I am probably too drunk/hungover to be responsibly posting anything in a public forum but the state of the Patriots AFC Championship re-match with the Pittsburgh Steelers is just begging for comment.
Rodney Harrison is done. His leg is either broken or his knee is dislocated or something is torn, forget it. Watching that play over and over again was agonizing, it hurt my knee.
If he's out for an extended period of time that's big trouble (dur...really?). His replacement is a second year man whose name I can't remember but that's not the biggest thing. His leadership and heart is what they'll miss most. Whoever they put out there won't be the veteran rallying point that Harrison has been.
Matt Light was also carted off the field. After he came out the Pittsburgh defense attacked the left side relentlessly and stopped the first half dozen running plays for no gain or a loss. With a rookie replacement on that side another crippling injury could come about, Tom Brady. That's his backside and if Light's replacement, a rookie whose name is something like Kazmir, can't hack it Brady could get killed by Jerry Porter in the second half.
Two red zone turnovers in the second quarter have tipped this game sharply in Pittsburgh's favor. That's a lot to ask the Patriots to overcome against a good team. Assuming they wouldn't score touchdowns on those possessions (not that they couldn't but you can't assume a TD) the score should still be 13-10 Pats.
On the positive, they're moving the ball and they put a hurt on Roethlisberger at the end of the half.
Second half's starting, I'm going to go back to pulling my hair out. More after the game.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
A Forgetable Weekend
From 7:45 PM on Saturday to midnight on Monday the cosmos of sports finally deemed it was my time to suffer.
Sure, I've been spoiled. A World Series championship, a couple of Super Bowls, decent BC teams, competitive fantasy squads. It's been a good run.
Maybe this good run will continue, but from Saturday to Monday it all just came unglued.
It began with probably the biggest game home game in BC history. #8 Florida State coming to the Heights in the #17 Eagles inaugural ACC matchup on ESPN Saturday night (following Game Day, live on campus...surely for the last time).
All week long the hype was that BC was a program on the rise. Well coached, disciplined, huge upfront, with a big time defense. The Seminoles came in off of a shaky game against Miami with questions at quarterback but undeniable team speed and athleticism.
The game started out looking like a typical BC choke, 2 big interceptions from 6th (that's right SIXTH) year quarterback Quinton Porter and a 14-0 Seminoles lead. Then remarkably, in very un-BC fashion, the Eagles rallied and actually took a 17-14 lead into the 4th quarter.
At this point let me set the stage for you. 50,000 rabid BC fans screaming for blood, thinking about a potential leap into the top 10. A Seminoles team that looked totally impotent and unable to move the ball against BC's defense. All they had to do was hold on, with a lead in the 4th quarter at home, and they would be considered a legitimate big-time program. Asking a lot? Not really, just don't totally implode, maybe get another score and voila!
My buddy even turned to me and said, "Do the goalposts come down tonight?"
Lest we forget however, this is BC. A school plagued by inability to win on the biggest stages and buoyed by dominance in the shadowy second tier of college football. And true to form they choked. Florida State put up two touchdowns and BC failed to respond and in 15 quick minutes the dream was dead.
The capper came with 2 minutes to play with BC on Florida State's 2 yard line with 4 chances to punch it in for a gap-closing score. A penalty gave them 3 more chances. And out of this they netted nada, zip, zilch, squat! 7 chances to pull within one score from 2 yards away and this "program on the rise" failed to ascend the necessary 6 feet. A truly pathetic performance to end a truly disappointing collapse. I won't even mention the dropped pass in the back of the end zone, I won't...
From this carnival of sadness my sporting misery moves to Sunday, 1 PM, Pats at the Carolina Panthers, a Super Bowl contender with a chip on their shoulder and tough week one loss at home to New Orleans still lingering on their taste buds.
This was the first regular season meeting between these two teams since the Super Bowl two years ago and apparently the bad blood from that game persists. That's natural since these are the two hardest hitting teams in the NFL but for the Patriots to be concerned with that seems ridiculous, the Panthers as a franchise are a joke compared to New England and their near comeback to make the playoffs last year merely underscored how miserably they played during the first half of the season.
