Dan Shaughnessy: Taking a dump in your mouth one column at a time

dano7594

New Member
Jul 15, 2005
106
For the first time in probably a decade Shaughnessy has a headline that I am somewhat curious about. Its about Bill James and the 2011 Red Sox. I refuse to ever click on anything he writes. Did anyone read it, if so is it hot air or anything intriguing? Thanks.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,058
Hingham, MA
For the first time in probably a decade Shaughnessy has a headline that I am somewhat curious about. Its about Bill James and the 2011 Red Sox. I refuse to ever click on anything he writes. Did anyone read it, if so is it hot air or anything intriguing? Thanks.
Check out the Sleuth thread on the main board.
 

Van Everyman

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 30, 2009
26,993
Newton
I don’t think that was the original title of this thread. But it should’ve been.

Here’s Dan being very surly in his column about this. It feels like sour grapes, as he goes through his weight (and name) change from Minnesota, the 2003 test (which unlike all the other guys he mentions was the only potential black mark against Papi and inconclusive) and the shooting in the DR, as if that has any bearing on his candidacy.

And then he goes into how the young writers today don’t care about steroids, whereas it’s more that people are now differentiating between guys who were caught, those who weren’t and what you should and shouldn’t hold against someone.

Even for all his flaws, Shank should know better.
 
Last edited:

Brianish

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 11, 2008
5,556
Even for him, that is some mealy-mouthed shit. "A shift in voting philosophy," which is to say "They disagreed with me and I am mad." I know they've been printing him for years, but I'm a little surprised the Globe ran this, today of all days. At least make him shelve it until next week.
 

joe dokes

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
30,240
Even for him, that is some mealy-mouthed shit. "A shift in voting philosophy," which is to say "They disagreed with me and I am mad." I know they've been printing him for years, but I'm a little surprised the Globe ran this, today of all days. At least make him shelve it until next week.
That's *exactly* what I came to post...."even for him....."
There's usually at least a hint of troll in his contrarianism or his over-the-topism. But this is a lashing-out that has the same emotional tenor of responding to, say, the Schilling-lynching stuff or a child/spouse abuser's fame and success.
 

PedroKsBambino

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 17, 2003
31,191
Shaughnessy is a really talented writer who, out of laziness, usually falls back on click-baiting and contrarian schtick to generate volume and keep his profile above water.

If he were a baseball player, he'd be one of those first-round picks who had a couple good years and then hung around for a long time as a platoon player...accumulating paychecks, but never part of winning teams (who recognize he doesn't try very hard or care) and changing addresses every year. Pretty much the exact opposite of what David Ortiz was as a player.

I wonder, when he looks in the mirror in the morning, whether Dan knows that he could have been a great sportswriter---he's as talented a writer or more than Jackie, certainly a better writer than Bob, but he just can't be bothered and his antipathy for athletes who care is just amusing tome at this point.

To net that all out: Dan, you suck.
 

lexrageorge

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2007
18,099
Shaughnessy has had it in for Ortiz for years it seems. He always took every possible occasion to raise the leaked positive test, and has never accepted the reality of the circumstances behind that test. And he has a huge bug up his ass about the shooting.
 

nattysez

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 30, 2010
8,434
He not only considers himself a great writer, but sees himself as part of a long tradition of Boston columnists who have had to "tell it like it is" because the Boston fan base loves the players too much and won't hold them to account without his prodding. He sees a tweet like PeteAbe's and thinks "see - I'm the necessary objective voice amidst all this fawning."

I don't think he's a Bayless/Cowherd type who just says whatever it takes to be relevant and would tell you behind the scenes that they couldn't care less about anything they talk about and it's all an act. I think he thinks he's doing a great public service by tearing down idols.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2001
24,545
I think he thinks he's doing a great public service by tearing down idols.
This. Shaughnessy feels like he's the last guardian at the gate, the one who holds the athletes accountable amidst a legion of "fan boys" and "pink hats". What he fails to realize is that no one really wants this. At least all the time. I don't know if he likes being the turd in the punch bowl as much as I think he thinks that it needs to be there.
 

snowmanny

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 8, 2005
15,667
I don’t think that was the original title of this thread. But it should’ve been.

Here’s Dan being very surly in his column about this. It feels like sour grapes, as he goes through his weight (and name) change from Minnesota, the 2003 test (which unlike all the other guys he mentions was the only potential black mark against Papi and inconclusive) and the shooting in the DR, as if that has any bearing on his candidacy.

