Has it really been this long again?

So, it's September and I've been tied up with this and that. Anyways, the Red Sox had a good handle on first prior to the All-Star Break and then they started to tumble. Reminds me of what they did back in 2004 so fingers crossed eyes heavenward. That team from the Bronx has resurfaced, though their pitching has not been very good. Their offense is staggering, hoping the slumps start, soon please.

College football, ah, yeah, the only good game I saw was the Minnesota v. Syracuse game where the Gophers took it to the Orange in OT! I shouldn't rub it in but I so very much dislike Syracuse, mostly because of my experience in college where I played lacrosse with kids from the Syracuse area (worse than Yankees fans if that's possible) and they were insufferable, sickeningly so. The Miami v. FSU looked good, too bad that the 'Canes have the 'Noles number in close games.

Tennis has shown itself to be interesting with the resurgence of Ms. Clijisters (have baby beat Venus) and Roddick's almost at the All-England final. The US Open in Flushing is pretty interesting, remains to be seen just what Federer can do to win that 6th in a row and pad his Slams total. I don't see Nadal being able to beat him on the hardcourts, just doesn't seem likely.

Brett Favre has returned, but he's playing for the Purple People Eaters and my Minnesotan friends are on the Favre bandwagon like nobody's business. He's kinda like the Buffalo Bills, Rasputin in nature, gets there barely and then when the pressure's on, folds like a napkin.

Tom Brady and the Patriots look, well, shaky, and that's not a good sign. Now I read that Seymour has been traded to Oakland of all places because of contract matters (what??). The AFC East is looking quite interesting, but the AFC North is the one to watch, I see Cleveland finally getting a winning season and Baltimore has a very scary defense.

Well, that's that for now - let's hope for an entertaining end of the season for MLB and I'm looking forward to hockey warming up (is that possible since they play on ice?). Happy September.

I'm back to opine

Spring has come and gone and now Summer is here in all of its vengance. May saw one of the great lacrosse games where Syracuse undeservedly won their second in a row championship against a very game Cornell team. The Red Sox are winning (how I don't really know after watching their starting pitching alternate good starts with truly awful ones). The Celtics and the Bruins got bounced in the second round of the playoffs which brought great disappointment.

My son's soccer season is now over as well. I was his coach for a third season (and I signed up for another fall as well for this year, I must be crazy) and it was a frustrating season in that I had no assistant coach which was pretty tough with 13 boys and trying to teach them fundamentals. I had great kids and they had fun (I think) and I've still got to do their evaluations too (sheesh).

I enjoyed the US Men's win yesterday against Spain. I can only compare it to Appalachian State beating Michigan - HUGE upset. The second goal was pure gritty, and I loved it. Let's see if they can do well in the Fed finals.

I noticed that Maria Sharapova got bounced from the All England Championships at Wimbledon. Too bad, she was coming back from injury and getting beat so early in the tourney doesn't bode well for her summer. In addition, Wimbledon may also be the site of another record breaking moment if Federer wins his 15th major. He's a great player - wish Roddick would play up to his potential and give a better show of it in majors.

The Red Sox are in town and I've had zero luck in getting tickets to the games with the last one being tonight and the long-awaited return of John Smoltz. I'm watching that foh showah.

In writing about the Red Sox, it brings me no small amount of joy to witness the Yankees in their new stadium (where the triple-A Nationals took 2 out of 3 last week, tee hee). Makes you wonder why a new stadium was necessary, but then what's a billion dollars spent on a stadium in a crap neighborhood?

Congrats to LSU - they can play baseball (and football it seems). I was pulling for my alma mater (George Mason) but they fell in the early rounds.

That's about it for now - I hope to get more chances to update this page in the future. Happy Summer!

