By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

The local FOX affiliate, WFXT 25, got burned with its live, un-delayed, coverage of Josh Beckett’s post-Game 5 response to an admirably-asked question about last night’s National Anthem singer, Beckett’s “friend,” Danielle Peck.

We’ve yet to identify the PeckBeck questioner (although the Track Gals have been in Cleveland, it didn’t sound raspy enough for either of them and no signs they filed post-game), but the answer by the stonefaced flamespitter is what is so precious:

“I don’t get paid to make those fucking decisions. She’s a friend of mine. It doesn’t bother me at all. Thanks for flying one of my friends to the game so she can watch it for free.”

(Video Below)

Oh yes. I don’t get paid to make those f’in decisions. That’s right up there with, “You’re with me, Leather” and “Don’t tase me, Bro.”

Thank you, Mr. Beckett and may all your women be as beautiful and as talented.

(It is unclear whether NESN or ESPN went with a delay for its Beckett presser coverage or if either network was able to dump out of the banned word. Anyone with information of either, can feel free to comment below or contact Shots.)

. . . Kudos to Stevece80 for his quick post of the video. And nice work by www.letsgoredsox.com for live blogging of FOX 25’s FCC-fineable offense. FanIQ got in on the act early as well and a few others.

. . . The F-Bomb isn’t a huge deal, of course, but the delivery by Becks is priceless.

.• It is possible, isn’t it, that Manny Ramirez is playing us all for the collective fools that we probably are? Has he not taken some pressure away from Terry Francona? Has he not become THE story of this post-season? Manny may be quirky, but right now he’s also being the go-to guy for hits AND quotes AND bytes of sound. He’s doing it with a dexterity heretofore unknown about the mysterious man who summed it all up by saying, “It’s all good.”

To that, NESN’s Jerry Remy could only shake his head in the post-game dissection on the flagship network. “Can you imagine making $20 million and not having a care in the world?”

Better yet, can you imagine that Manny has become the team spokesperson?

. . . Honestly, should we be honored or insulted that the Sox are giving us another weekend of baseball, screaming heads and Tim McCarver?

• Tough transition from all that child’s play to the following story of the multi-talented and ever-steady Eric Frede, but here it goes anyway:

Not long before he was set launch a new package of college football games for NESN two Saturdays ago, 40-year-old Eric Frede didn’t feel right. He had just climbed the formidable stairs to the press box at the Yale Bowl and found himself in an empty coaches box “sweating profusely, (with) pruned fingertips. The pain and burning weren’t going away, and then my hands started to tingle,” said a now-recovered Frede via email. “I went out to the main press box where I told one of the TV crew members to get me someone from Yale, that I needed medical assistance.”

Instead of calling the Yale-Dartmouth game, Frede – who was later told he had become an “unattractive shade of gray” – was calling loved ones from the emergency room to explain his plight.

“I was really clear-headed the entire time, which made it a bit scary,” said Frede. “The pressure and burning in my chest and between my shoulder blades was the real issue. And when my arms started to tingle, that was the last signal. (Literally.)”

Later that day on October 6, at the Yale New Haven hospital, he had an angioplasty to clear a blocked coronary artery and also had a stent inserted. “There are worse places to be than a football stadium less than an hour before kickoff when you need medical attention,” said Frede, a father of two young boys Ben, 9 and Sam, 5 and husband to Beth. “Paramedics were there quickly, hooked me up to a heart monitor, and took my vitals.”

The surgery took place that evening, he was discharged the following afternoon and after a couple of days of recuperation at his mom, Mary Ann’s, in Danbury Frede took a leisurely (and sore) three hour ride back to his New Hampshire home listening intently to the new Bruce Springsteen album, “Magic.”

He missed last week’s Brown broadcast for NESN’s recently created second-tier ECAC package, but plans on being back in the booth alongside Steve DeOssie on Saturday at Harvard vs. Princeton. (Frede believes a Yale broadcaster filled in on play-by-play duties from New Haven and then last week, old friend Jerry Trupiano worked with DeOssie.)

“No, it’s not a prerequisite for me to work in close proximity to world-class hospitals,” Frede joked. “It’s just working out that way.”

There were, Frede now knows, some warning signs. “I hought I had a little indigestion Thursday while golfing,” he said. “I’d felt some tightness in my chest (on Friday) whenever I exerted myself – but I’d feel fine after resting for a few seconds. Things were worse Saturday morning.”

The climb up to the press box certainly could have been a trigger. “I’ve guessed (it’s) over 100 stairs because I was on the field and had to go all the way up and it zig-zags at the top. It felt like climbing Mt. Washington,” he said.

“I’m feeling better every day,” he said. “My wife has gone on a few low cholesterol/low sodium shopping sprees. I had elevated cholesterol levels (but within limits), as did my father, but I’m the first cardiac patient in the family. And hopefully the last.”

