As far as his Friday football picks, the one that stands out the most for me is his one and only college pick when in November 84 he not only called the correct final score, but had Doug Flutie winning the game with a Hail Mary pass as time expired. By Peter Abraham, Bob Hohler, Bob Ryan, Dan Shaughnessy, Michael. Leigh Montville was like an artist with the typewriter. Hes forgotten more about this sport than most of us will ever know, and as such he remains the once and future #1. Its little things like his dispatches from airports that allow readers to identify with him in ways that they cant with traditional beat writers, whose columns and even blog entries are typically sanitized and overedited. I still can see him vaulting over the dasher, heading for open ice, taking a pass from the corner, and scoring the shocking goal that capped off the Miracle on Ice. Jackie MacMullan, Who Paved The Way For Women Sportswriters - NPR You know, Danny, Willie didnt have to call the power brokers. However, if you ever need to know the inside and outs of the draft, look to Kiper to provide some quality information. He knows players, people and teams and whether they'll fit together nicely or not. The playoff run was tougher than the teams 66 regular-season wins might have suggested. Newsroom Staff - The Boston Globe I grew up in the Montville, Fitzgerald, young Ryan, young Shaughnessy and so missed the older guys like Keane and Claflin. I swear that is a real article on that website. Its got to be Fitzgerald, Montville 1& 2. The US hockey team was about to play the Soviet Union in the Olympics but their countrymen seemed ready to go to war. Roberts stole second on a close call, scored on a single by Bill Mueller, and the Sox won it in 12 on a David Ortiz homer. . }Customer Service. Good or bad, it doesnt matter, he wrote on his website, Boston Sports Media Watch. The Celtics proud franchise was in the midst of an NBA championship drought. Tom Brady after leading the Patriots to a Super Bowl win against the St. Louis Rams, in 2002. If you're a human and see this, please ignore it. Shalise Manza Young: Yahoo Sports columnist/former Boston Globe It set the stage for Kevin Garnetts (pictured) Anything is possible! yell after winning the Celtics first title since 1986. Im sorry, but leaving him off is like leaving Lawrence Olivier off a Best Actors list because he only did Shakespeare, really.. His knowledge of the sports world could not be challenged, Ray Fitzgerald- The Grandaddy of them all. Weaknesses: Occasionally gets bogged down in metrics, losing the forest for the trees. My first paid journalism gig was writing about high school sports at the Globe, and it was the perfect way to learn how to do the job of a sports reporter. I've also heard that when he blinks, he makes rainbows. The difference between the two approaches was night and day. At present, the Herald looks to be largely treading water, doing just enough to keep from drowning but not enough to adapt itself to an increasingly competitive market. I knew Will, he was a regular guy, his fame never over-took him. He does a fantastic job covering the Patriots and the rest of the information he provides is generally awesome also. Help Select The Best All-Time Boston Sports Columnists His mailbags are enjoyable, and his columns are informative, but theres little that sets him apart in the way that, say, Finns humor or Speiers diversity does. Case in point is his focus on pitcher wins as the metric by which pitchers should be judged. Who represents the pantheon of Boston sports columnists? The Fellowship of Awful, Miserable Boston Sportswriters I'm the Twitter equivalent to a gnat. Sat morning Globe was a must read because of his Sports Page 1 columns on the left. Whiny, petulant, entitled, self-importantno, it's not Boston fans we're talking about, it's Boston sportswriters. Turd one would think that this was Bruces attempt at playing to the masses after last week but you just never know. Apart from the benefit it saw as an outlet for one of the rival factions during the Red Sox front office schism, the Herald Sports Sections fortunes have been in decline for years. The second thing I like about him is his commentary to what other people say. Let me first say that Deadspin isn't for everyone. Miserable for more than a decade, they were thought of as somewhere between laughable and preposterous. I was certain the Patriots would lose. Piniella later said, I went to where I guessed the ball would go off the bat.. Glenn Stout, the editor of the Best American Sports Writing series and . Clif Keane - Boston Globe Larry Claflin - Boston Record/American/Herald Harold Kaese - Boston Transcript Austen ''Duke'' Lake - Boston American Bob Ryan - Boston Globe Will McDonough - Boston Globe Tim Horgan - Boston Herald Dave Egan - Boston Record Dan Shaughnessy - Boston Globe Ray Fitzgerald - Boston Globe Leigh Montville - Boston Globe The last two writers' elections produced just one entrant to Cooperstown David Ortiz and that stingy trend is expected to continue By Peter Abraham, Bob Hohler, Dan Shaughnessy, Michael. Maybe you have your reasons for putting Gammons on