Tag: Boston Globe

‘I was acting like a Twitter user’: Sam Presti explains Boston Globe letter he wrote as a teenager

‘I was acting like a Twitter user’: Sam Presti explains Boston Globe letter he wrote as a teenager.

Over the last few months, a Boston Globe letter resurfaced and made the rounds online. A 16-year-old Sam Presti was the author of the letter. In it he vouched for the Boston Celtics to draft Jason Kidd in 1994.

“The rebuild of this once-massive dynasty must begin now,” Presti wrote. “We need to clean house; let players go and clear up salary room for our draft pick. Although the draft is not incredibly deep this year, I do see a future star on the horizon.”

That didn’t happen. Kidd was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the No. 2 pick, and the Celtics settled for Eric Montross at No. 9.

But the letter foreshadowed Presti growing into one of the best general managers in the league. The 46-year-old has been the Thunder’s GM since 2007, building two separate title contenders with a short rebuild sandwiched in the middle.

Presti was asked about the letter in his end-of-season press conference. With a hint of embarrassment, he linked his piece of work to social media usage.

“I think it’s very evident that I was acting like a Twitter user in 1993. I was frequently wrong but never in doubt,” Presti joked. “I had 100% confidence in my opinion with 10% of the information. I was an expert with no expertise.”

Presti revealed he wrote the letter as a high school sophomore and was surprised it was published by the Boston Globe. He said he talked to Kidd — who’s now Dallas’ head coach — about it before OKC’s second-round series against the Mavericks.

“It’s super humbling and to talk to Jason Kidd, he brought it up to me before the series started because someone had asked him about it,” Presti said. “It was great because I remember he opened my eyes while I was watching college basketball and some of the stuff he was doing.”

Presti might’ve been humbled about the experience, but his younger self was right about Kidd. He had a Hall of Fame career while Montross washed out as a backup big.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

MLB tried to trademark the word “Seattle”

An interesting development, to say the least

Here at Seahawks Wire, we obviously focus on, well, the Seahawks and the NFL overall. But when there is a unique Seattle sports story, it’s hard to avoid discussing it. On Friday, the Boston Globe dropped a rather peculiar one involving the Red Sox, the Mariners and the Astros.

Apparently, Major League Baseball filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the words Boston, Seattle, and Houston. At the request of the Red Sox, the MLB has withdrawn their application for at least Boston.

John Henry, the owner of both the Red Sox and the Boston Globe, mentioned in a statement “(the) MLB’s intent was to protect these clubs’ use of their city name in connection with professional baseball services and apparel, not an attempt to own the city name or prevent others from using the city name.”

Michael McCann of Sportico writes a team can’t own a city name, but it “can obtain certain rights for the commercial use of a city name in specific circumstances.” This article delving further into the legality of such a move can be read here.

Certainly, this is a developing story and an interesting one to keep an eye on.

Family sues country club, wins nearly $5 million due to too many golf balls damaging their house

In March, lawyers for the country club filed a notice that it would seek to appeal the case.

The headline to a Boston Globe story this week was an attention-grabber: “Family terrorized by golf balls wins nearly $5 million from neighboring country club.”

My initial reaction was that of John McEnroe to a chair umpire when he got a ruling he disagreed with: “You cannot be serious!”

A family with three daughters, ages 2 to 5, sued Indian Pond Country Club in Kingston, Massachusetts, “for trespass over the continual bombardment — and won a permanent injunction against golf balls on their property.”

A jury awarded the Tenczars $3.5 million for damages and mental and emotional suffering. The Globe story noted that court records indicate that with interest the award totals $4.9 million.

It is golf’s version of the 1994 lawsuit where a woman sued McDonald’s for the burn she suffered from a cup of coffee and was awarded $3 million in punitive damages. Likewise, if you buy a house next to a golf course, you assume some level of risk.

As the Globe story detailed, the Tenczars purchased the brand-new four-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home in Indian Pond Estates on the south shore for $750,000 in April 2017. That’s an important detail: the golf course, which opened in 2001 and was designed by Damian Pascuzzo, was there before the home. But the first time the family filled up the kiddie pool in the backyard, a stray golf ball from the 15th tee splashed in the water. So many windows were shattered that the Tenczars stopped replacing them with glass. The story includes a photo of the frowning Tenczars holding a plastic crate swimming in golf balls that have hit their house over the past several years.

The Tenczars’ home sits on an elevated bank, putting the home in line with the 15th tee.

“Should we have looked into chances our house would be hit? Probably. I don’t know. We just fell in love with the house. It was our first house,” Erik Tenczar, 43, said in the article.

Efforts to contact the club apparently were met with no changes. To their credit, the family got an appraisal for netting, “only to be told a net couldn’t be constructed high enough to keep out balls.”

“They bought what they thought was their dream house and it became a nightmare for them,” said Bob Galvin, the Tenczars’ lawyer. “They couldn’t do anything outside during the golf season.”

“We never wanted a lawsuit; nobody wants a lawsuit,” Athina Tenczar told the Boston Globe. “We tried to go in civilly and work with them. We got some communication but then it stopped.”

“It’s not true that the golf course didn’t do anything,” the club’s lawyer, John Flemming said. “A suggestion that we were completely unresponsive, I don’t think is accurate at all.”

In March, lawyers for the country club filed a notice that it would seek to appeal the case.

“I’m extremely confident that the injunction will be struck down,” Flemming said. “In my opinion, as a matter of law, the verdict of $3.5 million for alleged emotional distress is against the weight of the evidence.”

