A scattering of observations, thoughts and opinion for a week many people are on vacation…

The Red Sox are continuing to creep back to respectability, though that could all go out the window in the next few days as Rick Porcello takes the mound tonight, and then the AL East-leading Yankees come to town for the weekend. We’ll know quite a bit more about this  team by the time the weekend is over.

Xander Bogaerts had the game winning hit last night, a bases loaded (and clearing) single in the seventh inning. The young shortstop, who is part of the MLB All-Star Game Final Vote (and currently in last place on that ballot) has been on fire as of late, showing the potential stardom many had him ticketed for.

I think I liked Mike Napoli better when he had sleep apnea.

The WEEI radio broadcast last night was…busy. Mo’ne Davis. John Tomase. Roger Clemens??? The Rocket apparently is attempting a redemption tour, hoping/asking/begging for his number 21 to be retired by the team.

Hey Roger, maybe you shouldn’t have burned so many bridges, not just with the team, but with the fans on the way out of town, huh?

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The Celtics reportedly acquired David Lee from the World Champion Golden State Warriors yesterday (trades can’t be made official until at least tomorrow), sending Gerald Wallace and a minimum contract (either Baab or Pressey) to the Bay area.

While some continue to express snark at Danny Ainge’s smaller moves to acquire “assets” – this one was a no-brainer.

Wallace, while a favorite of the media, did not play much over the last two seasons here. Moving him for another expiring contract (a bigger one!) in a player who can actually help the team this year is a major steal. There’s no downside here, unless you’re still hanging in the crowd that believes tanking for a high pick is the only way to go.

What’s next for the Celtics? Some still think Marcus Smart is their most valuable trade asset and could see him going to say, Philadelphia for Nerlens Noel. I don’t know if I’d feel good about that swap, but I could be talked into it.

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Rookie GM Don Sweeney took some heat after trading young defenseman Dougie Hamilton away for what was perceived to be low value. Following that move, for which he was harshly criticised by many, Sweeney has made several other moves, which have made the Bruins younger and faster. Bringing in free agent winger Matt Beleskey and trading for Dorchester’s Jimmy Hayes along with some other smaller moves.

There was plenty of spin coming from Causeway street over Hamilton’s desire to be here, but when Fluto Shinzawa, who I view as pretty much agenda-free when it comes to the Bruins wrote that it was Hamilton’s desire to get out of Boston, I tend to believe it.

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We’re in the dead zone for the Patriots, who open training camp in just about three weeks. Right now, the waiting game is afoot, as Roger Goodell contemplates Tom Brady’s appeal of his four game suspension. Don’t expect it any time soon. Goodell has yet to rule on Greg Hardy’s appeal, which was heard in May. In fact, I would not be surprised to see Goodell push the decision out as long as possible to make Brady sweat, and to reduce the amount of time his team would have to get the legal process started should Goodell not eliminate the suspension.

The NFL Network wrapped up its Top 100 Players of 2015 series last night, as ranked by current NFL players. The Super Bowl Champions have three players out of the top 100.

Julian Edelman, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.

That’s it. Well, Darrelle Revis is on the list too, but he obviously isn’t on the team now.

No Devin McCourty? No Jamie Collins?

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What is happening at the WEEI morning show? They’ve gone full soap opera drama. (Listen at your own risk)

John Dennis is mad at Gerry Callahan because he says he’s not being supportive enough of his sobriety.

Gary Tanguay is mad at Glenn Ordway because the Big O is filling in this week when Tanguay insists he was originally booked and Ordway weaseled his way on by calling Callahan.  Tanguay also claimed multiple times that Julie Foudy hit on him, and said he was once propositioned by a man at a rest stop. He said he couldn’t sleep for days because he wondered if he attracted gay people.

He continues to complain about not getting the Patriots radio play-by-play gig, and Minihane asked him if he had gotten it, would he be screaming about Spygate and Deflategate the way that he has. Tanguay said No.

