DHL Dan CCXVII - Hall Of Fame Worthy?

That's the question Shank has about former Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia:

Is Dustin Pedroia a Hall of Famer? We asked him about his chances.

Picked-up pieces while ever-grateful that we emphatically said “no” to the 2024 Olympics . . .

▪ This weekend in Cooperstown is a reminder of why baseball’s Hall of Fame is the one fans care about most, and how it’s nice that we’re back to real baseball discussions (dare we say “arguments?”) regarding who qualifies for diamond immortality.

For too many years it’s been about closed-door lobbying by small committees, performance enhancers, and/or the dreaded character clause that asks BBWAA voters to consider factors other than what a guy did on the field. This is how we got a Hall that features Harold Baines but does not include Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, or Manny Ramirez (you can add Curt Schilling, whose debatable candidacy was blown up by his own big mouth).

... So what about Boston’s own Dustin Pedroia? The diminutive second baseman is eligible for the first time this winter and faces a high hurdle for admission.

Why is it every single fucking time I read a Shank column about Pedrioa, he has to mention his height in some sort of negative fashion? It's unprofessional and nauseating - to hell with Shank for that 'need' to constantly bring it up whenever he writes about Pedroia.

DHL Dan CCXVI - Into Darkness

Shank's most recent column dives into (what else) the bad parts of Ted Williams' life:

Ted Williams was the greatest hitter ever, but there was bad luck and darkness in his family life, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering why MLB doesn’t go back to having players wear their own team jerseys and hats at the All-Star Game . . .

▪ The death of Claudia Williams was announced Wednesday by the Red Sox, with the permission of her husband of 17 years, Eric Abel. Claudia was Ted Williams’s last surviving child.

Boston’s Splendid Splinter was the greatest hitter who ever lived, but there was a lot of bad luck and darkness in his family life.

The slugger’s only sibling, brother Danny, died of leukemia at the age of 39 in 1960. Ted’s eldest daughter, Bobby-Jo, was estranged from her dad in his final years and died of liver disease at the age of 62 in 2010. Ted’s only son, John Henry Williams, died of leukemia at the age of 35 in 2004. And now we learn that Claudia Franc Williams died at the age of 52 in December.

DHL Dan CCXV - For Sale

A few weeks after winning their 18th banner, the owners of the Boston Celtics are getting out while the getting is good:

Who’ll be next to own the Celtics, how long will it take, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while watching the USS Constitution take its annual victory lap . . .

▪ The Celtics just won a championship, Jayson Tatum got his extension, the whole band is back for next season, and it looked like everything was coming up Green around here.

Then, wham! The Celtics announced that the franchise is for sale. The team statement said the Grousbeck family, which holds the majority stake, has decided to pursue a sale “for estate and family planning considerations.”

It’s seismic sports news. We’ve had ownership stability for almost the entirety of this successful century. The Bruins have been owned by Jeremy Jacobs for 49 years, Bob Kraft bought the Patriots in 1994, and John Henry’s group took over the Red Sox in 2002. Irv Grousbeck and son Wyc took control of the Celtics in December of that same year.

And just in case you thought Shank's lost a bit on that ol' asshole fastball (Beetle on 98.5 The Sports Hub pointed this out this morning) ...

In conversations with some sources close to the situation, I’ve come away convinced that soon-to-be-90-year-old H. Irving Grousbeck is the one driving this sale and that 63-year-old son Wyc (one of four children of Irving Grousbeck) — managing partner, governor, and CEO of the Celtics, and always identified as the team’s owner — actually owns a relatively small stake in the franchise.

H. Irving Grousbeck — still teaching at Stanford Business School — has been the money behind the group since the beginning. (Forbes lists “Irving Grousbeck and family’s” worth at $1.8 billion.) There’s every indication that the billionaire rarely seen at Celtics games is motivating this sale in an attempt to get his affairs in order.

He made his fortune as cofounder of Continental Cablevision and is no doubt interested in ongoing negotiations for the NBA’s media rights. A nine-year deal is set to expire at the end of next season and the new deal, reportedly close to $76 billion, will have considerable impact on franchise values.

I emailed the elder Grousbeck late Wednesday, requesting comment on my assertions, and he responded Thursday with a polite no comment.

