DHL Dan CLXXVII - Is This A Jedi Mind Trick?

I think it is - I can't believe what I'm reading!

Here’s a vote of confidence for Bill Belichick, and other hot summer thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting to see what Chaim Bloom does between now and Tuesday’s trade deadline . . .

▪ Bill Belichick is still the greatest NFL coach of all time. In my book, he gets the biggest slice of credit pie for those six Patriot Super Bowl trophies. He’s still at the top of his game, fearless, tanned, fit, and ready to lead the Patriots deep into the playoffs.

There. I said it. I am in the Still Bill Club.

It is not easy to reside in this club today. It makes me feel like Japanese intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, who was found in a jungle in the Philippines in 1974, still fighting World War II, almost 30 years after Japan had surrendered. (One of my readers suggests that Onoda is the ultimate Do Your Job guy.)

Of course this praising of Belichick goes right into the dumpster with the Patriot's first loss.

Sell, Mortimer - Sell!

Shank's not buying the recent hot streak the Red Sox are on:

The Red Sox are the hottest team in baseball, but they still should be sellers at the deadline

The Boston Red Sox, the hottest team in baseball, open a West Coast trip in San Francisco against the Giants Friday night.

Baseball boss Chaim Bloom plans to be back in Boston from now through Tuesday’s trade deadline (when the team will be in Seattle), and he’s in a pretty odd position.

What do you think? Should the Sox be buyers or sellers? Are they contenders or is the recent success fool’s gold?

Beats the heck out of me. I’ve been ready to bury these guys since the first sunflower seed was spit in Fort Myers, but they’ve won 15 of 20 and just swept the best team in baseball, recovering from a 3-0 deficit in the sixth inning Wednesday in a nationally televised 5-3 win over the estimable Braves.

Shank's been buyring this team for a lot longer than that. For years he's complained about ownership's lack of interest in winning and focusing on the bottom line, so if ownership does decide to become sellers at the deadline, it'll be Shank leading the charge against them. That trick never gets old!

A Weekend In Upstate New York

Shank went to Cooperstown over the weekend and he has a few interesting stories to tell, like this one:

Danny Ainge almost returned to baseball after the Celtics traded him, and other discoveries from a weekend at the Hall of Fame

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Lingering thoughts after three days at the Baseball Hall of Fame on induction weekend ...

▪ Danny Ainge considered returning to the Toronto Blue Jays after Red Auerbach traded him from the Celtics to the Sacramento Kings in February of 1989.

Former Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick broke this news to me at a large reception in the Hall’s sacred Plaque Gallery Saturday evening.

“Bet you didn’t know that Danny Ainge called me about coming back to baseball after Red traded him,” Gillick said. “I thought it was going to happen.”

“I considered it,” Ainge said Sunday over the phone from Utah. “I was intrigued because I really thought I could have succeeded in baseball.”

Read on for a few more tidbits like that one.

DHL Dan CLXXVI - Baseball Hall of Fame Musings

Shank's not too thrilled with the slate of recent inductees into Cooperstown:

Looking forward to voting for some slam-dunk Baseball Hall of Fame candidates in the coming years, and other thoughts

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Picked-up pieces while fondly remembering not-so-long-ago days when Red Sox and Patriots owners seemed to care more about winning than making money . . .

▪ Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

These are good dudes with impressive résumés, but theirs are not names that come to mind when fans talk about baseball immortality. Rolen is a career .281 hitter who had only one top-10 MVP season in a 17-year career and went hitless in the 2004 World Series against the Red Sox. He was voted in by the BBWAA in his sixth appearance on the ballot. McGriff was overlooked in 10 tries with the writers, never cracking 40 percent of the ballots (75 percent is required) before gaining admission via the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.

McGriff and Rolen were very good players but not first-round slam dunks of recent vintage such as Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jim Thome, Chipper Jones, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz.

It looks like the attitude was 'well, we have to induct somebody, so here they are.'

This part was amusing, at least for me:

...

▪ When New York Post sports reporter Howie Kussoy sat down to interview Mets outfielder Tommy Pham, the former Red Sox pulled out his cellphone and recorded the interview right along with Kussoy. I’ve had this happen only once. When I interviewed Larry Lucchino and Tom Werner for a book I wrote with Terry Francona, the Sox officials brought Dr. Charles Steinberg so they’d have their own recording of the session. Dueling recordings. It felt like the Nixon White House.

