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Monday, February 20, 2006

Sybil Returns

I knew I should have looked into this when he wrote it.

On Feb. 7, in a column ostensibly about the Super Bowl, The CHB wrote: "Shaun Alexander's 95 yards on 20 carries earn him the Dominique Wilkins/Elvin Hayes/Wade Boggs Award for compiling a fairly impressive stat line while having no impact on the outcome."

My initial response was:
Not sure why he threw Boggs in there. As Bill James and others can attest, Boggs' was not only the most valuable Red Sox player for much of his tenure there, an argument could be made that for a stretch he was the most valuable player in the majors (see James' essay on this in the 1988 Baseball Abstract). The entire Red Sox philosophy during the (highly successful) Theo years has been built on the concept of OBP. Or maybe Dan has forgotten about that World Series title in 2004.
What I might have done, however, was look back just one year earlier, to Jan. 5, 2005, when Dan's opinion of Boggs was a bit more boffo: "He was anything but boring, a hitting machine who tortured the opposition ..." ... "His on-base percentage was off the charts. He scored runs." ... "He took hundreds of grounders every day and made himself a Gold Glove fielder."

Or I could have reviewed Dan's July 31, 2005, column, where he wrote:
We sometimes forgot to marvel at what [Boggs] was doing. Let's take 1987, for example. In that season, Boggs hit .363 while also hitting 24 homers. There were times it looked as if he were throwing the ball from the batter's box, aiming line shots over the shortstop's head and into left-center. He was a lefthanded batter with an inside-out swing made for Fenway Park. Lacking speed, quickness, and raw power, he had sensational vision and hand-eye coordination. Always on base, refusing to swing at the first pitch, rarely chasing a ball out of the strike zone, he was actually born too soon.
Never let the facts get in the way of a good smear.

6 comments:

o said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
o said...

said...

I found your blog as I was researching an anti-Dan Shaughnessy post I was writing.

The passing of Curt Gowdy brought back memories of Curt Gowdy (on a national stage then), Ned Martin, Jim Woods and Ken Coleman. And, more specifically the dearth of sportswriters like them now a days. Reading CHB is hard at times, because the reader doesn't know what his agenda is in saying what he does. IE CHB has slammed Theo repeatedly these past few months, but, could just as easily start writing glowingly of Theo if CHB is back "in" with the the Front Office. You never know with him!

It's very nice reading other people hate him as much...I look forward to reading more about CHB!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

If Dan thinks he'll ever get back "in" with the front office after the things he's written this winter, he needs to put down the bong. Reportedly, the one thing Theo absolutely despises is having his integrity questioned. CHB dished that out, entirely unsubstantiated, in spades this winter, and pretty much ripped the entire ownership group to shreds.

This is sort of like me being criticized by Rush Limbaugh: I really couldn't care less, and nor should they. But CHB should watch out, for beneath the cool veneer, I hear young Mr. Epstein has an explosive temper, and that the alleged chair-throwing incidents have not been entirely fabricated, if you catch my drift.

Were he to cork off and pop CHB one, I would send him $100. Actually, I'd send it to anyone who'd pop him one.

The offer is out there, people :-)

Anonymous said...

And how many pennants were won during the Wade Boggs era? What is inconsistent about pointing out that he amassed some very good stats while winning very little? Oh, darn it, I forgot. The point of this little blog is to try to play gotcha!

Still waiting for the corrections for the attacks based on mistakes that either didn't exist or that the paper has explained were the fault of editing. And, to indulge in an aside, the sports media blogging guru is still plagarizing (that's stealing in case you didn't know it) the column name SporTView while acting as a self-appointed arbiter of sports media coverage.

It appears that the spite-fueled jealousy-driven bloggers lack of integrity is showing. And its showing quite clearly.

Anonymous said...

Up next, OB is going to claim that the Globe invented and patented the scoreboard page, game coverage, notebooks, the transaction wire, and the little teasers on the front page that says the college hockey is on page C7.

mike_b1 said...

Way to try to change the subject, OB.

If Wade Boggs is to blame for his team's failure to win (and they did win in '86, '88 and '90, btw), then I guess Dave McCarty is responsible for the 2004 World Series win.