They, like the original two (scroll down, friends) are worth reading. Enjoy the weekend. . .

". . . your interpretation of my current state is not accurate. . .

. . .I think it is important that it be clear that I DON'T want to come back to Boston. I was just recognizing that I had a kick-ass job and this one is going to require a great deal of time and adjustment on my part. I'd NEVER walk from a paper like the Post just because the first 60 days have been tough. Nona Bryant didn't raise a weakling.

. . . I left for a reason. Lots of them, in fact. To paraphrase the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, "The Boston matter is now closed. - HB"

Nona’s gonna love getting a touch in Shots – I just KNOW IT!

Shots also had received, before Bryant had even read my words (but after publication in Friday’s Shots), the following. Bryant was replying to Shots’ question of: “All right – now I really am intrigued – How’s this for a scenario: The Herald comes back to you, boosts you 75K and gives you a two-year, no-cut contract. Do you return?”

Bryant replied:

"This, you can use for publication:

"I'd have to say no. For one: This place is awesome. It is top of the line journalism. They take it seriously. They take you seriously. The Herald are good people, good fighters, and gave me the best job in Boston. But no paper I've ever been at matches the resources, reach and weight of this place. No paper comes close.

Plus, there's the competitive side to me which says put your work up against what everyone else is doing. Don't think about going back to a place just because it was comfortable, because there was a time when the Herald wasn't comfortable and also because I'm not sure I do my best work comfortable. Fear is my great motivator. I tell myself every day here: "If you're so good, then be good here, at the top of the journalistic food chain, where everyone is watching. If you can't, then maybe you're not so good after all."

Two things from Shots perch on this one: “the best job in Boston” – he may be right about that. Especially if it were ever used proper-like.

Also, Bryant clearly holds the Post in HIGH esteem – as he should. However, his regard for the ‘Gate Guys doesn’t ring as true as it might of “back in the day.” (And what’s with the line about the Herald being “good fighters?”)

Korn and Wilby are monsters, yes – but they also teeter on being overspoken because of their national PTI soapbox. And let’s face it, with the venom that runs through these pages and a mounds of others – there’s not the glory and reverence that once came with sportsWRITING. Too much of it and too little real, palpable talent.

Whoooo – Friday night writing wipes me out. . .

You need to get through the Fire Ron Borges stuff at the home office’s homepage and then you can proceed with Shots. Bruce and Byrne have gone all out on this one – it’s revealing, hilarious and, most of all, very Internet friendly. We know you’ll agree. Cast your vote now!

If I wasn’t so adamant in my current ban on “Open Letter Columns” – which I’ve used in the past to varying degrees of success – this space, on this day, would be that very type of offering.

Instead, we’d simply ask that someone of merit at the Herald (who is, at, or above the level of Hank Herald, the fine editor who day-in and day-out does more with less) lend an ear:

“Bring Back Howard!”

Stern? Screw Stern. Get serious, not Sirius. Bring Back Howard Bryant and juice up your back end of the paper the way you have the middle portion (i.e. the Track Gals and the “Inspector Gadgetization” of the Business Section).

Use the sports section to drive the rear wheels – the way the Daily News and the NY Post in New York do it. Be splashy, be shrewd, be aggressive. But Be Bryant.

Boston is ready for some mud slinging – I’m convinced of it from observing the success of WEEIdiot Radio where the afternoon show continues to be THE Least Common Denominator programming choice of the masses.

Bryant left Boston less than two months ago but it’s beginning to feel like two centuries ago. The Herald’s voice – as soft as it may have been – is now completely muted. Tony Mazz showed some nice versatility, but he’s not going to sell papers the way Bryant could if the Herald were to dangle a carrot in his general direction. The pages need a voice – they need some oomph and attitude. Bryant could thrive in that role.

And to be honest, from the tone of Bryant’s emails to Shots, he’d be back faster than a Michael Holley to the Globe.

Let me set the scene a bit: Bryant, whose chops really came through loudest and strongest in his final six months in Boston, leapt at the chance to SHARE the ‘Skins beat for the Post (with Jason LaCanfora). What’s more, he left a columnist gig for a beat; left his roots for Foggy Bottom. It was a tough call at the time and it’s a tough call still. But he left what could be the Titanic for the Love Boat. Here’s an excerpt of what Bryant had to say:

“Things are insane here. . . when things are supposed to be quiet and I was supposed to find a place to live, the Redskins keep winning. So, the insanity continues.

People told me coming in that the fervor for the Redskins is as intense as that for the Red Sox and that's just not true. The Red Sox are in their own universe. They have it all to themselves.

Shots can’t help but notice the repeated mention of the “shared beat.” Beyond losing columnist freedom, you hardly have beat writer freedom. It’s divided in half and you could get the crappy half (notebook or sidebar filler).

After a Shots follow-up centering on whether the Cartel Callout Man has regrets, Bryant added this:

“I'm not sure it is regret in the traditional sense that I'm having buyer's remorse or that I wish I were still in Boston. I miss Boston for my family and in that by the end I was finally becoming comfortable with my role at the Herald.

The press box at FedEx Field is the worst, least professional I've ever been in, filled with Redskins employees who grunt, clap and cheer during the game, especially against Dallas. It is like covering the game from a luxury suite. All that's missing is the girl who serves the alcohol and bacon-wrapped scallops.

Mostly, I love that last graf. The legendary bad blood between the ‘Skins honcho Daniel Snyder and the Post is probably the most fractious of any pro team and any major daily. Cousin Davey Palm Harbor was reading about it all last week as the Bucs prepped for Washington and the longer the ‘Skins play, the more attention it’ll get. It has “Outside the Lines” written all over it.

I’m guessing there’s a more than little bit of regret and I’m also guessing he could be lured back. Especially if the Herald were to suddenly stabilize – ala the potential Knight-Ridder takeover by Bain, et al.

Which is why we hoped maybe a Herald Head would take a gander and get in touch with HB – Shots is happy to broker the deal. No fee, no closing costs.

• Tuesday night’s “Outside the Lines” on ESPN looked at the Rice HOF snub and had both Basketball Bob Ryan and Self-Fulfilling Prophet Dan Shaughnasty discussing their views from what appeared to each scribe’s humble abode. In fact, we think we heard sounds of Hingham emanating from the window of Basketball Bob – and it must have been taped at a time when windows could have been open, because the Ryan window appeared to be wide open. . .Just what are sounds of Hingham you ask?

Brian McGrory could tell you: Fine wines being opened and ladies complaining that Lily Pulitzer is out of appropriate pink and green outfits or that Talbots has gone to pot ever since including men’s apparel.

• Someone needs to investigate – we nominate Poynter, Deadspin Will or the ObudsESPN – whether hockey has led the 11 p.m. or 2 a.m. SportsCenter at any point this season and what the stats were for the last hockey season ESPN held NHL rights to?. . . And then they’d need to investigate why the heck I would care about such a thing. . .

• Long ago leftover: Dandy Don Orsillo and NESN Sox producer Emmy Mike Narracci team up for Providence College hoops on Cox Sports Television in Rhody.

• Shots is hereby extending an exclusive offer to Sports Illustrated’s Alex Wolff (who we’re told once read this space and giggled) to serve as the Vermont Frost Heaves official in-their-pocket blogger who will NEVER criticize the ABA expansion experiment in community activism.

We will do this for the tidy sum of one piece of logoed swag per financial quarter, in perpetuity. Meaning, for the cost or two hats and two t-shirts; or one hat, one t-shirt, one bobblehead and one long-sleeved tee; or. . . the Fheaves will receive glowing and frequent mentions in this, the most influential column emanating from Hull, Massachusetts but more specifically from the Shots’ Shanty. And some of the readers actually have real jobs. In the media, even!

