Manny, welcome back buddy. I know plenty of fans cheered you, and plenty booed you. I just laughed at you, like I always laugh when I think about you playing left field with a water bottle in your back pocket. Or when you disappeared into the Monster because you apparently drank too much water and couldn't wait. Well, when nature calls... Anyway, I laughed when you slid for a fly ball, missed it, and proceeded to roll on the field until the ball was actually trapped underneath you. Normally I'd be mad at you for embarassing the Red Sox franchise with such ridiculous behavior... but it was part of your play style, and so really you just embarassed yourself, and I laughed. In fact, while remembering all your Manny being Manny moments, I laughed so hard that I had an epiphany of sorts. See, in Boston, we want to win. If we don't win, it better not be from lack of effort. Sacrifice your body. Leave it all on the field... all those cliches. Manny didn't believe in any of that. He worked hard at what he considered his craft, hitting the ball. Fielding the ball was not a priority. Running the bases was not necessarily his forte. No, Manny being Manny was Monster shot homeruns as much as it was RBI producing doubles. We cheered all that. We laughed at his antics. We booed his lack of hustle on the base path. If anything, Manny was the most complete and well-rounded character the Sox have ever sent to the plate. He had his strengths and his foils. Fans booed Manny because of how he left Boston. Why? He didn't want to be here any more. We sure as hell don't want players who don't want to be here. If anything, I'm glad he knew to leave when he did. Look at him now. Ortiz has more home runs, and he started the season batting around .200.

Continue reading "Sox Sweep Dodgers"

 It just figures that the one time I'm actually rooting against the Sox, they win. When the Celtics play before the Sox, and the Celtics win, the Sox win. When the Sox play before the Celtics, and the Sox win, the Celtics lose. It's an incredibly stupid statistic, but no less accurate for its stupidity concerning the 2010 season. So, when the Sox won last night, I knew whatever vestige of hope had remained was squelched. That didn't stop me from rooting any harder for the C's... I was standing in my buddy's living room for the last 5 minutes of that game because I was too hyped up to stay in my seat.

 2010 Celtics, thanks for the effort. You took us on one hell of a roller-coaster this post-season. I didn't expect you to get past the Cavs. I did expect you to get past the Magic, especially after the Refs tried to give that series away.  I'm not even going to comment on the officiating of the Finals. If you watched and had half a brain in your head, it was obvious what was going on.

Continue reading "SOX SWEEP D-Backs celtics lose championship "

Kobe Misses a 3

KG for 2

Kobe for 2

Rondo for 2

Bynum with the hook for 2

Ray for 2 with a tough jumper

Fisher flops and Perk is called for a foul. Least he doesn't get to shoot

Artest misses a 3, Bynum rebounds and misses a hook, ball out, Celtics Ball

Rondo misses a 3 at the end of the shot clock

Artest makes a 3, Lakers go up 1

Perk has his pass intercepted by Fish,

Fish with the Layup

KG misses a tough shot, deflects a pass at the other end and the C's end up with the ball.

Ray loses the ball to Fisher, who throws the ball out of bounds

Ray for 2 and 1!!! Makes it, Tie Score with 8:02 left in the first

Continue reading "Game 7 Necessary"

However, I'm back for Game 5, and a hell of a game it will be.

Start Growling

Get those goose bumps

And here we go

Lakers win opening tip

Bynum takes a bad shot and misses

C's rebound, KG for 2

Fisher misses a 3.

Pierce with the easy lay up on a 3 on 1 break

Kobe misses, KG rebounds

C's move the ball well but Ray misses a short jumper

Bynum misses, Gasol rebounds, misses, KG rebounds

Rondo with the 20 ft jumper

Artest misses a 3, Bynum rebounds, makes the shot and 1. Misses! KG rebounds

Continue reading "3-2 Celtics See you in LA"

Clay didn't have his best stuff. That was obvious in the first inning. Still, he had a quality outing, and if the offense could have picked him up then this was still a game the Sox could have won. That all went out the window when a man with the most...uh, interesting name in the Major Leagues took the mound.

Continue reading "Sox get Spanked"

So the Lakers just went up 13-12 on a bullshit foul by Rondo on Kobe. Rondo apparently already has 2. We can see where this is going.

On the plus side, Garnett looks like he came to play tonight. 16-16.

Gasol for 2 with an easy lay in

Garnett misses a wide open jump shot after a lot of crazy madness

Kobe misses a jumper, Rondo the rebound. Pierce loses the ball under the basket, ball out, Celtics ball.

Garnett has 10 of the C's 16 points to start the game. Yeah, somebody poked the sleeping, uh, Big Ticket.

Sox are up 3-2 with Wakefield still pitching in the 8th. Good for Wake.

Continue reading "Ray Allen 0 for 13 "

Instead, I'm going to provide casual observations throughout the game beginning with the Second Half.

All things considered, a 7 point lead at the end of the 1st quarter is a nice start to the game. Even better, the C's were +4 rebounding.

RAY ALLEN FOR 3!!! (5th of the night) And it was because Perk actually made a move toward the basket. Even though he lost his dribble as he always does, he drew a double team (almost a triple) and got Ray the ball.

Here's a fun fact drawn from random memory. Sports Science analyzed Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum's wing spans and vertical leaps, and postulated that they could cover 70% of the court between the two of them. (I say postulated because that doesn't account for the presence of defenders , it just assumes those two men have free range across the court...) Sports Science then went on to mention as an after thought that Garnett and Perkins actually covered even more space, though they never gave the number.. They should have analyzed Ray Allen's shot. He just knocked down his 6th 3 of the night.

Continue reading "RAY ALLEN FOR 3"

 So, before we talk about Buckholz, let's begin with Beltre. I'm not really sure if that Home run on one knee is his new signature move or not, but it is aweing to watch. Is he really turning on the ball that hard? Is he just off-balance and ending on one knee is a bad thing? What happens when the one knee swing ends up scraping the wall? Is he going to get himself thrown out at second? We'll have to wait until that happens to know. But, for now, it's the best home-run swing in baseball. Now Beltre, you really need to stop running into the left fielder. Did you learn nothing from Ellsbury? Hurting Hermida isn't as big a deal as Ellsbury, but you're going to hurt yourself on one of these crazy collisions. That would be horrible for this team.

Continue reading "10 more runs than Clay needed"

That performance was an utter disappointment.

 You may not want to read the minutes past the opening tip. It was all pretty much downhill from there.

C's win Tip

Rondo starts it out well with Pierce providing a good pass

Wow, Pierce is already locking up Artest for a double technical.

Rondo misses an easy layup

Fisher hits an open jumper.

Ray takes a bad 2 and misses

Kobe drives for the lay up, 4-2 lakers 10:01

Fisher picks up his second foul, Vujacic in. Can't wait to screw his name up later.

Bynum with a dunk

Ray Allen for 2

Artest knocks down the long jumper, 8-4 Lakers

Garnett, bad pass, turnover, Gasol fouled by Garnett. PHANTOM CALL,

Gasol knocks down a 20 ft jump shot.

Continue reading "Rough Start"

 So, because I had a feeling this was going to be a special game, I've gone and done something special for my blog. Below is a transcript of my viewing of this game. Play by play, with the minutes listed along the way. It's an idea I've been meaning to steal from Bill Simmons since the '08 season. I begin with Garnett's second foul, which was just ridiculous. Howard is a Dirty player. Note the Capital D. Go back and watch the tape, tell me Howard's not gripping KG's ribs. Anyway... Enjoy.

Garnett's second Foul was HORSESHIT. Howard was Gripping his ribs and the Ref calls the foul on Garnett.

Continue reading "EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS"