Play -in Games Region C 10 Seed Dave O’Brien (NESN) vs wild card Brian “Rear Admiral” McGonagle (Barstool), Region V 16 Seed Travis Thomas (NESN) vs wild card James “Scaz” Scaramozzino (98.5), Region N 12 Seed Mark Daniels (MassLive) vs wild card Stanley “Stiz Grimey” Bruno (WEEI), and Region T 15 Seed Chris Forsberg (NBCSB) vs wild card Eric Rueb (ProJo).
The play-in games will be on Monday, March 9th. The rest of the field will begin on Tuesday March 10th, then Thursday and Friday of that week.
Oyez, oyez! All those having business before the Tournament Selection Collaborative Committee of The15net dot com division of The Local Collaborative, take care and know the following will comprise the Field of 68 in the 6th Annual Mediot Madness/March Sadness Tournament:
Radio – Christian Arcand (WEEI) Marc Bertrand (98.5) Mike Felger (98.5) Andy Hart (WEEI) Greg Hill (WEEI) Ted Johnson (WEEI) Adam Jones (WEEI) Rich Keefe (WEEI) Joe Murray (98.5) Rob “Hardy” Poole (98.5) Nick “Fitzy” Stevens (WEEI) Fred Toucher (98.5) Scott Zolak (98.5)
Print – Peter Abraham (Globe) Andrew Callahan (Herald) Mark Daniels (MassLive) Kevin Paul Dupont (Globe) Chad Finn (Globe) Chris Gasper (Globe/98.5) John Karalis (SI) Doug Kyed (Herald) Sean McAdam (MassLive) Dan Shaughnessy (Globe) Christopher Smith (MassLive) Gabrielle Starr (Herald) Gary Washburn (Globe)
Television – Albert Breer (NBCSB) Lucille Burdge (NESN) Tom Caron (NESN) Jared Carrabis (NESN/98.5/Underdog) Drew Carter (NBCSB) Trenni Casey (NBCSB) Chris Forsberg (NBCSB) Lou Merloni (NESN) Kevin Millar (NESN) Dave O’Brien (NESN) Phil Perry (NBCSB) Brian Scalabrine (NBCSB) Travis Thomas (NESN)
Digital – Brian Barrett (The Ringer) Greg Bedard (BSJ) Rob Bradford (Audacy/WEEI) Mike Giardi (BSJ) Joe Haggerty (BSJ) Grant “Hogdale” Huckdale (Barstool) Jeff Howe (The Athletic) Mike Kadlick (CLNS) Taylor Kyles (CLNS) Evan Lazar (Patriots) Bob Ryan (CLNS/Globe) Jerry Thornton (Barstool) John Zannis (CLNS)
At large – Cerrone Battle (98.5) Tom “Freeze Pops” Carroll (WEEI) Courtney Cox (WEEI) Chris Curtis (WEEI) Mark Dondero (98.5) Michael Hurley (???) Kendra Middleton (98.5) Matt McCarthy (98.5) Jim Murray (98.5) Meghan Ottolini (WEEI/Celtics) Jimmy Stewart (98.5) Matt Vautour (MassLive)
This years Wild Card play-in contestants- Stanley “Stiz Grimey” Bruno (WEEI) Brian “Rear Admiral” McGonagle (Barstool) Eric Rueb (ProJo), James “Scaz” Scaramozzino (98.5). They will participate in the 4 play-in games in advance of Round One.
(note – Though technically re-eligible, John Tomase, having no platform at this time is unable to compete.
Brackets will be announced on Sunday, March 8th, Wild Cards go on Monday, then the First-Round matchups begin in earnest on Tuesday, March 10th.
