Instant Celtics Analysis!

Before we get to the analysis, three other items:

1) Nick, welcome back! You write nothing for two months and then you throw up something that potentially puts us on the map? Is that really an exclusive? Well done buddy.

2) Most readers here are probably watching the CSN feed of the C's game, but being in DC I'm getting TNT. Well they just showed Lawrence Maroney sitting courtside and I think it is safe to say that roughly 90% of his pro earnings have gone towards jewelry. He probably rents a $250 a month apartment in Foxboro.

3) Nobody dogs Tony Allen more than I do. With that being said, I would have fully endorsed him entering Game 4 to try and cool off Joe Johnson. Of course that never happened and Doc got some heat for it. And then Tony came in in the second quarter of this game and had a vintage Tony Allen run. He started things off well with an acrobatic basket in the paint. And then he air-balled a three on their next possession, fouled Joe Johnson shooting a three when the Hawks went back down after his airball, and then on the C's ensuing possession threw the ball out of bounds. That's the Tony we know and (don't) love. Hey Tony, I hope you enjoyed the only time you'll see this postseason prior to 4th quarter mop-up duty.

And now the quick analysis..

Why the Celtics Won:

1) Paul Pierce attacked the basket, Kevin Garnett made a concentrated effort to dominate the blocks, and the jump shots and threes they did take all came within the flow of their offense. Most encouraging of this news has to be the play of Pierce. When he is attacking the rim he is really, really tough. Now if he could just get his free throw shooting back on track...

2) Their defense was outstanding, highlighted by a 39-28 rebounding edge including a 13-8 edge on the offensive glass.

3) Twice when Atlanta looked like they might make things a little too close for comfort they were able to have a key guy catch fire. At the end of the first half it was James Posey hitting two big threes and in the third quarter it was Ray Allen hitting three of them.

4) The Celtics were able to neutralize Josh Smith holding him to just 18 points (10 coming from the line), 5 rebounds, and most importantly only one block. As for that block, I think we all saw it coming miles away when Rondo thought he could expose the ball while going up for a dunk with Smith right on his tail.

5) The game was a typical slow-bleed Celtics bludgeoning until the fourth quarter when it became an out and out romp, but what still must be cause for concern has to be the inordinate amount of layups (I'm looking at YOU Rajon) the C's are missing and that KG still seems a bit at a loss when operating in the post. I really think that with his touch shots around the basket his massive energy gets the best of him resulting in him pushing his shots too much. Have you noticed how he has played his best in the post in garbage time? My theory makes sense right? Still, it is stupid to complain after a 25 point victory. Let's wrap things up on Friday.


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Tommy Chuckin' Signs!!!!!

Exclusive RBB Photo!!! Mr Stern, you don't understand Celtic Pride!!!

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Instant Celtics Anlaysis!

They lost because:

1) They missed an inordinate amount of shots from close range. Overall they shot 41% tonight and mark my words I will go to bed thinking of KG strong-arming jump hooks and Rondo missing layups. It's pretty tough to win when you shoot 41%.

2) They shot 18 free throws to the Hawks 33 and hit only 10 of them for a woeful .556% mark while the Hawks hit 29 of theirs registering .879%. Bottom line, the Hawks scored 19 more points at the line than the Celtics. I know Doc is hammering it into their head that they need to attack more so maybe this will be the wakeup call they need. No matter how good of defense you play, if you are getting outscored by 19 points at the line it is going to be next to impossible to win.

All of that is fine and dandy, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't terrified of how KG has looked in the post. He seems completely lost when not shooting in rhythm or playing from 15-18 feet away from the hoop and every single jump hook he takes he seems to throw too hard off the backboard.

3) Even when the Celtics took a ten point lead in the third, my belief that they would hold onto that was slim to none as at no point during the game did they look like they deserved to be up ten points, let alone win the game.

4) With all this being said, you know the crowd is going to be INSANE in Boston on Wednesday and that should propel them to a Game 5 victory and will hopefully lead to them wrapping things up on Friday in Atlanta. If it comes to a Game 7, color me terrified because the Hawks have been playing with a "we don't give a F***!!" attitude the last two games that I can't help but admire. Plus, they have no answer whatsoever for Josh Smith and not much of one for Joe Johson either. In all honesty, Smith is probably the most exciting player I have seen play in quite some time. Too bad he has to play for the Hawks.