I talked to Shank a few years ago over the phone. The first thing he asked me was whether I was recording the conversation. I told him I was not, but I'm going to take a few notes if he didn't mind, and he didn't. Someone's got the Nixon thing down pat, all right.

DHL Dan CLXXV - Exit Stage Left

Shank wonders aloud who will be the next Boston athlete to be shown the door:

Wondering which Boston athlete will be the next to leave, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering which of our local athletes will be next to go . . .

▪ Marcus Smart. Tyler Bertuzzi. Nathan Eovaldi. Devin McCourty. Grant Williams. Taylor Hall. Xander Bogaerts. J.D. Martinez. Jakobi Meyers.

All gone.

Who’s next? Patrice Bergeron? David Krejci? Malcolm Brogdon? Trent Brown? Kendrick Bourne? James Paxton? Lawrence Guy? Kenley Jansen?

RELATED: Chad Finn: I understand trading Marcus Smart and letting Grant Williams get his payday elsewhere. But I cannot bring myself to like it. It’s the circle of life in professional sports. Fans invest their passions and dollars in favorite players, then get stuck with a Celtics No. 36 jersey hanging in their closet.

It’s been an emotional stretch here in the Hub of sports, with several popular players saying goodbye since the beginning of 2023. Bruins fans are upset to see Bertuzzi sign a one-year deal with Toronto, and some Green Teamers love Smart more than they love their own families. The retirement of McCourty hit hard, and hearing All-Star Eovaldi say how much he wanted to stay at Fenway was a gut punch to Red Sox Nation.

He's on the sidelines now, but Shank used to take a much more active interest in the departure of Boston athletes.

DHL Dan CLXXIV - Something To Cheer About

I remember Ted Williams for, among other things, being more than cantankerous, especially towards members of the press. Thus my surprise at reading this headline:

Ted Williams would be rooting for Luis Arraez to hit .400, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for a Fenway official scorer to give somebody an error …

▪ Ted Williams would be rooting for Miami Marlins star Luis Arraez to hit .400. Ted supported Rod Carew when Carew batted .388 in 1977, boosted George Brett when Brett finished at .390 in 1980, and cheered for Tony Gwynn when San Diego’s hit machine closed at .394 in the strike-shortened season of 1994.

Williams had zero old-guy bitterness toward players of any new generation. He once told me, “That [Paul] Molitor kid in Milwaukee reminds me of Joe DiMaggio. He’ll be in the Hall of Fame someday.”

Teddy Ballgame remains the last big leaguer to hit .400 (.406 in 1941), and he’d be encouraging Arraez in 2023.

Arraez was in Boston this past week and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to speak with a kid with a chance to be baseball’s first .400 hitter in 82 years. The Marlins have played more than half their season and Arraez left Fenway batting .392.

And if you think Shank's still ripping off / 'sampling' from Felger & Mazz, you'd be right:

▪ A reader points out that the Boston Red Sox have become the Minnesota Twins. Middle-market team. Middle-market payroll. Little star power. Forever .500 or worse. Chaim Bloom’s anonymous roster didn’t register a blip in All-Star fan voting.

Rumor Mill - Is The End Near?

Check out this tweet:

Angry Shank is turning 70 month. It's time to take that full Social Security payout and get the faack out of the business.... https://t.co/JkmqLKa3M6

— Boston Radio Watch®️ (@bostonradio) June 24, 2023

I'll update accordingly.

UPDATE, 11:24 AM - False alarm; here's the tweet that Cullinane was referencing:

It’s over. Has been for a while. Just grateful we got to do it when there were actual smart thoughtful fans/readers. https://t.co/yQJxqF5Yai

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) June 24, 2023

DHL Dan CLXXIII - The Cooz On The Celtics

Every couple of months Shank rings up Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy and gets his take on the current Celtics. Here he is talking about the Marcus Smart trade, and some other stuff:

Getting Bob Cousy’s take on a busy week for the Celtics, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while thinking about Marcus Smart’s place in Celtics history …

▪ Smart played 581 regular-season games in his nine seasons in the Boston backcourt. Other than Don Chaney, every Celtics guard who played more games than Smart has his number hanging over the parquet floor.

One of the above is 94-year-old Bob Cousy, who won six championships and was the NBA’s MVP in 1956-57. I reached out to the Cooz after Smart was dealt to the Grizzlies in a midnight deal late Wednesday.

Like just about every Celtics fan, Cousy has mixed feelings about Smart.

