pursuit of both Jon Lester and Pablo Sandoval.

For months, Dan Shaughnessy has consistently been saying there was no way that Lester would be re-signing here after the team traded the lefty to Oakland in July, and that the team would not even make an effort. You know, stuff like this:

You’re a FOOL! And a sheep!

After the Red Sox made an offer this week, and by all accounts are “in on Lester”, Shaughnessy wrote yesterday that there are “No excuses” for the Red Sox not to get Lester signed.

His fawning boss sees no contradiction in Shaughnessy’s swinging views.

Dan also manages to work in a don’t be cheap like the Patriots (Krafts) into the column on Lester too.

Yes, this is the star of the Boston sports media.

Celtics radio announcer Sean Grande had a statement to make the other night and did so by photobombing the CSNNE TV telecast.

The Celtics get back in action tonight on the road in Memphis against a tough Grizzlies team. (8:00pm, CSNNE)

**********************

Last Sunday night’s Patriots/Colts game gathered a 40.0 rating with a 58 share, making it the second highest Sunday Night Football rating for the Patriots. The high mark of 42.6 was reached in a December 2010 game against the Green Bay Packers.

This Sunday’s Patriots/Lions game will be on FOX at 1:00pm, with the network’s top crew of Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Erin Andrews calling the game.

The media is scrambling this morning for storylines after the latest “team X” the Chiefs lost to the previously winless Oakland Raiders last night. Of course, it doesn’t take much effort to turn it around and yell the Patriots got blown out by the Chiefs who lost to the winless Raiders!!!

Get all the Patriots news leading into Sunday at PatriotsLinks.com.

**********************

The Bruins are also in action tonight, taking on the Blue Jackets in Columbus. (7:00pm, NESN)

Get all the news on the B’s at Bruinslinks.com.

**********************

‘College GameDay’ takes The Game to another level – With the ESPN show originating from the Harvard campus tomorrow morning, Chad Finn talks with Lee Fitting, senior coordinating producer for ESPN’s college sports studio shows.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

50 thoughts on “Where’s Pete Sheppard? Shaughnessy Wrong Again, And Other Friday Notes”

  1. Best of luck to Pete, I always liked him though I know he doesn’t have many friends here. That said, Ordway has to find someone else to liven up the BSUF. Three hours a day of Greg Murphy and “Jet” just doesn’t cut it. Aside from that kid from the Herald they hardly have any guests anymore and the show has become very monotonous and repetitive.

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    1. Sounds like Ordway is simply biding his time with monotonous shows until EEI figures out what to do from 2-6pm.

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      1. I was thinking the same thing. Without Pete the show sounds so….amateurish? I so wanted it to be a legit alternative to AHole & YARM but it really isn’t an alternative to anything. I find it unlistenable. Just put Big O back on WEEI.

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      2. I’m guessing a new Big Show return to WEEI and Holley goes to F&M for the Hubs own version to go to war with. It’s gonna get real next Spring.

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      3. Goodbye Ordway. Goodbye Sheppard or whatever your real name is. Ordways style of crap instigated this local talk radio idiot mentality. History repeats, and Felger will dump Fredo Squeak if he wants long term success.

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    2. Pete was always OK in my book,too… I have no idea but if I had to guess he’s probably going into some field that involves gambling.

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      1. Classic Fox News style of hammering away 24/7 with a single talking point. It’s quite effective but lazy at the same time. Starts in the morning and ends at night so they can get an appearance on CSNNE, the Fox News for our local sports.

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    3. A good sidekick for Glenn was actually Mazz. Mazz would argue with Glenn and take him to the woodshed. It was good. For some reason with Mike he got his balls snipped.

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    4. totally agree,, the comedian is THE worst sports fan ever,, everything he says is wrong and u can tell he watches hardly any sports, other than at a bar…. at least jet knows some sports.

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  2. It shows you the depths to which sports radio in Boston have plunged when people are lamenting Pete Sheppard’s departure from a podcast that no one listens to.

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  3. If it wasn’t for the “curse” phrase, old Danny Tatletale probably would be delivering that Rag instead of writing for it. The new Mr. Irrelevant!

