Random thoughts

- Would it kill me to blog more than once every two months? Sigh.

- Would it also kill someone in the media to comment about the laughable incompetence of officiating in the NBA? Everyone who complains about refs is a whiny homer? Well, the whiny homers are right. The NBA's officials suck on toast.

- Was anyone - ANYONE - really surprised at the end of the Patriots season? There were two blowouts, but every other game was painful to watch.

- We knew that the Celtics games would get progressively more difficult as the age started to catch up with the Big Three, but this is ridiculous. It doesn't help that half the officials have sworn some sort of Mafia-esque vendetta against Kendrick Perkins, but see my second point.

- Kudos to the Friars basketball team for showing some sort of life in Big East play. The late collapse against URI, the awful first half against BC and the loss to Iona made us think it was going to be a looonnnnggg season. It still might be. But there's something to be said for taking the wins when you can get them.

- And should we be surprised by the Bruins taking three steps back this year? Not really. There's a point to having an "offense", you know...

- Does Theo Epstein understand the concept of offense?

- Speaking of inertia, the PC men's hockey team is much much better this year. They've improved in every category. And they remain in last place. This is already a long season.

I live!!!!

Yes, I am alive! Not even the the recovering alcoholics the NBA employs as officials could get rid of me! Not even the worst season of PC hockey in 30 years could finish the job. I just have one thing to say:

Au revoir, les enfants!

My teams: A year in review.

You usually see this lazy crap masquerading as columns/blog entries in late December. But I'm SO lazy that I waited until early January. So there.

We'll start with the least successful teams and move up.

PC Hockey: What an awful awful excuse for a year. The Friars ended 2007 by defeating the national champion Spartans at the GLI which gave everyone a sense that this team might be on the verge of something great. They weren't: the team imploded down the stretch, getting swept by Merrimack(!), shut out twice by BU and bounced casually by the championship caliber Eagles in a HE Quarter final series that was over after 2 minutes in game one. The new season was just as poor. Aside from winning the Mayors Cup, the Skating Friars did nothing right and ended up winless in Hockey East, with one measly tie against UVM.
Trending: Up. It seems odd, but the Friars can't do worse. They did end 2008 with a win, even if it was against a woeful Brown team that might actually be in worse shape (!).

PC Basketball: Yet another miserable end to the season and an awful away record doomed PC in the Big East and led to Tim Welsh's ouster. Keno Davis took over and while there's been some improvement, this is beginning to look a lot like a rebuilding year.
Trending: Down. Keno's team might get better, but the Big East is too good to not punish a team in transition.

Arsenal: Not a lot happened with the Gunners this year. Thanks to the rise of Chelsea and ManU's constant ability to sign everyone on the planet (who wasn't snatched up by Real Madrid) Arsenal is stuck in or near the Big Fou without actually challenging for a league title. The only problem is, Liverpool has picked up the pace and Aston Villa is now above them. This might be the year they finish out of the Champions League.
Trending: Down. I have a bad feeling Everton is going to catch them as well. But at least Spurs might get relegated!

Georgia Tech football: A pretty successful season, forgiving the bludgeoning LSU gave the Wreck in the Chick-fil-A Bowl (wha?!?). The team was a tie breaker away from the ACC championship and they finally -FINALLY- beat Georgia.
Trending: Up. Especially if they can figure out this whole forward pass thing.

Bruins: Last season ended like every decent Bruins season in the past 6 years - a playoff loss to the Habs. In this case, the Bruins dragged the far superior Canadiens to seven games before succumbing. Little did we know that last season was a mere precursor to one in which the Bruins would end up as the hottest team in hockey!
Trending: Up. The Bruins are - by ONE point - the best team in hockey right now. Inexplicable.

Patriots: The Patriot's bid at history fell short when they lost the Super Bowl to a Giants team that basically pulled the game out of no where (when you catch a ball with your HELMET, God likes you very much). Karma did not get kinder in the first game of the 2008 season when Tom Brady was injured and Matt Cassell took over. The injuries just got worse from there. But for some reason, the Patriots just kept winning. Despite the aforementioned injuries, an awful secondary and screwing up three chances to take out very good teams, the Pats finished 11-5 and were a few Favre interceptions away from the Jets bailing them out. The Pats remain the only 11-5 team in the 12 team playoff era to miss the playoffs.
Trending: Up. The reasoning here is that even if Brady doesn't come back, the Pats have a legitimate QB to back him up. The injury problems can't possibly be as severe as last season and if the team has any intelligence at all they will FINALLY fix the secondary.

