Friday Four-Pack 2.21.25

The World Famous Monkey Boy gets his shot at redemption. Hockey fever hits New England. A big job opening in Boston plus more media and betting notes!

Feb 21, 2025

Looks like future Pro Football Hall of Famer and current Patriots quarterback Drake Maye had a good seat at the Garden Thursday Night for the 4-Nations Face-Off Championship

USA vs. Canada!
Trump vs. Trudeau!
Imperial system vs. Metric system!

A quick ‘casual hockey fan’ edition of Good, Bad, and Ugly on the single-serving sporting event that seemed to capture a ~~nation~~ region for six days in February.

The Good

🏒 The games were good—at least the two that I watched. Saturday’s opening bell fight and online reaction drew me in. Once you watched that it was tough to miss out on the rematch on Thursday. Players were into it, the intensity was high as was the tension, plus Olympic-level play—a great watch.

🏒 The games filled a major void in the sports calendar. The NBA All-Star weekend was a disaster…NFL is done…UFL is still weeks away…the PGA is in Mexico this week and features a field that only diehard golf fans or degenerate gamblers could care about…MLB spring games don’t start until this weekend—this was the perfect landing spot for this event to get people’s attention.

Like, if this final took place in October and was up against a decent NFL game…it would have been swallowed up. Even a bad NFL game - say Jags vs. Titans - gets more attention than this game. I’m fine that people were excited to watch and talk about USA vs. Canada, but the event benefited hugely from where it landed on the sports calendar.

🏒 Sean McDonough calling a big game. No surprise, he was great. Glad he’s over whatever voice/health issues that have dogged him so far this NHL season. McDonough was excellent as Jordan Binnington made save after save, and his energy in the booth matched the energy on the ice. He also had a GREAT moment in the pregame - see the Ugly section below.

🏒 The popularity of this event and all the buzz surrounding it will probably lead the NBA to try something similar, in an effort to add some life to their buzzless All-Star Weekend. I could see some Team USA vs. The World event replacing what they have now - and that’s a good thing.

The Bad

🏒 The injuries. Charlie McAvoy is probably done for the year. The NHL gets back to their schedule this weekend and Emily Kaplan said on the ESPN broadcast that “five or six” players from Thursday’s game would not be ready to play for their NHL teams come Saturday, thanks to either injury or illness.

It’s great these guys were so jacked to play for their country, but how about the NHL teams that pay their salaries? How will those teams and their fanbases respond if guys are lost for long periods of time, thanks to what is still an exhibition tournament? This event, for all its hype, is not the Olympics.

I do wonder if the injuries might lead to some teams asking players not to play next time the event comes around, especially with the Olympics next season.

The Ugly

🏒 “The biggest Thursday Night sporting event ever.” - Boston sports radio host. Yes, when those words were uttered Thursday afternoon, we reached the peak of hyperbole in the hours before Team USA faced Team Canada in the 4-Nations Face-Off Championship.

I found the media and social media hype and analysis for these games - Thursday Night in particular - over the top. Both The Sports Hub and WEEI spent HOURS on this game - as a casual hockey fan, it was too much- especially because much of it sounded forced. As a veteran of forced hockey talk on the radio, I know it when I hear it. To their credit, when I was listening, Zolak and Bertrand focused on the NFL and Red Sox, while casually talking about USA/Canada. On the other hand, WEEI Afternoons did four painful hours on it.

Maybe the game taking place in Boston played a role locally - on WIP in Philadelphia, the hockey game was barely mentioned. I would not be surprised if that were the case around much of the US.

🏒 The national version of this overhype was ESPN’s pregame feature where they superimposed the USA roster “listening” to Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks from his famous Miracle speech. I hated that. This game was basically a coin flip (-110 each) in the betting market. In 1980, Team USA was anywhere from a 6-1 to a 10-1 underdog. It was also in the Olympics. I mean, Team USA just BEAT Canada last week in this tournament. The clip has 3.7 million views on X.com, so I’m the turd in the punchbowl.

🏒 God Bless Sean McDonough. They run the Brooks thing and Sean has the voiceover out of the feature. He IMMEDIATELY points out that this game is nothing like Team USA and 1980, how the two teams just played, and how the game and event are NOT Lake Placid. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I’ll be curious what the viewership numbers are and we’ll probably get those later Friday. A fun way to get through a slow, post-NFL week for sports. And if you’re sad that it’s over I have good news - we get to do a bigger version of this next year when NHL players return to the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014.

Meanwhile, thoughts on the Red Sox and their TV broadcast plans for 2025. The World Famous Monkey Boy finally gets his due. And sports media notes that include an opening on the Red Sox beat.

All ahead in today’s Four-Pack.

On assorted thoughts on your 2025 Boston Red Sox…

⚾ NESN made their 2025 broadcast team official on Wednesday. Well, sort of. They named their three booth analysts who will work with Dave O’Brien and Mike Monaco - Lou Merloni, Kevin Millar, and Will Middlebrooks. They decided not to specify how many games each analyst would do, but Lou will work around 100 of the 150 games or so NESN will have this season—he’s the No. 1 guy. And he should be.

