By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

• My Boss Bruce did a nice job following up on the Boston Globe’s laughable Fred Smerlas story from Sunday, written by Business staffer, Bruce Mohl.

Still, I couldn’t let it pass without a bit more outrage at both Mohl’s shaky effort and Smerlas’s smugness following the publishing of the story.

1. It still baffles me that Mohl didn’t include some comment from Entercom officials on what, to many, would seem to be a blatant conflict-of-interest on the part of Smerlas and his “working partner,” Glenn Ordway. We long ago gave up on thinking that WEEI 850 AM had any type of “journalistic integrity,” but we still held hope that a general sense of integrity existed in the New Balance building. So much for that misguided hope. Or the one that expected a balanced, well-researched account from the Globe.

2. Mohl took the word of a “ charity spokeswoman” on how much money the “tailgate operation” raises. It was said to be $50,000 a year. That’s commendable, if true, but it’s hardly the gospel. Perhaps a little more digging or further questioning should have been done on the charitable aspect. What Shots could find here (from 2004 tax returns) was of little help, but surely the big, bad Boston Globe would have more resources and other avenues by which to investigate. It could have been as simple as a quote from charity president Donald Rodman, who might have been able to shed some light on how involved Smerlas and his tailgate monies are with the Rodman cause.

It’s not exactly a minor point of the story, either. Smerlas is basically defending his ticket scalping by saying, “It’s for the kids.” Well, that’s great and all, but forgive us if we’re a bit dubious of that distinction he’s trying to make. Mohl lets Smerlas off the hook easily on this aspect and it seems to be one that could have been checked into a bit further.

3. Mohl was clearly taken by the Smerlas, who he described as “no anonymous fan.” So taken, in fact, that Mohl included, as his final line of the story, a quote from Smerlas that read: “If it’s slightly gray, then you must pay.”

Jeez – we thought the story was pretty serious and important (remember, the Globe touted it with a tease in Saturday editions). But the comical Smerlas – invoking the OJ glove line – certainly doesn’t seem very affected by the seriousness of illegally selling tickets and violating the rules of a team that pumps hundreds of thousands of dollars into his radio employer’s coffers.

And Mohl played along with the ex-jock by including the quote.

4. Smerlas went on NBC7’s “Sports Xtra” for a regular appearance on Sunday evening (alongside Globie, Ron Borges) and used the chance to laugh in the face of the story, the Patriots organization and, with the help of host Joe Amorosino, even managed to plug his 1-800 number for the tailgate packages. (Amateurino once again showed his true colors as a fawning TV face when he, too, repeated the 800-number on Smerlas’s behalf.)

It appears Smerlas continued more of the same on Monday’s “Big Show.”

Yeah, Mr. Kraft. This is exactly the type of guy I want associated with my multi-million dollar sports franchise: A bully, ex-athlete who sees each and every microphone as a chance to sell himself and his products - even if he is violating state and team laws.

• The Tom O’Brien departure form Boston College took Shots by huge surprise, but that’s because we’re a fairly distant observer of the Eagle football program.

It’s quite another thing when it stuns the Globe and its National College Writer, Mark Blaudschun. (The Herald is mostly forgiven for missing this one, they don’t exactly have the bodies that would allow them to call anyone their “National College Writer.”)

Now, obviously, there are some stories that just don’t get revealed until they actually occur – that’s understandable. But Blaudschun had just written an impassioned defense of O’Brien and although he mentioned the possibility of the coach leaving (for Stanford), there was nothing to suggest that the move was imminent. Blaudschun, in fact, had previously (when the UNC job was open) put forth the notion that O’Brien would not be taking any jobs within the ACC because of some protocol he perceived to be in place.

The end result is that O’Brien is going in-conference and basically telling BC: “You’re nothing.” It’s a complete slap in the face to the Chestnut Hill folks and a complete embarrassment for Joe Sullivan’s mighty college sports presence that missed the biggest college story of the year, from a school it’s supposed to be tied into.