In the meantime, the country club has reconfigured the tee box for the 15th hole, and the Tenczars say it has been months since they’ve seen a golf ball on their property. That should be problem solved, end of story, move on with your life, or else do the obvious thing: sell the house and buy another property to raise your family that doesn’t abut a golf course and put your children in harm’s way.

“Would you buy it?” Athina Tenczar said to the Globe’s reporter. She shook her head. “We’re not going to give this to another family.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

New Orleans stands on top of Boston Globe’s NFL destinations rankings

New Orleans stands on top of Boston Globe’s NFL destinations rankings

[mm-video type=video id=01f9es4p6fwv82ede9tn playlist_id=01eqbyahgz6p2j3xp7 player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f9es4p6fwv82ede9tn/01f9es4p6fwv82ede9tn-ac59f7cf4b5195d0c93fbb9f9aad20b5.jpg]

New Orleans Saints fans have known this for a long time, but it’s always satisfying to get some outside validation. According to veteran Boston Globe NFL writer Ben Volin, there isn’t a better place to catch a football game than New Orleans. Volin reflected on the 200-plus games covered in his career and ranked all 30 NFL cities based on the fan experience of traveling into town, seeing the sights, and grabbing a seat before kickoff.

And in those respects, New Orleans has the rest of the nation on the ropes. Volin wrote of his No. 1-ranked NFL destination:

“It is really hard to have a bad time in New Orleans. Incredible food, incredible culture and nightlife, and most everything is walkable, including the stadium. On game day, the atmosphere inside the Superdome is always loud and supercharged.”

I’ll be curious to see whether New Orleans (and, by extension, the Saints) continue to hold this strong reputation in the post-Drew Brees era. Sean Payton is still coaching a quality roster, but Brees did more than anyone to make the Saints competitive and elevate the black and gold on a national level. If the Saints collapse and become a doormat again, it might take more than world-class food and drinks to appeal to visiting fans.

With that said, New Orleanians will always be able to boast a more attractive home than Tampa (ranked at No. 17 by Volin), Charlotte (24), and Atlanta (27). Let’s see if the NFC South can catch up.

[lawrence-related id=46131,45707,44032,43794]

[vertical-gallery id=45280]

 

Jacksonville ranks in the bottom half of Boston Globe’s NFL destinations

Boston Globe NFL writer Ben Volin ranked the NFL travel destinations, and Jacksonville came in at 18th.

Jacksonville may be among the NFL’s smaller markets, but it packs a lot into a small town. With access to the beach, the St. Johns River, the growing downtown area, and the nearby resort area of Amelia Island, Duval has a lot to offer to fans of visiting teams.

However, it seems it hasn’t made a lasting impression on everyone who has visited. According to Boston Globe NFL writer Ben Volin‘s list of the best travel destinations in the league, Jacksonville comes in at just 18th.

Not much to downtown, but the beaches are nice and lots of good golf in the area. The Jaguars also aren’t the toughest ticket.

The second half of Volin’s assessment will hopefully change in the near future, as the team expects success to follow a busy offseason in which the team brought in legendary college coach Urban Meyer and first-overall pick Trevor Lawrence.

As far as the rest of it goes, he’s right that Jacksonville doesn’t boast the most entertaining downtown district, but the area around the stadium has seen a boost in options in recent years. And of course, with the PGA Tour Sawgrass Stadium Course nearby, the golfing scene could be appealing to many.

The city is definitely not the most overtly appealing in the NFL, but it’s hard to argue it’d be more pleasant to travel to Buffalo, New York, which ranks fifth on the list, in late fall than it would be to venture to Florida’s First Coast.

CBS Sports’ Leslie Visser: I’ve witnessed harassment in the NFL for four decades

Former Boston Globe columnist Leslie Visser wrote a strong column on harassment in her former paper.

Leslie Visser is one of the pioneers when it comes to sports journalism in print and on the broadcast side.

The CBS Sports broadcaster went back to her roots Tuesday, writing a column for the Boston Globe, her former employer, on experiences with harassment and what women have had to deal with in the field of sports journalism.

Visser told one story of interviewing then-Baltimore Colts quarterback Bert Jones:

Anyone remember Bert Jones? A legend out of LSU, he was following iconic Johnny Unitas as quarterback for the Baltimore Colts. After a game in Foxborough against the Patriots, he asked me if I’d like to come to Baltimore. He offered to send me a round-trip ticket. I went into my Gloria Steinem routine, “Absolutely Not! This is my job!” He finally cut me off with a laugh and said, “Hey, you’re not that great anyway.”

It wasn’t only the players who took an unfortunate tone with  the first woman to cover the NFL as a beat — in 1976 for the Globe:

At training camp, I ventured my first question to coach Chuck Fairbanks. He looked at me like Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. “What?” he said. I repeated my question about a linebacker. Fairbanks narrowed his eyes and said, “Why don’t you go to lunch with my daughter? You’re about the same age.”

Abominable and unacceptable.

Visser says women need three elements to succeed, knowledge, passion and stamina — but no one prepares you for humiliation.

She says times have come a long way from the days when, “The credentials I wore, with no irony, said, “No Women or Children in the Press Box.” Without a ladies room in said press box, I’d have to take the elevator down and sprint across the field like Usain Bolt to find the public restroom and try to get back before the Patriots punted.”

But there remains a long ways to go.