A "Curt" career comes to a close -- does the Globe know?

And so Curt Schilling goes off quietly into that good night...

I won't spend any time rehashing Curt's baseball legacy or his Sawx tenure, other than to point you towards Jayson Stark's great piece on Schilling from ESPN.com where he relays a conversation with Johnny Damon about Schilling. When you get that kind of respect from your peers, all the other plaudits seem superfluous.

Rather, Schilling's retirement throws into sharp relief the dearth of real, true sports reporting at the Boston Globe. The Globe has fallen into its own trap of reporting. By cultivating the curmudgeons of baseball writing (Shaughnessy, Ryan, Cafardo, etc.) and severing ties with the loudmouths at WEEI, they have removed themselves as a relevant outlet to "break" sports news.

How else do you explain Schilling opting to use his own blog -- and WEEI by extension -- to announce he is retiring? It's a well-known fact that, Tony Massaroti excluded, Schilling and many of the Sawx have no time for the Globe, eloquently detailed by Schilling in comments aired on WEEI's "Dennis & Callahan" -- which singled out Shaughnessy in particular, basically summed up as "I don't have anything bad to say about him [Shaughnessy] but he hates his job, hates baseball, is lazy and nobody likes him... but he's a talented writer."

Hard to believe the Globe is now second banana (or third, if you count WEEI as a legit sports news outlet) in Boston, especially considering it was once home to writers like Peter Gammons, Will McDonough, Peter May and Jackie MacMullan, among others -- writers and columnists in my lifetime who redefined what it meant to cover their sports and created classic prose along the way (don't forget John Updike's classic "Hub fans bid Kid Adieu" which -- despite being published in The New Yorker -- remains one of the most classic piece of Boston sports writing ever published).

Now - with the exception of Massarotti -- we get the artist formerly known as Bob Ryan and a bunch of "writers" like Chad Finn and others who seem to spend more time writing boring game stories and trolling other sites and sources and less time writing original stories that capture the moment and make readers think. And there's a special place for Shaughnessy, who seems to be elevating uselessness and irrelevancy to an art form.

Undaunted by the fact that he is widely reviled by readers and contemporaries alike, Shaughnessy still found a way to take a shot at Schilling as he left the building by comparing him to George McGovern and Dick van Dyke -- ooh snap! -- which serves only to demonstrate how woefully out of touch Mr. Curly-Haired Boyfriend himself is. As many bloggers (including yours truly) have demonstrated time and time again, arcane pop culture references and snarkiness usually end up being witty for an audience of one, and only serve to push your readers away.

Sigh...

It's sad that I don't ever read the Globe for sports coverage anymore -- ESPN.com has better local coverage through its blogs and beat writers (not to mention The Sports Guy) of Boston sports than the Globe does. I used to read the Globe sports section front to back every day, and I loved Gammons, McDonough, May, MacMullan, and others -- thought-provoking writers whose columns were must-read and must-discuss amongst my family and friends. Nowadays, not so much.

So farewell, Curt... Thanks for 2004, thanks for being a part of 2007, and thanks for being a ringleader for 5 of the most exciting years I've ever experienced as a Sawx fan. I'm glad you won't be completely gone, but I'm sorry you didn't get the farewell you should have gotten from the Globe.

And P.S. - you are a Hall of Famer, no question. Discussion for another time.

SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX... whine?

Item (from today's Globe sports section): "I've been fighting a lot of [expletive], man," said Ortiz, whose recuperation from knee surgery has not been abetted by the frequent-flier miles. "Thank God it's early in the season; I can put myself together. But it's hard, man.

"Let me break this down for you. We were in Fort Myers, then we went to the other side of the planet. We came back to LA in one place [Dodger Stadium], then went to another place in LA [the Coliseum], and now we're leaving the country again. You tell me, what do you think?"

And yet the Sox are off to a better start than in either of their last two World Series-winning years, when they split their first four games in both 2004 and '07.

"I guess we're good," Ortiz said when reminded of that fact.

I guess this settles the debate of whether or not the Sox players were in favor of the Japanese adventure that started their defense of last year's Series win. Ortiz, who probably commands as much respect inside -- and outside -- the Sox clubhouse as any player, clearly was not a fan of MLB's desire to "taske this show on the road," as it were. But just in case you think it's just Big Papi being Big Disgruntled-i (wow, that didn't work), take heed of Curt Schilling's post on http://www.38pitches.com/ on the Japan trip.

Highlights include (full post is at http://38pitches.com/2008/03/20/last-boring-uneventful-day-of-camp%e2%80%a6):
- "Late last year we had confirmation of MLB’s desire for the Red Sox to open the 2008 baseball season in Japan... I know the players gave this a lukewarm reception at best, which deteriorated the deeper the discussion got."
- "I don’t believe MLB thought the players would have any objections and would be looking forward to the trip. To the contrary, on the initial call we actually told MLB we pretty much decided on not wanting to do this, and that as a club we’d voted not to go."

So was the trip overseas worth it? I guess it depends on your perspective... if you are MLB, then yes: Based on the interest level (nationally & internationally), now you have even more impetus to seriously consider adding some form of a Japanese team(s) or league to MLB. If you are teh Sox ownership: Yes, yes, yes. For financial reason principally, but also for the stability and longevity of the Red Sox brand and general goodwill.

However, if you're a player... hmmm. Remember when the Yankees did this a few years ago? Well, they had a horrible April and spent the first part of the season playing catch-up. For the Sox, the jury's still out.

But you have to wonder if there is any lingering acrimony between the players and the management, esp. give the brouhaha that preceded the trip concerning the Sox staff and compensation, not to mention the obvious reluctance to participate voiced publicly by Schilling and Ortiz and, surely, by many more privately.

And the fans? We'll see... Having the Sox defense of the Series begin thousands of miles (and 13 hours ahead) of the usual time probably wasn't all that damaging to the fan base. I for one, though, am wondering if it will all be so copascetic when all of a sudden Papi or someone else has to go on the DL because the time spent in an airplane flying to or back from Japan caused some kind of damage to their recuperation from injury or, like JD Drew and Sean Casey, aggravated a twinge (back and neck, respectively).

The worst-kept secret in baseball is that the Sox aren't as deep as they have been. Only time will tell if this will come back to bite them.

And then you might hear something from the fans... stay tuned.

In the meantime, enjoy this NSFW 2008 Sox preview from fellow Braintree High alum and noted Bostonian Paul "Fitzy" Fitzgerald...



More of "Fitzy" at http://www.townienews.com.