DHL Dan CCCV - Tripping

Well, if Shank can take a few weeks off, why can't I?

Shank's last column tries to hit on unfamiliar ground:

Watching the Red Sox from the front row of baseball’s alternate universe has been quite the trip, and other thoughts

A baby boomer who came of age in the counterculture late 1960s, I missed America’s troubling recreational teen drug scene. No psychedelics for me. Not even a toke of weed. I was always afraid Groton police chief Mayo Darling would burst through the door of my dorm room.

So now I wonder if watching the 2026 Red Sox is giving my aging peers flashbacks to their post-Woodstock, hallucinogenic experiences of more than a half-century ago? Is this what that was like? Profound sensory distortion? An altered cognitive state?

Seriously, folks. Since the end of June, Sox fans have shared box seats in the front row of baseball’s alternate universe. Go ask Alex (Speier). Up is down and down is up. Caleb Durbin is Wade Boggs and Ceddanne Rafaela is Reggie Smith. The team that couldn’t win is the team that can’t lose. With apologies to Grace Slick, the man on the chessboard is telling us where to go. White Knight Tom Caron is talking backward, and logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead. Once 14 games under .500 and 15½ games behind the Yankees, the Red Sox enter Sunday within 1½ games of the Yanks and look like a sure playoff team.

The Fire Sale

This will go down as one of the worst trades in sports history:

Jaylen Brown for Paul George: 40 cents on the dollar, and one of the worst trades in Boston sports history

Stupefying.

What is going on with the Boston Celtics?

In a town with three teams who are regularly second-guessed and sometimes openly mocked — hello, 2026 Red Sox — the Celtics have been our standard of excellence, smarts, and stability.

Sure there have been some low moments. The Sidney Wicks-Curtis Rowe days were rough, and fans still cringe at memories of the Rick Pitino and M.L. Carr eras. But by and large, the Celtics have been on the right path, giving us reason to believe they’re readying to hang another banner from the Garden rafters.

Not today.

News broke Wednesday night that the Celtics had shipped 29-year-old superstar Jaylen Brown to their forever-rival Philadelphia 76ers for 36-year-old Paul George and a raft of future draft picks — firsts for 2028 and ’31, and a pair of seconds — that will have no immediate impact.

I'm not even sure it's 40 cents on the dollar - The Brown / George contracts are in the same range so there's no salary relief here, an ostensible reason to trade away Jaylen Brown's max contract. I supose the thinking here is not having to give Jaylen a max contract extension when you also have Tatum in a max contract.

DHL Dan CCCIV - The Almost Jaylen Brown Trade

Last week's big NBA trade (that didn't happen) was the Boston Celtics dealing away Jaylen Brown to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Here's Shank taking half of his Picked Up Pieces column takling about... Manny Ramirez?

Can Jaylen Brown be like Manny Ramirez and brush off nearly being traded?

Picked-up pieces during hydration breaks and stoppage time . . .

⋅ Never thought it would come to this, but Boston needs Jaylen Brown to be like Manny Ramirez. Not like Nomar Garciaparra.

In December 2003, two months after the Red Sox’ epic collapse against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, the Sox agreed to deal savant slugger Manny and wildly popular Garciaparra in a three-team deal that would have delivered Alex Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez to Fenway Park. It all seemed pretty done. We even saw Red Sox infielder Kevin Millar on ESPN, smiling, telling Dan Patrick, “We’ll take A-Rod!”

The whole thing collapsed a few days later because of complexities involving Rodriguez’s massive contract and MLB’s Players Association, but the baseball world knew the Sox had been ready to part with both stars.

It made for a big bowl of awkward at spring training in 2004, but Boston’s “slighted” superstars took separate paths. Manny walked around smiling, saying, “They put me on eBay,” while drum-tight Nomar sulked and said, “The priorities are obviously not for me . . . I was definitely hurt by a lot of it.”

“My first day on the job in Boston was after all that had gone down,” former Red Sox manager Terry Francona remembered this past week. “It was unbelievable. Welcome to the Red Sox, right? Manny was yelling about being on eBay, but he sort of laughed about it and got over it. And he always hit. I remember John Henry telling me when I got there, ‘Keep him on the field. That’s your job.’ ”

DHL Dan CCCIII - Eddie Andleman, RIP

I didn't listen to sports talk radio a whole lot back when Eddie Andleman and others were on the airwaves, but it sure sounds like Shank did:

Eddie Andelman gave us sports talk radio gold with his no-holds-barred interview of Wade Boggs in 1989

Picked-up pieces while begging the Tartan Army to come back every year …

⋅ New England’s sports talk airwaves have been far less interesting since Eddie Andelman retired in 2010, and there were tributes aplenty when Eddie died this past Monday. A pioneer of the genre, he was hilarious, kind, charitable, combustible, and eternally devoted to his family, the Red Sox, the Celtics, the Hot Dog Safari, and the Kowloon. Eddie was one of one.

