Seriously? Seriously.

So the Matsuzaka deal is taking up half the front page of the Boston Globe today. I start to read, and then flip to the sports pages to finish the story. And what do I see there, but Dan Shaughnessy’s column.

Shaughnessy is a controversial figure in the Boston sports world. He’s been writing for the Globe for a million years. He’s written some bestselling books. And when I was growing up, I totally idolized him. Now I don’t know if he changed, or if I did, but in recent years his writing seems to have gotten a whole lot more negative. The conventional wisdom is that Shaughnessy never met a player he didn’t want to rip (except Ortiz and Varitek, and even then I’m sure he’d do it if he thought he could without an angry mob picking him up and throwing him in the Charles); he himself accounts for about a third of the negativity in Boston’s famously ornery baseball media, with another third going to WEEI and the remainder divided amongst the Herald columnists. But while Dan used to be quite popular in Beantown, his vitriol has turned him into something of a lightning rod.

And today, he sinks to a new low: ripping off lowly Metro columnist Sarah Green. Honestly, Dan. I know sports journalism isn’t known for ingenuity, but “PR advice for new Red Sox player” was my idea first. As in, eight whole days ago.

What new and original ideas are you going to come up with next? Ballplayers’ bad facial hair? Yeesh.