By David Scott
Boston Sports Media

***UPDATED, 2 p.m. Friday to include response from Joe Sullivan of the Globe, in bold, below***

We’d like to thank My Boss Bruce for the newly commissioned Shots logo. Someone already asked if its supposed to be Red Smith’s old typewriter. We prefer to think it might have been used by Milt Cole, (may the Wizard of Western Mass. rest in peace).

The logo captures the spirit and essence of this space: Old world sensibility (the typewriter) mixed with New world technology (blog, podcast). Like the Gecko to Geico, the typewriter means more. Much more. Shots thanks everyone for the chance to reach this milestone of being logo-ized.

Also, be sure to come back and check out a new poll at the ‘BSMW Pulse Taker’ spot in the upper right. Should be up by Monday. Enjoy the rest of the show. . .

• A lot of the Post-Jayson Blair/Legitimizing-of-Blogs Era – which I’d suggest we’re fully immersed now – has been about “transparency.” In a different era it might have been called “accountability.” Whatever the label, the basic premise is that being straight up, open and honest with the readers creates a bond, thus brand loyalty, thus returning customers. Our transparency obsession is arguably at its highest point during these days of activism in journalism – aka, “Community Journalism.” It’s a big concept to grasp and not one we need to spend time on. Other than to hope you understand what we’re getting at.

Some of that transparency has been self-righteous (ESPN’s Ombudsman comes to mind), but some of it has benefited the consumer. And every time consumers win a battle, that’s a good thing.

Which brings me to a topic I’ll try not to get bogged down in, but will likely fail. The common Shots Warning with this type of philosophizing is: if you care not about Journalism ethics/values/credibility, than by all means, scroll on down to the very next bulleted item. The rest of us are going to have to think about something:

In Wednesday’s Boston Globe, the fine golf writer, Jim McCabe had a front-of-sports feature on Michelle Wie. It was datelined “PALM DESERT, Calif.” and got into a little bit of the ramifications of Wie turning pro. It was, like all of McCabe’s writing, solid and informative. It included quotes from major names in golf, including Tiger Woods, Meg Mallon and Kelli Kuehne. In total – about 1,700 words – it gave a solid glimpse into what Wie faces on Tour (and beyond), now that she’s a Pro.

Overall, it was well worth the read. Her story is still at that “compelling” stage – at least form this seat.

Later that day, while skimming the Boston Herald, Shots discovered an Associated Press story by Doug Ferguson. It had many of the same quotes I had seen in the McCabe story. The gist of the story was the same as well, but it was two, individual works by two of the Golf Circuit’s heavyweights. Happens all the time: part of the pack mentality of older school writers.

Now let me be clear about something here: McCabe did nothing wrong in reporting his story. He either used the same transcripts that Ferguson did to fill in quotes or he used the quotes from Ferguson’s AP Story. Either of which is perfectly acceptable and practiced daily by any number of major daily writers.

The problem Shots has is that there was no credit in McCabe’s story, given to the AP story. That seems a bit dubious, even if it truly isn’t. Globe sports editor Joe Sullivan responded to Shots on Friday afternoon with this, via email: “Information in the Globe has been obtained by our staff except where noted such as when we use the Associated Press contributed to this report at the end of a story.”

While Sullivan’s response explains the paper’s position, we are still a bit perplexed. Sullivan seems to be saying that McCabe used all his own, original material and it just so happens to be a bunch of the same quotes from the same people that the AP story had.

We’ve all seen the now common practice of Sunday notebooks including a disclaimer at the end that explains material from interviews, the wire services and other places have been included within the items of the notebook.

Shots simply asks: Shouldn’t there be a similar disclaimer for feature stories that draw heavily on other acceptable sources of information? Sullivan’s reply indicates that such a policy is in place. We’re going to have to keep an eye on similar things in the future.

Upon first read of the Globe story on Wednesday, I was overly impressed at the access and depth of McCabe’s story. Come to find out, most of it probably could have been written from the Seaside Shanty.

Again, I want to stress that McCabe did nothing wrong, but in this new age of Transparency, we’d respectfully submit that his paper did something that was, if not wrong, at the very least “covert” in nature. We’d simply suggest utilizing some of the same disclaimers that are already in place at other parts of the paper. There is a skeptical public out there that has been burned by the varying degree of Blair Instances.

• Wednesday night’s Major League Baseball Embarrassment of the Moment (L’affaire de Doug Eddings) was made even more embarrassing when ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” crew came on the air to discuss the incident. Both John Kruk and Harold Reynolds mostly ignored the major screw-up by Eddings and instead focused on the smart base-running of A.J. Pierzynski. Kruk at least knew how bizarre it was, Reynolds missed the magnitude of the gaffe entirely.