(Dear The15net dot com Wicked Pissah Beantown Chowderheads Platinum Elite Members; Here is a musical playlist for your particular winter holiday enjoyment. And everyone else who stayed off the naughty list this year. Click HERE to download. Additional song suggestions are welcomed in the comments. )
Mary, Did You Know That Bert Bell Invented the NFL Draft? – Upton Bell & The Drells
Roger Got Run Over By A Reindeer (Unfortunately) – The Skulking Muskrats
Carol of the Fog Bells – Foxboro Human Shield Chorale
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (and a few doctors) – the Bowen 5
Can They Hear What I Hear, Mike? – Live Zzam
Let It Snow 3.5″ According to my Ruler in Mansfield, MA – BHL
Rich Tried to Put Me on Santa’s Naughty List – Ferrante & Toettcher
Away in a Pallet Shack – MC 34 Year Old Jesus
You Guys I’m Deathly Allergic to Rudolph the Red #5 Nosed Reindeer!!! – Kendra Middleton
Shalise Manza Young – José Feliciano
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Expect for That Sack of Shit Stever)- Carmine Tazzi
Staring at Christmas Trees – Gregory Alan Isakov
Why Can’t We Get Messiahs Like That? – Bob Lobel and the Boston Jewish Men’s Choir
Happy Xmas (War is Over, Kid) – Rear Admiral
A Visit From St. Nicholas- recited by The Honorable Thomas M. Menino (deceased)
Fairytale of New York and of Boston and of Philadelphia – The Shukes
Eight Maids a Milking was #1 on my 2021 12 Days of Christmas Draft Board – Danny Kelley
In the Bleak Mid-Winter Ratings – Brighton Chilly
I Heard the Bells on Happy Honda Days – The Herb Chambers Choir
The MutStacker Suite – The Saratoga Tiny Brass Band
I Won’t Be Home for Christmas (Or Until You Get Offline) – Mrs. Bowen and the Chatty Nurses
Don We Now Our Gay Apparel- Zesty Freddy Lynn
Hark! The Herald Is Just $1 For 1 Year If You Subscribe Now – Callahan & Kyed
Christmas In Millis – Average White Band
She Bettah Nawt Bring Him to Christmas Dinnah – Keno Snapback Guys
Greenteamersleeves – The Blehhhhs
Who Told You King Wenceslas was Good? – Oafis Redding & the Carbonless Trio
Walking in a Winter Hill Wonderland – The Feebs
Angels We Have Heard on High Got Better Ratings Than WEEI Afternoons – Arbitronix
Welcome to the first ever Summertime Sour Sixteen! If you like new media and Red Sox broadcasters, or more importantly if you don’t like new media and Red Sox broadcasters, then this is the competition for you! We’ve got six podcasters, seven current or former members of Red Sox radio/TV broadcasts, two crusty old newspaper men and one weepy grifter. (Sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas)
Region B 1 Dave O’Brien vs 4 Steve Perrault O’Brien wasn’t bad on radio play-by-play. However, he is so bad on TV that he actually makes people long for the days of Don Orsillo. Now that’s bad. Perrault is just one of the Carrabis’s many forgettable goofball sidekicks. O’Brien walks it off.
2 Chad Finn vs 3 Rob Bradford Hairy vag faced Bradfo will smother Wax Pack Chad under a pile of wrinkled t-shirts.
Chad should have stayed in the safety of internet free Mid-coast Maine
Region V (aka The Section 10 free region) 1 Gabby Starr vs 4 Justin MLB Here’s a tip for any of you looking to participate in next year’s Mini-Tourney. Put “MLB” in your twitter handle, it will set you apart from your average run of the mill baseball fans named Justin. Gabz won’t even need to come back from one of her many in-season vacations to dispatch Mr. Gonzalez.
2 Tom Caron vs 6 Hogdale The Hogriders came out in force and pushed their hero into Round 2. They may have misunderstood the assignment though. How could anyone not appreciate the passion that Grant Huckvale brings to the role of “Hogdale”? It’s always a tour de force performance. Grant is matched up with milquetoast Tom Caron. No matter how many hair plugs Caron gets, it will never be enough to mask his Megamind Forehead. Dr. Tom Leonard’s least successful client moves on.
His comb over is much more lustrous now
Region N 1 Jared Carrabis vs 4 Coley Mick Jared Carrabis is a better more knowledgeable fan than YOU. Sorry, just deal with it losers. “Coley Mick” is a lace curtain Irish dunce. “Car Rubbish”® will mash that bloated spud in the Section 10 showdown.
2 Tony Massarotti vs 3 Will Fleming It seems unfair to have the March Sadness runner up in the Midsummer Mini-Tourney, but that’s baseball. Maybe if Will Fleming starts speaking Spanish, Tony will run away and hide. Unfortunately the only Spanish Mazz will hear from Fleming is “No Más“.
Region T 1 Pete Abraham vs 4 Tyler Milikin This match up should be introduced by Dale Dorman as part of the Creature Double Feature. Sentient garden gnome (Abraham) takes on an obese two legged centaur (Milikin). The winner may depend on what country you live in.
Avert your eyes… they’re both hideous!
2 Tyler Broadman vs 3 Mike McCarthy Is Mike McCarthy the pudgy bearded millennial doofus who figured out you can lose weight by eating salads, or is he the pudgy bearded millennial doofus with horrible teeth, or is he the pudgy bearded millennial doofus who couldn’t successfully book flights for his honeymoon or is he McBone? It’s hard to keep track of all these wacky call screeners. Tyler Broadman may turn out to be a decent play-by-play man once he completes puberty, but his fake radio voice and Connecticut School of Broadcasting cadence make me want to ram my score keeping pencil in my ears. This a tough one, but McCarthy squeezes by.
We know from experience how much you all enjoy the annual March Sadness Tournament. But due to the calendar, the contestant pool is weighted heavily toward the sports then being played or just having concluded, hockey, basketball, and especially football. So the baseball writers, yakkers, and bloggers don’t receive their full attention. We aim to fix that.
Next week we will pit 32 members of the local baseball media against one another in a single elimination tournament in the style of our March Sadness/Mediot Madness event. Voters will decide who is the worst.
After all, it always comes back to baseball, Danny. The American Pastime. The beautiful game. The sport of kings. So good, so good. so good!
The Immaculate Grid, Boston sports media edition. This week’s theme, people who care way too much about the Bill Belichick-Jordon Hudson gossip.
Current media members, local & national, in their present or previous job formats. There may only be one answer, and you can’t use anyone more than once. Best of luck.
The 15 