And then he goes into how the young writers today don’t care about steroids, whereas it’s more that people are now differentiating between guys who were caught, those who weren’t and what you should and shouldn’t hold against someone.

Even for all his flaws, Shank should know better.
I didn’t read it but when does he think Ortiz started using steroids? Was before or after he was beating ARod and Griffey in home run derbies? Because that was when he was 20.
 

Deweys New Stance

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 8, 2001
2,888
Here to Eternity
Even by Shank's standards, it's incredibly petty and sleazy (as well as offensive) to bring up a person from a Spanish-speaking culture switching from using his father's surname to his mothers surname as cause for suspicion. But I'll bet Ol' Dan is jealous that he couldn't come up with as big a smear job today on Papi's HoF election as troglodyte NY tabloid writer Bill Madden. Madden's cheap shots at Papi make Murray Chass look like an enlightened thinker.

When the Sox acquired Ortiz, Shaughnessy called him a "sack of you know what". That might have been the most wrong opinion any baseball writer has ever expressed.

David Ortiz completely destroyed any shred of credibility that Dan Shaughnessy ever had. David Ortiz was the biggest reason Dan Shaughnessy's BS "Curse" gravy train ended.

No one should care in the least what Dan Shaughnessy has to say about David Ortiz in 2022.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2001
24,545
When the Sox acquired Ortiz, Shaughnessy called him a "sack of you know what". That might have been the most wrong opinion any baseball writer has ever expressed.
Aside from the obvious assholery that Shank is widely famous for, I still don't know why he labeled Ortiz as a sack of shit. I don't remember him being a pariah in Minnesota. Maybe Tom Kelly whispered in Shaughnessy's ear one day in Ft. Myers. Who knows?
 

Humphrey

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 3, 2010
3,163
Why would Manfred help out Ortiz at the expense of Bonds and Sosa? Madden's premise is flawed on that basis alone.
 

RG33

Certain Class of Poster
SoSH Member
Nov 28, 2005
7,199
CA
Even by Shank's standards, it's incredibly petty and sleazy (as well as offensive) to bring up a person from a Spanish-speaking culture switching from using his father's surname to his mothers surname as cause for suspicion. But I'll bet Ol' Dan is jealous that he couldn't come up with as big a smear job today on Papi's HoF election as troglodyte NY tabloid writer Bill Madden. Madden's cheap shots at Papi make Murray Chass look like an enlightened thinker.

When the Sox acquired Ortiz, Shaughnessy called him a "sack of you know what". That might have been the most wrong opinion any baseball writer has ever expressed.

David Ortiz completely destroyed any shred of credibility that Dan Shaughnessy ever had. David Ortiz was the biggest reason Dan Shaughnessy's BS "Curse" gravy train ended.

No one should care in the least what Dan Shaughnessy has to say about David Ortiz in 2022.
I’ve noted in here a few of my run-ins with Shank over the Ortiz stuff, but I lost my shit when I read the (expected) column this morning. The name thing was a big reason for it. I sent him an email (I know it matters not, but it made me feel good) and copied the Sports Editor of the Globe and the maine Editor (I know it doesn’t matter, made me feel good). He usually responds fairly quickly, and I’m a known entity to him, but so far nothing. Absolute fucking hatchet job that was Tucker Carlson-esque in the gaslighting and innuendo and racial overtunes. I would love to meet him in person and take a swing. Fuck that guy.
 

snowmanny

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 8, 2005
15,667
Eh, since now people can just make shit up, my answer as to why Manfred gave Ortiz a pass is that obviously Manfred has seen the test results from 2003 and knows Ortiz was a false positive or tested positive for something innocuous.
 

Van Everyman

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 30, 2009
26,993
Newton
Even by Shank's standards, it's incredibly petty and sleazy (as well as offensive) to bring up a person from a Spanish-speaking culture switching from using his father's surname to his mothers surname as cause for suspicion. But I'll bet Ol' Dan is jealous that he couldn't come up with as big a smear job today on Papi's HoF election as troglodyte NY tabloid writer Bill Madden. Madden's cheap shots at Papi make Murray Chass look like an enlightened thinker.

When the Sox acquired Ortiz, Shaughnessy called him a "sack of you know what". That might have been the most wrong opinion any baseball writer has ever expressed.

