Chad Finn Slams WEEI – I somewhat agree

Boston.com OT Sports Blog writer had an excellent blog posting today that can be found here, in which he rips apart WEEI radio programming.  He makes some valid points and I think he is a little overly critical.  I do agree that the station is so successful because of the market place it is in, but the shows for the most part are entertaining.  I am only able to listen to Dennis & Callahan every morning, which is the show I like best.  Callahan is such a sideshow and the angriest white man ever it makes my traffic filled commute somewhat enjoyable.  I really stopped listening to the channel full time as the homer-ism and extremely biased point of views continued to get worse.  Plus, some of the hosts just aren’t credible, it gets really annoying hearing some slapdick trying to talk about sports when he regurgitates something one of the WEEI co-hosts said earlier that day. 

This was a great plan by Finn as he got a full days worth of free pub.  Unlike some of the station’s members, Finn actually has an opinion and wrote a pretty compelling article.  On the other hand, the station’s personalities do a good job of getting people to tune because you never know what they are going to say next.  Liberals hate when Gerry Callahan talks politics, Conservatives love it!  John Meterparel always picks against the local team (sans BC) when they have a big game.  John Dennis threatens to castrate others and records it.  Pete Shepard & Fred Smerlas are the biggest Patriot butt boys ever.  But they all have a dream job that pays them very well, while we rant on crappy little blogs. 

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Curt Schilling To Join The Big Show On WEEI

From Boston Herald:

Curt Schilling will join Glenn Ordway on WEEI’s Big Show starting tomorrow.

The former Boston Red Sox ace will be in studio once a month, joining the crew for the four-hour show. On the other three Thursdays, he’ll be calling into the Big Show or the Dennis & Callahan Morning Show.

Schilling’s new on-air gig expands his role with the WEEI Sports Radio Network. In November, he launched a blog on WEEI.com, home of his popular 38pitches.com Web site.

Schilling will also participate in game-day blogging for six Red Sox games during the 2009 season. He will contribute his observations with other members of WEEI.com’s editorial staff.

“This is my first spring training without baseball in my life,” Schilling said in a prepared statement. “I am looking forward to continuing my involvement in the game and the connection to Red Sox Nation by contributing to the Big Show.”

“Curt has always been outspoken and very thoughtful in his comments about the Sox and baseball in general,” said Ordway in a prepared statement. “He speaks from the heart and is extremely passionate about the game. . . . I think he’s perfect for the format of our show, but I wish he’d gain 40 or 50 pounds so he’d look a lot more like the group.”

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Schilling Had Four Physical Run-ins With Manny

In a WEEI video that can be seen right here, Curt Schilling admits to having four physical run-ins with Manny Ramirez. There has always been talk of an incident that occurred between Schilling and the enigmatic outfielder while in Tampa Bay during the 2005 season. The pitcher admitted to that one earlier this year, while doing his weekly radio appearance on WEEI. But four! No one ever knew, or heard about those incidents. It’s amazing that it never came out with the amount of press that covers the club. The incidents involved with Manny are a clear indication of how difficult of a time Tery Francona had of managing the Red Sox during his era in Boston. And it just proves the point that he is the greatest manager in their history.

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Is Schilling Gonna Retire ? He Has Just Joined WEEI

Per WEEI.com:

For our purposes, the name made all the sense in the world. I made the argument that very, very, very few people could do what Curt could do, which was supply the kind of voice that was powerful enough to reverberate through the internet equally on both the local and national levels. He had already proven his ability to do so thanks to his blog, 38Pitches.com, and wasn’t about to lose the kind of passion that made his stuff — no matter the subject — a must-read.

This past week, in his 38 Studios office, Curt officially agreed to join our team. He will writing columns and blogs every week, participating in video blogs, and scheduled live, interactive in-game blogs during the season, while also appearing on the WEEI Radio Network each week, including an in-studio spot once a month.

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Red Sox Make Offer To Varitek

Per Rob Bradford at WEEI:

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the Red Sox’ initial contract offer to free agent catcher Jason Varitek this offseason was for one year. It was not determined what the monetary worth of the offer would be, although indications were that it didn’t approach the annual average commanded by Jorge Posada ($13.1 million).  Varitek’s agent, Scott Boras, referenced the Yankee catcher’s contract as an appropriate point of reference when assessing his client’s worth at the General Managers’ meetings early this month. Red Sox officials refused comment on the negotiations, while Varitek’s representatives did not respond to inquiries on the matter.

