No, no it isn’t.

Will John Dennis return to Dennis and Callahan on WEEI? (Finn)

The only shame of it is that it probably means more Gary Tanguay foisted upon us.

If John Dennis is indeed done with the morning show at WEEI, it is the end of an era, the Dennis and Callahan program was the last show from WEEI’s heyday which had its original hosts remaining intact.

At their best, Dennis and Gerry Callahan (with or without Kirk Minihane) provided a smart, snappy program which always carried an edge. At their worst, they were bickering, angry, borderline hateful men who could force a dial change faster than anyone else in town not named Tony Massarotti.

In a way, it is rather sad and pathetic that it has come down to this. John Dennis, who has spent much of his media career as a bully to to his co-workers, can’t get along with his co-hosts, publicly threatens to beat them up, and then disappears, perhaps for good.

There’s no complicated legacy at play here.

The world got another close up view of the disaster which is the NFL Ops department last night as the annual Hall of Fame game which kicks off the preseason for the league was cancelled due to unsafe field conditions.

I’ve refrained from knocking David Price thus far, knowing that he’ll be better next year than this year, but man, he’s been a tremendous disappointment this season. To his credit, he’ll admit the same, but things are not improving.

Bryan Curtis of The Ringer profiled the voice of Boston sports, Dan Shaughnessy last week: Dan Shaughnessy Roots for Himself.

It’s also confirmation that Shaughnessy has no real interest in sports.

In 1986, when Mookie Wilson’s grounder rolled through Bill Buckner’s legs, Dan Shaughnessy felt a familiar sensation: nothing. Here was a play so awful that it seemed — as Shaughnessy would lucratively suggest — cosmically directed. Yet as he perched in the Shea Stadium press box, Shaughnessy was unmoved. Without a pang, he put aside the feature he was writing about Dave Henderson and changed course.

Yes, Shaughnessy is just as narcissistic as the headline would lead you to believe. Rather than reflecting about the moment, Shaughnessy thinks about himself.

“What does this mean for my work and my travel and my book?” he continued. “What does this mean next spring, and how we’re going to have to cover these guys? It’s not about, Oh my god, the team of my youth was just denied winning the World Series. None of that. … I always say, ‘I’m rooting for myself.’”

I suppose there are points for honesty there, but he can’t resist twisting the knife, even in an interview. When asked what moments did bring him pleasure and move him, he mentioned a couple events.

It was just that his exultations were often untethered to Boston’s happiness. As he ticked off the times he’d been genuinely moved, he listed Aaron Boone’s homer in ’03 and David Tyree’s helmet catch in ’08 — two moments that made Bostonians want to jump off a bridge.

Kind of says it all.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

20 thoughts on “It’s A Shame About John Dennis.”

  2. The Shank article was just gross. I tried to read it but after the third point that I felt was incorrect within the first few paragraphs I realized that it wasn’t going to get any better and stopped reading.

    Like the passage about Hey David are you looking for me. In Dan’s mind he’s a hero and a tough guy because he responded to David Ortiz calling him out. But what he fails to even consider is that he’s so small in Ortiz’ world, that he didn’t even remember making the comment. But Dan can’t fathom that.

    People say he’s good at what he does, but that’s like saying Tanguay moves the needle. Anyone can pick a side that’s unpopular with sports fans and make an argument. (Sup Felger) But to me that’s not talent, it’s easy. Talent is taking an unpopular view and make me actually believe in some of the ideas to the point that I might agree with you. Shank doesn’t do that. He simply antagonizes his audience. That’s it nothing more.

    I feel like there’s a push out there to try shape his career narrative. That the powers that be are going to tell me how I’m going to remember Shank when he finally retires. Let me tell you how it will go if one of my boys ever asks me about him, I’ll simply reply that he was an old asshole who tried to convince stupid people that they were cursed

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  3. A-Rod was unconditionally released, the Yankees are still paying him. Different from retiring.

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  4. Shank’s phony “holding them accountable” stance is what aggravates me the most. Where was this “holding them accountable” stuff in the late 80s when it was clear that the Celtics’ organization (i.e. Red) had clearly lost its fastball and was unable to rebuild successfully after the Big Three era collapsed earlier than anyone thought it would? Oh, I know where it was…..it was lost among the pile of royalty checks that the CHB was cashing from all of those books he wrote with Red as either one of his sources, or as the book’s actual subject matter.

    He “holds accountable” the people who haven’t helped pad his bank account through the years, and the people against whom he carries personal, lifelong vendettas (i.e. Kraft)..

    What an effin’ fraud.

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  5. Anybody else fascinated by how the Pats are going to handle things tonight. Does Tom start? Does JimmyG start because the other offensive starters will not play long and he needs game reps with them? Did they get enough in practice so that’s not an issue? Is this just going to be the Brissett show tonight? Lots of questions. Will be interesting to see what they do. Not sure we’ll learn anything one way or the other but still interesting.

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    2. I just hope Garoppolo plays well. Not because I’d be worried about his ability to handle the QB duties during Brady’s unjust 4-game sit-down, but because I’m already getting sick to my stomach of hearing the media express their grave concerns about how he’s not performing well in practice.

      Matt Cassel was awful — Capital A, Awful — during the 2008 pre-season. In fact, many fans (myself included) were speculating that he wasn’t going to make the final 53 to start the season, and were surprised when he stuck. After Brady went down in Week 1, Cassel played better than anyone could have hoped for, or expected.

