The One Where Shank Talks To Baseball Prospectus

Tim Britton at Baseball Prospectus sits down with Our Man Shank and cover a lot of ground. Some highlights:

TB: How have you seen your relationship with guys change as your profile has gotten larger?

DS: I just worry that the young guys are instructed, "Watch out for this guy. He's trouble." I like everybody to make up their own mind.
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TB: Do you view your column as an extension of your personality, or do you sometimes play a character?

DS: ...I probably do the elbow-in-the-ribs-in-the-elevator every now and then just because it feels good. But I mean, don't love [the team] more than your families. What's in the column is how I feel at the time. It's not to get clicks or trolling. I love how trolling has become, "I disagree with you, therefore you're trolling." It's anything that's not my opinion. I don't even know what trolling is except if you say something that's different.
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TB: What nickname that you've been given do you mind the least?

DS: I basically accept everything. The mayor of Hartford called me a Chia pet, which I thought was pretty good. Obviously, Carl Everett with Curly-Haired Boyfriend. I thought that was pretty clever. Clif Keane is the guy who first took me up here, he covered the '46 Red Sox in the World Series. He liked Holy Cross guys and he was good to me. He would come back later and sit back there and he called me the baby-faced assassin. I liked that one. I wore that one with honor.

The Shank thing started with the Celtics (incorrect - ed.). I think Kevin McHale probably invented that, and I loved those guys. When I hear it from them, it feels like a term of endearment. When it's out in the street and WEEI listeners, not so much.

Nice of Shank to lie about his primary nickname because it makes him look like less of a backstabbing jackass.