Apparently next week, Tanguay and Mike Mutnansky are going to be doing the 10-2 shift on WEEI. The shift they were both canned from. Should be awesome.

Kirk Minihane just doesn’t care anymore. He’s not going to change. If he gets fired, so be it.

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Still won’t link it, but Shaughnessy’s column the other day about cleaning out his home office of sports memorabilia wasn’t horrible.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

65 thoughts on “Wednesday In July”

  1. Julie Foudy, one of the greatest women’s soccer players ever, who’s been married for 20 years to a former pro player? THAT Julie Foudy?

    Yeah, in your dreams, Tanguay.

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    1. God damnit…I was typing up a similarly snarky reply and was all set to hit send when I saw “one new post” I clicked refresh and Charlotte you beat me to it. To answer your question…yes that Julie Foudy.

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    2. I can only assume she was nice to him and he misinterpreted basic human decency as attraction.

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  2. Clemens is dead to me. It has nothing to do with him going to the Yankees either. It has everything to do with his being fat and out of shape for 3 of his final 4 years in Boston, putting up mediocre numbers (and not just the won-lost record; it was ALL of his relevant stats that were mediocre during those four years), and then finding the fountain of PED youth in Toronto. That, in turn, enabled the Duquette-haters in the media (which were legion) to relentlessly pound Duquette over the “Twilight of his career” press release while Clemens was putting up gaudy, steroid-fueled numbers after age 34; numbers which were superior, in many ways, to the numbers (outside of 1986 and probably 1990) that he posted during his prime in Boston; numbers that no one in the agenda-driven, anti-Duquette media in Boston ever bothered to question, despite the fact that no pitcher in history had EVER had such a career turnaround at that age, especially after posting such mediocre numbers for four consecutive years prior to age 34. One thing the media in this town will never admit is that Duquette was right. If steroids hadn’t entered Clemens’ life, December 1996 was undoubtedly the dawn of the twilight of his career, and Duquette was 100% correct to not give him what was then he richest contract ever handed to a pitcher, which would have run through Clemens’ 38th birthday. Aside from all that, Roger won 192 games during his Red Sox career. Very good, for sure, but he wasn’t a Hall-of-Famer when he left town; he became a Hall-of-Famer after he met Mr. McNamee in Toronto. Therefore, he simply doesn’t qualify for either honor IMO: Cooperstown or the right field façade at Fenway.

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    1. My opinion of Duquette has softened over the years, especially with how the current regime has fared lately with the mounting evidence that their numbers-driven system isn’t anywhere near as great as they think it is. Duquette was the pre-Belichick Belichick in a lot of ways. Smart, didn’t suffer fools and wasn’t interested in spoon-feeding sound bytes. Not the most personable guy but who cares? His focus was on trying to put together a winner, not holding hands with the BBWAA at the latest Springsteen concert.

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      1. I think Duquette certainly had some personality flaws, but I believe most of them were driven by shyness, for lack of a better term. When the Sox were in Baltimore last month Remy and Orsillo were talking about Duquette and the job he’s done with the Orioles, and Remy said, “Dan’s personality hasn’t changed much; he’s still very shy.” Maybe a brusqueness that the media despised about him was actually just borne from shyness? As a GM, he doesn’t get enough credit, again, because the local media hated him and were/are loathe to give him any credit for anything (many of them today are even trying to downplay his contributions to Baltimore’s franchise turnaround). People tend to forget that when the Sox hired him away from Montreal, the franchise here was hitting new lows — they had just had two consecutive losing seasons (their first since 1966!!) and the farm system was completely barren, because Lou Gorman had traded away their three best prospects in deadline trades made in 1988 & 1990 (Brady Anderson, Schilling, and the grand-daddy of them all, Jeff Bagwell). Gorman also had drafted very poorly over his last few years as GM, so the farm system really was crap (Mo and Valentin were already up with the big club, and there wasn’t much else down on the farm, other than Trot Nixon, who was Gorman’s final first round pick). Within a few years, Duquette had drafted and promoted Nomar and acquired enough minor league assets to trade for Pedro. He also made one of the great deals in franchise history when he stole Varitek and Lowe from Seattle for Heathcliff Slocumb-if-you-got-’em. For better or worse, he also signed Manny and Damon as FA’s before he was canned, and I believe he drafted Youkilis, but I’m not sure. Duquette certainly made his fair share of mistakes (Carl Everett, anyone?), and Theo definitely deserves credit for making the additions and changes that were needed to get the team over the hump in 2003-2004; but Duquette, at least, deserves a little footnote’s worth of credit.

