WHAT DO YOU PUT IN YOUR POST SHOW SALAD?

It’s iceberg lettuce! No other lettuce need apply. Cukes, carrots all of which is wrapped in paper towel to promote dry, crispy texture. Croutons, bacon bits and goat cheese. I have two seperate bowls going. I bring in tupperware and I have cutlery and bowls for the salad transfer. Newman’s Own Parmesan Dressing in the only dressing to be used. The materials are brought in one of Sarah’s foo foo expensive Newbury Street shopping bags.

WHAT IS THE BEST ADJECTIVE AN E-MAILER HAS USED TO DESCRIBE YOU?

They all ask how does The Wood put up with me.

WHEN  YOU DIE  AND IF YOU COULD COME BACK AS ANY ATHLETE YOU HAVE COVERED WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

Lonnie Paxton. Veteran minimum for a player like is around $800,000. He plays 8 plays a game and he gets as many girls as anyone on the team. What is not to like?

WHY DO YOU LEAVE THE TOP BUTTON OF YOUR SHIRT OPEN?

It is a huge problem in the men’s fashion world. The top button goes to high. But, when you leave it unbuttoned it is too low, I agree. The issue is there is no happy medium. So you see my man cheese.

WHAT IS THE HISTORY BEHIND YOUR 1982 NIKE SILVER PULLOVER?

During the Celtic game the other night our stage manager Jeff Garcia was humming the theme to Sanford and Son. Jeff did a decent job but then Donny took it to the next level. The guy has a 20 piece orchestra in his mouth. He is like Bobby Mcferrin. He had the organ, guitar and drums down. We both agreed that Fred Sandford was a classic. "I am coming to see you Elizabeth." I always thought Grady was one of the most underated supporting sit-com characters. How can Phyllis get her own spinoff from the Mary Tyler Moore show and Grady not get one of his own?

These are the questions we ponder during commerical breaks. Did you expect us to talk about the game? Why? We do that  on that air.

Felger is the opposite of Donny in the breaks. He is always on his  Blackberry checking sources and working on stories. I wonder if Brickbreaker is a code name for one of his sources?

All good shows tonight until we hit the Late Edition. It was one of those shows that you hope everyone missed because they went the bed.

Felger and I got tied up at the beginning. I thought I was suppose to talk and he thought he was suppose to talk. This is what happen.I was right, he was wrong. No, it wasn’t that simple. There was a computer error in the runddown. Remember, the rundown is a tv term for agenda, format or schedule. We were suppose to start the A block (tv term for first segment) with video of Adalius Thomas from Sunday’s game but instead the camera came on Felger and me because a line had jumped from one spot to another in the rundown telling the director that we were starting with a opening shot of the sky box not the VO ( tv term for Voice Over ). If we went with the VO I was to perform the voice-over and if we were on camera it was Felger’s turn to talk. Why is Felger always on camera and why am I getting the VO’s? HMMMMM.

Now, there was a part of the Late Edition where I really screwed up. It was the Ben Jarvis-Green Ellis portion of the show. I thought It was Felger’s read and totally shut down. Even when the camera was on me I thought it was still Felger’s turn to talk. I could not be the one making the mistake. Well, I was. It was about two seconds of dead air which when you are on tv seems like two hours.

You may have seen on the Late Edition Greg going nuts about our countries priorities in the D section ( TV term for last segment). All of us in the studio and in the booth were howling while watching this. Greg, who worked for John Kerry when he was 12 years old gets a little carried away with his politics. The rant you saw was after Greg spent the day…or maybe it was really an hour…touring the damage caused by Hurrican Katrina in New Orleans. My bad for calling it a flood. He then decided to call out the country for not doing enough to help the recovery. Well intentioned yes, a new thought…no.

So, if you are undecided in the voting booth. How about a write in for Greg?

I was working out today ( don’t laugh) when I was overcome with regret. I had delivered a season preview of our Celtic broadcasts at the Comcast Sportsnet Celtics Media Luncheon and now I was thinking of things of I wish I had said.

I wish I had told the story about Tommy when I was in the hallway and heard "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!." I ran into the conference room to see if Tommy was okay. He was stretched out in a swivel chair with his head leaning back and his arms raised in the air. I asked him what was the matter. He did make a move and groaned " Tonight, we got Eddie F. Rush!" Eddie was not one of Tommy’s favorite officials. Come to think of it, Tommy dislikes all officials but he really dislikes Eddie F. Rush….as most Celtic fans do.

I did tell the story however of how during the playoffs Tommy would stand up take a deep breath and tell us he had to take a walk. He would walk around the building to cool off before watching the game again.

On the Wendesday Late Edition of Sports Tonight I was burned not once but twice by Felger.

