Pouncing on a chance to extend his self-perpetuated week in the local sports scene spotlight, the increasingly annoying John Tomase of the increasingly irrelevant Lawrence Eagle Tribune continued his incessant beating of his Tom-Tom drum last night.

Sitting in for a couple of segments with NECN’s Mike Giardi on Sunday’s Sports Late Night, Tomase came across as cocky, arrogant and even calculating.

“I’ll make my self available to (Manny Ramirez),” Tomase told Girardi, making the assumption that the enigmatic outfielder would actually WANT time with Tomase. Or better yet, if he even knows what a ‘Tomase’ is.

Saying he would be front and center in front of Ramirez’s locker for the Red Sox return to Fenway, Tomase shrugged off the week that Giardi called “an interesting one” for the young writer, and suggested that anyone (like him, we assume) who has the “temerity” to question the sacred Sox will become fair game for the fan’s (and his peer’s) wrath.

It wasn’t temerity, Tomase. It was stupidity and timidity.

Let’s remember something here, careful observers: Tomase not only hid behind his “members of the organization” who he he alleged are sick of Manny’s act, he also chose to pen his column at a time when Manny had what seemed to be a legit excuse for missing last Sunday’s game (the pitch that caromed off his shin the night before). Not to mention he wrote piece at a time when he wouldn’t have to see any Sox players for seven calendar days (Tomase doesn’t ordinarily travel with the team).

Further, for Tomase to goad Giardi into mentioning Tomase’s two “apologies” (that supposedly were either on the web site, in the paper or in different “editions”) was not only a transparent try at making excuses for himself, it was also a direct indictment of his own paper’s laughably awful web site. (Visit the Trib site and then Google “John Tomase” and you still won’t find the mystery second apology/explanation Tomase referred to.) Nothing like throwing your paper under the bus when you’re the one spouting off and perpetuating the story.

Tomase was, in essence, blaming his paper’s inability to get his message out, for some of the potshots and Whiner Line fodder that have followed Tomase’s ill-timed Manny rip job from last Monday.

At first, after reading the column, Scott’s Shots was willing to hear Tomase out and give him some slack. Manny should get some guff for his “Manny stuff,” we figured. But as the week rolled on and Tomase dug in his heels in a poor attempt to play the high and mighty sportswriter, we became weary, worried and watchful.

By last night, when Tomase traipsed onto the NECN set, we were downright sick of his blatant self-promotion. If the Eagle-Trib won’t tell Tomase to pipe down and do his job- and it’s clear they won’t - we will. Enough already, Tom-Tom. Not only are you in the process of making a huge ass of yourself, you’re compromising your ability to do your job (the one you currently have) effectively. And to pin the problem on the sports talk radio culture (as Tomase insinuated) is like blaming FOX News for sending Greta to Aruba - it’s exactly what the entities thrive on.

As Giardi segued out of Tomase’s time slot, the curly-haired cub couldn’t resist getting in one more catty comment and joked: “I’ll be wearing my No. 24 jersey at the park tomorrow (Monday).”

He’d be better off wearing some humility and shutting his enlarged yap for a few weeks.

-David Scott, Scott’s Shots 6/27/05