• Tough week for Globie, Jackie MacMullan. It was reported in USA Today this week that her book with UConn’s Geno Auriemma , unfortunately titled “Geno: In Search of Perfection,” contained the misspelling of Auriemma’s close friend and Villanova coach, Harry Perretta. The perfectionist’s book spells it P-A-R-R-E-T-T-A – guess the fact checker for Jackie Mack’s tome wasn’t so perfect afterall. The book, we hear, is a must have for the Husky faithful – who, we are convinced, would buy “Natural Husky Nuggets” if proper UConn logo was etched into the feces.

• The possibility exists, if we all play our cards right, that Shots, Pete Meat Sheppard, WEEI’s Julie Kahn and Boston Magazine Publisher “Hully” Dan Scully, could, at any moment be sharing space at any of the fine establishments in our common community of Nantasket Beach.
A recent Page 4 picture in the Hull Times (12/29/05 issue) showed the engaged Kahn, her daughter, Samantha, and Scully canoodling with Red Sox Owner Larry Lucchino and his wife, Stacey, from the soiree where Big O was reportedly leading toasts to the happy couple. File under: Hull – The Media Capital of New England!. . . Tough week for part-time Hullonian, Steve Stirling, the dismissed head coach of the New York Islanders. Our unsolicited advice to the Shots neighbor: Come on down to the beach for a couple of weeks. It’s been a glorious winter down here – never too cold for a walk with Percy the Dog or coffee at Hull’s newest IT place, Toast.

• NBC is getting prime ad space (Top, left) at the ESPN.com site for its Olympic site. Good placement there – don’t fight ESPN’s power; simply use it to your advantage. Good work, NBC Sports.

• Lynn Worthy checked in with Shots a couple of weeks back to introduce himself. “I'm the newest (full-time) addition to the sports staff at The Lowell Sun. I hesitate to say that I'm Rob Bradford's ‘replacement.’ My primary focus early on will be high schools and UMass Lowell. However, his leaving did pave the way for me to fill a full-time position in sports. . . As of right now I am not taking over the same exact role that Rob played here. Where Rob (now at the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune) was a veteran scribe, I'm still the rookie over here.”

Worthy, a Tyngsborough High School graduate ('00) is in the midst of finishing his master's degree in journalism at Emerson College in Boston. He did undergrad at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine (’04) and has experienced a few different roles for The Sun – from sports stringer, to other GA (general assignment) positions. He also got a few months of weekend work at boston.com.

A member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), Worthy does show some good glimpses of self-deprecation. “Oh, and you'd think Hall of Famer Lynn Swann would have set this straight, but many people assume that the name Lynn is automatically referring to a female. . . not the case here,” he wrote, “I am a guy.”

Let’s be sure to keep an eye on Lowell’s Lynn at the same time we look in on Pennsylvania’s Lynn (Swanny). Good luck to both, but more so Lowell Lynn.

• Is it an awful idea to have your yearly physical on the first Friday the 13th of the year? My bad, if it is.

• We’ve got big plans for a Saturday doubleheader of the early afternoon CAA tilt that has Bruiser Flint’s Drexel Dragons matching up with Jose Juan BeNortheastern over at Matthews; followed by a Pats viewing with my (lone) Godfather, Uncle Stuff, Stevie Sarasota. The former Stevie Medfa has stocked up on Coca Cola Zero, Fresca and lime diet Coke, so we’re gonna be plenty caffeinated come kickoff.

The Bro-in-Lou will undoubtedly have some more Erin Wings by then and we’re betting there’s still some pasta floating around somewhere.

All in all, it should be an enjoyable night of Bronco busting.

Enjoy it and remember, as Uncle Stevie says: “Watch how you go.”

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

By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

• My Boss Bruce was right on Thursday: Read Mark Jurkowitz’s report card on the Globe, WEEI 850 AM and the Herald, if you read anything. (But at least skim Shots, you’re already here. . . )

Also, in some Theo housekeeping, think about this, which was pointed out to Shots and a few others at the Bruins game on Thursday night – by none other than the city’s elderest sports columnist: Someone needed to ask Theo, at that now-famous presser at the Park, what the truth of the Colorado/Baltimore “thing” was from his perspective? “No one asked that,” pointed out Globie, Bob Ryan.

“Everyone of us should be disappointed in ourselves for not asking that,” said Ryan, who was in fine fiddle pre-puck-drop, holding court in “Will’s Room,” and even in the elevator (with Yellow Boxer, Steve Buckley) up to the press-semicircle (no ‘row’ in a rink, we understand). . . Ryan’s been multi-sport in these post-baseball hours, checking in on the Sox, the Pats, the Celts and the Bruins over the past seven days. In the interest of equal time, Ryan did his Revolution column last time the Revs made it to the Copa cabana – or whatever the finals of MLS are called. He even joked with Buck that it was his turn for the “Revs set-up story,” which Buck indeed penned this week. . . Buckley just got back from a European vacation to Amsterdam and said he kept informed on the Theocracy through the International Herald Tribune and, no joke, two Yankess fans who were discussing Theology (in the Red Sox nation sense, not the European, Worldly sense).

. . . .Lastly, for now, on Theo – Jurkowitz’s lone omission, which seemed egregious to Shots, was this: He never mentioned Joe Sullivan’s uncomfortable silence throughout the week. Shots maintains that the sports editor needed to reassure the readership of certain things during those first few days of Theogate and Sullivan didn’t do that. Jurkowitz gave out the grades but neglected to assess the teacher in the process.

• When, and if, I grow up, I will be Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit’s recently re-elected (for now) mayor. There may be no finer role model in all the land.

• Howard Bryant’s departure stirred a little bit of a dull hum in certain quadrants, but Bryant was happy to report to Shots on Thursday that the overwhelming response to his departure, from readers, has been kind-hearted and well-intentioned.

“In two days,” Bryant wrote in an email to Shots, “we’re looking at 53 voice mails, 52 positive; and 103 emails, one bad (see below).

“So, 155 comments, 2 bad, which has been awesome,” Bryant said in the email.

The following is the “one bad” that came to Bryant’s inbox, according to the new Redskins beat writer, himself. (Shots has redacted the emailer’s address, but I’d gladly forward it to any spammer that was looking for one more live, deserving, name for their database.)

Again, we emphasize on behalf of Bryant (and Shots), that the overwhelming majority of feedback directly to Bryant was positive. But there are always hateful, ignorant people and sadly, they too can share their voice:

(Subject Head: Your Departure)

Dear Mr. Bryant:

I was shocked and offended when I read you articles yesterday in the Herald. I can’t believe how someone as fortunate as you have been could feel so bitter upon your departure. I don’t know what exactly you did or what qualifications you have to obtain your editorial position with the Herald, but it obviously wasn’t writing quality journalism. Perhaps, I should speculate as you has done during your tenure here in Boston. Maybe it was your race that allowed you to obtain your position?

What exactly does the word race mean? I don’t think the term is appropriate in today’s society with all the children that are a result of interracial relationships. How would your characterize someone who is 1/4th black and 3/4th Caucasian? White? Black?(or should I say “African American?”) The term “African American” is another inaccurate term, but I don’t have the time to delve into that topic.

In sum, I have never read a “sport-writer” as obsessed with race as you are. The title to your first book is indicative of that obsession. Also the conclusion you reach in your “Race and Boston” article, that the lack of wordss such as “racism” means that the tone or purpose of your stories was not focused on race.

Baloney!

If you had any talent, I would recommend that you write in the editorial section of a newspaper, because you are not a sportswriter. I have never learned any meaningful sports information from you. You are the worst sportswriter I have ever read!

I wish you well in your departure, because that means I won’t be tempted to read a racist like yourself again.

Maybe the Herald will replace you with a real talent like Michael Holley or expand Gerry Callahan’s column.