In the commercial break before the C block (tv term) Felger asked me about Posey’s defense against players like Kobe and Lebron. I told him Posey could get in the face of both players and keep his body in front of them and prevent them from going to the basket. It was one of Posey’s underated skills.

Now, I knew he would use this on the air. I am  giver people and I know Felger knows nothing about basketball. I felt I was making the segment better. I was being a team player.

Then during the next commericial break I said  that maybe Bill Walker could be the guy who fills that defensive void left by Posey. What does Felger do? The first thing he says on the air is "Bill Walker could be the guy etc…" Stealing my thought word for word.

He can have my thoughts on Posey’s defense against Kobe and Lebron but if you are talking hoops and say that Bill Walker could be a defensive stopper on larger swing players like Kobe and Lebron remember the idea was mine and not Felger!

Felger…The Plagerist…coming to a theater near you.

It was late Sunday afternoon and the Celtics were blowing out the Nets in the second to last pre-season game of the year. Donny and I were watching the game in one of our conference rooms. He said he was going to walk his dogs later and smoke his pipe.

Whhhaaaatttt?! You are a former NBA player turned television talent not a college professor. Can you picture Donny sitting in his den by a roaring fire reading Dicken’s and puffing on his pipe? Well, feel free to do so. I am not sure about the Dicken’s part.

You see D-Marsh has a pipe collection. His favorite tobacco is vanilla or cherry. (Dude, you can light a candle and get the same smell.) He has pipes from Canada, Rome, France, and Sweden. He also has three Sherlock Holmes pipes. Where is the raincoat and funny looking hat? One of the Sherlock’s is from 1934. He used a fancy name to describe them but I forgot what it was.

Oh yeah, Donny goes country with a corn cob pipe too.

He is a man of many interests. He likes golf, gagdets, motorcycles, classic cars  and his pipe collection. (What no slow wet kisses and long walks on the beach?)

Should Donny bust out one of his Sherlock Holmes beauties for Celtic’s Pre-Game live? Of course, it is elementary my dear Marshall.

Up and coming producer Nate Long has come up with a brilliant idea to help a disorganized grump like me. The papers that we hold in our hands are called rundowns (TV term for program agenda). We have a 6:30 Sports Tonight rundown and a rundown for Celtics Pre-Game Live. So I do not get my papers mixed up, Nate has thoughtfully printed my Celtic’s Pre-Game LIve rundown on blue paper. Nice idea…but if he was really smart it would be green. Get it…Celtic’s green. This isn’t the Wizards pre game show, Nate.

However, it was a good bid and this is just another example of why Nate is an up and comer. He wiil run a network someday if he doesn’t end up officiating the Super Bowl first. You see, Nate is also an up and coming college football official. He has the big Fitchburg State game this week. Nate is the only person who can tell me exactly what every official is supposed to do on a certain football play. Other people fake it, Nate really knows. Oh yeah, he is really rich and goes drinking with Kenny Chesney and Tim Wakefield on the island of St. John where he has bungalow on the beach. I wish he would invite me down.

If you saw my interview with John Farrell in the Sox clubhouse after game four you may have thought I was stalking him as he got out of the shower. He was not naked. He was half naked. He had a towel on and those comfy slippers they give pro athletes and people who stay in  five star hotels. 

Yes, I got lazy. Writing a blog is great when you are motivated to do so. Recently, I have not had the energy or the creative calling. Of course, that is no excuse but that is all I have.

To be honest with you, night Patriot games KILL ME! I am an old man. When I leave Comcast SportsNet  after a Celtic’s game or the Late Edition I can get home and in bed by 12 midnight. Anything after midnight and I am toast…a useless, drooling post forty fool. And if I don’t get to bed before 12 midnight the next day I am useless. Like every parent my kids kick my tail out of bed around 6am. I am not going back to bed…I work at night so the morning is my time with them. If it sounds like I am whining…I AM. 

In summary, you can blame my lack of blogging on prime-time Patriot games. We have another one on Monday. I am going to bed Sunday at 7p night after the Celtic’s game to get ready for Monday NIght Football.

I had to wear my glasses tonight because I forgot my contacts at home. People here give me a ton of you know what about my glasses. What do you think? Be honest. .

Tough show back from the weekend. I said in our open,"Should Terry Francona be second guessed after game four?" Of course, I met to say game three. I noticed with minutes to go before the start of the show so we had to record it again. I know, our marketing message is,"always live never scripted." We should add except for the opens. We have to pre-pro (tv term for pre production) our opens for technical and staging reasons.

Then I said that Kotsay could play fourth. Did I mean fourth base? I am an idiot. Of course, I meant play first.

I blame it on staying up late to watch the Sox lose in extra innings to the Angels. When I don’t get sleep I do say dumb things and become very grumpy.

   I am going to take a nap now.