When I texted Wyc with, “You OK if I say your personal stake in the team is less than 2 percent?” he answered, “We hold as a family — all unified . . . We are a family and I also have a Celtics family is my comment. Thanks.”

I wonder what prompted Shank to try and pull Wyc's pants down like that? Time will tell, and I'll post something on it once it hits the news.

DHL Dan CCXIV - Curtains For Cora?

Shank thinks it's the last season for Alex Cora as skipper of the Boston Red Sox:

This sure feels like Alex Cora’s last season with the Red Sox, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if Brad Stevens has ever smoked a cigar …

▪ Enjoy these final months of Alex Cora managing the Red Sox. There is nothing to indicate he’ll be back next year.

In his sixth season as skipper of the Local Nine, Cora (along with Cleveland’s Stephen Vogt) would be one of my top candidates for Manager of the Year in the American League. After a winter and spring that were anything but “full throttle,” Cora has the depleted Sox over .500 and very much in the running for a diluted wild-card spot. Nobody covets the “illusion of contention” more than Red Sox management, and Cora has his ragtag bunch in the hunt.

He is the face of the franchise and the best thing the Sox have going for them.

And though he won’t come out and say it, he’s also gone. In my opinion.

Cora is in the final year of his contract. No team serious about keeping its manager would allow this. Cora’s value around the game is at an all-time high. He’s young (48), smart, bilingual, and great at team-building with today’s players.

Read on for more reasons Cora won't be here next year, and other thoughts!

DHL Dan CCXIII - Credit Is Due

Shank thinks (correctly) former Celtics GM Danny Ainge deserves credit for putting this team together:

Danny Ainge isn’t taking credit for Celtics’ title, but he deserves some, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while plucking green and white confetti from my hair …

▪ Danny Ainge hasn’t been taking any victory laps. He was neither seen nor heard from while the Celtics were shredding playoff competitors from Miami, Cleveland, Indiana, and Dallas en route to banner No. 18. Ainge wants the credit to go to the Celtics owners, Brad Stevens, Joe Mazzulla, and the rest of the team’s staff and players.

“I was watching; I just couldn’t be there,” the 65-year-old Ainge said via phone from Utah, where he is an executive with the Jazz. “Justin Zanik, our GM, just went through a kidney transplant and so I’ve taken a little more responsibility here right now.

“It was fun watching. We followed the Celtics’ success all during the playoffs, and it was exciting to see and it’s fun to see everybody shine. There’s so many people there that we’re rooting for.

Banner # 18

Here's Shank on the 2023 - 2024 NBA Champions:

A torch has been passed: Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum join the champions club and help Celtics raise Banner 18

Light up a Hoyo de Monterrey in honor of Red Auerbach and get ready for another parade. Playing on their fabled parquet floor, with banners flapping high above courtside, the Celtics won their NBA-best 18th championship Monday with a 106-88, NBA Finals Game 5 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

Order is restored to the pro basketball universe. From the 1950s through the ‘80s, Boston’s Green Team ruled the National Basketball Association. The torch has been passed to a new generation of champions: Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

“It’s time for us to graduate,” Brown told Tatum before Game 5.

When it was over, Brown received the Bill Russell Finals MVP Trophy.

“It was a full team effort and Jayson Tatum was with me the whole way," said Brown.

One Win Away

Here's Shank's column after the Boston Celtics win Game 3 of the NBA Finals Wednesday night:

Game 3 was harder than it should have been, but Banner 18 is an inevitability for the Celtics

DALLAS — You can relax, Boston. It might happen here Friday, or maybe you’ll have to wait until Monday on Causeway Street, but it’s inevitable. The Celtics are going to raise their 18th championship banner.

Just try not to worry about your team letting a 21-point fourth-quarter lead dwindle to one in what seemed the blink of an eye.

It wasn’t as easy as it should have been, but the Celtics beat the Mavs again. Playing at American Airlines Center on Wednesday without tree-top Kristaps Porzingis, the Green Team took charge early in the fourth quarter, watched their big lead fizzle, then prevailed for a third straight game. The Celts rode the broad shoulders of the two Jays (Tatum had 31, Brown 30) to a 106-99 victory, taking a definitive 3-0 series lead in the NBA Finals.

