Stewart never was afraid to speak his mind on Clemens, stemming from their one-sided duels on the mound. Clearly, Stewart resented Clemens for receiving so many accolades while repeatedly losing to his nemesis. Stewart won 20 games four straight years (1987 to 1990) but never got a Cy Young sniff. In those years, Stewart was 7-0 in games when matched with Clemens. Overall, he was 7-1 in the regular season and 2-0 in the 1990 American League Championship Series. Clemens’ record against Stewart was 1-8, his only win coming in their first showdown, in 1984 when Stewart pitched for Texas.From there, Clemens’ most notable meltdown came in Game 4 of the ‘90 ALCS.
With his Red Sox about to be swept and on the verge of another loss to Stewart, Clemens went berserk in the second inning, charged plate umpire Terry Cooney and got ejected. Clemens let down his team at a vital moment rather than accepting defeat, and Stewart now sees Clemens caught in a similar dilemma, making life harder than necessary on himself and acting as his own worst enemy by taking his case to Congress. “The best thing Roger could’ve done is shut up and let it go away, and it would’ve gone away,” Stewart said. “People want to believe everything Roger projects himself to be, and this would’ve blown over. Now if they find out he did HGH and steroids, he’ll never go to the Hall of Fame and he’ll be proven one big liar who tried to pull a scam on everybody.”
The time that passes is a frustratingly slow grind. No big plans or recipes, nor are there the usual assortments of imported drink, all replaced by laundry folding, floor cleaning and anything else I can direct my nervous energy towards until 6 o’clock finally rolls around. I don’t want to hear about the game or even think about it. My neighbor shares that he was able to wager on a -6 Pats/+18 Giants teaser…that makes it worse because then I start to think about how it’s come to this last day, and the perceived risk of that wager is so low…the WEEI crew has turned Patriots fan-dome into a neo-evangelical experience, with a victory today only the surest of sure things that there ever was or ever will be. You are damned for all eternity if the cocky swagger doesn’t appeal to you (unless you’re a player or a coach on the team of course), with doubt being the sin of eternity, never to be washed off, and never forgiven.
Hoping not to jinx anything, I’m now looking forward to what it will take for BC to earn a shot in the national title game. Clearly, they have to win out, which means winning games in Death Valley (Clemson) and Maryland. The Clemson game is going to be the most ominous, as we’ve beaten them twice in a row. An ACC title game would be vs. either Virginia or Virginia Tech.
The comeback win last Thursday taught me a great life lesson. When you’re recording one game on the DVR and watching another, make sure to schedule the box to record the program that comes on after the game as well. Throughout the night I was watching the recording of that game during commercials in the World Series, but since I had failed to record the program that came on after the BC-VT game, I was only able to watch up until halfway through the 4th quarter. Running to the computer after finding this out, I honestly figured they’d lost, but had hoped that they hadn’t been shutout. It turns out I missed the greatest comeback in the team’s history.
Heading into this week, I’m wondering how many years it will take before the Big 10, Pac 10 and Big East finally start having conference championship games. If SEC, ACC and Big 12 teams have to do it, then the other three conferences shouldn’t be getting over. That said, if Arizona St. makes it through these last four games undefeated, how can Ohio St. be considered more worthy of a slot in the title game? Hypothetically, if Kansas-BC-OhioSt-ArizonaSt all win out, the title game could be BC vs. Ohio St, which appears on its face to be very very very unfair. Likewise, if one of those four teams loses a game and LSU wins out, how can anyone pretend that making it out of the SEC with one loss is somehow less impressive than making it out of the Big 10 undefeated, never having to play a conference championship game?
I’m anticipating that if BC holds onto the #2 ranking and earns a shot at the title, there will be a #3 team that most of the college football world considers more worthy, and it will suck having to listen to it for a full month prior to New Years. The NCAA has to be hoping that there are only two undefeated teams at the end (sorry Hawaii, even though Boise St. beat Okahoma in a BCS bowl game to go undefeated last year, and in 2004 Utah decimated just about every team it played, “your kind” are second-class citizens.) I think it will most likely work out to something like 2004, when USC and Oklahoma played in the title game, while Auburn went undefeated and had to take a back seat. I think it’s wrong to exclude ANY SEC team that goes undefeated in the title game.
