Spygate II - Is Alex Cora Getting The Ax?

Generally speaking, it's a time to question Shank when he uses the phrase 'do the right thing', but in light of very recent developments he just might be right here.

Red Sox need to do the right thing and fire Alex Cora

The Red Sox need to fire Alex Cora now. Yesterday, if possible. Don’t wait for MLB to tell you what to do. Just do the right thing.

After speaking with two sources with direct knowledge of the situation, I get a sense that the Sox are going to stand by their man and ride this out. They just love Alex Cora, and we understand that.

But this is not an episode that calls for traditional, media-blaming defiance. This is not the time for the Sox to stick behind their guy. The Red Sox are an important local institution. Firing Cora now, before MLB’s next set of sanctions is issued, before it becomes obvious to everyone that Cora must go, allows the Sox to preserve some institutional dignity and let history record that they did the right thing.

Shank mentions some things that are in the MLB report (which came out yesterday or early this morning) that look pretty bad & incriminating. And when even Pete Rose thinks it's a bad situation, you know the shit's about to hit the fan.

And Now For More Boston Globe Bashing - XXVI

Stop me if you've heard this one before - the Boston Globe announced some layoffs:

The Boston Globe on Thursday underwent a staff reduction for the second year running as the newspaper seeks to cut costs and deploy more resources toward its digital efforts.

According to multiple sources at The Globe, at least 10 employees are being laid off, with more than a dozen staffers accepting buyouts.

In an email, Boston Globe Editor Brian McGrory said the newspaper had “nothing to announce at the moment.”

The layoffs, which have been anticipated by Globe staffers for some time, come several months after the Globe announced a buyout program seeking volunteers to trim headcount at the newspaper.

At the end of July, McGrory said in a note to staffers that the newspaper was seeking to streamline its copy desk and alter its Web production, layout and design processes.

“It will mean that most stories will get fewer reads, placing more responsibility on reporters and line editors to make sure they’re in good shape,” McGrory wrote. “It means that rather than a copy desk, we will have a multiplatform production desk where stories are copy edited, posted on line, perhaps placed in the social stream, and later set on pages for print.”

In other words, get ready for more screw-ups.

At least we'll have Shank to kick around some more!

Birds Of A Feather

Look who's sticking up for Shank - the biggest asshole sportswriter to ever walk the planet (given the context, that's saying something):

Mr. Mariotti: When people like (Boston Red Sox owner) John Henry buy the Boston Globe, I'm petrified (petrified? really? - Ed) for every writer on that staff. What happens when Dan Shaughnessy covers another story about a Red Sox clubhouse scandal. Is it going to make the paper? No. Shaughnessy has made a living on criticizing owners including Henry. Is he going to have a job in a year? These are the sort of people I have in mind down the road for this.

A reminder - Shank did not break the 2011 clubhouse story. He followed up on the story two days after it broke.

So, if / when Shank gets shitcanned, he has another job lined up. Sweet!

But wait - it gets worse (from another article):

Dan Shaughnessy is a sportswriting bad ass. He’s one of the country’s best columnists, opining fearlessly in the bosom of a readership base that is one part religious, one part romantic, one part provincial and one part lunatic. That is a dangerous mix that could get a hard-line commentator killed — I once called Dan for advice in that regard after some Chicago death threats — but Shaughnessy has carried on boldly with his coverage of the Boston Red Sox, taking on the beloved David Ortiz earlier this season by asking Big Papi if he also is a Big PEDer.

I’m afraid he’s about to be silenced.

I'm not. I'm also not worried about Shank getting kneecapped on his arduous one mile runs by the grandsons of Al Capone.

While it's good blog fodder to joke about the Dan Shaughnessy Death Watch, I've come to believe that this will not happen. For starters, Shank appears to be pulling his punches, based on his most recent Globe column. Second, I don't believe John Henry views him as anything more than a minor irritant. Third, shitcanning Shank would only play into the conspiracy theories of the likes of Jay Marrioti, and I seriously doubt John Henry would give a prick like that (or anyone else) the satisfaction.

Last thought - I've not noticed until today that Jay Mariotti and Shank appear to have some sort of professional friendship, a Brotherhood of Assholes, if you will. This may be a one sided thing, as I'm not aware of Shank throwing hosannas Mariotti's way, which is a good professional non-move. If I've missed anything about this bromance that Jay has with Shank, I'd appreciate some feedback in the comments section.

Laying Low

You'd think the recent performance of the Red Sox, losing three of their last four games to the Kansas City Royals, would be enough to get Shank to write a panicked column, comparing them to the 2011 'chicken & beer brigade', or whatever other excuse he'd have to take a piss on the Olde Towne Team.

