By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

Continuing its curious off-season talent moves which began with the elimination of WEEI 850 AM’s Dale Arnold from home game duties, NESN has now dumped Eric Frede from its Bruins coverage in favor of rising star Kathryn Tappen. The addition of Mike Milbury and NESN’s entire line-up – which launches tonight (Friday) – can be found here.

Frede served as studio host on last year’s Bruins coverage and before that had been NESN’s Red Sox sideline reporter before ceding that job to Tina Cervasio. (See a theme here?)

Frede’s headshot has been removed from the personalities page, but remains in the archives (see link above) at nesn.com. Tappen’s bio has already been updated to reflect the change.

“Eric will continue in his role at NESN as a freelance reporter, substitute studio and SportsDesk anchor and do play by play for certain live events,” said NESN spokesman Gary Roy via email.

Tapping Tappen is more easily explained by the women-friendly network than is the severing of ties with Arnold who always tried to give some amount of equal time to the Bruins on his mid-day radio show at the the Entercom sports bully with Michael Holley.

Still, Frede has been nothing but a good soldier for the Network and to not have a regular role for him seems to be not only unfair but unnecessary. I mean, this is the place that continues to give ample air time to Rob Simpson. The writing was on the wall for Frede during the NESN/Arnold imbroglio as Arnold let it be known that he was offered the studio host job held by Frede. It was a job Arnold called a “demotion.”

. . . Speaking of Arnold, Mr. Cheery Pants was absent from the mid-day show on Wednesday and replaced by the tough-to-listen-to Greg Dickerson, who teamed with Holley for an incredibly clunky day-of-game phone interview with Kevin Youkilis. The call got off to a bumpy start when Holley wasn’t sure whether he was going to break or be yakking with Youk and went down hill from there, eventually ending up as an infomercial for Youk’s upcoming charity event. When Youk was actually preparing to give a bit of dirt on two pitchers he felt may have been throwing at him intentionally this season, neither Holley nor Celtickerson bothered to try and lure the names out of Youk, leaving the question unasked and lingering.

ESPN 890’s Mike Felger has a great phrase for that kind of radio. He calls it “grab ass.” And he’s right.

. . . NESN is also crowing about some technical doo-dads for the B’s, most likely the use of the “Globe 10.0”show’s set and it’s interactive, text messagaing/email components, for broadcasts this season.

We’re probably still not seeing the full utilization of the high-tech set for “10.0” or any other NESN initiatives. And if we are, then the bells and whistles aren’t all that ringy or shrill.

. . . To sum up: We can not get Frede TV at NESN, but we are already sick of Frank TV at TBS.

• We would be all over TBS’s Jose Mota, but we have a grandpa crush on Manny Mota ever since a recent visit to Dodgertown so we can’t, in good conscience, rip his misused son for his woeful work as Sox/Angels sideline reporter.

• Not much exciting happening yet with the comcastsportsnet.com Boston website. So far it just looks like a re-branded version of the FSN site which was neither spectacular nor must-visit.

It’s time for the TVs to understand that original content at their websites can not be limited to just recycled packages and cutting room floor excerpts. There needs to be voice, opinion and steady dose of written words in either blog or column form.

CSN has a headstart on all of that with what FSN had started doing, but it needs to go deeper and extract more out of its personalities.

. . . Mike Gorman is, however, Vlogging – not blogging – from Rome with Donny Marshall.

• Yahoo!’s newest addition, Jason King debuted this week. Strong start and another more-than-respectable hire by Dave Morgan at the Big Y! in the Sky.

• On the opposite coast in an alternate universe and now over a month after Marc Spears began contributing to the paper’s website, Globe sports editor Joe Sullivan finally got around to announcing it in Sunday’s paper. We’ve known for weeks that Shira Springer was booted from the Celts’ beat and replaced by Spears, but it took Sully this long to inform the readership at large? That’s inexcusable any way you look at it. At the very least it’s a complete disregard for the customer.

. . . That’s not to say that Boston.com isn’t doing some very nice video, slideshow and original content work of its own. Ann Silvio and Eric Wilbur need some serious recognition for their efforts on all platforms. And pitchers’ pal Alyssa Milano needs to lose the attitude.

• The Herald’s tactic of sending a photog (Nancy Lane) to Europe with the Celts has paid off big time with some great candid shots of the Celts, specifically the Big Three. It does seem odd though, that there’s not an additional web element of Lane’s work from Rome. Would seem like a natural as a slide show or photo play and after an extensive look at the site we could find nothing of the sort.

UPDATE, 10/5/07 9:14 p.m.: There is a gallery and it exists here. Admittedly, it’s a bit underplayed, which is a shame. But the thought is there and the execution is solid.

Spears has been blogging regularly from Rome as have the duo of Big Baby and Big Bulpett, so at least the locals have figured that part out.

• John Tomase and his wife Jennifer welcomed to the world Ian Anthony a couple of weeks ago and the potential playmate for John Edward Thomas Brady weighed in at seven pounds, 13 ounces. “He is surprisingly cute for someone with my DNA,” wrote the proud Papa in an email response to Shots. “Needless to say, he gets that from his mom.”

. . .Also good to see Tomase picking up the “Tale of the Tape” feature that Albert Breer made so popular during his Herald blogging days. Breer, by the way, is now both blogging and appearing regularly in the Dallas Morning News.

“Bert set the bar high on tale of the tape,” said Tomase. “But it’s got to stay in some form.”

Tomase picked it up nicely in the feature’s re-launch following the battering of the Bengals.

• Brief clarification on what my problem with commenting is: When it’s done anonymously.

If you use your full name and provide an email address for communication, I have no issue with a commenting system. Unfortunately, that’s not how commenting works for this particular blog.

But I still see the value of having commenting enabled, and I intend to continue to allow it. I just ask for civility and, if you’re interested in having a true dialogue, your full name.

Thanks for all the feedback. Seriously. It keeps me thinking and progressing.

• Shots hits the road again next week for “real” work, so unless major Boston Sports Media News breaks, this will be our last scheduled entry until October 19. You can always check in to see if that changes and you can always peruse the archives if you’re really jonesing for some Shots love.

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