What was almost as staggering was the post-game presser that ESPN showed, where it appeared some of the reporters in the Q&A session were content to let the incident pass. As one Shots’ compadre who was on-site later told us: “Eddings blew it. He was influenced by A.J. running to first. If he had come into that interview room and said, look, ‘I messed up, it was bang, bang, 40,000 people screaming, I’m human, I am sorry,’ pretty much all would have been forgiven. The ump dog and pony show was a joke.”. . . Bill Plaschke, on the other hand, gave great analysis on Thursday afternoon’s PTI (where The Grump, Tony K was off atoning, ala Shots, and The Hateable Dan LeBatard filled in opposite Wilby – good stuff still). . . As more than a few folks pointed out, Bud Selig can thank his lucky stars that the play didn’t involve the Hometown Nine from Boston or New York.

• The new Neil Young album, Prairie Wind, got downloaded (we’re so mod) this week and we’re thinking its Uncle Neil’s best since Harvest Moon. (Which doesn’t say much, because that Greendale crap came in between.) But Neil gets a lot of slack from Shots at every turn – he’s that talented and that affected. It’s worth the buy, for sure.

• Shots made a disturbing discovery at the end of Sunday’s first half of the Pats/Falcons game: WBCN has been omitting seven (7) key letters from its call letters. Intended to be placed between the “C” and the “N” are the AWOL letters: O-N-F-U-S-I-O.

Once again the Rock Radio Network’s elderly booth mates were thoroughly confused by the goings-on in front of them. Gino Cappelletti was calling for Atlanta to use a timeout they didn’t have while Gil Santos was misidentifying the Falcons place-kicker and neither could be sure whether two, separate 58-yard attempts were good or not. (First wasn’t, second was as the “Game of the Week” replay at NFL TV showed.) Oh, and in the midst of that, they missed a timeout called by the Pats to ice the kicker, despite lengthy whistles being heard through the field microphones.

And all these things happened with a minute left in the half. Multiply it by 60 and you just about get the amount of stumbles, snafus and frustrating commentary that emanates from the ‘BCN booth during any given Pats affair.

Add in hyper-active, over-caffeinated, studio co-host, Andy Gresh who kicked off the Net’s half-time show by referring to the second quarter as the “second half” – and what you gets is an unsteady, uneven ride from the Flagship’s crew. Gresh, it should be noted, has great football insight and uses “whack” and “wham” with the best of the Madden Disciples, but he needs to slow down and not get so over-frothed at the mouth. As my good friend, JSpar once said: “Remain calm.” Emotion and passion are fine, but sounding like you’re hepped up on speed for three minutes can be harsh on the ears of your listeners.

As for Gary Tangueray and Tonic? Parcells would say this: He is what he is. And that’s neither awful nor awesome.

At least the pre and post-game shows are tolerable and well-meaning enough. The game broadcasts have become sub-par for a small-market, cellar dweller never mind for the two-time defending Super Bowl champs. Gil might still have the pipes for another year or two, but if Gino calls anything other than Foxboro High School games beyond this season, we’re prepared to organize the Scott’s Shots Rock Radio Network Boycott. We’ve already signed up Papa Scott, The Baze and Richie Hopedale are on board as well. Maybe we haven’t said it before, but we think we did: Sean McDonough and Russ Francis. Trust us. It’d work.

And please save the “But they’re institutions” responses. Repeating the same poor programming decision year after year doesn’t constitute the creation of “institutions.” Move Gil into a different role, give Gino an Exec. VP title and bring in Sean and Russ for ’06, understand?

• Enough, enough, enough.

This town’s too tough for David Wells? It battered Keith Foulke? It bludgeoned Kevin Millar?

Good. No, better yet. Great.

I mean, that was David Wells agreeing to do a “Being Boomer” segment on NESN, right? And Foulke, who had to escape the city, sure didn’t leave without taking a few pictures with the ladies . As for Millar? He can Cowboy Up and Out of Town for all we care. His act is as tired and foolish as a week’s worth of Craig Ferguson.

My basic point is this: It’s a two way street, fellas. If you invite attention by doing TV segments on behalf of Friendly’s or if you are carefree enough to let teenagers into your inner circle, well, then, you pretty much have made your own bed.

