By David Scott
BSMW Columnist

Rawhide
Harold Reynolds has always excelled in barely affecting my viewing habits. He’s neither must-see nor must-avoid. But now, at the very least, he is must-respect. His stint as the locker room attendant and the 1st baseline ballperson on Wednesday night was example No. 1 in how ESPN – despite over self-promotion of the highest order and more conflicts than a schoolyard kickball game – dominates the subtle blending of a great idea with a good personality. It would be worth seeing some more Plimptonism from similarly talented, ex-jocks. . .The over-hype generated by this space alone set the diligent and earnest Hazel Mae up for inevitable failure in her NESN “Sports Desk” debut. But the over-textured, rainbow-lit stage was purely NESN’s own misdeed. Further complicating what should be pretty simple, is the scrolling, dot matrix machine in the hind set which reminds us we’re “watching Sports Desk;” but neglects to tell us why they are using Brite Lite-level technology. Lose the ancient props, folks. Reporter Paul Devlin is a generational step forward from (fellow Hullonian) Tom Larson, but Larson has a vintage voice and recognizable delivery. It’s fair to even say Larson is vastly underrated, but that might draw attention to a whole host of under-watched, under-appreciated hard-workers (WB56’s Mike Ratte and NBC7’s Gary Gillis come to mind, but the local, all-timer for the category has got to be CN8’s John Carchedi. He’s a young Mike Adams without the chemical enhancers – not that the chemical enhancers ever negatively affected Adams and his genius. Carchedi, like many mid-level guys nationwide, is TOO SMART for the average fan and plays better to the disenfranchised. That might have been a direct insult at myself or Carchedi, but we’ll assume it was about me, because Carchedi is awfully talented and deserves a gig with more exposure). . . This new job of mine, where I actually work full days? It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, I assure you. But I certainly have found my softer side, wouldn’t you agree?. . . You thought I was gonna forget to close parentheses up above, didn’t you? I’ve got a new system: I read over my stuff once in a while. . . “Ah, yes, Curt on the Car Phone, you’re next on “Car Talk” with Click and Clack. . .” “Oooh. Sorry, fellas. Wrong number. You got the digits for ‘EEI?”. . .Schilling should stop wasting his time with 850AM and make his regular call into “Only a Game” instead. Littlefield and Pierce would have a field day with him – they’d be onto Civil War talk before 30 seconds elapses.

Pigskin
It was mentioned that perhaps I am too harsh on WBCN Rock Radio Network’s Gino Cappelletti. It should now be mentioned that nothing can be too harsh in describing this man’s lack of radio talent. It’s only amazing that he’s been given the free ride for so long. True enough, Griff?. . Gary Tanguay, on the other hand, is infinitely more tolerable on the truck’s Blaupunkt at 104.1 FM, than on the living room’s Sony at FSN. . . Speaking of Tanguay, FSN has started running the print portion of its “Odd Couple”-themed campaign for the 6:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. New England Sports Tonight. Thursday’s Herald _ pager landed on p. 42 and offered no I.D. for either Oscar/Tang or Felix/Greg Dickerson. Trust us when we tell you FSN, these guys ain’t household names or faces – especially not in the belly of the news well, far removed from the sports section..