Lou calling the most games and becoming O’Brien’s primary partner is the right move. He’s not only the best voice they’ve had since Eck retired in 2022, but he’s also willing to be critical of the team when it’s warranted—which is one of the reasons he’s so good.

Allowing Lou and O’Brien to do more games together will only help their chemistry and in turn, the NESN broadcast. Cutting down on the rotation of former players coming in and out of the booth should be better for O’Brien, too

Not returning for 2025 is former Sox infielder Kevin Youkilis, who saw his contract expire after last season but had support to return to the booth from some in Sox ownership.

⚾ I blame the Red Sox more than I blame Rafael Devers for what happened this week in Fort Myers. Yes, he said the words and was adamant he did not want to move off third base, but it’s their job as an organization to make it make sense to him before he goes out there and tells the world he’s not moving without a fight.

Maybe they just wanted to give him the chance to get it out of his system and move on. He’s led his position in errors in seven of the last eight seasons and if 22-year-old Kristian Campbell is ready to go at second base, the right move is Devers to DH and Alex Bregmna at third. The team knows that and has plenty of time to convince Devers it is the right move.

⚾ I'm all for players having an opinion, but Triston Casas seems like kind of a moron. Respectfully.

⚾ Anyone who texted, tweeted, or said out loud, “Time to trade Devers,” at any point this week is also a moron. Again, respectfully.

⚾ Overall, the Red Sox should be thrilled people are interested in the team and this little controversy in February.

More on a few Red Sox media notes below.

On a review of Come Home Monkey Boy…

I cried.

I’m okay admitting that to you, the MutStack reader and hopefully by now, the subscriber. Yes, there’s a moment in Come Home Monkey Boy, the Barstool Sports Documentary released this week, where there was a small tear in the left corner of my eye.

My face had a huge smile at the time and I was laughing, so it was a happy tear or two, but there was enough moisture that I noticed it.

And that was by far the most surprising thing about what I thought going in might be a mockumentary but ended up being much more than that: it was heartwarming enough to elicit a tear on a Tuesday morning before 8 AM.

Come Home Monkey Boy tells the story of Chris Ames and his role as Monkey Boy, a mascot for the now-defunct Nashua Pride minor league baseball team. Calling Historic Holman Stadium in Nashua his home, Monkey Boy was not a good-looking mascot.

His mask is more nightmare fuel than a sweet dream. But as someone who worked in Nashua radio in 2002, right at the peak of Monkey Boy fandom, I can tell you he was a huge deal. He would harass umpires, shoot fans with super soakers, and dance like a maniac. He was a huge draw for the Pride and helped sell tickets—a constant battle for most minor-league teams. I knew this going in, even if Monkey Boy is not a household name to most readers.

What I didn’t know was that Barstool’s Chris Klemmer was working for the Pride at the time and working with Monkey Boy. In 2002, Monkey Boy was such a big deal that he started getting regional and national gigs at various minor league games. Just as the idea that Monkey Boy - a mascot that the documentary points out started as a joke - could go national, Ames tore his ACL. Klemmer practiced hard to try and keep the act a hit but as he admits, he bombed.

“I was that bad and then some,” Klemmer told me Thursday. “We had a GM of a Double-A team scream at us after a game that I performed at. He said I was horrible and he didn’t want to pay me. I have rarely felt worse in my life.”

After Ames’ injury, Klemmer’s failures at being a good replacement, and a year or two of trying to keep the act going on the side, that was basically it for Ames and Monkey Boy. He’d eventually move to Florida with his family. Klemmer would go off to At a Theatre Near Me, The Kirk Minihane Show, and eventually Barstool Sports.

In 2011, Ames was invited back to Nashua as a new minor league team playing at Holman Stadium, the Nashua Silver Knights, was looking for a spark as they tried to clinch a playoff spot. Ames and his Monkey Boy character were part of that clinching but Ames was injured again when he was blindsided by an opposing player. The full video of this hit is in the documentary and made me physically angry on first viewing.

The film chronicles a chance at final redemption for both Ames and Klemmer some 12 years later. Two of Klemmer’s Barstool teammates, Nick and KB, pushed all of this forward because they did not believe Klemmer when he told old war stories of Monkey Boy’s popularity a few years ago on a Barstool show.

I’ve heard from multiple friends who are from the area and have watched Come Home Monkey Boy, a documentary of this cult hero mascot from New Hampshire, and the response has been very positive.

“Very positive,” Klemmer says of the reaction he’s received since the Monday night debut. “I knew Chris’s story was a great one. Who hasn’t felt like that about a personal dream on some level?”

And make no mistake, Ames is the star. He comes across as an immensely likable guy who almost made it big. I didn’t get a sense of regret from his commentary, but he does come across like someone who knows how close he was to breaking out in an industry that seems impossible to break out from.