The recent rash of webshots with famous and not-so-famous athletes and media members ( Uri, we saw you, pal ) only solidifies the Shots Theorem that professional athletes (and their hangers-on) are some of the most clueless folks in all the land. . . Which segues nicely into the Hazel Mae story that space-sharer, John Molori did solid work with this week. I’d urge you to look at what Mae said to Molori over at his Blitz page, but I’d also urge you to listen to the Whiner Line on Friday afternoon to hear the Hazel Hazing which is beginning to gain momentum. We’re telling you this much: Mae is in grave danger of over-estimating the maturity level of WEEI’s listeners, while at the same time teetering on the fine line of what is acceptable to a proud franchise (and check-signer) like the Red Sox. If Mae really believes there’s nothing limiting her from relations with a team member or Sox employee, she clearly hasn’t been paying attention to her industry’s tolerance level. . . And how about this one from the Track Gals: Bronson Arroyo and Derek Lowe sharing a meal together. You kind of figure the Dylan album “Infidels” was playing on the café’s iPod Bose sound system.

• The answer to an obscure bit of local media trivia has started to make his mark up the Pike a bit in CentrumVille. Ken Powers’ replacement at the Worcester Telegram and Gazette – Rich Garven – offered up this bit of reportage last Friday. (A Shots loyalist sent it along, knowing I was not a subscriber to the T&G’s site.)

Perhaps I should be. Garven can certainly turn a phrase and he deserves credit for paying attention to details.

Not done yet? Tedy’s helmet shows wear
By Rich Garven (Worcester) Telegram & Gazette staff
rgarven@telegram.com
Oct. 7, 2005 FOXBORO— The silver helmet hangs on the right side of the locker by its red face mask. Small decals of the Nos. 5 and 4 are attached to the back, indicating its owner.
At the start of last month, the helmet was all shiny and unblemished. Just as one would expect of a player who isn’t practicing.
So why then is Tedy Bruschi’s helmet suddenly showing signs of wear and tear?
A look at it yesterday revealed the “Flying Elvis” on the right side had a slight rip in it. On top were numerous red skid marks, the kind that commonly result around here from coming in contact with a teammate’s face mask.
Patriots spokesman Stacey James said with unequivocal certainty Bruschi has not been practicing with the Patriots. However, he could not confirm whether Bruschi has been attending practice as a spectator.
James said he attends the first 30 minutes of each practice, which is when it’s open to selected media members. One reporter who unfailingly attends practice said he has never spotted Bruschi during those open viewing sessions.
Left unspoken is what takes place behind closed doors.
Bruschi is on the physically unable to perform list as a result of a stroke suffered in February. The Pro Bowl linebacker stated last month he would sit out this season, but offered a “no comment” last week when asked about the chance of his returning this season.
As a player on the PUP list, Bruschi is allowed to attend meetings and train at the team’s facility — which he has been doing. He cannot practice with his teammates.
Bruschi has a 21-day window during which he can return to practice after the sixth game of the season. Should he start practicing, the Patriots have 21 days to activate him or place him on the injured reserve, which would officially eliminate his returning.
It’s worth noting Bruschi may have two helmets. Who, after all, would risk having a helmet crack during a game and not have a backup?
If that’s the case, that shiny and unblemished helmet may very well be stored someplace. But it doesn’t explain the beat-up look of the helmet hanging in Bruschi’s locker yesterday. (Subscription or payment required): http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.d…=73223255528216

Two unrelated things on this one: Be prepared for a flood of like-minded/worded stories once this week’s Denver game is over.

And, second, Garven (or more accurately, Fred Garvin) was the name of the Dan Akroyd, SNL character who was known as “Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute,” a skit that always gets a few good laughs at the realization of Akroyd’s true talent.

• Our guy, Tilber has just been on fire recently, ever since the move to Al McGuire’s old ‘hood. The ghost of Al lives in Tilber and for that, we’re all wealthier and wiser. Shots has always thought ‘Waukee would be my kind of town. Anyone need a Tom Crean feature? Anyone?

• Shots experiment in torturous sports talk radio listening drew a lot of eyeballs (thanks, again, to the ridiculously talented, intelligent and humorous www.deadspin.com) and while some folks commended Shots for having the fortitude to undertake the task, others found fault with our cheapshots:

You rag on everyone but people listen to these shows, D&C couldn’t get their #’s just talking about strictly the Red Sox batting order or backup QB’s. I think Howard Stern is popular because when you listen everyday you become involved(or at least you think you do) in their lives. The same holds true for the inside jokes at WEEI. The Meat talking about the North End or his dogs or Buckley and his stories. And if that isn’t a good enough reason I listen because everything else stinks. Eddie is a joke, hate the music on Mike-FM and WZLX, Rush is a shill. – Christian K.