UPDATE: Per Boston.com:

Scott Boras, the representative for free agent Jason Varitek, told the Globe’s Nick Cafardo this afternoon that the Red Sox have not begun any negotiations with the 36-year-old catcher.

Boras also said he knows nothing of a reported one-year offer made by the ballclub to Varitek.

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Dustin Pedroia Wins AL MVP

Minnesota’s Justin Morneau was second, and Pedroia’s teammate, Kevin Youkilis, finished third.

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T.J. Simers Calls Out Gerry Callahan

Is there anything better than columnist on columnist crime ? The man who has been writing all the Manny Ramirez puff pieces in Los Angeles, T.J. Simers got word yesterday that Gerry Callahan of WEEI and the Boston Herald has been criticizing him and calling him T.J. Simers-Boras. Due to the fact that Scott Boras is Manny’s agent, and Callahan believes that Simers is helping Boras out by making Manny look good, so that he will receive a big contract this offseason. Well, Simers didn’t take too kindly to the accusations, in his column today, he came out swinging at Callahan:

GOT WORD a sports columnist from Boston didn’t like reading what Ramirez had to say Sunday on Page 2. So I checked the Boston Globe, found nothing — only to learn it was some guy from a shopper ripping Ramirez, and Page 2 as well.

Gerry Callahan, writing in something called the Boston Herald, initially referred to me as T.J. Simers-Boras, linking me to agent Scott Boras, who will probably sue now.

Callahan wrote that Ramirez had “revealed at last his problems with Boston” to the “strangely sycophantic Simers.”

Jeff Kent has called me a lot of names, but with words I understand. I had to call the daughter who went to Notre Dame to find out the meaning of sycophantic. I presume she called a friend who went to USC.

From what I gather, I’m a “yes man, flunky, fawner and flatterer,” as I’m sure so many athletes in L.A. would also tell you.

The guy who writes for the shopper was really peeved and upset with what Ramirez had to say, oddly enough proving Ramirez’s point that the folks who write in Boston really need to get a life.

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He’s Back!

Bill Belichick’s favorite columnist, Ron Borges is back as a sports columnist for the Boston Herald, according to Scott’s Shots. If your not familiar with Borges, he’s just about the most hated columnist in Boston, even more so than Dan Shaughnessy. When the Patriots were set to play the Rams in the Super Bowl, Borges picked the Rams to beat the Patriots 72-0. The new Herald columnist has a strong dislike for Patriots coach Bill Belichick. When Belichick is called a “genius” by his peers and many other members of the media, Borges is someone who constantly criticizes every move Belichick makes.

Classic Borges quotes about Belichick courtesy of Cold, Hard Football Facts:

On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson or the second-best tackle in the draft in Kenyatta Walker, they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 sack last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end. This genius move was followed by trading out of a spot where they could have gotten the last decent receiver in Robert Ferguson and settled for tackle Matt Light, who will not help any time soon.”

“This fellow (Belichick) has cornered the market on convincing people with the help of his friends that no one has ever worked harder than he does and he’s out, uh, you know, when everyone else is sleeping, he’s working, when everyone else is eating, he’s working, uh, I could say something, but I won’t … about uh, how at least some of his time is being spent… ”

Borges specialty. On May 5, 2005, Borges was on sports radio 1510 in Boston when he had this exchange with a caller.

 

Caller: “Well, I just have the feeling that Belichick … we all trust him at this point…”

 

Borges: “We don’t all trust him …”

 

Caller: “Most of us trust him … three Super Bowls, he’s got a little bit of a track record around here.”

 

Borges: “Yeah, well, you know, Emperor Hirohito had a big lead in the early days too…”

WEEI.com editor Rob Bradford has confirmed to Scott’s Shots that part-timer Ron Borges is leaving the site for a full-time gig at the Boston Herald.

When reached on his cell phone Tuesday night in the 7 p.m. hour, Borges hung up on me after I identified myself. I took that as a classless way of saying “no comment.”