. . . A couple more Bryant leftovers: His going away party was held on Wednesday evening (we’re supposing the Trackies were there!) and guess who attended for purposes of saying goodbye? Yup – Dan Shaughnasty himself, fresh off the whirlwind tour of every media outlet that would have him. (Danny Boy, Hull Community TV called, they’re wondering if you’re available to do a quarter of the Pop Warner game with Stevie, this Sunday afternoon from the Memorial School field?) DB and HB had some hot times on the “Sports Xtra” set “back in the day,” as they say, and we bet HB will even miss the back-and-forth when he’s in DC.

. . . Let Shots tell you something: If the Herald was footing the bill for the going away soiree, and a “Cartel” member (or two or three) were drinking off the tab? Well, then, we might have a whole new angle to explore on this “smear campaign” story. Indeed, everybody is in bed with everybody else! And yes, that tone you hear is bitterness that Shots sleeps alone!

• Legends’ Kids Night on ESPN2 last Saturday night: Sean McDonough (Will’s boy) did play-by-play, and Duke Castiglione (Joe’s kid) were two-thirds of the talent trio working Florida-Vanderbilt. (The last third, interestingly enough, was color-man Mike Gottfried, daddy of Alabama hoops coach Mark Gottfried.) Sing it, brutha: It’s a family affair. . .

• Chuck Klosterman is writing a monthly column for Page 2 over at ESPN.com. It comes at the very time Shots has just begun reading “Killing Yourself to Live” and the book is well worth the Library trip. We’re reserving judgment on whether or not his Page 2 offering will be likewise worthy. His first outing missed on most levels, especially the ones that suggest non-sports writers need to get to their point immediately and concisely or risk losing the sports readers, who aren’t quite as astute (or patient) as the political, artsy or pop culture readers Klosterman is more accustomed to writing for.

• Chad Finn of the Touching All the Bases Finns did the latest John Feinstein book review in last Sunday’s Globe. If Stan Grossfeld is two-tool guy with the camera and the written word, then we’re thinking Finn is at least a five tool guy (write, edit, design, bring back baseball card memories, entertain). Throw that dude on the 30-somethings who will be on the charter staff of Scott’s Shots reincarnation of The National. (Listing services for said list, provided by Percival P. Dawg.)

• Speaking of which, more good things happening to good people: Dave Doyle of his World is leaving his sleepless job in Seattle for a gig with FOXsports.com. Doyle, for those of you following along at home, jumped off the Good Ship Globe (South, Sports) this past spring and headed out westward to a heavy editing gig at Sports Xchange. Doyle wrestled a bit with leaving the comfort of the “known” for the discomfort of the “unknown,” but reached a point where he had to make the break (after four years as a full-timer at Globe South).

Seven months (and a terrifically successful blog later), Doyle’s heading for a super gig with an aggressive, sports media outlet that isn’t going anywhere for a good, long time. Daddy Rupert is starting to get serious about tweaking ESPN’s earlobes, we think.

If that little tidbit about Doyle doesn’t give you hope that good things happen to good people and that good people can still do good things, well, I don’t know what will. The sad news is we’ll be losing Dave’s World in the coming weeks. The flip side of that, however, is that Shots can no longer screw up football picks to the point of choosing teams to win that are in their bye weeks. So we’ve got that going for us. . . .We love what Doyle had to say about his “baby”:

“The blog started out as a way to keep in touch with friends since I found myself pounding out 30 lengthy emails per day and it just sort of morphed into what it became. It was a lot of fun. I’ve never been afraid to do things a little different than everyone else, so when I heard all the usual people making fun of blogs, I basically knew it was time to try it.”

Priceless. And don’t think the FOXies didn’t like it either. A broad base is a good base, remember that kiddies. . .

• Shots was treated to a few minutes of Jimmy Young’s time during our most recent visit to the Wells Ave. Warriors over at NECN. (Young does sales for Daddy Comcast and the Neckin folks, but also still fills in on-air every now and again.)

Young, still south of 50, always struck us as too intelligent and too daring for the sports folk. It’s kind of odd too, because he’s a close friend of Jimmy Myers, and sort of has that feel of a Caucasian Myers – he’s borderline great at what he does, but is he too good at it for the Sport Set?

Regardless, Young does share regular mike time with ex-Sox employee, The Teacher/Coach, Bob Rodgers, on their “Calling All Sports” slot from 4-7p.m., Sundays at 96.9 FM Talk. With Eddie Andelman’s mouth silenced, CAS is one of – if not THE – longest running sports talk show in the region. (We trust a local historian could help us out here – let’s call it “community journalism” just to be hip, okay?

“We had (Dan Shaughnessy) on the day of his (Theo Epstein) column and all the things he said during the week, he was telling us on the day the column ran,” said Young, in the NECN grand foyer, after sharing some friendly banter with his boss and Chief Numbers Overseer. “It’s a great show to do and we tackle everything.”

Give me Young, Myers and Mike Adams and I’ll give you a damn good 30 Minute TV show every day of the week. Go ahead – try me. . . (Job Beg, No. 457 for those Haters keeping a tally.)

• This one would be perfect for my longheld belief that the scoreboard page in any paper should be sponsored by some adult beverage maker. Newspapers, by the way, don’t need less of this kind of creativity (as the Public Editor believes) – it needs more of it. And quick!

• This past Monday, Glenn Ordway was ALL OVER NBC7’s Joe Amateurino for the “on his knees” interview with Shaughnasty on Sunday night’s “Sports Xtra.”

Pete The Angry Meat managed to pile on and condemn the shows of Xtra’s ilk for not having ‘EEI representatives on-set to defend the station when, for instance, JoeAm (not to be confused with ToeJam) threw around his blind accusations and soft-toss queries to Danny Boy.

As always, it became a battle of the loudest and a poor representation of what could have been interesting banter. (Although, taking even 10 minutes on it during the lead-up to Pats-Colts was questionable, at best.)

. . . And who peed in PeteMeat’s Wheaties this week? Easy on the Internet guys, Pete – they (we) somehow help to keep you afloat. And aloft.

• In-limbo radio guy, Ryen Russillo, continued his Mike Giardi gig on Sunday night at NECN and shared set space with newbie Lawrence Eagle Tribber, Rob Bradford, who debuted in the last Sunday’s Trib with a strong effort on Theo.

• Maybe the best line of the week on the Carolina cheerleaders thing came form the Whiner Line (of course): “Why can’t WE get cheerleaders like that?”

Lobel couldn’t have said it better himself.

• Unless there’s relevant, breaking news over the next week, Shots will likely be skipping the regularly scheduled Shots for next Friday (11.18.05) as we tend to some higher-paying (but no less rewarding) work and travel. (Including, but not limited to, the enjoyment of some pre-Thanksgiving college hoops!)

But it wouldn’t kill ya to check back here every now and again – just to see if we popped in for a quickie. . .

Until next , time. . .

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

It’s fund drive time and if you count yourself among the many who find the local media to be our Fifth Major sport around here, Scott’s Shots urges you to give early and give often. There are very few forums where Shots (and 2,000 word pieces on a departing columnist, like the following) would be embraced. Thansk to BSMW and Bruce Allen, we have that spot. Let’s keep it going and growing. Thanks, Shots

The following was scheduled to appear in parts as a lead-up to Howard Bryant’s official departure from the Boston Herald, this coming Friday. But then Theo Happened. Not to mention T.O.

Without further ado, a snapshot of Bryant’s impact in his thousand-or-so days a minority sports voice in lily-white Boston.

Howard Bryant’s farewell column appeared in the Boston Herald today, Wednesday, November 9, 2005. Friday is his final official day as Yellow Boxer and in the next week or so he will have his first byline in the Washington Post as one of two beat writers on the demanding (and slightly dangerous) Redskins beat.