Many-time, long-timer, Walt G. got Shots a gigglin’ with this one:

As a scratching, short-(equipmented) bald man with a cracked windshield I resent the implication that Sports Radio listeners and hosts are losers. I’ll have you know that Fairway Jay is on a monster 13-3 run and is the best handicapper this side of Hondo. . . And you forgot to mention the fourth man in the booth on the Andelman show, the Suffolk Downs track announcer in the background; ‘one minute to post time, one minute to post.’ That’s radio you’re going to miss one day pal.

It’s been said before by many others, but I truly love my readers.

• We know of at least one former Scott’s Shots Scrunchy Queen (circa 1992) (a Yiddishah-Irishah-Cuttah to boot) who must have been pretty damn proud of one her favorite web destinations when the Scrabble guy, Stefan Fatsis, penned a Wall Street Journal story on www.soxaholix.com. We’ll admit to not always getting the deep literary references (it was UMass, for goodness sake – the ‘classics’ were found in the Collegian), but we always like to think that a woman like “Circle” will pass by the Seaside Shanty sometime, knock on the door, sashay inside and never leave our side, until death do us part.

More likely, we’ll get “Lisa the Temp,” and she’ll come in, steal our CD collection and take all of Percy The Dog’s chew toys.

Anyway, much love to Achy Brachy Hart Brachen for standing out and getting recognized by the WSJ. And Fatsis, if you’re still paying attention: Shots is pretty revolutionary in its own right. Or mind. Whatever.

• Fresh off of hiring David Frost for its US entry, Al Jazeera International is now looking for some sports personnel for the DC-based network, according to a Tuesday job posting at Journalismjobs.com: “Position: Sports Reporter & Sports Producer/Presenter.”

Now that the Hussein boys are done running soccer in Iraq, it could be a pretty sweet gig, we suppose.

• The BCS announced this week that recent Shots mention and “longtime NCAA administrator Bill Hancock has been named to serve as Bowl Championship Series Administrator.”

Hancock will be missed in his Final Four role (which he had been doing on a consulting basis) but the BCS gets a true professional who will likely be able to put a positive spin on even the most BS-full of BCS moves. “I’ll miss (the Final Four), but the BCS opportunity is a good one,” Hancock wrote in an email to Shots. He begins with the BCS on November 1. . One more Hancock note: Joe Posnanski did this tremendous review of Hancock’s “Riding With the Blue Moth.” Nothing else Shots could say could capture it any better.

• Rickety, old and sometimes venerable, Sports Illustrated, got a new typeface right around the same time ESPN got huge space in Business Week for a look behind the Bristol (and Beyond) Behemoth.

Nothing says more about a stagnant brand (SI) than portraying typeface changes as a significant step forward. All the while, the Worldwide Leader is being examined for its sometimes shrewd, often times confounding, but ALWAYS newsworthy moves.

It’s not to say that SI is dying the same slow death that befell other sports titles: it’s just that they’re getting their ass pounced by the New Kid on the Block.

Nothing says that more than ESPN’s recent comfort in utilizing SI writers as talent for ESPN’s own looks at nostalgic topics. It’s genius by ESPN, they extend an olive branch to a competitor and then demean the competitor by talking loudly and slowly to them, ensuring every ESPN viewer will know they need not check what that old fogy’s saying.

If that oversimplifies the dichotomy, so be it. It’s basis is undeniable. ESPN owns sports coverage like no other currently constituted group.

. . . . The typeface, heralded by SI’s Managing Editor, Terry McDonnell in his Oct. 3 “Editor’s Letter” is called SI Farnham if you’re interested in such things. The other (more noticeable) change to the Old Gray Lady of (relevant) Sports Mags is a two-page Table of Contents.

SI is one of the last of the majors to capitalize on spreading ads between two, must-turn-to-find, separate TOC pages. The fashion mags are famous for hiding the book’s index in between pages and pages of fragrance ads and undies pitches. It’s infuriating for the reader, but they have no choice if they want to see what’s in the issue. It gets eyes to advertisers’ pages, and that is, after all, the whole point of all those other, editorial-like words in the mag.

You can expect the pages between “Lineup” run-downs to increase in the coming months. If it doesn’t, the ad guys aren’t selling it properly and should be reprimanded. If it does sell, they can go have a day of beauty at some downtown Spa. Complete with pedicures. New York posers that they are.