      To quote Alan Iverson, I say to the media: We talkin’ about practice man…not, not, not the game; not the game; we talkin’ about practice.

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      1. Matt Gutierrez – remember him? He was the guy who was outperforming Cassel in camp that year. The smart money was on him moving up after Cassel’s inevitable release. Ya just never know. 🙂

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        1. Yes! Gutierrez! I remember he had something like a 102.0 QB rating in preseason. Yeah, he was the man! Till he got cut.

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          1. Pre-season standouts (and flops, for that matter) cause some unhinged reactions from certain fans. I distinctly remember getting an email from a co-worker in the summer of 1998, the morning after a pre-season game in Foxboro, in which he declared: “I have seen the future of the Patriots, and his name is Michael Bishop.”

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  6. The Tanguay, Mutnansky, Minihane petri dish the past week or so has been horrendous radio. I’ve mockingly and sarcastically posted on this site before how bad the WEEI morning show in general has been for a LONG time, but until recently I’ve given it a fair shake when TSH has been a little too sophomoric or is going through the motions laughing at their own jokes. The past few weeks during the rotating vacations and John Dennis’ MIA retirement rumors I honestly cannot listen for more than 30 seconds at a time. Despite the change over in program directors WEEI seems like they’ve totally given up on the morning show and are completely asleep at the wheel. If this is what Kirk Minihane has been pushing John and Gerry out the door for, I want no part of this luke warm diarrhea blast.

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    2. I too have been listening a lot less lately. Said it here many times, as soon as I hear Gary’s voice I’m out. What’s killing me is that it seems like it’s down to Mutt or Gary as John’s replacement. Maybe WEEI has someone else in mind and is keeping under wraps, but if it’s Gary I’m out. If it’s Mutt maybe I’ll check it out and hope that Kirk can stop him from being Mr. Vanilla. I doubt it, but maybe we’ll see. I don’t understand Kirk’s desire for one if not both of those guys getting a gig. It must be loyalty, that’s the only thing I can think of. Because Gary is trying to copy Felger, and coming off like Maz. And the best thing I can say about Mut is he’s not an a-hole? How does he take Bob Neumeier a local sports legend and make a boring interview? Just awful.

      There are just too many good podcasts out there now. If you’re not going to give me honest, thought out opinions then I’m not interested. Why is it so hard to put together a show where the hosts actually care about the teams, and have solid knowledge, but don’t have to be locked on sports topics if the show goes on a tangent?

      Maybe the format is the problem. Go with shorter shows and more hosts to liven things up. I have heard a few local guys say that they just can’t bring it for four hours. So everything suffers. Change the shows to 2 or 3 hour shows. Mix in more hosts to get different voices in there. Also the way they screen callers has got to change. They can’t let these guys on with virtually nothing to say anymore. “Yeah last night Farrell should have bunted in the 7th.” Ugh, is there anything worse than that? Maybe I’ve just been listening too long, but if the caller sucks and is on for more than 20 seconds I’m reaching for the dial. I know this has evolved into a whole change the system argument but somethings got to be done or they might as well go back to an AM signal.

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  7. Dennis was the class of the show, the best interviewer. Gerry is pretty good but needs Dennis to to balance him out. Minihane is just a nasty, back-stabber that has been a poison to the show. I can’t stand little girls like him that have to talk about everything except for sports. What a total homo.

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    1. This must be satire, right? You take a page from D&C with the fake tough guy act and homophobic/misogynistic language. And John Dennis a great interviewer? Certainly those 2 minute long “questions,” which are just a chance for Dennis to hear his own voice, really get the most out of the guests’ responses. I mean, stammering fan boy Pete Sheppard is a better interviewer than Dennis. Good on you, Thurston. You’re a regular Jonathan Swift.

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  8. I have been thinking about the John Dennis thing for a week. I refuse to listen to Tanguay…so when I heard yesterday it was Tanguay, Muttnansky and Metaperel I think I made it 3 seconds. John Dennis has always been mercurial. I don’t know how anyone could not see the addition of Minihane as eventually going to cause problems. Gerry Callahan made a lot of money because of his ability to manage/work with John Dennis. A lot of money. I would be very interested to hear what he has to say about his relationship with Dino and his view of the show. I know some people don’t like Dino…I have always thought he has managed the show well…teases well, gets in and of breaks like a pro…has awesome pipes and basically was made for morning drive. There is no way he won’t suck if he was part of either the midday show or drive…he is not build for focused talk.

    Having said all of this if WEEI was smart (and so far they have proven they aren’t when it comes to programming). They would revamp the morning show and pair Callahan with Kurt Shilling and a football guy like Chris Price. They would dump Minihane or give him the night show to himself where he can be as caustic as he wants and no one will care. Heck pair him with Tanguay on the night show…its pre-empted at least 162 times a year. They need to start bringing along younger talent…with that I agree…but it is still the Boston market…we hate change…so having familiarity to bridge works.

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    1. LTD I agree with everything you said but lost me on giving Schilling a full time voice. He is an insufferable windbag and now he is teasing running for the Senate. If the listeners are put off by the amount of right-wing pop pom waving now (I’m a republican so don’t jump down my throat) I can’t imagine what it would be like with Callahan egging Schilling on for four hours. For the love of God no.

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    2. So does anyone know what the beef is between Dino and Minnihane is and how it started? Sounds like a beef between Dino and Callahan too – any idea how that all started?

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  9. I’m hoping for a new post soon, because I’m sick of getting “It’s A Shame About Ray” by the Lemonheads in my mind every time I come here….

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