Did John Henry lay down the law already, or did Shank clam up on his own, thinking self-preservation? Is Shank on extended vacation? Did Whitey Bulger rub him out? Theories are welcome!

I'll Have A Bowl Of Awkward, Please

Fresh from updating his resume, Shank runs a copy by the folks at Boston Public Radio. Oh, and he also sits down with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan yesterday to discuss his imminent demise the recent purchase of the Boston Globe by Red Sox owner John Henry.

(full audio at the top of the page, 4:09)

Dan Shaughnessy: Globe Sale To John Henry A 'Bowl Of Awkward'

Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy, who at times has been critical of owner John Henry's management of the Boston Red Sox, spoke with Boston Public Radio about his new boss.

Kind of an understatement, don't you think?

"It's amazing how life works," he told Boston Public Radio's Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on Monday. "It is a whole bowl of awkward. It's hard to get your head around it, and it is amusing to a degree."

You might not be laughing in a few weeks, mate...

Henry purchased The Boston Globe for $70 million early Saturday morning. Shaughnessy said he hopes the purchase of the newspaper by the principal owner of the very baseball team he has covered for three decades will not change his expectations as a columnist.

"What I've seen so far in statements by Mr. Henry - he's going to allow the Globe to do what it does, which is practice good journalism (first time for everything! - ed),” Shaughnessy said. “We've covered this team like nobody's business and when good things happen it's all good, and when bad things happen it's not so good. And I expect it to be that way, and hope that we have a wonderful run under new ownership."

Shaughnessy said the change in Globe ownership will not change the way he approaches his work as a columnist covering the Red Sox.

That will change when he has the sitdown with the new Vito Corleone...

"This is sports, and my agenda is running Red Sox players out of town how I feel about things," he said. "I feel I've always had the independence to have those opinions, and will continue to have those opinions and hopefully have the independence to put them out there."

Shaughnessy called Henry a 'forward looking guy.'

“This is a guy that likes devices, and he's always been a computer guy and the way the industry's going, that could be just the ticket," he said. “This is evolution. You can't fight it."

Fight the power, Shank!

To this point, I'll give Shank credit for taking it in stride.

DHL Dan - XXI

Nothing says "I'll write a halfassed picked up pieces column today because I'm probably getting shitcanned any second by the new owner I've been trashing for the past decade" like this one.

Picked-up pieces while reminding all of you that John Henry’s greatness has been vastly underappreciated . . .

It's gonna be fun watching Shank grovel over the next few weeks.

Or will he?

A losing Boston Globe contender is claiming his San Diego media company outbid Red Sox owner John Henry — and would have gone even higher — a bombshell allegation that he says could delay the deal and leave the New York Times Co. open to shareholder backlash.“We bid significantly more than Henry,” said John Lynch, the CEO of U-T San Diego, one of the Globe finalists. “At the end of the day, I’m certain our bid was higher and could have been a lot more higher if they had just asked. I’m just stunned. I thought this was a public company that had a fiduciary duty to get the most by its stockholders. ... From the beginning, I don’t think they wanted to sell to us.”

Probably because the owner & the newspaper are insufficiently liberal:

Douglas Manchester, the owner of U-T San Diego — the newspaper formerly known as the Union-Tribune — has come under fire for aggressively influencing his paper’s editorial content.

Here's another indicator that may be the case:

PS Two years ago they could have sold it to my friends at Freedom Communications (publishers of The Orange County Register) for 300 grand (and unloaded the pensions), but they would have been ideologically uncongenial to the Times. So the Gray Lady bravely took a quarter-billion hit in the cause of liberal torpor.

Popcorn time!

You're Fired!

After four years on the job and this season's 2 - 10 record, Boston College football coach Frank Spaziani gets shitcanned. Shank takes the predictable parochial route while pretending to care about the former coach.

We are old people who mail handwritten letters and make phone calls while the rest of the world sends e-mails and texts.

Correction - you are an old person using snail mail and rotary phones, so speak for yourself.

We are English-speaking tourists, dropped into a city square in Sicily, trying to understand what everyone is saying. We are sports-crazed Bostonians, blissfully unaware why the rest of the country makes such a big deal out of college football. Boston College, the only Division 1 program in Greater Boston, fired its football coach on Sunday. After four disappointing seasons, bottoming out with this year’s 2-10 bomb, Frank Spaziani was relieved of his duties by new athletic director Brad Bates.

This one's buried behind the Great Globe Paywall, so my guess is that we're not missing much...