5) That's it. Let's say it again folks. Win Wednesday in Boston. TCB in Atlanta on Friday. And then play whomever in round 2 and forget this series ever happened. Read more!

5 Fearless Predictions

1) The Suns will rally from being down 3-0 to defeat the Spurs.

2) Jerod Mayo will win Defensive Rookie of the Year. Think about this for a second. Mayo will get a lot of press playing for a marquis team. Assuming he starts and is good - both of which I think will happen - he can potentially register 150+ tackles. Put that all together with a few big plays in some main event games next year and I think the award is his to lose.

3) Theo Epstein and Terry Francona physically force David Ortiz to go on the DL in the next week. Ortiz comes back 15 days later and after about a week is on his way to becoming the Big Papi we all know and love.

4) Clay Bucholz finds his way onto the AL All Star team. Seriously, the AL starting pitching crop is so weak I could absolutely see this happening. Who are the top 10 pitchers in the AL right now? I'd say:

1) Josh Beckett
2) CC Sabathia
3) Erik Bedard
4) Justin Verlander
5) Felix Hernandez
6) John Lackey
7) Fausto Carmona/Chien Mien Wang
8) James Shields
9) Rich Harden
10) Scott Kazmir

Of those guys, Sabathia had an awful first few starts but has come on strong lately and Verlander has been so-so. Fausto Carmona and Chien Mien Wang are both the same pitcher in my book as they can dominate games when their sinkers are on but do not strike out many people and I think their performances in last year's playoffs speak for themselves. Ditto for James Shields actually but he has no postseason experience - good or bad - to fall back on. (I know that pick seems crazy but look at his line this year, 2.54 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 28 K in 39 IP - pretty good.)

As for Bedard, Harden, Kazmir, and Lackey, they have hardly pitched this year if at all but are all outstanding when they do take the hill. You could almost say the same for Beckett, but he has at least made 4 starts this year and save for his first, he has been close to great in the other three.

The last player in the group, Felix Hernandez finally looks like he is harnessing his talent with 41 K's in 42 2/3 IP and a 2.22 ERA and 1.23 WHIP.

So, taking all that into account, I'd say that James Shields, Chien Mien Wang, Felix Hernandez, and probably CC Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, and Josh Beckett are all safe bets for the All Star Team. That probably leaves room for another SP or two and if Bucholz keeps going like he is, he'll certainly get himself into that conversation.

5) Jon Lester is involved in an in-season trade to an NL team as Theo recognizes that he needs to trade him now before his star - which Theo and company did so much to shine and polish - completely fades.

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Nice to See Ben is Back

It's good to see that our founder Ben has decided to grace us once again with his presence. I imagine that I am the one he is referring to as a member of Red Sox Nation, and I do admit it I am a card carrying member. There are two reasons for that though, A. because I have enough money to, and B. because it gets me tickets, whether it is a RSN only sale or the grandstand seats that come with my level of membership. Do I think the whole thing is ridiculous? Yes, but at the same time I think it is way to hard to get tickets and I unlike Ben are not willing to sacrifice visiting the ball park.

So it was a busy weekend in Boston Sports, there was the draft, the Celtics played, and the Sox lost three games in Tampa Bay. The last two didn't exactly go according to plan. Some notes from the weekend.

- The draft flew by this weekend, I am used to the days when it could take literally hours to get through the top five picks. By 4:30 an hour and half after the draft started the Patriots had made their first selection. I am excited about Mayo joining the aging group of linebackers that we have. I think they will be around long enough to mentor him and then he will be able to take over. I would like to point out to ever national sportscaster, our LB's maybe getting older but we still went 18-1 with the 4th best defense in the league, so they are obviously still getting the job done.