the list. But as far as somebody that has been consistent, uncompromised, and is well rounded, I dont think you can find anybody but Bob Ryan. He's. The product hasnt been remotely Polly Anna-ish, but the criticism and concerns were always grounded in fact. As I stood beside him on that February night, it occurred to me: Barrier-breaking journalist Lesley Visser is seen covering Patriots training camp in 1976, her first year on the beat. Gammons and McDonough were great reporters. Boston Globe Magazine Annalisa Quinn. I always enjoyed Jackie MacMullan,but I didnt see her listed. Hes transformed himself from a sharp Patriots reporter for the Herald into a contrarian media personality. His radio cohost, the former Red Sox reporter Tony Massarotti, has done the same thing, if somewhat more shrilly. But sad to say, the quality of the current scribes is uneven. The truth is that ESPN does a fine job at covering the NFL and their analysts, like John Clayton, provide great information on Twitter. Well, of course Bleacher Report is going to make their own list. It was still a year of magical thinking. 1) All 3 are globies back in the days of the best sports section in the country. I would no doubt vote Haggerty, Haggerty and then Haggerty. All yo have to do is read Shank or Nickles dreadful impersonation of his Baseball Notes after he left to see that he was different and what he did was deceptively difficult. The Patriots won the Super Bowl. Send me an email. interesting angles. The F. Scott Fitzgerald of sportswriters. Cafardos willfull ignorance, then, is regrettable. Id have to go with Montville as well; as someone else noted, regardless of the topic he could make it worth reading, which is probably about as good a compliment as a writer can get. Engaging and open to dialogue; hes responded to a couple of mentions on Twitter, which in my experience is rare. Whether its been in print or as a guest on WEEI and such, McAdam has exuded calm in a sea of irrationality. 7. Dan Kadar is a rather underrated individual on Twitter. 17. And how we would re-double our efforts. [5] As one of their top NFL analysts, Clayton is always up to date on the biggest happenings around the league. 1) Ray Fitz. They called him. Deford was very good---found humor and pathos . Diverse approach at the keyboard, with good coverage that blends a focus on local events with national context. They came back to the bar at The Baileys Hotel in London in their Marvin Hagler, Destruction and Destroy T-shirts. While politics, finances and other areas of interest are certainly prominent on Twitter, nothing is as huge as the world of sports. He knows everything there is to know about the Giants and tweets about them constantly. Boston Globe writer submits shocking David Ortiz-less Hall-of-Fame ballot To help you sort the rational from the irascible, here are our Boston Writer Rankings for 2010. I think he is worthy of the best. And hes certainly competent at doing so. Oh, FWIW, I couldnt stand Ernie Roberts. List of sports writers - Wikipedia So it remained 2-0, not 4-0, when Bucky Dent broke his bat on a running fastball from Mike Torrez, then launched a slider into the screen. Leigh Montville (I learned how to fly a few minutes before midnight on Oct. 27, 2004.), 2. The crossword clue possible answer is available in 12 letters. He'll sometimes appear to be swayed by the media, but he sticks to his guns and gives great information about draft prospects on his Twitter account. Since columnist Michael Holley left the paper for a radio gig at WEEI eight years ago, its hard to think of a single distinctive voice the paper has developed and held on to. The 2004 Red Sox never lost another game. Baseball could not, would not be the same w/o PG's insights and observations sending lots of warm wishes for MANY more years of PG's vision, intutiion and knowledge! However, when you need a good break from your day and need to know if Tom Brady was mentioned more than Eli Manning on SportsCenterlast week, Deadspin is the place to go. Always made at least one good point in his columns, something that rarely happens these days. Deceptively good stylist, too. Its not every day that one of your heroes not only lives up to, but exceeds your expectations. I do think Borges boxing writing deserves a nod, as was said above, but even in that I dont think hes risen to the same heights that those three have hit. Articles by Marvin Pave's Profile | The Boston Globe Journalist | Muck Rack It makes no difference whether I'm on there or smashed up against the windshield of a car. None with more panache than Brady. For my part, Ive always appreciated the measured tone which hasnt, for the most part, been impacted by the impatience and urgency of Red Sox Nation. I have little patience, however, for those overtly displaying hostility towards numbers or the sabermetric side of the game. The US hockey team was about to play the Soviet Union in the Olympics but their countrymen seemed ready to go to war. I promise that this is the last ESPN Twitter account for right now. Roberts stole second on a close call, scored on a single by Bill Mueller, and the Sox won it in 12 on a David Ortiz homer. Players love him, fans love him and other journalists love him. Ray Fitzgerald (just gave my copy of his terrific Champions Remembered to my twelve-year-old nephew). Nothing good in sight now it's all TV illiterates and the worst of all, the ESPN circus. He was the first Boston sports columnist that I truely adored, and the Globe has been the same since he left. . Todd McShay is the other draft wunderkind for ESPN. Take Dan Shaughnessy. When Will McDonough, Bob Ryan, and Peter Gammons began showing up on TV, they evolved from working writers into celebrities. Tony Massarottis defection set it back, as did Sean McAdams abbreviated stint and subsequent departure for CSNNE. Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe had his moment Saturday as the 67th winner of the Spink Award. The only other one even in his hemisphere is Leigh Montville in his prime. Overall, hes a tremendous asset to the market and one that I look genuinely forward to reading, even if I dont really appreciate the baseball cards. The following is a partial list of sports writers. Will Mc in by a landslide. For being such a respected writer, King has quite the sense of humor on Twitter. For those that love combining pop culture and the NFL, you'll likely enjoy following a man like Jason McIntyre. Today, the paper's sports section remains synonymous with Ryan, now semiretired, and his fellow columnist Dan Shaughnessy. Will McDonough, a former Boston Globe columnist of 44 years, was the only Globe sportswriter to be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. There must be someone out there in the sports writers fraternity who remembers The Colonel. I loved Ernie Roberts column, especially his Thoughts While Shaving segment. Im 56 so that explains why I pick Roberts. Demonstrates an overreliance on certain friendly sources (e.g. and the Celtics . Gammons would compare the Sox to battles from mythology and make it work. Will McD gets the nod here. Bob Ryan The next bearer of Ray Fitzgerald's mantle. First, the football writer Tom E. Curran, of Comcast SportsNet New England, took to Twitter, writing that Shaughnessy couldnt name 5 Texans. He seems to break the biggest stories, have all the inside information and is able to give great insight into the league as a whole. Peter Gammons invented the Sunday notes column, and as a baseball writer/reporter, he was peerlessabsolutely peerlessin the 70s and 80s. Another Pulitzer winner with New England ties is Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein, who won for commentary. He also covers NASCAR for the paper. Strengths: Edes doesnt let his ego get in the way of the story, which can be a rarity in this market. Check it out. The extra staffing is important to help the paper fulfill what Sullivan says is its mandate in this digital age: to serve the Web and print at the same time.. The hated Yankees had destroyed the Red Sox, 19-8, in Game 3 Saturday and it was pretty clear the Bombers were going to sweep the Sox in 04. Few people provide quality draft content on Twitter like Josh Norris. Patriots beat reporter and writer for the @BostonGlobe. More perhaps than any of the other writers on this list, Abraham gets the difference in tone between traditional outlets and blogs. Dave Cowens was renowned for his intensity, but he played with particular passion in Game 7 of the 1974 NBA Finals versus the Milwaukee Bucks because he felt he had let his team down with a 5-for-19 showing in a losing Game 6. . Russ Lande is another NFL draft guy, and he may be one of the most well respected ones of the bunch. I covered every postseason game. While Ralph Mancini specializes in NFL draft coverage, he still has a great sense of the league as a whole. I dont need the players sugar coated, but neither do I want to be besieged by sordid little details, daily. Gammons and McDonough were reporters to me, not columnists. My parents made me a Red Sox fan, but it was Peter Gammons that made me a baseball fan. Boston Globe sports writer and reporter Nick Cafardo passed away at the age of 62. Prone to substantial, unacknowledged factual errors. He covers every sport known to mankind in a humorous way, but he especially excels at mixing laughter and the NFL. On the eve of the game, we sat on the beach and Russ played songs hed learned growing up in Hawaii. Some sportswriters just cover the draft or just cover the games, but Brooks can literally do it all. Predictably, it provoked a strong reaction. He is easily the least well known of all sportswriters on this list, but he absolutely deserves to be followed on Twitter. True, its more often basic metrics like OPS+ rather than, say, xFIP or WAR, and he remains skeptical when it comes to the accuracy of modern statistics. Today, the papers sports section remains synonymous with Ryan, now semiretired, and his fellow columnist Dan Shaughnessy. Matthew Berry is Mr. Fantasy Football for ESPN. Jim McBride (@globejimmcbride) / Twitter Ill also have a prize for a random commenter in this list, but I havent picked out what it will be yet. The tabloids also had Mark Murphy and Steve Bulpett covering the Celtics since the days of short