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Friday, December 05, 2008

BC Oranges

Dan tells us that the Boston College football team will advance to the Orange Bowl if they beat Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship Game and that would be pretty nifty and rare for a New England area college football team.

As a writer, Dan has become so masterful in setting the bar so low that when he writes something that is not over-the-top incendiary, he has quite often lulled me into occasionally concluding “Well, that was not such a bad piece.” No more. This piece was relatively innocuous (as many of his pieces have been lately – the rare times when he actually seems to write) but it was also relatively bad.

First, let’s bring in the tired Belichick reference:
“They are trained in Belichickian ways and we know it's a mistake to look past your next game.”

First of all, is Belichick a consultant for the BC football team? (That would be big news) And why is focusing solely on the next game and refusing to talk about the implications of a win or loss “Belichickian.” Come on…this is one of the oldest clichés in the athletes’ book. What’s funny is that Shaughnessy closes the piece with a quote from one of the players:


"Every young player in high school - they want to go to a BCS bowl. We were close last year. We want to get there this year."
I guess this kid missed the Belichick lecture series?

Two other complaints

- Is this an article about BC getting to the Orange Bowl? Or is it a piece about the history of New England colleges getting into major bowl games? Shaughnessy wanders aimlessly between the two themes. It's a writer's laziness feeding a lack of writing coherence.

- Speaking of meandering. How about this paragraph?

All they have to do is beat a team they've already handled this season. The Eagles defeated Virginia Tech, 28-23, at Chestnut Hill in mid-October, despite turning the ball over five times. Now the Eagles go at the Hokies with a novice quarterback (redshirt sophomore Dominique Davis will be making his second start
in place of the injured Chris Crane) and a top-10 defense (three shutouts) led by junior linebacker Mark Herzlich, the ACC defensive player of the year.

Very odd paragraph when you think about it, esp the part about the novice quarterback. The tone of the paragraph is that this is going to be easy –“All they have to do” sets that tone. He talks about the defense being phenomenal but he strangely packages this around the fact that the team is missing their starting quarterback and replacing him with a guy who has one previous start….as if to imply this is a good thing?

It’s poor writing, pure and simple.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I came here for the lame, dated song lyrics and leave hugely disappointed...

Anonymous said...

Hey, where's OB been?
I miss his pedantic ravings.
Okay, no I don't.

Your pal,

Timmy

Anonymous said...

Actually, there's no need for me to say much of anything.

This site has become a dreadful bore.

Anonymous said...

OB:

When you said, "dreadful bore," did you roll your eyes a little and sniff? Were you wearing white gloves that go up to your elbows? Please say yes. That'd be awesome.

Your pal,

Timmy

Anonymous said...

well ObjectiveDouche, you should feel right at home then. You have been nothing but a "dreadful bore" from the 1st day you showed up on this site....now go kiss your Dan Shaughnessy poster and go to bed.

dbvader said...

OB,

Ummm. How do I say this? Your Curly Headed Saint barely writes anymore. Yes, he may offer a lot of Celtics' quotes and a very good HS football personal piece. In over a week.

We are still waiting for something that is anywhere compelling or insightful regarding something that happens on the field.

Chris said...

I'll get things excited again: 2009 will be worse than 2008 for newspapers, and those for sale now will fetch 'Happy Meal' prices. The purchase offer for the Globe from years back looks real good from this perspective, doesn't it? (he asked rhetorically). Why, yes it does.

Dave M said...

OB

I think we should take this as a nice compliment. If it has become a dreadful bore, does that mean the site was at least previous a stimulating bastion of high intellectual thought?

If anything is a dreadful bore, it would be Shaughnessy. He has treated us to the following insights...the Celtics are really good; Dustin Pedroia is really good; Mat Cassel is really good; BC is really good and oh yes, Holy Cross used to be really good

Thanks OB

Anonymous said...

Hey OB,


Introducing the new CHB and OB, kinda like ....

"monkey see, monkey doo"

What a bore!

g

Anonymous said...

I wonder if this is a good thing:

Across the United States, more than 30 daily newspapers are for sale, and buyers are scarce.

From Los Angeles to New York, leading newspapers have slashed newsrooms with buyout offers, and when those failed to reach budget-cutting goals, with layoffs.

The newspaper industry has been caught in a tailspin for three years, a trend variously blamed on plummeting ad revenues, declining readership, growing competition from the Internet and a deepening national recession.

On Thursday, Colorado's oldest newspaper joined the growing list of dailies on the market. E.W. Scripps Co., owner of the 149-year-old Rocky Mountain News, offered to sell it after reporting an $11 million loss through the first nine months of this year.

"It's a terrible time to put the Rocky Mountain News up for sale, clearly," said John Morton, a veteran newspaper-industry analyst in Maryland. "Whatever price they might attract probably will be quite low. I think it's going to be very difficult to find a buyer."

The main culprit in the newspaper business decline: shrinking classified-ad sections.


I guess that's okay, because a certain commenter assures me that boston.com is getting more and more traffic. Problem solved!

Anonymous said...

Another one bites the dust:

The McClatchy Co., burdened by debt and a steep slide in newspaper advertising, wants to sell one of its most prized properties, The Miami Herald, according to people briefed on the company's plans.

McClatchy, the nation's third-largest newspaper chain, has approached potential buyers for The Herald, said these people. But they said they knew of no serious offers for the paper, reflecting the evaporation of major investors' interest in buying newspapers.

The company refused to discuss the matter. Elaine Lintecum, the treasurer, said, "We do not comment on market rumors."


OB - care to comment on market rumors?