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  4. http://www.csnne.com/new-england-patriots/pats-hold-back-early-felger-theory-blows-koppens-mind

    Two observations here – Shaughnessy calling something Felger says preposterous?? Wow. And Koppen looked like he wanted to either take his mic off and walk off the set, or, like many people, punch Felger square in the face.

    Secondly, seemed like Holley was eager to side with Felger, albeit slightly less ridiculous. Felger and Holley…2-6…on Boston’s NEW Home for sports, 98.5 The Sports Hub! It could happen. Holley seems to be auditioning to be Felger-lite

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    1. You know there has to be back channel discussions already with Holley. Move Mazz to nights for his baseball show and a weekend gigs similar to Dale.

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    2. I was going to mention this discussion. Felger is the absolute worst with the conspiracy theories, especially those that relate to Kraft, Belichick, and the Patriots. You know it’s bad when Shaughnessy is the voice of reason on any topic, but certainly a Patriots topic. Felger is one of the few who could accomplish this.

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    3. Dude, if Holley replaces The Echo, my head would explode. Even if his role is just reduced on the station, I’d retire @firemazz in triumph.

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    4. Something tells me that anyone, let alone an ex-NFL player, going after Felger would look a bit like the Jim Everett/Jim Rome incident.

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  5. It’s enjoyable calling Shaugnessy a ‘Bitter, angry curmudgeon’ because he’ll waddle over here to see what’s being said about him. All sports media hacks do. And the torture not being able to lob volleys back at us. Oh, the pain!

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  7. Thank god that Shepard is no longer in broadcasting. Lousy broadcaster with a boorish personality. Yelled at and shouted down anyone who would disagree with him. This is good news. Now if only Smerlas could do the same. I hated those big shows when they were on. Barely audible radio. They were very lucky they no competition for decades.

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  8. For the win:

    ‏@sportspickle Why can’t we send our top sports media people to Buffalo to thaw the city for Sunday with their hot takes? I have to think of evertything.

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  9. This is patently offensive.

    http://deadspin.com/espn-suspends-keith-law-from-twitter-for-defending-evol-1661836868

    Curt has every right to be able to speak his mind freely on Twitter to whomever wants to follow him, but that doesn’t absolve him from being called out as the rube he’s making himself out to be. And it certainly doesn’t call for ESPN to be, effectively, taking sides.

    But then ESPN under Vince Doria has entered, as Bill Simpson might say, the “Tyson Zone”, where any instance of mismanagement, ignorance, and/or tone-deafness coming out of Bristol, no matter how extreme, doesn’t surprise you at all.

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    1. I don’t get why they didn’t hit both if they found either talking about that stuff offensive? No surprise here but Deadspin is foaming at the mouth looking at Schilling’s timeline.

      They’re also not the first and I can’t imagine the last.

      ‏@McCannSportsLaw Suspension of @keithlaw for defending evolution is jarring illustration of how the First Amendment doesn’t protect private sector employees.

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    2. Won’t be long until Schilling is running for a seat in the House of Representatives. I can see this coming from 50,000 miles away.

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  10. Interesting notes from The Big Lead about M+M:

    Scroll down but I’ll lift the interesting quotes:

    There is some perception at ESPN that to keep it fresh … they need to make changes.

    They make .. I’ve heard $40 million tossed around. (wow)

    Liam, a fixture on the show for more than five years, is gone.

    A rival at another network, who told Inside Blitz the show needs much more than “freshening up,” said that Mike & Mike had devolved into gimmicky “contest radio.”

    Multiple industry sources have attempted to tie his lashing out to some of the above factors – unhappy with the producer change and the constant push for stronger opinion – and a final one that the hosts don’t want: a full-time 3rd party joining the show next year to inject more opinion.

    Unless ratings are sagging, I have no clue why they’re tinkering with the show. It’s the ultimate “morning show” like Today/GMA where they drone on about whatever they’re told to propagandize about, not causing any rifts–or saying much on that part, but bring the money in by the 18 ton.

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    1. I hope that ESPN keeps Mike and Mike the way it is. They are a refreshing change from the negative local media.

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    2. someone needs to clue M&M in to the fact that there are other things going on in sports beside King James and the Cavs.