But Bradford indicated Borges would be done with WEEI.com on or about October 3 and that it is likely Borges will be writing for the Herald when the Patriots return from the bye week in San Francisco.

Bradford said he has no regrets in what turns out to be a month-long rental of the former Boston Globe writer who “retired” after his suspension from that paper for what the Globe termed plagiarism.

Since then, Borges has been on a road to redemption with frequent, paid TV spots and several writing gigs, in addition to a weak attempt at personal blogging. His short, but effective stint at WEEI.com may have helped remind locals what “Good Ron Borges” can offer in terms of expertise and insight. It’s the “Evil Ron Borges” that adds the intrigue to the whole package.

It’s unclear whether the move will wind up being good for the Boston Herald and sports editor Hank Hryniewicz. The hire comes at a pivotal time for the scrappy tabloid, especially on the sports desk where recent defections have left the ranks of Hank’s Heroes very thin. Beyond the personnel losses, the Borges hire signifies a calculated risk by Hryniewicz, who finds himself only four months removed from the mid-May maelstrom over the John Tomase matter.

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Schilling Rips Manny Again…Whatelse Is New ?

Making an appearance on WEEI’s “Big Show” yesterday, Red Soxright-hander Curt Schilling had more choice words for former Red Sox Manny Ramirez. The history between Schilling and Ramirez has always been a bit icy to begin with. There was the physical altercation the two gotten into a few years ago, and in the recent months Schilling hasn’t been one to shy away from criticizing Ramirez on the airwaves at WEEI. The Sox ace hasn’t been around the team most of the year, but he wasn’t hesitant to voice his opinion yesterday to the Big Show :

The guy got to dress in a locker away from the team for seven years,” Schilling said. “And then [when] he’s on this crusade to get out of here, all of a sudden he’s in the locker room every day, voicing his displeasure without even having to play the game that night.”

Manny’s behavior was hardest on Red Sox manager Terry Francona, Schilling said.

“Nothing makes a guy that respects the game and respects human beings like Terry Francona feel worse than looking at a guy and saying, ‘Go ahead, [mess] with me, [mess] with your teammates, I’ll put you in the lineup,’ and then turn around to a guy who’s there every day early working his [butt] off who gets 110 at-bats a year and saying, ‘You know what? Yeah, I can’t put you in there tonight,’” Schilling said.

“There were times when you had players who were on like fire duty, ‘Show up tomorrow, I’m not sure if you’re playing or not, we’ve gotta find out what [Manny] wants to do.’ That’s not fair to anybody.”

“I wouldn’t say [they're ticked], I’d probably say disappointed more than anything,” Schilling said. “Because the one thing about Manny is that he was … he was very kind, and well-mannered, but there were spurts and times when you didn’t know who he was. You know, he was always kind and nice for the most part, but he’d show up the next day and say, ‘I’m through with this team, I want out now.’”

“I’m the last person in the world who should be telling you who’s right and who’s wrong in this,” he said.

“But I was a teammate, a member of this family, and I saw it … And to me, it was always those guys, the guys who played a crucial role on teams that weren’t the marquee players, are the ones that were disrespected the most.”

Thanks to ESPN

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Welcome To The Matt Cassel Show

It is now official with Tom Brady being place on injured reserve, the Patriots now must turn to fourth-year backup Matt Cassel. It was reported on Sunday that the Patriots would bring in both Chris Simms and Tim Ratttay for a workout. Which they did, but before either could workout or take a physical they both were sent home and told “the situation changed”. Which means that the Patriots are satisfied with Cassel for now, and that more than likely they will bring back Matt Gutierrez to be a backup. While on the Big Show on WEEI yesterday coach Bill Belichick said that bring in a veteran makes no sense because they have no idea of the playbook or the terminology. Which means those rumors of Daunte Culpepper reunited with Randy Moss are unlikely. So the Patriots now must forge onward and upward with the pride of the University of Southern California Matt Cassel. It just maybe there best option, or until third round draft pick Kevin O’ Connell get familar with the playbook. Whichever one it is, it likely to be someone on the team now who leads the Patriots into the playoffs.

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