DHL Dan CCCI - Talk Of The Town

First off - that's the title of a very nice song from The Pretenders.

Now, onto Shank's weekly Picked Up Pieces column! The Boston Red Sox have been doing terrible this year, currently mired in last place in the American League East and shipping former starting pitcher Brayan Bello to Worcester after crapping out in his last start yesterday. On sports talk radio, the sorry state of the team has been fodder for weeks, yet Shank says...

In this sad Red Sox spring of 2026, they’re no longer the talk of the town, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for Mickey Gasper to sign a multiyear deal with W.B. Mason . . .

My morning routine takes me on a slow neighborhood jog and I regularly cross paths with a couple of sports fans who’ll often comment on the latest events involving our local teams.

“How about those Sox?” I teased as I shuffled past the guys this past week.

“We don’t talk about them anymore,” said one of them. “We just talk about A.J. Brown.”

Bingo. Such is the tone of most sports conversation in this sad Sox spring of 2026.

It’s early June and the Sox are the only game in town, but they’re largely ignored on local sports airwaves. If you visit a Hub saloon, the TV over the bar will probably feature golf, the Knicks, Roland Garros, or Stephen A. Smith ripping Jaylen Brown.

That last bolded part is 1,000 percent pure, unadulterated bullshit. Check out any podcast from 98.5 The Sports Hub in recent weeks for this demonstrably false assertion / statement.

The Hate Watch?

I don't know about the rest of you, but that's not something I'm into. Then there's this guy:

Even though the Celtics bowed out of the NBA playoffs, there’s plenty of incentive to watch the Knicks

Picked-up pieces while thinking there should be a racehorse named “Tartabull’s Throw” . . .

⋅ The historically much-harpooned New York Knicks are in the NBA Finals, which might make some of you envious.

Fear not. It’s going to be a fun fortnight of hate-watching.

Even though the Celtics (a higher seed than the Knicks) bowed out of the NBA playoffs four weeks ago, there’s plenty of incentive to follow the Knicks as they attempt to win their first NBA championship since Richard Nixon was president.

Mocking the Knicks has been a local sports tradition for most of the eight decades of NBA history.

Your Celtics and the New York Knickerbockers were two of the original 11 franchises (along with the Washington Capitols, coached by 29-year-old Red Auerbach) when the Basketball Association of America was formed in 1946. The league became the NBA in 1949.

With the Boston Celtics out of the playoff picture, note how the team is all yours now. Thanks, Shank!

DHL Dan CCC - Here's To The Fans

Just what the doctor ordered - a fan friendly column:

Offering up a toast to New England sports fans. It’s different here, for the better, and other thoughts.

Picked-up pieces while noting that only Jaylen Brown could have all of America rooting for Stephen A. Smith . . .

⋅ Here’s a toast to New England sports fans, especially those who read the Globe.

I grew up reading these pages and got my first byline in 1973. More than 60 years of reading the Globe and writing for its pages convinces me that our readers are the smartest, funniest, and most passionate sports fans/readers in the world. We enjoy a back-and-forth with readers that’s unique in American sports journalism.

Here’s proof:

The Bruins are done for this season, but like many of you, I still keep an eye on the playoffs, and I watched the Canadiens beat the starving Sabres in overtime in Game 7 Monday.

Tuesday morning at 9, I got this email from a random Globe reader:

“Long live the Adams Division!!! Montreal, Quebec, and Hartford still alive! Sound the Brass Bonanza!”

DHL Dan CCXCIX - Interim Managers

Interim Red Sox managers isn't a new thing. Shank called up Walpole Joe and got his take on the new guy:

Joe Morgan, the greatest interim manager in baseball history, knows what Chad Tracy is dealing with, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Super Bowl rematch when the Patriots visit Seattle Sept. 9 …

⋅ With the 2026 Red Sox wrapping their third week under “interim” manager Chad Tracy, it’s time to hear from the greatest interim manager in baseball history, Walpole’s Joe Morgan.

“What the hell happened to [Alex] Cora and all those coaches?” Morgan asked when I reached him at his home this past week. “Boston is tough, isn’t it?”

Not for Joe Morgan, it wasn’t.

Pull up a chair and listen, young’uns: Way back in 1988, the star-studded, underachieving Red Sox fired crusty skipper John McNamara July 14, and named Morgan — who’d been their Triple-A manager for nine seasons — interim manager.