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      1. You realize that ESPN “sets the agenda” for the day, like any “network” (cable news, news networks) via their morning shows? M+M are handed memos on how/what to cover and for how long. They have some creative freedom (like those two are the types to deviate we know isn’t much of a debate), which is their “flavor” to them, but otherwise this is out of their control. It’s nothing unique to sports but how TV works in general. I can see why it works for most but also having the clout ESPN does to basically get on whatever guest they want supplements the banality.

        Not that this is some industry secret or unique to ESPN, even sports. When Doug Gotlieb left ESPN for CBS, he did an interview on Dan Patrick, where he detailed this. His producer would literally tell him to keep talking Tebow or LeBron, when they had exhausted whatever topic for the day. The producer is getting fed that via whomever is their boss. Don’t like what your boss tells you what to do? Hate to say it but they knew it yielded #’s. Again, blame ESPN here.

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  11. I think I found this off the (free) BSMW message boards but relevant to recent discussions. The article is about a week old.

    Link

    Gregg Giannotti, host and lead voice for ‘The Fan Morning Show’ (KDKA-FM, 93.7), reportedly is leaving Pittsburgh for CBS Sports Radio.
    …
    Tim Benz, who left the Pittsburgh market earlier this year for Boston, where he is heard on WEEI, also is believed to be interested in replacing Giannotti. Benz had worked for 1250 ESPN, WXDX and 970 ESPN in the Pittsburgh market.

    Must see the writing on the wall.

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    1. woul be an early Christmas present for Boston. Any one out there want to pitch in for bus ticket to sh#tpitt. For Benz

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    2. Wow. If this happens, they’d have to replace him. Merloni and Fauria need a wrangler. Maybe Dale Arnold? Holley partners with Felger? Minihane, Ordway, and Thornton (in the Pete Sheppard role) in the afternoons? Seems to be a lot of things up in the air right now. Will be highly interesting to see how it all plays out.

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      1. HAHAHA!!! The non compete clause only applies if Benz leaves on his own and WEEI wants to keep him off the air elsewhere. In other words, if WEEI lets him out of his contract or simply doesn’t care if he leaves and goes elsewhere (i.e. does them a HUGE favor), then the clause is a moot point. It stops NOTHING unless EEI wants it to. Which I don’t think they would.

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      2. 1.) Can you enforce a non-compete across state lines? Also, last I checked, some states (CA) don’t honor it but I’m thinking of friends of mine who did startups, not radio, so I don’t know if it applies.

        2.) I have to think that he was GTD a year of salary and they’d swap that severance for tearing up the NCA

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  12. From Adam Schefter:

    The scoreboard operator who tried to stir the crowd and embarrass the Chargers and wound up upsetting Manning has been spoken to by two different Broncos executives, Broncos vice president Mac Freeman and president Joe Ellis, in terms of what is appropriate and inappropriate going forward, starting with today’s game against Miami, per team officials.

    Can you imagine the finger wagging Joe Sullivan and others here would give Patriots/BB/Kraft if that was the Brady?

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    1. You sir are the best at finding and sharing info.FACTS.

      I’m shocked that puss face manning made such an issue where her involved the front office ass wipes

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  13. Tomorrow’s Boston Sports Media Headline Today:

    “Pats Win. Can They Avoid Playoff Failures of the Past Ten Years?

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    1. Felger tonight (yes, he actually did say this): “They have shut down the best WRs in the game this year…..because they finally started spending some money to bring in a guy like Revis.” At that point, I cursed and changed the channel. It would be pointless to run down how many near misses at SB titles this team has had over the last decade since the win in Jacksonville–mostly due to bad luck and untimely injuries and rarely, if ever, due to “not spending money.” Felger’s world is just black and white, and if his view is black one day, but changes to white the next because it suits his agenda, well then, that’s YOUR problem, not his. Effing tool.

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  14. In the spirit of Aaron Hernandez and the Krafts, can we be irresponsible about speculation regarding Tom Werner knowing about Bill Cosby’s little problem? We’d leave that baseless speculation to that fine institution known as the Globe … except … ah they sign the paychecks.

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  18. hey “Paul” , or should I say,Tim? Check the name of the site. It’s what we do here. If you don’t like it, take your own advice and hit the bricks. Why are you reading our posts if they bother you so?….have a nice Thanksgiving, Benz

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  20. If you’re going to post under multiple accounts, you should make more of an effort to not be so obvious. Just saying.

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