A Pathetic Bully. Jeff Jacobs wrote one of the most petty, vindictive pieces of "journalism" I've read in quite a long time. His Hartford Courant column actually manages to set a new low for Boston sports media (though Shaugnessy won't surrender his crown without a fight, I'm sure). I refuse to provide a link, but it's posted in its entirety at a couple of Red Sox blogs: Portland Sox Fan and Dwights House, so you can read it without registering a hit at the Courtant. Dirt Dog has a fantastic parody up, along with an email from Jacobs stating this crap was a collaborative work with his editors. Besides the huge embarassment this should be for the Courant and Jacobs, this incident shows again how pivotal these past few days have been regarding athletes and their relationship with fans. Thanks to the Internet, an athlete can now communicate directly to the fans on his own time without the media as a bothersome middleman. And thanks to Curt Schilling's widely-reported example, I believe more and more of them are going to do so. Writers who can't do their jobs are scared shitless. They are quickly becoming as irrelevant as the horse and buggy, they know it, and they are lashing out at anything and anyone they can.