Meet The Team
Welcome Boston Sports Fans
Welcome to Boston Sports Then and Now, where fans can stay updated on the current happenings in Boston area sports while also regularly looking back at great moments, teams, players and games in Boston sports history. This site is for you, the fan, so please share your thoughts, memories and opinions.
What is Sports Then and Now?
The history of sports in America is long and glorious, but too often the athletes, moments and memories of the past are forgotten when analyzing the issues and events of the current sports world. Sports Then and Now takes the “hot button” issues of today’s sports world and looks at them in the context of sports history.
Sports Then and Now is intended to be a place where all sports fans can talk about what is happening today while also reminiscing about great players, teams, games and moments from the past. Suggestions for story ideas, links and other content are always welcome.
We are also always looking for good writers, so if you have a passion about a team, city, player or sport and want a chance to share your ideas with other sports fans, this is the perfect place for you.
Send any story ideas or comments on the site to: bostonsportsthenandnow@gmail.com.
~Site Bios~
Dean Hybl - Creator
Dean Hybl has lived and breathed sports for more than 40 years and is excited about the opportunity to develop a sports site where fans can share a passion for sports history while also keeping up-to-date on current issues in the world of sports.
Dean learned to read so that he could read the stats on the back of his baseball cards and has been a passionate fan ever since.
After playing sports in high school and then writing about sports for the school newspaper and Sports Information Office while in college at James Madison University, Dean had the chance to live out every sports fans dream.
In the summer of 1989, Dean served as a public relations intern for the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles went 11-5 that season and made trips to London, San Diego, Miami and many other places that were new territory for a 21-year old from a small, rural community in Southern Virginia. The opportunity to meet and work with such greats as Buddy Ryan, Randall Cunningham, Reggie White, Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown, Matt Cavanaugh, Terry Hoage and Al Harris was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Dean then did an internship with the Richmond Braves, then the Triple-A affiliate for the Atlanta Braves, and got to see future stars including Dave Justice, Steve Avery and Kent Mercker on their way to the majors.
For the next 15 years, Dean served as a college sports information director first at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and then at Rollins College in Florida. These great experienced allowed Dean to meet and work with many great young student-athletes and to continue cultivating his passion for sports.
Dean now writes about sports and sports history and has a communications consulting business in Orlando.
His sports writing has recently been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal Daily Sports Fix and by Rob Neyer in his SweetSpot blog.
Joe Gill – Site Director
Joe Gill
Growing up in the suburbs north of Boston, Joe is a devoted fan of the New England Patriots (season ticket holder for 18 years) and Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins (bleeds black and gold). He also follows the Red Sox and Celtics, but due to the heartbreak of the ’86 World Series and retirement of Larry Bird, not a die hard fan.
Joe has been with BST&N since 2009 as a featured blogger, marketing manager and now the site director. Joe has helped build Boston Sports Then & Now into a highly respected and award nominated sports blog.
Joe is also the creator of the successful Boston Sports Blogapalooza networking event.
Contact Joe Gill at bostonsportsthenandnow@gmail.com.
Follow Joe on Twitter.
Carl Desberg - Content Manager
Carl Desberg
Carl Desberg, who joined BSTN in May 2010, began blogging because his friends thought he should share his unique opinions on Boston sports. Ten months after starting his own blog, Carl joined the BSTN team in an effort to continue his day-to-day analysis of events, while also reminiscing on the recent rich championship history of the city.
With baseball as his first love, Carl’s house is a mini Cooperstown cluttered with old time player autographs and a specific section dedicated to his favorite player Ken Griffey Jr. A devoted Red Sox fan, Carl is proud to say he jumped on the Patriots and Celtics bandwagon well before their championship runs. He is a true Boston sports fan through and through.
Follow Carl on Twitter.
Matthew Jacob – Featured Bruins Columnist
Matthew Jacob
Matthew is studying Interdisciplinary Studies at Fitchburg State University. He joined Boston Sports Then & Now in August of 2011 and has been the featured Boston Bruins writer since. Originally studying to become a history teacher, Matthew decided to focus on something he really loves with writing and the NHL. A Bruins fan since birth, he has studied and analyzed the team for years and years. One of Matthews happiest moments was finally seeing his Boston bruins bring home the Stanley Cup to its rightful place in Boston. A championship culminated on hard work and dedication making the Bruins a team in which New England fans can relate with. A true Bruins fan for life and an avid researcher of all things NHL.