They're winning but I'm concerned

Well, it's late June and my Red Sox are in first place but my pre-2004 worries are coming back. If it weren't for J.D. Drew and a somewhat steady pitching staff I doubt that first place would even be on the radar screen. I watched both games on ESPN this week and it was clear that not having Big Papi even in the lineup, let alone 100%, could have made a huge difference against Herren on Monday. What last night showed me is that Randy Johnson has become a smarter pitcher than he was before. However, his velocity and slider location are more in the average range and that's what hurt him last night. Tim Wakefield is fun to watch. There are, what? maybe three pitchers who currently throw the knuckler? When Wakefield retires I wonder if we'll ever see the knuckle ball again. He made their hitters look silly, almost like a bugs bunny routine trying to swat the "slow-ball".

Back to the point, the Red Sox are in trouble. They have a decent makeshift lineup and their pitching has been mostly reliable (though the bull-pen is sketchy), BUT, without Dice-K, Schilling, Ortiz, and Buckholtz this team is going to struggle. If they can't win on the road consistently they will not make the Wild Card, let alone win the AL East. The most pleasant surprise this season has been watching Jacoby Elsbury - he already owns the rookie record for steals by a Red Sox player and I see him possibly joining the 30/30 club (the last Red Sox player to do that was Tommy Harper I believe, back in the 1970's). He has great instincts on picking up where the pitcher is going from the stretch. The fact that the Red Sox aren't the team I always knew (slow, slower, and slowest but could hit home runs) is in many ways a lot of fun. I don't feel as nostalgic for the days of Fisk, Lynn, Rice, Remy, Burleson, Hobson, Scott, Evans and whatever farm hand they used on the mound. Speed opens up so many possibilities and creates the opportunity to manufacture runs if your big hitters aren't doing it for you. Having Crisp and Lugo is also a plus since both have good speed (though Lugo needs to hit better, my word, his paycheck is not deserved).

With all that in mind I can see the Sox being competitive, but I suspect that if Ortiz doesn't make it back and if Dice-K is really injured it will not be another repeat of an AL title.

Manny - summer and silly Washington area fans

Well, Manny Ramirez has reached and surpassed the 500 homer threshold. I didn't like him much when he was in Cleveland since he killed the Sox in the playoffs, however, he's become something altogether different from those days. Joe Morgan on ESPN loves Manny - it's fun to listen to Morgan do color/commentary instead of Tim McCarver (cannot stand the man, plus the fact that he's a HUGE anti-Red Sox commentator - he had to eat so much crow when the Sox came back in 2004 over the Yankees). Manny did it in the Red Sox's second home, Camden Yards, with their favorite punching bag providing the fun. I watched all of the games and it is still amusing to me to see the huge amount of Sox fans in the seats in Oriole Park (official name of the baseball field). I went to Memorial Stadium when I first moved to the DC area and I found myself and maybe three others in the whole place who had Sox paraphernalia on. Nowadays the reverse is true, where there are so few O's fans you have to really look hard to find black and orange (horrible colors) apparel on someone not hawking it to someone else.

I get a kick out of listening to Jim Palmer talk about the Red Sox, he's really a big fan of how they do baseball and not a fan of the current Orioles (or for the past six years it seems) crew they've got going. That's my impression from listening to him this past weekend, even when the O's won on Monday night (let's see, lose three straight and then win one, yeah, that'll keep you in last place). Palmer is so nostalgic for the "Oriole Way", too bad that the team hasn't had a winning season since, um, was Clinton president then?
Washington area fans spend so much time on the Redskins here that they miss out on baseball and other diversions. I've never seen such homers in my life. Oh, wait, that's right, I have, but that's for another time. DC United has won four championships in the past 12 years, the Redskins have made the playoffs three times in the same time frame. Do Washington fans even know that? I highly doubt it. When it comes to baseball Washington fans are ambivalent at best (I'd venture slightly retarded at times) which is unfortunate because the Nationals are a decent mediocre team. Kinda like Houston really, nice ballpark but the product between the lines will lose more than win but are gamers mostly. With a huge potential fan base the Nationals are poised to become a 2nd tier team (up from bleacher bench seats) - they'll not get much higher until they start trading for pitching and start building some good support minor league teams. The Washington Post does some fair coverage of the Nats but I get the impression they're waiting for the prom queen to take off her brassiere and prance around center field. The cynicism in regards to the nationals is really annoying. The Post or the Times will do everything possible to have kids over the Redskins and the Nats are acknowledged as a strange relative even though their stadium is better, is better situated, and has better food.