Red Sox: The Red Sox' attempts at defending their World Series title were derailed by mounting Patriot-esque injuries and the rise of the Tampa Bay Rays. Yet despite all of this, the Sox managed to drag the Rays to seven games, losing 3-1 in the deciding game. The worst part of the year was been the post season where the Yankees went on a characteristic spending orgy, signing up free agents in a (probably futile) attempt to surpass the Red Sox and Rays. The AL East has gone from two teams to three in the blink of an eye.
Trending: sideways. The Sox have done nothing in the free agent market and next year's team looks pretty much identical. Thee Yankees got a lot better, but I haven't heard a peep from the Rays.

Celtics: The Celtics cruised through the regular season. The playoffs were an intense struggle: the egregiously poor officiating the NBA is known for conspired with the C's looking completely lost on the road to create two grueling seven game series against the Hawks and Cavaliers. Then the Celtics got stronger and took out the Pistons and Lakers to raise the 17th banner. And the current season was more of same. The only problem is the recent west coast road swing where the Celtics lost 3 close games. It seems that the bench is even more of a problem than last year.
Trending: Down. Unless they can add someone to the bench. In their defense, after the phenomenal stretch they were on from last year up until Christmas Day, there's no where else to go.

Celtic FC: How can you do better than three league titles in a row? How about four? As of today, the Hoops are 7 points up on Satan and in good shape for the rest of the year - mostly because they can focus on the league due to their ABYSMAL stay in the Champions League.
Trending: sideways. Winning the SPL is great, being in position to do it 4 years in a row is better, but what the hell happens to this team on the road in Europe?

Hi Mark!
Happy Birthday, Favorite Person!!!

The Bruins vs. Celtics Debate: "Marley was dead to begin with."

Let the debate continue... and then end.

I'm not offended by this article. I'm offended by the existence of it. Why not enjoy the fact that both teams are successful? Why do we have to rank everyone?

This isn't the first time the Globe has pulled this crap: they celebrated the Celtic's NBA title by reminding everyone about the popularity of the Red Sox. Did they think we all forgot? It's possible to root for multiple teams in multiple sports.

As someone who roots for and loves all four major Boston sports teams, these conversations make no sense to me.

Randomizer: Bing Crosby tap dances with Danny ****ing Kaye!

Just some random comments while I sit here waiting to get a call from Bill Bellichick to play cornerback this Sunday.

-If you remember back to October, I was beyond frustrated with the tenor of the columns coming from our local sports media about how the Red Sox were going to be eating Tampa Bay's dust for the next decade - it not millennium. Well, that was merely a sideshow for all the "Patriots are finished!!!1!!11!" drivel we've been subjected to the past week. The focus on the Patriots should be on the shoddy secondary, the dropped passes and the special teams choking at inopportune times. Or, you could be completely lazy, say that the Pats are "over" as a relevant team in the NFL and commence the teeth gnashing and garment rending (as you secretly rejoice that you can now focus on Red Sox 24/7 and pray that a bus runs into KG and Tim Thomas so you can go back to exclusively covering the Red Sox again).

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

-The NHL really has some explaining to do: schedule wise, the Bruins are in the midst of a five game "vacation". While I'm sure the B's are happy for the impromptu holiday, it would have been nice to see them sooner after the win over the Red Wings on Saturday. Then we have Sean Avery suspended for referring to his ex-girlfriend as "sloppy seconds". Really. The NHL has long had this issue in dealing with goonery and cheap shots (why else wasn't Ulf Sammuelson not given a lifetime ban?) and now you're penalizing the most hated player in hockey for making a goofy and mildly inappropriate comment? Does that make an ounce of sense?

-The NBA also needs to figure something out: the Celtics have somehow committed an incredible 39 technical fouls in 19 games. That's 14 as many as the next team in the list. I've watched the C's play frequently this year and they don't strike me as a chippy team. In fact a recent article went into the nature of the technicals, and most of them are because the Celtics are (I can not believe this) overly exuberant. Isn't one of the positive attributes in sports displays of emotion? The NBA needs to stop following the lead of the No Fun League and back off on displaying emotion.

-Sadly, nothing has changed with the Skating Friars. Nothing. Meanwhile, PC basketball is disappointing everyone except those of us too jaded by the end of the Welsh era to muster any surprise at anything. The black cloud above the PC athletic department hasn't moved since Corey Wright missed a chance to send the 97' Friars to the Final Four.