Follow Matthew on Twitter.
Dan Flaherty - Historical Featured Columnist
Dan Flaherty
Dan Flaherty is America’s foremost long-distance admirer of the city of Boston. He grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee and with each passing year came to admire Boston more and more, with its rich American-Irish background, being the home of Cheers and last, but not least, its extraordinary professional sports heritage.
It began when he was a young lad of seven during the 1977 AL East race, when he watched a September battle between the Yankees and Red Sox with a baseball-crazy great-aunt. They cursed the Yanks together as Mickey Rivers tripled and scored the winning run and Beantown’s heart was broken. A year later Dan was racing the six blocks between home and school on his bike to watch the last five innings of the epic 1978 playoff game with the Yanks.
Becoming a full-scale Boston sports fan took time though, and was not without its setbacks. During high school, Dan had the audacity to like the Lakers and Mets, the biggest proof there is of a troubled teen. It was the aftermath of the 1986 World Series and the heartbreak Beantown suffered, that he began the road back to respectability.
Over the next ten years his youthful love of the Red Sox was gradually rekindled and by the start of the 1997 season he was ready to come home. In the intervening time he also came on board to the Celtics and in recent years his passion for hockey has steadily increased and seeing the Bruins win the Stanley Cup has become a new holy grail. Dan still loves the Washington Redskins in the NFL–dating back to when his father was a big George Allen fan in the late 70s–and the ‘Skins after all, have their origins in 1930s Fenway Park. But the Pats are his secondary team without hesitation. He is glad to be a part of the BST&N team and be able to contribute to preserving a heritage that drew his attention from half a country away.
Andy Larmand - Staff Blogger
Andy Larmand
Andy is a junior Print Journalism major at Suffolk University in Boston and a former Suffolk baseball player. He began writing sophomore year and decided to switch from broadcast to print.
Andy has been with BST&N since October, 2012 and spent the fall writing about the Patriots, including game recaps, news stories and feature stories.
Currently 21 years old and living in the North End of Boston. Grew up in Dracut, Ma., but no one knows where that is. Lifelong Red Sox fan. Began to love the Patriots and Bruins as he grew older and now is a regular at the TD Garden sporting black and gold (when he can afford it). He is not a Green Teamer, however.
His favorite Boston athletes of all-time include the one-namers, Nomar, Pedro and Manny as well as Wes Welker, Troy Brown, Sergei Samsonov, P.J. Stock, Pokey Reese, Johnny Damon, Kevin Millar and, of course, Walter McCarty.
Jack Edwards is the man.
His predictions come true about 25 percent of the time.
Follow Andy on Twitter.
Ryan Kuketz – Staff Blogger
Ryan Kuketz
Ryan Kuketz studied Communications at the University of Bridgeport, and later at Worcester State University. He was born and raised in Worcester MA, and has been a Red Sox fan since birth. He wrote for the University of Bridgeport “Scribe”, and later went onto to be the associate editor of the Worcester State “Student Voice.” He joined the BST&N staff in May 2012 covering the Red Sox and Patriots.
He started to get into the Patriots in 2001 when he was 12, and feels very fortunate to have been a fan for 3 Super Bowl championships. He’s also a fan of the Celtics and Bruins. His favorite basketball player of all time is “The Truth,” and he looks forward to seeing #34 hang in the rafters once his career is over. Ryan is also a big Liverpool Football Club supporter (that’s soccer), but makes sure people know he supported Liverpool before the Red Sox ownership and LeBron James bought the team.
He has witnessed 2 Patriots AFC Championships in person, a Celtics Eastern Conference Championship, and Jon Lester’s No-Hitter. His favorite Boston athlete of all time is Pedro, and he plans to be in Cooperstown in a couple years when he is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Follow Ryan on Twitter.
