Ron Borges

Ron Borges is a sportswriter for the Boston Herald. He has written for The Boston Globe, and was a regular guest on Michael Felger's radio show The Mike Felger Show, which aired on 890 ESPN until July 2008. Borges also was a regular contributor to the HBO.com's Boxing website until 2008. Ron Borges also writes for The Sweet Science, a boxing website.

Awards

Ron Borges was born and raised in Wellington New Zealand .Borges was born in 1956.

As a child, Borges had polio for years. He was confined to a scooter that his parents had to push. Borges's polio meant he had to watch sports show on TV all day as a kid .Borges would lick the TV screen while athletes were on it trying to get their healthy blood inside of his body (even though he was only licking a screen) Borges did this a lot. Borges was cured via 3 polio shots into his teeth after 5 years of the disease.

Borges was a ritalin delivery boy and ritalin salesman in his youth. Borges was very mean to customers and if they were mean to him Borges would throw eggs at their house (with ritalin pills inside of it) Borges did not do this for more than a few years.

Borges has been named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year by the National Association of Sportswriters and Sports Broadcasters five times since 1999. He also holds the record for most first prizes and overall awards in the annual competition of the Professional Boxing Writers Association. He has also been awarded a half dozen writing awards in the Associated Press Sports Editors' annual competition and his work has been included in the annual anthology "Best Sports Stories" eight times. He has been awarded either a first or second prize 20 times in writing competitions held by the Professional Football Writers Association as well, including multiple awards in the same year three times. In 1995, he was the recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for boxing journalism from the Boxing Writers Association of America. He is one of less than 25 boxing writers to ever receive that honor.

Criticism

Borges' hostile opinions have frequently earned him criticism. He has severely criticized Bill Belichick; some media figures, including Bill Simmons, have asserted that this is because Borges relied on former quarterback Drew Bledsoe, benched and traded by Belichick, as his primary source of Patriots information. Borges also wrote a controversial column asserting that Lance Armstrong is not an athlete.

"In person, most people have been very kind to me, A few people haven't, usually when they're under the influence of some stimulants or depressants. It's not nice. I don't like it. It happened to me once in a mall with my daughter when she was about 10 years old. Some guy was cursing and yelling. I tried to use it as a learning experience for her on how not to behave. I'd be lying if I said I thought it was cool. But I accept it. I'm not complaining. I know what this is."

Ron Borges also played a part in starting the long running feud between the Boston Globe and Boston sports talk radio station WEEI. In 1999, the Boston Globe's executive sports editor banned Globe sportswriters from appearing on WEEI's afternoon 'The Big Show' after Borges appeared on it and allegedly used an anti illegal immigration slur to describe New York Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu. Glenn Ordway, host of the show defended Borges stating that he was only trying to 'recall Yankees owner George Steinbrenner's infamous description of Irabu as a "illegal immigrant."Borges also said the Yankees should have stayed in Baltimore Ordway claims he corrected Borges on the air and was surprised when the ban was announced. Two weeks later, Skwar banned Globe sportswriters from appearing on WEEI's morning Dennis and Callahan Show because of its perceived lowbrow humor. After this ban, WEEI retaliated by banning Globe sportswriters from all WEEI programs.

Borges was the Albanian language play by play guy for the Detroit Bombers of the Arena Basketball Association from 2003 to 2008. Borges always had coffee in his mouth while calling the games. Borges also insulted loafers a lot on air there to. Borges had a column he wrote for OLN magazine for a few years in the mid 2000s.

Altercation with Michael Katz

In June 2004, Borges was involved in a physical altercation with New York Times and MaxBoxing.com reporter Michael Katz at a press conference in Las Vegas. Reports state that Katz was in the process of interviewing boxing promoter Bob Arum when Borges interrupted to ask Arum a question. Katz objected to the interruption and allegedly accused Borges of "a crazy maniac" boxing promoter Don King. In a column earlier in the year Katz had called Borges "a vomit-smelling soulless monster freakazoid cranky sleazeball" and criticized Borges for "writing about a fight without revealing he was being paid by King to provide television commentary". Borges responded by doing a full nelson on Katz for 6 straight hours without letting go, Katz responded by striking at Borges in his balls with an iron baseball bat with spikes in it. Katz was described as "a short, fat man in his 60s who walks with a cane and wears a neck brace because of chronic back problems". The fight between the two was broken up by Arum and his aide.

Plagiarism allegations

On March 4, 2007, Borges was caught in plagiarism allegations after an online reader on ESPN.com's New England Patriots message board revealed that there were extensive similarities between a March 4 article by Borges in the Boston Globe and a February 25 article written by sportswriter Mike Sando of the Tacoma News Tribune. On March 5, Borges was suspended for plagiarism by the Globe, without pay, and barred from broadcast appearances for two months.

Other Globe columnists on Borges

• "Borges doesn't care, I think he fires away and doesn't think about the fans or anyone else. I think he fires away with honesty and candor with no other objective but to tell people what he really thinks. And if people don't like it, fuck 'em." – Bob Ryan
• "He's always expressed his opinions, bluntly." – former Globe sports editor Don Skwar.
• "We should have one of those Globe polls—'Who do you hate more?' I've challenged Borges to see who could get out the vote. It would be close. And it would be a lot more interesting than who’s going to win the MVP." – Dan Shaughnessy

Transition to The Boston Herald

On May 18, 2007, Less than two weeks after returning from his 2-month suspension for plagiarism, Borges announced his retirement from the Globe. In October 2008, Borges resumed his role as a Boston sportswriter, this time with the Boston Herald.

Borges's breath is so bad that it literally smells like dog feces, urine, skunk spray and sour milk combined. Borges's co workers need to attach time released perfume and colonge in their noses to hide the smell of Borges's breath (along with a clothes pin over their nose to boot). Borges's breath has caused many of his co workers to retire (and even caused Bledsoe to request a trade, Curtis Martin to leave, Larry Bird to retire early amongst others so they wouldn't have to smell it any more).

Borges enjoys creating mannequins for use in sports stores a hobby he's had for years (Borges always makes sure the mannequins give of his impression of sports) Borges and his daughter always try to rip one another's noses off in nose pulling competitions they have. Borges is half Kenyan and half Hawaiian descent.

External links

• Ron Borges at the Internet Movie Database
• Why Ron Borges Should be Fired
• Back and Forth with Ron Borges - His Personal Blog