By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

Long-time Herald boxing and Patriots’ scribe George Kimball put WCVB’s Bob Halloran on the canvas after a roundhouse right to the jaw that discredits and outwardly mocks Halloran’s new book on Micky Ward, “Irish Thunder: The Hard Life and Times of Micky Ward.”

Kimball, a boxing (and football) beat legend, tears into the Halloran’s effort, with an attack rarely seen in reviews by fellow media members. Clearly, Kimball has no place for a wannabe author dressed in camera-friendly colors and a $100 haircut.

Wrote Kimball in some of his economic 456 word review of the book:

“Although it’s not all that’s wrong with “Irish Thunder,” the problem can be encapsulated with one simple illustration, the recapitulation of the judges’ scorecards from Ward’s 2000 Foxwoods fight against Antonio Diaz, where the three scoring officials are described as “Tom Pazmarek, Gwen Feldman and Malvino Lathan.”

“ Tommy Kaczmarek, Glenn Feldman and Malvina Lathan* are among the most prominent boxing judges in the world, and must have scored close to a thousand title fights between them. The book manages not only to get all three names wrong, but transgenders two of them.”

*Halloran and Kimball both appear to be wrong on Lathan, but Kimball avoided transgendering New York State’s first African American female State Athletic Commissioner. We’ll go with the official New York State document with “Melvina” as our Time Inc. “red check.”

A Sunday dinnertime phone message left for Halloran (who news-anchored Channel 5’s 11 p.m. show), seeking reaction to the harsh review, was not returned as of posting time near 1 a.m.

In a Lowell Sun story from last month, Halloran told writer Nancy Tuttle. “My first goal was to be a journalist, so it was good doing the research and writing. It’s more in-depth than what we do on TV,” he said.

Kimball (who retired from the Herald in 2005, but continues to write on boxing for the paper) leads one to believe that Halloran did not make the leap from TV Guy to Author Guy very smoohtly. Kimball also wrote in his lead note from the Sunday boxing column that:

“. . . There are so many misspellings, factual errors, conflated memories and faulty assumptions that the sum effect will likely prove only annoying to most knowledgeable boxing fans.

The all-out Kimball assault points out five other spelling errors (all of which Kimball is correct on), a factual error (we’ll go with Kimball’s recollection) and an error in estimation of boxing’s myriad governing bodies (one a true boxing insider probably would not have made).

With Kimball’s monster reputation in boxing circles, the horrid review could be a knockout punch to the fledgling book-writing career of Halloran and, in some ways, could affect the way Halloran (who is married to Eileen Curran) is perceived in his roles as a TV anchor and a radio personality.

. . . The Herald’s Inside Track had reported on the September 23rd that Halloran’s two-year effort on the tome led to him being signed on as a “technical consultant” for the “Mark Wahlberg-Brad Pitt flick ‘The Fighter,’” an upcoming movie about Ward.

Hope he’s not consulting on matters of spelling for the flick!

. . . Halloran’s book is published by The Lyons Press (an imprint of The Globe Pequot Press) which has also done some Bert Sugar books. No mention of who edited Halloran’s effort.

. . . In fairness, this website, in passing, called Halloran’s book “terrific”.

So spelling doesn’t count to EVERYone.

• Still no official word on the failed Entercom-Nassau deal despite word last Thursday from Entercom’s spokespeople that an announcement was being formulated.

Maybe the Entercommers can enlist Halloran to help with the wording and spelling.

• Our two cents on Roger Clemens’s much-balyhooed appearance with ancient (and kid glove-wearing) Mike Wallace on Sunday’s “60 Minutes”:

Roger needs a better PR person. And quick. He could be on the verge of getting skewered during his Monday presser that both ESPN and NESN will be showing live. No word if the “news-gathering organization” at Comcast SportsNet will joint the festivities as well.

So farm, Clemens has been less-than-convincing and his approach and empty answers are not having their desired effect - at least not from this corner.

. . . So, is Lara Logan always on “60 Minutes” these days? The best addition since Steve Kroft in 1989.

• Best table guest on NBC7’s “Sports Xtra” since the return of Wendi Nix came on Sunday night when Prime Minister P Nice ( Peter Nash) joined Joe Amorosino for a quickie on the “Rooters” DVD

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

His work – and weekly college hoops report card – for CSTV.com can be found at the Hang Time blog on Mondays and The Glass Sneaker throughout the week. You can also listen for the weekly Professor’s Podcast, also at CSTV.com in iTunes at The Daily Buzz.