Summer is here again and my oldest just finished his second soccer season. I have high hopes for him and I am trying not to be the pyscho dad (which is doubly hard since I'm now an assistant coach). He's going to soccer camp this summer (I hope he has a blast). My youngest is already out of school and so I've got figure out what he can do, maybe I'll sign him up for tots practice this fall. The hot weather arrived yesterday and the obligatory thunderstorm struck as well (some poor woman got killed by a tree yesterday). DC gets so hot during the summer - the only other place I've been to where it's hotter is the Gulf Coast where the sweat streams out of your body like water fountain. I'm hoping that it will cool off a little bit this summer - another hot summer will kill my $$$ (which I have almost zero anyways). I look forward to a fun summer and maybe I can keep losing weight, but that's for another time.

well it's been a while

Here we are, it's the lull before the superbowl and as a Patriots fan I'm a tad impatient. It's not that I want the game to get started, I'm tired of the over hype. I understand that the Patsies are undefeated, but jeeez, calm down already. It used to be that folks were more concerned with the State of the Union address than something like this, but then we are a shallow people aren't we?

It seems that more folks are hopping on the Giants "underdog" bandwagon (ESPN devoted way too much time to "breaking down" the way the Giants can win. Of all people, Emitt Smith (I wish I could like the man, I just don't) is stating that a Patriots will win (oh no, a kiss of death).

As for the other teams that reside north of the Connecticut border, there's been a interesting spark of success. The Celtics own the best record in basketball (something I haven't seen in over 20 years) and my Bruins are actually several games over .500 (but please, for God sakes, CAN YOU BEAT THE EFFING CANADIENS?????!!).

Being from Boston and seeing how the success of Boston teams this year (Red Sox wining the World Series, the Patriots poised to win a fourth Super Bowl, the Celtics being the only team with fewer than 10 losses, the Bruins in the playoff hunt, BC football having its first 10 win season) so many folks are pissing on Boston. It's strange, I mean, coming from Boston one is usually bitter and pissy about almost every other place, now the tables have turned, how did this happen? I'm not unhappy about it, just a bit bewildered. I mean, I watched my Red Sox win not one, but TWO world series in my lifetime. My Grandmother who passed away in 1986 is the only other person who saw the Red Sox win more than one championship. I grew up watching Bobby Orr score against St. Louis, and then Havelchek, and then Cowens, and the big three (Bird, McHale, Parrish) win as well. The Patriots barely registered (nor did the Eagles for that matter until a little guy from Natick won the Heisman and showed that Massholes can play something other than bitching-n-moaning). Now the riches of being a Boston sports fan is, well, overwhelming. I don't need to buy a Patriots hat or jersey, every friggin' cheeseball's done that for me.

Back to Super Sunday - I'm more than a little disappointed that I have to listen to Joe Buck for another championship (I muted the World Series for the most part so I didn't have to listen to that idiot McCarver). I don't mind Troy Aikman, though his Okie plainsian accent grates my east coast snobbish ears, but Joe Buck tires me out. He seems to be sleepwalking at times. I like Nance and Simms, his drawl is more sing-song and easier on my otic aesthetics. No Madden this year (phew!), and for goodness sakes, no Gumbels either (amen and amen). I miss Dick Enberg with his "Oh My!", he's great, one of the best play by play I've ever heard.