- I laughed on Saturday morning when I heard on the radio Herm Edwards say that he projected the KC Chiefs to get 6 or 7 starters out of this draft, then he went ahead and actually did it. They managed to get Glenn Dorsey at number 5, he was projected as the best player in the draft, they moved up and got Branden Albert, and they got a CB in Brandon Flowers I was hoping the Pats would have found a way to take. That was all in just the first day I was pretty impressed.

- The Sox got rocked this weekend in Tampa, I don't think its the end of the season or anything but they have been hurt and haven't had a day off in three weeks. I think with Mike Lowell back things will get better. They need to make sure they keep Jed Lowrie up here, the kid is going to be good and should be the starting short stop soon, if not this year then next.

- The Celtics did not look themselves on Saturday night. They will bounce back tonight in Atlanta. Al Horford taunting Paul Pierce was not a smart thing to do. Something tells me that KG would smack the crap out of the Hawks if he could get away with it. They are playing like a bunch of school yard punks and the Celtics need to put there foot down. Is it just me or does it seem like the Celtics are having the longest first round series ever? They have had three days off between a couple of the games, they are just traveling to Atlanta I can't see why it would take so long.

- Finally I am a proud owner of a Nintendo Wii, and I was able to add Mario Kart to my collection yesterday after a very frustrating wait in line at best buy. I have not always been thrilled with the wii, there is to much movement involved it makes it hard to veg out like I want when I play but this game makes up for all of those drawbacks, especially the online mode. Read more!

Back in Action

So I have been missing for a while. The reason is that I have been on a vision quest of sorts. See, a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the first Yankees game at Fenway. Now, I had a great time, and I would argue that I had a better time than all three of my friends combined. Let's just say that the people that were lucky enough to be sitting near me...LOVED me. But here's the thing; it was my first game at Fenway since my self imposed boycott of all things Red Sox that lasted the entire 07 season. I watched the games of course, but I refrained from giving the organization any of my money for anything. I was driven to do so by rising ticket prices, the cost of a hat, the price of beer and Red Sox Nation. Sadly, after a year away, I see that things have only gotten worse.

Here is the deal. I hate Red Sox nation. It sucks. It's members (including one of the writers on this site) are mindless monkeys following whatever their "President" tells them to do. The simple fact that bonafide members of the nation have actually paid to get a membership card. Let me say this plain: The current owners have managed to make people believe that they are bigger or better fans because they have paid annual dues to get a card the shows people just how much they love the sox. So let me get this straight, these trilobytes think that they are bigger fans than those from the 70's or 80's or 90's because those people were not members of the nation. Now, until that fateful game, I did not wish members of the nation harm, I just knew that I was better than them on many levels. However, after listening to the so called citizens of Red Sox nation around me, I sort of hope that something bad happens to them. I could go on and on about this topic, but instead I will simply give the members of the nation a reality check:

1. The Yankees do not suck. They are a world class club composed of some great ball players who have accomplished far more than the Red Sox. While they are the Red Sox rivals, they do not suck.

2. Simply being Red Sox fan does not mean that you have to hate anyone who is a Yankees fan. Believe it or not, people are born in and around the giant state of New York that love to root for their hometown team, the Yankees, just like you morons root for the Red Sox.

3. If you are a Red Sox fan and are at Fenway when the Yankees are in town, do not be surprised to find out that their are Yankees fans there. I know it is hard to believe, but not everyone who lives in or around Boston was born here.

4. Since we have established that there are, in fact, people who root for the Yankees and they may from time to time be in Boston, and even (GASP!!!) at Fenway park, let us talk about proper conduct for a bit. Now, anyone who enters another teams park wearing the gear of the opponent expects to take a little verbal abuse, but members of Red Sox nation should be ashamed of themselves. There was a guy in front of us wearing a Yankees hat. He was at the game with his girlfriend and her little sister. He was not taunting anyone, and was not even standing up and cheering as the Yankees kicked the hell from us. He was simply out at a game with his girlfriend. These four college frat boys behind us were shocked and insulted that he would wear a Yankees hat at "their" park. Here are a few exchanges between the Yankees fan and the fucking jagoffs behind us.