Bryant, the city’s lone African American sports columnist, was cordial and magnanimous in his Bye to Beantown piece, but also went out swinging softly – especially at the Globe and its ‘Cartel,’ as well as on the issue of race.

In a 90-minute phone conversation with Shots a couple of weeks ago, Bryant was a bit more free to name names and get into specifics. The following contains highlights of that conversation, many of which were touched on (but not expanded upon) in his Wednesday farewell.

First, some background: Bryant, 36, grew up in Dorchester (birth to nine years old) and later down south a bit in Plymouth (nine-years-old until college, where he attended Temple University). He is married to Veronique and they have a 16-month-old son, Ilan. His parents, still in Plymouth, are Donald and Nona.

According to his own count, since joining the Herald in November of 2002, Bryant bylined 573 stories. (He further computed that just 16 of those stories “contained the keywords “racism,” “race,” or “African American,” in hopes of bolstering his claim that he did not “exploit. . . race. . . as in issue.”)

Also vital in any assessment Bryant’s 570-plus at-bats in Boston, is that he is inextricably linked to all the “smear campaign” talk that many think Tony Massarotti “created” just before the Theo Escapade began in earnest. In fact, it was Bryant and his “Cartel” talk that truly started the ball rolling on what the Globe’s relationship with the Red Sox means for consumers who consume the ‘Cartel’s’ myriad coverage. (Interestingly, Mazz’s name was omitted from the specific list of thank-you’s Bryant included at the top of his final “Boston Uncommon” space on Wednesday. Mazz was the only regular, Herald, Sox writer not mentioned, missing the cut in favor of, gasp!, Laura Raposa and Gayle Fee, the Track Gals. ****UPDATE****It was later pointed out to us that Gerry Callahan was also not on the list, and it’s also no secret that Bryant has no love for Callahan.)

No Love for Holley nor WEEI – His thoughts the City’s First Black Sports Columnist, Holley.

It’s no secret that Bryant and the city’s first black sports columnist, Michael Holley (now a co-host at WEEI 850 AM) are not exactly the best of friends. Bryant, in no uncertain terms, took pride and felt a responsibility to represent the region’s minority voice. Despite his numbers regarding the mention of race in past stories, Bryant strongly believed in his role as the “black sports columnist,” something he felt Holley never took seriously enough.

“Michael and I don’t mix but we do co-exist. We’re not pals, if that’s what you’re asking,” Bryant said. “I’m not going to say Michael ‘sold out.’ But you know, you are the first African American sports columnist in this town and (because of that) you’re not just writing for yourself.

“If there were 30 of us in the market – or in the country for that matter – it would be one thing. But there aren’t – who will be the one if not you? My break with Holley is that he doesn’t want to deal with it (race).”

Bumps in the Road – His stories of hate mail, a loss of confidence and overall perseverance that helped him along the way.

On Wednesday, Bryant wrote that his time at the Herald, “for the most part” was a “dream job.” Left unsaid in his column was the Barry Bonds/Hank Aaron-like hate mail that Bryant endured from readers.

“You should have seen my ‘Go back to Africa’ emails or the ‘Why can’t you be colorless like Michael Holley?’ notes,” Bryant recalled. “For me, personally, I won’t be the guy who focuses on the bad letters – people here really care and that’s really cool.”

Reiterating what he wrote in Wednesday’s piece, Bryant said, “I don’t believe you can discuss race openly and honestly here in Boston. My big problem in Boston has always been that nobody has had the stamina to discuss race. I wanted to prove to myself that I had that stamina.

“You have to talk about it because everybody in the clubhouse is talking about.
One of the stories I didn’t write about all last season was how the (minority players) all thought (Curt) Schilling got a free pass because he was white.

Will it be different in DC? Yes and no – there’s a different history there and a higher black population. Boston is saddled by its history – you can’t have the discussion in Boston. The press boxes (in sports in general) look more like a hockey game that a Tarzan movie,” he said. “My question for these people is, ‘When is it appropriate to talk about race?’”

Even still, Bryant takes pride in the attempts he took to bring the discussion to the fore.

“Two books – Glenn Stout’s Red Sox Century and my book, Shut Out – in the span of five years, have changed the entire legacy of Tom Yawkey and I take a lot of (pride) for that. I wanted to offer another view of Yawkey and let the reader decide if it’s horseshit or not.”

“The Mystery 50” – His steroids reporting assessed and explained.

Bryant’s imaginary “Q-Rating” was probably never higher than this past August, when he was reporting that a “Mystery 50” baseball players would be revealed as having failed steroids testing. It came at the same time his book on the subject was being released. That large of a number never materialized and Bryant admitted as much to Shots.

At the time, in August, Bryant wrote: “. . . Yet this is the tale being spun around clubhouses in Major League Baseball, emblematic of the odd and suspicious environment that exists around the game right now.”

“I’m not sure how much I ever believed the 50 but that was what people were saying and it was coming from reliable sources all over the game,” Bryant told Shots. “I had heard anywhere from 12-50 at the time.”

Still, Bryant stands behind his underlying premise that Major League Baseball can not, and should not, be trusted. “I mean MLB trotted out Hank Aaron and Rafael Palmiero together and they knew full well what Palmiero had done – how do you trust that? Trust is what it’s about.”

“The Post is personal – not business” he says. “And the Globe was too.”

Bryant says the Globe tried to hire him in the position that went to Chris Snow, that of Red Sox beat writer. But he claims the Globe wanted a four-year commitment to the beat. For a 30-something who had paid some dues on other beats AND had his own column in Boston, that was too long of a timetable. Even for a kid who grew up cherishing the words of the Globe’s heyday columnists.

“Two papers are personal for me – the Globe, the paper I read growing up, and the Post,” Bryant said. “My dad would put his breakfast on top of the Globe and hand out the sections like he was King Edward III! I wanted to work for that paper my whole life. I was a Globe kid. But maybe that time has passed me by.

“I think the difference between the Globe and the Washington Post is that the Globe essentially doesn’t want its writers to have any ambition – they don’t discuss your future,” Bryant said. “At the Post, (they let you know) if you come in here and kick ass in sports you can do whatever you want within this newspaper.”

Bryant admitted what Shots had reported previously, that he has an itch for more, shall we say, serious journalistic endeavors: “Yes, it’s true that I want to look at the news side down the road.”

The Post would be a good place for that, without doubt. So much so, Bryant admits he was not exactly Theo-like in his negotiations with the Post people: “I was listening to what they had to offer thinking I can’t be coy here – I had zero leverage when they were telling me about the opportunities. I wanted the job.”

He also looks forward to being able to write longer at his new paper.

“At the Post, they actually let people write. At the Herald, all we do is cut, cut, cut (words and space),” Bryant said. “If you give people something to read, they’ll read it.”

“The Cartel” – Why he’s not so far off and why others are now agreeing.

“Everyone treated me like a I was a pile of shit when I started talking about “The Cartel” – like on ‘Dale and Holley,’” Bryant said. “The subtext of that whole things is about the Herald going under – and it is going under – this will be a one newspaper town. Why is that such a difficult concept to understand?

“(Globe sports editor) Joe Sullivan sent me an email about how pained he was to see me write (about the Cartel) and how he thought I was ‘better than that.’ Come on!”

“Boston is the only market I’ve lived in where the media is the enemy in a lot of different circles and we’re injected into the story,” he said, adding: “I think the Herald is in trouble – it actually needs a revenue stream partnership.”

A “Legacy” after just three years? – He came in around when Theo took over and left around the same time Boy Wonder did.

“My chapter isn’t written here as of yet,” Bryant said. “When I got here, I think that all I wanted to do was write about things that were interesting to me – that was the genesis for ‘Shut Out.’ In terms of what I wanted to do was to give people something to think about that I didn’t think they were getting anywhere else.”