-Hi Mark!

Things to be thankful for....

Here are the things I'm thankful for:
Jenny
Family
Friends
A warm apartment
The mellowing of Charlie "the computer destroying cat" Chaplin
The fact that my car works (for the most part)
Having a job
Following successful sports teams (the current abhorrent state of PC hockey and Celtic's abysmal road form in Europe notwithstanding)
Early Christmas shopping
... and finally the three or four people who actually read this blog! Thanks, and keep up the comments!

Flotsam and jetsam:

- Um, Herald? “We’re the No. 1 defense. If we play like we’ve been playing, and our offense comes around and has a good game, and we’re clicking on all cylinders, we’re going to win the game.” How does this comment by Anthony Smith of the Steelers constitute "trash talk"? If the Steelers do indeed play up to their capabilities, they will win the game. That's not a trash talk. That's just patently obvious. I understand that Mr. Smith made an ass of himself last year, but this isn't even close to trash talk.
Shouldn't the Pats be desensitized to this silliness by now, especially after Joey "the Prince of the Land of Make Believe" Porter last week?

-There's radio, bad radio and the continued devolution of the Big Show. Last week, all of the Whiner Line (and really, shame of me for listening to the Whiner Line) was dedicated to one of the producers saying that he thought Nancy Pelosi was attractive. While the comment was certainly... insane, I can't help but note that in a sports climate where the Pats, Bruins and Celtics are all competitive - if not dominant - the Big Show is wallowing in politics. Again.

-The "Dead Zone" in the sports calender is usually the days before and after the MLB All Star Game. Well, New England went through it's own Dead Zone the past two days. While I appreciate that the Celtics and Bruins do need days off, the past two sports free days have been a bit odd. Especially since the Celtics play about a fifth of their schedule in November!

-Speaking of Celtic's baffling incompetence in the Champions League, while I'm unhappy with the 17th consecutive road game without a victory, I can't help but take solace in the phrases that get used in international football (soccer to the rest of you). Celtic didn't just lose out, they "Crashed out of Europe". I might have to use that from now on. For instance, PC is in the midst of crashing out of Hockey East.
It's probably a good thing there's no relegation in college hockey, or PC would be playing UMASS Boston and Middlebury next year.

Imagination and broohahas!

"You've heard of the French nation? Well, this is the Imagi-nation!"
-Kris Kringle, A Miracle on 34th Street

Say this about Joey Porter, he has a healthy imagination. In his mind, he's already won 2 extra Super Bowl titles. I'm jealous: when I was a kid, they best I could imagine was owning a time machine! I'm just curious, in his fantasy kingdom, does he own a pony?

I know the Spygate flap generated a lot of goofiness, but is this true of other NFL players? Are there 300 people floating around the NFL all imagining they would have won multiple Super Bowl titles if only the Pat's hadn't used videotape? (because it's perfectly legal to use other methods of spying for some reason that will never - EVER - be explained to the general public. Yeah.)

Speaking of delusions, the Montreal Canadiens have somehow reached the rather bizarre conclusion that the team's some times somnambulant performances this year can be boiled down to one thing: Milan Lucic's refusal to fight Georges Laraque. Huh? Let's face facts - Lucic is a fun player. He can score goals, he can hit people and get under the skin of teams and he can certainly handle himself in a fight. But Laraque would kill him and apparently, the Bruins are aware of this and told Lucic not to fight Laraque on Saturday night. This is an amusing subplot. Unfortunately, it came back to bite Montreal in the rear as Lucic scored one of the goals that allowed the B's to earn an overtime shoot out "win" (I'm sorry, even when the Bruins "win" the shootout still sucks). So, not only are the Bruins 2-0-1 against a team they couldn't beat at all last year, but they now they're winning mind games against les Blue, Rouge et Blanc too.

I might be wrong about this - I haven't been alive for most of this one-sided rivalry - but isn't it usually the Bruins who are obsessed with "making points" and "dropping the gloves" and the Habs who go about actually winning the games? I know the Bruins were obsessed with winning fights against Montreal last year and their inability to get one win against les Habs last year proves this to be a poor strategy. So why is an intelligent franchise like the Canadiens buying into this circus sideshow? Am I missing something? Did the Canadiens establish their dynasty by scoring, defense, and goaltending, or were Rocket Richard, Jean Belliveau, and Guy LaFleur actually giant Hansenesque cementheads who pummeled everyone into submission? One of the criticisms against Laraque is that he doesn't do the requisite illegal hitting to initiate fights. Fancy that, he acts like a human being instead of a giant goon!