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      2. But Belichick never would say that Bledsoe was in the twilight of his career. Or that Antonio Johnson will fill the void for Wilfork because he could match his sack totals (like Duquette saying Offermann would replace Mo’s OBP). Or that the Pats spent more weeks in first place than any other team after losing the division. Duquette said a lot of dumb stuff to justify moves that were criticized or failed.So he must have cared what the media or at least the public thought of his moves. Belichick will never do that.

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  3. The “AL East is a mediocre Division” is the new “march of the Tomato Cans”.

    If the AL East is so medicore, how come every other division has more teams playing under .500 and worse total run differentials?

    Oh I see, it’s because you’re a member of the Boston sports media and you need to try extra hard not to sound like a homer.

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    1. Who can resist his deep voice? I’m surprised Giselle hasn’t hit on him…

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        1. Absolutely unreal troll game by Fleeger. So anything less than the stats he posted last year, including a Super Bowl title one must assume (I mean, it IS Felger we’re talking about here), and he will crow that he was right.

          SO the bar has been set – 64%, 33 TDs, 9 INT, 4109 yards. Anything less than those numbers obviously completely validates Felger’s outrageous claim and probably the NFL and Ted Wells too.

          Honestly, how do guys like Felger and Tanguay even leave their house? How do they not get cold-cocked in the produce section at Shaw’s? Just some guy pushign his cart at Lowe’s and “Hey, Felgah! Deflate this, ya bitch!” POW

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          2. My fantasy is that Belichick or Farrell invites Felger to coach/manage the team for a day or two. Full authority to run things, no strings attached. He wouldn’t have the guts to do it in the first place, but if he did he’d wet his pants in about five minutes. What a negative phony who knows nothing about the realities of sports.

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          3. Julien would be even better. Picture Felger behind the bench for 10 minutes of an NHL game.

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          4. Yes, he’d do more than just wet his pants on the Bruins bench … would find out it’s a lot harder than trolling on the radio.

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          6. Reminds me of the “Brady’s in decline” talk from a few years back when they say his numbers declined from ’11 to ’12 to ’13. Of course they didn’t point out that 2011 was one of the most prolific passing seasons in history and in 2013 he became the first QB to open a season without any of his top 5 receiving targets from the previous year.

            It’s hilarious. Felger in general is hilarious. So much hubris. Look at his ridiculous pipe cleaner arms. He has never touched a weight, much less played a football game. Hockey, however, he has played and wants you to know it – which is why he included taped segments of him skating and shooting on that terrible hockey show he had.

            Adam Jones looks like he spends all day indoors playing World of Warcraft and shows up at night to take his frustrations out on the local sports teams. This guy has zero charisma. Can’t learn that at Syracuse IMO.

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        2. I see, the article itself is a summation though, Hurley’s name isn’t on the byline, thanks for the clarification

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        3. Trolling hits a new low with Felger today with his proclamation that the ball deflation will have a negative impact on Brady next year. Forget the fact that Brady played just as good in the second half of the Colts game and the Super Bowl. Forget the fact that per Felger, Brady has been illegally deflating the balls for years yet for the sake of this argument he has only been doing it post Jets game. Forget the fact that for large portions of the year, Felger and Mazz were all about how Brady’s skills have declined and how the window has closed.

          Heck, you know it is bad when Tony “The Echo” Massarotti found Felger’s take ridiculous. We got at least one good call that was heavily challenging Felger, including the true declaration that Felger doesn’t actually believe any of this and is simply trolling for ratings. Major kudos to whoever that was and I’m surprised they let him get on the air. I bet Felger was furious with the call screener afterwards.