. . . In less pressing Frede matters, the four-year NESN veteran explained how his removal from Bruins studio shows came about and confirmed that his status as an independent contractor with the network remains in tact. “NESN told me over the summer they were going ‘in-house’ with a full-time person,” said Frede, who has had several incarnations with the network. “As an independent contractor, it comes with the territory – nothing is guaranteed, but the trade off is I have flexibility in deciding my work assignments. I’ve always been part-time, even when working just about every day as Red Sox field reporter during the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

“My status hasn’t changed,” he said. “I have some good friends at NESN who I enjoy working with and that I hope to work with again soon. I still have a good relationship with NESN.”

. . . Frede said he’d like to focus most of his attention on doing more play-by-play work, which will come in the form of college basketball work for NESN this Fall and Winter. He also has things humming a bit at his co-owned (with Dan Hannigan) Cod Rock Media outfit that produces magazine shows for the America East Conference and the University of Hartford Women’s Basketball program. Frede hosts those productions, which air on NESN during the winter. “We continue to add new clients and take on more work,” he said.

. . . As for his replacement as in-studio Bruins host(ess), Frede admitted he hasn’t had much time to focus on the new line-up, which includes Kathryn Tappen and almost ready for prime time on NBC Mike Milbury. “I was a little preoccupied during the road trip,” Frede said. “I think Kathryn will do a great job. And she’s working with a talented group of analysts who will make her transition go smoothly.”

. . . Frede also said of his adventure, “Steve (DeOssie) was looking at me while the paramedics were doing their thing. He didn’t have a good poker face – he looked concerned.”

• WEEI 850 AM barely changed in the latest Arbitron Summer ‘07 book good enough for fifth in the market, joined at the hip by sister station WRKO 680 AM. Both occupied the same spots last book. Jessica Heslam has more, but no ‘EEI mention to speak of.

• Odd banner ad linked from espn.com this week. Desperate times. . .

• We’ve been beating the John Carchedi drum seemingly forever, but it’s warranted yet again as CN8 has debuted a promising new potential series called “Sports Pulse: John Carchedi at the Heart of The Action.” (DISCLOSURE: Shots appears regularly as a paid guest on CN8’s “Out of Bounds” show.)

Available On-Demand (Get Local → CN8 → Specials → Sports Pulse) and also re-airing on Saturday October 27, 3 pm, Saturday November 10, 6:30 p.m. and Saturday November 24, 4:30 p.m., the show is well worth the 30 minute investment of time.

Resurrecting the old Ed Berliner “SP” graphics and sound package, the show is a collection of some of Carchedi’s best work in his “Man of the People” packages, including a couple of never-before-seen segments highlighted by Carchedi’s participation in a Celtics Dance team workout. With mostly humor (and one poignant package on wheelchair-bound athletes) Carchedi again shows why he is this region’s answer to a Kenny Mayne/Lisa Salters hybrid.

The inaugural special was put together chiefly by Carchedi, producer Kristen Schrader, videographer/editor “Seven Days of” Scott Losinger and the BryGuy, editor Bryan Brennan.

• NESN’s “Globe 10.0” has been taken on the road this week and Thursday’s effort with Basketball Bob Ryan and Nick Cafardo may very well have created the look and feel that the show has been striving for.

Leaving the doodads, bells, whistles and green screen of Watertown behind, “10.0” went smartly with a direct knock-off of the “PTI” model with run-down topics along the right third of the screen and expanded descriptions and the now-familiar “talk clock” along the bottom above the ticker. The dugout setting from Cleveland and the two-guys-on-a-park-bench-shooting-the-breeze feel was executed smartly by Ryan and Cafardo. The use of Mike Reiss (from NESN HQs) as a “Five Good Minutes” type contributor was exactly what we’ve been looking for.

Combine that Thursday show with the technological advances accessible in-studio, and “10.0” will be in good shape moving forward through the busy and travel-filled Pats and Celts seasons.

• On the other end of the creativity spectrum is the continued swing-and-misses delivered each Sunday by the Globe sports section’s “What They Were Thinking” photo play element. Last Sunday was the final straw with a very average, black and white Stan Grossfeld shot of a cyclist “popping a wheelie” at Walden Pond.

First of all, why would we care what a Denver kid was thinking while riding along the famous body of water’s edge and second of all, isn’t there a better way to use that page 2 on a Sunday? Jazz it up a bit? Have some fun? Something? Anything beyond the mundane and static?

• Between rally pies and humble pie, I’m gaining weight just reading the sports pages.

• Old friend Fran Fraschilla is getting a lot more reps from the Worldwide Leader (ESPN) this upcoming college basketball season with something like 50 dates and some studio work as well. Fraschilla was in Kansas City this week for Big 12 Media Day, where Bob Knight stole the show in a league full of great teams and good coaches.

. . . Last week in Memphis, CSTV’s Pete Gillen played the role of most distinguished ex-coach cum TV analyst. Gillen still tells some of the best stories this side of the Mississippi and with his New York drawl, the impact is always the more dramatic.

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