If you’re from the area and are familiar with the old Nashua Pride, Holman Stadium, etc, there’s plenty of nostalgia that you’ll enjoy. But what Klemmer, KB, Nick, and the production team created in their storytelling is both funny and heartening enough that you could not know anything about Monkey Boy, and still end up cheering for the mascot and Ames by the end of the 62 minutes.

Cameos from former Red Sox outfielder and Nashua Pride DH Glen Murray, announcer Ken Cail, Pride Superfan ‘Mad Dog,’ and Ames’ own Monkey Boy Tatoo all stand out, as do Nick and KB’s ability to keep the story moving while being tongue and cheek about much of the adventure. The whole film is very well done.

Should to watch it? Yes. Will you cry? I don’t know.

But if you do, it’s okay to admit it.

You can watch Come Home Monkey Boy here on YouTube.

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On your sports media and sports betting notebook…

➡️ A pretty big job opening in Boston sports media that our friend RedSox Stats pointed out this week on social media. There was some immediate online chatter that either Pete Abraham or Alex Speier could be leaving the Red Sox beat. Instead, I’m told this posting is for the position held by Julian McWilliams. On the beat since June of 2019, McWilliams is reportedly taking over a more “national baseball role” for a major sports website, and thus leaving the Globe.

MassLive’s Chris Cotillo is an obvious candidate if the Globe hires someone locally. John Tomase, most recently at NBC Sports Boston, would also make sense as someone who has been on the Sox beat for multiple media outlets.

➡️ Another record month for sports betting in Massachusetts.

Could not match the December handle, but that 12.64% hold means the sports books beat up on the public in January—and that revenue record shows it. And if the public keeps firing on all those same-game parlays, the books will keep crushing. The January handle ($762 million) was still good enough to rank MA #4 in the US for the month.

➡️ In this week’s edition of “Fred Toucher Takes a Shot at his Former Partner Rich Shertenlieb,” Fred points out that Rich would frequently hijack basketball interviews. When I listened to the interviews with Brad Stevens, I found his to be 100% true - as if Rich was trying to prove to Brad and the audience that he was Bob Ryan. There was an interview during one of Fred’s hiatuses where this was PAINFULLY obvious - and even Stevens sounded uncomfortable. Thanks to Boston Media Critic for the video.

➡️ In what they’ll probably chalk up to a ‘worth it’ marketing move but seems pretty wild to me, Fanatics Sportbook says they’re going to pay out any straight bets on Victor Wembanyama to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. The NBA’s most exciting player was a -3500 favorite to win the award before he was ruled out for the season Thursday with blood clots. If you bet on him at Fanatics, you’re getting paid. The Philly-based book has taken heat from more seasoned sports bettors for their limiting practices, so maybe this is a chance to get some rare good PR. It also means more losing sports bettors begging for refunds on social media.

➡️ A media bombshell of sorts Thursday when MLB announced that they’ve agreed to a mutual opt-out with ESPN on their national television deal. No more Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. No more Home Run Derby coverage there, either. ESPN didn’t want to pay and MLB didn’t want to take less. The deal will end after the 2025 season and I have no clue who will end up with the rights.

➡️ With the first spring training radio game set for Saturday, as of Friday morning, still no official word from the Red Sox or WEEI about the plans for radio. MassLive.com reported this week that Middlebrooks is expected to call a bulk of the action as Will Flemming’s No. 1 analyst. One person I talked to this week said for home games, expect Middlebrooks to do the pregame for NESN at Fenway Park and then walk over and join Will for radio. I assume that means he’ll join Flemming on the road for all of those games?

Whatever they end up officially doing, the Sox have made it clear that the TV side is the main priority.

On your monthly update on my Celtics concern level…

January MutStack CCL (Celtics Concern Level) = 0.0%
February MutStack CCL = 0.0%

The NBA is down BAD. Fewer than 5 million people watched the All-Star Game Sunday: that’s down around 80% from 15 years ago and down over 12% from last year. Year-to-year, regular season ratings are down 5%.

The athleticism and skill of the players are off the charts, but the actual game has degraded into a three-point shooting contest. And falling TV ratings and lack of buzz for anything NBA (besides trades and trade talk) is evidence of a league desperate for answers. There’s a reason Commissioner Adam Silver is talking about shortening games and changing the rules.

But back to the Celtics. Zero rust out of the All-Star break as they smoked the Sixers Thursday night. When healthy, they are still the best team in the NBA. You can still get them at -105 to win the East. Their NBA Title odds have floated up to +235 at DraftKings (as low as +175 at FanDuel). The Cavs adding De’Andre Hunter is nice, but should not scare off any Celtics fan.

My guess is this team starts racking up blowout wins as we get closer to the playoffs. At their current odds above, they’re still bettable if you crave the action. Personally, I’ll save my wagering dollars for no-chance PGA Tour longshots and Kentucky Derby Preps.

And with that, we have for sure said it all.

Speaking of the Derby…back Saturday to handicap a pair of Prep races. We get one each day, with Oaklawn pushing the Rebel Stakes card to Sunday.

Good luck with all the bets this weekend. A reminder your feedback is always welcome. And thanks for reading.

Good weekend.