I'm not one of these people who wants to ban fighting from hockey, but the obsession with fisticuffmanship that the Habs are indulging in is at least as funny as Joey Porter and the Super Bowl rings he likes to look at while he rides his Pegasus over to Gum Drop Mountain.

Tuesday randomizer

A few random thoughts:

-Anyone depressed by the end of the Red Sox season (to a team that didn't win the World Series, no less) must be happy with the play of the other three teams in town (shame about the Revolution). The Pats are playing well despite picking up a season ending injury in every game and being down to their fourth string running back. The Celtics are proving that last season was not a fluke by streaking out a 7-1 record. The Bruins are playing fun, exciting hockey and getting great goal tending. This winter might be a lot of fun - save for the listless state of PC hockey.

-Speaking of the World Series, am I the only person who doesn't care that the ratings sucked? Why would anyone care about the ratings? Sorry Fox, that doesn't interest me at all? If there were entertaining baseball games being played, why would you care about ratings?

-I grow weary of the constant whining in college football whenever someone from outside a BCS conference puts together a season with one win or less. The "how dare" they attitude is so elitist it makes me glad that PC isn't fielding a football team. The main goal of a college football team is to win games: if a team from the Mountain West or Sunbelt or MAC or WAC is putting together a good season, they're not doing that to screw over whatever team it is in the Big 12 or SEC that the college football talking heads have fallen in love with that calender year.

I have no proof to back this up, but I've always gotten the impression with the amount of money big time boosters pump into these programs, college football's problems might actually dwarf the Tim Doneghy/Spygate/MLB and Olympic steroid scandals we've been dealing with over the past couple of years. Just a hunch.

-"The Big Show" used to be the best show on WEEI, mostly because with a rotation of a dozen or so hosts meant you weren't stuck listening to the same opinions all the time. Well, now it's just as bad as Dennis and Callahan, and the problem is once again politics. When will WEEI get it through their heads that when all of their hosts are waxing poetic about how awful Barrack Obama is that listeners will eventually start to tune them out? The post election whining from the Big Show (especially the two resteraunteurs they bring in for football season) has been the off the charts and the twits on the Whiner Line have proved to be just as bad. I can't wait to see what other programming gets ruined by this new, boring format!

-Speaking of formerly great radio: Mike Francessa talking to himself for 4 hours every day? Maybe I'm better off not getting that signal on the ride home.

-The shuttering of CN8 doesn't bode well for sports in this region on multiple levels. We can only hope the Emmy award winning John Carchedi ends up getting his due because he's awesome. There, I said it.

Rant of the Week: Hockey East does not suck

The out of conference play in Hockey East has been very encouraging this year as compared to last year. For a while during the beginning of last season, the only Hockey East team with a winning record against non-conference foes was Merrimack (!!!). This year, there have been a few highlights:

- BU and UMASS taking care of North Dakota
-BC and UNH beating the Badgers on consecutive nights
-UNH throttling RPI
-UVM beating and tying Miami
-UML taking a game at East Lansing against MSU
-PC actually winning both non-conference games against teams they'd lost to in the last two years

Sure, there have been let downs: Merrimack managing only a tie against Canisius and Niagara, UNH's misadventure up at SLU, UML getting shut out by Colgate and NU's tie against the Nanooks. It's a bit early to say that the league is back, but the early results are encouraging. Last year, only BC and UNH made it to the NCAA tournament and the culprit was a weak record out of conference. Turning that around is the key to getting 3-5 teams in the Big Dance.

Random ranting:

-(It's actually working!) Hi Mark!

- I wish people would stop labeling the Phillie's five game victory over the Rays as the "worst World Series ever". It's just stupid: There were three close games, one titanic marathon in game three and the final game decided by one run. That doesn't sound like "the worst World Series ever". Really, what people are complaining about is the weather. The rain delay in game three and the suspension of game five were frustrating, but that's not MLB's fault. That would be the fault of Mother Nature. It's also preposterous to say that the World Series should now be played entirely in domes or at a "neutral spot". The format isn't the problem: the length of the season is the issue. When baseball decided it would be okay to have the season stretch to late October, did they actually think it would be nothing but Southern teams competing?