The Herald’s follow-up from Steve Conroy was about the same as Michael Vega’s, who, like Conroy, is working the story alone from Boston, as Blaudschun is with UMass in Montana. (The Herald sent John “Jocko” Connolly with the Minutemen – good to see both the locals staffing that contest.)

Vega’s posting also had some time-stamp issues, which although understandable, are not entirely acceptable (a 1:40:55 post had news of a 3 p.m. meeting having already taken place – it was the result of an update to the earlier post reporting that the meeting would, in fact, be held.) The simplest thing to do in those situations is to add an “UPDATE:” line or lines, or to do an entirely separate post, referring folks to the earlier posting.

It’s probably too much to expect of the Old Media places to have New Media standards and practices in place. And truthe be told, Vega’s reporting was just fine, as always. It’s ther system that needs fixing, not the writer, in this case.

. . . Vega also had to squeeze in NESN responsibilities, where he speculated on possible replacements for O’Brien in a remote shot from the BC Campus.

• All that said, I have to admit – I’m a constant juror in Sully’s Court. Give him credit – he’s got a very nice handle on the pulse of college hoops.

. . .HOWEVER – maybe instead of writing copy for the company, he should be coming up with sports desk policy on things like, I dunno, time stamps, maybe? It’s not the first time Shots has been told of time stamp discrepancies at the Globe and other local media outlets. It’s all just a part of having a transparent, community-based media and using the blogs in a manner your users can be comfortable with.

• I don’t know much about Photo Shop and its ability to alter physical make-up, but I do recall what the picture editing program recently did for Katie Couric’s hips. That said, we’d urge you to scan the Web for some Hazel Mae photos, and then check out the cover shot at the Improper Bostonian.

• Anyone else notice how blatantly petty the mental midget, Pete Meat Sheppard is when, during his flashes, he teases Celtics and BC basketball games on the Entercom-run stations? With every 680 AM Celtics radio broadcast mention, Meat Head is careful to include Sean Grande and Cedric Maxwell’s names. But for the 850 AM BC broadcasts, Meaty Man, neglects to say that Ted Sarandis and Bill Ebben will handle the call.

Our only guess is that the Meat Moron knows that, despite Teddy’s eccentricities, he has more talent in his pinkie than Meatwit has in his entire make-up. Petty people do petty things, and this is yet another example of “Entercom being Entercom” to the point of embarrassment to the corporate suits. Shameful, really.

• CSTV this week, debuted a new original programming documentary “THE MAKING OF WE ARE MARSHALL,” a behind the scenes look at the Warner Bros. movie “We Are Marshall.” The film is based on the tragic story of the University of Marshall football team, which perished in a plane crash on November 14, 1970.

. . .The show includes interviews with director McG (“Charlie’s Angel,” “Supernatural,” “The OC”) along with actors Matthew McConaughey (“Failure to Launch,” “The Wedding Planner”) and Matthew Fox (“Party of Five,” “Lost”), who talk about their experience of working on the movie.

The entire program is available via On Demand video.

• We had wondered – passively – where Darren Rovell went. Now we know.

• Good effort last weekend by NBC7 fill-in Duke Castiglione, who used his MLB connections to talk directly with Trot Nixon and once again proved he’s a high-major-level talent. If he started full-time today in Boston, he’d be the market’s best sports anchor by far.

• With four regular season weeks remaining, the likelihood that Michael Irvin and Steve Young will brawl on-set for ESPN this season seems all but inevitable. They almost went at it again after this past Monday Nighter. Personally, we’d rather see that than Sly Stallone in the booth.

• Where is the sponsored NESN backdrop from the Winter Meetings ballroom? You’re telling me Dunkin’ Donuts wouldn’t have bought that space? And let’s face it, Tom “TC” Caron should have been in Orlando and Tina “TC” Cervasio should have been anchoring from Watertown.

. . . Cervasio, by the way, followed her Florida duties with a trip to the Dominican republic for a sit-down with David Ortiz that will air on NESN Friday.