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        4. Oh for the love of God people. Stop listening to this boob. If you all want Felger out of this market then TURN THE DIAL TO 93.7. I can’t stress this enough. It seems to me that people love to just complain and hate this guy, so they listen. I’m sorry, but I just can’t do it. Dale, Holley and Thornton may be homer central, but I’d rather listen to that than a bunch of toxic venom being spewed out my speakers every day. Forget it.

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    2. If I had Felger’s microphone:

      “So according to the Wells report, the officials for the Jets game OVERinflated the balls to 16! That’s 2.5 PSi over the legal limit, Tony! What’s up with THAT?

      “I mean, if the NFL’s so worked up about PSI, Tony, tell me – why hasn’t this official been called on the carpet? Where’s his suspension? Why isn’t everyone up in arms about this? I’m just asking, Tony.”

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  7. Like

    1. It’s still hard to believe F&M are so ahead of D&H, but hey, different strokes for different folks I guess

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      1. It reminds me of when I see the #’s posted for daytime cable. ESPN2, weekdays, pulls in anywhere from 350k-750k between 10AM and 12PM. Most networks would kill to pull that in regularly. (@SonOfTheBronx does a good job or links, if you’re interested.)

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        1. Interesting, thanks for the info. It’s true and the numbers spell it out, many people have become sucked in by this “reality” or gossip style of TV the past decade plus. It’s frustrating. I honestly can’t watch ESPN without rolling my eyes at the obvious trolling or clickbait. What’s most frustrating is that many people don’t even realize they’re being sucked into the void and simply parrot what they hear without thinking twice. Regardless, I think this new generation is more savvy to this sort of thing and thanks to the internet the consumer is more apt in filtering whatever info they want.

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  9. If you followed any of this DeAndre Jordan stuff on Twitter, it’s insane.

    Funny:

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  10. So Many David Ortiz related hot takes, so little time.

    Here’s what NONE of the Hot Takers have said, because show prep means nothing to their core audiences: The oldest infielder in MLB this season is Texeira at 36 years old…I’m not saying that he shouldn’t be expected to fill in every once in a while, but bear the previously mentioned fact in mind when you hear the likes of Bertrand bashing Ortiz for “stabbing Farrell in the back”.

    The truly funny thing is, the exact same people that are saying Ortiz shouldn’t be publicly answering questions about this, would be ripping him and jumping to the exact same conclusions if he said “no comment” or otherwise refused to answer the questions. How many times have we seen that scenario played out over the years? It’s not as if he barged into Farrell’s press conference, interrupting him and screaming to the reporters about “this dumb prick put me at first base against my will.”

    And the parsing of this one line “I don’t know what they’re thinking”…MY GOD, folks. NO ONE is willing to allow the tiniest of possibilities that the intended meaning of the usage of that phrase (ripped out of context) is that Ortiz simply doesn’t know what their long-term plan (thinking) is for the rest of the season. EVERYONE is reacting to that line, taken out of context, as if said it in the most insulting way possible.

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  11. If you haven’t followed the Clippers/Mavs/DJ story on Twitter, it’s fascinating.

    Dislike Cuban all you want but man, I love this:

    Broussard about to become Stephen Glass 2.0?

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    1. Ahaha. Gotta love Cuban. Say what you will about him but he speaks the truth in his eyes, and usually, imo, he’s right.

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  12. Still won’t link it, but Shaughnessy’s column the other day about cleaning out his home office of sports memorabilia wasn’t horrible.
    Link to my take on it instead – gimme some link love, man!

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    1. If ESPN were to offer Watch ESPN for their carriage fee of $6.61 or even $10 per month, I’d seriously consider cutting the cord. As I’ve said, I just want a way to watch the local teams and once that comes, I’m gone.