Anyways, I’m looking forward to Arizona St-Oregon in a couple hours, and the Seminoles are in Chestnut Hill tonight. The Celtics played defense last night. Peyton is in for a long, painful Sunday.  Read the rest of this entry »
Pam’s House Blend: “Rudy flip-flops on marriage amendment — and still fails to win over Values Voters“ Straw Poll Results:
Name … Percentage
1. Mitt Romney … 27.62%
2. Mike Huckabee …27.10%
3. Ron Paul … 14.98%
4. Fred Thompson …9.77%
5. Sam Brownback …5.14%
6. Duncan Hunter …2.42%
7. Tom Tancredo … 2.30%
8. Rudy Giuliani …1.85%
9. John McCain … 1.40 %
Al: “Manny Ramirez gets put on the top six stories on Yahoo for saying it doesn’t matter if the Red Sox lose game 5…mountains of words all over the frivilous vast expanse of sporting media, and Dubya slides on this episode right here”. Video pulled from Blue Girl, Red State
Manila Rice from The Largest Minority covered Maher Arar’s appearance at a House hearing (via satelite, since it’s still not safe for him to actually step foot in America): Calls Mount for Bush to Apologize to Torture Victim
Those rare extended periods of seemingly historical events lining up one after the other, where the second you think it can’t get any better than it already is, something else happens…like Stanford converting a 4th and 20, then scoring to go up on 2nd ranked USC by a point with less than a minute to go. Oklahoma, Florida, West Virginia, Texas and Rutgers all lose last week. The ACC claimed one of those victims, with Maryland taking out Rutgers, but the most brutal ass-kicking of them all was South Florida over West Virginia. That game is one I saw, along with Auburn beating Florida (even the most passive football fan should never miss this annual matchup!), and the euphoria has carried over from 7 days ago, as 6TH RANKED Boston College took it to Bowling Green today, winning 55-24.
USC (2) has now officially lost to unranked Stanford, LSU (1) is down by three in the third quarter to a pissed off Florida team, and Wisconsin (5) already lost to Illinois. Simply put, Boston College is going to at least move up ahead of Wisconsin. Next week vs. Notre Dame, and after that it’s a bloodbath with away games at Virginia Tech, Clemson (in Death Valley, where they won in 2005), Maryland, at home against Florida St. and Miami. Right now, I’m worried most about Virginia Tech and Florida State, with Maryland as the trap game. If they were to make it through that run undefeated, then win the ACC championship game, there wouldn’t be any way the polls could rob them of a shot at the big game. No doubt, they will get robbed in the end, but I’m purposely denying myself a taste of that gruesome reality.
Al on 9/27: “As for the team coming out of the national league, I’m having a hard time figuring out how teams are going to hit against the Diamondback pitchers. If Webb is hitting on all cylinders, he can pitch forever, and their bullpen is better than anyone else’s, especially in the late innings with Lyon, Cruz and Valverde.“
The Phillies weren’t that good of a team, but Chicago had a roster that looked to be built for October. In game one there was a meltdown of sorts, with their most dominant reliever Carlos Marmol giving it up in the 7th, first with a solo homerun, and then two more hits plus a walk for another run. That ended up being the difference, along with Ted Lilly not earning his money in game 2. The Diamondbacks are the most dangerous team besides the Red Sox. I think that’s going to be the world series matchup, and if I had to take one pitching staff or other other, it’d be hard not to take Arizona’s.
The pitching staff for Colorado came out of nowhere, so it seemed. I’m not entirely sold on the concept just yet. Likewise the brilliant future of Joba Chamberlain. It would have been easy to include one of him all covered in buzz-plague from last night, but it’s not the rookie’s fault the Yankees are down 0-2. Once again there are playoff games at stake, and once again Alex Rodriguez can be struck out with three pitches he’d have been able to handle back in September. Luckily, I’m a Red Sox fan.
Anyone who has followed this race down the stretch, you know what I’m talking about. They’re up 2-0 on the Dodgers late in tonight’s game, and if they win, they’d still be a game out of the wild card spot with both Philly and San Diego ahead of them, though it would be 10 wins in a row! The Mets are fading in this last week, and could lose the division to Philly, as their one game lead isn’t looking solid at this point. If I had to pick one of those four teams in a seven game series, I’d go with San Diego, but at this point, my heart’s with Colorado.