. . . We finally caught the new NESN in-house ads for Sports Desk featuring Hazel and Kathryn Tappen. The Network is, in no uncertain terms, riding the ladies to drive ratings.

• The UMass Alumnus of the Week award, if not for an outstanding live-blogging effort by Shots overt at CSTV.com, would have surely have gone to fellow Umie, Steve Buckley of the Herald. Buck has been all over Minuteman athletics this past year and was all set to accompany the football team to “Montana for The Big Game,” explained Buckley, Class of 1978, “but then they moved it to Friday night for TV, which meant UMass left on Wednesday night and worked out Thursday in Missoula”

Unfortunately for Buck’s sake, he had committed to speak at the annual UMass alumni breakfast at the Newton Marriott, “which was Thursday morning,” Buckley said. “In other words, I couldn’t support UMass . . . because I was too busy supporting UMass.”

Now, that’s alumni support at its best.

. . . There were definite transmission problems on 95.9 FM last week with the UMass football playoff game – let’s hope tonight’s (Friday) game (on ESPN 2 at 7:30 with Dave Pasch on play-by-play, joined by analysts Rodney Gilmore and ex-Pat Trevor Matich and sideline reporter Heather Cox) doesn’t have the same problems.

• Jackie Mack for ESPN.com on Larry Joe turning 50 and possibly in the midst of a transition. Interesting stuff.

• With the Suns in town, we can offer up this Holiday gift which will be arriving under My Buddy Paulie Brookline’s mantel place.

• I’m a bit too close to this story (having shared beers and laughs with the Super Sub’s Super Son), but it doesn’t preclude me from pointing out that all John Kennedy did for Nick Lopardo, was win games.

I submit these words from the league’s press release honoring Kennedy as the 2006 CanAm League Manager of the Year (yes, Lopardo canned the reigning manager of the year):

“. . .as voted upon by the eight field managers and media.

“Kennedy, 65, has been the only manager in North Shore Spirit history. He led the Spirit to the first and second half titles and the third playoff berth in their four year existence. He guided them to a club best 58-32 mark and the league’s best pitching with an earned run average of 2.77.

“A veteran of over 850 major-league games, Kennedy broke in with the Washington Senators in 1962 and also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (where he was part of the 1965 World Series-winning squad), the New York Yankees and the Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers. The Peabody, MA resident was a utility infielder for the Red Sox from 1970 to 1974, the organization with which he earned his “Super Sub” nickname. He then managed and coached in the minor leagues for six seasons. He worked as a scout for the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Detroit Tigers for a total of 13 years, concluding in 1996.”

The team’s announcement of its new manager, Vic Davilla, included this humdinger:

“The Spirit would like to acknowledge our thanks to former Major Leaguer John Kennedy, as he relinquishes his role as Spirit Manager, for leading our ball club since our inaugural season in 2003,” said Spirit owner Nick Lopardo.

Relinquish? We tend to call it something else. Railroaded, perhaps.

. . . In our Lynn digging, we found this interesting bit of Tony C news.

• Wowza – how about Chris Forsberg’s efforts here? Might be time to starting using some of his multi-media talents throughout the Globe’s sports (Web) section.

• Meet Sean Grande.

• I’ve actually been leaning a great deal on the the live-blogging of Tom Curran an NBCsports.com. What Curran does, and what I’m trying to bring to the CSTV.com “Hang Time” Blog is a sense of not strictly play-by-play, but also of commentary, smart-alecness and observations from the event.

Curran’s hitting on most of those cylinders with each outing and he deserves credit for doing so. It ain’t as easy as it looks.

• Adam Reilly’s best post yet at his emerging version of Media Log for The Phoenix.

• Shots has two live-blogging extravaganzas this weekend – the first is at Rhode Island, where we vow to get to the bottom of this mascot mayhem and the second at Conte Forum on Sunday night for the return of Gary Williams.

Both can be viewed at the award-winning CSTV.com and the “Hang Time” blog.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. And can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmedDOTcom