It won't play in Peoria

The Peoria Chiefs (Cubs) were at the Dayton Dragons (Reds) last night and the game made the national news. That's almost never a good thing. When minor league teams make the national media, it's either because a player did something particularly unusual (there's the famous highlight of the right fielder literally running through the outfield wall to make a catch), or because the news is bad. More often than not, the big league team doesn't want to see their affiliates' names in the press unless it's in the context of, "Ortiz reported to the Sea Dogs for a rehab assignment."

Otherwise they're looking at news like Mike Coolbaugh's freak death, or Delmon Young's assault of an umpire.

The Cubs can't be happy this morning. And of the two teams, they're the ones that should have the most trouble from today's news. The roots of the incident were summarized in the AP report as -

Dayton pitcher Kyle Lotzkar hit Peoria's Nate Samson with a pitch in the top of the first. In the inning's bottom half, Castillo hit Dayton's Zack Cozart in the head with a pitch. Cozart fell to the ground, was helped to the dugout and didn't return.

Several batters later, Castillo hit Angel Cabrera, who angrily threw his bat and batting gloves toward his dugout before taking first. Dayton's next batter hit an infield grounder, and Cabrera made an aggressive slide into second to break up the double play.

Castillo followed that with a high-and-tight pitch to the next batter, Brandon Menchaca, prompting Dayton manager Donnie Scott to complain to the home plate umpire. Interim Peoria manager Carmelo Martinez came on the field to join the discussion.

That led to an argument between the two managers, and when Martinez pushed Scott, the benches emptied.

All of this led to Castillo, after the benches emptied, throwing a fastball at the opposing dugout which went into the stands and injured a fan. Castillo is currently facing charges for aggravated assault and, if you saw the footage, is likely facing jail time.

I want to dissect what happened here, because a lot of this should never have happened, and almost all of this can be laid at the feet of Martinez, the team's interim manager while Ryne Sandberg is in Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame ceremonies, and the umpires.

Lotzkar was a compensatory first round pick in the supplemental draft. On the season, according to minors.baseball-reference.com he's 0-3 in four starts (16 innings pitched) with a 6.19 ERA, giving up 14 runs (11 earned) on 14 hits, and 15 walks with one hit by pitch (I don't know if that includes yesterday's game) and one wild pitch. Not a pitcher with the best control in the world.

Contrast that with Castillo who has appeared in six games with three starts over 22 innings and put together a 2.86 ERA with 22 hits and 10 walks.

Lotzkar, projected for the same number of innings gives up 19 hits and walks 21. Tell me, which of the two of these guys sounds like they have no trouble finding the strike zone? The one who has less than half the number of walks than hits allowed, or the one who has issued more free-passes than given up hits?

Yet, somehow Castillo hit the first batter in the head, then beaned another and nearly, according to reports, hits a third in the head.

After Castillo hit the first guy - considering he hit him in the head and the player didn't return - the ump should probably have tossed him then. At the very least a warning should have been issued and there's no way Castillo should have still been on the mound after the second batter was hit.

Given that the umps didn't do this, it was certainly understandable that Dayton manager Scott would want to talk to the umpire. What I don't understand is why Martinez felt he needed to be out there. There was no reason for him to be out there.

All Martinez did was escalate the issue, attacking the other team's manager when he shouldn't have been anywhere near the man.

The only way for this to be handled properly - Castillo needs to serve jail time and the Cubs need to can Martinez. I can't help but think that if Sandberg was sitting on the bench, at least some of this wouldn't have escalated the way it did.

If you missed it, here's the ESPN footage -

Mid-week observations after a couple of busy ones...

Well, it's official that the Boston Herald is definitively not having John Tomase walk into a Patriots locker room ever again. Currently Tomase is either no longer employed by the paper, or he's on vacation, as it's been ten days since they have printed anything by the reporter who ran with the story on the Patriots allegedly taping a Rams Super Bowl walk through.

After taking a beating at the hands of the Angels, the Red Sox went into Seattle to find a tonic to cure what ailed them. The Mariners, tied for the second worst record in the league dropped three in a row after the Sox did the same in Anaheim.

Lester continues to cruise, and the Sox are about to get what appears to be a healthy David Ortiz back into a line-up that, despite their offensive road woes, leads the AL in average (.280), and is second in the AL in runs with 517 scored.

For years a number of pundits have asked what the Red Sox line-up would do without David Ortiz in the heart of it. Now we know.

The team has alternately been carried by Dustin Pedroia (.321, 47 RBI's), Kevin Youkilis (.311, 68), JD Drew (.291, 57), and Mike Lowell (.287, 61). In spite of Manny's impressive numbers (.301, 62), and maybe it's because of all the stupid stuff - the whine about the contract, the attack of the traveling secretary - but something about his numbers feel a little hollow this year. At no time does it feel like he was part of the effort to keep the team afloat. Realistically, I would have to check the situations surrounding his RBI's, but something about Manny feels decidedly A-Rodish this season.

And on a final note - is there just something about Detroit and Basketball, or what?

Taylor-made trade

So Jason Taylor is now on the Redskins for the reasonable ransom of Miami's second-rounder next year, and a sixth-rounder in the 2010 draft. The debate has begun as to who won - who made out best at the end of the day.

Let's begin by noting that no one will really know, of these two teams, who the real winner is for a couple of years, but here are some thoughts on the trade...

In the long run, it's likely that the Dolphins were winners here if you consider the following...a second rounder and a sixth rounder used right can amount to some significant long-term help. Consider Matt Light (2nd rounder) and Tom Brady (6th rounder), or Adalius Thomas (6th rounder) and Lawyer Milloy (2nd rounder) - all of those are players that have contributed long-term in the NFL. Especially considering Jason Taylor's expressed intent to retire at the end of next season, the Dolphins team has a chance to make this trade work out well for them - but that depends on Bill Parcells' ability to buy the right groceries.

As for the Redskins...well, sure, they get a six time pro-bowler, but this isn't the first time under Dan Snyder's watch that the 'Skins have brought in a multiple pro-bowler...Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, Jerome Mathis, and Mark Brunell are a small cross-section of the high end players that the Snyder regime has brought in. They are members of a fraternity of Washington players that accounted for 26 pro-bowls previous to signing with Snyder in the nation's capital (Taylor will bring the number to 32).

The 'Skins, of course, are hoping to break that jinx with Taylor, but even if they do, they're only getting a season, maybe two from him. I would be surprised if he played any longer, given his very public sentiments to get involved in other post-career endeavors. Given the division, and everything the 'Skins have going against them, I don't see Taylor in a significantly better situation...

Yes, the Redskins made great strides last season finishing third in the NFC East with a 9-7 record - this in spite of a quarterback who often looked not-quite-ready for prime time. However, they are starting from scratch with a new coaching staff and a new system in a division in which they have the fourth best quarterback and an unproven commodity at coach.

Taylor now finds himself anchoring a defense on a team looking up at the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants, the defending NFC East champion Dallas Cowboys, and perennial contender Philadelphia Eagles.

Let's look at it a little differently - if Taylor had his choice of teams, rather than being shipped in a trade, yet still limiting it to the NFC East, is he choosing the team with Super Bowl winning coach Tom Coughlin? The team with Andy Reid, the only coach to go to the NFC Championship Game four consecutive seasons? Or Wade Phillips who has had only one losing season as a head coach? Or Jim Zorn, a career coordinator? I'm guessing it's not the last one.

So, who is really the winner in this case?

I don't think it's either the 'Skins who get a one year rental or the 'Phins who get question marks.

Nope.

It's Tom Brady and Matt Light.

While the Patriots have beaten the Dolphins pretty regularly over the last couple of years, the games against them have been about a struggle. Jason Taylor has been a big part of that, making life miserable twice a year for Brady and Light and now he's gone.

They win.

Reaping what they sow

The house of cards that Roger Clemens has built is crumbling. Quickly.

Consider - Sure, his accuser is about as shady as back alley with a roof covering, but Brian McNamee has had his story corroborated by multiple sources, including by Clemens' buddy Andy Pettitte, fellow steroid distributor Kirk Radomski, and even to some extent, by Clemens himself (way to throw your wife under the bus, Roger).

Clemens has a baby sitter who appears to have been tampered with and a Jose Canseco testimony that appears to have been contradicted by photographic evidence.

To put it plainly, if you're going to do something illegal, don't leave a paper trail. It will come back to feast on your ass like a rabid hyena on a slow, fat kid.

As far as one's arrogance leading to digging a hole for one's self, Brett Favre is quickly making himself into the second coming of Terrell Owens.

Evidently he spoke in vague generalities while accusing Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy of not being honest with him. The Packers GM and Coach responded with specifics as to repeatedly asking Favre back.

As near as I can tell, Favre was upset that Thompson a) failed to re-sign two of Favre long-time protectors along the line, opting instead for youth along the O-line, b) failed to land Randy Moss in a trade, refusing to mortgage the future of the team in so doing. In essence, Favre doesn't trust Thompson because Thompson wants Favre to be a quarterback, and not do his general managing job for him. Go figure.

Now, Favre is "tempted to call their bluff," but is unwilling to file the paperwork for reinstatement until it wouldn't cost him any money to avoid mandatory minicamps and to just come into training camp - where he could, effectively, be disruptive.

The funny thing, in his effort to create public support, all he has done is alienate even the majority of Packer fans. A recent show of support for the NFL's least wanted man outside of Lambeau drew fewer than 200 fans.

And, often times, those who are supporting Favre are not only blinded by their hero-worship, but evidently aren't as knowledgeable as people like to say Packers fans are supposed to be - as demonstrated by this recent letter to Mike Silver -

“Your article about making the hard call in Green Bay shows why you write for a living and are not in football operations. If Green Bay’s GM dumps a proven Pro Bowl QB over QB who hasn’t proven anything he won’t be a GM for long.”

Ken Biddle
Philadelphia

Let's see -

Daryle Lamonica was replaced by Kenny Stabler, and he was replaced by Jim Plunkett. Nobody was complaining about Al Davis' personnel moves in the early 1980's

Joe Montana was traded in favor of Steve Young who wasn't showing a whole lot in Tampa. Sure, the 49ers brain-trust caught some flak when they traded Montana, but three Super Bowl trophies later, no San Fran fan is saying that it was the wrong move.

And, of course, within the last decade the Patriots dropped pro-bowler Drew Bledsoe for an unproven sixth round draft pick. Three Super Bowls (two trophies later), none of the Pats fans are calling for Scott Pioli's head.

For the fans

I used to watch the All-Star game.

I still remember back in the late 1980's when Dwight Evans made his last one. Late in a close game, Evans was in right with speedster Tim Raines on third. Evans charged hard on a sinking liner as Raines cheated up the line, waiting for his chance to break on the ball. The rock hit the ground about a step in front of Evans and Raines broke. Dewey played the ball cleanly and fired, as he did many a time from Fenway's eastern-most lawns, a heat seeking laser.

Raines stopped after two steps, and walked back to third, watching the throw.

He knew.

I remember actually being excited about the All-Star game. Watching people at or close to the top of their game. Sure, there was the occasional player who really didn't belong. But most of the time these were the guys.

Then, somewhere along the way the players stopped taking it seriously and baseball worried about their cash cow - a meaningless game intended to maximize viewership and minimize other real costs associated with the 162 game drag of a season. They wanted us to believe that it was about the fans, want us to still believe - that tickets to an event with no real impact and stars appearing for an inning or two at a time selling for hundreds of dollars is about us and not their bottom line. That a voting process that doesn't allow for the best shortstop this year to be starting, or a catcher batting under .220 is a good thing for the game.

It's not.

It's not a good thing for the game, and it's not about anything other than the corporation that is Major League Baseball finding another way to line their pockets.

I, for one, would be happy to see the MLB All-Star game go, as well as the NFL's Pro-Bowl. Just do the all-pro lists, keep the fan voting away from it and call it good. Just stop telling me that this annual ritual in money grubbing and the fans, as it is only the soft-minded fan that really believes this game is about him or her and not about lining the corporate pockets.

Before I sign off for the evening, I would like to note that I was going to touch on the Brett Favre cluster-fuck, but I think that no one out there has addressed this better than Paul Zimmerman at si.com.

Never.

Never.

It's an absolute. There is no wiggle room.

And, by the time I had reached my 34th birthday, there were certain Nevers in professional sports that I had concluded would fail to happen during my lifetime. I think I stated that right.

For example, after the 2003 post-season collapse, I was certain I was never going to see a Red Sox World Series championship. That wasn't going to stop me from saying at the beginning of every season, "this year's gonna be the year," but there was always that "never" sitting in the back of my head.

Sure, there are gonna be those people that say the true fans would never give up hope, but after 30 years of fandom as a hard-core, card-carrying member of the Nation, 30 years of 1975's, 78's, 86's, 88's, 90's, 96's, and a deep and abiding knowledge of what came before, it was like 30 years of being a faithful dog getting kicked. Hard. Eventually that seed of doubt was going to take hold and cling like a spider-monkey afraid of heights. 2003 was the final straw, 2003, when Pedro was left on the mound too long was when "never" set in.

Too many years of Mookie Wilsons and Bill Buckners and Bob Stanleys and Calvin Schiraldis. Too many times when the team crapped out against immortals like Dave Stewart, or shot themselves in the foot with bizarre managerial decisions from the likes of John McNamara or Grady Little.

Something had to give.

It was so bad that I turned off game four of the 2004 post-season series against the Yankees sometime around the seventh inning. Down three games to none, I was convinced the series was over, and didn't want to subject myself to that sort of pain.

While the cynic still resides in me somewhere, it's not quite as apt to surface the way it once did. At least, not with the Sox.

I bring all this up, because it appears that the Rooney family, as close to royalty as the NFL gets, is shopping around their shares in the Steelers.

There are certain absolutes that I expect in professional sports, and one is that the Rooneys would always own the Steelers, just as I expect the Yankees will always be in The Bronx, The Packers in Green Bay, and that Los Angeles will always be a tough sell in regards to getting hard-cores into the ball-parks/football fields and getting the people to stay in the stands until the end of the game.

The Rooneys looking to sell their shares in the Steelers...well, that's enough to make me rethink a lot of the other stuff.

Taking five between freelance

I'm in the middle of an editing assignment after cranking through deadlines for an article on an upcoming blues festival and one for my usual gig with the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, both of which were due on Tuesday. Right now I'm editing a press release for a DC area financial firm, and I needed five or ten minutes to decompress from the financial terms and occasional government speak that permeate the piece I'm working on.