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      1. I cannot remember the last time I watched ESPN. I think it was the last Pats game. I might have watched some poker this past year but I am not sure. If it and all of its content went away I don’t think I would miss anything. So it would be an interesting experiment to see if Verizon wins in its ala carte model, which would force ESPN to offer Watch ESPN for a subscription fee what the total revenue would become. And if it falls as I think it will fall what would that do to MLB and the NBA.

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        1. I never turn on “regular” ESPN. I will watch ESPN Classic if they’re showing a “30 for 30” that I find interesting, or a classic fight, or something like that. But “regular” ESPN holds no interest for me; and, as a Pats homer, their over-the-top, irrational coverage of “Spygate” 8 years ago, followed by their even worse coverage of this deflate nonsense has pretty much guaranteed that I’ll never watch that network again, for any reason. I have been watching the NFL Network, rather than ESPN, during the NFL season for the past several years, but after the way the NFL just railroaded the Patriots over the last few months, I’m done with the NFLN, too. Looks like I’ll just have to tune in to the actual game broadcast right before kickoff, and leave it at that….and I’m seriously considering turning the sound off and just listening to the radio broadcast while I watch the games on TV, because I know, at least early in the season, the national TV broadcasters on Pats games will be talking “deflategate” on a continuous loop. (Used to do that during the big Celtics playoff games back in the 80s, because the CBS broadcasters annoyed me, and, besides, nothing could top Johnny Most’s over-the-top homerism, especially in the post-season!)

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        2. I’m not sure about your setup but it sounds like you’ve got cable. Just remember, you’re paying for it and other stupid networks like NESN. If you want it, and have 0 problem paying for it, as you were.

          They’ll continue to exploit the ignorant until it’s too late, in which case they’re most likely begging fomr loser politician for a bailout.

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          1. I don’t see it…the cable companies control 80% of the broadband access to homes. Over the air (LTE) will never have the broadband capacity that Glass (Fiber optic cables) do. So if the Cable companies find more and more people cutting the cord, they will just meter high volume data users. In the end they will get their money.

            The people who are going to be most threatened are the sports leagues who derive huge revenue because their entertainment products are immune from time shift viewing. Their rights fees are based on an archaic model where all users subsidize the few who use them. At some point and Verizon seems to be the first willing to take the shot, the cable companies are going to figure out that they can be far more profitable and offer a better product cheaper if they bring an ala carte service. That way I do not have to get any spanish stations, no home shopping stations, no religious stations, no digital radio stations, and nothing with the words Lifetime, Oprah or Sundance in the title. Further in 3 years when my youngest goes to college I can get rid of all kids stations, MTV, Nick and VH1. In the mean time the available pool of cash that the pro leagues demand dries up. Fiscal sanity returns. The Sox can’t pay $20 mill a year to Porcello because they don’t get the TV revenue. All is good in the world.

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        3. Just to clarify, I love college sports and watch those all the time on ESPN, in addition to NFL and some NBA/MLB here and there. As an alum of UConn I really couldn’t see any games save for the occasional CBS game without ESPN. I’m not watching studio shows but will watch 30 for 30’s.

          That being said, I have been researching indoor HD antennas.

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    2. Good news. The only times I watch ESPN are when I’m on the treadmill at the gym. Even then I’m not remotely interested in what they have to say.

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    3. I don’t watch ESPN unless it’s a game I can’t see elsewhere. So much noise and crap. I don’t give a damn about LeBron, Tebow, or whomever they’re yapping about at the moment.

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  15. Think the tweet sums it up:

    Roger Goodell in a nutshell.

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    1. I know the owners are happy with him because he “makes them a lot of money,” but at what point do “the 32” finally start to realize that keeping this incompetent fool at the head of their multi-billion dollar entity will, in the end, cost them everything? At some point, someone is going to sue the league over one of this idiot’s clueless, irrational decisions, and boom: there goes the anti-trust exemption. Even if it doesn’t get that far, the continuous P.R. hits from the media (from non-Patriots related controversies) the league takes because of Goodell’s incompetence will eventually add up and damage the brand beyond repair. I know the present American population is addicted to the NFL, but the decline in baseball’s popularity over just a single generation proves that it doesn’t take long for everything to change. A big part of baseball’s problems were caused by poor management, pretty much across-the-board, from the commissioner, to the owners, to the MLBPA. The NFL owners had better start thinking more with their heads and less with their wallets when it comes to keeping that moron as the public face of their business. What an embarrassment.