This game actually started out alright, the Pats went up 7-0 and looked reasonably sound against a very strong Carolina defense (although not as strong without Kris Jenkins). Then things simply went south. The Pats were completely unable to run the ball, despite the fact that Carolina was playing without Jenkins, their 330 pound run stopper in the middle. Brady looked very human constantly throwing high and not sensing the rush and moving to avoid it like he normally does. A costly interception on an out pattern wasn't his fault, that was just a great play by the linebacker but he should have felt the rush coming on his fumble. The defense inexplicably couldn't stop the run even though the Panthers primarily used the ageless Stephen Davis (3 TDs). And even Belichick seemed to be off his game, not challenging a questionable touchdown by Davis, and then again not challenging Brady's fumble.
Despite Brady, Dillon, and Belichick all playing below par the Patriots were still in the contest in the fourth quarter, trailing by only ten with the ball at mid field and 9 minutes to play. It almost (and almost is the key word here) had the feel of another game where the opposition let a struggling Pats team hang around too long and ultimately got bitten by a Brady miracle at the end. Not this time though, they went quietly on the remainder of their possessions and never really mounted a significant charge. Very un-Patriot like.
* I'm going to put an asterisk here because the Patriots are allowed a game like this once in a while. They have won 35 of their last 40 and in reality Carolina can't play any better than that; the Patriots played horribly and the game was still decided by only 10 points. This opening stretch of the season is a murderers row for New England but make no mistake, they're still the champs and while the Colts play Bridgewater State every Sunday until week 9 remember that they have never won a game that really matters against the Brady, Belichick incarnation of the Patriots.
Meanwhile back in Boston, starting at 2 PM the Red Sox were playing the Oakland A's, with Matt Clement going for his 14th win in a crucial game that would give the Sox 3 out of 4 against a playoff contender. With the miracle of split cable the Dockside was able to show both the Pats and Sox games, each on 2 TVs but the volume was dedicated to football so my recollection of what actually happened to start to the Sox game may be a little off.
What I do know is that the A's put up a bunch of runs (7?) in the first inning and that it was never a game after that. Clement lasted just 1 and 1/3 innings and the eventual outcome was a 12-3 bludgeoning by a team that hasn't been able to score runs all season.
There isn't even anything else to say about this game, it was simply a nightmare, especially considering that it came at the worst possible time. Clement's ineffectiveness was only heightened the next night as David Wells got smacked around by the mighty Tampa Bay Devil Rays, lasting only 2 and 1/3 innings giving up 4 runs before being lifted. Two games in a row where your starter lasts less than three innings will do a serious number on your bullpen and thankfully Curt Schilling pulled it together last night, saving a few pitches for the tired Sox relievers.
The only good news on Sunday was that the Yankees lost, but even that train derailed on Monday night with their victory over Baltimore, bringing the Sox lead in the division down to 1/2 game. In reality Monday night's game was more troubling than Sunday's. The Sox committed a bevy of errors allowing punishing unearned runs to a bad team, and then failed to get big hits in two crucial late game situations with opportunities to tie. David Ortiz made it interesting in the 9th with his 800th home run this week but then Manny Ramirez struck out pitifully on a Danny Baez pitch that was grooved right down the middle and was begging to be socked 430 feet by the right handed slugger.
A sad sidenote to all of this Boston sports misery was the performance of my 2 fantasy squads. If this were last season I'd be living the high life, needing only to play my 2 first round picks Dante Culpepper and Peyton Manning each week to have a chance to win. This week however they combined for under 400 yards passing, 0 TDs, and 6 interceptions for a grand total of 2 fantasy points. What makes these performances all the more frustrating (aside from the fact that I HATE Manning and myself for having to root for him now and that the Colts won) is that the rest of my squads had good games and with decent quarterback performances I would have won easily, seeing as I lost both games by only 12 points. Last year Manning would have put up 12 points in the first quarter against the Jaguars, this week, he took my whole team and threw it under the bus. Culpepper has yet to land me a TD pass this season and his net fantasy points through 2 weeks are -4.
What the hell I ask you, what the hell?
So that concludes my run down of one of the worst 3 day spans in a Boston sports fan's life.
Coming soon: My suicidal rant if the Red Sox lose the lead to the Yankees and miss the playoffs.
Sure, I've been spoiled. A World Series championship, a couple of Super Bowls, decent BC teams, competitive fantasy squads. It's been a good run.
Maybe this good run will continue, but from Saturday to Monday it all just came unglued.
