No Shot

It's time once again for Shank to mount his high horse Shetland pony and rag on Red Sox players who don't want to be forced to get a Covid 'vaccine' or two:

These absent anti-vaxxers give Red Sox no shot in Toronto

In this region, Kyrie Irving is routinely mocked and scorned for being a selfish team-killer.

Swell. So how are you all feeling about Kyrie Houck, Kyrie Duran and Kyrie Sale at this hour?

I wonder how Red Sox players really feel? It’s always Hakuna Matata around these Sox with their laundry cart rides, postgame strobelight locker room disco dance parties, and NESN happy talk, but how would you feel if your .327-hitting leadoff batter, your white-hot closer (six saves in six tries), and (possibly) your $30 million per year erstwhile ace chose not to help you win important games in June and (maybe) September/October?

I don't think Shank helps his cause with the juvenile derisiveness of calling all these guys Kyrie.

DHL Dan CXXVIII - The Management Column

Shank did a column a few days ago that I had no desire to read all weekend, so here you go:

This Red Sox-Guardians series has a great managerial angle to it, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while kicking off summer with a bucket of whole-belly fried clams …

▪ Red Sox vs. Guardians in Cleveland this weekend means a chance to see perhaps the two best managers in baseball — probably the two best managers in Red Sox history — going head-to-head for three days.

Hyperbole? Maybe. But name a current manager who consistently does a better job than Terry Francona and Alex Cora. And does anyone think Dick Williams, Joe Cronin, or Bill Carrigan could deal with today’s analytics geeks, stubborn/entitled (anti-vax) ballplayers, and nonstop media obligations that are part of the daily, skull-imploding Boston baseball experience?

DHL Dan CXXVII - Picking Everything Up

Shank's column production's been rather sparse the past couple of weeks, so here's a column that tries to catch up:

Catching up on all the picked-up pieces that emerged over the past few weeks

Picked-up pieces after a few weeks on the shelf …

▪ First we had Brad Marchand skating off the ice too early at the end of the first period of Stanley Cup Final Game 7 at the Garden in June of 2019. It was a night we all were sure the Bruins were going to win the chalice. The Bruins had dominated the Blues, 5-1, in Game 6 in St. Louis. But their season ended with a thud on Causeway Street.

Then we had Tom Brady going to Tampa to win a Super Bowl for the Buccaneers while Cam Newton stumbled around Gillette and the Patriots became mediocre.

Then the Red Sox qualified for a one-game wild card and suddenly got hot, eliminating the Yankees and Rays, and dominating the Astros in the first 3½ games of the 2021 ALCS. The Sox were two wins from rolling into the World Series before all their hitting just disappeared … Jayson Tatum style. Losing Game 4 at home ultimately killed the Red Sox, just as it did the 2022 Celtics.

Not Ready Yet

That's one conclusion drawn by Shank after the Celtics lost Game 6 (and the series) to the Golden State Warriors:

By blowing a massive opportunity, these Celtics showed they’re just not ready yet

The Celtics’ magical 2022 playoff run crash-landed on Causeway Street Thursday as the still-worthy Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship with a 103-90 Game 6 victory at the TD Garden.

Years from now, perhaps we’ll look back and see this as a building block for Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Co., but right now, it feels like one of the worst blown opportunities in 21st century Boston sports.

“It hurts that we fell short, but the future is bright,’’ said Celtics rookie coach Ime Udoka. " . . . This is just a start. The foundation’s been set. We can hit the ground running next year.’’

Missed Opportunity?

Shank looks at the Celtics' prospects after losing Game 5 of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors:

It’s not over for the Celtics yet, but it sure feels like it after this lost opportunity

It’s not over yet. It just kind of feels that way.

The Celtics lost Game 5 of the NBA Finals to the Warriors, 104-94, at the Chase Center Monday and trail this championship series, three games to two as they ready for Game 6 in Boston. If these Celts are to win the franchise’s 18th banner, they’ll have to beat the Dubs Thursday at home, and again Sunday in San Francisco.

Possible . . . but unlikely. This feels like one massive missed opportunity.

The Celtics need to stop complaining about officiating and regain their composure. And Jayson Tatum needs to step up and play like an All-NBA first teamer. Tatum had 27 points and 10 rebounds Monday, but this was a 1-point game going into the fourth quarter and Tatum again turtled down the stretch, making 1 of 5 shots with no rebounds and no assists in 11 soft minutes of the fourth. He was minus-13 for the night.

Missed Shots

You stop paying attention for a few days, and what do you know? Shank's been banging out the Celtics columns. A few days ago he's talking to Celtic greats Bob Cousy and Satch Sanders about the current crop of Celtics, yestrday Shank and a bunch of Globies make their series predictions (Shank says Celtics in 7 games), and last night Shank was quick out of the gate with a column on the Celtics winning Game 1 of the NBA Championship. I spotted the column about 35 minutes after the game was over, and there's almost no way to do a column that quick, so I'm going to ask him - is it voice to text he's using or is he like a 110 words a minute typer?