So predictions? From me? Nope, I'm just hoping that history is made by the team that used to play in a Jr. High stadium named Schaefer (shyte beer btw). I've never been to Gillette stadium, is the parking better than it was with the old stadium?

When Hockey was more interesting

So, in the course of my chronic insomnia I was watching the NHL channel and I caught the 1979 Stanley Cup semi-finals between Boston and Montreal. Game went down to the wire but I was struck by how very cool hockey was back then (especially with Don Cherry behind the bench for my B's). Peter McNab, Rick Middleton, Terry O'Reilly, Mike Milbury, etc etc etc. Great teams and almost all of them played without a helmet (wasn't until the early 80's where the helmet rules were put in place). As a post-collegiate lacrosse player who played with a ton of hockey players, we had more to talk about then just lax.

I live in DC, but there are times when I really miss this time of year in Boston. High School hockey is in the first part of their season, college hockey is up and running, and the early morning trips to the rink with dad are the true causes of morning traffic on a Saturday morning. The greatest hockey tournament comes in February with the Beanpot featuring the four universities in Boston. Harvard, BU, BC, and Northeastern hit the ice the first two mondays in February and the winner gets bragging rights for a whole year. In Boston (prior to the Red Sox and the Patriots winning, bragging and Boston weren't very friendly) having bragging rights is huge, huge. The winner of the tournament almost always makes the D1 tourney (most of the time the winner makes it to the Frozen Four). I miss hockey, good hockey. You just don't get it down here in DC and most folks treat it as a small amusement. Hockey is a great sport, with sick hits and amazing athletes, and it's a blast to watch.

Why Redskins fans are homers

Far be it for me to call most other fans homers but Redskins fans are really weird. I do NOT understand how they think that the Redskins are a good team or that the team "has all the pieces". Listening to the Junkies this morning and I'm struck by how dense these folks are. A lot of complainers have balanced things out, but with both daily newspapers spending 11 PAGES! to the Redskins, this is HOMERVILLE!

I love living down here - the weather is better than it was in Boston where I grew up, folks don't cut you off every 10 feet, but it's just plain STUPID how the Redskins are WORSHIPPED here. Every Redskins game gets FRONTPAGE coverage on the Washington Post - what in the world is that about? The Redskins deserve FRONTPAGE coverage when they suck? I understand with Sean Taylor getting killed last week, that's different and I understand how that would be of high interest. However, EVERY GAME other than yesterday deserve front page coverage? When most of the coverage is such homer junk?

I find that sports journalists are less journalists and more knuckleheads. I've yet to see a good columnist who actually KNOWS the sport they're covering, ALSO, how about actually PLAYED the sport or ANY sport for that matter. I'm convinced that most sports writers aren't very intelligent, they're just overpaid fans who'd sacrifice their first born to talk to __________ __________ (fill in the blanks for your favorite sports personage).

I understand that folks love sports, but please, could we please, please, stop being homers? Painting one's body or wearing "gear" ALL WEEK LONG. Sorry, but getting a letterman jacket of your favorite sports team is just dumb. I have a fleece and three hats of my beloved Red Sox, THAT'S IT! I'm a huge Sox fan but I'm not getting matching sweat suits or getting a whole mug set. That's for the Jimmy Fallons out there, the "superfans" who are just homers. Be a fan, but don't spend your extra cash on "your team's" stuff.

Redskins fans, Steelers fans, and Cowboys fans here in DC are the most ridiculous human beings I've ever seen. My word, flags, vanity plates for the car, flags on the car, coloring your car with your team's colors, and all that nonsense is just dumb. You're not a person any more, you are a headless sheep.

Strange things and not so strange

Well, Beckett gets screwed over this week. For some reason he lost the Cy Young Award to CC Sabathia, even though he had more wins, more quality starts, and was undefeated in the post season. Strange for certain. Boston College lost Saturday to an inferior Maryland team and they're still eligible for the ACC championship. Very strange indeed.

