By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

Has anybody really stopped to ponder just HOW all of this sporting success has come upon the collective “us?” Seriously, where the heck are we? Boston athletes getting the late night triple crown with Letterman (Jonathan Papelbon), Leno (Manny Ramirez) and Conan (David Ortiz)? Did Bird sit with Carson? Chief with Letterman?

It just never stops in “Gate”town, formerly Beantown. Tapegate. Runningupthescoregate. Finaloutballgate.

Oh, and then there’s the whole “Boston is despised everywhere” thing. Very underplayed angle in these parts, in our estimation. We used to be pitied like few others and now we’re attacked on all fronts.

Including from the one you’re currently web-visiting. On with the show. . .

• How does NESN drop the ball so badly on its Rolling Rally coverage as to not have a “Pap Cam” on the Dropkick’s flatbed? And why weren’t a few of the player mic’d up?

Negatives aside, the widespread opinion that NESN absolutely rocked in its Red Sox coverage during the 2007 season are dead on.

Tina Cervasio gets the most-improved award, Dennis Eckersley takes (and retires) the Analyst of the Year honors and Tom Caron gets the network’s MVP award for not only driving the bus, but often times steering it away from imminent danger (Ken Macha, specifically).

With the Celtics season upon us, Comcast SportsNet would be wise to steal some of the NESN concepts and coverage methods as it relates to the CSN pro partner, Team Green. And let’s hope the Celtics Magazine show got some female presence worked into the plan. Our wish was granted! Underappreciated Laura Behnke will be joining Donny Marshall, beginning Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. on CSN.

Very nice hire, folks. Behnke will be great in that role.

• Why did I know nothing of Neil Young and three nights at the Orpheum and who do I have to contact about live-blogging it from the Orpheum balcony?

• The Boston Globe’s Stan Grossfeld Experiment reached al-time lows on Tuesday with the impressive access to the Sox charter flight (17 percent ownership has its privileges).

But instead of using the photos to tell the story, Joe Sullivan’s two-way player (photog-writer) was asked to sum up the journey home to Boston with 800 words, which was about 700 words too many. Some of the gems from Photog Phirst Stan included:

A Sox player - perhaps the rambunctious Jonathan Papelbon - yelled out, “We’re third in line? We should be first. We’re champions.”

Perhaps it was Papelbon. Grossfeld couldn’t have confirmed the voice? Wasn’t Gordon Edes on the flight (looks like him in the background of picture 2 at the accompanying slide show)? Maybe a real reporter could have confirmed the voice.

Once the plane was in the air, first baseman Kevin Youkilis helped clear the air by disposing of a diaper quicker than the Red Sox dispatched the Rockies to win the 2007 World Series.

First, where did he throw it? Out the window? That’s the only way we can think of eliminating poopy diaper odor from a plane? Second, the simile is awful. It took the Sox four games and five days to dispatch the Rockies. That would be a long-ass flight, to say the least.

The Sox entourage left a Denver hotel yesterday at 8:45 a.m., Mountain Time. Airport security personnel asked third baseman Mike Lowell to put his Series MVP trophy on the table before spreading his arms and legs for the metal detector.

A picture would have been worth all those words.

. . . Jacoby Ellsbury, who looked like an Ivy League student in a white shirt and glasses.

Huh?

Jon Lester, the happiest young man on the face of the earth, strolled the aisles, . . .

The kind of statement that turns fact-checkers red. Sure, Lester was happy and sure he’s a great story. But really, why such hyperbole?

Everyone ignored a Robin Williams movie and then a Harry Potter movie.

‘Even our own staff photog/writer, who didn’t bother to find out which specific movies were playing.’

The team piled into buses. Police stopped traffic in the Ted Williams Tunnel and on the Southeast Expressway at 4:50 p.m. to let them pass. People climbed on cars on local streets and held up signs and cell phones. The turnout en route was less than it was in 2004 but the team got a standing ovation from some homeless souls on Melnea Cass Boulevard. On this day, they too were champions.

This was the clincher for me. “Homeless souls on Melnea Cass.” Let me ask you this, Stan, did the bus stop to allow you to ask each and every observer on Melnea Cass if they had a residence? Or was were you just assuming that because a person asks for change on well-traveled streets that the person is homeless? And if it’s the latter, I’d love to know how the homeless souls on Melnea Cass feel about the description. Seems like a whole lot of stereotyping going on.

. . . And with access like what Grossfeld had, why do we only get a total of 16 pictures in a very mundane slide show? He must have snapped hundreds of shots and there is, you know, a lot of space on the ‘Net.

• Welcome back TNT’s NBA studio show - how did we survive the summer without you? On Thursday night, Charles Barkley got challenged by a YouTube-sumbitting questioner to eat a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts which led to a hilarious rant by Charles on the KK – “not the triple K” – and its irresistible allure.

There was also a sideways question and answer from Kenny “The Jet” Smith and the tremendous gameshow, “Who He Play For?”

Best. Studio. Show. On. TV.

• Believe it or not, the city is showing the slightest glimpses of actually caring about college football. WEEI 850 AM is proudly touting that it “will be the only place to hear the top two teams in College Football this weekend,” with a noon broadcast of #1 Ohio State vs. #21 Wisconsin and an 8 p.m. airing of #2 Boston College vs. Florida State.

Meanwhile, over at 890 ESPN, nationally-emerging Kevin Winter has started his own Wednesday night show, “College Gamenight Tonight,” airing from 6-7 p.m.

“Basically, I’m doing this because I love college football and after BC’s win over VaTech, there’s a chance some (people) are going to be interested,” said Winter via email. “It’s tough during normal weekday radio shows (to talk college football) given what the Sox just did and the Pats’ remarkable start.”

Meanwhile, Winter has impressed the right people in Bristol with his work and has worked himself into a nice role every Saturday as the radio side’s College Gameday anchor (noon – 7 p.m.), a show he does with Scott Reiss, Todd McShay and ex-Pat (and current piler-on) Trevor Matich.”

• The uncertainty over at 890, a staple of any radio start-up in this market, got even more shaky this week as the station’s VP of Business Development and Boston market veteran, Mike Winn, worked his last day with the Tang Gang this past Tuesday.

Winn said he will still serve as a consultant to the station but, via email, he told Shots he “was presented with a ‘best of both worlds’ proposition that I am really excited about. First, I will be the General Manager for Absolute Broadcasting out of Southern NH,” Winn said. “They are allowing me some freedom to start my own business on the side, called ‘Winn Media Solutions’ (that) will act as a Rep Firm for some smaller media outlets in the area and will develop unique content for Television, Web, Print and Radio.”

Winn has seen time at WEEI, WWZN 1510 AM and 890 and has some of the deepest sports contacts in the city. Not having him on the prowl for Felger and the Boys full-time is yet one more ominous sign for the in-flux, For Sale sports station(s).

• Who ever would have thought that Howie Carr would be the city’s most snake-bitten franchise? Dude’s had more losses in the past few months than the Pats have had in the decade. What a mess.

• A trendy topic for all sorts of media mavens is the purported “demise of Sports Illustrated”, which was ushered-in in earnest with the recent “swap” of Rick Reilly for Dan Patrick. It’s still too early to call for SI’s fall – the Brand is too strong and too ubiquitous.

But is you need any example of just how far the magazine is falling – and the speed of that fall – witness the byline on this UConn-isn’t-just-a-basketball-school piece of garbage.

If an ex-Hartford Courant copier like Ken Davis can get writing gigs with the once-proud title, we might as well expect Ron Borges to get the coveted back page.

SI should be ashamed.

• We scanned a lot of pictures from the past week’s celebrations and we’ve got to point out the fact that Red Sox Nation is a very pale nation indeed.

Just sayin’.

• NESN has managed to poach another true talent from the CN8 breeding ground, as “Seven Days of” Scott Losinger, has been scooped up to edit on the Bruins show, “The Buzz.” Losinger, who toted cameras and edited for the Comcast Network (and prior incarnations) for the better part of seven years, joins “The Buzz’s” new producer, Jeb Fisher, who left CN8 a couple of months ago.

(Shots, in our usual disclaimer, acknowledges frequent appearances on “Out of Bounds” at CN8 and further acknowledges a fondness for the hard-working Amory Street staff. So shoot us.)

• Had the pleasure this week of sharing a few moments at UConn hoops practice with The Voice of UConn Athletic, Joe D’Ambrosio. Joe Dee, a Hartford native, has some of the greatest pipes in all of college sports and has been on signature calls of Husky Nation moments since 1992 – meaning all of UConn’s recent hoops hysteria. He does ESPN work, TV work and he does it all with skill and acumen usually reserved the true “national” guys.

• Meet Agent Zero before he meets the Celtics. Another outstanding effort from Mike Wise.

• Paps being Paps for your weekend viewing pleasure:

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