Nation member: Hey Faggot!!! What the fuck are you doing here?
Yankees fan waves and smiles
Ben: How do you know he is gay?
Nation Member: Anyone wearing a Yankees hat is a faggot!
Ben: He is clearly here with his girlfriend.
Nation member: He is still a faggot. Are you a Yankees fan?
Ben: No, I am simply talking to you because I think it is so cool that the Red Sox let retards buy tickets and sit all by themselves.

Exchange #2

Nation member: How can you date that faggot?
Girlfriend: Come on guys, leave him alone. He is from NY.
Nation member: Well tell him to watch his back, because we will kick the shit out of you guys.
Ben: Are you fucking serious?
Nation member: We can definetely beat up one faggot and his two bitches.
Ben: ....

5. Being a member of Red Sox nation does not mean you get to yell insulting shit at the players of the Yankees. Again, I love sitting near the opponents bullpen and giving them a hard time. But, these assholes behind me were yelling things about Joba's sick father, his mother, and just about anything else they could think up. They were completely shocked when security threatened to throw them out. I mean SHOCKED. They truly believed that it was the Red Sox Nation Constitution that they could yell anything they wanted at Yankees.

6. You can hate a member of the Red Sox and still be a fan. In fact, I will quote the great 21st century philosopher Joel Kalinowsky: "They're all bums." I have not tried to hide the fact that I hate Julio Lugo and his ass face, and will pay to get him off of the Red Sox. Now, admittedly I was a bit in the bag when trying to explain this to the woman in front of me, but she could not comprehend the theory that you can hate a player and still be a fan of the team. When I stated that they should bench Papi because he wasn't hitting, she just about died. It was at this point that she told a member of my party that he should not hang around with me anymore, and you know what...she was right about that.

7. Finally, Remy is a goon. Deal with it.

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The Weekend

Three big stories this weekend. Let's hit on all of them quickly.

1) The Patriots Draft

I am no Mel Kiper Jr. I'm not even Todd McShay. Keeping that in mind I am not even going to try analyze the Pats draft. A few weeks ago I said that I'd love to see them use their seven picks on five defensive players, a QB, and a tight end to give competition to the Anti-Coates, Ben Watson (I'm going to push that nickname until it sticks). Seeing as the Pats drafted six defensive players and a QB consider me a happy camper. From my completely uninformed opinion I see the Patriots draft as a rousing success.


After saying all of that, I will say that other than Matt Ryan, the only other top player in the draft which I had consistent exposure to was Jerod Mayo. My wife is a Tennessee alum, a football season ticket holder with her father, and a rabid fan along with him as well. Honestly, I have probably seen 80% of Tennessee's games over the past few years so amazingly I actually do know a thing or two about Jerod Mayo as opposed to a guy like Vernon Ghoulston who I had never heard of until I started perusing people's thoughts on who the Pats might take. So what is my take on Mayo?

Let's just say that if he does not become more or less an instant fan favorite, record 120+ tackles next year, and make some highlight reel hits then I will be absolutely shocked. Mayo played in the SEC and in the past year you could easily say that he was probably the most bad-assed guy on the field in every game he played. Seeing as the SEC is the most competitive football conference and churns out pro players like nobody's business, I'd say this is kind of a big deal. He was just one of "those guys" that you always anticipated making a big play at some point or another during the game and if mayhem was abound then the chances of him being in the middle of it were quite good.

On Friday, when it started leaking that the Pats were targeting Mayo, I began to get excited, and when they took him at 10 on Saturday I was thrilled. Don't trust me on a lot of things, but trust me on the fact that Jerod Mayo will 100% make a positive impact for the Patriots next year.

As for the rest of their picks. Well, I have no idea. I have not heard of a single other one of them.

2) The Celtics

If the Celtics were going to lose a game in the Atlanta series, wasn't it going to be the first game in Atlanta on a Saturday night? Of course it was! Combining that with Josh Smith playing out of his mind, Mike Bibby temporarily waking up from the dead, and the Celtics displaying some absolutely hideous shot selection in the third quarter lead by Ray Allen and Sam Cassell the Celtics really didn't have a chance. The one positive I will take away from the game however was Kevin Garnett finally deciding to play on the blocks. Even though they lost the game, if KG finally realized that he can dominate a game offensively from the blocks if sets his mind to it and consistently does that more often over the course of the playoffs then we can call this game a huge moral W.

