The Red Sox have "killed" GM Dan Duquette's new TV show
on WBZ, "Boston Red Sox with Dan Duquette," which was
supposed to begin airing in April on Sundays with WBZ sports
anchor Bob Lobel as host, according to Joan Vennochi of the
BOSTON GLOBE. Duquette's publicist John Flynn had
negotiated a three-year deal with WBZ that would have paid
Duquette "a six-figure salary," but on Friday, Sox Exec VP
John Buckley told WBZ GM Ed Goldman the deal was off.
Vennochi calls this "an intriguing turn of events," as the
Sox "continue to display an odd resistance to even the most
overtly friendly media contact." Buckley could not be
reached for comment, but Flynn and Goldman said he told them
that the team was "concerned" about its contractual
arrangement with Sox broadcast carrier WABU. Flynn said
Duquette was "very upset" and described the breakdown of
talks with WBZ as a "control issue" with the team. Flynn:
"They get very paranoid. It's ridiculous. Their marketing
and sales mentality is from somewhere in the 1940s." Flynn
said the team wants to pitch a Duquette show to WABU, but
Duquette "doesn't want to do a show" on WABU. Fallout from
the nixed show "reveals a larger problem: a potential rift
between Duquette ... and the top Sox brass, in the last
season of Duquette's contract" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/18).