“I liked Smart,” said Mr. Basketball. “I didn’t like some of the things he did. He thought he was a point guard when he was not. His mind was more to create opportunities for himself. In my judgment, point guards have to come across midcourt thinking, ‘How am I going to set one of the other guys up?’ That was never his thing.

It bears repeating - less Shank, more Cooz = better column!

Who Got To Shank?

It's a legitimate question, isn't it?

Was the Red Sox’ doubleheader sweep more about their impending turnaround or the toothless Yankees?

Is this it?

Have the Red Sox finally returned to the “good times never seemed so good” days?

There were positive vibes all over the ballyard when the Sox pantsed the Yankees, 15-5, Friday. After Saturday’s rainout, I suspended my chronic skepticism and returned to Fenway for Sunday’s day-night doubleheader with the once-vaunted Bronx Bombers.

And the Red Sox won both, taking the day game, 6-2, then winning at night, 4-1 — both after falling behind in the first inning. These last-place Red Sox have come from behind in 23 of their 37 victories.

They have five straight wins after Monday night’s 9-3 rout of the Twins and have beaten the Yankees five out of six times. They are suddenly within a half-game of vaulting out of their American League East basement apartment. If George Steinbrenner were still alive, he’d have fired Aaron Boone for what the Sox did to the Yanks the last two weekends.

This is a marked turnaround from Shank's unrelenting criticisms from the previous months. I think it's a feint and I'm not buying it. What do you think his next Red Sox column's going to be about after a three game losing streak? Back to business as usual, that's what.

DHL Dan CLXXII - What Could Have Been

Alternate title - Shank finds a way to milk another column from the playoff exits of the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics:

For Boston sports fans, this weekend is one huge what-could-have-been, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while thinking about the prospect of DeAndre Hopkins with the Patriots …

▪ This should have been the mother of all Father’s Day weekends.

I know the mature thing is to acknowledge that the Celtics and Bruins have work to do and simply celebrate the Denver Nuggets and Vegas Golden Knights. But we are sports people and we are not mature and I can’t get the thought out of my head:

The Celtics and Bruins were favored to win the championship in their respective sports.

Which is why we should be getting ready for Game 7 of the NBA Finals at the Garden Sunday night, wondering whether Joe Mazzulla can figure out a defense to stop Nikola Jokic. The Celtics should be getting ready to raise Banner No. 18 over the parquet floor.

Game 7 was supposed to be on Causeway Street on Father’s Day night. And the Celtics would have been favored. Just as they were heavily favored in Game 7 against the Miami Heat … before Jayson Tatum turned into a pumpkin and Jaylen Brown a turnover machine.

Ah, and the Bruins? If all had gone according to plan, they’d have played Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final in Vegas Friday, squaring their series, 3-3. Game 7 would have been at the Garden Monday night — after the bull gang packed away the parquet for the summer and cleaned Celtic confetti from the lower bowl.

Back From Vacation

There's a reason Shank hasn't done a column for over a week, and he returns triumphant from his European vacation to tell us stuff we already know about the sorry state of the Boston Red Sox:

Taking a close look at the Red Sox after a little break — and the picture is not pretty

Celtics playoffs and a European vacation took me away from the Red Sox for many weeks (happy to report that not a single person in Milan asked me about Kiké Hernández), but the Internet and dreaded Fubo enabled me to keep an eye on the Local Nine, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts as the Sox get ready for their “big” weekend rematch with the Yankees at Fenway Park starting Friday.

Other than Baghdad Bob NESN talents, all of us who watched this team’s 21-14 start knew it was fool’s gold. Predictably, the Sox lost 21 of their next 33 (7-15 since May 20) and secured their now-traditional spot at the bottom of their division, a whopping 14 games out of first place.

Let’s not try to soften the reality by citing the strength of the AL East or crying, “They’d be one game out in the Central.” Your team plays in the American League East and when this year is over likely will have finished last three times in four years, and six times in 12 seasons.

If Shank's not happy with the state of the Red Sox, he could always bring it up with his boss, John Henry.

Not With You Guys Here

Mazz led off this afternoon's show by saying "Shaughnessy had an interesting tweet today". You be the judge:

A nice catch but actually bad optic for Red Sox because the zillion empty seats are the real takeaway here. https://t.co/NngsELaNz1

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) June 6, 2023

What, exactly, are the camera crew guys supposed to do, not show the stands? Should the Red Sox put a few hundred cardboard cutouts of people in the stands? Yeah, that'll fix it!