Expanding on some of the things he alluded to in his final column:

Bryant said: “It’s all about content and programming in radio, and newspaper writers are the cheapest form of programming. But why would I do 4-6 on ESPN Radio Boston – for two hours for $150 – when I could do three and a half minutes on ‘Sports Xtra’ for $400?”

“WEEI is so untouchable – you can’t piss those guys off or you’re done,” he said. “Look at how WEEI has treated me since the METCO thing. But I didn’t need their money. Also, I never saw a writer become a better writer by writing less (and doing more radio).”

On his new job, the ‘Skins beat: “I’m hearing that it’s hell. Straight up, brass knuckles, us (the Post) vs. them (the Redskins organization and Snyder). I love that. You want to fight? Fine. I like aggressive, not passive aggressive.”

What he’ll miss most about his hometown: “I’m going to miss the theater of it all in Boston – there’s a special-ness to that Boston theater.

“Thing like, after the Sox were eliminated this year, a day after or so, I was walking out of Fenway and a fan was standing out there in the rain and he yells” ‘Howahd? What aaaah we gonaahhh do nowwww? And I’m thinking, ‘What do you mean? We’re going to go home and get out of the rain.’ But they just love their team.”

On whether he’ll be sniffing on Steroids in the NFL: “The NFL gets the free pass but that’s because they’ve got better marketers (than MLB). But I sniff on anything.”

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

The email read:

“Matt Vita (Garcia-Ruiz’s No. 2) and I are delighted to announce that Howard Bryant, a columnist with the Boston Herald, will be joining us as our new Redskins beat reporter, working with Jason LaCanfora. Howard has focused primarily on baseball during his career but has shown a wide range of skills and great versatility. His sports beat experience includes one that should prepare him well for the popularity of the Redskins: covering the New York Yankees for the Bergen Record. At the San Jose Mercury News he covered the Oakland A’s but before that he was the online editor for sports at the paper and covered telecommunications for the business section (under a nasty taskmaster named Jonathan Krim – a Post Staff writer on the news side). Howard has written two books: ‘Juicing the Game,’ a look at the steroids crisis in baseball and ‘Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston.’ His start date is Nov. 14, just in time for the Raiders game.”

Herald sports editor Hank Hyrniewicz, in his first public comments on the move, emailed Shots: “. . . (Howard’s) been a great contributor to the Herald’s sports section for the past three years and I’ve enjoyed working with him during these three years.”

Bryant has been in the DC-area this week searching for housing. In confirming the move to Shots on Monday, “via Cingular Xpress Mail with Blackberry,” Bryant’s subject heading read: “It’s official.”

Shots is also told by someone involved in the move that we shouldn’t be surprised if Bryant’s move to the Post includes some opprtunities down the road on the “news side.” It’ll be worth keeping an eye on, at the very least. There’s more than a fair share of empahsis at the Post on creating news stories from sports subjects.

. . . We’re guessing, despite the shaky ground over at One Herald Square, Hank Herald is about to be deluged with calls from mid-level sports columnists and beat guys all over the land. For a “HUGE” name to leave any paper of stature, the future of the Herald would need to be a whole lot more stable. And Internet people aren’t leaving the Web for Print – not if they have any sense, that is.

Further, it’s probably a needless glance at the Herald’s current roster of writers to look for Bryant’s replacement: this needs to be a minority hire and to think any other way would be naive – not to mention short-sighted by Herald higher-ups.

. . .The one immediate name that Shots would put forth for Hank Herald’s short list is the long-time Hartford Courant sports writer, Desmond Conner . It’s been a while since we’ve read Conner regularly, but he always impressed as someone that really “got it.”

We’d also like to suggest that the move be made quickly and efficiently: NFL crunch time is right around the corner and if the Celtics get going for some reason (Baby Al Becoming a MAN, for instance), it’s going to be vital for the Herald to have more than just Steve Buckley, Gerry Callahan once a week or even the re-addition of Karen Guregian, as general columnists.

The sports section’s voice and brashness needs to be a huge part of any further re-vamping for the Yellow Boxers – the Business page model is a great one to follow. Inclduing, it should be noted, the personality-driven writing introduced this week with brash Brett Arends’ column’s debut on Monday.

Our worst fear for the Herald is that the Bean Counters decide not to fill the spot at all. That would be disastrous.

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

Mr. Bryant is still on schedule to go to Washington, even after meeting with Hank Herald on Tuesday. Translation: Howard Bryant is a “negative” urine sample away from becoming the Washington Redskins (co-)beat writer at the Washington Post.

Two Shots’ emails to Herald sports editor Hank Hryniewicz went unanswered this week. Understandably so – Hank Herald has bigger things on his plate than Shots’s annoyances. However, Shots has been told by a high-ranking Post sports desk, insider that the newspaper hopes to make a formal offer to Bryant “early next week.” The Globe’s living section space “Names” reported on Wednesday – and Shots has confirmed – that Post company policy does not allow an offer to be made until a drug test is administered to a prospective hire.

The news of Bryant’s imminent departure from the Boston Herald surprised more than a few locals and brought a flurry of mail and discussion to the overworked Shots ‘Horde’ inbox. Not so much because Bryant was a lightning rod in the city, we suspect, but because of what it might say for the state of affairs at One Herald Square where the Yellow Boxers just got a whole lot whiter and a little bit lighter.

In addition to having some teeth in his steroid reporting, Bryant was also, if you hadn’t noticed, a black voice at a city-centric paper – always a good ingredient for a fine, upstanding, tab like the Heraldo.

Now, the Herald staff has lost its “minority voice” and the city, once again, is without a black, general sports columnist (the Globe’s three general sports opinionistas are all Caucasian: Bob Ryan, Jackie MacMullan and Dan Shaughnessy. The Globe’s Pats’ rookie, Jerome Solomon, represents the lone African-American, Big 4 beat writer in the city. Shots won’t pass judgment on whether that’s a bad or good thing, but I think we all can agree that having minority views represented by actual minorities always seems to be the best equation for balanced criticism.

Also, the Bryant move is raising industry-wide eyebrows because it is perceived by some that Bryant is taking a step back in order to avoid being on the Death Staff of the Herald. Even 10 years ago, the observers suggest, it would have been unheard of for a major daily columnist to leave his position of relative comfort, in a two-paper market no less, for one of the daily grind on a difficult beat. (The Post and the ‘Skins have an awkward, uneasy relationship for some time now.)

The numbers – if you’re hung up on those – would seem to indicate, however, that Bryant’s “step back” is well-calculated and timely. The Post is a Top 5 paper by circulation (740,000+/-); the Herald is Top 50 (235,000+/-) – the Globe, for comparison sake, is Top 15 with 415,000 +/-. The Post goes around a million on Sunday, the Herald drops to 150 K and the Globe jumps to 665 K-ish on Sundays.

(Even with this week’s reported circ. decreases at the Globe, those are still good ballparks for the three “major metropolitan papers” in discussion.

The Top 5 newspapers by daily circ. are: USA Today (2.2 million), The Wall Street Journal (2.1 million), The New York Times (1.1 million), the Los Angeles Times (900,000) and the Post.

In all, about 100 of the nations newspapers have reported circulations over 100,000 – The Hartford Courant, for instance is around 200,000 during the week and the Providence Journal hovers near 165 K. (Shots used mean, but not nasty, numbers from both the Audit Bureau of Circulation and BurrellesLuce, a combined system that we hope would make The Harris Poll people proud! We also remind you that circ. numbers are similar to other ambiguous numbers such as: foreign players’ ages and HS football recruits’ heights, weights and 40-times.)