It began with probably the biggest game home game in BC history. #8 Florida State coming to the Heights in the #17 Eagles inaugural ACC matchup on ESPN Saturday night (following Game Day, live on campus...surely for the last time).
All week long the hype was that BC was a program on the rise. Well coached, disciplined, huge upfront, with a big time defense. The Seminoles came in off of a shaky game against Miami with questions at quarterback but undeniable team speed and athleticism.
The game started out looking like a typical BC choke, 2 big interceptions from 6th (that's right SIXTH) year quarterback Quinton Porter and a 14-0 Seminoles lead. Then remarkably, in very un-BC fashion, the Eagles rallied and actually took a 17-14 lead into the 4th quarter.
At this point let me set the stage for you. 50,000 rabid BC fans screaming for blood, thinking about a potential leap into the top 10. A Seminoles team that looked totally impotent and unable to move the ball against BC's defense. All they had to do was hold on, with a lead in the 4th quarter at home, and they would be considered a legitimate big-time program. Asking a lot? Not really, just don't totally implode, maybe get another score and voila!
My buddy even turned to me and said, "Do the goalposts come down tonight?"
Lest we forget however, this is BC. A school plagued by inability to win on the biggest stages and buoyed by dominance in the shadowy second tier of college football. And true to form they choked. Florida State put up two touchdowns and BC failed to respond and in 15 quick minutes the dream was dead.
The capper came with 2 minutes to play with BC on Florida State's 2 yard line with 4 chances to punch it in for a gap-closing score. A penalty gave them 3 more chances. And out of this they netted nada, zip, zilch, squat! 7 chances to pull within one score from 2 yards away and this "program on the rise" failed to ascend the necessary 6 feet. A truly pathetic performance to end a truly disappointing collapse. I won't even mention the dropped pass in the back of the end zone, I won't...
From this carnival of sadness my sporting misery moves to Sunday, 1 PM, Pats at the Carolina Panthers, a Super Bowl contender with a chip on their shoulder and tough week one loss at home to New Orleans still lingering on their taste buds.
This was the first regular season meeting between these two teams since the Super Bowl two years ago and apparently the bad blood from that game persists. That's natural since these are the two hardest hitting teams in the NFL but for the Patriots to be concerned with that seems ridiculous, the Panthers as a franchise are a joke compared to New England and their near comeback to make the playoffs last year merely underscored how miserably they played during the first half of the season.
This game actually started out alright, the Pats went up 7-0 and looked reasonably sound against a very strong Carolina defense (although not as strong without Kris Jenkins). Then things simply went south. The Pats were completely unable to run the ball, despite the fact that Carolina was playing without Jenkins, their 330 pound run stopper in the middle. Brady looked very human constantly throwing high and not sensing the rush and moving to avoid it like he normally does. A costly interception on an out pattern wasn't his fault, that was just a great play by the linebacker but he should have felt the rush coming on his fumble. The defense inexplicably couldn't stop the run even though the Panthers primarily used the ageless Stephen Davis (3 TDs). And even Belichick seemed to be off his game, not challenging a questionable touchdown by Davis, and then again not challenging Brady's fumble.
Despite Brady, Dillon, and Belichick all playing below par the Patriots were still in the contest in the fourth quarter, trailing by only ten with the ball at mid field and 9 minutes to play. It almost (and almost is the key word here) had the feel of another game where the opposition let a struggling Pats team hang around too long and ultimately got bitten by a Brady miracle at the end. Not this time though, they went quietly on the remainder of their possessions and never really mounted a significant charge. Very un-Patriot like.
* I'm going to put an asterisk here because the Patriots are allowed a game like this once in a while. They have won 35 of their last 40 and in reality Carolina can't play any better than that; the Patriots played horribly and the game was still decided by only 10 points. This opening stretch of the season is a murderers row for New England but make no mistake, they're still the champs and while the Colts play Bridgewater State every Sunday until week 9 remember that they have never won a game that really matters against the Brady, Belichick incarnation of the Patriots.
Meanwhile back in Boston, starting at 2 PM the Red Sox were playing the Oakland A's, with Matt Clement going for his 14th win in a crucial game that would give the Sox 3 out of 4 against a playoff contender. With the miracle of split cable the Dockside was able to show both the Pats and Sox games, each on 2 TVs but the volume was dedicated to football so my recollection of what actually happened to start to the Sox game may be a little off.
