By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

• We didn’t think it was possible after all the misery we’d suffered for lo, those many years – the Red Sox alone were nearly 90 years of heartache – but the New England fandom has, once and for all, Jumped the Shark. Officially and unequivocally, the region is now nothing more than an also-ran in the race to be hated the way other ‘dynasties’ like Notre Dame or the Yankees are.

And you know what? Our Pats have been kind of hate-able in recent weeks. Before Bill shoved Jim Davis of the Globe, he had also allowed the “Vinny 20″ charade to take place. And what about Tom’s hissy fit mid-season when, we now realize, he was having girl trouble?

Wrote Will Leitch at Deadspin earlier this week:

“. . . the Patriots, for all their pluck and gumption, are starting to grow tiresome as well, in a mid-90s Cowboys type of way. That’s not really fair, but hey: Thus is the price of dominance. Also, Belichick is starting to drive us insane; we think he’s responsible for losing all the dream fights against ninjas that we usually win.”

(No idea what the ninjas thing is about, but we often give Will the benefit of any doubt.)

And then there’s WEEI callers-in-training like this Bozo, who give the whole northeastern seaboard a bad name.

We hate us too when we see jamokes like that.

. . . The Boston Sports Guy has a similar, longer-winded take. Mine was posted first, for the record.

• It’s tough to make too much of an in-conference, mid-January game in college hoops, but if ever the occasion presented itself, it was this week. And we even managed to unearth a bit of a Boston angle to the tremendous Oklahoma State-Texas tussle from earlier this week.

That’s right, wise listeners/viewers, it was indeed Sox radio booth rookie-to-be, Dave O’Brien, on the call of college hoops most compelling game in many a moon.

Paired up from Stillwater with the Round Mound of Comment, Rick Majerus, O’Brien told Shots he found himself bruised and battered after the 3OT, OSU win, 105-103.

“Rick Majerus is a ‘puncher’ – when things get exciting, he’ll punch my arm with a left jab. I was totally black and blue by the start of the 2nd OT. It was the best college basketball game I’ve ever called on ESPN,” emailed O’Brien, who’s been in the mix at ESPN for the past half-decade. “One huge shot after another, two stars (Kevin Durant and Mario Boggan) doing some of the most amazing stuff, in the clutch, over and over. You never know when you will see the ‘Game of the Year’ in any sport. It can jump out at you on a cold January night in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Maybe that was it. We’ll see.”

No, we already saw. It won’t be topped, O’B. Not in the regular season, anyway. Said Majerus during the game that finished just before midnight on the East coast and pre-empted coverage of the Australian Open (and a live interview with Andre Agassi.) “This game is so good, (Roger) Federer is probably watching it in Australia.”

. . . O’Brien admits to being blown away by Red Sox Nation, for both its breadth and depth. “(I’ve got to) tell you this one: In December, I was at Ann Arbor for the Georgetown-Michigan game.”

Performing his pre-game huddle up with each school’s Sports Information Director to prep for the game, became a bit of a challenge. “They’re both terrific guys, but I got virtually nothing out of them the first hour because ALL they wanted to talk about was the Red Sox.

“The reach of, and the national interest in the Red Sox is remarkable,” said O’Brien.

. . . Notice the presidential contest announcement, upper right corner, at that Red Sox Nation link above. When are the primaries? More genius from the Sox marketers.

. . .There was a bit of confusion during the OSU-Texas tilt when OSU coach Sean Sutton appeared to have slipped, fainted or blacked out (perhaps all of the above). Post-game, O’Brien was able to discover, “Sean Sutton had slipped on some ice outside a restaurant the night before the game, injuring his back, but never told anyone. When things got tense Tuesday night, he had big-time back spasms.”

Further, showing some depth of knowledge, O’Brien added, “(Sutton’s dad) Eddie’s back trouble led to so many of his issues.”

• Wanna play “Make-Believe Newspaper World With Shots” again?

There’s no way of knowing, for certain, at this point, but the impending Globe cuts will surely trickle into/onto/under Joe Sullivan’s sports desk.

Most of the talk – or the whispers – in the Toy Department will focus on whether Basketball Bob Ryan might be on his way out the door on Morrissey Boulevard? Can anyone currently reading these words even imagine a Boston Globe sports section without Ryan? I remember marking the days of his Joumama suspension off the calendar in red Scripto.

Ryan’s not tipping his hat (he courteously declined to be interviewed on the subject) and as best we can figure the Globe might just need to get creative with Ryan, by using him less in print and more in different, NEW MEDIA capacities.

