Will Someone Get the Curly-Headed Boyfriend a Tissue?

In going through the Boston Globe on Sunday, I came across this latest masterpiece from Dan "Shank" Shaughnessy titled, "We now have a bad connection."

The gist of Shaughnessy's piece was that sports writers no longer have the same personal connection to the athletes that they cover.

From Shaughnessy's piece:

"I love watching Kevin Garnett play basketball. Bet you do, too. But I feel like I don't know a thing about the guy. Never will. And neither will you. That's just the way it is now.

"Rajon Rondo has a publicist. Think about that for a second. I'm pretty sure Greg Kite never had a publicist. I know this because Kite was my neighbor when I covered the Celtics and we used to share rides to Logan. We both knew that Monday was trash day in West Newton.

"With me, it was Rick Robey," says colleague Bob Ryan. "Robey lived in Hingham and he'd pick up myself and Mike Fine [Patriot Ledger] on the way to the airport."

"We were able to tell you a lot about those Celtics because we traveled with them. On commercial aircraft. On buses. In hotel lobbies and hotel bars."

So now Shaughnessy is pining for the old days when he and Kite could share stories about their weekends while taking the out the trash. The days of sidewalk chats with his favorite Mormon big man are gone forever. Someone get Shank a tissue.

As we are apt to say here on the Chicks Dig McLovin (because he tastes like chicken) Blog: Boo Effing Hoo!!!!

The best is that Shaughnessy is trying mask his crying by saying it's the fans that are losing out because the writers aren't able to share these quality tidbits with their readers:

According to Shank, did you know that Chris Ford liked to be called "Doc". Reading that makes me wonder if he was a real Doctor?

We knew that Scott Wedman carried a half-gallon jug of spring water at all times. Really. Hey Shaughnessy if you knew that, could you also tell us how many times Wedman took a piss each day?

We knew that Rick Carlisle could play classical piano without sheet music? That's good to know - very insightful stuff, but was Carlisle a better piano player than Sonny from 'It's a Living' (which was a great '80's show - those waitresses were smokin). Carlisle's talents on the keyboard didn't translate to the court.

Shaughnessy, you want to know why athletes and coaches don't open up to you like they did in the past (where K.C. Jones and Jimmy Rodgers loved to argue about the best ribs in Kansas City), is because idiots like John Tomase write that the Patriots had a tape of the Rams Super Bowl walkthrough. That's why. The players and coaches don't trust the media anymore.

And honestly, the readers of your stories could care less if Chris Ford likes to be called Doc. It only made you feel better as a writer because it made you feel closer to the athletes you were covering and gave you a false sense that if you needed to get info for a story that no one else had, you could ask your friend "Doc" or meet up with Wedman in a Men's room somewhere and get the info you were looking for.

Hey, Shaughnessy here's a piece of (free) advice from me to you. It's not about you. It never was and it never will be. So stop your cryin.

I think it would be cool if an athlete to hung out with Shaughnessy and reported on their blog (Sounds like a job for Curt Schilling) that he likes to sleep with a night light on because he's afraid of the dark and that he likes to refer to his wife as 'Mommy'.

Now that would be something I would be interested in reading.