Morgan’s Red Sox ripped off 12 straight wins, and 19 of 20, climbing from nine games out of first to one game back in three torrid weeks. Morgan shed “interim” six days into the surge and signed a contract extension through 1989 just three weeks after taking over.

DHL Dan CCXCVIII - The Ted Turner Column

Ted Turner, owner of the Atlanta Braves and creator of CNN, passed away last week. Shank recalls Ted actually managing the Braves for one game:

Ted Turner managed the Braves (for one game). Imagining what it would be like if that happened in Boston, and other thoughts.

Picked-up pieces while wondering if Joe Mazzulla would have started Denny Galehouse against the Cleveland Indians in the 1948 one-game playoff …

⋅ Imagine if John Henry made himself manager of the Red Sox.

Ted Turner did this when he owned the Atlanta Braves.

For just one day.

Turner, the bombastic tycoon who revolutionized TV journalism, died Wednesday in Florida at the age of 87. His New York Times obituary called him a “media mogul who cut a brash and vivid figure … extending his restless reach into professional sports, environmentalism, and philanthropy.”

All true.

Turner also was a big league baseball manager. For just one day.

With his Braves in the throes of a 16-game losing streak in May 1977, Turner, who was in his second year as owner, gave his manager, Dave Bristol, a 10-day sabbatical, and made himself manager for a night game in Pittsburgh.

Next Up On The Boston Coach Chopping Block

The Boston Celtics predictably lose a playoff series after launching three pointers like they were bombing Dresden:

Stubborn Joe Mazzulla and his Jayson Tatum-less, three-obsessed Celtics got the fate they deserved in Game 7

Hello darkness.

The sounds of silence will be heard on Causeway Street over the next few months now that the Bruins and Celtics have been eliminated on back-to-back nights at the West End barn.

Exactly when did TD Garden become our Tomb of Doom? Let the record show that starting April 21, the Bruins and Celtics lost six consecutive home playoff games, ending their seasons with a thud on the first weekend in May.

Saturday night it was the Jayson Tatum-less Celtics succumbing to their ancient rival Philadelphia 76ers, 109-100, losing in infuriating fashion as a hail of Boston’s 3-point shots clanged off Garden rims down the stretch.

Any bets on when spreadsheet coach Joe Mazzula gets booted? I was hoping for midnight last night.

DHL Dan CCXCVII - Q & A Session

Speaking for 'the fans', a favorite / classic tactic for passive aggressiveness, Shank airs out 'fan' grievances like it was Festivus:

Red Sox fans have more questions than answers about their last-place team, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces in the aftermath of last weekend’s “Knives Out” Red Sox blockbuster …

⋅ The Sox on Friday returned to Fenway for a weekend series with the Astros after an unforgettable 3-3 road trip that further damaged one of baseball’s great brands. They started May in last place with a new manager, a raft of new coaches, and a 12-19 record, eight games behind the Yankees.

Boston fans have more questions than answers in the wake of the Saturday night massacre that took down Alex Cora and six of his coaches.

Let’s start with third-year president of baseball operations Craig Breslow. Exactly what has Breslow done to earn his status as King of the Red Sox? Team CEO Sam Kennedy says the axing of Cora and six coaches was entirely Breslow’s call, a decision that Kennedy says ownership “fully supported.”

“He wanted to fire everybody who was here before he got here,” a source told The Athletic.

Breslow's status is Chief Penny Pincher for the Red Sox; just think 'sports and spreadsheets'.

Shitcanned

Alex Cora's reign as Red Sox manager is over, and Shank's not entirely happy about it:

It wasn’t Alex Cora’s fault the Red Sox roster stinks, and he shouldn’t have been fired over it

There you go.

The Saturday Night Massacre.

Settling All Family Business.

Officially speaking, the Red Sox are a clown show. They are the Chuck Sullivan-Clive Rush Boston Patriots. They are the San Diego Clippers under Donald Sterling. They are the 21st-century New York Jets.

Where to start?

The Sox fired pretty much everybody last night while the team was in Baltimore, basking in the afterglow of a 17-1 victory over the Orioles — sort of like that dark day in ’65 when they fired their GM on the day that young Dave Morehead pitched a no-hitter. It turns out that Fenway fans chanting, “Sell the team,” and a 10-17 start were too much for owner John Henry and president of baseball ops Craig Breslow to bear.

He was fied in large part because his heart was no longer into the job.

