Boston Business Journal
“Dan Shaughnessy has been absolutely brutal and unpredictable in his commentary over the years and God bless him for it,” writes Tim McLaughlin. He compares two of the Boston Globe sportswriter’s columns. Here’s today’s piece on the Bruins:
They won it for every New England mom and dad who ever woke up to drive kids to the rink at 6 a.m., and drank hot chocolate while they waited in the cold. They won it for the Revere girls with the big hair and O’Reilly sweaters; or the shot-and-beer guys who pour every dollar of expendable income into the hockey budget. They won it to avenge losing Bobby Orr to Chicago, too many men on the ice in Montreal, free agents never signed, trades that went bad, unspeakable injuries, and Game 7 disappointments.
Here’s what Shaughnessy wrote in 2004 after the Red Sox beat the Cardinals to win the World Series:
They did it for the old folks in Presque Isle, Maine, and White River Junction, Vt. They did it for the baby boomers in North Conway, N.H., and Groton, Mass. They did it for the kids in Central Falls, R.I., and Putnam, Conn.
McLaughlin says he knows what he’s going to write If Shaughnessy ever retires:
He wrote it for every disenfranchised misanthropic fan from Groton, Mass., who was teased for throwing a baseball like a girl. He wrote it for the frustrated English major from York Beach, Maine who split infinitives, misplaced modifiers and couldn’t get subject and verb to agree.
He wrote it for Peter Gammons who left newspapers for TV and for the late great Will McDonough. He wrote it for the up-and-coming sportswriter like Amalie Benjamin. He wrote it for the Boston Globe, who paid him a decent salary, sent him to exotic outposts like Tampa and scrutinized his expense reports for any sign of profligate spending on hair gel products. He wrote it because he never took sports and its stars too seriously.
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