   Okay, now I’m up.

Isn’t Troy Brown great? Some in the media feel Troy is not going make it as an analyst. Yes, he can be a soft talker but he knows it and is working on his television game the same way he worked on his on field game. He watches tape, listens to suggestions and works on his delivery. Don’t bet against this guy. He already proved everybody wrong once. Troy will be on our show every Monday and Wednesday during the football seaosn.

Allow me to let you behind the scenes at Celtic Media Day. Not only is it a time for us to welcome the players back, it is also the time when we shoot - those some are cheesy some are not - promo spots for the station. You will see them soon. Like the one where I am standing on a tall box next to Donny Marshall and we look at the floor in deep thought and then slowly raise our heads and smile at the camera. When you watch this you must be asking, "what the heck are they looking down at?!"

Plus, during one promo with Tommy he says, "Hi, I’m Tommy Heinsohn." Isn’t this like the President of United States starting the State of the Union Address by saying, "Hi, I’m George Bush."

Now, I want to set the record straight. I loved my Mom and Dad very much. They lived long lives into their 80’s and I am grateful for everything they taught me and did for me to pursue my dream of becoming a Boston broadcaster. They are truly champions in my life. But, am I a bad son if I mentioned John Havlicek as my champion and not them?
 

I am ready for football this weekend. It is much to early for the bye week. When Tom Brady first went down I thought this bye would be helpful. However, after the loss to Miami it would have been more benificial to play the this week as opposed to next.

If you missed him the past two nights, you have to watch Troy Brown this fall on Sports Tonight. Many were suprised that Troy wants to work in the media but I am not. Yes, as a player he was soft spoken but remember the United Way "I got bingo" ads? Also at the second Super Bowl rally at city hall Troy stole the show with "I got Bingo! We win again!" Now that he is no longer playing he can let his personality show. His insight and knowledge of the game  makes his appearance a must watch. He is also taking the same approach to broadcasting that he took to his football career. He has a public speaking/voice coach who he is working with. He is breaking down his performances on Sports Tonight the same way he broke down game film as a player. We are lucky to have him. 

Have a good weekend.

If you had to pick one person to go on a road trip with it would have to be Jonathan Papelbon. As you might have seen last night on Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight Pap was pouring champagne into his mouth as Felgy and I were interviewing him.

I would rather the Sox have acted as if they had been there before (because they have) as opposed to act like winning a playoff spot is the same as winning the World Series. But, as I watch Pap and the rest of his teamates absolutely go nuts after clinching a post season spot I changed my mind. In a time when money and individual milestones can matter more than team, the Red Sox - winners of two world championships - still love to win. With Manny gone this Red Sox group loves playing together, drinking together and winning together. I don’t know if this group of Sox are healthy enough to repeat as champs. But, if they do they will even more lovable then those crazy bunch of idiots in 2004.

If you watched our 6:30 tonight you knew right away that Cinco Ocho would not be available to pitch tonight. Let’s put it this way….Cinco was still in bed and Jonathan Papelbon was in front of the camera.

During our C block tonight at 6:30 you saw Felgy and me discuss the retirement of the numbers of Roger Clemens, Drew Bledsoe and Troy Brown. The topic was driven by the Red Sox retirement of Johnny Pesky’s number six.

Now, I am not supposed to tell you this but we taped this segment at 6:10p. The reason we did this was because of camera angles and set logistics. The commercials breaks were too short for our studio crew of…one to move the cameras, slide the cable and move the set.

So, we are chatting right along when Felger says, "How can you retire Troy Brown’s number 80 when it belonged to Stanely Morgan first?" Ahhh Felgy? Stanley Morgan was 86 and Irving Fryar was number 80. I corrected him and then asked our producer on the rise, Nate Long (drinking buddy of Kenny Chesney on the island of St. John) if we could re-tape. Nate yelled at me," No, don’t stop. You should have nailed Felger-he would have done it to you. I am just a bigger man I guess

If you watched tonight’s show you saw that Felger called in sick. Make no mistake about it, he was sick. And it killed  him. He hates to miss work. But, we heard how sick he was ALL NIGHT! Ever know someone who walks around sniffling, shaking and moaning about how sick they are? That is our Felgy.

Furthermore, he thought he had an ear infection. A month ago his four year old daughter dumped a bucket of sand in his ear. He thought this is what made him sick. Can sand in the ear cause an ear infection? I don’t think so. But, Felgy would not take no for an answer as he embarked on a Web MD journey. And this guy thinks JD Drew is soft. FInally I asked, "Felgy, does your ear hurt?" He told me no. How can someone have an ear infection if their ear doesn’t hurt?  Is that similiar to, "can a lung be collapsed and then be uncollapsed"? 

Get well soon Felger. It was boring without you.