For example, what if Ryan were to only offer web content? Or better yet, what if he were a regular host/guest (notice the reverse emphasis) of “Globe SportsPlus” on NESN? Shouldn’t there be a way to reduce Ryan’s writing workload, yet still ride his brand name? And wouldn’t that allow Ryan, who’ll be 61 next month, the opportunity to begin to enjoy some of the fruits of his labors?

We’re just thinking out loud here, and we go under the presumption that losing Ryan all together would be a devastating blow to the Globe and one they couldn’t absorb. So we’re trying to offer up win-win scenarios where Ryan is still part of the scene.

Maybe the Globies can make him an offer he can’t refuse and perhaps he can begin the next phase of his career (Hello, ESPN Radio Boston – Jessamy Tang, please. . . I’ll hold.). And in the process, maybe Old School Ryan – of all people – can help transition the paper’s sports department to the web-foundation it needs so desperately.

• BC’s getting lucky with the timing of the Sean Williams/Akida McLain dismissals - most of the region’s attention is on the Pats. Some of the back story will come out eventually, but for now the move by Al Skinner remains hazy and, for the most part, squashed.

• It’s a bit embarrassing since I’m supposed to see everything of its kind in these here parts, but I missed Shots longtime compadre, Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel, on Wednesday’s FSNNE “Sports Tonight” show. We figured we could mosey on over to the FSNNE and get some video of the sit-down presto-quicko. But we got stuck on the Celtics Dancers clip.

When we finally looked for Wetzel’s segment, we were disappointed to discover it wasn’t locatable. How could we actually expect a TV network to have up-to-date streaming video on its website? That’d be soooooo 21st century. And let’s face it, there isn’t a local network among ‘em that uses the web as they should. It’s just another indication of how far behind the market is in terms of capitalizing on emerging technologies and strategies.

. . . Speaking of Yahoo!, how are we supposed to react to the Daily News’s day-after imitation on what Adrian Wojnarowski predicted the Joumama meltdown could entail. It took two NYDN writers to replicate what Wojnarowski, the Yahoo! newbie, had presented a day earlier, in greater detail, with better sourcing.

Wojnarowski is already proving to be another coup for Dave Morgan’s Yahoo! sports operation.

. . . Beyond the fact The Daily Snooze got run over by Yahoo!, the whole Kidd/Joumama thing is starting to have the feel of what Magic Johnson’s HIV-positive declaration meant and the seedy underbelly of the NBA it exposed.

Again, it’s all coming in time for All Star Weekend in LAS VEGAS. It could be the perfect storm a brewing, folks.

• Why did no one tell me that the Globe’s sharp and saucy business writer, Sasha Talcott, had left the paper?

I’m always the last to know everything in my family, too.

• In the spirit of the Australian Open’s first week, we bring good news for a great Boston event, as the 2007 Outback Champions Series (run by Jim Courier) will be held in the spacious digs of the Agganis Arena this coming May. Conducted at a health club just last year, the event is going to get the in-town venue it needed to take the next step into the city’s sports consciousness. Having attended last year’s event, Shots is only going to tell you this once: if you have any interest in tennis whatsoever, the event is a great take. And don’t be afraid to check out the packages – you can go in with some friends – like us. . .

Shots’ll take two of the Platinum seats, please. And a Sierra Pale Ale.

. . . Courier, From his blog, on what he’s seen so far during his time doing coverage for Australia’s Channel Seven: “Tennis is massively popular down here in Australia. For the next two weeks it will dominate the front page of all the national newspapers and nightly news. Imagine NBC or CBS having tennis on live daily from 11am-6pm and nightly from 7:30pm until midnight uninterrupted for 2 consecutive weeks during the US Open because that is exactly what the coverage is here down under. Massive indeed.

• Oh, and by the way, CBS4 can NOT tell me (or any one) how to identify them. Shots has, for years now, done all the locals with Network and Number (i.e. ABC5 and NBC7). The local tags of WHDH or WBZ are completely irrelevant. You know the networks by their numbers and we won’t insult your intelligence with a meaningless moniker that harkens back to an age long ago.

• Watch this Leonard Cohen movie and tell me the man is not genius.

• Enjoy the weekend and the final run-up to Pats-Colts. The in-game live-blogging has been strong on a number of local fronts from Mike Reiss to Chad Finn, so seek out some of that for instant commentary, news and reaction. We’re fairly convinced that’s the next, logical evolution of things.

And, if you’re really daring, catch Shots on a Monday morning appearance at NECN’s “Morning Live,” during the 8:30-9:00 a.m. block. We’ll be providing Patriots insight and will probably be quite cranky, win or lose.

Cranky Shots is great TV, we assure you.

. . . Lastly be sure to get over to CSTV.com’s Glass Sneaker section where Shots is starting up some new weekly features, including “Cindy’s Diary,” where we’ll get the grande dame’s twice-weekly take on her approaching Ball/Gala.

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