So, just some quick observations -

• Were the Twins pitchers aware that they were not throwing batting practice? Sox hitters, overall for that final game of the series, batted .500. The only Sox player without a hit was rookie Jeff Bailey who was pinch ran and took over in left field (take Bailey's one at bat out of the equation and the Sox hit .511 and the next worst in-game average is Brandon Moss' 1 for 5, .200 performance). At the other end of the spectrum was Jacoby Ellsbury who hit a gaudy .667, leading a contingent of players that include Kevin Youkilis, Manny Ramirez (way to bust that slump), and Sean Casey, who hit at least .600 for the game.
• Making the 23-hit assault even more amazing for the Sox is the fact that Twins pitchers walked only two during the game and the Sox only left seven men on base. The Twins, on the other hand, left 12 men on base.
• If someone had told be before this homestand that both Jon Lester and Josh Beckett were going to give up five earned a piece, I would have said the Sox were going to lose at least one of those.
• The Red Sox now stand only two games behind the Rays. With the Rays on the road tonight, and emulating the Sox "great at home, suck on the road model," there's every chance that the Sox will be starting their series against the Orioles only one-and-a-half back.
• Speaking of the Rays, their final game of the two-game set against the Yankees in the Bronx was Mustache Day, with the Bombers giving away porn-staches to their patrons in honor of their best offensive force - Jason Giambi. I can't help wondering if with the 'staches, they gave away little vials marked, "steroids."
• On an off-the field note, letters to writers like the majority of these tend to sadden me, and sometimes anger me. A quick background - Yahoo! writer Tim Brown wrote a piece on Kim Ng and her chances at a GM position. Some of his responses were like this -

Of course, she played shortstop all those years in Montreal and the outfield for the Marlins, sure she’s qualified. As soon as she can play in AA she can make those decisions. She has just as much an idea as I do what it’s like to play in majors. Please, as a Diamondbacks fan, I hope the Dodgers give her the job next week!

Scott
Los Angeles

As a Diamondbacks fan, you probably also know your GM (Josh Byrnes, who is one of the bright and creative minds in the business) didn’t play professional baseball.

For my money, I don't give a rats ass if my team's GM is male, female, a multi-sexual alien from the planet Playtex, a former hooker, or a handicapped, left-handed monkey with libertarian leanings and communist parents. Hell, I'll even live with one whose last name is Steinbrenner, as long as they can evaluate talent and put together a winning team. Anyone that puts any weight on any other factor than the concept, "can the person put together a winning team," is a moron.

And the idea that they had to play on a professional level like this idiot intimated, is beyond the pale. Theo Epstein, Brian Cashman, Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, Bill Parcells, Jerry Jones, Bill Polian, and Rays GM Andrew Friedman never got paid to play their respective sports professionally. And that's just a small segment of talent evaluators that never drew a paycheck to play the sports they're involved in. Then there's the flipside - Kevin McHale, Isiah Thomas, Matt Millen - all Hall-Of-Fame players, with only McHale coming close to putting together a contender as GM's (and he's put together six of thirteen seasons of teams that went .500 or worse).

The Conversation

Anyone that saw the Sunday night broadcast of the Sox-Yanks game was privy to the following -

ESPN's Peter Gammons said on Sunday night's Red Sox-Yankees game broadcast that the Red Sox have had "internal discussions" about Barry Bonds, but he considers a workout for the 43-year-old free agent unlikely. Red Sox pitcher and vocal Bonds critic Curt Schilling, who is out for the season, Monday morning on Boston sports radio station WEEI called the possibility of Bonds coming to Boston for the stretch run "three months of a PR nightmare." More from Schilling: "That would be an eye-opener for sure. I know Barry said in the past that he hates the city of Boston. I really don't know. I hadn't thought about that one, I didn't think that was on the radar."

Beyond the accuracy of Schill's statement, am I the only one who thinks the "discussion," the team's conversation regarding Bonds went something like this -

Theo Epstein and the Red Sox brain trust are holed up in a room late one night last week on Yawkey Way. Their faces illuminated by their laptops as they scour the scouting reports, looking for a contingency plan given their issues with David Ortiz's wrist.

"Carlos Beltran?" piped up one man from the shadows.

"Maybe," replied Epstein," but I have a hunch that the Mets will want to much. Besides, the man averages almost 100 strike outs per year. Besides, for a guy that's supposed to be a slugger, an average of just under 24 home runs per year for his career...it doesn't really cut it."

"Junior Griffey," asked another.

"The Reds will likely want more in prospects for him than we'll be willing to give. Now his teammate, Dunn...," said Epstein, "let's take a closer look at Dunn, put a value on him as a DH/outfielder. If Papi doesn't come along as hoped, we can probably get Dunn in the line-up almost everyday as a utility outfielder/first baseman/DH."

"We might have some egos to massage in the outfield if we do that."

"We'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it," said Epstein. "Any other ideas?"

"Hey," a voice came from the corner, "Bonds is still available."

The room goes silent as everyone stops to stare at the scout who suggested Bonds.

The man holds a straight face for all of about five seconds before exploding in laughter. The rest of the room followed suit. "Sorry, everybody," he said. "I had to say it."

"Can you imagine the field day the press would have with this," asked Epstein as he regained his composure."

"God, it would be like throwing raw meat to starving dogs," said another. "The fans would march on Fenway like the villagers on Frankenstein's castle."

As the laughter finally reduced to the punch-drunk chuckle of people working just a few too many hours, Epstein again surveyed the room. "Seriously, now, anyone else," he asked. "Damn that was funny."

I See Dumb People...

In my occasional rants about the stupid in sports, I would like to return to Sunday's game against the Yankees. When the Red Sox bullpen was having its fire-sale, coughing up Wakefield's lead like a two-pack smoker with emphysema, a play stuck in my craw. On a play where the ball rolled to the wall in the gap between Coco Crisp and JD Drew - the play that tied the game - there was a slim outside chance (in my opinion), that someone with a strong arm might have been able to make the play at the plate that would have ended the inning, preserving the Sox lead.

Instead, with Drew (who has a cannon for an arm) and Crisp (whose arm is more akin to silly putty) converging on the ball at almost exactly the same time, Crisp called drew off the ball, picked it up, turned, and fired...a ball that skittered on the ground most of the way to the cut-off man.

I understand that the centerfielder is in charge out there, but the player has to know the situation and his own limitations. Crisp had to know that Drew would have been able to get the ball to the infield with a harder, more accurate throw - or if he didn't, he should have.

Part Two -

The Detroit Lions are at it again - ganking the NFL's "Believe in Now" slogan for the upcoming season with the simple alteration to make the slogan a question rather than a statement - "Do You Believe in Now?"

I really think they should do this up like those "I'm with stupid ->" tee shirts which have the arrows pointing in opposite directions so that wearers can walk side by side, "<- I'm with stupid" with the arrows pointing at each other. Except I think the Lions should pair it with a tee shirt, or maybe put this on the back, that says, "Why should I, you dumb f^@% ?"

Nothing says stating a certainty like stating it with a question.

One last note -

Best wishes to Diamondbacks catcher Chris Snyder who fractured one of his testicles last week. I read up on what that "fracture" entails, and out of mercy to my male readers, will not post that here.

However, Mr. Snyder, may you heal quickly and completely.

What's in a name

I alluded to this in one of my posts during the NBA playoffs. I alluded to the fact that the TD Banknorth Garden is always just going to be the Bahstin Gahden to me.

Always.

The Gahden is the home of the Celtics, the Bruins, and the Bean Pot.

You have the Old Gahden and the New Gahden. But it will never be the Banknorth Garden to me.

Not because I have something against corporate naming of a stadium, but because of some displaced thought that it ruins the game, or some aspect of the game. No, for the most part, it doesn't bother me - sure 3Com Park doesn't have the ring or the charm of Candlestick Park, but people need to remember, corporate naming is not a new thing. Where do they think Wrigley Park got its name? A little reminder - the same company that brought you the chewing gum.

It wasn't always limited to where a team played either.

The Green Bay Packers were named for the Cheese Packing company that owned the team at the very beginning.

The bottom line is some names work - Gillette, Wrigley, Tropicana Field isn't bad - some don't, but aren't bad when shortened, like Lincoln Financial Field's shortened version - The Linc (although some, like Tropicana being called The Trop, I like that). I don't even mind FedEx Field. But this isn't even about that.

I don't mind the corporate name. I really don't.

My problem is that it's just not where the Celtics or Bruins play.

Try, for a second, to imagine the Red Sox playing at SAIC Stadium at Fenway Park, or the Yankees at Merrill Lynch Stadium. It's not that the names are bad, it just somehow doesn't feel right.

Just something to think about.

No...I haven't been on vacation

Just very, very busy this week.

A little background for those of you who don't know...I worked as a staff writer for a community newspaper in Western Maryland for a couple of years, and have been in journalism either part or full-time since 1996 when the short-lived Boston Chronicle had me covering the Red Sox. That's right - my first professional gig as a writer was covering the Red Sox.

Twelve years later I am a stay-at-home dad and a free-lance writer. That's stay-at-home to a six year old and ten month old (first birthday hits at the end of August).

In that twelve years I have written hundreds of articles, covered everything from board of ed meetings and sports to business and the entertainment industry. Until last year, that was all newspaper writing. Last year I wrote an article on the two-year impact of Supreme Court ruling in Granholm v. Heald on the business of mid-Atlantic wineries (primarily as it pertains to distribution and direct shipping to the consumer). The article was for the trade magazine Wine Business Monthly's Web site.

After a number of months freelancing for some small community newspapers, and doing some Web-editing and writing, this week an article that I wrote on Maryland's surviving drive-in theater hit the stands in Maryland Life Magazine.

Between checking the magazine to see how the article looked in print, I have been teaching Kung-fu at a Chinese cultural day camp for an hour and a half each day for the last two weeks (in addition to the normal classes I teach on Tuesday and Thursday evenings), running the kids to story time at the local bookstore (and other kid-friendly events), and, of course, covering my weekly deadlines for the freelance I'm picking up from the local papers, I have had absolutely no time to blog this week - typically I haven't been able to until night when I am no longer able to organize my thoughts (my wife would argue that's all the time...don't listen to her...really).

One last family note before I get started - my eldest, Aurora, is currently on a Harry Potter kick. She listens to the books on tape every night before bed. Every morning she eats breakfast with me while I try to get some of my writing out of the way. In the background I will have some form of sports playing, whether ESPN, or Fox radio, she (a real girly-girl for the most part) gets a healthy dose of sports.

So she was playing yesterday, my wife tells me, and was well entrenched in Harry Potter land - specifically the Malfoy family (those of you who have read or seen the movies know who they are) along with in-law Bellatrix LeStrange. Suddenly my wife heard my daughter say, "and then Bellatrix yelled, 'oh no! IT's the Patriots! And the Red Sox are with them!"

Yeah...I love my daughter.

Quick thoughts...

• Good for Roger Goodell, finally saying what everyone out there knows - rookie contracts, particularly for the top ten draft picks are absolutely ridiculous. Making the first draft pick the highest paid offensive lineman in the league without ever seeing if he really can play in the league is the epitome of ludicrous, and a change needs to be made. It should be an interesting negotiation to get that changed, as the Union won't let that happen without a fight - even though many members agree that it needs to change.

• I think I might amend my earlier sentiment in regards to the Rays. I still maintain there's a lot of youth on that team that could fade down the stretch, but I think the Red Sox made that less likely. It's not the sweep itself at the Trop that's the issue, but the way in which the bullpen coughed up the lead like an emphasymic smoker hacks up wads of phlegm and blood. It was the sort of win for the Rays that can give a young team that might still have some nagging doubts faith that they're in it for the long haul.

• If the Sox make the post-season this year, it's because Jon Lester became the Man. In his last nine games - games bookended by Lester's 7-0 no-hit win over Kansas and his 7-0 shut-out of the Yankees at the Stadium, the team is 7-2, Lester is 5-1 with two complete games and a 2.52 ERA. That's in spite of one bad outing where he gave up six earned in five innings. Not including that bad start in Houston (which happens to even the best of them) his ERA through the other eight games? 1.94.

• A little more on the Man - he has won five of his last six decisions. In those six decisions he has a 1.25 ERA and averaged 7.1 innings and had the aforementioned two complete games, the second following the bullpen melt down that lost Daisuke Matsuzaka a win. Second in wins on the team with seven, Lester, not Beckett, has been the anchor in the absence of Matsuzaka, with an ERA less than a tenth of a run higher than Dice's, almost half a run lower than Beckett's and taking over team lead in starts, innings pitched, complete games, and ERA based on a minimum of 86 innings pitched. He might not have started the season this way, but over the last nine or ten starts, he's been an all-star.
  

• One thing I can say about this team - they sure know how to pick up the slack. At least everywhere but the 'pen. Matsuzaka goes down, Lester begins pitching like an Ace, and Justin Masterson pitches well enough to give the team a chance with each outing. Pig Papi goes down, JD Drew has a career month, Jason Varitek tailspins into the worst slump of his career and Dustin Pedroia goes on a tear where he's batting over .500 and nearly hits for the cycle against the Rays, Manny slumps and Youklis finds himself on pace for 100 runs (second time in his career) and 100 RBI's (first time in his career). That doesn't mean he'll get there, but, barring injury, he should finish the season with a career high in runs batted in.

• I think the real Sid Ponson just stood up. Ponson was acquired once before by the Yankees to disastrous results - In 2006 Ponson appeared in five games for the team with three starts, logging only 16.1 innings, and putting up an inspiring 10.47 ERA. It should be interesting to see if the Yankees, who are desperately short of quality starting pitching (the leading ERA among qualifying starters - Mike Mussina's pedestrian 3.87. None of the other qualifying starters has an ERA below 4.00), can find a way to rectify this problem. A lot of the ESPN analysts like to say that the issue for the Yanks is offense and not pitching, but the fact is, when most of your starters have ERA's over 4.00, your offense has kept you in a lot of games.

One last note - I recently submitted a tee-shirt design to Threadless.com for consideration. For those of you who don't know, Threadless takes designs that get the highest average score based on votes from Web-heads like us, and prints them up. I appreciate any help my faithful readers can give me in getting higher scores. Anyone who can help me out, click on the link below -

Mid-season thoughts

Before I get started on the Red Sox and other people in the American League East, I want to touch on 30-year old pitcher Shawn Chacon.

There have been a few comparisons of Chacon's attack on Ed Wade to the Latrell Sprewell/P.J. Carlesimo incident a little over a decade ago. There's a big difference here.

Sprewell continued to have a career after he tried to choke his coach because Sprew was a front-line starter. Chacon, on the other hand...well, take a look...

When his career numbers are looked at, Chacon, at best, is a team's number five starter. In eight seasons, Chacon is 45-61 with a 4.99 ERA (only by the grace of three seasons with an ERA below 5.00). He has only once won more than ten games (11 in 2003), and has had a winning record in only three seasons (11-8, 7-6, 5-4 respectively). This season he was carrying the fourth best ERA of his career at the time of his release with a rousing 5.04 to go with a 2-3 record. Three times his ERA was over 5.70 (5.73, 6.36, 7.11).

All but 14 games of that (a mid-season move to the Yankees) has been in Major League Baseball's hitters' B-League.

With numbers like that, Chacon reacted to a bullpen demotion by trying to choke his GM. With numbers like that and a reaction like that, he'll be lucky to get a gig with another major league team. On most teams those numbers are number 4/5 starter sort of numbers. A front-end guy can afford to be an asshole - Schilling, Clemens, what have you. Those guys can be critical of the front office, because the team needs them. The guy with the career .425 winning percentage...he needs to be the good soldier.

My guess, if Chacon wants to keep getting paid to play baseball, it's going to have to be for an independent league team...either that or he's going to have to get used to saying, "would you like fries with that?"

On Pace...

The Red Sox are one game off of last year's pace with a 49-32 record half-way through the season. Last year they had 50 wins after 81 games.