. . . With the Washington Times being Howie’s new cartel competitor, we journeyed over to see who his comp. will be on the Skins beat. Ryan O’Halloran and David Elfin provided the Monday ‘Skins coverage for the WT, proudly, “America’s Newspaper.” (The WashTimes’ website, by the way, is just ridiculously putrid. No design, no pictures and no effort, it seems. They’re certainly not “America’s website.” The Post’s is an industry standard for what websites can be for newspapers.)

. . . A clarification is necessary regarding the Shots’ word usage, on Monday, of Herald editors “refusing to comment” on the Bryant situation. Shots emailed the two, top Yellow Box sports editors and did not receive a response from either. Therefore, technically, we are told by a couple of folks, the Herald “did not reply to an email request from Shots.” In other words, they refused comment.

. . . Old friend, Michael Gee, couldn’t resist chiming in on the Bryant move over at www.sportsjournalists.com. On Tuesday afternoon he posted this: “The publisher of the Herald walked into the newsroom yesterday to announce that three of his investors had cashed out, but that not to worry, everything was just fine. Howard is way too sharp to fall for that one. He also, oddly enough, likes being a daily newspaper guy.”

. . . While we did mention David Aldridge as a branch in the ‘Skins’ Post beat writer tree, one Shots’ loyalist wanted to let us know that Pulitzer-winner David Remnick, currently the grand poobah at the elite New Yorker, was once a Post football scribe as well, (and even had some USFL stories under his belt). Other names that came up when researching the Post’s Redskin writers from years past include: Paul Attner, Mark Asher and of course, the incomparable Shirley Povich. Who can forget this classic from Mr. P: “Cleveland Browns runner Jim Brown integrated the Redskins’ end zone”?. . . And Bryant also joins the best 1-2 columnist punch in the nation, Korn and Wilby, the PTI Guys. . . Bryant, for those of you who wondering (and he you won’t get him to admit this during football season) is a Temple Owl. Shots has always said that John Chaney makes up for about 50 years of awful football on his own merits. So being an Owl ain’t nothing to be ashamed of.

• Two telling headlines from the week in media news: from Wednesday, ‘Boston Globe’ Circ Drops; from Thursday, Google revenue up 96%; profit easily tops estimates

Don’t you dare tell me they’re unrelated either: As the second, above story states: “Nearly all of Google’s revenue comes from advertising sales.”

• ESPN Radio Boston’s Mike Felger managed to grab Bill Belichick for a drive-time, prime time (5:30 p.m.) interview during Thursday’s “The Drive,” along with co-host Kevin Winter. ( Jersey Bob Halloran might have been there too, but we think Mike and Kev handled the coach by themselves.)

Belichick also appeared on Providence’s ESPN affiliate, WSKO 790 AM’s, revamped “SportsBeat” with Scott Cordischi and Bryan Morry on Thursday, and that inerview (Part 1) can be heard here. Belichick chuckled that Morry, the former Patriots Football Weekly writer and Pats web star, was “a long way from the Coach’s Corner we (used to do here).” Cordischi good-naturedly egged on a somewhat jovial Belichick to note how tough the loss of Morry was to the team. “He’s a hard guy to replace – big shoes,” Belichick joked.

It would appear to be a bit odd for two competing, (relatively) in-market radio stations to be allowed to interview the coach – a premium for which WEEI pays handsomely. (Belichick appears on the Big Show every Monday at ‘EEI 850 AM.) One industry insider in another NFL market that Shots spoke to on Thursday evening, said that common practice with such “exclusive” appearance agreements with coaches or players is to “limit” other, in-market radio interviews to a handful or less during the season. That’s likely the arrangement Belichick and ‘EEI have worked out as well, thus allowing for the Double-B, double-shot, on the also-ran stations.

Said Pats spokesman Stacey James, via email from his bye week getaway down south: “The 890 and WSKO calls that coach made (on Thursday) were long overdue requests from two former beat writers (Felger and Morry). They had initially made the requests when their shows launched. Coach made time to call both after his football commitments (this week). . .That’s all.”

James also noted he does not see contract agreements for such arrangements as Belichick’s with ‘EEI, so he could not comment on language specifics.

(A separate phone call, on an unrelated matter, to WEEI’s Jason Wolfe was not returned from earlier this week. So Shots gets the distinct impression that JDub is ignoring us. If only it were that simple to ignore his station during the afternoon drive. But we digress. . .)

It’s no secret that Felger has fostered a good (if not great) relationship with Belichick, so the coach was clearly comfortable in chatting up Felgie and his partner-in-radio, the emerging Winter. (One rumor Shots heard this summer even had Felgie sharing time at the Nantucket summer pad of BB.) Morry also cultivated his Belichick relationship throughout his in-house years in Foxboro. It almost seemed as though Belichick was more relaxed and revealing with 890 and 790 than he usually is with the Meaty, Monday Gang of Four at 850.

Belichick, who calls Radio Mike by his birth (and newspaper name) “Michael,” answered questions for about 15 minutes and was able to address the Ty Poole situation that Globie Mike Reiss had been reporting on during the day. (Additionally, Reiss had the Poole comments from Belichick’s interview up at his “Pieces” blog by 6 p.m.) “Thanks Michael and Kevin, good talking to you,” said a gracious Belichick before hanging up.

. . . ERB, is, by the way now streaming with better success and connectivity than had been the case over the last month. Also, the “personalities” page now lists, as the local talent, Felger, Winter, Russ Francis and the locally-bred, anchor/reporter Mike Salk. Not quite sure of his role from the bio provided, but he is pictured sitting in front of a microphone. . . The fledgling line-up at ERB now looks like this (notice the impressive title for former Zoner Michael Winn and the absence of Jessamy Tang’s name from the “Contact Us” link at the site, Guess she’s staying “behind the curtain”: Anchor/Reporter, Salk; Producer, Karen Young; The Drive host, Felger; Anchor/Reporter, Winter; Producer, Ross Carey; Sales Manager, Jim Cande; Program Director, Doug Tribou; Senior Director of Business Development, Winn; Director of Marketing, Kevin Gabbay; Traffic and Production Manager, Dee Simpson; Senior Account Executive, Arthur Katz; Account Executive, Brian Horan; Account Executive, AJ Nicholson; Account Executive, Joseph Mastrorio; Account Executive, Mike Torelli.

• Here’s how bad Phil Simms was on Sunday during the CBS past/Broncos tilt: he made Jim Nantz look bad – and Nantz is one of the Top 5 sports media personalities in all the land. Simms “elbow” discussion during the game was painfully poor. He appears to be suffering from post-career reverberations from distant sacks. ESPN’s Joe Theismann suffers from the same, sad affliction.

• Because of my increasingly odd sleep schedule, I managed to stay awake for the ESPN Contender rematch production that was foisted upon an unassuming public on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Bill Simmons gave this account of the night in his Wednesday space, but let’s face it, the guy gets a check from ESPN every two weeks or so. He couldn’t tell you what a true joke the whole thing was. Providence pride, Peter Manfredo Jr., was not only robbed on national TV, he was embarrassed and fleeced. And Dan Patrick, Sly Stallone and Mark Burnett were all in on it. Don King might have been embarrassed at this one, folks. Boxing’s got enough problems with the “real” belts, now we have to worry about the bastardization by ESPN? Where have you gone Al Bernstein, and gasp, Max Kellerman?

• Nice to see old friend, KMac, the Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara getting into the blog thing with his updates from Pats practice on Wednesday. Talk about a guy who “gets it” – KMac is one of the region’s most underappreciated and unheralded talents. Oh, and he knows his college basketball, which never hurts in the Shots Favorability Index.

• Nice work also by Brockton Enterprise Pats guy, Glen Farley, the long, lost Farrelly brother, on his pool reports from Camp Tedy.

• Herald hockey head Stephen Harris reported on the rumor of Ray Bourque joining the Bruins coaching staff in his notebook in Wednesday editions of the Herald.