Celtics Wrapup - II

Shank's been banging out the columns over the past week or so, with images of victory cigars after the Boston Celtics take a 2-0 series lead, and The Cooz wants another banner in the rafters, presumably so all of The Cooz's banners have some company!

Celtics Wrapup

With Shank firmly on the Boston Celtics bandwagon, he comes out with a bunch of columns the past couple of days. The first one lets us know it's good for us and the NBA, the second column is a Larry Bird Sighting^TM, which includes a Bruce Springsteen sighting / anecdote that I'll gladly ignore, and another column from Game 1, which Shank takes to all but declare an early winner.

I don't think that's good karma, but there it is.

DHL Dan CCXII - End The Drought

Shank's thirsting for a championship, folks!

It’s the Celtics’ time to end our championship drought, and other thoughts

ROME — Picked-up pieces while asking Italians what they think of Giuseppe Mazzulla’s work in the first three rounds of the NBA playoffs …

▪ We’re due for another professional sports championship, are we not?

I mean, it’s been a whole five years and four months since guys named Brady and Belichick hoisted their sixth Lombardi Trophy after a 13-3 victory over the Rams in Atlanta.

That was New England’s 12th men’s major sports championship of this century. Good times never seemed so good. The Red Sox won four World Series from 2004-18, the Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett and then won Banner No. 17 in 2008, and the Bruins in 2011 won their first Stanley Cup since 1972, beating Vancouver in seven games.

This means that between February of 2005 (Patriots over Eagles in Jacksonville), and June of 2011 (Bruins in Vancouver), each of our four major men’s professional teams won a championship.

Rev up those duck boats!

Bill Walton, RIP

Legendary Boston Celtics player Bill Walton passed on earlier this week after a battle with cancer. Shank does the honors and pays tribute:

Bill Walton’s time in Boston was brief but unforgettable, and we were lucky to have him

The memories and stories started pouring in as soon as the news broke.

Everyone remotely connected to the 1985-86 Celtics has a Bill Walton memory. Invariably, those stories are personal. And all of us were shocked Monday when it was learned that Walton had died in California at the age of 71.

No player ever loved playing for the Celtics more than Walton. And it’s cruel and ironic that Bill would pass as the team is on to another appearance in the NBA Finals, which would mean a chance to win an NBA-record 18th banner.

My friend Rich Johnson, longtime curator of the New England Sports Museum and — like Walton — someone with a lifelong stutter, weighed in online, sending out a recording of the Grateful Dead’s “He’s Gone,” while writing, “Listening while wiping away tears. His personal kindness to me was life changing.”

Bill touched a lot of lives in his short stint in Boston, and those of us lucky enough to have known him share the same emotions.

DHL Dan CCXI - Roots

A few days before the Indiana Pacers got buried by the Boston Celtics in the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals, Shank took a look at Pacers coach Rick Carlisle:

Retracing the deep Celtics roots of Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while anticipating the Celtics raising Banner No. 18 to the rafters later this year …

▪ The Indiana Pacers are the only team standing between the Celtics and another trip to the NBA Finals. The Pacers, down 2-0 entering Saturday night’s Game 3, are coached by Rick Carlisle, a 64-year-old NBA lifer with a million connections to New England and the Celtics.

Carlisle ranks 12th in regular-season victories by an NBA head coach with 943. Red Auerbach ranks 13th with 938.

I knew him when he had hair. (Rick, not Red.)

Carlisle was a handsome, 24-year-old, piano-playing psychology major from the University of Virginia when he showed up at Celtics free agent/rookie camp in the summer of 1984. He was a third-round pick, which meant we initially paid little attention to him in those summer-night scrimmages at Marshfield High.

DHL Dan CCX - Underwhelming Competition

With the Boston Celtics in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, Shank's a little worried about the competition:

The competition thus far isn’t helping the Celtics prepare for a title run, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for some serious basketball competition …

▪ Seriously. I’m ready for the Celtics to start the playoffs now.

Bring on the Knicks, Pacers, Nuggets, Mavericks, or Timberwolves. Let’s see some nail-biting, down-to-the-wire, blood-and-thunder basketball. The Celtics’ upcoming run through the conference finals and NBA Finals should be wildly entertaining.

Certainly these upcoming series have to be better than the boring matchups we watched in the first two rounds as the Celtics toppled tomato cans from Miami and Cleveland. How did the Fort Wayne Pistons and Washington Generals not wind up on Boston’s dance card?