The big difference - this year's AL East is more the beast that it once was.

This time last year the Sox were dominating the East, 10.5 games ahead of the second place Yankees and Blue Jays, 14.5 ahead of Baltimore and 17 ahead of Tampa Bay. That's an average lead of a little over 13 games over the rest of the AL East.

This season, with 49 wins, the average lead over the rest of an improved AL East is only a little over 5.8 games - half a game over second place Tampa, 5.5 over a resurgent Yankees team, 7 over Baltimore, and 10.5 over the best last place divisional team in the majors, Toronto.

A few basic observations - The Sox are putting up comparable numbers against better competition, a testament to the progression and development of the team's youth movement...particularly in relation to the pitchers. It's been a big part of the difference between the success of the Sox and the arch-rival Yankees.

A few thoughts about the state of the East before I get into the Yanks.

Overall, the Blue Jays, who loaded up before last season, appear to be right where they were this time last year, and I don't see that changing.

the Orioles have made some improvements from last year to this, but are still looking to future years and are likely to begin making moves to bring highly regarded prospects back in exchange for established major league talent. Expect at least one, if not a couple of the players to be traded between now and the deadline.

The Rays appear to be the biggest threat to the Sox at the moment, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them hanging around at the end of the season, vying for a playoff spot. However, I think they're likely to fade in the dog-days of August like many developing teams. Next season, however, they could be truly dangerous.

Which brings me to the Yankees...

The Yankees are making a push, I just don't buy that they have the horses to keep it going. Mike Mussina has been better this year than he has been for a while, and Chien-Ming Wang and Pettitte have been solid, but none have been an ace.

Mussina has been the best of the three with a 3.93 ERA, with Wang and Pettitte coming in at 4.07 and 4.04 respectively. Not exactly dominant.

And then there's the 4/5 positions. The Yankees briefly got some solid starts from Darrell Rasner, but, as I previously predicted, Rasner has come back to Earth. After starting his stint in the rotation 3-1 with a 1.80 ERA through those first four starts, Rasner has gone 1-4 and seen his ERA rise to 4.50. Three times over that span Rasner has given up at least four earned and twice has given up at least six.

Given that Rasner has never, on the Major League level, pitched more than 24.2 innings before this year (52 already), it's likely that he's just going to deteriorate as the season drags on.

Then there's Joba Chamberlain. Chamberlain might, one day, become an ace. He might not. But here's another one that will suffer the more innings he puts up. There will be issues for him as teams see him again, not to mention, as the innings he's not accustomed to pitching rack up.

The Yankees being the Yankees will make it interesting for a while, but in the end, they're going to come up short on pitching, and probably third in the East.

A day late and a dollar short...

I just wanted to acknowledge the recent passing of George Carlin. I know this happened a few days ago, thus the title of my post, but the following bit of Carlin's is why he was and always will be relevant to professional sports...

Baseball is different from any other sport, very different. For instance, in most sports you score points or goals; in baseball you score runs. In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team; in baseball the defensive team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball. In fact, in baseball if an offensive player touches the ball intentionally, he's out; sometimes unintentionally, he's out.

Also: in football,basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball and in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring.

In most sports the team is run by a coach; in baseball the team is run by a manager. And only in baseball does the manager or coach wear the same clothing the players do. If you'd ever seen John Madden in his Oakland Raiders uniform,you'd know the reason for this custom.

Now, I've mentioned football. Baseball and football are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves and our values.

I enjoy comparing baseball and football:

Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.

Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.

Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!

Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.

Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.

In football you wear a helmet.

In baseball you wear a cap.

Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?

Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up?

In football you receive a penalty.

In baseball you make an error.

In football the specialist comes in to kick.

In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.

Baseball has the sacrifice.

Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...

In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play.

Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.

Football has the two minute warning.

Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings.

Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.

In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness.

In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.

And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!

You gave us some great laughs. Rest in peace, dude.

Idiots on Parade

Don Imus has stuck his foot in it again.

From the AP report -

During a conversation Monday about the arrests of Jones, Imus asked, "What color is he?"

Told by a sports announcer that Jones is "African-American," Imus responded: "There you go. Now we know."

Imus' claim was that people misunderstood the "sarcastic" point he was trying to make. His explanation -

Imus said Tuesday: "What people should be outraged about is that they arrest blacks for no reason. I mean, there's no reason to arrest this kid six times."

Let me just say, having heard tape of the exchange, I would just like to note - Imus is full of shit.

It should be interesting to see how CBS Radio and show sponsors react. Sure, there's no disciplinary action now, but if sponsors threaten to pull, this could signal the end of Imus' radio career - at least on a nationally syndicated level.

Idiot Two -

Shaquille O'Neal is entitled to his opinion, but, considering he's never even made the finals without some serious talent at his side - and didn't even come close to putting Phoenix over the top - can he just shut up about how Kobe can't win without him?

Does he really think he could have been the difference against the Celtics? He made such a difference for the Suns who were bounced in five games in the first round of this year's playoffs. He averaged 30 minutes per game - fewest minutes of any of the team's five starters, was third in scoring, sixth on the team in field goal percentage (how does a guy that's just a big body in the paint underneath the basket miss 56 percent of his shots?), and tied for last on the team in the percentage of free throws made.

He may think he's the hard man in the middle that the Lakers missed, but let's face it - O'Neal is soft. Sure, he's a big body that pulls rebounds and has averaged well over 20 points per game for his career - mostly because he's bigger than everybody else, not because he's so much better. He's a big doughy body that can't stay on the court because he would rather freestyle at clubs than get himself into shape.

Need proof - Only once in the last seven seasons has he not missed at least 14 games due to injury, or just shut it down (like last season while still with the Heat) because his team was losing. Over his sixteen year career he has started more than 70 games only six times, but has missed at least 20 games seven times.

The man's a front-runner, and largely cooked and really, really needs to stop running his mouth.

Into the Woods

I would like to offer a little perspective on Tiger Woods latest accomplishment.

It's impressive - it really is.

But it really isn't everything the pundits are making it out to be. Maybe they're offering a bit of hyperbole, but they're talking about Tiger's latest win as though it's the most incredible accomplishment in professional sports - winning the US Open on a bad knee and a leg with stress fractures. While impressive, when you do some research, it doesn't even crack the top ten in overcoming injury.

For golf it's likely number one, but in the pantheon of sports accomplishments while injured...it's a little bit down the line.

Before I get into some of the accomplishments that are more impressive, let's remember one thing - people don't play hockey, football, or basketball, or ride a bicycle to relax, they do it to stay in shape. A lot of people golf to relax. Hell, you have professional golfers playing competitively long past the age that the vast majority of athletes retire in other sports. Can anyone out there picture John Daly excelling in any other sport? Even David Wells would beat him in a footrace. Or even Casey Martin, who would not be able to compete in any other sport.

Don't get me wrong - I respect what golfers are able to do...within the context of their sport, but let's stop anointing Tiger as one of the greatest athletes of his generation.

To put a little perspective on the whole situation -

Yes, Woods walked 91 holes with stress fractures and damaged ligaments. And yes, it was for a Major. However, he went into it knowing, he told an ESPN reporter, that he would be in no worse condition at the end of the tournament than he was at the beginning. He went into it not worrying about doing additional damage to a "walking" injury.

Here are eleven more impressive feats -

11. Pedro Martinez (1999 Divisional Series) - In game one against the Indians, Martinez strained his back - to the point that Dan Duquette, the Red Sox brain trust, and pretty much all of Red Sox Nation figured he was done. In the fifth and final game of the series Martinez entered the game in the third inning with the teams tied in an 8-8 slug-fest. Unable to throw his fastball and having difficulty throwing his change-up, Martinez threw six innings of no-hit ball in a Boston win, allowing the Sox to move onto the next round. It was, arguably, Martinez's finest moment.

