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Sunday, October 08, 2006

Want Some Cheese with that Whine?

Thanks to an attentive reader, we bring you this tasty Dan quote, courtesy of the Denver Post:

"Now every team has a handler who is there to limit everything we do," says Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, who began covering professional baseball in the 1970s. "It's a stupid game we have to play. Every day, our access is shrinking."

...

"It's preposterous," Shaughnessy says. "The self-importance today is off the charts."

Actually, the irony is off the charts. He could be talking about himself. And if reporters' access is shrinking, so-called writers like Shaughnessy who exist solely to do hatchet jobs on athletes deserve nothing more.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan-o is now moonlighting for the ProJo:

http://www.projo.com/sports/billreynolds/projo_2061008_08rencol.1b2db04b.html

Anonymous said...

//"It's preposterous," Shaughnessy says. "The self-importance today is off the charts."//

Good lord. Talk about your pot, meet kettle comments.

For the record, I was a sportswriter for several years. I never had a problem with a coach or an athlete, because I treated them as human beings, not objects of comtempt.

Anonymous said...

Hey what's with all the layoffs that Shank seems to be getting this year? Three of the four major boston teams are playing either preseason or full season games and he's nowhere to be found bashing (er, "reporting") on any of them lately.

I realize this might be considered nitpicking but I think that if he gets this many days off in between articles for the paper, shouldn't he be producing higher quality work?

Anonymous said...

C'mon anon, give the guy a break! Do you know how exhausting it is to rehash the same 3 or 4 columns themes 2, sometimes even 3 times a week for six months?

Anonymous said...

I have been reading the sports page for over 50 years and I truly believe that the best articles are written by observant, articulate scribes who focus on the game and share their impressions with the fans with the help of an occasional quote from a manager or a particularly insightful and literate player. The columnists who rely and then complain about interviewees and their reluctance to carry water for the ink stained wretches are probably either lazy, incompetent or both. Shaughnessy, rather than being "old school" is among the lazier and incompetents one plying the trade. Just write the story and quit asking stupid questions like "how big was the (catch) (hit) (shot) (tackle) etc. If you don't know the answer Dan, you are as dumb as the questions you ask.