In Round 1 against Miami, the Celtics had leads of 34, 29, 28, and 37 points in the games they won. In Round 2, their average margin of victory was 15 points and they lost Game 2 by 24.

Let me ask … were any of you on the edge of your seat, or otherwise entertained for one perfunctory second of those two series? It’s always great to see the locals advance, but this was dreadful competition. Those were series that only Johnny Most, Tommy Heinsohn, Sean Grande, and Scal could love.

The level of competition, one way or the other, is out of the hands of the Celtics. I don't see any reason to make an issue out of it, but there's your take if it really matters.

DHL Dan CCIX - Underwhelming

A formulatic beginning to what looks to be a mailed-in effort by the Shankster:

Celtics-Knicks and Bruins-Rangers? The Boston-New York playoff duels would be good times, and other thoughts.

Picked-up pieces while dreaming of Celtics-Knicks and Bruins-Rangers in simultaneous conference championships at the two Gardens …

▪ Celtics-Knicks. Bruins-Rangers. Boston-New York. The New (1995) Boston Garden and the vintage 1968 Madison Square Garden. The Sports Hub vs. The Fan. Matt Damon vs. Spike Lee. Williams vs. DiMaggio. Real clam chowder vs. Manhattan clam chowder. “Cheers” vs. “The Honeymooners.”

When you start a column out like that, you get the feeling that this is indeed a DHL delivery, first class.

DHL Dan CCVIII - The Porzingis Effect

Shank considers the impact of Celtics center Kirstaps Porzingis' calf injury during the playoffs:

Wondering about the Porzingis effect on the Celtics’ chances, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if the Celtics can win a championship without Kristaps Porzingis …

▪ As the Celtics prepare for a Round 2 Tomato Can, one can’t help but wonder how they’ll fare if forced to play the conference finals and (presumably) NBA Finals without Porzingis.

The Big Fella suffered a soleus strain in his calf in Game 4 against the Heat Monday and is on the shelf indefinitely. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo sustained a similar, non-contact injury April 9 against the Celtics and did not play again prior to the Bucks’ elimination by the Pacers Thursday night.

Watching Porzingis limp off the court in Miami, I thought of the 68-win Celtics of 1972-73, who were stopped in the conference finals by the Knicks after John Havlicek injured his right shoulder fighting through a Dave DeBusschere pick in the third game of that seven-game series. Hondo missed Game 4 entirely and came off the bench in the final three games, but he was a shell of himself and scored only 4 points when the Celtics were routed at home in Game 7.

DHL Dan CCVII - Drafting Drake Maye

The New England patriots selected the North Carolina quarterback third overall in Thursday's NFL Draft, so let's see how Shank likes the pick:

Drafting Drake Maye feels very much like a Patriots ownership selection, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while remembering when the Cubs playing at Fenway would have been a really big deal . . .

▪ After the botched Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961, President John F. Kennedy said, “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”

Strap yourselves in for the Drake Maye Experience.

In the final years of the magnificent, two-decade Tom Brady/Bill Belichick/Bob Kraft championship run, there was a lot of emphasis on legacy, on who would get the most credit for nine Super Bowls, six Lombardis, and an unmatched run of NFL dominance.

Once Brady left for Tampa, the Patriots’ narrative pivoted dramatically. Since the beginning of the 2019 season, it’s been all about carving up the blame pie. Who’s most at fault for a 29-38 record in four seasons without a playoff win? Who gets the blame for 4-13 in 2023?

The post-Brady decline of the Patriots gave birth to a wave of books and documentaries, each assigning blame and/or credit to the coach, the owner, and sometimes even the departed GOAT. It got really messy this spring with “The Dynasty,” a Kraft vanity project (described by one wiseguy as RKK’s “home movie”) that pretty much pinned all the bad stuff on the evil Hoodie.

DHL Dan CCVI - Harry Sinden On The Bruins

Shank talks to the former Boston Bruins coach / GM / Mr. Everything:

Getting Harry Sinden’s take on the Bruins’ playoff chances, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while watching Red Sox defense videos to the tune of the Benny Hill theme song …

▪ The Bruins are in the playoffs again. What does Harry Sinden think of their chances?

