DHL Dan - LV

Looks like Shank's week long rut of columns that look backward and bore the living shit out everybody continues apace, with his second Picked Up Pieces column in as many weeks. It's the usual collection of anti-Patriot rants, Red Sox bashing and all that:

Picked-up pieces while waiting to see what Danny Ainge has up his sleeve for next Thursday night . . .

■ The NFL is mandating that the Patriots wear numbers on their jerseys during organized team activity practices. Serious stuff there. A self-important league continuing its battle against a self-important organization. The Patriots want us to think they go numberless for “team building.” We know it’s really so that reporters can’t tell who is who.

What I love most is that Patriots fans — the folks who are most hungry for information about their team — are the same ones who madly applaud the team’s paranoia and insistence on secrecy.

Shank also learned a new word this week, so he can give the appearance of being cool and hip (which he ain't):

■ I want both David Ortiz and Madison Bumgarner in the Home Run Derby. Bumgarner can rake.

UPDATE, 6/17/2016, 2:05 PM - Bruce Allen piles on:

Also:

Bill Simmons is wildly rich and famous. So why does he have to keep playing the diva and crying about past slights?

This from the guy who got snubbed at a breakfast 20 years ago and has used every opportunity since that day to take it out on the Krafts.

Amen, brother!