shorts, and it even hired Ron Borges as a columnist after he departed the Globe following a plagiarism scandal. Likewise, a bit more depth of metrics in the Buchholz vs Wakefield decision would have benefited his analysis. They are often rude, crude and way out in left field. Later that week, the New-Hampshire-based sports-media critic Bruce Allen summed up the entire episode. Witness the limitations of its technology infrastructure. He'll tell you exactly what he thinks about a situation, which is usually correct, and he does a great job at interacting with followers. Maybe Tim Horgan doesnt deserve to be considered, so dont include him, there are no rules here other than they need to be the best. Boston Globe Sports. One on how it is his life goal to never run 26.2 miles cumulatively for the rest of his live and another on how he couldnt even drive the marathon route, never mind run it. They are sure to cheer you up. Several 2008 Pulitzer winners have N.E. ties - The Boston Globe Its not that all the old-timers are badits more that its bad that there are so many old-timers. Gary Smith is a great writer, who happens to write about sports. You never get this with Edes, which is a bonus as far as Im concerned. Excellent radio voice, as well. If thats the case, theres no question, the king is Ray Fitz. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. How Boston Globe writers voted for the 2023 Baseball Hall of Fame Its bad enough that media outlets still overpaginate their content in an attempt to articifically inflate viewership metrics, but when the payoff for that click is a few words, well, you become the definition of a poor customer experience. Could this get any easier? Shaughnessy wrote. I have a certain bias (or lack of perspective, I guess) as my family has been Globe subscribers for generations, so the only time I read other papers regularly was when I delivered them. Austen Lake did pretty well after joinging the sports beat from being a straight type columnists. One of the best things I've seen on Twitter happened by Bowen after Ricky Williams retired. As a young reporter at the Des Moines Register (I was raised a Red Sox fan in Iowa by my Malden-born and Manchester, Conn.-raised father), I had access to the sports wire services. Miller isn't afraid of telling you exactly what he thinks. It appeared the series would be tied at 2 when the Lakers took an 18-point halftime lead in Game 4 in Los Angeles. ET ON CNBC AND PEACOCK. Hes opinionated, but rational. Boston Globe reporter Dan Shaughnessy reflects on covering Larry Bird Shaughnessy has now written. Theres no question. Then, after carefully making a point to praise the work of his own baseball writers, he added, Its like in sportsyoure going to lose some games. Although his staff has shrunk overall in recent years, Sullivan has increased the number of reporters on the marquee Patriots and Red Sox beats from two to three each. Heres my list, which are all guys Ive actually read: Fitzgerald (You need this book.) And why should he change? While this is probably good for Bradfords career, the decline in coverage is bad news for Red Sox fans. Obviously, a lot of young lads weighing in here who do not remember the very best Boston once had Dave Egan, Record; Austen Lake, American; Bill Cunningham, Post and later Herald; Harold Kaese, Transcript and later Globe; Jerry Nason, Globe; Bill Liston, Post. Instead of focusing on their craft they focus on their next ESPN-NESN-WEEI appearence and their writing suffers because of it. (LogOut/ very in your face, with a lot of good information. The newspaper said Cafardo had an embolism Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, and Red Sox medical staff was unable to revive him. Meanwhile, Texans running back Arian Foster fell into the columnists trap, using Twitter to call attention to Shaughnessys trolling foolishness. Not include Tim Horgan.Are you nuts or just too young to appreciate a good writer.Look up some of his columns.A great writer who never distorted the facts.He was the vboice of the fan in his era.Ray Fitzgerald was also another great writer. display: none; a lot of your list were beat writers and not columnists. Mike Pereira is a great man to follow on Twitter during actual NFL games. Like Murray Chass and other traditionalists, Cafardo is aggressively old school, with his antipathy towards modern analysis regularly on display. Beat writers may blog, chat, and utilize social media now, but after games, theyre still churning out the same kinds of vanilla recaps that have long been a newspaper staple. As I stood beside him on that February night, it occurred to me: This guy might be pretty special. It sounds absurd looking back, it was! The examples and perspective in this article, Last edited on 10 November 2022, at 21:30, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "James Jerpe Dies; Well-Known Writer; Friend of Sportsmen, Firemen Passes Away", "Bears just can't seem to win with Jimmy or Jay", "Author seeks to link three Belleville murders", "Guillen's validation sealed with a kiss", "Red Fisher: Remembering great friend and Haps legend Dickie Moore, dead at