“They’re definitely a contender,” says the 91-year-old Bruin-in-Winter. “I’m not on top of the team, but from what I’ve seen, they are a reasonable contender. I think they have a good chance to advance. I couldn’t call them the No. 1 team, but they’re going to give anyone a heck of a time.”

A player, head coach, general manager, and Boston Garden king of hockey, Sinden first came to the Bruins organization as a player/coach in Kingston, Ontario, in 1961. Today he watches games on TV from his home north of Boston, and as “Senior Advisor to the Owner and Alternate Governor,” he ranks fourth on the team masthead, trailing only owners Jeremy and Charlie Jacobs, and team president Cam Neely. Sinden traded for Neely in 1986, and drafted today’s GM, Don Sweeney, in 1984.

DHL Dan CCV - Everything To Prove

In today's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank states what most people have been saying all season about this year's Boston Celtics:

These Celtics still have everything to prove, and other thoughts

Picked up pieces while waiting for the playoffs . . .

⋅ NBA teams have been playing an 82-game schedule since the 1967-68 season. In that time, the Celtics have won 66 or more games three times.

With Dave Cowens as league MVP, the Green won 68 in 1972-73, but failed to win the NBA championship because John Havlicek hurt his shoulder during the conference finals and Boston lost Game 7 at home to the hated Knicks.

In 1985-86, with a four-man-rotation frontcourt of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Bill Walton (plus Hall of Famer Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge at guard), the Celtics won 67 regular-season games, went 50-1 at home (including Hartford games and playoffs), and won the NBA championship. In my opinion, that was the greatest NBA team of all time. Certainly the most fun to watch.

In 2007-08, the Ubuntu Celtics — led by Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen — won 66 games and crushed the Lakers in a six-game championship final. It is the only championship the vaunted franchise has won in the last 38 years.

That sets the tone for the rest of that part of the column - win or else!

Another Terry Francona Column

The former Red Sox skipper shares his thoughts on the 2004 World Series champions and other things:

On eve of a return to Fenway, Terry Francona reflects on ’04 Red Sox, the state of baseball, and retirement

Former manager Terry Francona will join players from his 2004 ball club when the Red Sox honor their curse-bustin’ champs while celebrating the lives of Tim and Stacy Wakefield at the Fenway home opener Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s unbelievable that it’s been 20 years,” Francona said. “The best thing about it are the memories. I’ll be so happy to see so many people, particularly [former coach] Brad Mills. But the Wake thing is what I think is really special. When Pam [Sox vice president Pam Kenn] asked me to come back for this, it took me about two seconds to say yes.”

His favorite memory of the 200-win knuckleballer?

“There’s a lot when you’re around somebody that much,” said Francona. “One thing that shows you what kind of a guy he was is Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees [a 19-8 loss that put the Sox down, 3-0], when we were just getting beat up. And here he comes up the tunnel with his spikes and his glove, and he said, ‘I can go suck up some innings.’

DHL Dan CCIV - The Larry Lucchino Column

Former Red Sox general manager Larry Lucchino passed away earlier this week. Shank's here to deliver the eulogy:

Boston baseball was well served by Larry Lucchino, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while pondering the life and times of Larry Lucchino …

▪ He was the last of a kind — a personable, hard-charging baseball executive who demanded results, never suffered fools, and most of the time made things better for fans. He should be in Cooperstown simply for Camden Yards (which changed everything about the fan experience in every ballpark built after 1993), and he could have been commissioner of baseball, but Boston was best served because Lucchino ran the Red Sox from 2002-15.

The Sox haven’t been the same since he “retired,” and you can be sure Lucchino wouldn’t have tolerated the “let the fans eat cake” message ownership delivered in the recent non-full-throttle offseason.

Larry Lucchino. Think Harry Sinden with a law degree. Think Red Auerbach brawling with NBA owners at Board of Governors meetings. Think Tommy Lee Jones as Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard in “The Fugitive.”

High praise indeed!

It's clear Shank 'sampled' many of his previous columns about Lucchino, and I'm still amused by his use of 'the Nixon White House' when the first thing Shank ever said to me was whether I was recording the phone call. I'll give him some credit for briefly mentioning the conflict / falling out he eventually had with Lucchino and didn't completely duck any of the bad stuff, unlike his shameless Bill Buckner eulogy.