- As encouraging as the first two games of the Bruin's merry jaunt through northwest Canda were, the last game against the Flames left a nasty taste in my mouth. Simply put, the NHL's early season scheduling leaves a lot to be desired. The Bruins seem to start every season on an extended road trip (thanks to the bloody circus) following a span of weeks where they seem to play all of two or three games. And then we have the sadistic schedule that saw them play 3 games in 4 days. It's a wonder they didn't lose by more last night.

-In a similar vein, just as I was hoping to see the Celtics play at least once or twice before tonight, they have one game on Tuesday. Then, another game tonight. Why the three day gap? Did the circus come back?

-The Patriots are - for the second time in a month - entering into a game against a talented but desperate team. The Colts game is frighteningly similar to the San Diego game in a lot of respects. The good news is that - even if the Colts win - the Pats have acquitted themselves admirably enough that a 5-3 record is in no way disappointing.

Rant of Week: Huh? Speak up!

I love Schneider Arena. I know, it's not the most aesthetically pleasing building in Hockey East, it doesn't have tremendous atmosphere, the sight lines leave something to be desired, most of the fan base tends to wander off to Clubbie's, Brad's, the Abbey or Louie at 9:00 PM and the games were a lot more visceral when the glass was shorter. Still, I have a lot of affection for the old barn and I'm not even half kidding when I say I want to be buried under center ice.

I do have to say that the building has one problem right now. One small detail that drives me and everyone else who has ever attended a Friar home game to distraction. It's a tiny, easily correctable fault that would take a short memo or five seconds worth of worth to correct. To whit:

THE VOLUME ON THE SPEAKERS IS TOO BLOODY LOUD!

The speakers are drowning out the band (and with an awful selection of music too. I dig Metallica, but some of the rest of the music is the awful emo "metal" you hear on WAAF). It's drowning out the fans when they try to make noise. It's driving people away who otherwise have no problem spending a night at PC hockey games. So why not fix this extremely easy problem? The other problems this rink might have (the team is mediocre, pools of water sometimes form on the ice at the end of the game, the refs don't like their dressing room (this sentiment and the fact PC so often get jobbed by bad calls can NOT be a coincidence!) are tough to solve. But the volume of the music in the arena?

Unlike a lot of blog entries, this is not just something that bugs me. This is something that bothers everyone I talk to, everyone sitting near me in Section E, every opposing fan, every PC fan online. So why isn't it fixed? As I said earlier, it can not be that difficult to adjust the volume of the speakers.

And if it doesn't get fixed, I'll probably still go to games. It will just be much harder to hear the anthem with the ringing in my ears.

Other Rants:
-Hi Mark!

-This election needs to end soon. My nightmares now begin with "I'm Barack Obama/John McCain and I approve this message". On a related note, I would like to exile John Sununu and Jean Shaheen to a small island in the South Pacific. Preferably one with the castaways from "the Minnow".

-The Rays are so unbelievably likable (except for Garza, who needs to stop spitting every five seconds. If I want to see that, I'll stare at Francona.) that you just know the Phillies are going to win this series. No one talked about them in the NLCS and here they are now.

-The Bruins are the only team that could improve to the point where they are - literally - winning or within a goal in every game and still not pick up more than one point per game because of Gary Bettman and his stupid bloody shoot outs. If the Maple Leafs win a shoot out tonight... sigh.

-Do you think Kevin Garnett has stopped ranting to himself yet? Or will he just continue from where he left off after Game Six? I'd like to see a debate between him and Papelbohn just so we can see who is more insane.

More randomness while I wonder why the cat has been so mellow lately...

... I think he's planning something. Seriously.

-College hockey season begins! I'll have to update The Coffin Online some point this weekend. I'm not in a hurry of course: PC opens with Northeastern next week. Only the Ivy's start later, it seems. Best of luck to our Hockey East co-horts, especially UMASS and BU who take on UND and MSU in the Icebreaker this weekend.

-Maybe Charlie Chaplin is saving himself for Dan Shaugnessy? This attempt to irritate Tampa Bay fans was kind of predictable. In fact, it's way too much like his 1997 offering as the Whalers were about to move. Get ready, Charlie.

-Speaking of Shaugnessy's latest atrocity, why are Rays fans talking trash about things that haven't happened yet? Did Marty McFly loan them a flux capacitor?

-Dice-K starts tonight for the Red Sox. This means that for half the game, Red Sox fans need to find something else to do. Just throw strikes. Please?

-If the Patriots/Chargers game doesn't hold that much interest, why all the columns about how it's not holding that much interest? The fact that people curious as to why people aren't paying attention means that people are paying attention. Did I make anyone's head explode?

-This Halloween, I want to go out as Craig Sager. Where do you get a bright orange blazer?

-Nice win by the Bruins, especially considering their defense was invisible most of the night and neither the Versus announcers nor the officials could figure out there were two teams on the ice. See, I'm in mid-season form all ready!

Random thoughts from the happily married...

-One last (or at least I HOPE it's the last time I have to go through this!) comment about Bill Simmons crusade against Scott Boras and the Boston media: is WEEI too stupid to realize that they're playing right into the man's hands? The rumors of Simmons attempts to burn all his bridges at ESPN have been swirling throughout the summer and it looks like the Sports Guy is tugging at the cape of the Red Sox Cabal (Globe/Herald/NESN/WEEI/WRKO) by suggesting that Manny wasn't 100% to blame. While I don't buy all of his premise, the Boston media has a reputation of running players out of town and/or bad mouthing them when they leave (Mo Vaughn, Roger Clemens, Joe Thornton, and others). And Boston has a reputation of being inhospitable to non-white athletes. As Manny's trade was a result of his awful behavior (with prodding from Satan Boras, no doubt), I don't think it was racial motivated. It just makes the move look much worse to outsiders.
At any rate, Simmon's ideas do have merit. Whether or not he's 100% accurate, is under debate. The idiots at WEEI who chose to slam him for "defending" Manny - and let's be fair, the Sports Guy comes off as a fan boy of massive proportions - are making his point. Why no one is seriously pursuing the Boras angle is beyond me.

-The Charlie Pierce article I linked to last week generated some of the usual idiotic comments. I was surprised to see many of the nitwits who infest the Herald's comments section have infested the Globe - the great Satan of the "oppressed" MA conservative - as well. I admitted that Mr. Pierce went a bit too far with his anti-Republican sentiment. The problem is that Curt Schilling is just as guilty of inserting politics into everything. Both Charlie Pierce and Curt Schilling should be taken to task for inserting politics into sports, but Mr. Pierce is less guilty because he's REACTING to some of the crazy things he sees on 38Pitches. Does Curt realize he plays for a team in a Blue State? Why antagonize the people who adore you by running around acting like the Giant Forehead? It makes no sense and that was Charlie Pierce's argument. He doesn't have to vote for Obama, but he should at least try not to insult people who do yet root for the Red Sox.
I would say the same thing about Hollywood liberals, but they can't throw a decent curveball.

-And as an added bonus, if Curt and Charlie can post their messages, and commentators who dropped fully formed from the Pink Hamster's anus can post their comments, then I can insult all parties. That's the First Amendment.

-Al Davis used to be kind of a joke. Now he's a complete joke. I don't doubt that he had good reason to gong Lane Kifflin. But why bring up a tampering charge against the Pats 1 year later? Only ESPN and their attendant twits in Hater Nation are buying this. Caveat emptor.

-Let's see: the Mets disintegrate, the Cubs are awful in the playoffs and the Angels can't beat the Red Sox (well, up until this evening, I suppose). Is it still 2007?

-I understand nothing can be done about this, but I absolutely hate the fact that the circus is always in town during the first two weeks of the Bruin's season.

Random thoughts following the Celtic's Championship run

-I heard someone on 890 AM (ESPN's Boston affiliate) ruminate that win or lose, the Boston sports scene will be much less exciting when the NBA Finals end. They were right. I'm happy that the Red Sox have picked up momentum, but it's going to be much harder to get into the season right now. Usually, I can tell you how many games the Red Sox are in first or second (or, like two years ago third) place by. I honestly haven't been paying too much attention this year. I think part of the problem is being chased Tampa Bay instead of the Be-Pinstriped ones.

-Remember last year when the Celtics seemed to be completely luckless? They had just suffered through the worst season in recent memory (and considering the utterly horrific years with ML Carr and Rick Pitino, that says something) where the team went on a self-inflicted 18 game losing streak, only to miss out on the top pick in the draft. And now they're the Champions. Unreal.

-You'd think that this would inspire the Bruins to make a big move. Nope. It's one thing to be close to irrelevance, it's another thing to seemingly revel in it.

-Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks wearing a Celtic FC jersey to a Celtics event is clever. I've seen a few people wear the Hoops to C's events recently. I also see at least one or two green and white strips every time I'm in Fenway. I have no idea what links Celtic can have with the Red Sox save that Boston is "irish" (us being in the US) the same way Glasgow is "irish" (them being in Scotland at all).

-And being the PC homer I am, I wish Ryan Gomes was around to enjoy this. But I do appreciate his sacrifice to bring KG here.

-Speaking of the Big Ticket, I came to the conclusion during his completely inscrutable post game interview that KG is at least as crazy as Jonathan Papelbon, if not more so. I'm glad he's with us and not against us.

-Did Paul Pierce ever - in a thousand years - think THIS was going to happen? Last year he wanted out. Now he's the Finals MVP. This whole situation is completely inexplicable.

-Compared to the first time the Pat's won the Super Bowl, and the Red Sox winning in 2004, I'd have to say that I enjoyed this more. The first two titles I just mentioned put me in a state of shock: I'm still not convinced it actually happened. Because of the utter demolition of the Lakers, I had time to mentally process what was happening. The Sox never gave me that luxury in 2004. From Game Four of the ALCS onwards, they always threatened to lose.

-Speaking of the Lakers, I have no idea what to think of them. They aren't the Celtics arch rivals (that would be the 76'ers) and they only posed a threat when the C's were playing particularly incompetently. Kobe is be lot closer to LeBron than he is to Jordan and Phil Jackson spent most of the series meditating - he certainly wasn't coaching. So much for them being the superior team. Also, as irritating as the Hollywood Lakers fans are, they can't hold a candle to Evil Bizzaro New Englanders who root for the Yankees (aside from an absurd level of confidence that is now TOTALLY unfounded, what's the difference) and the violent Francophone mess that is the Canadiens fan base (rioting after a first round victory? Are you kidding me?!?), Lakers fans are rather tame.

-One final thought for tonight, the Larry O'Brien trophy looks like a hood ornament. Chalk that up as yet another reason why we need to get the Stanley Cup back to Boston.

Don't bury the Boston Bruins...

... they aren't dead yet.

Now on Tuesday morning, this might be a completely different story. But it would be hard to make fun of the Bruins after coming back to force a game seven against a Montreal team that has absolutely owned them this year and the previous 80 odd seasons.

And yes, once again, I stand corrected.

Let's stay in Japan, shall we...

I was as skeptical as anyone about the Red Sox opening their season in Japan. The trip is too far, Dice-K's wife is pregnant, the games will be on at odd hours and the Sox will have 2 less games of Spring Training - by this time you should know the objections by heart. Well, I was wrong.

I like having the games at 6 AM.

For one thing, it eliminates the danger of accidentally hearing the Dennis and Callahan show. It also adds some spice to your morning: you can watch the games BEFORE you go to work! And it opens up the rest of the evening; Jenny and I had plenty of time to watch the Bruins (who actually won a game) and "the Riches" without having to worry baseball. Work is much more fun when you can spend half of your time worrying about a baseball game. And my cat was so happy about the arrangement that he did NOT try to kill me last night. Jonathan Papelbohn's insanity seems less insane at 7AM than it does at any other time of day. Hell, even Manny looks like normal when I'm essentially comatose.

As I said, baseball games in the early morning are a good thing. I understand that the Sox wouldn't want to move to Japan or anything quite that drastic. But perhaps as a compromise, they could come back to the US and play more afternoon games. On weekends. Like they used to all of two years ago.

Random Rants:

- Two Hockey East teams make the NCAA's. That's down from five last year which was also not a great year for the league. If neither BC nor UNH make the Frozen Four, this is officially the worst year in Hockey East history. I wasn't quite aware of how precarious UVM and BU were positioned, but seeing both teams out of consideration wasn't something I wanted.

-Speaking of college hockey, the WCHA and CCHA tournaments made for fun viewing last weekend, especially when Doug Woog said something weird (twice every period). The ECAC championship game was okay, but the broadcast quality was horrendous. You couldn't make out the orange in Princeton's jerseys and it looked like Harvard was the team in BLACK. The Hockey East championship game was extraordinarily dull - especially in comparison to the goalie optional semi game between BC and UNH that went 3 over time periods. I was fast asleep by the team BU and UVM got to the second period of the next game.

-The Celtics have a 2 game losing streak. Meanwhile, the Bruins played their best game of the season at Toronto. Why can't we have two good teams at the same time?