As for the team coming out of the national league, I’m having a hard time figuring out how teams are going to hit against the Diamondback pitchers. If Webb is hitting on all cylinders, he can pitch forever, and their bullpen is better than anyone else’s, especially in the late innings with Lyon, Cruz and Valverde. I won’t get into predictions from the American League just yet. Manny and Youk are back now, Gagne managed not to blow a 6 run lead tonight (actually struck out two in a row to end an inning with runners at the corners), Okajima is still a question mark, Dice-K seems worn out, Lugo & Drew are hitting right now…in the American League, with the four teams that are in, I’d take Josh Beckett in a game seven start over anyone. I’m not sure Boston’s bullpen is even better than the Yankees’ now. Joba Chamberlain is for real, and in spite of our success vs. Rivera in recent years, it’s still a bad feeling knowing your team has to score a run off of him to tie up a game. He’s one of the only guys I’d ever pinch hit a righty in place of a lefty.
The magic number is 2, and it looks like the Sox are going up against the Angels. Like I said, the NL is wide open, and I’m pulling for Colorado to make it in.
I agree with the guy. Even when it happens in professional sports, it sucks. I’ve been tempted some nights to get on the blog and tear Eric Gagne to pieces, but then I calm down and get over it. When atheletes make problems with their mouth or lack of discipline, I feel like it’s open season, but to screw up in a game is human. Not only that, but we fans are really full of shit if we think that somehow it hurts us more than it does the guy who screwed up and lost the game. At the college level I especially respect a guy who will stand up for his players like this guy just did. The vast majority of college atheletes don’t make a living off of sports once they’ve graduated, and they don’t make a penny while they’re going to school. That scholarship is something they earn tenfold when you consider the amount of revenue a successful program brings in to the school.
Coming from the Boston area, I’m used to a combative sporting press, especially on the radio, but even back there, they won’t get on a Boston College player’s case like often happens in the midwest at that level (and sometimes high school as well). I think some of these fans are nuts, but the fact that they’re nuts means there’s a market for the type of writing this coach is upset about. Not much going on in Oklahoma…can’t forget that. The articles on OU and OSU that come out after a game, are like Page 6 in the NY Post for them. Or, to equate it with something I look forward to reading, Barron’s weekly, on a Saturday night…damn, the sheer notion of that being an exciting way to spend a Saturday night, if the 23 year old me had known about this, I’d definitely be short a few thousand more brain cells. Check out this video:
Watching the pile-on this weekend, I finally understand how it must feel to be a Republican right now. The only comment I have on all of this is…who the hell signed Emmitt Smith up for Sunday Countdown? Did they notice that he’s barely able to speak at a 4th grade level? I assume there’s a producer scratching their head somewhere at ESPN, getting the “he knocked the interview out of the park, honestly”, mantra cued up. Next to Keyshawn Johnson, the Emmitt Smith contract looks worse than the one they gave Rush Limbaugh a couple years ago. But anyways - here’s the third adaptation of that crazy Britney video I’ve found ‘post-worthy’ in less than a week:
(Yardbarker) So if you’re swimming in the water and a shark bites you, that’s called trespassing. That is not a shark attack. A shark attack is if you’re chilling at home, sitting on your couch, and a shark comes in and bites you; now that’s a shark attack. Now, if you’re chilling in the water, that is called invasion of space.
Aparantly he lifted the bit from comedian Ian Edwards, but unlike when Carlos Mencia steals another comedian’s material, Arenas stealing your jokes equals free advertising. Mencia stealing your jokes equals rape. Worse than that, he’s pissing on the industry, ala what Barry Bonds is doing to baseball. Erasing the notion that the game or the stage is sacred, or at least worth more than any one person who capitalizes on there being this venue for their talent in the first place. No one has likened Bonds to Mencia that I know of, but they’re the same type of person as I see it. And when comparing the two situations, I suppose Joe Rogan would be comedy’s version of Curt Schilling.
The years of devotion eventually pay off, although AFTER I move 100 miles away from the Fleet Center and can’t afford to go anyway. One game I managed to convince my father to attend with me during the Antoine-Pierce-O’Brien years was against Minnesota. We lost and Garnett was primarily the reason - rebounding on both ends and managing to will his team up a notch higher than its talent would put it otherwise. Back then he was running with Joe Smith, Troy Hudson, Wally…but they could beat us more often than not whether in Minnesota or at home.