Who Said Irony Is Dead?

Presented without comment (as if it's necessary):

Please don’t be so negative. https://t.co/cuP6AJIqzL

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) June 4, 2023

DHL Dan CLXXI - Danny Ainge On The Celtics

After Shank's rip job on the 2022-2023 Boston Celtics (right below), where he called the team 'posers' and 'front-running frauds', we get a more sober and reasonable analysis of the team from the former Celtics player and general manager:

Danny Ainge, the principal architect of this Celtics team, has some thoughts on their playoff run

Picked-up pieces after six weeks of Celtics playoffs …

▪ I had a couple of conversations with Danny Ainge over the last two weeks. We spoke after the Celtics went down, 0-3, to the Heat and again after Monday’s disastrous Game 7 at the Garden.

Ainge, who has been gone from Boston for two seasons and now is CEO of basketball for the Utah Jazz, was the principal architect of this Celtics team that has underachieved despite getting to five conference finals in seven seasons. Ainge’s son, Austin, is director of player personnel for the Celtics, and Danny still speaks regularly with Green Teamers.

“I work for another company now, but I’m trying to defend my friends,” said Ainge. “I know Joe [Mazzulla]. I hired Joe four or five years ago to work in our G League. I still cheer for my friends.

“I don’t think the team quit on Joe. There was pretty good evidence they did not quit on the coach. I just think they weren’t playing well. The team’s overall confidence struggled after the comeback wins against Philly, which was really the highlight of the season.

“No coach can go through a series and not make mistakes, just like players make mistakes, but we saw some patterns of isolation basketball and going through stretches of not making threes. That’s not just with this group; we’ve seen this throughout the NBA. Teams go on these long 3-point droughts. Their energy level is higher when they make shots, and the Celtics are not unique in that aspect.

“I understand something’s got to change, but knowing every one of the players like I do, it’s hard to identify. They need to do some imaging. You’ve got to find out what went wrong, and nobody is certain if they’re not there every day. If you asked each player and each coach, they would all have a different reason. And it’s Brad [Stevens’s] job to really find out what needs to be changed.

Makes you wonder who the real fraud and poser is, doesn't it? Shank continues with the name calling of the Celtics, using descriptors as chokers and (again) front-runners. Keep it classy!

Finished Business

The 2023 Boston Celtics lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals last night in painful fashion. When a local sports team exits the playoffs, Shank is all over them and this one is no exception:

Celtics’ loss to Heat in Game 7 was a meltdown of epic proportions in Boston sports

There have been some stink bombs detonated by Boston teams in big games throughout the decades.

This may have been the most foul of all.

On a postcard-perfect Memorial Day, with the entire region braced for an 0-3 comeback that would mirror what those Curse-busting Red Sox did 19 years ago, the poser Celtics submitted a woeful Game 7 effort in the Eastern Conference finals and were thrashed by the so-much-mentally-tougher, eighth-seeded Miami Heat, 103-84, Monday night at the Garden.

So there. The Green Team’s spring of “Unfinished Business” is officially finished. And, sadly, the only takeaway is that your 2022-23 Celtics were front-running frauds. I mean, did they really deserve another trip to the Finals after the way they played with their food all year?

Don’t take it from me. Listen to NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley. At halftime of this embarrassment, Chuck told the TNT audience, “Watching these dumbass Celtics play is making my head hurt … It’s so bad to watch them play. There’s no ball movement, there’s no body movement, and its frustrating watching a team with this much talent just play stupid.’’

You can always tell one thing by the way this column starts out - when a local pro sports team is at its worst, Shank's at his best.

A Rip Job In The Making

Spotted at the Boston Garden last night:

I can’t wait. pic.twitter.com/6AwVn7sl3b

— Tucker Silva (@TuckSilva) May 30, 2023

Two Ways To Make History

Sounds like Shank's about to hop back on the bandwagon, doesn't it?

Instead of being history, the Celtics have a real chance to make history after dominating Heat in Game 5

It’s been building since they took back the night in the second half of Game 4 in Miami, and now it feels very real. The Boston Celtics are halfway home to a return to the NBA Finals.

One hundred and fifty NBA teams have tried, and 150 have failed, but your Celtics think they can become the first team in league history to recover from a 3-0 playoff deficit. The Celtics blew the roof off the Causeway Street gym Thursday, bolting to a 17-point first-quarter lead, pushing it to 24 in the fourth, and running the Heat out of town in with a wire-to-wire 110-97 Game 5 victory.