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      1. Roger Goodell will be commissioner of the NFL until the PR mounts for him to be untenable as commissioner. It’s really that simple.

        What I’ve wondered is: lets say Brady fights this until he can no longer fight. As part of that, he’s gets a court (any) to basically render a verdict showing what most of us know in that Ted Wells was hired to affirm a specific viewpoint, for millions, which, in turn, publically exposes Goodell for the moron he is. What then?

        So many of these writers who hate the Patriots also think Goodell is a joke. Brady is basically the impetus behind Goodell’s removal. What will they think now?

        I’m just guessing here but I have to think they’d still hate him and the Patriots, all while opening up their 30-yr bottles of Scotch and partying.

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      2. Football doesn’t have a true antitrust exemption — only baseball does, per an old Supreme Court decision. Football, along with the other three major sports, is specifically authorized by the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to negotiate as a unit (which would normally be an antitrust violation) with broadcasters. Outside of that, the NFL is very much subject to US antitrust law. But the broadcast rights are the big $$$$, so that narrow exception is overwhelmingly important.

        Football’s limited exemption is both more robust and more fragile than you probably think. It’s more robust in that it would be very, very, very difficult for a court to overturn it. As it’s granted by a legitimate act of Congress, you’d have to prove that the enabling law was unconstitutional in some way. That’s an enormous hill to climb. On the other hand, it’s also very fragile, because a one-Senator and one-Rep majority is all it would take to remove it entirely, should Congress get ticked off. And THAT’S the concern of the NFL office — keeping Congress from getting ticked off. That’s why we still have the Washington Redskins, for example. Forcing Snyder to change the name would not go down well on Capitol Hill. So it’s not going to be done; at least not by the head office.

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        1. Thanks Dave. I had always just gone by the “conventional wisdom” that most pro sports leagues had anti-trust exemptions. I appreciate the clarification…..all the same, I’d still love to see someone sue this current crop of asshats running the NFL on similar grounds and force the owners to dump Goodell, who is a complete disaster.

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    2. To be fair, Goodell gave Hardy a lot more and the arbitrator reduced it to 4 (correctly based on AP case), not Goodell. That being said, it still looks awful for the NFL. Brady’s suspension should look ridiculous on its own “merits” anyway, but at least with this maybe some of the hot takerz will back off lest they look like they are downplaying what scumbag Hardy did.

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  16. BREAKING: Pete Abe is reporting that David Ortiz, en route to the airport this morning for the break, cured cancer, saved a baby from a burning car and helped an elderly woman cross a busy intersection.

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  17. Bruce, I saw your retweet of Chad Finn / Chad Curtis last night.

    I think my favorite aspect of this is that the guys on the radio claim to want to be taken seriously (or as seriously as one can be taken as a “Sports analyst”, that is, up until the moment that anyone calls them out for pushing complete fantasies as facts. At the moment, they switch gears and refer to themselves as entertainers (pushing the envelope).

    Yesterday morning I had the radio on in the car for a few minutes (that’s right trolls, just a few minutes!) and I heard Kirk Min, The Forehead and Ordway talking about Ortiz’ reluctance to play the field and they mentioned the “fact” that AROD had played 12-15 games in the field so far this season, at least twice as many as Ortiz. The reality is that ARod has started six games in the field, or exactly ONE more than Ortiz.

    And they keep pushing this idea that “What do 39 year olds do? They move to first base”. As I’ve mentioned here before, the oldest, everyday infielder in the league is Texeira at 36 years old. It appears that there is no internet access in the WEEI building.