What I do know is that the A's put up a bunch of runs (7?) in the first inning and that it was never a game after that. Clement lasted just 1 and 1/3 innings and the eventual outcome was a 12-3 bludgeoning by a team that hasn't been able to score runs all season.
There isn't even anything else to say about this game, it was simply a nightmare, especially considering that it came at the worst possible time. Clement's ineffectiveness was only heightened the next night as David Wells got smacked around by the mighty Tampa Bay Devil Rays, lasting only 2 and 1/3 innings giving up 4 runs before being lifted. Two games in a row where your starter lasts less than three innings will do a serious number on your bullpen and thankfully Curt Schilling pulled it together last night, saving a few pitches for the tired Sox relievers.
The only good news on Sunday was that the Yankees lost, but even that train derailed on Monday night with their victory over Baltimore, bringing the Sox lead in the division down to 1/2 game. In reality Monday night's game was more troubling than Sunday's. The Sox committed a bevy of errors allowing punishing unearned runs to a bad team, and then failed to get big hits in two crucial late game situations with opportunities to tie. David Ortiz made it interesting in the 9th with his 800th home run this week but then Manny Ramirez struck out pitifully on a Danny Baez pitch that was grooved right down the middle and was begging to be socked 430 feet by the right handed slugger.
A sad sidenote to all of this Boston sports misery was the performance of my 2 fantasy squads. If this were last season I'd be living the high life, needing only to play my 2 first round picks Dante Culpepper and Peyton Manning each week to have a chance to win. This week however they combined for under 400 yards passing, 0 TDs, and 6 interceptions for a grand total of 2 fantasy points. What makes these performances all the more frustrating (aside from the fact that I HATE Manning and myself for having to root for him now and that the Colts won) is that the rest of my squads had good games and with decent quarterback performances I would have won easily, seeing as I lost both games by only 12 points. Last year Manning would have put up 12 points in the first quarter against the Jaguars, this week, he took my whole team and threw it under the bus. Culpepper has yet to land me a TD pass this season and his net fantasy points through 2 weeks are -4.
What the hell I ask you, what the hell?
So that concludes my run down of one of the worst 3 day spans in a Boston sports fan's life.
Coming soon: My suicidal rant if the Red Sox lose the lead to the Yankees and miss the playoffs.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Fantasy Football
Isn't it funny how every single male on the face of the planet plays fantasy football? You can be standing in line at the grocery store and mention to someone that you drafted Peyton Manning in the first round and expect that he'll know exactly what you're talking about. ESPN has dedicated hours of air time to "preparing" us for "draft day" and there are a half dozen magazines and probably twice as many web sites that will list for you precisely who you need to take and when. Bars are routinely rented out for groups of arm chair quarterbacks to make their selections and guzzle PBR, and wives are left fuming. It's become a surprisingly huge industry.
My question is why?
Essentially, at it's core, fantasy football is about stats, so logically that would lead one to believe that to have an interest in the game you must be interested in the mathematical performances of out-of-market NFL players on a weekly basis. So does every fantasy player care if Nate Burleson hauls in 8 catches in week 4 but only for 36 yards and no TD's. Clearly not. I (obvious statement coming) am a huge football fan, but I honestly could care less if Drew Brees throws for 400 yards with 8 TD's or 100 yards with 4 interceptions (unless he's playing against New England), and yet fantasy football has dominated my limited internet access for the past 2 weeks. Am I a hypocrite, a stat junky in denial, or just very very bored? Okay, I am very bored but that can't be it.
So here are some reasons that I think fantasy football is so huge.
1. It makes football more interesting. Let's face it, if you're a real fan you only truly care about one team and their game. Sure you'll watch the Colts play the Cowboys at 1 but really you're just waiting for the Pats v. Jets game at 4. The other games are chances to heat up the wings and get a good angry buzz on before kickoff. But throw some fantasy implications into that Colts v. Cowboys matchup and all of a sudden you're glued to the TV with StatTracker open on your lap top and a printout of your lineup on the TV tray next to your nachos. It's only natural that you are more interested in something when you have a stake in it, and fantasy football gives all of us something at stake in nearly every game and on almost every play.
A quick sidenote, how much of a bombshell is fantasy football for the NFL. It must attract hundreds of thousands of viewers in fantasy playoffs to meaningless week 16 games between two out of playoff contention teams as long as there is a statistical stud on the field. It must have at least marginally boosted the ratings among casual fans.
