Thank God We’re a Two-Newspaper Town*

The sad headline behind this should be:”Thank God There is Shaughnasty for Every Paper in Town”Mazz is turning into an annoying, high-ptiched trouble maker in this town. His clout is growing given the rising banality in the graying and dwindling sportwriting scene in Boston.He is becoming a sort of a multitasking, money hungry instigator that appears in print, radio, TV and web. He needs to differentiate himself, create a buzz and stand out so that he gets booked more often. Shaughnassy, Ryan and Borges have a much higher profile with a better ability to be booked/compensated for media appearences because they are shall we say provocative and brazen.No one is looking to book a Tanguay, a Peter May, a Shira Springer, a Gordon Edes or Nick Cafardo or Reiss to a national or local show with the same regularity or high profile like Ryan or Mazz are.Mazz is not concerned about what is right for the Sox or what the vast majority of Sox fans want, ie leave Manny alone and stop giving him reasons to leave town.It is the pesky Ordway, Shanughnassy and Mazz that gives this town a bitter feel to the Rogers of the world.Why put up with this crap? They can get the money somewhere else.And I’ll say it again. The Red Sox brass should stand up for their players more often and more strongly. They should make it clear that media should concetrate on covering the sport and stop harrassing their players as that costs the team money with this constant interference with high-paying long-term contracts that are not easy to dissolve, change, and trade out.This is akin to someone say for example going after Dan’s or Mark’s employers, emailing them massively and daily, camping in front of their office and compalining that they are overpaid, they should post everyhour, they should talk about this subject and not talk about that, always smile and be pleasant, always be available for interviews and never refuse to answer any intrusive question.This is what is happening to these players. And they are divas to begin with. These are ‘macho’ guys in their heads that feed off the energy and respect the public doles out to them. They are not like us regular Joe Shmoes. And the Red Sox brass should take care of this very quickly, for heaven’s sake. This talk and noise from Jason’s band of idiots and Mazz and Sean McAdam is preventing us from really focusing on the game and the season to start.It is extremely irritating and unfortunate and because of it I and many in town just flip the dial when this stuff comes on. This week, soooooooooooooo many people let fat Ordway know how sick they are of his Manny-bashing, along with his disgusting underling, Fat Pete. Fans have been hammering the point home on the air to stop talking about this, to talk baseball and give other palyers more time and remind them that they, the fans, do not mind Manny, LOVE Manny and understand that his is going to be treated like any multi-millionair star. It simply comes with the package.And Mazz should zip it. This is another beauty from dan:http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2006/02/22/it_translates_into_business_as_usual?mode=PFWhere he says:”All winter we wondered whether Manny would arrive on time and now we have our answer”Where else would you hear a constant grind ALL THROUGHOUT the offseason where they are savaging and secondguessing a star as one season ends and way before another starts and while the star itself is sunbathing somewhere.Only in Boston, Kids. Only in Boston.This is why stars like to play for NY teams. They just have more class. They have so many big stars, it is not a big deal for them. It is not a constant target of jealousy like these petty cocky Boston sportwriters are, with their complex of superiority.Tonight is a first game I have been dying to see, at last. These shm#cks will just try their best to ruin it for all of us.Maybe there is a silver lining to Rupert printing his tabloid here: it would be a nice alternative to this local junk.N.

Yea gads….Imagine what it would be like to live in a one-paper city… Like Cleveland…Oy!…bad enough with ust our two…(althrough I did appreciate the Herald’s story on the guy who collects old Boston signs like the one that went to the Old Howard.)But from the preservationist point of view, it can be hard getting one’s project into print.The Friends of the Gaiety Theater had great trouble getting their doomed theater into the broadsheet, although the Herald belately did better…as the wrecking ball was hoisted…So we to, the New England Steamship Foundation were all but ignored by both dailies when we held a well-announced press conference Friday, March 3. We are trying to save the S S Nobska, the last steel steamship in the eastern seaboard. The National Park Service wants to scrap the Nobska before the National Trust for Historic Preservation can announce its 2006 Eleven Top Endangered Historic Places in May. The S S Nobska is a contender for this national award.Yet the Boston dailies all but declared this a non-starter. Like the Gaiety until the theater was felled…Maybe the Phoenix or WeeklyDig will give us an airing, before the plates of the Nobska is fed into the blast furnance.EmperorNortonII@myway.com