After three plus decades in Boston, DAN SHAUGHNESSY knows the city's sports landscape like the back of his hand. He’s already an accomplished author, and his most recent collaboration with TERRY FRANCONA looks at the manager's tenure with the Red Sox. But between penning his latest book, meeting deadlines for the Boston Globe, making TV appearances and appearing on guest panels, Shaughnessy finds it hard to carve out time to stick his nose in a book. Prior to the AARON HERNANDEZ arrest, he thought this weekend might be a quiet one to catch up on some summer reading. Perhaps he needs to think again?
CATCHING UP ON OLD TIMES: On Friday, I'm probably having lunch with my friend JOEL FELD. He used to run the local Red Sox flagship station NESN. We’ll probably have lunch somewhere in the Back Bay. We’ve been going to a place in Chestnut Hill called Legal Sea Foods. There’s several of them here. He lives close to where the marathon bombings happened. I expect to go to Post 390. I’ve done a lot of interviewing and I’ve met Francona there a lot. It is a regular spot for me.
WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND: By Friday afternoon, I will have read all the local papers and checked all my messages, returned my calls. And then I’ve got to drive up to Burlington, Massachusetts, about 20 miles from downtown. From there, I have a television regular thing on Comcast SportsNet New England. I know that at 5:30pm, I’ve got to participate in some sort of video special that they’re doing on the 20th anniversary of the death of former Celtics All-Star REGGIE LEWIS. We were all around covering it at that time. So like JACKIE MACMULLAN and myself, people who were covering the team will be videotaped for this special. After that, I’m on this panel show from 6:30-7:00pm. That will be on the topics of the day, which might be what’s going on with the departure of DOC RIVERS, where do the Bruins go from here or the Red Sox in first place and where is that going. And of course, the ever-changing Aaron Hernandez murder mystery. When that’s over, I will go back to my house in Newton, Massachusetts, and I’ll probably just read and watch the Red Sox on TV. Maybe catch up on some old episodes of "MAD MEN" or stuff that I’ve missed during this Bruins playoff run. Saturday I have another TV obligation and it’s in the same studio at CSN New England. It’s called "THE BASEBALL SHOW," and it’s a three-hour show with three other panelists. My seat’s on the far right as you look at the TV on the floor. I like being off in the wings.
SAVE THE PAGE: Once I get done with the papers, I’ve got a book on DWIGHT EISENHOWER and RICHARD NIXON called “IKE AND DICK.” I have been in and out of that. I’ve got an unpublished book on TED WILLIAMS for which I have to write a blurb. It’s written by BEN BRADLEE JR. and it’s a very large book and I need to get started on that. I don’t read fiction. There’s too much to learn and I like biography history. I don’t read as much as I should.
SLOW & STEADY: I run a mile every day … like really slowly. That’s the first thing of every day. I’ve only missed like five times since 1983. Yeah, 365 miles every year. It adds up, probably around the world now. Very slow, like 12 minutes to run the mile. It’s a regular path. I’m not a creature of change. So everyone in the neighborhood, they all roll their eyes … here he comes, there he goes. Some of the people walking to school with their kids are going faster than me, so it’s a little bit annoying.
INK STAINS: Things should promise to slow down by Sunday. I go to movies by myself a lot. So it’s going to be pretty boring. The Sunday papers are a big delight to me -- the N.Y. Times, Boston Globe, Boston Herald. If we’re involved with any N.Y. teams, I’ll go down and get the N.Y. Post and the Daily News at the 7Eleven, but the other three are home delivered. That’s going to be a leisurely day, a day of rest. I haven’t had many. I’ve just been at so many games.