• Our weekend pick to click (see Jamy Pombo below) would have to be this combo effort from ESPN.com and the consistently steady, “Outside the Lines.” (Courtesy of ESPN PR):
“ESPN.COM’S WEEKEND E-TICKET AND ESPN’S OUTSIDE THE LINES TAKE FANS INSIDE JOHN WOODEN’S 95th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

This weekend, ESPN.com’s E-Ticket and ESPN’s Sunday-morning edition of Outside the Lines (Sunday at 9:30 a.m. ET) will give fans a look inside legendary college basketball coach John Wooden’s surprise 95th birthday celebration thrown by Bill Walton, a former player of Wooden’s at UCLA. Wooden celebrated his birthday on October 14. In addition to a special story by ESPN.com’s Eric Neel, E-Ticket will feature four exclusive video clips running two to three minutes each.
Breakfast at VIP’s: Wooden is joined at VIP’s in Encino, the coffee spot he frequents seven days a week, by former players Bill Walton, Marques Johnson, Lynn Shackelford, Jamaal Wilkes, Kenny Washington and Andy Hill for a breakfast birthday celebration replete with hats, noisemakers, and reminiscences.
Coach and His Boys: This video explores Wooden’s relationship with his players, specifically centering on Kareem Abdul Jabbar (Lewis Alcindor when at UCLA) and Walton.
John Wooden the Man: This piece traces Wooden’s family roots, influence of his father, relationship with his wife, and admiration towards Mother Theresa.
The Andy Hill Story: Andy, a reserve on three championship teams who thought Wooden never liked him, connected with the coach 25 years later and they have since become like father and son.

Outside the Lines – Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on ESPN On the occasion of his 95th birthday, an ESPN Outside the Lines roundtable hosted by Jeremy Schaap brings Wooden, also known as the Wizard of Westwood, together with Bill Walton, Johnson and Shackleford Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

E-Ticket is a regular weekend special feature that gives in-depth coverage and multimedia perspective to a single story of great interest to sports fans. It employs a different combination of Web-powered storytelling elements in its treatment of the topic. Stories may feature photo- or video-driven elements, and vary from investigative to enterprise, to personality-focused. Others combine several text, multimedia and interactive components. “

• Shots fave, Jamy Pombo was the featured face in a recent Globe full page, in-house tease for the Your Career section coming to this Sunday’s Globe. But nowhere in the ad’s copy was Pombo (the ABC5 WCVB TV Click Chick) even identified. We’ll be intrigued to see how she fits into the section and whether the definitive Pombo File will be part of the special section?
What are today’s hottest jobs – and how can you land one? the ad asked.
Great questions.

• Scott’s Shots long-running PBS fave, This Old House , has gone completely outside the box this season with a modern re-do to a 1950 Cambridge home. First off, the homeowner, George Mabry, is clearly a loose cannon. The guy had so many different architects and so many different plans, that he dedicated a whole room of the house just to store the diagrams and models. And he’s hamming it up for the cameras like no other. It could get interesting with this guy as the decision-maker.

• Hull’s own (and also WBZ 1030 AM’s) Tom Cuddy got prime space dedicated to him last Thursday in The Times. The Hull Times, that is. The half-page gem from Lanny Larason paid tribute to the long-time ‘BZ voice. I’m doubting it’s on-line, but extra copies can be attained by contacting hulltimes@aoldotcom – where the motto is: “From shadows and symbols into truth.”

• Last Friday’s Fenway crowd, in my humble opinion, was the flattest, most lifeless crowd I’ve seen for a major game in all my years. “apathetic” comes to mind. Scalpers were leaving tickets on windshields, crooks were coming and stealing the cars, and leaving the tickets in the parking space. (Okay I made that up, but it was a definite buyers market on Friday at 4 p.m.)

I think the fandom was just exhausted and had given up. By the time the sixth was over, people were already planning their escapes. . .

Further more, I’m here to tell you the outrage isn’t there. I heard consecutive Celtics and Pats callers on WEEI on my way into Fenway last Friday – are you telling me that a year ago there would have been any thought of taking a call on the Celts? No shot.

• Some Dan Dickau Chat room shenanigans occurred, and to be honest, it’s only humorous to the extent that Dan Dickau actually had a chat on nba.com. beyond that, it seems to be Yay! Sports thinking of ways to Punk chatters. It’s a predictable – if not unseemly – offshoot of self-publishing on the Web.

• Don’t miss RomoRoid on “60 Minutes” Sunday night. Maybe Steroid Bryant can figure out a way to get one of these ‘Roid admittances to actually stick to the teFLoN NFL. Or is Tagliabue’s league just too strong to allow that?

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shots@bostonsportsmediadotcom