DHL Dan CCXCVI - Eraser

Shank spots what seems to be a Trotsky-esque revision of the past by eliminating one of its participants:

Why does it seem like the Red Sox are trying to erase Larry Lucchino from franchise lore, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if 76er Paul George has met American sci-fi author John Ringo . . .

⋅ What’s up with Fenway Sports Group’s not-so-subtle campaign to erase Larry Lucchino?

Lucchino, who died in the spring of 2024, had enormous impact on FSG’s Red Sox success for 14 seasons but is hard to find in a new team statement and video celebrating “25 seasons of stewardship” since John Henry’s group purchased the ball club in 2002.

Those of us who were there from 2002-15 remember how the “new” owners presented themselves as a united trio: Henry, TV magnate Tom Werner, and Lucchino, a visionary ballpark builder who came into baseball with the Orioles under Edward Bennett Williams in 1979.

It was always “John, Tom, and Larry.” After Theo Epstein came on board as boy wonder general manager, they were “Theo and the trio.”

Four months after Lucchino died, Henry said, “The three of us had one of the greatest rides in sports history . . . He [Lucchino] was as much a part of Red Sox history as any part of the organization.”

And yet it’s hard to find his place in team history when one views FSG’s silver anniversary celebration.

DHL Dan CCXCV - The Best Draw

Shan's enjoying this time of year sportswise, and especially so the Celtics' first round opponent:

Younger fans may not know, but there’s real history in a Celtics-Sixers playoff series, and other thoughts

Picked up pieces while blissfully living my sports life in the Wayback Machine . . .

⋅ We’ve got playoffs. We’ve got rivalries. Sweet.

The Bruins will play the Buffalo Sabres in the first round of the Stanley Cup tournament. While this may not conjure memories of B’s-Habs, seven men on the ice, or Dryden between the pipes, it’s great to see the locals playing a fellow American franchise 400 miles to our west. The Bruins have faced the long-suffering Buffs eight times in the playoffs, including 2010, when Boston’s rookie coach Marco Sturm was on the ice for the Black & Gold.

...

All of which brings us to Celtics-76ers for the NBA record 23d time!

I could not be happier.

A week ago, there were still six possibilities for Boston’s first-round opponent, including Atlanta, Miami, Toronto, Charlotte, and Orlando. Also known as Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, and Boring.

No thanks to all of ‘em, especially Orlando, who couldn’t even beat Boston’s third string last Sunday in a game the Magic had real incentive to win. We saw those boring bums in the first round last year. Zzz.

Instead, we get the once-hated Sixers and their frustrated fans. Perfect. Too bad Joel Embiid had an appendectomy last week. His presence would have made this even better.

DHL Dan CCXCIV - Careful What You Wish For

As the Boston Celtics begin their playoff run this year, Shank's hoping they meet up with the team that defeated them last season in the second round:

Here’s hoping for a Celtics-Knicks rematch in the playoffs, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Celtics in the NBA playoffs again …

The drudgery is almost over. The regular season ends Sunday night at the Garden against Orlando, and the playoffs start next weekend.

Thursday’s regular-season game No. 80, a steel-cage-match loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, was a nice tease for what’s ahead. It felt like the first playoff game of 2026. The first half had 10 lead changes and seven ties. Playing without Jaylen Brown (Achilles tendinitis), the Celtics fell behind by 13 in the second half, rallied to take a 7-point lead, then lost by 6 when Josh Hart went all Andrew Toney in the final seconds.

Wouldn’t it be great if the Celtics and Knicks meet in the second round of the playoffs just like last year? These original league franchises have played one another 575 times, including 15 playoff series, and it was the Knicks who ended Boston’s season last May in six unsightly games, after Jayson Tatum blew out his Achilles in Game 4 at MSG.

No, it wouldn't be great - if the Celtics continue to chuck up dozens and dozens of three point shots, they'll losego cold for a few games like they did last year and lose the series again.

Opening Day

I went to one Red Sox home opener. It was in the late 1980's, bleacher seats and I was there with someone from school. We get to the sixth inning and a guy about three rows in front of us gets up and drops trou. She shrieked; I'm like 'full moon, baby!'

That sort of thing doesn't happen nowadays, but after an awful first set of games, the Red Sox kicked off the start of the home games on the right foot:

A new season at Fenway, as it always does, conjures up the memories

Booed yesterday. Cheered today.

You’re never as good as you look when you win or as bad as you look when you lose. The only certainty in the Boston Baseball Experience is that in one form or another, it’s always about the past.

You can embrace 2026 with its robotic umps, player empowerment, in-game celebrations, and starting pitchers who get a parade if they last six innings.

