Date:  Friday October 5, 2001
From:  Big Dog
Subject:  It Wasn't Me... But Shaughnessy Snaps Again

An unedited excerpt from Dan Shaughnessy's online chat with one unlucky boston.com @bat Insider subscriber yesterday follows... it wasn't me... I heard him bangin' on the keyboard... it wasn't me... it was the notorious PSF:

PSF:  Dan, with the eventual dismissal of Carl Everett (for good reason), whoever will you pick on mercilessly next year?

Dan Shaughnessy:  psf -- ooooh. you think i hurt poor carl's feelings? sorry you think i was too hard on carl. in retrospect, i wish i'd done more to run his butt out of town. but it sounds like everything he does is okay with you. hey, the man's own teammates hate him and want him gone. but you sound like duquette. any other questions, psf???

PSF:  hey; I'm not defending the guy. But just because he got in your face once, you seemed to include a barb about him in nearly every column. Reminiscent of your petty rantings against Hartford a couple years ago. So I was just curious as to who was next on your hit list...

Dan Shaughnessy:  psf -- thanks for writing back. guys like you really tick me off. it's not BECASUE he got in my face that i wrote unkind things about him. it's because he deserved it. he is a cancer on a team. i have had guys get in my face for years -- clemens, vaughn, boggs, boyd, scott wedman, quinn buckner, robert Parish. name that tune. you don't read about those things because it's just a little tiff between writer and player. who cares? but in carl's case, i felt there would be more coming and i was right. so i tried to tip you off that this guy was a loose cannon and all you can do is think it's a personal vendetta. i don't have the time or space to ""get back'' at every player who gets in my face. carl was just a guy i felt the readers should know about because i was pretty sure this stuff would eventually hurt the team. and i don't need a no-nothing anonymous guy like you challenging my work. you still talking about hartford? go back to american's file cabinet and take a look around.

Then a little while after PSF's face-off with Dan, this message comes out of the blue...

Moderator:  PSF: If you wish to speak with Dan personally, you are more than welcome to call the Boston Globe. As for your comments, that's all for today.

...it wasn't me (but I didn't dare question Pedro the unquestionable one's behavior again)...

Big Dog:  Dan, What's your realistic best-case scenario for new names next spring, re: owner, GM, manager, new pitchers and position players?

Dan Shaughnessy:  big dog -- for me, the best case scenario is joe odonnell's group buying the team, firing just about everyone in the front office, starting with duquette. make kerrigan stay on as pitching coach. hire larry lucchino from the padres as your team president, and have him work on assembling a gm and manager team to run the show for next year. as for position players, you hope varitek is okay and then you have strength up the middle with him, nomar and nixon in center. manny stays, of course. and hillenbrand. the problem is you are still stuck with contracts for people like offerman and everett. and that's only the beginning of the problem.

It's like walking on egg shells with this guy, but as far as challenging him in this last chat... it wasn't me.