DHL Dan LV / Let The Whining Commence

The Boston Globe ran a fair but unflattering column on Tom Brady's charity, Best Buddies, in late April of this year. Yesterday this charity held an event and kicked a Boston Globe photographer out of it. Personally speaking, I'd have kicked the son of a bitch down a set of stairs, but that's just me.

Naturally, Shank has a problem with this as he squeezes this latest New England Patriot atrocity into his most recent Picked Up Pieces column:

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Cleveland Cavaliers to neutralize Kevin Durant and get themselves back into the Finals . . .

■ A thoroughly researched report on the relationship between a local star athlete and his favorite nonprofit charity does not constitute a “hit job.’’ Tom Brady is doing nothing illegal in his high-profile role for Best Buddies International. Brady’s considerable work for Best Buddies generates millions of dollars that the charity would not acquire if not for the currency of Tom’s fame. In exchange for his efforts, Brady — like many celebrities who work with charities — asks that a portion of the proceeds (in this case, $3 million since 2011) be paid toward Brady’s own charitable trust. Some folks are bothered by this. Most Brady fans are not. But let’s not shoot the messenger. It’s called disclosure. That’s what public charities are about. Folks who donate have a right to know where their money is going. Best Buddies does itself no favors by escorting a Globe photographer to his car when he shows up to cover Friday’s Brady Best Buddies event at Harvard Stadium. No credential? Please. A credential has never been requested because Best Buddies annually inundates every media outlet seeking for coverage of the event.

Go read the original Boston Globe column. That distinction I bolded above is not mentioned anywhere in Bob Hohler's article from seven weeks ago. This is why many people correctly perceive this article as a 'hit piece' now that another Boston Globe employee is attempting to blunt its impact by mentioning a very salient fact, and now they're trying to backpedal in a most passive - aggressive manner. I'd also like to point out that, in typical leftist Boston Globe fashion, Bob Hohler constantly mentions Tom Brady's personal wealth as well as citing others doing the same as a cudgel against him, the clear implication being 'why isn't he giving his money away?' I thought David Nyhan retired years ago?

Now for the massively hypocritical part:

There is no indication Brady was aware of this Nixonian maneuver. Nevertheless, it was hostile and petty and put a bad light on a good guy and a great charity.

Translation - Tom Brady very likely had nothing to do with it, but I'm going to devote part of my column to slam him and his charity anyway. Remember this the next time Shank professes not to hold grudges. It's human nature, but don't try to con the rest of us by saying it doesn't affect or influence your writing.

And we all remember another famous time a Boston Globe employee was not invited to an event - it shaded that employee's reporting / columns for over two decades:

What's interesting here is the italicized part above. When the New England Patriots played in their second Super Bowl in 1997, the Patriots threw a party and Shank was not invited. We believe this to be the point where Shank became a lifelong bête noire of the Patriots. If he disliked the Patriots at that point (or, more specifically, owner Robert Kraft), this snub was the proverbial nail in the coffin.

Also, as a commenter pointed out a few weeks ago, David Ortiz came out with a book on his career as a member of the Boston Red Sox and said an unflattering thing or two about the CHB. This afternoon, Shank fires back:

■ Ego-maniacal David Ortiz makes himself the hero of all of his stories in his entertaining autobiography “Papi,” written with Michael Holley. He tells us that Grady Little told him that the Sox’ everyday lineup “comes from upstairs.’’ Though he made more than $159 million in salary during his baseball career, Ortiz remembers only the contract slights, calling Theo Epstein “a real [very bad word] when it came to negotiating my contracts,’’ adding . . . “Sometimes I just wanted to shout, ‘Yo! Wake the [expletive] up. I’m the best-paid weapon you have. And I should be’ . . . I was the most underpaid player the organization ever had.’’

Ortiz on the Boston media (read - his Assholiness, Dan Shaughnessy - ed.): “Not every player wants a [expletive] in his face every single day, asking why he’s struggling. I can put up with the pressure and the doubt because that’s been my whole life, but some players don’t want the hassle of Boston when the game itself is hard enough.’’

Papi has never forgiven Terry Francona for pinch hitting for him in Toronto in April 2010. He claims Tito made a last-second decision and disrespected him. Here’s what Francona said in his book (co-authored by yours truly): “Everybody on the bench knew what was going on. There wasn’t a lot of sympathy for David because he didn’t look. We had that policy the whole time I was there. If we’re going to pinch hit for somebody, we’d ask ’em to just give us a look before going up to hit . . . everybody saw us tell David that night in Toronto, and everybody knew Mikey [Lowell] was ready to hit.’’ I was honored to be mentioned on page 193 when Ortiz wrote, “Shaughnessy was crushing me and that [very bad word] still walks around like he owns the team.’’

It's really amusing to note Shank's jihad against the New England Patriots for two decades because of a perceived / actual slight, only to have Shank criticize Ortiz for the same thing and try to squelch his response because he made $159 million, as though that's supposed to be the price of silence on the recipient's part.

Also fun to note - Shank criticizing Ortiz for having Michael Holley help him write a book... so why didn't Terry Francona write his book by himself?

This website exists because of the Richter scale hypocrisy and world-class bullshit of people like Shank.