Go Celtics!

It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitive as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look -- I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring -- caring deeply and passionately, really caring -- which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete -- the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball -- seems a small price to pay for such a gift.

-Roger Angell, The Sporting Scene, "AGINCOURT AND AFTER," The New Yorker, November 17, 1975, p. 146

The Pats...

...drove me to drink:

Thank You Jacoby Ellsbury!

The Rockies Playoff Run...

...Super Mario Style:

Woohoo!

Go Red Sox! Bob Ryan put it best - 2004 was an exorcism, 2007 was an exclamation point. Never in my life did I ever think I would see the Red Sox lead the AL East for basically the whole season then go on to win the World Series in a sweep. Just amazing stuff. And I don't think they are done either - they might have the best young talent in the majors. What a great time to be a Boston sports fan.

My only regret is that I didn't buy any furniture from Jordan's last Spring.

Widespread Panic

Does anyone else find it weird that Fox is sometimes using a short clip from "Ain't Life Grand" by Widespread Panic when they cut to commercial during the ALCS? It's a pretty good song, but kind of a random choice.

Oh yeah, go Sox!

I love Jerry Remy

This video is why I never turn off the TV during a Red Sox game, even if it is a blowout. Because you never know when the Rem Dawg is going to go off on one of his crazy tangents:



While we are on the topic of baseball, this Sportscenter video cracked me up.

[One of these days I'll have to post something that isn't about baseball.]

Red Sox

Even though it looks like a Winter wonderland here in Lebanon, I am officially psyched for the real baseball season (as opposed to my fantasy one). If Matsuzaka is a good as they say, because if so, I think the Sox will win the division. If not, well, what's $100,000,000 among friends?

Check out this new Japanese Nike ad featuring Dice-K. I think it's pretty damn good.

Fantasy Baseball '07

We had our Fantasy Baseball draft Monday night. I had the added pressure of the first pick this year. Although everyone in the world would have done what I did - take Albert Pujols without thinking twice. Here's my starting lineup, which will definitely change as the season goes on:

• 1B: Albert Pujols
• 2B: Dan Uggla
• SS: Michael Young
• 3B: Mark Teahen
• C: Josh Bard
• OF: Magglio Ordonez
• OF: Nick Markakis
• OF: Aubrey Huff
• DH: Gregg Zaun (ugh - DH is so thin this year)
• U: Gary Matthews (hope he isn't arrested for HGH)
• SP: Chris Carpenter
• SP: Ervin Santana
• SP: Derek Lowe
• RP: J.J. Putz
• RP: Octavio Dotel

I'm pretty happy with my team, aside from my relievers and my awful DH. I also have some decent reserves, including Jon Lester and Dustin Pedroia for my token Red Sox.

The biggest surprise of the draft was Daisuke Matsuzaka going in the first round. If you've never played fantasy baseball, it is very rare for any pitcher to go in the first round. Basically only a proven strikeout pitcher who will almost definitely win 20 games will make the cut - like Johan Santana - or I'm sure Clemens back in the day. This is because of they way scoring works - a slugger who plays every day is just worth more to your team. I hope Matsuzaka is great, but it definitely was a big risk.

Manny being Manny

Ah, The Onion:

SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC-While watching a live spring-training report from the Boston Red Sox training facility in Fort Myers, FL on SportsCenter Wednesday, outfielder Manny Ramirez reportedly told his family that he "had the weirdest feeling [he] should be somewhere else right now." "I don't know what it is... Am I usually someplace else at this time of year?" Ramirez asked his wife, adding that the people on television looked vaguely familiar and that he felt "the strangest urge" to be in Florida. "Wait, is that guy there on the TV... is that Big Papi? But why would he be in Florida now?" According to Ramirez's wife, her husband then looked at the calendar on the wall, frowned, and continued to watch television while idly popping an old ball into his baseball glove.

Just in case...

...you needed another reason to root against the Colts: Tony Dungy supports an anti-gay rights organization.

Ouch.

This looks like it hurt.

Pats vs. Bears

Good win by the Pats today. Ugly, but good. I think they are finally starting to settle in. I guess that says something about me as a fan that my team is 8-3 and I'm only now starting to think that they are pretty good. We Pats fans have been pretty spoiled the past few years. If you had told me in 2000 that they would win three Super Bowls in the next 4 years, that they would come to be seen as one of the dominant franchises in the NFL, with their 3rd string backup quaterback drafted in he 6th round as one of the top five players in the league, I would have thought you were crazy. I'm feeling pretty good about the rest of the season.

Dartmouth Mascot Controversy

The Native Americans at Dartmouth are angry about the fact that the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux are coming to play in the annual New Years hockey tournament. The athletic director wrote a letter of apology to the student nespaper about this. Normally, something like this would end there, but imagine my surprise when my favorite sports blog, Deadspin has a post about the controversy. Of course, they didn't take the complaints very seriously.

One interesting bit of trivia about UND Hockey is that a wealthy alum gave several million dollars for the contruction of a new arena - however, he stipulated that the Fighting Sioux symbol be placed all over the arena, so that if the university decided to change there mascot, it would cost thousands of dollars to remove them all. I think there are literally thousands of the symbols. Crazy, huh?