It seems that A-Rod has been in contact with the Spank-the-monkeys. That's hardly strange coupled with the fact that the Fagyankees don't want to deal with Scott Boras (what a jerk).

The Celtics are undefeated for the season, matching the Patriots current win/loss percentage. Most strange. The New England Revolution have an opportunity to finally win an MLS Cup which would be great and not so strange since they've been there three times over the past five years. I grew up with the Patriots and the New England Tea-men sharing Schaeffer Stadium (soccer does not belong on astroturf, except for indoor) and later watched the Boston Bolts play. The Revolution could really bring home the bacon for a soccer crazy area like Southern New England. Again, this isn't very strange.

so it's Friday and ah, what's next?

Did anyone see the Revolution vs. Fire game last night? The craziest goal since "Victory" with Pele and Stallone by that Taylor Twellman. Here's a link for it http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3101364&categoryId=2378529

It's crazy - we all dreamed of doing it in a game, or if we're lucky, practice and pray we don't screw up our backs trying it. Maybe New England can finally win the whole thing this year and join the Red Sox as champions. Next up will be the Patriots getting it all (I doubt they'll go undefeated, but they are pretty damn good) and then who knows? Celtics? Most likely the Bruins will squeak into the playoffs and Boston College has dropped off the radar, but they'll most likely get a BCS bowl if they can win out.

In regards to BC they're playing here at Byrd Stadium (pretty nice place to watch a game, great venue for lacrosse too) against the hapless Terrapins (fear the turtle? right, as if we're all rabbits?).

One of my alma maters start their season tonight (George Mason, my MA school) against the Catamounts of Vermont. Should be a tough game, Vermont's coach won a division III title with a local school here (Catholic University, another of my alma maters, PhD land) in DC and he's shown a knack for the D-1 field of opponents.

New England has a bye-week so Vegas can recoup some of its losses from the previous 8 weeks. Interesting article on how the Patriots are killing Vegas bookies (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/ordine/blog/2007/10/patriots_run_roughshod_over_bo.html)

Well, we'll see what's what come Sunday night.

now that baseball is over . . .

I'm a bit torn now in regards to sports. I mean, I like football, but I don't love it (even though I played for two years in High School and I understand most of the plays that are run). Hockey has some allure for me given where I grew up (ol' Beantown with the greatest college tournament ever, the Beanpot where the four rival division one hockey teams play each other the first two Mondays in February each year), but I'm still kinda stuck for good sports entertainment. I could root for the Pats, but I'm pretty spent from this past run the Red Sox made in winning their second world series in four years.

So, I guess I could watch college hockey, that always gets me charged. Unfortunately, I don't have ESPNU anymore (Comcast doesn't carry it, dag nabbit) or CSTV either for that matter. I played collegiate sports (soccer and lacrosse) and I love college sports. I think I found my answer.

My oldest son plays soccer (U-8, or "under 8) and I've gotten into watching the game again (I'd love to play in an adult league, I'm defintely playing lacrosse this spring, definitely). I forgot just how challenging the game is in generating a good shot and how the defense sets up to kill the opportunities to score.

Hopefully, this winter/spring can generate some good college sport events (basketball is great, don't get me wrong, but I tire of the ESPN gluttony on sports coverage) to lather my sports fan soap.

It's great to be a Boston fan

Well, this weekend has been great for this Boston fan (horrible for sleep, working on such a low level of alertness). I could not believe how masterful the Red Sox were against the Rockies. Outscored them by double digits easy. With BC winning last Thursday and with the Red Sox sweeping up the pebbles (oops, Rockies) and the complete pasting the Patriots put on the Redskins I am pleased.

I'm soooo wiped out today and I've got three meetings. Not going to be fun today. Congrats to Boston!

What is a Washington DC area sports fan like?