10. Keri Strug (1996 Olympics) - Strug suffered a severe laterial ankle sprain with tendon damage. Due to the difficulties of teammate Dominique Moceanu, the injured Strug was the American Women's last hope at achieving the team gold. Strug sprinted down the vault approach on the damaged ankle, sticking the landing on one foot and posing for the judges before collapsing in pain. Strug was famously carried to the medal podium by coach Bela Karolyi.

9. Jack Youngblood - (1979, Los Angeles Rams) - Playing with a stress fracture in his left leg for two and a half post-season games, Youngblood remained a difference maker, propelling the Rams into the Super Bowl.

8. Kerry Jenkins (2002, Tampa Bay Buccaneers) - Left guard Kerry Jenkins cracked his fibula in September of 2002. When his back-up, Kenyatta Walker went down with an ankle sprain, Jenkins returned to the starting line-up. For the season, Jenkins ended up starting 15 (regular season) games for the eventual Super Bowl winners.

7. Reggie White (1995, Green Bay Packers) - With four games left in the regular season White tore his hamstring badly enough that the Packers announced that White was done and would be having surgery to repair the damaged muscle. White missed one game, and played in five subsequent games (including three playoff games), starting four of them, in which the Packers went 4-1 (losing only in the NFC Championship Game).

6. Dick Butkus (Chicago Bears) - Butkus played his final three seasons on a bad knee. With loose tendons, the Bears' feared middle linebacker had surgery to repair the loose tendons in his leg during a time-period when knee surgery tended to be a career ender. The surgery was considered botched, and the man continued to play at a high level, including a season in which he made 117 tackles and 68 assists, recovered three fumbles and intercepted four passes.

5. Sean Avery (2008, New York Rangers) - Avery suffered a lacerated spleen in the first period of a playoff game. He continued to play through the injury, notching a second period assist before being rushed to the hospital at the conclusion of the game and admitted to the ICU.

4. Drew Bledsoe (1998, New England Patriots) - Often questioned for his toughness (god knows why), Bledsoe played through a separated shoulder in 1995, and returned to the field during the infamous game against the Jets while hemorrhaging blood in his chest cavity. In neither of those cases did Bledsoe play at a high level, however, in 1998 Bledsoe shatter the tip of the index finger on his throwing hand on the helmet of a Miami defender while engineering a comeback. The index finger, integral to accurate passing, was held together by a screw that protruded from the end of his finger. Including the injury game, Bledsoe went 3-1. He still passed for almost 1200 yards in those four games and had only one game where his completion percentage was below 66.

3. Tyler Hamilton (2003, Tour de France) - Hamilton crashed during the first stage of the 2003 Tour de France, suffering two breaks to his clavicle. Hamilton completed the three-week race, supporting his weight on the broken collar-bone for 2081.58 miles, often along France's cobble-stone lined city streets. What's more, Hamilton didn't just complete the race, he won a stage.

2. Lawrence Taylor (1988, New York Giants) - With the Giants standing at 7-5, Taylor played in a game against the New Orleans Saints with a torn pectoral muscle (and in the subsequent games that season). In that game, Taylor recorded seven tackles, three sacks, and two forced fumbles, in spite of an injury that keeps most from even lifting items, let alone trying to move 275 pound linemen.

1. Curt Schilling (2004, Boston Red Sox) - With the Red Sox post-season hopes on the line, Schilling had radical experimental surgery to repair a ligament in his ankle. The surgery, which involved the use of the same ligament from a cadaver, allowed Schilling to turn in, arguably, the greatest post-season clutch performance in the history of Major League Baseball. With his surgically repaired ankle, Schill pitched 13 innings, giving up only one run in a dominant two-win performance.

A couple of honorable mentions - Ken Anderson and Dan Fouts playing through frostbite in the 1981 AFC Title game in Cincinnati, and of course the following who overcame obstacles both physical and of illness to get places they were never expected to, or were told they would not get to -

Jim Abbott - one armed pitcher who had a solid, if unspectacular ten-year major league career.

Rocky Bleier - told he would be lucky to walk, let alone run or play football after losing half his foot to a grenade in Vietnam.

Wilma Rudolph - when diagnosed with polio as a child, the Olympic multiple-gold medalist was told she would never run, and spent pretty much her entire childhood in bulky metal leg braces.

Lance Armstrong - After being, literally, at death's doorstep with cancer that had spread aggressively throughout his body, including his brain, Armstrong recovered to win the Tour de France an unprecedented seven times, and complete the Boston Marathon in two hours and fifty minutes.

Like I said, what Tiger did was impressive, and it might even make the top 25 in regards to performing with a bad injury - but there's no way he was putting the physical stress on his injury that any of the above did, nor was it overcoming what that last handful did. And most of this was identified with almost no research.

And before anyone blasts me for not having Willis Reed on the list - yes, his playing through the knee injury was impressive and inspirational to his team, but if you look at his stats, it wasn't actually a great performance overall, scoring only four points for the game. Sure, it's probably top 25 just for what he did for his teammates, but he himself didn't excel, as these others did.

Mass-destruction and a fond farewell

The last time any region has experienced a decade with as much dominance over the professional sports scene was probably in the 1960's when Massachusetts saw titles in the NBA practically every year, closed out the decade (1969-70 season) with a Stanley Cup, and sent the Sox to the 1967 World Series and the Patriots to the 1963 AFL Championship (both lost).

From 1961 until 1970 the city was home to nine titles in the big four of professional sports...of course eight of those came from the Celtics.

With the '08 baseball season in front of us still, we're looking at three more seasons before the end of the decade (starting from '01) and Boston already has six titles spread over three sports.

While there were more titles in the 1960's, by virtue of where the titles have come from - the Patriots (3), the Red Sox (2), and the Celtics (1) - and how much of it happened.

Consider - since 2001 the Patriots finally rose to prominence, becoming the most dominant football team of the decade, winning three Super Bowls, appearing in a fourth, and amassing the two longest regular season winning streaks in league history including the only undefeated 16-game regular season.

Move into baseball and you have the Red Sox who have swept their National League counterpart in the World Series twice - the first of the Championships after turning the table on the arch-rival Yankees. En route to delivering their first Series Title since 1918, the Sox became the first team to ever overcome an 0-3 deficit in the ALCS and had a hand in dealing the worst meltdown in the history of the post-season to their rivals. It was a thing of beauty. Add to all that the fact that the Sox are the only team to win two since 2001 and the Yankees are 0-2, it's only icing for the members of Red Sox Nation.

That brings us to the Celtics.

For the better part of the decade the Celtics have been awful. I mean, brutally bad. Not Knicks bad - they weren't carrying either the payroll nor the highly touted talent - but they were scraping the bottom.

In delivering this year's Championship, the team was part of the NBA's biggest turn around ever, extended their league leading number of championship banners to 17, and prevented Phil Jackson from passing Red Auerbach as the coach with the most Championships. Putting together this season's edition, Danny Ainge positioned the team to compete for the rest of the decade.

On the periphery, taking the place of previous Boston area teams that got to the Big Dance, but not able to seal the deal has been the New England Revolution. The Revs have been the runners up to the MLS Cup four times ('02, '05, '06, and '07).

Of the six major league sports now represented in Boston (including the Major League Lacrosse Boston Cannons), New England/Boston has made appearances in the finals of five of the leagues, missing out on only hockey. The Cannons lost by two goals in the 2004 championship game.

In the combined seven seasons since the inception of the 2001 seasons there have been 41 potential titles (hockey missed one due to labor strife). The teams from the Boston Bay area has had teams compete for 12 of those (29.3 percent) and won close to 15 percent of the titles.

