Day 290: Red Sox or Love Connection?

NESN, the home television network of the Boston Red Sox, has always employed a really pretty woman as their side-line eye candy reporter as part of their broadcast team. There was Tina Cervasio, Heidi Watney and their most current on-field babe, Jenny Dell, to name a few.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jenny last spring when she and Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy visited Portland on their tour of New England in an attempt to reignite love for the Red Sox after a dismal previous season. She was really nice and little—my height actually (5'2"). I liked her. It's a real gift to sound genuinely interested in some random person you're forced to make small talk with, and she never once made me feel like I was bothering her in the five minutes we spent together.

There's always that stigma, where female sports reporters are concerned, that they're in the business to land themselves a man. I remember the rumors that Heidi Watney broke up Jason Varitek's marriage. I've never found any solid evidence to the contrary, but even Tek's current wife came to Heidi's rescue on Twitter back in 2012 when she was being accused of having an affair with the former Sox captain.

After Heidi left and Jenny took over, I never heard anything about her chasing jocks. Evidently, I was completely wrong and Jenny Dell is the ultimate ninja jock chaser. It turns out that not only is she dating Sox third baseman, Will Middlebrooks, they're living together! That tells me that this relationship has been going on for some time now... either that or she's just easy. About a week after the Boston Globe reported that the two were an item, they tweeted out a happy New Year's Eve photo.... looks like a love connection to me!

Hmmmm... what do I think about this development? Part of me thinks, hey, good for you. But the other part of me is all like, errrrr... is that really professional? The guy you're supposed to be reporting on is sleeping next to you. This is a guy you might have to ask about a recent sucky slump or how his obstruction play nearly cost the Red Sox the World Series. How do you do that?

Now word on the street is that Jenny is entertaining an offer from Fox Sports 1. Probably maybe a job she should consider taking. Now that the jig is up and the whole world knows she's shacking up with Middlebrooks, there could be quite a backlash for NESN and lots of questions to answer.

Could be worse, I guess. Middlebrooks could be in prison awaiting a murder trial.