2. It's like IMing without being a post adolescent odd-ball and e-mailing without needing addresses and something worthwhile to say. Every league comes with a message board which, since most leagues are organzied by groups of friends is more often used to keep in touch than for actual football discussion. I know for me personally I am in 2 leagues, one with my friends from high school and one with my friends from college, were it not for these leagues I would likely be in far less contact with them than I am. It's easy, non-commital communication. You don't feel like an idiot calling your buddy just to chat (guys don't do that) and it's much less effort than tracking down everyone's e-mail address, you just throw up a quick note while you're setting your line-up for the week and voila, you keep in touch with friends throughout the country. Not to mention you get to talk smack but with the advantage of being able to think about your responses for a few minutes, i.e. if you're not that quick on your feet you can still rebut a moronic statement without stuttering and looking foolish.
3. It gives you poor office folk (by the way I'm looking at the sun setting over Hyannis Harbor from the restaurant office right now, God I love managing...) something to do while you're slammed in a cubicle / office for 9 hours per day. Work for an hour, check the waiver wire, put up a post, propose a trade, wow look it's lunch time, work for another hour, set the line-up for the weekend, bam it's happy hour. They should do a productivity study on how many man hours are lost each year between the middle of August and the end of the regular season, it's probably a negative billion dollar a year habit. Toss in cigarette and bathroom breaks and fantasy footballers with habits and small bladders might not work a single minute through the entire fall.
4. It's "competitive". Okay it's not as good as playing touch football or pick-up basketball but there is a certain degree of satisfaction that comes from winning a fantasy game, especially if you crafted your lineup perfectly based on bye weeks, match-ups, home field advantage, and the like. And if you didn't there is still satisfaction in beating that guy who never looks at his lineup and still thinks that Emmitt Smith is a viable fantasy starter. You know every league has that guy, that when you're looking at the schedule you just check off his weeks as wins because you know that whatever his lineup is at the beginning of the season it's going to stay that way regardless of injury or cuts or acts of god.
5. It gives idiots like me something to talk about on lazy Thursday afternoons in September when they're managing very quiet restaurants staffed entirely by Polish immigrants whom they can no longer stand to be around without ear plugs. Some might call this the same thing as number 3, only in my line of work, and I guess that would be accurate. Procrastination applies to everyone I guess, even those of us whose work is essentially procrastination from growing up.
So there you have it. Next time someone asks you why you play fantasy football, send them here and they'll understand. Or maybe, if that person is your boss you will be fired.
Good luck this season.
My question is why?
Essentially, at it's core, fantasy football is about stats, so logically that would lead one to believe that to have an interest in the game you must be interested in the mathematical performances of out-of-market NFL players on a weekly basis. So does every fantasy player care if Nate Burleson hauls in 8 catches in week 4 but only for 36 yards and no TD's. Clearly not. I (obvious statement coming) am a huge football fan, but I honestly could care less if Drew Brees throws for 400 yards with 8 TD's or 100 yards with 4 interceptions (unless he's playing against New England), and yet fantasy football has dominated my limited internet access for the past 2 weeks. Am I a hypocrite, a stat junky in denial, or just very very bored? Okay, I am very bored but that can't be it.
So here are some reasons that I think fantasy football is so huge.
1. It makes football more interesting. Let's face it, if you're a real fan you only truly care about one team and their game. Sure you'll watch the Colts play the Cowboys at 1 but really you're just waiting for the Pats v. Jets game at 4. The other games are chances to heat up the wings and get a good angry buzz on before kickoff. But throw some fantasy implications into that Colts v. Cowboys matchup and all of a sudden you're glued to the TV with StatTracker open on your lap top and a printout of your lineup on the TV tray next to your nachos. It's only natural that you are more interested in something when you have a stake in it, and fantasy football gives all of us something at stake in nearly every game and on almost every play.
A quick sidenote, how much of a bombshell is fantasy football for the NFL. It must attract hundreds of thousands of viewers in fantasy playoffs to meaningless week 16 games between two out of playoff contention teams as long as there is a statistical stud on the field. It must have at least marginally boosted the ratings among casual fans.
2. It's like IMing without being a post adolescent odd-ball and e-mailing without needing addresses and something worthwhile to say. Every league comes with a message board which, since most leagues are organzied by groups of friends is more often used to keep in touch than for actual football discussion. I know for me personally I am in 2 leagues, one with my friends from high school and one with my friends from college, were it not for these leagues I would likely be in far less contact with them than I am. It's easy, non-commital communication. You don't feel like an idiot calling your buddy just to chat (guys don't do that) and it's much less effort than tracking down everyone's e-mail address, you just throw up a quick note while you're setting your line-up for the week and voila, you keep in touch with friends throughout the country. Not to mention you get to talk smack but with the advantage of being able to think about your responses for a few minutes, i.e. if you're not that quick on your feet you can still rebut a moronic statement without stuttering and looking foolish.
3. It gives you poor office folk (by the way I'm looking at the sun setting over Hyannis Harbor from the restaurant office right now, God I love managing...) something to do while you're slammed in a cubicle / office for 9 hours per day. Work for an hour, check the waiver wire, put up a post, propose a trade, wow look it's lunch time, work for another hour, set the line-up for the weekend, bam it's happy hour. They should do a productivity study on how many man hours are lost each year between the middle of August and the end of the regular season, it's probably a negative billion dollar a year habit. Toss in cigarette and bathroom breaks and fantasy footballers with habits and small bladders might not work a single minute through the entire fall.
4. It's "competitive". Okay it's not as good as playing touch football or pick-up basketball but there is a certain degree of satisfaction that comes from winning a fantasy game, especially if you crafted your lineup perfectly based on bye weeks, match-ups, home field advantage, and the like. And if you didn't there is still satisfaction in beating that guy who never looks at his lineup and still thinks that Emmitt Smith is a viable fantasy starter. You know every league has that guy, that when you're looking at the schedule you just check off his weeks as wins because you know that whatever his lineup is at the beginning of the season it's going to stay that way regardless of injury or cuts or acts of god.
5. It gives idiots like me something to talk about on lazy Thursday afternoons in September when they're managing very quiet restaurants staffed entirely by Polish immigrants whom they can no longer stand to be around without ear plugs. Some might call this the same thing as number 3, only in my line of work, and I guess that would be accurate. Procrastination applies to everyone I guess, even those of us whose work is essentially procrastination from growing up.
So there you have it. Next time someone asks you why you play fantasy football, send them here and they'll understand. Or maybe, if that person is your boss you will be fired.
Good luck this season.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Nobody on the road...
nobody on the beach...
Amazingly summer '05 is in its twilight. For me it endures, at least as far as employment is concerned until the middle of October but for all intents and purposes the "white" season ends Monday.
This end brings more than colored leaves and cool evenings. It brings the best sporting months of the year. The last 35 games of the Red Sox season and the beginning of Patriots and BC football slip and slide right into the first hockey season since 1943 and the beginning of basketball. It's a virtual (why does everyone always use virtual to precede...) cornicopia (are there such things are real cornicopias?) of blogging vodder.
Sure I'll be mired in Dockside hell with one lonley drunk roofer to keep me company for the next 6 weeks and I'll blow the remainder of my summer savings on cheap Cape Cod moonshine, but at least there will be sports to watch.
Heading into this stretch there are questions galore. Will the Red Sox hang on to win their first division title since 1995? Will the Yankees out pace the A's / Angels to take the Wild Card giving us all a reason to add to our prodigious stress ulcers still festering from the past 2 playoff runs? Will the Patriots overcome (?) their key losses at linebacker and coordinator to continue their dominance? Will BC be able to compete in the utterly stacked ACC or will they simply be annihilated by Florida State and Miami, and if they do compete will they roll over and die in the big game at the end of the year against an inferior opponent as the always do? Will anyone ever watch hockey again? What in the heck am I going to do with my life in October? (Forget that last one I don't even want to think about it.)
To even put on my prognosticators hat at this stage seems totally premature but what the hell, no one reads this anyway. Maybe I've caught stupid from watching too much "1st and 10" with the two worst sports reporters in the history of suck-ass (yes that is a word) sports reporting.