By any account, those are impressive numbers.

Speaking of impressive numbers and the post season...

While he hasn't officially announced retirement, Curt Schilling is done. His shoulder is cooked.

It's been a fun ride while it's lasted. I haven't always agreed with Schill's opinions - but as someone who makes his scratch as a reporter, I can tell you, he's a reporter's dream. An absolute quote machine and a clutch performer.

He's the sort of person that I think I would not get along with in a personal relationship - but he'll always get a pass for bringing Boston their first World Series title since Babe Ruth was on the team.

I wish him well recovering from his shoulder surgeries and in whatever his subsequent career is.

Observations on the Hub of the (Sports) Universe

I guess Kermit was wrong...it's easy being Green.

During this decade Massachusetts has seen three Lombardi Trophies, two World Series titles, and just earned a seventeenth banner for the rafters of the Bahstin Gahden. Historically, there's still something missing...Bruins, I'm looking at you. You have two season left to get over the hump before the new decade begins.

Reebok has already commemorated the Celtics' achievement with a great ad that can be seen over at A Red Sox State of Maine.

Here's another from them -



From David Letterman -

"The hookers in Times Square are offering the Willie Randolph special. They'll screw you in the middle of the night when no one is looking."

An observation on Tiger's win...

It was impressive that he did this on one leg, but let's not confuse what Mark Twain called "a good walk spoiled," with things like Tyler Hamilton winning a stage of the Tour de France (and subsequently completing the race) while supporting his weight on a collar bone broken in two places (in one of the earliest stages of the Tour), or Reggie White playing with a torn hamstring (according to the doctors, the connection at the bottom had torn cleanly, causing the muscle to roll up like a window shade), or Drew Bledsoe playing with hardware holding the finger bones in his throwing hand together, or Jack Youngblood playing through the NFL playoffs on a broken leg.

It's golf.

It's not like Tiger is sprinting down to first and rounding the bag, or chasing down a fly-ball. He doesn't drive the lane with the big bodies laying some weight on him.

Let's keep this in perspective.

Woods was impressive winning the US Open on one leg. But let's be realistic - having been a caddy and seen the people who golf (and I saw a lot of Joh Daly-esque physiques out there) and I can honestly say - the hardest part of golf, from a conditioning and strain on the body stand-point over the course of 18 holes is borne by the caddies.

Young Guns...

I've mentioned this before, but I think it bears mentioning again.

Sox fans as a whole are getting spoiled.

Each time a pitcher goes down, he gets replaced with a more than adequate replacement as a starter. And it seems like the rotation just keeps getting younger.

The current rotation -

Masterson (23)- 4-1, 3.00
Lester (24) - 6-3, 3.18
Matsuzaka (27) - 8-0, 2.53
Beckett (28) - 7-4, 3.87
Wakefield (41) - 4-4, 4.19

Should the youngsters falter, Bartolo Colon is waiting in the wings, as is (likely) Schilling, who has not had to rush back due to the success of the youngsters. None of that includes young guys like David Pauley, Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard, or Michael Bowden.

Let's face it - from a starting pitching standpoint, the Sox are loaded. If the team's bullpen hasn't had so many meltdowns, none of the current starters (other than Masterson) would have fewer than six wins, and I would venture to say that Lester would have at least nine, as would Matsuzaka whose first start was a no decision.

First Amendment

Whenever a reporter or any other sort of pundit says something stupid, a-la Don Imus or Jemele Hill, and gets suspended or fired, all the idiots come out of the wood work defending the right of the idiot to say what they said, and claiming suppression of the reporters' rights to freedom of expression.

I want to remind all the idiots out there that, yes, people like Jemele Hill certainly have the right to make stupid, ill-thought out, and offensive statements. ESPN as her employer has the right to make a statement as well. They have a right to state their disapproval at being used as a forum to propagate any sort of writing they find offensive, and possibly damaging to their bottom line.

What the critics of ESPN don't get is that ESPN has not suppressed Hill's ability to express herself freely in our society. They have just removed themselves from being her forum, her vehicle for dissemination.

They have done nothing to violate her civil rights. It would be no different than ESPN refusing to give space on their site, or in their magazine to a neo-Nazi spokesman who wanted the company to print his editorial comments regarding the superiority of the Aryan Race.

Sure, Hill's statements were meant to be hyperbole, but it's unconscionable that she even typed the line, "Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim," let alone submitted it for publication.

It's one thing to make the comparison to The Evil Empire - a Star Wars reference, a reference to a piece of fiction - and another to link a sports franchise and its fan base to the world's most notorious genocidal mass-murderer of the last century.

As much as Hill deserves the suspension and a subsequent firing, I want to know what ESPN is doing about the editors who let this travesty make it into print.

Contrast greater than just opposite coasts

There is a long list of things that Boston did differently than Los Angeles.

No excuses.

No whining about officials. From the coach or the players.

No bad knees.

No bad ankles.

No bad shoulders.

No travel issues.

No family issues.

No overwhelmed bench.

None of that would be an issue for the Celtics on the way to their 17th Championship.

They played hard. They supported their teammates. They got big contributions off the bench, grossly outscoring the Lakers bench. They played with intensity and pushed the Lakers around, imposing their will like champions, while the Lakers looked to the officials for charitable handouts.

They played the Finals as though they had found the fountain of youth after looking, at times, through the preliminary rounds of the playoffs like they were old.

The Lakers played as though they were expecting to be handed the championship - from their coach and the top of their roster to the last player off the bench. The Celtics played like they wanted it, like they could taste it. It didn't stop with the Celtics' Big Three - at times Rajon Rondo, Eddie House, James Posey, Leon Powe, and PJ Brown all came up big at some point whether rebounding, working the ball to the open shooter, or putting the ball in the hoop.

The bottom line - Boston came through when it counted.

No one on the Lakers can say the same.

17 and other thoughts

The Celtics were well on their way to raising the team's 17th banner no later than the middle of the second quarter, when the team did their best to break the spirit of the Lakers. For the green and white it wasn't a game, it was a statement. It was a statement to all the pundits that believed that the Lakers were a better team than the Celtics. It was an emphatic "in your face" to those who said the Lakers were deeper, those who said they had a better bench, those who said players like The Big Ticket was more Gar-not than Garnett.

There may have been no play that represented the desire of the Celtics old-timers better than the one Kevin Garnett had as time waned in the first half.

Late in the second, Garnett got knocked to the ground, and as he was falling, put a fastball off the glass and through the hoop. He finished the three point play. It was indicative of how more Boston wanted the game. It was part of a 26-6 run to close out the second quarter and put the team up by 23. It was shortly after the Celtics went ahead and started to get cutesy with the ball.

It appears they learned their lesson, forcing 11 turnovers in the first half.

For the first time in the post-season, the Celtics seemed to know how to stick the knife in.

By five minutes left in the third, the team was up by 30.

This wasn't a game. It wasn't a court. It was the slab in a morgue, and the Celtics forensic scientists dissecting the corpse that was the vaunted and heavily favored Laker team coming into the Finals.

By the fourth quarter the Boston was playing the part of doctor, while Los Angeles played...well...dead. Boston looked like they were playing a pick-up game in the yard while the Lakers looked miserable.

It was a celebration. A celebration for the lifers like PJ Brown, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce - all guys in their 30's, all guys that never got close to a ring. Now they all have 'em. They are part of a basketball legacy that accounts for more than 27 percent of the league's championships. And they were put together by a guy who was part of the last championship back in 1986.

For Boston fans it represented the region's sixth professional championship in the last seven seasons, spanning three sports. Joining the Patriots with three and the Red Sox with two, the Celtics have become the latest to earn the duck-boat parade through the canyons of downtown.