He brought me into radio in the mid-1980s, and I’ll always remember some advice he gave during a commercial break in one of my first days.

“Dan, sometimes you think before you answer a question,” Eddie said. “Any kind of silence is bad for radio. Don’t think about what you’re going to say. Just start talking.”

Says a lot about sports talk radio, doesn’t it?

My favorite show with Eddie was a dinner-hour special at the USA Inn in Winter Haven, Fla., during Red Sox spring training in 1989. Ever embroiled in controversies, Wade Boggs was a favorite Eddie target and didn’t like Boston’s favorite blab-master. I told Boggs that Eddie was in town doing shows for three nights and wanted him as a guest. The future Hall of Famer smiled mischievously and said, “Can’t wait.”

On that fateful Friday night, our “studio” was a table in the middle of the Florida fleabag’s sprawling lobby. A handful of sunburned spring-breaking Sox fans served as our “live studio audience.”

A potential shitshow interview in the making here? I'm all for it!

DHL Dan CCCII - Rooting For A Shitcanning

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank wonders about the employment status of Craing Breslow:

Maybe the Red Sox should replace Craig Breslow, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while debating whether to watch Haiti-Scotland World Cup or Knicks-Spurs Game 5 Saturday night . . .

⋅ Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver rarely held “team meetings” when the Orioles were struggling.

“Why would I have a meeting if we’re going bad?” Weaver reasoned. “Suppose we have a big meeting then go out and lose the next game. What do I do then?”

This is where the Red Sox find themselves as they lurch into the middle third of their sorry season. Fenway Sports Group and Craig Breslow nuked face-of-the-franchise manager Alex Cora and six of his coaches after merely 27 games of the 2026 season. Now that the Red Sox look even worse, it’s bad optics to fire chief baseball officer Breslow, even though it’s fairly obvious he’s a huge part of the problem.

Asked Thursday about the possibility of replacing Breslow, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy told WEEI, “It’s not even on the table.” Swell. But it should be on the table.

If part of your earlier response was to fire Alex Cora and most of his staff, then maybe you should consider Breslow as well. That would depend on what direction ownership truly wants - to win or to maximize profits.

Not Feeling The Excitement

The 2026 World Cup, hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States this time around, is currently taking place. Here's Shank to take a dump on the event:

We are Boston, so can we stop worrying and just enjoy the World Cup? Doubt it.

The World Cup is here and it’s all the rage in Greater Boston.

You can’t gas up your car, pick up an iced coffee at Dunks, or take a walk through your neighborhood without engaging in a conversation about Haiti vs. Scotland Saturday night in Foxborough. Every grade schooler from Eastport to Block Island knows that French superstar Kylian Mbappé has a chance to break the World Cup’s all-time scoring mark before the month is out. World Cup fever is a local epidemic.

Actually, none of this is true.

Here in the Route 1 corridor between Boston and Foxborough, the vaunted Cup has largely been a source of irritation and inconvenience. Ticket prices are astronomical, transportation promises to be confusing, local municipalities worry about congestion/security, and advocates have warned international fans about heightened immigration scrutiny.

Sounds like a party, no?

There was lots of celebration when FIFA — soccer’s ever-suspicious and all-powerful worldwide governing body — named Boston one of its 11 American host cities in June 2022. But our four-year run-up has been a study in chaos, confusion, and fiscal uncertainty.

Big surprise, right? I mean, did we really expect smooth sailing and universal agreement in a process that involves FIFA, the MBTA, the FBI, the governor of Massachusetts, the mayor of Boston, the mighty Foxborough Select Board, Meet Boston, Robert Kraft’s estimable empire, and mega-sponsors such as Coca-Cola and State Street?

I think that,by and large,these complaints are commonplace with any city that's hosting an event where tens of thousands of people are descending on a stadium for a few hours, so this isn't unique to Boston / Foxborough as Shank's made it out to be. Second - I had a temp job where I worked the five games that were hosted at the okd Foxborough Stadium when the United States hosted the event in 1994, so I've watched it ever since that time. Third - I was at a CVS today and ran into two gents from Scotland, and one of them was wearing a kilt. I talked to them for a few minutes and they mentioned the three hours it took them to get back to Quincy from last night's match at Foxborough, so Shank's right about that part. Still, the point stands - this isn't a uniquely Boston thing.

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.