Nathan Farrell – Staff Blogger
Nathan Farrell
Nathan Farrell is an undergraduate student at Rhode Island College, majoring in Mass Media Communication. He joined BSTN in May 2012 covering the not so great Red Sox season, but is still a huge fan of the team.
As the baseball season ended he began to cover the Patriots. Nathan attended his first Red Sox game at five years old and has been in love with baseball since. Living in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Nathan get’s to see the stats of tomorrow for both the Red Sox and Bruins. He has built a sports museum in his room and continues to add to the collection even without wall space.
A morning radio show is where Nathan hope’s his career with take him but a job in the front office of a professional sports franchise wouldn’t be bad either. With that Nathan enjoys any sports conversation of any sport and making it last. He is not a bandwagon fan and his sports knowledge is something he is proud of. Writing about sports has helped Nathan get his opinion out there and enjoys making predictions, whether they are right or wrong. He enjoys reading sports books and continuing to learn about athletes and history of the past especially of the Boston sports teams.
Kevin Dennis – Staff Blogger
Kevin Dennis
Kevin was born an Irish Boston Celtic as he came out of the womb wearing Red Sox and was seen bleeding black and gold. He has been to countless Pats, Celts, B’s, and Sox games and he enjoys heckling visiting fans. He is a fan of all sports as he has been to the Final Four the past two years in Houston and New Orleans. Some may call him a Masshole, others call him a diehard Boston fan.
Kevin graduated from Rhode Island College with a B.A. in Communications. He currently works in the Health and Benefits industry but his true passion is sports journalism. He would like to eventually write about sports for a living but for now he enjoys doing it as a hobby.
You can read Kevin’s articles on the Bruins and Celtics on Boston Sports Then and Now.
Joey Goldstein – Staff Blogger
Joey Goldstein
Joey, a Worcester native, is finishing his senior year at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and he is going to graduate in May with a degree in communication. Joey has always loved sports and he joined the BST&N team because he wants to share his thoughts and views with the BST&N audience. To call him a sports junky would be an understatement and although he can be a harsh critic at times, through the good times and the bad Joey truly loves his hometown teams.
Joey has always been a fan of Boston sports, especially the Red Sox and Patriots. His most memorable Boston sports moment was when he got to watch the Patriots play in the Superbowl back in 2005. He loves going to the Garden, Fenway and Gillette to watch his teams play. Although basketball is not his first love, he would never consider rotting for anyone other than the Celtics. Joey is also a big Bruins fan and he cannot express how happy he is that the lockout is finally over.
After graduation this coming May, Joey hopes to stay connected to the sports world. He currently is a game day/community relations intern with the Worcester Sharks. His ultimate goal is to work full time for a team (professional or collegiate) but if that doesn’t work out, sports writing wouldn’t be too bad to fall back on!
Follow Joey On Twitter.
Email Joey at Jgoldstein422@gmail.com.
Zach Werner – Staff Blogger
Zach Werner
Zach Werner is one of several BST&N’s writers currently living in enemy territory:
New York. He grew up in the Easton, a suburb of Boston and first found his true love of sports at the age of nine, in 1997, during the Patriots/Packers Super Bowl. After that his
love for Boston Sports was unquenchable. Every night when he had a curfew for bed he would fall asleep listening to Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano on the Red Sox WEEI
broadcast.
He would go on to use this affinity for sports to drive his middle school, high school and college sport passions. In middle school he was a basketball player, in high school he
played both baseball and basketball. High school was also Zach’s first experience with sports writing, as he wrote a weekly article for the school paper during his Senior year.
While Zach’s love for Boston sports has been consistent, he is a Celtics fan first. This is subsequently followed in the order of: Patriots, Red Sox, and Bruins.
Zach attended Syracuse University in college and would wind up majoring in Sports Management. During a Junior year internship with the Boston Celtics, during the 2010
NBA Finals, Zach got his first taste of the ins and outs of the professional basketball world from up close. That internship has propelled Zach to have his strongest interest in
writing Basketball pieces today; however, he is happy to contribute in any way he can.
A true fan of writing, Zach joined BST&N in the summer of 2011. He is happy to have the privilege, and access, to an open forum to express his opinions.
Follow Zach on Twitter.
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