The Red Sox will win the division, IF the pitching holds. They cannot keep staking teams to 5 run leads like they have the past 2 nights against Tampa Bay. It's great that both Schilling and Wakefield were able to turn it around after shaky starts but on the road Mueller's wall balls are outs and the shots Damon catches just in front of the triangle are home runs. The offense will be there regardless of who is playing first or second base. This race will not be decided by Graffanino and Cora or Millar and Pettagini. Rather it will be Schilling, Timlin, and Foulke. You know what you're going to get from Wakefield and Arroyo, Wells is fat and I can't fucking stand him and I strike him from this blog for being so T.O. like in his press conference after his suspension came down, and I don't see any suprises from Manny Delcarmen or Abe Alvarez in the next 4 weeks either. The three guys listed above are the key, Foulke needs to close Timlin needs to continue to be the 7th and 8th inning horse and Schilling needs to figure it out, his stuff might not be there but he needs to win with guile and craftiness regardless. The sad truth here is that in one bad week this could all come unglued without a true stopper in the rotation. If Schilling returns to form he is that guy, and I'd feel a whole lot better knowing that there was someone out there who could stop the bleeding at least every fifth day if the rest of the staff goes into the tank. Deep down I think they're going to pull away a bit and win by 5, after that as we know anything can happen.
The Patriots are going to win the division but there will be no talk of going undefeated and they will be favored just because they are the Patriots once we get into the heart of the season. Their schedule is almost unfair it's so hard and even within their own division their competition has vastly improved. The Jets added, obviously Ty Law and other defensive help, the Bills got rid of 34 interceptions per season just by ditching Bledsoe, and the Dolphins have essentially the same team as 3 years ago when they were competitive with the return of Ricky Williams. They have to go to Indianapolis where maybe the mystique of their dominance over Peyton Manning will be lessened, and that is only the cornerstone of a very arduous road schedule. However, they still have the only three things they simply could not afford to lose, Bellichick, Brady, and Dillon. Take Weiss, take Crennell, take Law, Bruschi, and Johnson. It doesn't matter. In this his fifth full season as a starter Brady has a greater command of his offensive scheme than any quarterback in football save that country bumpkin in Indianapolis. Bellichick may have lost his right hand men but don't think for even a second that he did not see this coming and hasn't had someone groomed for each position and at the end of the day he is the brains behind the operation, Weiss and Crennel were, as the new coordinators will be, just the arms and legs. Corey Dillon with a year under his belt is ready to explode as a premier back, just look at his rating on every fantasy football site, he's always in the top 10 even though he only had 12 TD's last year, they see it coming and so do I. So my prognosis is that until someone rears their head to beat them the Patriots are the favorites, the Colts can't beat them, Roethlisberger is bound to take at least a half step backward and both of the Pittsburgh running backs are hurt, and the Eagles are prone to completly implode on the back of one pompus ass. At this point all the legitimate challengers are unimpressive, that will likely change however as this is the NFL and everyone is good enough to win every week.
I don't know a freaking thing about BC's team this year aside from the fact that some of the girls I swam with thought the starting quarterback was hot when he was a freshman. Actually check that I know another thing, Quinton Porter isn't taking us anywhere and he certainly isn't going to ride us through Tallahassee and Miami. I see a "correction" coming but they are ranked 22 to start the season and I'm quite sure that those who make the rankings are much more informed that I. One thing I am sure of is that I will be there, drunk.
Technically I'm managing right now so I guess I ought to head back downstairs and put out any fires the stupid Polish waitresses have set in my absence. There was a reason you made Polish jokes when you were a little kid, sometimes stereotypes are true.
Last chance to see the Cape at it's best this weekend. Way to make it down here tons this summer....
Amazingly summer '05 is in its twilight. For me it endures, at least as far as employment is concerned until the middle of October but for all intents and purposes the "white" season ends Monday.
This end brings more than colored leaves and cool evenings. It brings the best sporting months of the year. The last 35 games of the Red Sox season and the beginning of Patriots and BC football slip and slide right into the first hockey season since 1943 and the beginning of basketball. It's a virtual (why does everyone always use virtual to precede...) cornicopia (are there such things are real cornicopias?) of blogging vodder.
Sure I'll be mired in Dockside hell with one lonley drunk roofer to keep me company for the next 6 weeks and I'll blow the remainder of my summer savings on cheap Cape Cod moonshine, but at least there will be sports to watch.
