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Not My Job: Boston's Dick Flavin Is Quizzed On The 'Worst Poet Ever'

Humorist and Boston Red Sox Poet Laureate Dick Flavin recites "Teddy at the Bat" during the Ted Williams tribute on July 22, 2002 at Fenway Park in Boston.
Darren McCollester
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Humorist and Boston Red Sox Poet Laureate Dick Flavin recites "Teddy at the Bat" during the Ted Williams tribute on July 22, 2002 at Fenway Park in Boston.

Everybody knows the Boston Red Sox are unique — in that they have the most pretentious, literary fans in all of baseball. Sure, the Yankees may have more World Championships, but only Red Sox fans routinely compare their team to the tragic heroes of Greek Drama.

So it's fitting that they have an official poet. Dick Flavin is an Emmy-award winning broadcaster, a PA announcer at Fenway Park, and, yes, the Poet Laureate of the Boston Red Sox.

Flavin is of course, an excellent poet, so in a game called "The worst poet in the entire world," he is being asked about his opposite, William McGonnagal, who in the 19th Century was widely hailed as the worst poet alive.

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