The Only Winning Move Is Not To Play

That's Shank's opinion (one that I share) about Boston not getting the 2024 Summer Olympic Games:

Not hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics is the best thing that never happened to Boston

Billionaire Charles Dolan almost bought the Red Sox in 2001. We have seen what he and his family have done to the Knicks. We dodged a big bullet there.

Bob Kraft almost moved the Patriots to Hartford in 1998. Kraft announced that it was a done deal. Fortunately, it was only a threat, and the Patriots never left Foxborough.

The list goes on. The Red Sox almost traded for Alex Rodriguez in the winter of 2003-04. The Celtics almost re-signed Kyrie Irving three years ago.

Oh, and back in 2015, Boston actually made a bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Seven months after the US Olympic Committee designated Boston as the American city best equipped to bid for the Games, we withdrew our application. The 2024 Games will take place in Paris.

At least Shank's consistent with this opinion.

Shank's Victory Lap

After Boston mayor Marty Walsh nuked the 2024 Boston Summer Olympics, Shank does his end-zone dance, and rightly so.

Mercifully, our short regional nightmare is over.

Kaput. Done. Ov-ah.

The ridiculous notion that we might play host to the 2024 Olympics officially died Monday afternoon when the United States Olympic Committee and Boston 2024 announced they’d mutually agreed to withdraw the Boston bid. Thank goodness. Free at last. This was one of the worst ideas since Bob Kraft told us he was moving the Patriots to Hartford. It was obvious from Day One that Boston 2024 was doomed.

Better sooner than later. Mayor of Boston Marty Walsh cut his losses early Monday when he informed the world that our city was not willing to give the USOC the financial guarantees it would need to present Boston as a bid city for 2024. A few hours later, the death of Boston’s bid was official.

In a rare departure from our masthead, go forth and read this entire column, for a rare moment or two of insight and eloquence from Shank is revealed:

We don’t need this. We never needed this. The Olympics have become the province of autocratic societies. That is not us. We are a free people.
...
The death of Boston 2024 is a victory for the Hub of the Universe. It’s a triumph for rational thought. It’s a statement that we are not stupid.

Faster, Higher, Stronger. That’s the Olympic motto.

Smarter. That’s the Boston motto. Good luck to the host city of the 2024 Games. It’s not our problem anymore.

Sadly, from here he will digress from this statesmanship into petty hatred of the New England Patriots once a) the NFL decision on Tom Brady is handed down and / or b) training camp opens up.

It was nice while it lasted...

What A Difference Three Hours Makes

Shank's tweet on Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, discussing opposition to the Boston bid for the 2024 Olympic Games:

Boston Herald's headline, three hours later:

Boston Bid for Olympics is over after Walsh Speech

I can't wait to hear why Walsh had an apparent and sudden change of heart. Until then, RIP, Boston 2024!

No To Boston 2024

Shank watched last night's debate between the big guns of the pro and con Boston 2024 camps and devotes his latest column to it.

This blog agrees with the No to Boston 2024 side, and Shank continues to take this same stance. Hell has just opened a new gate!

Memorable debates.

There was Lincoln-Douglas. Kennedy-Nixon. Will Ferrell’s “Frank the Tank” vs. James Carville in “Old School.”

And now Steve Pagliuca and Daniel Doctoroff vs. Chris Dempsey and Andrew Zimbalist in the Boston 2024 Olympic debate, which aired Thursday night on Fox 25.

We tuned in hoping for one of those famous debate moments — something like Gerald Ford claiming there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, or Ronald Reagan stating, “I am paying for this microphone.’’ We would have even settled for Pags spanking Dempsey with, “I knew Red Auerbach. Red Auerbach was a friend of mine. You, sir, are no Red Auerbach.’’

The best we got was Zimbalist saying, “Most of the numbers I look at reflect drunken optimism.’’

Ouch. That one hurt

Good column by Shank... look - another gate just opened!

Shank On Boston 2024, Part IV

Shank's been having quite a blast these past few weeks, from DeflateGate to the epic suck that so far has been the 2015 Boston Red Sox season. He now half rewrites the same No To Boston 2024 column for the third, or fourth, or even fifth time. In all this excitement, I can barely keep count myself!

We need a volcano.

The 1908 Summer Olympic Games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. The Rome 1908 committee (I believe it was fronted by Stephano Pagliuca and Giovanni Fish) secured the bid for the IV Olympiad and everything was all set until Mount Vesuvius erupted on April 7, 1906, burying Rome and Pompeii in volcanic ash. The IOC relocated the Olympic Games to London.

At this hour, Boston needs some molten lava to stop the madness around the 2024 Olympic bid.

In six short months, Boston 2024 has become a punchline. Someday folks will look back at this misguided effort and compare it to “Gigli,” the PT Cruiser, and Google Glass . . . one more bad idea from the early part of the 21st century. Boston 2024 needs to be put out of its misery. The sooner the better.

Here's an interesting tidbit:

Still, the folks running Boston 2024 don’t seem to like us. Last Monday they bailed on meeting with the Globe’s editorial board because they did not want news people attending the meeting (on an off-the-record-basis), which had been planned for two weeks.

That tells you one or two things - the Boston 2024 organizers don't want you to know certain things, and from that, you shouldn't trust them as far as you can throw them.

As a reminder, this is one issue where DSW agrees with Shank. Read the rest of the column for other interesting nuggets.