David Ortiz completely destroyed any shred of credibility that Dan Shaughnessy ever had. David Ortiz was the biggest reason Dan Shaughnessy's BS "Curse" gravy train ended.

No one should care in the least what Dan Shaughnessy has to say about David Ortiz in 2022.
So that Madden piece is kind of nuts:

But what has not been public knowledge was Ortiz’s compromising behavior off the field that went right to the heart of the integrity of the game – and for which he was also let off the hook by Manfred. In his 2018 book “Baseball Cop”, Eddie Dominguez, a high ranking Boston police detective and former FBI and DEA task member who was part of MLB’s since-abolished internal investigation unit, chronicled his three-year investigation of Big Papi and the Red Sox’s DH’s close association with an alleged Dominican drug dealer called “Monga,” who was in the U.S. illegally.

As part of the investigation of “Monga” and his involvement with PEDs, it was discovered that he was a frequent visitor to a Dominican barbershop in Boston with a gambling parlor in the basement, where witnesses said, he was placing large bets on Red Sox games in 2005. Just after Ortiz was presented with this information by MLB investigators, the barbershop abruptly closed. Dominguez reported that he was finally able to get “Monga” banned from the Red Sox clubhouse (where he’d been Ortiz’s constant companion), only to see him on TV, on the field at the 2006 All-Star Game Home Run Derby in Pittsburgh, toweling off Big Papi and the other Dominican players. When Dominguez voiced his outrage to his superiors at MLB, he was informed that Ortiz had told then-Commissioner Bud Selig and his deputy, Manfred, that if “Monga” and his posse were not allowed on the field, he would not participate in the Home Run Derby. Not long after, “Monga” was arrested at Ortiz’s house, where he was staying, and deported for immigration violations.
And then, of course, there was the infamous assassination attempt on Ortiz in the Dominican Republic on June 9, 2019, reputedly ordered by another Dominican drug lord, a situation that is still being sorted out.
Is this shit the reason Shank treats him like some low character pariah? I had never heard any of this before and have no idea whether it’s even kind of true.
 

lexrageorge

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2007
18,099
So that Madden piece is kind of nuts:


Is this shit the reason Shank treats him like some low character pariah? I had never heard any of this before and have no idea whether it’s even kind of true.
That is old news; saw it come out a couple of years ago IIRC.

I think at least some of it has been debunked already, and the sourcing for that story seems quite weak. Typical for NY tabloid writer to run with it.
 

Norm Siebern

Member
SoSH Member
May 12, 2003
7,123
Western MD
Lots of negativity in the press and on talk radio. There are a lot of butt hurt Yankee fans/Red Sox haters out there, both in media and in general. They can all kiss the fattest part of my fat ass.
 

Deweys New Stance

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 8, 2001
2,888
Here to Eternity
So that Madden piece is kind of nuts:


Is this shit the reason Shank treats him like some low character pariah? I had never heard any of this before and have no idea whether it’s even kind of true.
Yeah, I had never heard any of those allegations either, nor had I ever heard of Eddie Dominguez. I agree with lexrageorge that the sourcing for the story sounds very thin. I did a bit of googling and not much came up, but from what I did find Dominguez sounds like a disgruntled guy with a huge grudge. It's BS for Madden to treat his allegations as established fact. Fortunately Madden is even less relevant than Shank.
 

JimD

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2001
8,681
Does anyone else suspect (as I do) that Shank submitted that miserable excuse of a HoF ballot in the long-shot hope that Ortiz would fall a vote or two short, thus bringing notoriety and attention to the Boston Globe sportswriter who left Papi off his ballot?
 

Earthbound64

Member
SoSH Member
Even by Shank's standards, it's incredibly petty and sleazy (as well as offensive) to bring up a person from a Spanish-speaking culture switching from using his father's surname to his mothers surname as cause for suspicion
It's long been known that he's a racist, why would this surprise anyone?
People really, really, really need to stop giving him any attention.

Yes, I know replying here is exactly what they want. I don't often, but it needs repeating - the guy is a racist, among other things.
 

Archer1979

shazowies
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
7,870
Right Here
Shaughnessy is a really talented writer who, out of laziness, usually falls back on click-baiting and contrarian schtick to generate volume and keep his profile above water.

If he were a baseball player, he'd be one of those first-round picks who had a couple good years and then hung around for a long time as a platoon player...accumulating paychecks, but never part of winning teams (who recognize he doesn't try very hard or care) and changing addresses every year. Pretty much the exact opposite of what David Ortiz was as a player.

