By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

• An abbreviated version of Shots this week, as we had time-consuming live-blogging duties on Thursday night for CSTV.com’s “Hang Time” blog. . . from the UMass-URI game no less, in our old stomping grounds of Amherst.

We hope you’ll take some time to check out our take on the action from the rocking and rolling Mullins Center and ask that you check back next week for a regular-length, regularly scheduled edition of Shots.

. . . And yes, we did get our fill of Antonio’s Pizza at an hour that is not conducive to proper digestion, but quite conducive to seeing how crazy the kids are these days. Ah, to be young aagin. . .

Eat your hearts out, Umies - the Antonio’s pie was yUMmy!

. . . Umie, Steve Buckley of the Herald, was in the House that Cal Built and filed this well-crafted piece.

• We’re getting closer to learning which - if any - Boston Globe sports staffers will be taking advantage of the company’s buyout offer. And while it’s looking less and less likely that Basketball Bob Ryan will allow the bean counters to buy him out, the one name that keeps coming up when Shots broaches the topic is that of outdoors specialist, Tony Chamberlain. However the “Wilt of Winter Sports” is deeply involved with the Globe’s Explore New England web presence. That means Chamberlain may be removed from the “full-time” spot he now occupies, but if things can be worked out (i.e. union issues), he would remain an integral part of the web operation.

There is also the likelihood that a few desk operatives will take the buyout, but those names are a lot less familiar to us and a lot more difficult to confirm.

• Word from the Reebok campus is that the Vector folks are planning a big splash to help promote their guy, Gerald Green, in the NBA All-Star Weekend’s Slam Dunk contest. Be on the look out for a “viral” video that should be spreading through YouTube over the next couple of days and then an early week push for what the company is billing as “The Gerald Green Show.”

. . . Reebok, of course, is coming off a big Super Bowl week, where the league’s outfitter had the game MVP (Peyton Manning) and the league’s rookie of the year (Vince Young) prominently promoting the brand in Miami.

• Our Amherst visit allowed us to see all sort of old friends and we wera also able to make the acquaintance of rising ABC40 sports anchor/reporter (and Medway native), Dave Guthro, another in the long line of Syracuse alum to work in one of the region’s media markets. Guthro’s got some style and pizzaz to him from what we can tell.

• All the locals - electronic and print - are gearing up for their Spring Training coverage and both FSNNE and NESN will once again establish residence in Florida to launch the arrival of Sox players, coaches and fans to Ft. Myers. NESN’s final details are still in the works, but they will have Tina Cervasio stationed at the Fort for the duration beginning on Saturday and will also rotate in other talent as well.

. . . FSNNE will again be at DiamondHead Resort, beginning on Feb. 19 and the nightly show will be taped each day at 4:30 for those of you Ft. Myers visitors who may want to be part of the excitement of seeing Greg Dickerson and Gary Tanguay turn from pasty white to pasty red. The network will also be posting “periodic entries at its spring training blog” at its website. No word on who will be writing, but we’re guessing it’s not Steinbeck or Hemingway.

. . . NESN’s “Sox Appeal” website is set to debut in the coming days. There is currently video available at that address which includes lovebirds: The Papelbons, The Schillings and the Remdawgs and uses the tag line of “Everyone has a dating story.”

. . . NESN is now regularly using the Herald’s Steve Buckley for its weekly Five Topics segment and Buckley has shone in the appearances we’ve caught. Unlike during his appearances on WEEI when he gets talked over, picked on and drowned out, Buckley is able to lay forth his opinions in a clear, coherent and concise manner. Another nice pick up for eagle eye talent scout, Joel Feld and the Red Sox Network.

• Be on the lookout next week for an ESPN piece done by college hoops guru, Newton’s own Andy Katz, where he spent a day tooling around Boston with fast-talking senior Jared Dudley of Boston College. The piece is scheduled to air during the run-up to next Saturday’s ESPN College Gameday broadcast of the BC-UNC game at The Heights and is part of Katz’s continuing, weekly series, “Livng the Life,” where he hangs with prominent college basketball players. Last week, Katz went bowling with Kansas sophomore, Julian Wright.

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