I'm not going to go into detail on this as I think the AP story tells it all, but I will say, if this is true, then the attorney and his assistants that prosecuted Genarlow Wilson should at the very least be disbarred and criminal charges should be a consideration.
I know this would be almost impossible to pull off given the shear size of Red Sox Nation, and the number of us who blog, but I have been tossing around the idea of BoSox Bloggers conventions.
This is the thought in my head - since Fenway is selling out regularly, and it's obscenely expensive to get tickets to the "lyric little bandbox," each year, or twice a year (maybe once early and once late), Sox bloggers converge on one of the minor league sites like Lowell, Pawtucket, Greenville, Portland, or even Gulf Coast (sorry West Coast bloggers, you're on your own with Lancaster).
Maybe even hold every 5th year at a bar like the Cask and Flagon in Boston during the season.
I would be surprised if it weren't something that the minor league affiliates would be into. Of course, that would mean the group of us would have to become much more organized, maybe even sort of incorporate...official member of BoSox Bloggers or something. I would love to get feedback and suggestions on how to go about this - or if all you others out there think that would even be possible.
Personally, I like the idea of being able to talk Sox face to face with the brethren.
Well, I had hoped to run an interview here with Boston Herald columnist Steve Buckley about Drew Bledsoe's place in NFL and Patriots history. We have corresponded on the subject several times, and I am still hoping that he will be able to do the interview. That said, I have a Q&A I did with Steve Sabol a couple of years ago hidden away somewhere on a cassette in my hard files that - should I find it, I will transcribe it and post it here.
Let's see - let's do the quick hits before looking back...
*The aging Schilling is continuing his Jeckyll and Hyde-like season, following a good outing with a bad one. However, it is encouraging that it looks like Wakefield might have turned the corner and be on the verge of one of his streaks.
*What has happened to Red Sox hitting over the last week? A pitching deficient team like the Rockies (team leader in ERA 3.81, team ERA 4.51) comes to town and holds the Sox (BA .374) to a combined four runs in two games? Are you kidding me?
*I realize that Coco Crisp played much of last year injured, but this is Crisp's fifth year in the bigs, and it appears that he is going backwards. Maybe he just can't stand the pressure of playing in front of the frenzied throngs at Fenway a la Edgar Renteria, but the one thing that is becoming obvious - Crisp is just not an everyday player for the Sox.
*At least one thing I read about the Patriots training camp this past weekend concerns me about Randy Moss. There has been a lot of fanfare trumpeting his arrival at the Razor, but it seems that some writers have noted that Moss is consistently the last one in his group (the receivers) to finish drills - the last in sprints, and seldom showed anything in practice (but when he did, many members of the press oohed and ahhed accordingly).
If this is what Moss thinks will fly in New England, we have a very interesting game of chicken that's about to start between him and the Patriots brain trust.
*Anybody else curious about what Roger Goodell told Pacman Jones in the meeting that preceded Jones dropping his appeal? I would have loved to have been a fly on that wall.
* Speaking of problem children - is it just me, or does it sound like things are about to either heat up, or fall apart in the federal quest for an indictment of Barry Bonds, heat up for Michael Vick, and am I the only one that heard about Bud Selig maybe considering possibly suspending Jason Giambi if he doesn't cooperate with the Mitchell investigation and thought, "wow, Hell of a backbone you're showing there Mr. Commissioner."
Anyone else think that Selig is the sort of guy at a restaurant that orders one thing, then as he hands the menu back, tells the waiter, "uh...no, how about" something else, and then gives yet another order before the server manages to walk away? Just me?
A quick look back...
I graduated from Emerson College in Boston's Back Bay in the early 1990's with a degree in writing and a minor in film. What does one do with a writing degree?
Well, for a year I worked for the City of Boston's Public Facilities Department in the first time home buyers program. I then moved on to approximately four years working in marketing, moved to Philadelphia where I spent five years teaching (while getting freelance writing and editing gigs, including a gig as the interim assistant sports editor of one of the suburban weeklies just outside of Philly), and eventually ended up in Maryland as the business writer for the Frederick Gazette, a subsidiary of the Washington Post.
I was never fond of business writing and have since moved on from that (I currently am the Maryland columnist for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, and the Media Relations manager for the United States Australian Football League), and at the time had been offered a chance to come on board as a sports writer (which I turned down due to the evening hours combined with the fact that I wanted to be able to see my then two-year old daughter grow up). Rather than go through my blog to identify pieces I'm particularly fond of here which I did in post 150, I thought it might be more interesting to cover some of the articles that got into the various papers.
Here are a handful of articles that I am particularly proud of (all of which in my mind bear some sort of blemish, but I think we're always hardest on our own work), and all are sports related -
1. Coverage of the Rick Block Classic memorial basketball game.
2. The first day I was working at the South Philly Review, I was asked to do a story on a school closing, this is what I ended up with. It was not exactly the easiest first day in the world, but still better for me than for the subject. I hope the family and friends are healing.
3. Not my best writing, but I have always liked this piece I wrote about the Philadelphia Liberty Belles women's football team.
4. This time last year, the local bicyclers were heady over the prospect of Floyd Landis challenging in the Tour de France due partially to the fact that Frederick County, MD was where Landis cut his teeth as a mountain biker when younger. It's interesting to watch the way everyone interested in cycling is waiting with great anticipation to see how everything turns out.
5. A rant that I wrote for the folks over at Bitterfans about Hall of Fame voting in the NFL.
There are others I could have posted, some of which, for whatever reason never made it onto the web (I always liked my preview of the Red Sox 1996 season that I did for the now defunct Boston Chronicle, however far off I might have been), but these are some of the ones I am particularly fond of.
As readers may have noticed, I have been much more prolific this year than in past years as I might approach 200 posts in this year alone, not counting my other blogs Gibbering Idiot Press (entertainment, comics, sci-fi, horror), WiredFrederick (local interest to where I live), and In The Ruck (Australian football in the US). If I ever find the tape I made of the interview with Steve Sabol, I will make sure it gets posted...couching it in the year that the interview actually happened (which might have been in 2002).
Peace.
So, I had something special planned for my 200th post here at TheAngryFan, but I think I have to celebrate the 200th post in post 201...maybe that will become my tradition. I have been working on an interview, and I am waiting to hear back from my contact - he sounded interested, but did mention to me that he is currently busy. As I said, I still hope to do the interview.
Something happened though that merited cause to bump the interview. Those of you who are regular readers know that I have written on occasion about the ongoing saga of Genarlow Wilson, the then 17-year old honor student and football player in Georgia who received a blow-job, freely given, at a party from a 15-year old. Wilson found himself in jail serving a mandatory ten-year sentence on a child molestation charge that carried with it a record in the sex offender registry.
At the time Wilson went to jail, he was being recruited by colleges like Brown.
At noon today a judge, after hearing an appeal from Wilson's lawyers, "gave Genarlow Wilson a 12-month misdemeanor sentence with credit for time already served," effectively expunging Wilson's name from the sex offender registry.
While this has been a major win for Wilson, it is not the end as the state is expected to appeal the ruling, keeping Wilson in jail until at least the next court date.
When Wilson gets out, it will be a prime opportunity for those schools which recruited him to really step up to the plate and show what they're made of.
Stumble It!