I wonder, when he looks in the mirror in the morning, whether Dan knows that he could have been a great sportswriter---he's as talented a writer or more than Jackie, certainly a better writer than Bob, but he just can't be bothered and his antipathy for athletes who care is just amusing tome at this point.

To net that all out: Dan, you suck.

Speaking of lazy, the column where he tries to figure out who Bill James was talking about seems like he took the thread off the main board, made it into word salad, and published it under his name.


This. Shaughnessy feels like he's the last guardian at the gate, the one who holds the athletes accountable amidst a legion of "fan boys" and "pink hats". What he fails to realize is that no one really wants this. At least all the time. I don't know if he likes being the turd in the punch bowl as much as I think he thinks that it needs to be there.
He's always given me that vibe that he thinks that since he's been surrounded by so many stellar sportswriters, that he's actually a stellar sportswriter by association. He's the Ringo Starr of the Boston Globe Sports Desk. He's not only not the best sportswriter in the world, he's not even the best sportswriter at the Globe.
 

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
41,948
This. Shaughnessy feels like he's the last guardian at the gate, the one who holds the athletes accountable amidst a legion of "fan boys" and "pink hats". What he fails to realize is that no one really wants this. At least all the time. I don't know if he likes being the turd in the punch bowl as much as I think he thinks that it needs to be there.
I'm not so sure this is true. The people may not want it, but they eat it up, read it, disseminate it, talk about it, etc. If the Boston sports fans didn't, Felger and Mazz, who do the exact same shit, wouldn't have the highest ratings in the city. Contrarianism works, unfortunately.
 

joe dokes

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
30,240
Does Shank even show up at games anymore? Or has he become the Globe's resident old guy watching from his lazy boy, yelling at clouds?
Pretty ironic, considering Francona's criticism of Bill James "never being in the locker room." (I'd like to think Francona was taking a simultaneous dig at Shaughnessy, but I doubt it).
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2001
24,545
I'm not so sure this is true. The people may not want it, but they eat it up, read it, disseminate it, talk about it, etc. If the Boston sports fans didn't, Felger and Mazz, who do the exact same shit, wouldn't have the highest ratings in the city. Contrarianism works, unfortunately.
I think that there's a difference between Shaughnessy and Felger and Mazz. F&M know that they're full of shit and also know that they have 20 hour of content that they have to go through ever week. They have to make it sound like they have an opinion on EVERYTHING. And sometimes it works and sometimes you can tell when they're killing time and just begging for a new controversy to drop.

Shank writes maybe three columns a week. And I don't know how much time he spends on his columns, but I'd say that most of the grist for his mill comes from the same well. He's been on Ortiz' ass for what, almost 20 years now? Despite the insane popularity and production from the guy. I think that Shaughnessy sees a situation, takes a "moral" stance on it (most of it so old school, it's practically Neolithic) and just keeps hammering away at it. Over and over and over and over again. Rarely does he relent, even in the face of facts. And I think that he thinks that his doggedness is "real reporting" and that he's the last of the real reporters. The last honest man screaming in the town square that all of our idols are false and that the world is doomed.

Honestly, I thought that Shank would mellow in his old age. And as the 2004 Red Sox retired and grew old, he'd hold them up as avatars of baseball's last "great team" and would compare any championship team that came after that to that team. But he really hasn't. That's what shitty, nostalgia OD writers do as they age. But then again, he's also a Boomer, and no one loves the smell of their own farts and loves to tell you about it in painstaking detail like a fucking Boomer.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 23, 2009
20,676
Maine
Honestly, I thought that Shank would mellow in his old age. And as the 2004 Red Sox retired and grew old, he'd hold them up as avatars of baseball's last "great team" and would compare any championship team that came after that to that team. But he really hasn't. That's what shitty, nostalgia OD writers do as they age. But then again, he's also a Boomer, and no one loves the smell of their own farts and loves to tell you about it in painstaking detail like a fucking Boomer.
He probably resents the 2004 team more than any other because they killed his gravy train. He probably had the new chapter written for an updated publication of Curse of the Bambino after ALCS Game 3 (shit, he was probably going to crib some of it from his column), and he already had plans for the money he'd get for that chapter. Then Millar gave him the "Don't Let Us Win Tonight" speech and life as Shank knew it was over.
 

