Gordon Edes leaving ESPN to be Red Sox historian

Sounds like a cool job ... he'll probably get to write a lot of long-form stuff, which is always better than churning out blog posts. Good for him, although he's one of the better daily reads now.

Well deserved. Congrats Gordon

I don't know him personally but Gordon is one of the few local media members that's both a respectable journalist and comes off as a genuinely good guy. Best of luck to him.

Gordon's simply point-blank the second best thing to happen to regular Red Sox coverage in this city after Gammons. Always fair, always open-minded, always thoughtful, and always informed.

Congratulations to him, and he'll do a great job as Sox historian.

I've been reading Shaughnessy since he began, and, no his opinions on baseball aren't thought about at all, let alone well thought out. I cannot recall myself ever thinking that his opinion on a non-obvious topic was correct, let alone insightful.

This is a guy who wrote a devastating negative take on Dwight Evans' HOF worthiness, the argument entirely consisting of his having a lower batting average than Roberto Clemente. (Fun fact for a traditional stat guy like him: Dewey had more career R + RBI than Clemente while having made fewer outs.) The guy who was dismissive of converting Tom Gordon to closer and who reportedly dismissed the Ortiz signing in '03 because he was "a sack of s***." The guy who passionately believed that starting Pete Schourek and Pedro Martinez, both on regular rest, was the wrong idea when the Sox were down 3-1, because "you had to win game 4 in order to play game 5," and Pedro on short rest was better than Schourek on his regular turn. Seriously, the guy could not reason his way free of Kleenex handcuffs.

Having said that, he's a terrific writer who always does a great job capturing the POV of the average fan after a thrilling victory or tough defeat, when a beloved athlete retires or returns to town -- all of that stuff. When something momentous in Boston sports happens, I'm always eager to read his piece, and I'm rarely let down. Even though The Globe sometimes start those great pieces on Page 1, I don't think they really know how to use him. I mean, Criminy, they sent Cafardo to cover Pedro's HOF induction.

He's also willing to listen to arguments. I e-mail him every so often and we have a courteous relationship. I respect the guy. I just wish his editors realized his strengths: the fan-POV stuff for all of Boston sports, the occasional controversial piece to sell papers (unavoidable if distasteful), but, for God's sake, keep him away from attempts at educating or informing the readership about baseball.

Speaking of which, the guy who is very literally an embarrassment to both his profession and his employer, and has done nothing to earn continued employment, is Nick Cafardo. I don't think I need to go into details. And I see his wretched work ethic rubbing off on Pete Abraham, who began as a solid writer and has now begun aping Nick's habit of saying things that can be pretty much disproven by spending five minutes at FanGraphs or b-Ref, or, worse yet, looking at the Red Sox roster.

Honestly, was more Gammons who got that ball rolling, although Gordon was a great help in putting that in place (although we didn't deal with him directly very much at all). FWIW, we ended that relationship after the 2014 season.
Derp, see below. I suck.

Like I said on Twitter though, huge Gordon fan, both in print and in person.

Take a lap, Hatfield.

At the rate Speier is going, he could have a front office job for an MLB team eventually.

I like the Projo duo of Britton and Macpherson. They're a pretty good bang for their buck

Congrats to Gordo

What would you like the ProJo guys to talk about?

I ripped Gordo when he started at ESPNBoston, but he soon returned to form as an informative reporter. Even before that, he always told a great story, and has clearly had an influence on reporters like Mike Reiss becoming more writers and story-tellers. Seems like a nice guy, and was smart enough to get this site on board when he needed help in the prospect area. Congrats to him and good luck. Should be a great history.