By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

FOXBOROUGH – An opportune visit to the House of Tom on Thursday night showed us two very evident storylines developing in Patriots’s media land:

1. There’s going to be some shake-up in Pats’ beat once the Herald and sports editor Hank Hryniewicz settle on a hire for this open position. (Made possible by the departure of Rob Bradford to WEEI.com and the eventual sliding of John Tomase back to the Red Sox beat.)

2. The silver anniversary duo at WBCN 104.1 FM’s Rock Radio Network are setting out to make game broadcasts more un-listenable than ever. At the same time Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti were pointing out the pre-season follies of both the Patriots and the Ravens, G&G were in the midst of creating their own FIRST QUARTER lowlight reel. (Santos completely missed a first half challenge by the Ravens, even as the play was being reviewed; Cappelletti mumbled through a discussion of the Harbuaghs by mis-informing listeners that John Harbaugh’s brother, Jim Harbaugh, has been the head coach at Stanford for five years – he’s been there one full season.)

If classy Bobby Kraft is just trying to give his radio tandem a graceful exit after 25 years as partners, he should at least have the decency to tell the rest of us so we can officially begin the countdown to when G&G will be gone and good-riddanced. Only then will we “turn down our TV and turn up the radio,” as Santos urges. We’ve reached our breaking point with the tandem and thankfully with satellite radio, our options are more vast.

. . . As for the Herald gig, several One Herald Square moles confirmed a steady stream of applicants have been through the tabloid’s halls in recent days. The candidate list a who’s who of the Pats’ beat’s current suburban (and urban) papers’ writers. Just about everyone already occupying seats from smaller papers in the Pats’ press box has at least inquired about the job, according to several regulars in Foxborough.

One source familiar with the process indicated that Hank Herald hopes to have the position filled for the start of the regular season, but that would likely mean that the pool of national candidates will not be huge, as out-of-staters would probably need too much time to get out of current jobs/living situations.

• Mike Lynch wears no socks as the sideline reporter on pre-season broadcasts. We just don’t need to know this. And we really didn’t need the clumsily performed, post-halftime interview Lynch tried to execute with Belichick. Incredibly, the Coach actually saved Lynch and even offered individual praise for rookies like Jerod Mayo and Shawn Crable.

. . . A shameless Davio’s (at Patriot Place) plug highlighted garbage time of the Kraft Sports Productions broadcast as microphone spinner, Lynchie, whined about not being part of the “team” meal with Don Criqui and Randy Cross.

Wow. That’s some bad TV.

. . . And how about investing in a backdrop for the booth? The post-game wrap by Criqui and Cross revealed some ugly pipes and wires behind the duo.

. . . Scott Zolak was strong in the WCVB post-game, out-shining Lynch at every turn during post-game analysis and a Pierre Woods interview that ended with Showtime Zo-Time saying, “White men can’t jump.” (He played summer basketball with Woods, it seems.)

• An oddity from the 2008 Patriots Media Guide: The very same organization that barely mentions last season in its season ticket holder literature, just about boasts (by its standards anyway) about the Pats’ 18 wins in 2008 with the sidebar chart titled, “Winning Ways,” appearing on both Page 46 and Page 87.

The nugget tells of the Pats “tying the NFL’s all-time record for most overall victories in a season. . . (and) joined the 1984 San Francisco 49ers and the 1985 Chicago Bears as the NFL’s only 18-game winners.”

• Dan Lamothe strikes gold again at Red Sox Monster.

• Early favorite for Gold Medal Olympic Blogger of the 2008 Games: Dan Steinberg of the WaPo. I’m doing my best to be a casual observer and so far the only coverage I’ve needed has come from Dan Wetzel and Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo! Sports. Oh, and Basketball Bob appears to be getting the hang of the blogging from Far Away. Just throw in some bullets to separate thoughts and we’ll be in business.

. . . The Globe has, according to this July blog entry, SEVEN “staff reporters,” in Beijing (including NBA writer, Marc Spears, who appears to be chipping on Boxing coverage as well). No mention of of how many photogs and editors, but we’re guessing there’s no fewer than 12 Globies chasing fencing stories in China. A dozen!

The Herald, on the other hand, has zero. And no one will be the wiser, really – AP coverage of this event in tough times for newspapers is more than understandable, it’s perfectly acceptable.

• No news from 890 AM on their 4-7 p.m. team, but an announcement could come before the weekend, we’re told.

Yeah, we know. Hard to contain yourself with all the anticipation.

• On Sunday night’s NBC pre-season opener, John Madden (’08) mentioned Redskins Hall of Famer “Bullet Bill” Dudley (the oldest Hall of Famer in Canton last weekend). The context was a record Dudley holds which still stands and may never be broken and Madden neglected to give the specifics: Dudley scored NINE different ways during his career – rush, reception, kickoff return, punt return, interception, fumble recovery, extra point, field goal and a lateral (considered a scoring play in 1946).

• The contest is officially over for 2008′s most bizarre sports broadcasting moment as Wednesday night brought us Jackie Mason doing color commentary on an ESPN 2 boxing match. The part where Mason and co-horts (Joe Tessitore and Nate Campbell) were naming famous Jewish boxers was just priceless. Mason was supposedly some kind of boxer in his day.

• I’m late to the news, but still quite disappointed that the “Corm and the Coach” show (featuring all-time fave, Tom Brennan) is no more. The duo’s worthwhile golf tournament is next Thursday. Fortunately, Brennan will remain as an ESPN college hoops analyst and Doug Gottlieb’s full-time babysitter.

• XM Sports yakker, BC grad and son of Tim, Luke Russert, is getting a nice gig with Dad’s old employer.

• Some people have too much time on their hands. And boy was Globe Magazine happy to have the story – they released it early (on the eve of the Pats’ pre-season openere) and did an email blast which wound up getting picked up by both Deadspin and The Big Lead.

• The Boston market’s version of vintage Kenny Mayne, CN8′s John Carchedi, has another of his fabulous specials airing this Saturday at 7 p.m. Some of the featured stories include Carchedi’s day with Brazilian soccer fans; a tour of the new Sports Museum of America in New York; and how Yankee fans are dealing with the impending closure of Yankee Stadium.

. . . Shots shared air time with ex-Providence coach Tim Welsh on CN8 from Gillette on Thursday and there’s no doubt he’s ready for some college hoops color commentary and/or in-studio analysis at one media outlet or another. Welsh isn’t afraid to tell it like it is, he’s humorous, he’s well-connected and the ex-Gael head man, has figured out the TV thing in no time at all.

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.