Mystic Merlin

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 21, 2007
46,769
Hartford, CT
He probably resents the 2004 team more than any other because they killed his gravy train. He probably had the new chapter written for an updated publication of Curse of the Bambino after ALCS Game 3 (shit, he was probably going to crib some of it from his column), and he already had plans for the money he'd get for that chapter. Then Millar gave him the "Don't Let Us Win Tonight" speech and life as Shank knew it was over.
His patronizing bemusement at Millar saying that is something I will forever cherish.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

has fancy plans, and pants to match
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2001
24,545
He probably resents the 2004 team more than any other because they killed his gravy train. He probably had the new chapter written for an updated publication of Curse of the Bambino after ALCS Game 3 (shit, he was probably going to crib some of it from his column), and he already had plans for the money he'd get for that chapter. Then Millar gave him the "Don't Let Us Win Tonight" speech and life as Shank knew it was over.
Yeah. I've thought that too. He's a bitter old crank who wrung as much money as he could from his own community's sadness, still wanted more and was angry when it was denied to him. Fuck him.
 

pk1627

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
May 24, 2003
2,514
Boston
I’ve come to realize Dan feels a good columnist/journalist/whatever he is cannot be a fan. He feels it is his job to bring truth to power and challenge popular images. I feel he particularly goes after Latin players because they cultivate an image that masks some of their all too human behavior (i.e., Ortiz running with a tough crowd in DR that almost got him killed, Pedro with a prima Donna attitude).

I feel he should let the Ortiz stuff go. He holds onto the 2003 report like it’s the holy grail. If he has other info of PED use, spill it. Otherwise let the innuendo with Latin players go.

His a good writer even if he mails in a column now and then. His Francona and Celtics books were good. But Dan, we don’t need you to expose Pedro and Papi. They were clutch players and we adore them (even though they are human).
 

BringBackMo

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,316
I think that there's a difference between Shaughnessy and Felger and Mazz. F&M know that they're full of shit and also know that they have 20 hour of content that they have to go through ever week.
I think this nails it. They are more like wresting bad guys, winking to the crowd as they play their roles. Shaughnessy, on the other hand, seems to take himself VERY seriously.
 

Van Everyman

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 30, 2009
26,993
Newton
Today’s column is an exercise in whataboutism featuring an interview with Bruce Hurst from his cattle and alfalfa farm extolling the Hall worthiness of Clemens – even as Shaughnessy says he didn’t vote for him.

As @pk1627 notes, Dan isn’t a dumb guy. I think more than anything he sees his job as a columnist as that of a contrarian (when everybody in Boston thinks one thing—about Ortiz or Deflategate—it’s my responsibility to take the other side of the argument), to call out hypocrisy and arrogance (see: Kraft and the Patriot Way, Belichick’s support of Trump) and to speak truth to power (see: his constant harping on Henry for owning the Globe).

That’s not an entirely wrong approach to take for somebody in his position. Where it gets problematic with Shaughnessy is his long-standing tendency to get sour, miserable and dug in on things. This was a problem going all the way back to him taking over the Sunday Baseball Notes column from Gammons around 1990. Where Gammons had a tendency to maybe mythologize and think the best of baseball people, Dan always found a way to be negative and dour. And that’s only gotten more pronounced as Boston sports have had this unprecedented run of success these last two decades.

To his credit, he seemed to embrace the Sox overcoming his semi-manufactured Curse. And he knows that Belichick is as good of a football coach as he’ll ever see. But he never misses a chance to take someone down a peg or two – in this case he should’ve waited a bit but couldn’t pass up the opportunity given how universal the praise in Boston was for Ortiz’s election.

As @JimD said, he’s Max Mercy in a clown wig. But he could’ve been so much more. And sometimes is.
 

snowmanny

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 8, 2005
15,667
As I think about this I am more and more convinced that it is only about clickbait and getting his name out there. He’s not contrarian, or sticking to his beliefs, or settling a grudge, except to the extent that any of that serves the greater purpose of making sure his name is being mentioned.

He essentially used his HOF ballot to advertise his product. I mean, we all know he decided he was going to vote for exactly one player before he knew which player it was going to be, right? That tells you all you need to know.
 

BornToRun

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 4, 2011
17,317
Shank is crushing the doom and gloom this week with back to back pieces on unvaccinated Red Sox and the Sale injury.
Shitting on the unvaccinated is maybe the one instance in which I’ll just let him do his worst without complaint.