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  18. In yesterday’s Herald

    (http://www.bostonherald.com/inside_track/the_inside_track/2015/07/dialing_up_dissent_at_eei)

    there was an article about the tension on the morning show. Gale Fee writes from the perspective that John Dennis was not acting when he said he felt hurt by Gerry Calahan’s move to bring Ordway in to replace Tanguay without asking Dennis’ opinion and that he felt hurt that Gerry was not in better contact with him when he was in rehab.

    Okay (in my daughters vernacular)…so this begs like 100 questions.
    – Are we to believe that the hosts of the WEEI morning show pick the fill ins and not the program director?
    – If so, are we to believe the talent and not management picks the producers, flash boys, people who do the pick up bits, guests and person who gets the coffee?
    – Are we to believe that all of a sudden a cordial relationship that has made both men a lot of money is strained because Kirk Minihane plays a poo stirrer?
    – Are we to believe that Callahan wants Ordway to replace Dennis when Dennis retires in 2017 (okay that one I do believe)…and that Dennis is somehow hurt about this? (He does not care)
    – Are we to believe that Gayle Fee is gullible enough to believe that the “sniping” done by Dennis and Callahan is real and not a professional wrestling “work” and that the two of them will not get along next week when they are back together.
    – Are we to believe that the same station that once “allowed” Mike Adams to barricade himself in a studio until he got his own show would not be capable of planning an on-air feud to generate listeners.
    – Are we to believe that Gayle Fee did not listen to Tanguay’s fill ins thereby disqualifying her from realizing how bad he was and that something had to be done?
    – Lastly, are we not to believe that Glen Odrway is discontinuing the Big Show unfiltered because he found it difficult to produce and not because no one was listening. Further, are we not to believe that Ordway is mulling offers or has his recent fill in duty at WEEI been a way for him to raise his profile and get back in the game?

    I usually am a big fan of the Track Gal’s but this was either planted, written with a wink and a nod or the single biggest example of naive media since Bill Goldberg told the caller that Wrestling was fixed (ya goof).

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    1. They were mocking the article this morning. I got the feeling Tanguay was the source with how “really?” it was.

      I got the impression that part of the discontinuation of BSUNF was due to him being known that its more when, and not if, that he’s brought back into WEEI.

      Interesting enough, the other day, Minihane asked about the fill-ins and why some of the “younger” guys like Arcand and Picard (think Stroja brought the topic up a few posts ago) weren’t brought in.

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      1. At least somebody finally got Ordway to speak on the record about the demise of BSUNF. For “labor intensive” read: he had to work a lot harder than he was used to. For “difficult to monetize” read: he thought he could bring over some of his old sponsors and he couldn’t. So he got sick of pumping his own money into a losing enterprise and pulled the plug. That’s fine, happens all the time, but he might have had the courtesy to tell his listeners what was going on.

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    2. I don’t believe a word of it, or Minihane’s “feud” with Fauria either. Just some manufactured drama to keep people listening during the summer doldrums.

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      1. I subscribe to the wrestling theory of life…if it is on TV it is a work. If it is in the Wrestling magazines it is a work. If it is Live it is a work. If there are lawyers or doctors involved…maybe not so much.

        I also don’t believe there is any issue between Callahan and Dennis nor with Minihane and Fauria. I do think few people over at WEEI want to work with Tanguay because he is devoid of common sense, intelligence and anything resembling thought. Having said that, other than Dickerson no one has come right out and said anything about this directly…instead they either avoid it or joke about it…which tells me there is actual heat there. We just won’t find out about it until after the fact as a footnote in a Chad Finn Sunday column.

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    3. My question is why is it even Gale Fee’s business to be commenting on this stuff? Why do people even get paid to for this sort of reporting?

      But honestly, i think it’s probably all BS anyway. WEEI has a history of this lunacy and these desperate grabs for ratings.

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  19. I know these industry awards are complete jokes, but this is still funny:

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    1. They’re not cheating the cap. They’re depressing salaries. It’ll be a cold day in hell before the NFL punishes teams for that.

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