Curly Haired Bastard

As many of you know, I'm not crazy about most sportswriters. There are some who I've always respected and enjoyed reading, like Peter Gammons, Gordon Edes and Phil Pepe. But too many over the years come to the table with hidden (and some not so hidden) agendas, and their biases and prejudices are out there for all to see. Of all the sportswriters I've ever read, I don't think there has been one writer more reviled by fans in my lifetime than Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe.

First of all let me say that Shaughnessy is a talented writer, no doubt about that. He does occasionally write a thought-provoking or touching piece. But most of the time, he's up on his high horse going after some iconic Red Sox player (Nomar and Pedro come to mind), and possibly doing the bidding of someone else. (Does the Theo Epstein-Larry Lucchino dustup sound familiar, and whose side he took?)

He made his name and a truckload of money with his 1990 book, "The Curse of the Bambino," a media-driven fake curse that the Red Sox were supposedly under. When the Sox won it all in 2004, many fans were not only happy the Red Sox won, but now Shaughnessy could no longer rely on his beloved curse to fall back on. (But naturally he had to write a book about how the Red Sox broke "The Curse." I've never read it, as I won't give him my money.)

I'll never forget Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, which I watched at the Riviera Cafe in Manhattan, along with a barful of Red Sox fans. As much abuse that was hurled that night at Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter and the rest of the Yankees, an absolute torrent of verbal abuse got tossed Shaughnessy's way when he appeared on the pregame show. It was absolutely vicious stuff, and as Douglas C. Niedermayer once observed, "Decorum prohibits me listing them here."

Shaughnessy earned the nickname "CHB" from an incident that occurred in the Sox clubhouse in 2000. Carl Everett was pissed off at him and Gordon Edes one night, and yelled out to Edes to "get out of here and take your curly-haired boyfriend with you." So the nickname stuck with the bloggers and message board posters on the Internet. (Although I like "Curly Haired Bastard" better.)

And now it's clear that Shaughnessy despises us bloggers (he thinks most of us live in our parents' basements and do nothing but blog all day), and made it pretty clear with a piece of crap he wrote on Monday about Curt Schilling's blog and the fans who've responded to it. CHB clearly hates Schilling, especially since Schilling is an avid blogger and takes his message straight to the fans without having to rely on writers. Shaughnessy makes up fake letters in the article to Schilling and makes the fans out to be complete moronic suckups.

That Shaughnessy and the Globe would waste perfectly good newsprint on such drivel tells me how much he detests Schilling. Shaughnessy comes off rather childish in the article, and sounding envious and jealous. (I've always thought that the majority of sportswriters are frustrated ex-jocks, really jealous of the money and lifestyles of the athletes they cover, and relish tearing them down with their words.) He also shows how much he really hates us bloggers, like we are all a bunch of interlopers who have no business walking on his sacred ground.

Check out "Fire Joe Morgan," a great media/sports blog, for their take on all this nonsense. It's quite funny and puts CHB in his place. (http://firejoemorgan.blogspot.com) Curt Schilling answered Shaughnessy back today on his blog, and I love the fact he called him, "Curly Haired Boyfriend" in the first paragraph. (http://38pitches.com)

CHB has to stir up crap, as I think he actually relishes the attention he gets, no matter how mean or vicious it is. There's even a blog out there that follows Shaughnessy and his columns called "Dan Shaughnessy Watch." (http://danshaughnessy.blogspot.com/). I love their motto: "We read him so you don't have to." I admit that I do read his columns, as he's like a car wreck. You just can't turn away, but you really should.

CHB. A curly haired bastard indeed.