Between the Lines of Pages
Think about this one for a moment: This week saw John Olympic Powers and Peter Basketball May offer up the Globe’s Red Sox coverage on separate days. By our count, that means Ron Indrisano is the only active Sports Desk writer who has yet to be sent to “Fill-in at Fenway Day,” the exciting Globe game where even you, the loyal reader, could be called into action. Don’t be surprised when Globe Magazine’snewest, most-recycled contributor, (and former Yellow Boxer) Monica Collins pens the ALDS Game 1 gamer. You could call the Globe and complain that, during the most compelling part of the season you are left with hardly-thrilled subs filling in for your regulars. But with dour NYT financials announced this week, it’s doubtful anyone above the obit-takers are answering phones. Instead, try this: Pick up a Herald. They happen to own the town’s Sox coverage. And Pats reporting for that matter. The ship might not be sinking on Morrissey, but sailing ain’t smooth for the sporty sports. . .That doesn’t mean all is overly peachy at Herald Square, either. Apparently someone with a bit of news sense and trend-ability is convinced that the Business of Sports is worth covering. Repeatedly this week, Yellow Boxer, Greg Gatlin had sports-related stories given ample space in the Business pages. In fact, the section we like to call the Land of Cosmo ran a weekend ratings box and story in Tuesday’s edition, highlighting the Sox and Pats numbers. So, if there’s a need for sports business and media reporting (especially when the Globe is so easily beatable in the department) why isn’t that reporting/critiquing done in the sports section, where it belongs? Oh, that’s right, why progress with the times when we can stay in the typewriter-age. It’s the modus operandi for both of Boston’s biggest ink-pressers, and quite frankly, it’s laughable. . . Ware (Mass.) Reporting Bear, Pete Thamel abandoned his ESPN the Mag experiment in favor of full-time employ for the New York Times’ college desk. It’s a big loss for the Mag, but they’d never admit it; likewise it’s a major gain for the Times. Thamel, Scott’s Shots Pick for the “Next Big Thing from SU” (non-Hakim Warrick division), is a multi-tool writer who just got multi-resources and name cache of the highest order. Trust us, there’s a difference going to the week’s best college game under the ESPN Mag credential vs. the NYT tag. Not only is the seat better in the press box, but the respect is bigger from all who understand such things. . . What? Don’t look at me that way: It’s never too early to begin accumulating beer buys at the St. Louis Final Four in April ’05. Which is also why we all need to be especially kind to a Scott’s Shots fave at the Missouri Valley Conference, Joe Mitch, in these next 200 days. . .The Wall Street Journal outdid itself with this past Monday’s 8-page Journal Report on all things football – mostly NFL and some college. Stalwart Stefan Fatsis (who wrote the enjoyable “Word Freaks” book, now scheduled to be a movie) shone on his cover story, but it was Joe Flint’s “Air Games” that might have been the most revealing of the package’s well-segmented components. Suffice to say the positioning and utilization of the NFL Network is much more a negotiating tactic than the fan service it might appear to be. The billions spent will still be astonishing, that is for sure. But the diversity of the packages will be similarly mind-boggling and are going to have to include MULTI media platforms. Something completely lost on four out of five newspaper companies. . .Okay, we’ll leave you with this one to gnaw on for the weekend. It’s another example of where the newspaper people find themselves during this age of transformation. There was a kid, and for the sake of this story, we’ll call him John Havlicek (although close Globe observers will decipher his true identity) and Havlicek was on the staff of one of the Globe’s regional sections for the suburban communities. On occasion he would fill in when Don Skwar, and later Joe Sullivan found themselves short-staffed at this game or that presser. By all accounts, Havlicek was a young, diligent and talented. He was certainly building a nice portfolio between his regular work and added duties. But one day Havlicek looked around, saw the glut of average writers at the major-area dailies and said to himself: “Havlicek, you gotta get outta here. Papers are getting killed and change is barely creeping into the coverage philosophies. It’s time to see what else is out there.” And so Havlicek gave his notice and headed west. Havlicek’s not giving up, not by a long shot, we’d say. But he is assessing the stagnant market for newspaper sports writers and he is wondering if maybe there isn’t something better out there. Maybe one of these progressive, intuitive Internet brands will be looking for a young guy with some great experience and emerging skills and maybe he’ll catch a break. At the very least, he’ll get that stale taste of the old newsroom out of his mouth.

Rants and Raves
Denis Leary’s Wednesday night sex scene (with Sheila) in “Rescue Me” was maybe the best commercial-TV romp of this generation. . .The whole Cat Stevens thing has my tummy in knots. And this on the heels of a Philadelphia Public TV airing of a very solid Jim Croce biography that includes his wife and son. It would have been more understandable if the guy who wrote “Rapid Roy that Stock Car Boy” had been on the no-fly list instead of the guy who did “Morning has Broken.” Ooooh baby, baby, it’s a wild world. . . The most disturbing part of the Dan Ratherfiasco is all these people that still believe Rather’s alive. . .We’re wondering if all-time Scott’s Shots good guy, Danny Pires, ever runs into The New Bedfa teacher featured in this month’s FHM, with Alyssa Milano on the cover displaying cleavage that indicates exactly WHO is the BOSS. . .Okay, it’s possible that I was actually the one that married Britney last weekend. There was about four hours on Saturday that are still unaccounted for from the great Scott’s Shots Generic Cold Pill Blackout of ’04 .

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull and can be reached at david@bostonsportsmedia.com

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