Now he’s playing alongside Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Nothing could convince me that it was a done deal until today, and even then I was anticipating some sort of letdown. I suspect this is the real deal, and somehow from the Draft Lottery to today, Danny Ainge has pulled off something the ping pong balls were determined to deny us. Of course, Bill Simmons puts a perfect column together on this deal, so I’ll leave it at that and direct you to his words. (McHale adds another notch to his Celtics legacy)
The Celts got smacked around once more by the ping-pong curse, and so the #5 pick on Thursday night is what we’ve ended up with after posting the 2nd worst record. As depressing as it was to watch the western conference scoop up two more top picks, the upside to all this is, at least it’s not 2006! This #5 pick in particular is worth something. The Boston Globe has a piece on Al Thornton and also a slide show with all of the possibilities for the Celts in this draft (there’s an obvious error on the first page).
One option was to trade the pick, Theo Ratliff and Gerald Green to Phoenix in exchange for Shawn Marion, and out of the 15 or so they have for you to vote on at the end, it’s the one I chose. When the results show up I’m once again ashamed to be a member of ‘Celtic Nation’, as out of 9000+ votes, “Trade Paul Pierce” ends up in third place with over 12%. I’ve been calling people idiots for years now when they say this, and have realized that Pierce needs to learn how to fly in order to please the hoopleheads.
There was a time when I’d have a definite opinion about who we should pick, and a month ago I was all about getting Al Thornton, the senior out of Florida St. Then a couple of weeks ago I decided we needed the best defender available, which would most likely be Corey Brewer out of Florida. At this point my only conviction is that Ainge cannot not draft the Chinese guy. In this draft class there is one way in particular to ensure a stomach ulcer , and taking him at #5 would be just that. For the love of God (or Joseph Smith if it helps you see the light) Danny…turn this pick into a player who can earn 20+ minutes a night the second he walks onto the floor.
And then FIRE DOC RIVERS ALREADY, with the plan being to lure either Rick Carlysle or Jim O’Brien back to Boston. The team then learns how to earn minutes on the defensive end, get stops in the 4th quarter and get past the first round of the playoffs. I think it can all happen as long as there’s no Chinese guy at #5, and…well, at least if Danny doesn’t screw up the first part, it’ll only be a matter of time before Doc proves once again that he’s not cut out for this. (Bill Simmons on the draft)
(SF Chronicle) The Giants issued a statement from owner Peter Magowan on Sunday saying, “When our partnership group took over the Giants in 1993, all of San Francisco was treated to a wonderful 103-win year. Nobody who was a part of that will forget Rod’s 48 saves. When we reached our dream of the playoffs in 1997, it was only fitting that Rod was on the mound for the final out that clinched the National League West.”
The next season, having gone to the Cubs as a free agent, he saved a career-high 51 games, including Chicago’s 5-3 victory over the Giants in a one-game play-in for the National League wild card. Beck’s velocity declined over the years, especially after he underwent “Tommy John” elbow surgery in 2002. By the time he signed with the Padres in 2003, he barely hit 83 mph with his fastball. However, when closer Trevor Hoffman went down with a shoulder injury, Beck converted 20 consecutive save opportunities.
Last night he was sprinting to his right after a gaper, and with the wide angle about a half a second off of the bat, it looked like he’d never be able to get there. The play ends up looking like so many putouts made by the Red Sox center fielder this season, only here he ends up stretched out completely parallel to the earth below, exerting every bit of energy he possibly could to meet that ball at the spot where its journey ended. The diving catch I’m describing from the 5th inning of last night’s game is one of the most beautiful plays I’ve ever seen. He simply cannot catch up to that ball in time…even in the replays it looks like an uncatchable ball. What makes it even more enjoyable though, is seeing Alex Cora within the frame of the field level shot of the catch, raising his right arm to signal an out before Crisp has even gone into his dive.
That angle in particular should make this one an automatic #1 top play on Sportscenter today - since there wasn’t any golf on television to knock it down to #2 - and Boston retains the best record in baseball for another day. As strong up the middle as any team in baseball, with Crisp giving Grady Sizemore a run for his money out in the field, it’s certainly a good time to be a Red Sox pitcher. Ten years ago the Sox never would have acquired a player with the attributes that Crisp possesses, and these plays he is able to make would have gone for extra bases, resulting in at least 3 extra games in the loss column by this point in the season. There’s no video that I know of available for embedding along with this post - MLB being the idiot fortress that it is - so you’ll either have to take my word for it or CLICK HERE - and select “Crisp’s diving catch”.
Where Phoenix dumps the Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway contracts on someone and remakes its team into a contender happens.