Problem was, the Herald Hockey blog, written by Douglas Flynn had reported on Tuesday afternoon that: “The rumor of Ray Bourque joining the Bruins coaching staff, as reported on Ch. 25 last night, remains just a rumor at this point. General manager Mike O’Connell made a (sic) offer to Bourque to join the staff three years ago when Bourque retired, and that proposal remains a standing offer on the table.

“According to Bruins media relations director Heidi Holland, O’Connell has made no recent overtures to Bourque and the Hall-of-Fame defenseman has made no indications that he has changed his mind about joining the Bruins coaching staff. The Bruins remain open to the possibility, but at this point there are no immediate plans to have Bourque join the staff.”

Might be a good idea for the hockey folks to get on the, ah, same page, or pages.

• True, Shots gave credit to co-BSMW-habitant John Molori last week for his Hazel Mae ‘piece.’ But Globie Bill Griffith took it to extremes on Tuesday when he re-published Molori’s findings and then got predictable responses from A Woman Who Watches The Biz and A Man Who Does same (Joanne Gerstner and Frank Shorr).

We’ve learned this from both of the Mae Missives: Mae is a master manipulator. She clearly wants a radio gig. She clearly has visions of grandeur for herself – likely on a larger stage. She clearly is selling her image (the pub shot the Globe used must have come straight from Maxim’s photo library).

. . . If ‘EEI had any sense at all, they’d pair her with Mike Adams for the night-time show for a year commitment and see what they get. Shots would listen for the first few shows anyway. And we bet a few other folks would as well. “Mike and the Mad Mae” – it’ll be a cross between the Big Show and Howard Stern. (Scott’s Shots: For All Your Programming Needs and More. . .find us in the Yellow Pages.)

Last thing on Mae: She’s setting herself up nicely for a correspondent’s gig on a national show like “ESPN Hollywood,” wouldn’t you say? She’s got Tinsel Town written all over her.

• The problem with mentioning Seth Davis’s decidedly dull tour of college hoops hotbeds is that you might actually click over and see if anything can be as bad as Shots deems this to be .

On Thursday, Lanny’s kid was begging for credit because he got up at 5 in the morning for a Kelvin Sampson, Oklahoma practice. Not to mention he had to drink 7-11 coffee. Must not have been a Starbucks for miles. Poor fella.

Great, Sethy Pooh – neither the early wake-up nor the java helped your lame-ass explanation of the practice proceedings.

Come on – go to TV full-time, would you? Shots briefly caught your act on CSTV the other night. You’re completely bland and monotone there as well. But I can largely avoid CSTV for non-event viewing. I can’t avoid the Yahoo! Sports page that links to your consistently drab offerings and screams out for me to mock you.

Who, pray tell, but you and your tie-sharing ThanksDad, would possibly care about this: “. . . I once played in a foursome with (Sampson) and we finished 18 holes in three hours flat. We were helped that day by a super-powered, crimson-colored golf cart Sampson shared with OU football coach Bob Stoops.”

Just what was the most pompous part of those two sentences? The name dropping or the unnecessary tale of golfing with coaches?

Davis has about as much chance of conveying the passion and promise of October college basketball practice as the Globe had of getting me to read a Sunday takeout on SportsTurf by Amalie Benjamin titled “Magic Carpet.”

• (Which reminds us of three other oddly allotted and placed sports stories from the Green Boxers this week: The tasteless headline, “No legs? No problem” that accompanied the re-tell of a Sports Illustrated story about a legless, high school football player in Ohio, wasn’t the only problem with the story. But it was the most glaring (space given equaling 2.5 pages being the other).

Then on Monday, the business section had an interesting read on Andover-PO Box-based Scouts Inc. from staffer Sasha Talcott . It would have played much better in Sunday’s sports section instead of all those wasted words on fake grass.

The final oddity of the week was the Living section placement of the Jack Thomas Travis Roy story (10 years since his horrific accident) on Thursday. That would have had best served the readership if it were given the space that say, the legless player story was given.

Is it possible that the rest of the Globe is actually doing enterprise sports reporting better than the actual sports section?

• Great, great moment when ESPN’s capable Karl Ravech was interviewing conquering hero Craig Biggio late Wednesday night and Bidge started shedding a tear when Ravech asked about what it would mean to the ‘Stros’ children. Terrific TV.

Bidge is one of the true good guys from Shots’ all-time roster of interviews. So much so, that we’ll even mention the Sunshine Kids web site again and urge you click over and learn about a wonderful group of people who help some truly special children.

• At this time of year, to share a phrase, Globie Chris Snow is hardly a rookie. He’s playing like a sophomore now, at the tail end of his debut “season.” And the love is starting to roll in for the first-year Sox beat guy. Mark Jurkowitz’s “Future 10” in his “Don’t Quote Me” space for the Boston Phoenix is one indication of Snow’s early impact. Although the other nine honorees are a mixed bag at best.

Symbiotically, here was the outstanding lead from Snow’s Thursday re-cap of the Astros clinch:

“ST. LOUIS — She looked her best, the 39-year-old lady in red. She beamed for the flashbulbs that flickered throughout the evening. She took in the warm air, full of anticipation and excitement. She wanted one more night, one more dance. She wanted to be 39 forever.”

For all the crap this web address gives to Joe Sullivan and his desk, it needs to be pointed out that he got the Snow hire right in a big way. The Kid’s gonna be great.

Good luck keeping him when your old buddies in Bristol come a calling at some point. Sorry – had to have some balance to the feel-goodiness of it all.

• The Rob Bradford news of his impending move to the Lawrence Eagle Tribune was met with general joy in the very same Shots’ inbox that heard the Howie comments. Bradford seems to have made a lot of friends along the way.

One valued emailer wanted to point out that while the hard numbers suggest only a 10,000 person increase in readership from the Sun (50,00 to 60,000), the EagTrib offers a bigger overall platform through its pro sports inclusion in the Essex County Newspapers group. ECN papers use ET sports copy. Valid point, but the base numbers are what we tend to deal with when discussing circ. Still, the increased audience probably went into Bradford’s decision-making when he was weighing the Sun vs. the ET. . . As for Lowell Sun replacements for Bradford’s slot, there’s been a fair amount of lobbying into the Shots Official Job Lobbying Inbox (a separate, secret entity altogether) for Alex Speier, Joe Haggerty and one wise acre who thought Michael Gee might be ready to get back into some beat writing down in Spinner Town.

• Some self-omsbudding is in order after the Jim McCabe/Transparency item form last week’s Shots. More than a few Globe insiders (and outsiders) were outraged that someone would have the gumption to call-out one of their writers AND to have the nerve to suggest a different way of doing things, i.e. putting disclaimers on feature stories in addition to Sunday notebooks.

Insular insecurity from those folks aside, the easiest thing I can do to re-state my position, is to give all of you the response I gave a respected veteran of the local media scene, who courteously contacted me last weekend. The writer began his note to Shots by asking “What was your inference on (McCabe)?” To which I offered this explanation:

“It wasn’t an inference on McCabe. It was an indictment of the paper’s non-policy, policy.

“I think the worst part of the whole item was the late and lame response by (Globe sports editor) Joe Sullivan. I’m sure he was put off that piss-ant like me would question the attribution methods of one of his best writers. But I was simply trying to show that you can save a lot of headaches later on, if you simply disclose where it is your writers’ are getting their info. Cover. Your . Ass.”

I’d also add now that I really went out of my way not to “slime” McCabe as one corresponder put it, I was illustrating the belief that ALL media needs to be more “transparent” in their presentation of information. I personally believe a little more of it is better than a little less of it, especially at huge media corps like the NYT or ESPN.

• Despite some humorous elements within the storied chronology of last month’s WFAN/Sid Rosenberg break-up, the sad truth is Rosenberg is showing signs off (again) heading down a dangerous path.