Heading into this stretch there are questions galore. Will the Red Sox hang on to win their first division title since 1995? Will the Yankees out pace the A's / Angels to take the Wild Card giving us all a reason to add to our prodigious stress ulcers still festering from the past 2 playoff runs? Will the Patriots overcome (?) their key losses at linebacker and coordinator to continue their dominance? Will BC be able to compete in the utterly stacked ACC or will they simply be annihilated by Florida State and Miami, and if they do compete will they roll over and die in the big game at the end of the year against an inferior opponent as the always do? Will anyone ever watch hockey again? What in the heck am I going to do with my life in October? (Forget that last one I don't even want to think about it.)
To even put on my prognosticators hat at this stage seems totally premature but what the hell, no one reads this anyway. Maybe I've caught stupid from watching too much "1st and 10" with the two worst sports reporters in the history of suck-ass (yes that is a word) sports reporting.
The Red Sox will win the division, IF the pitching holds. They cannot keep staking teams to 5 run leads like they have the past 2 nights against Tampa Bay. It's great that both Schilling and Wakefield were able to turn it around after shaky starts but on the road Mueller's wall balls are outs and the shots Damon catches just in front of the triangle are home runs. The offense will be there regardless of who is playing first or second base. This race will not be decided by Graffanino and Cora or Millar and Pettagini. Rather it will be Schilling, Timlin, and Foulke. You know what you're going to get from Wakefield and Arroyo, Wells is fat and I can't fucking stand him and I strike him from this blog for being so T.O. like in his press conference after his suspension came down, and I don't see any suprises from Manny Delcarmen or Abe Alvarez in the next 4 weeks either. The three guys listed above are the key, Foulke needs to close Timlin needs to continue to be the 7th and 8th inning horse and Schilling needs to figure it out, his stuff might not be there but he needs to win with guile and craftiness regardless. The sad truth here is that in one bad week this could all come unglued without a true stopper in the rotation. If Schilling returns to form he is that guy, and I'd feel a whole lot better knowing that there was someone out there who could stop the bleeding at least every fifth day if the rest of the staff goes into the tank. Deep down I think they're going to pull away a bit and win by 5, after that as we know anything can happen.
The Patriots are going to win the division but there will be no talk of going undefeated and they will be favored just because they are the Patriots once we get into the heart of the season. Their schedule is almost unfair it's so hard and even within their own division their competition has vastly improved. The Jets added, obviously Ty Law and other defensive help, the Bills got rid of 34 interceptions per season just by ditching Bledsoe, and the Dolphins have essentially the same team as 3 years ago when they were competitive with the return of Ricky Williams. They have to go to Indianapolis where maybe the mystique of their dominance over Peyton Manning will be lessened, and that is only the cornerstone of a very arduous road schedule. However, they still have the only three things they simply could not afford to lose, Bellichick, Brady, and Dillon. Take Weiss, take Crennell, take Law, Bruschi, and Johnson. It doesn't matter. In this his fifth full season as a starter Brady has a greater command of his offensive scheme than any quarterback in football save that country bumpkin in Indianapolis. Bellichick may have lost his right hand men but don't think for even a second that he did not see this coming and hasn't had someone groomed for each position and at the end of the day he is the brains behind the operation, Weiss and Crennel were, as the new coordinators will be, just the arms and legs. Corey Dillon with a year under his belt is ready to explode as a premier back, just look at his rating on every fantasy football site, he's always in the top 10 even though he only had 12 TD's last year, they see it coming and so do I. So my prognosis is that until someone rears their head to beat them the Patriots are the favorites, the Colts can't beat them, Roethlisberger is bound to take at least a half step backward and both of the Pittsburgh running backs are hurt, and the Eagles are prone to completly implode on the back of one pompus ass. At this point all the legitimate challengers are unimpressive, that will likely change however as this is the NFL and everyone is good enough to win every week.
I don't know a freaking thing about BC's team this year aside from the fact that some of the girls I swam with thought the starting quarterback was hot when he was a freshman. Actually check that I know another thing, Quinton Porter isn't taking us anywhere and he certainly isn't going to ride us through Tallahassee and Miami. I see a "correction" coming but they are ranked 22 to start the season and I'm quite sure that those who make the rankings are much more informed that I. One thing I am sure of is that I will be there, drunk.
Technically I'm managing right now so I guess I ought to head back downstairs and put out any fires the stupid Polish waitresses have set in my absence. There was a reason you made Polish jokes when you were a little kid, sometimes stereotypes are true.
Last chance to see the Cape at it's best this weekend. Way to make it down here tons this summer....
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