Shank's very familiar with the concept of running things out of town.

Anything Can Happen

The Boston Celtics won Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals last night to give them some hope. Naturally, Shank brings up an event from nine years ago:

Celtics got their first win over Heat, and Kevin Millar knows anything can happen now

MIAMI — What now? Does Kevin Millar come to the Garden Thursday with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s?

It’s only one game, but the Celtics crawled out of a hole Tuesday and finally beat the Heat, 116-99, to stay alive in their Eastern Conference final series. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez were at the game and I’m hoping some wiseguy asked The Captain if he believes a team from Boston can win four straight after trailing, three games to none.

Between now and Thursday, the Celtics and their fans will be reminding everyone that the Red Sox turned that trick against the Yankees in 2004.

They shouldn't, but they just might do so.

When the Celtics were annihilated in Game 3 Sunday, Millar knew his phone was going to blow up.

“I get requests for hockey teams, high school teams, you name it,” he said Monday. “I had to do one for Chad Bradford [Millar’s teammate with the Sox in ‘05] the other day. He called me and said, ‘Hey, buddy, haven’t seen you in a while. Need you to make a call for me to inspire a team I’m coaching. Can you send ‘em a message?’

“Until somebody else does it, that clip lives forever and it gets used for any team that gets down, 3-0.”

And now for the fun part:

...

“That clip” refers to Millar’s maniacal message of optimism that was beautifully captured in ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary, “Four Days in October."

Millar was wired for sound as he bounced around Fenway in the hours before Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS. The Sox had been savaged, 19-8, at Fenway one night earlier and trailed in the series, 3-0. But Millar was upbeat, telling everyone, “Don’t let us win this game. Don’t count the Sox out. It never happened in the history of baseball, but if there’s a group of idiots that can do it, it’s us."

He was eager to talk with me that night because I’d written that the Sox were in danger of being remembered as a “pack of frauds” if they got broomed by the Yankees.

Disgraceful

That's the rather harsh word Shank uses to describe last night's 'effort' by the Boston Celtics:

Game 3 was a disgraceful performance by the once-proud Celtics. Even though it’s not over, don’t you want it to be?

MIAMI — A lifetime of incorrect predictions has taught me that it’s dangerous to prematurely state that any series is over. Yogi Berra was right. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

But man, oh, man. Don’t you just want this Celtics season to be over?

In another hail of turnovers, technicals, airballs, matador defenses, and nonstop complaints to the officials, the once-proud Boston Celtics were defeated yet again by the estimable, eighth-seeded Miami Heat Sunday, 128-102. Miami led by 8 after one, by 15 at the half, and stretched it to 33 midway through the third. At that point, it felt as if the Celtics had simply quit.

And yet poor coach Joe Mazzulla still will not say anything bad about his rollover players.

“I just didn’t have ‘em ready to play,’’ said the kid coach. “I should have . . . Whatever it was, I have to get them in a better place. That’s on me . . . I think they’re doing everything they can . . . I just didn’t execute the proper game plan. It’s on me to be better so they can play better.’’

DHL Dan CLXX - Put Up Or Shut Up

Alternate title - Shank's off the bandwagon:

It’s put up or shut up time for Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and other thoughts

MIAMI — Picked-up pieces while noting the loss of Jim Brown, the greatest football player who ever lived …

▪ The shocked and chagrinned Celtics have taken their significant talents to South Beach after metaphorical victory cigars exploded in their faces in two games at the Garden.

The eighth-seeded Miami Heat outhustled and outplayed your not-as-good-as-they-think-they-are Celtics and now the Eastern Conference finals move to Miami for Game 3 Sunday night at Kaseya Center.

It’s put up or shut up for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who were named two of the league’s top 10 players in 2022-23. Tatum and Brown carry themselves as if they have won multiple championships. By Boston Celtic standards, they have won nothing. And this is supposed to be their time.

The two Jays were no-show, turnover machines in crunch time of the stunning losses (the C’s are 4-5 at home in these playoffs). Boston blew a 13-point lead in Game 1, and led by 12 in the first minute of the fourth on Friday. Tatum did not record a basket in the fourth quarter of either loss. Brown on Friday was ineffective at both ends, scoring a mere 16 points and getting torched by the undrafted likes of Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson.