By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

As if getting beaten by its sister on its own region’s biggest off-field story in years wasn’t enough, Boston.com further embarrassed the Boston Globe brand on Wednesday night when it sent out an ‘email alert’ of breaking news regarding the Matt Walsh fiasco. The mass email arrived at Shots’ inbox at 9:47 p.m.

Problem was, Boston.com had NO stories nor links to Greg Bishop’s New York Times story for at least 20 minutes after distribution of the email, which directed recipients “. . . To read more, visit http://www.boston.com.”

When Boston.com finally did have a summary of the Times‘ story at 10:11 p.m., the story’s byline space was left blank with just a “By” and the tagline read: “Background information from the Globe’s Christopher L. Gasper was used in this report.”

. . . This, from Mike Reiss was later posted in the 11 p.m. hour.

. . . In fairness, the Herald was woefully behind on the late-breaking (but not ridiculously so) news. But they didn’t send me an email directing me to the their website the way Boston.com’s gun-jumpers did.

. . . Just for kicks we clicked over to “Hit It” at the new NESN.com, thinking that a TV news-gathering operation may have had the sense to immediately post something on the Walsh development. No such luck. But fear not, NESN – Yahoo! Sports had nothing within the first hour of the Times’ story. (Interestingly, the NESN TV ticker did have the news – that thing needs to get synced to the website, folks.)

ESPN sure did. And we can only imagine the overplay they give it between now and the Walsh meeting on the 13th.

• The most intriguing development from the Walsh tapes delivery may be what it means legally for the Boston Herald, its writer John Tomase and the New England Patriots. Many Shots confidants (and others, of course) are convinced that the wording of the Patriots’ April 23 statement was specifically geared to emphasize the Pats’ contention that they never did anything improper surrounding the St. Louis Super Bowl. If those theorists are correct and the specific wording of, “At all times, we cooperated fully with the league’s investigation and stand by our initial public statement from Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008: ‘The suggestion that the New England Patriots recorded the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 is absolutely false,’” then the Herald and Tomase would seem to be in a precarious position.

Walsh’s lawyer addressed the mystery of the St. Louis tape directly to the Times:

“Mr. Walsh has never claimed to have a tape of the walk-through,” said Walsh’s lawyer Michael Levy, according to the Times. “Mr. Walsh has never been the source of any of the media speculation about such a tape. Mr. Walsh was not the source for the Feb. 2 Boston Herald article.”

And now the biggest question of the whole mess becomes, “Who was that source?”

• So, in summary – A marketing email that was most likely generated by a person with good news judgment steered potential Boston.com users to a website that had nothing to report; in so doing it triggered traffic for its NYT company compadre; and also exposed the paper’s miscommunication network.

• Heidi Watney’s first test in her new market came on Wednesday night as the Sox lost a wild one to the Tigers. She was properly somber in her tease and throw to sooooo-yesterday Hazel Mae for the tease of SportsDesk, following a tease for Sox Tox with Tom Caron and sidekEck. (Jeebus – how much teasing is going on over there these days?)

Watney struggled a bit through Terry’s Take on Wednesday and the low-talking-after-a-loss Francona doesn’t help matters. We’re all waiting to offer full assessments on Watney, but the earliest indications reveal she is a 26-year-old, green and still-learning TV personality. Fresno is a long way from Boston in many ways and with NESN’s payscale there is always going to be need for patience and forgiveness with new hires. [Yes, that signals the official start of Watney Watching. Please proceed with caution you Dawgs and Monsters and Fangs.]

. . . “What a terrible way to lose. Nobody hit the ball hard (for Detroit in the ninth),” said Dennis Eckersley in the postgame show. Eck really needs to just get up and move on down to the big network in Bristol. He’s over-ready for a national gig.

• What a weak explosion by Paps in the Visitors’ dugout on following the 10-9, broken bat, walk-off loss. Smash something. Make a splash. Spray some cups. Use a bat. Slap and ass. I actually think he may have been more pissed that he couldn’t find his right warm-up jersey. What do you bet he picked up Lugo’s warm-up first?

[Video to come, from everywhere, I'm sure. . . . Cliff's Notes version: He kicked one Gatorade bucket, pawed at another and generally had a very poor hissy fit after a very forgivable loss.]

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

Scott’s first book, with Memphis Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009.