December 4th, 2006 → 6:36 pm @ Seth Mnookin
…but only with joy at the realization that I no longer need to be the guy who points out every time the Times misspells Kurt Andersen’s name — now other people will do it for me while acknowledging me in the process!
Post Categories: Did anybody just hear an echo? & Kurt Andersen & New York Times
December 4th, 2006 → 11:16 am @ Seth Mnookin
Holiday season is upon us, and what better gift to buy the loved ones and relatives in your life than a personalized, inscribed copy of Feeding the Monster? (That’s a rhetorical question: there is no better gift.) Don’t know what to get that irascible uncle? Having trouble finding something meaningful for your brother in law? Your worries are over. Readers from Hawaii to Maine to Afghanistan (for real) have all written in with describing the bliss and joy they’ve brought to others. So don’t delay! Order today!
For you Boston-area fans that want some in-person love, I’ll be in the Prudential Center B&N on December 14th from noon until two. And I promise I’ll shower beforehand.
Post Categories: Feeding the Monster Readings & One-stop holiday shopping
December 3rd, 2006 → 11:31 am @ Seth Mnookin
Huge offseason news: Kevin Millar is going back to Baltimore, ending months of speculation that he’d be coming back to Boston. I mean, you all thought he was going to reprise his role as a Red Sox cheerleader, right?
I didn’t think so.
Post Categories: 2006 Hot Stove Season & Kevin Millar & Sports Reporters
December 2nd, 2006 → 8:18 pm @ Seth Mnookin
A quick note: we’ve had a lot of new people sign up on the site recently — which, believe me, is something I’m very grateful for, especially if you all are buying copies of the book. (Have I mentioned it makes a great holiday gift? It goes great with a personalized book plate.) So a quick reminder is in order: let’s keep the personal attacks — on players, or writers, on front office personnel — to a minimum. (And by minimum I mean to zero.) Bring on the constructive criticism. Bring on the fiesty debates. Don’t bring on the “so-and-so is a stupid worthless whore.”
So…if you post a comment and don’t see it go up on the site in some reasonable amount of time, don’t take it personally; I get emotional, too. And feel free to add something else to the discussion.
With that: onward! On Manny, on J.D., on Peavy and Nixon! Let the fun begin!
Post Categories: Comments & Oblique references to Grateful Dead lyrics
December 2nd, 2006 → 1:05 pm @ Seth Mnookin
If I was, say, a beat writer looking for something to write about, this might be one place to start:
“‘Media availability,’ which results in a coach or general manager saying nothing about everything, is a waste of everyone’s time. Bill Belichick is the master of the genre (except for those times when he lets his guard down and seems to enjoy teaching a little football) and Theo Epstein is the latest local practitioner. Congrats to Bob Ryan for calling Theo out on this earlier this week.”
“Piecing it all together”
By Dan Shaughnessy
The Boston Globe
December 2, 2006
“Back from his fact-finding/Matsuzaka-signing mission in Japan, Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino sat down at Fenway Park last night and discussed three pivotal team issues in the winter of 2006-07.”
“Lucchino Hits on Three Hot Topics”
by Dan Shaughnessy
The Boston Globe
December 2, 2006
“There was no airing of company secrets by Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein on the conference call he held yesterday in advance of his trip Sunday to Orlando, Fla., for the winter meetings, not that there should have been any expectations Epstein would use such a forum to do so.”
“Epstein Mum on Sox Deals”
By Gordon Edes
The Boston Globe
December 2, 2006
So let’s review:
* A year after Theo Epstein left the Red Sox in no small part because of his sense of the team’s (and Larry Lucchino’s) inability to stay out of the media — a sense which was epitomized by a Dan Shaughnessy column deriding Epstein — Shaughnessy writes a column dering Epstein. For not talking to him.
* That same day, Shaugnessy writes another story in which Larry offers up some sound bites about Matsuzaka, J.D. Drew, and Manny — innocuous soundbites, to be sure — but soundbites all the same.
* At virtually the same time, Theo was on a conference call “refusing to comment on trade talks involving Manny Ramirez or the impending signing of free agent outfielder J.D. Drew.”
Could Shaughnessy just be stirring up trouble? Sure. Could this be an early sign of another fault line in what’s already being described by club officials and top executives as an uneasy truce? Absolutely.
Yeah, it should be an interesting offseason.
Post Categories: 2006 Playoffs & Dan Shaughnessy & Larry Lucchino & Oblique references to Beatles songs & Theo Epstein
December 2nd, 2006 → 12:41 pm @ Seth Mnookin
After all that huffing and puffing, it turns out the Sox didn’t offer Trot Nixon arbitration.
This annoys me. Not the fact that the Sox didn’t extend the offer (which would have tied the team to paying Nixon whatever an arbitrator decided he was worth), but because Nixon almost certainly would have gotten in the range of last year’s $7 million salary…which is far more than he’s been worth of late. (Would you pay Gabe Kapler $7 million bucks a year?) Offering arbitration to Keith Foulke, on the other hand, makes a lot of sense: Foulke wouldn’t get much more (if any more) than the $3.75 mil he already turned down…and he only get a one-year deal. So the Sox are basically guaranteed of another draft pick.
Post Categories: 2006 Hot Stove Season & Trot Nixon
December 2nd, 2006 → 12:33 pm @ Seth Mnookin
“In choosing between re-signing with the Mets and pursuing a potential return to Atlanta, where his family lives, Glavine used every second of the six weeks he allotted himself to make a decision. With his family’s blessing, Glavine will finish off his probable Hall of Fame career as a Met.”
“Two Homes, One Team: Glavine Picks the Mets”
The New York Times
December 2, 2006
If you only read the headline and the first three grafs of Saturday’s story, you’d likely think that Tom Glavine actually did sit down, wrestle with his options, look into his heart, talk with his family, and then decide to take the Mets’ $10.5 million offer in spite of the fact that the Braves are his hometown team. Except, as the Times eventually bothers to acknowledge, “The Braves did not offer Glavine a contract.”
At least the tabs got the story right:
“December 2, 2006 — The Braves never truly advanced on Tom Glavine, and the time for his decision basically elapsed. In a sense, the Braves and Glavine eliminated each other.”
“IT’S ABOUT TOM! GLAVINE FINALLY RETURNS TO METS; ONE YEAR, $10.5M”
New York Post
“In the end, Atlanta GM John Schuerholz never bid for the 290-game winner. And rather than wait to see if he would, Glavine honored a commitment to Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon to have the matter resolved before the winter meetings, which open Monday.”
“Glavine Stays for $10.5 million”
New York Daily News
The next time I’m trying to decide between one offer I hope I have the nation’s most revered news source running my self-promoting p.r. efforts.
Post Categories: 2006 Hot Stove Season & New York Times & Sports Reporters & Tom Glavine