But at the end of every Fenway opener, it’s winning or losing and how a particular game compares with stuff that happened 20, 40, maybe 100 years ago in this same sacred space.

The last-place Red Sox — tied for worst record in baseball with the lowly A’s and ChiSox at the start of the day — defeated the Padres, 5-2, at Fenway Park in the 126th home opener for the team originally known at the Boston Americans.

DHL Dan CCXCIII - Rember When?

I don't always remember where I was for every seismic sporting event. I remeber where I was when the ball went between Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series because I was watching the game with some Mets fans who went absolutely apeshit when it happened. I also remember the Tuck Rule game, because I went to bed as soon as I saw it happen, convinced it was a fumble. And now, we have the latest thing that makes you jump off of your couch:

You’ll always remember where you were when Braylon Mullins shot UConn into Final Four, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Red Sox to stagger into Fenway for their 126th home opener . . .

⋅ Where were you when UConn’s Braylon Mullins launched the shot heard ’round basketball America?

I was alone in my TV room/man cave, eyes glued to the giant flatscreen as the beautiful orange sphere flew 35 feet, then ripped through the netting with nary a trace of iron. I hollered, “Wow!” or some other profound remark that no one could hear. Not even the chair.

I starting thinking of friends and family across the land, wondering where they were watching, and how they were reacting.

Was former Globe columnist Leigh Montville watching? Montville’s a proud UConn alum who goes back to the days of Wes Bialosuknia and Toby Kimball. I knew he’d made a small purchase at Jordan’s Furniture during the “your furniture will be free if UConn’s men’s and women’s teams play for the championship” window. For sure, Leigh was watching.

What about Jim Calhoun? He’s a Braintree guy who first coached at Dedham High School, then had Reggie Lewis at Northeastern, and wound up at UConn, where he won the school’s first three men’s NCAA basketball championships. No doubt Calhoun was watching. Maybe he was there.

DHL Dan CCXCII - Mild Criticism

You figure if a team plays bad, Shank's all over them, right? Last week's Picked Up Pieces column, leading off with the Sox's Game 2 loss to the Cincinnatti Reds, doesn't throw much of a punch:

Red Sox’ run prevention looks a lot like 2025 in the early going, and other thoughts

CINCINNATI ― Picked up pieces from four days on the road with the Red Sox . . .

Saturday’s 11-inning, 6-5 loss to the Reds in front of 38,298 at Great American Ball Park was one of the most entertaining Game 2’s in baseball history.

Exaggeration? Of course. But who’s going to argue? There’ve been a lot of memorable Opening Days, but Game 2’s generally dissolve into the ether as emphatically forgettable. Just one of 162.

Not this one. The Sox were sloppy early as Sonny Gray struggled in his Sox debut. Boston trailed, 5-3, in the late innings, but were lifted by Wilyer Abreu (do they have a better hitter than this guy?), who roped an RBI double to cut it to 5-4 in the seventh, then hit a two-out, ninth- inning homer off flamethrower Emilio Pagán to send the game into extras.

The Reds won it in the 11th when Dane Myers singled home TJ Friedl on an 0-1 pitch from Justin Slaten.

Speaking of flamethrowing, I wonder when Shank's going to torch the team again? Stay tuned!

Red Sox Roundup

Shank's done a lot of columns about the 2025 Boston Red Sox over the last couple of weeks and I havent, so let's get all caught up!

With this column, Shank straddles the fence on a good but possibly flawed team, followed up by saying nice things abuth their opening day win.

DHL Dan CCXCI - Sidelined

I wonder if Shank wrote the following stuff with any sense of irony:

It may be March Madness to the rest of the country, but around here we’re feeling a little left out, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while reminding you to say “thanks” to Chaim Bloom for Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, Trevor Story, Garrett Whitlock, and Marcelo Mayer . . .

⋅ Ever feel like there’s a big party going on and we’re not invited? (like a certain pregame Super Bowl Breakfast in 1995? - ed.)

Welcome to March Madness, Massachusetts style.

Across America, college basketball is all the rage. Everybody’s got a bracket and every television in every bar features 10 college players running up and down some court in Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, Buffalo, or Baton Rouge. Bill Raftery is once again ubiquitous and the nation is agog at the skill sets of Sarah Strong and AJ Dybantsa. If you check anything on Google this week, you’ll notice the site’s search option features an image of a basketball rattling through a rim as the clock ticks down to zero.