Somewhere Red Auerbach is smiling and smoking a cigar.

The Number Two -

Earlier in the evening Jon Lester continued his crusade to be considered among the Red Sox top pitchers and their top youngster. Lester, now 6-3 with a 3.18 ERA, dominated the Phillies for seven innings one day after Bartolo Colon was smoked for four runs in four innings, and the team lost a laugher to Philadelphia.

In his last six starts, Lester is 4-1, has pitched 39.1 innings and given up nine earned runs for a 2.06 ERA. That's not just good - that's a team's ace.

To put into perspective what Lester is doing - particularly in relation to the proposed Santana trade.

Lester is in his third season, has already started 16 games and logged more than 96 innings. Santana in his third season operated as both reliever and starter, and still only logged a total of 12 more innings than what Lester has already done before the All-Star break. In Santana's 27 appearances, he knocked out a 2.99 ERA and an 8-6 record. Lester's numbers compare favorably - and he's doing more for the team.

On a pace to have 18 more starts this season, should Lester keep pitching like this, he will win between 15 and 20 games and log 200 innings.

It's a long season and anything can happen, but until the Dice-man returns, the younger of Boston's cancer survivors is the team's ace.

Can't say I saw that coming.

One final pitching note -

Is it just me, or did the Sox jump on the first available excuse as quickly as possible to put Bartolo Colon back on the shelf (possibly saving him for the stretch run), in order to see whether or not Justin Masterson is for real?

Not quite the Fantastic Four....

But without them, the Celtics Big Three wouldn't be 48 minutes away from hoisting a seventeenth championship banner in the rafters of the Gahden (I refuse to call it by its corporate sponsored name - but more on that some other time). As important as The Big Ticket, The Truth, and The Rain Man have been to Boston's success, the three would still be coming up short against Los Angeles.

Each of the following four have been instrumental in the C's three wins -

Rajon Rondo - In game one Rondo notched 15 points and seven assists in a ten point Boston win to kick off the Finals. The fourth best Celtic on the floor tied the offensive output of the second best Laker.

Leon Powe - The hero of Game Two was arguably the second best player on the court, not just the Celtics, when he put up 21 points on 6 of 7 shooting in less than 15 minutes of play.

Eddie House - In game four House subbed in, taking over for Sam Cassell who had taken over for an injured Rondo. House put up 11 with four rebounds.

James Posey - The real horse of the bench in game four, Posey sunk 50 percent of his shots, including four of eight from behind the arc while helping to bring the Celtics back from their 24 point deficit. In a game where Lakers starters outscored Celtics starters 76-62, Posey and House were part of a Boston bench that smoked the Lakers bench by a 20-point margin, scoring 35 to the Laker bench's 15. Hell, Posey alone outscored the Laker bench by three.

On a Laker note -

During their playoff run leading up to the Finals, the acquisition of Pau Gasol from the Grizzlies was being hailed as one of biggest one-sided trades in NBA history. Gasol was being widely hailed as the move that would take pressure off of Kobe Bryant.

Here were some of the headlines predating the finals -

Utah Jazz: Gasol key acquisition for L.A.'s title run - The Salt Lake Tribune

With 19 rebounds, Gasol shows he can do more than score - The Press Enterprise (on May 29, in the wake of the San Antonio series)

Kupchak's deal for Gasol headlines Lakers' return to Finals - USA Today

Was Pau Gasol trade the worst in recent NBA history? - Orlando Sentinel

With the acquisition of Gasol, the Lakers were thought to be the deeper of the two teams in the Finals. The line that we were fed by the pundits was that the Lakers lost to the Celtics in the regular season, but that was before they had Gasol. He was the missing piece.

Before the finals the Lakers had the deeper team. They had the experience in guys like Kobe and Lamar Odom who were helping the young talent develop. They were the best team in the Western Conference because Kobe finally had help. They handled the defending champs in five games which included a convincing 30 point win in game two.

Four games later against Boston the pundits are writing their epitaphs for a heavily favored Laker team now down three-one, fans and pundits have started the "Kobe can't do it by himself," calls.

Fact of the matter is, either he has a team around him or he doesn't - that doesn't change from one series to the next. What does are match-ups. And the Celtics match-up better against the Lakers than anyone, including myself, gave them credit for before this series began.

Before the finals, Gasol was the missing piece - for most of the finals, he's just been missing.
He went from key-man in the middle to softer than Charmin. Odom was no longer the sage voice of experience helping to mentor the younger players - he was mostly just a no show. Phil Jackson was supposed to be the Hall of Famer that would coach circles around Doc Rivers - instead, he's a JAG (just another guy), who is doing little strategically to react to every move that Rivers makes...as though by the virtue of being Phil his team will find a way.

The Lakers depth off the bench - apparently a myth against a tough defensive team...consider this stat: including the C's game three loss, the Boston bench has outscored the L.A. bench by 26. Considering only the Boston wins, that margin jumps to 34 (in Lakers terms, should the series close out on Sunday, that number will heretofore be referred to as the number of The Beast).

Manhood

"DO YOU BELIEVE?"

-Doc Rivers, Celtics coach to his players during the fourth quarter of game four of the 2008 Finals.

At the end of the first half, I certainly didn't.

The Celtics were playing ugly, and the Lakers were taking the game to them. I have to admit, I was convinced that the Lakers were walking away with this one - so much so that I went to bed at half-time.

Jokingly, I told my wife that I was going to miss the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history.

When a team comes back from 24 points down on the opponent's home court, that's not just a comeback - that's a neutering. Paul Pierce and friends effectively took the Lakers' collective manhood.

A lot of articles will make a big deal out of the first and second half scores, but realistically, the comeback started at the in the second quarter. The Lakers blew their load in the first 12 minutes, outscoring the C's 35-14. The problem for L.A. is that in the subsequent quarters Boston outscored Phil Jackson's team by 3, then 16, then 8. After spotting them 21 in the first, the Celtics grabbed the Lakers by the balls and squeezed to the tune of 37 points for which L.A. had no answer.

After the first two games, I figured there was a good chance the Celtics could take the series in six if they could steal one in LA-LA-Land. After the way the two games went, I'm wondering if Doc Rivers will be keeping Kobe's and Jackson's balls in a jar next to the trophy on his awards shelf after Sunday's game five.

One final note - everyone, stop comparing Kobe to Michael Jordan. In a series like this Jordan would have put the team on his back and done everything possible to ensure a Bulls win. He wouldn't have walked off the court with time left on the clock. More and more in this series the league MVP has looked more like the league's biggest chump.

For more on this game, check out The Coffin Corner's take.

Manhood, part II...

Josh Beckett is second on the team in wins, in spite of being incredibly mediocre on the mound this season. Daisuke Matsuzaka had been the Red Sox ace before going down with a shoulder issue. Beckett did not pick up the slack.

Jon Lester did. Lester has been the team's second best pitcher and he came through again in his latest start, going seven innings and giving up only two earned runs against an Orioles team that has given the Sox problems lately.

The Sox are 9-6 in Lester's starts (Lester is 5-3, including a no-decision in a game where he pitched 8 innings of shut-out ball, a game the Sox won). Only four times this season has the lefty given up more than three earned runs, and the last time that happened was in April.

Since April 23, the last time Lester gave up more than three earned in a game, Lester has averaged 6.1 innings per start and has lowered his ERA from 5.40 to 3.43. In six of the nine starts Lester has given up two runs or fewer, including twice shutting a team out. During that stretch Lester is 4-1 and the team is 6-3. In spite of an ERA over three, Lester has been the team's best starter for the last six weeks, and against Baltimore, he showed it again.