It was reported late last week by the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand that Rosenberg was headed to 790 AM The Ticket in Miami.

This week, however, Shots has learned that those negotiations for a night-time host’s spot are stalled and Rosenberg and his agent may be looking at some satellite radio opportunities with either Sirius or XM. From a programming sense, the loose cannon that is Rosenberg, is much better suited for the FCC-less airwaves. He’s got equal parts Opie, Anthony and Howard Stern to his sports-savvy shtick.

But the fast-talking Rosenberg’s very appeal (including his oft-tabloided drug and gambling past) may ultimately be his own undoing. It’s worth keeping an eye on even if it is an “out-of-market” story. Stories of addiction and/or fame always are, aren’t they? Sad, but true.

• Here’s what Shots believes to be the most pompous comment of the week uttered on sports talk radio in Boston:

Former Globie Golden Boy, Michael Smith, was apparently having some microphone issues during his in-studio drop-by for Tuesday’s regular look at the NFL (with Dale and Holley on WEEI) when he uttered: “Oh, sorry. I’m used to the mike being on my coat.”

Translated: I’m on TV regularly and you’re not. Hah! And it’s ESPN! Double Hah!

Truth be told, Holley and Smith are fairly humorous together, but Dale ruins the moment more often than not. Smith’s definitely made progress since he was thrust prematurely into the ESPN fire. He’s still got a ways to go to catch up to the now-polished and engaging, Holley. . .Maybe Boston’s diversity is just shifting, not necessarily disappearing? Hmmmmmmm.

• Here’s folk and jazz music’s version of Michelle Wie. Name’s Sonya Kitchell . An old soul and a sweet voice. Ahh.

• McCabe’s assessment of the SI’s Michael Bamberger/Wie incident, by the way, was spot on in Thursday’s Globe.

• That was an awful lot of Shots this week, eh? More than 6,000 wayward words even. It’s okay, My Boss Bruce says I can put in for overtime. He’ll ignore it, but I can still put in for it. Love that guy.
Enjoy the Bye Week. Bye, bye.

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

****UPDATED: 5:45 p.m. Monday afternoon****

It appears “The Cartel” won’t have the Boston Herald’s Howard Bryant to kick around anymore.

Scott’s Shots has learned that Bryant is on the verge of taking the job of Washington Post Redskins’ beat writer. (That position opened in mid-September when former ‘Skins beat guy, Nunyo Demasio, left the paper for a position at Sports Illustrated. Here’s how that news was reported by Media Bistro .)

Bryant, contacted by Shots while en route to LAX to return from the ALCS which he’s been covering for the Herald, refused comment. Post sports editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz also would not comment publicly. A late afternoon email to Herald sports editors was not immediately returned.

Bryant is expected to inform Herald honcho Hank Hryniewicz of the pending departure in the next couple of days. A formal offer from the Post should be coming to Bryant once some procedural details are worked out. At that point, unless Hank Herald and Deputy Dog Mark Murphy can convince Bryant to stick around and continue his “Boston Uncommon” and other writing duties, it appears Bryant will be heading south on 95, leaving a gaping hole at the already under-manned Herald.

Bryant has made consistent (and often cogent) waves in Boston with both his commentary on race and his humorous creation of “The Cartel” analogy to describe the rival Globe’s relationship with the Red Sox. His recent steroids coverage for the Yellow Boxers has consistently out-paced that of the Globe and he has been constantly urged by his Herald bosses to continue his dogged pursuit of the steroids story. (You’ll recall Bryant’s prominent seat, in prime camera view, during the famous testimonies from Mark McGwire, Raffy Palmiero, et al.)

He was particularly outspoken on the WEEI/METCO fiasco, writing in Boston Magazine’s July 2005 issue: “(Michael) Holley now works at sports radio giant WEEI, a station famous for its bombast, its influence, and its racism. Neither John Dennis nor Gerry Callahan, the morning team, can overcome their infamous “Metco gorilla” exchange or their deserved reputations as the leading racists on the airwaves. They most likely don’t care to, for their act — reassuring the angry-white-guy element (long the Herald’ s dominion) that, even in a politically correct universe, there’s still one place where everything will be all right — plays big in Boston. If it didn’t, both would have been sacked by now. They have power and they use it.”

Bryant has mostly been a ‘baseball guy’ and previously covered the Yankees (for the Bergen Record), the A’s (San Jose Mercury News) and was also an editorial and technology writer for the Oakland Tribune. He joined the Herald staff, on the Red Sox beat, in 2002. Shots has been told that Bryant came highly recommended to the Post by former San Jose Mercury News colleagues currently on staff at the Post.

According to the back flap of his first book Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, Bryant “grew up in Boston (Dorchester) during the busing crisis of the 1970s and has written extensively on race and baseball.” (A 2004 interview at The Hardball Times gives some more intriguing Bryant background, as does Part 2 of that interview.

More recently Bryant authored the book, Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power and the fight for the soul of major league baseball. That book, coupled with his steroids reporting for the Herald (during this time of the “Great Steroid Scandal”) has raised Bryant’s national profile, in addition to making him the de facto face of the Herald’s sports section.

. . . The timing of Bryant’s impending departure comes just as it appeared Hank Herald had begun to steady the rocky ship known as the SS Herald Sports Desk. Already understaffed from layoffs/buyouts, the Herald had made a positive step forward by signing on ex-Lawrence Eagle Tribune Red Sox writer, John Tomase (whose byline appeared in the Monday Herald) for purposes of Patriots coverage. But no sooner does HH fill one hole, than another develops.

If Bryant’s departure goes through, the Herald will be left with a “general columnist” roster of one and one-half (Steve Buckley and part-timer/‘EEI heavy, Gerry Callahan). Five-tool, utility writer, Karen Guregian would likely slide back over to a columnist position, but that will only stem the tide.

Major dailies thrive on the presence of loud, opinionated and prominent general columnists. To have such an anemic (yes, Herald folks, that’s the proper word at this juncture) columnist stable has got to be a major concern for Hank Herald and his superiors.

. . . (The Post has been using writers Len Shapiro and Jason La Canfora for its Skins coverage this season. Shapiro, in an on-line chat from October 7 answered a reader’s question of whether he would be sharing the beat with La Canfora by replying: “Yes, I am filling in on a beat I first started covering as a kid reporter in the 1970s with George Allen. It’s an interesting team and I look forward to the rest of the season.” Shots has been told that should Bryant get and accept the offer, he and La Canfora would double-staff the beat, leaving Shapiro to return to other writing duties. . . Another alum of the ‘Skins beat is David Aldridge, formerly of ESPN who’s now at the Philadelphia Inquirer on the NFL beat.

. . . Bryant is walking into a firestorm of sorts (out of the Sox frying pan into the ‘Skins fire), with the Post and squirrelly ‘Skins owner, Dan Snyder, having had their share of disagreements. And here as well . And here, too!

Demasio’s departure and various rantings that sprouted from it, are in full bloom (as you’d expect) at old Shots’ friend, sportsjournalist.com).)

. . . Once Bryant goes to the Post, he will find his new boss, Emilio Garcia-Ruiz to be someone who values both investigative reporting (he oversaw a Pulitzer prize-winning investigation into academic fraud at the University of Minnesota for the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 2000) and Internet savvy. Those would both appear to be strengths of “Steroid” Bryant, who has been able to spread his wings a bit in the Herald’s Red Sox blog and dug deeply into the “roids rage.

. . . Shots will have more on the Bryant move in our regularly scheduled Shots this coming Friday.

. . . Also, for all you late afternoon, early evening Scotts Shotters, be sure to check out Jeff Goodman’s Foxsports.com Marcus Banks report. Goodman continues to impress with his scoops, insight and insider info. Tell ‘em Shots sent ya!