age 84", "Mariano makes it interesting, but isn't it always? While controversy does little for me personally, however, Im cognizant of its role in selling newspapers. Why did Cafardo give Beckett the edge? I really need more suggestions, in fact. The Hall of Fame tennis writer and TV commentator Bud Collins, who helped popularise the sport during his decades-long career, died at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts on Friday after a long. Weaknesses: His diverse responsibilities have led to an inevitable decline in production. Voice is balanced, neither strident nor fawning. Chris Mortensen has been around the league for a long time which makes him a wealth of information. There aren't many journalists out there who can do as much as Bucky Brooks. It set the stage for Kevin Garnetts (pictured) Anything is possible! yell after winning the. I fondly remember the Will McDounough Sunday column. Jackie MacMullan remembers Larry Bird once saying, Bob Ryan, hes as famous as we are. Butover time, the citys sports punditocracy has expanded to include not just the truly wise, like Ryan, but any sportswriter willing to blow hot air. He loves the game of football and has a great sense of humor. Shauhnessy Got to absolutley love the contraian "curly red-head".!!! How did we get to this point? When it comes to the world of NFL, Eisen is as respected as they come. Right Bruce? Michael joined the Boston Globe in September 2019 covering the intersection of sports with business, politics, entertainment, technology, and many more. Alone amongst colleagues like Cafardo and Massarotti, Finn is at least not against statistics, even if theyre not a focus for him. As the lead NFL writer for Bleacher Report, Josh Zerkle has established himself as a unique talent in the writing world. Third, want to pick someone current so I pick Reynolds from the ProJo because he reminds me of Roberts although several of his Saturday pieces relate to RI only folklore. Tim Horgan is without question the greatest sportswriter of all time. The picks were not the real attraction. During the 70s, Leigh Montville wrote a weekly pro football picks column on Fridays in the Globe. However, they are also some of the funniest sports-related content on the planet and definitely worth a read. Chad Finn, who like Speier and national writers such as Will Carroll, has enjoyed favorable attention from Gammons, is one of the remaining bright lights for me at the Boston Globe. I just look at this as something for my portfolio of basketball experiences. And I regard this first Celtics championship I was privileged to cover as a highlight in my portfolio of journalistic experiences. Wouldnt be able to do that today. I wanted to talk about what a bitter pill it was, Lucchino recalled months later. WEEI.coms Alex Speier, who specializes in incorporating advanced stats into articles meant for the average fanand who is therefore one of the citys few inventive sportswriterstold me that everything has changed now that readers no longer depend on print for all their news. sometime in the late-80s. If you're a scraper, please click the link below :-) Which is to his credit. Sports, Doug Farrar has everything you could want from a journalist. McAdam and several of his colleagues publicly called him out on this behavior, justifying their actions with claims that it was affecting Okajimas teammates. Boston Columnist Is Ousted For Fabricated Articles The first is that he knows what he is talking about. Like his more experienced colleagues, has not actively embraced statistical analysis although he has not taken a line against them, either. Two Journalists Started an Argument in Boston in 1979. It's Not Over If youre a halfway decent beat writer in this town, said Mike Felger, cohost of the afternoon show on The Sports Hub and a CSNNE anchor, youll get on Comcast, or NESN, or Sports Hub, or EEI., Felger, of course, should know. He's always got more inside information than anyone else, and he's also able to add a wealth of information to the draft and scouting of prospects. Ryan probably sneaks on the list for consistency, if nothing else, but Im just a fan of his writing style. . He has a fantastic sense of humor and is fearless about taking shots at whoever deserves it. Jack Thomas, the former Boston Globe reporter who wrote powerfully and poignantly last year about receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, died Sunday at his Cambridge home at the age of 83,. If you want to know about the "what-ifs" and "coulda-beens," the ESPN Rumor Central has all you need. He has all the who, what, where and hows of the draft, and is always up for some quality draft talk. Saturday mornings were never the same after he retired. I mean, seriously? How Boston Globe writers voted for the 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame It was the final crescendo to a season in which the Red Sox and Yankees, two historical rivals, ended with identical records. There are two things that I really like about Evan Silva on Twitter. He's honest and stays true to his opinions. Id like to create a list of the best all-time sports columnists here in Boston.