I've lived here in DC for over 13 years now (almost half my adult life, short as it has been) and I'm still baffled by the folks who call themselves sports fans here. I'm a loyal listener of the Junkies (formerly known as the "sports junkies") in the morning hours since I get up ever so early to get to my avocation's work site and like to laugh. Anyways, a few days ago (last week actually) the foursome that comprises the Junkies got quite bent over a few comments from a blog site www.misterirrelevant.com. I was fairly amused at their characterizations but the churlishness showed by both sides is astounding. It all boiled up and over from an interview that the Junkies did with a Redskin receiver, Brandon Lloyd (see this link for audio http://www.wjfk.com/episode_download.php?contentType=36&contentId=1067453). The topics were pretty innocuous until Troy Aikman came up. Lloyd implied that Aikman may have had a, um, same sex encouter in the past. The Junkies hopped on that item and then the Mothram boys (who run the blog) wrote this. It created a firestorm and made Lloyd an instant media celebrity (he's a middling receiver apparently).

What I'm finding is that sports fans in DC are just plain weird. There seems to be an incessant need to nit pick or complain about everything. Now, the pot is calling the kettle black here since I'm originally from Boston and sports fans there are beyond weird. However, we're pyschos from up nawth, predictable, and hyper-passionate. I've never seen folks down here get passionate over sports unless it's the Redskins, but even then it seems pretty tepid compared to my old haunts. I mean, there are three legitimate football teams, college mind you, that play here and you'd never know it. Not unlike Boston with the Red Sox presumably, but, there are three other major sports teams that get attention, scant it may be though.

Washington DC needs to get on board with hockey. I'm a Bruins fan no doubt, grew up with Gerry Cheevers, Mike Milbury, Ray Bourque and so on, but here in DC there is a decent squad on the frozen water with a rooskie who can flat out score. Again, it's weird down here, football and basketball, that's it for sports attention. Weird I tell you.

I'd be interested in finding out if I'm on an island or if I'm close to the tree and/or target.

Red Sox fans

Bill Simmons, one of the page two contributers to ESPN.com wrote a hilarious article about the phenomenon of Red Sox Nation. The article captured almost to a perfect "T" how confusing it is to be a Red Sox fan these days when you grew up with Bucky Dent ruining your life or Buckner forgetting glove to the ground or Jim Rice's catlike reflexes in hitting foul balls. The article begins with a friend of his chiding him that he missed the CURSE. Well, I for one, don't miss that gibberish chatter and for once getting Yankees fans to shut the bleep up. What's weird now is that folks are now comparing the Red Sox to the Yankees, especially their fan base. That's blasphemy. I've gone so far as to tell my southern friends "don't call me a Yankee, I'm from Boston, they're not the same." I've gotten to know many Yankees fans in my short life, and for the most part they are simpletons (some are very savvy, but they are the exception, not the rule). Now wait, I'm not discounting the massholes who comprise 60% to 80% of Red Sox nation who are knuckleheads themselves, however, many Red Sox fans have a pretty good knowledge of the game beyond a "our team won!" or "wow! what a home run!".

After 2004 and the Sox finally winning it all for the first time in a bazillion years all these Red Sox fans came out of the woodworks. I used to go to Orioles games when I first moved here to Washington DC and I could count on one hand how many Red Sox fans there were in the stands. Now I go to the "Yard" and I'm right back with the "bleachah creetchahs." Surrealism is no longer the purview of the French, it has been supplanted by the strangeness that has become Red Sox Nation.

I remember I went to a game last year at the Yard to see Schilling pitch. I was walking from my car (Baltimore may be a bit scruffy but they have better parking than Boston) and I'm waiting to cross W. Pratt St. when all of a sudden I'm engulfed by Red Sox fans. I started hearing "Dude, look at all the cahs" and "Oh yar, Manny's good for two" and "they have a microbrew beeyah guy?" I thought I was back in Kenmore Square. I saw maybe two Orioles fans as I was walking into the park, and they worked there! Strange.