Re: Eagle Tribune: Time For Larry Legend

[bird <birdw@xxxxxxx>]

> From: "Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> And where have all those articles been? The Globe and Herald have given
> Wallace a free pass. Where are all these Wallace-bashing articles, 
> other
> than the posts on this list?
I'll again mention Bill Simmons.  I believe he's a member of ESPN.  
But, beyond that, I'll admit I haven't much more evidence.  I don't 
think the local Boston papers have given him "a free pass", but they 
have criticized less than this list.  (Although criticizing more would 
be probably be an impossibility.)  Maybe it's just been mostly on this 
list (and others).  There's nothing about it appearing in "the media" 
that makes it more valid or more convincing to me, though.

> As for Larry Bird... I agree he's not coming. I'm just pleased someone 
> in
> the media-even if it's just the Lawrence Eagle Tribune-spelled out 
> what has
> been obvious to the team's biggest fans for a while. The Globe and 
> Herald
> haven't uttered even a peep in criticism of Wallace, even though he 
> has done
> more than enough to earn it.
What I object to is your implication that "the team's biggest fans" 
know what's up: i.e. Wallace is a loser.  Well, I don't know that at 
all.  Am I saying Chris Wallace is a great GM?  No.  A good one?  Hmmm, 
if Baker pans out he might have a chance at that.  He's probably 
mediocre in toto, but a GM is only as good as his last deal, it seems.  
Either way, this idea that it's so *obvious*, so decidedly clear that 
Chris Wallace is the biggest moron to come down the pike since Mr. 
Moron McMoron of Moronville that even a newborn infant could see it, 
is, at best, arrogant.

He's made some good deals, some really bad ones, and has not drafted 
particularly well (unless K. Brown emerges soon), at all.  He was also 
constrained by one of the tightest penny-pinchers in recent memory.  Do 
I worry that somehow CW and Leo P. will err in the upcoming draft?  Of 
course.  On the other hand, he's put together a team that may make it 
to the ECF again this year.  Perhaps with better 
star's-minute-management and an ownership willing to spend a little to 
make a little, he'll be better perceived.  For me, his biggest 
"mistakes" were, in fact Gaston's: letting Strick and RR go.  Adding 
those guys straight up to this team would've been great.

Bird