My prediction for the rest of the series is that the C's win on Monday, the Hawks take the next game, and then the Celtics win in six at home. The reason I'm saying six and not five here is because Josh Smith is such a freak of an athlete that he himself with a little help from Al Horford can probably bring them another victory ine one of the next two games if the Atlanta fans bring the intensity. Hence the reason now for C's in six.

The Red Sox

So the Sox got swept by the Rays and are in the midst of a five game losing streak. Not good. No need to freak out though. Let's look at the bright side.

Clay Bucholz, fresh off my proclamation that he would be a great number two starter by July or so went out on Saturday and threw 8 innings, gave up 2 runs, 3 hits, struckout 9, and walked 2. He was also one bad pitch from those 2 runs being 0. Yes he lost the game, but there is plenty of good to take away from that. The Rays are a good hitting team too.

And then Beckett, whom I also praised the other day justified my kind words by pitching 7 innings on Sunday giving up 2 runs on 4 hits and striking out 13 to only 1 walk. Pretty good line. Again, they hung the loss on him but if the Sox can consistently get good to great pitching from Bucholz and Beckett then they should be in good shape moving forward.

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More Quick Thoughts

Gotta get a few things off my chest...

1) Why must the national announcers reference the Celtics famed Europe trip during every single game? I think everybody get's it by now. I'd say it has a chance to potentially pass the, "Hey did you know Kenny Lofton was the starting point guard for Arizona's Final Four Team in 1990?!" as the most stock tidbit which announcers feel obliged to throw in during every telecast, but the Europe trip should just be a one year story. The Lofton bit however was brought up every single year it seemed during Cleveland's playoff runs druing the mid and late 1990's. Between you and I though, I really don't think the Lofton story can be caught.



2) Am I crazy or at times does Rajon Rondo look like the best player on the court? Sure he can't shoot like Allen, score like Pierce, or rebound like KG but when he is playing well it seems like he can't be stopped. He can attack the basket at will, wreak havoc on the defensive end, grab rebounds, run the fast break, run the intermediate break, and even hit a jump shot or two. I know it's tough to swallow, but look at his game one line. He scored 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting, grabbed 6 boards, had 9 assists, 2 steals, and 0 turnovers in only about 28 minutes. Seriously, what more could you ask? I don't want to get my hopes up too high but I can't shake the feeling that this guy is a budding superstar.

3) Look, I know it is asinine, obnoxious, and arrogant to complain about the Red Sox as they are in the midst of a streak where they have won 9 of 10. With that being said, I'll start with the good before getting to the bad and potentially scary.

A) Manny is completely dialed in. It seems to me that all that stands in the way of him and a 40/140 season is an injury. Could he be looking at his first regular season MVP? Sure looks like it now.

B) It is absolutely impossible not to love what Pedroia and Ellsbury have been doing at the top of the order. I cannot remember in my lifetime, ever seeing a more dynamic and exciting duo than those two. It's going to be fun...

C) Papi is slowly starting to round into form and Julio Lugo apparently received his Jed Lowrie wake up call and is now playing pretty well. Both encouraging signs.

D) When he has pitched, Beckett has looked great, Manny Delcarmen looks like he is finally ready to contribute consistently, and Clay Bucholz seems like he should put it together completely by July or so and become a great number two starter behind Beckett.

And now the bad...

A) Year three of the Jon Lester Era has looked suspiciously like years one and two. Maybe I could get excited about him if he ever pitched a "wow!" game every now and again to give me a glimpse towards the potential that we always hear about, but I am yet to see that in three seasons. Even when he wins, his wins seem to come against sub-standard competition and whenever I watch him I always wait for the wheels to come off. I know I'm cynical with this guy, but at some point shouldn't improvement start to be expected? He's the same guy he was two years ago.

B) Craig Hansen's back in town! Uh-oh! Seriously, this must be an audition for him right? Why don't they just let him juice his numbers against the worst teams they play and then trade him as fast as humanly possible? That would be my move anyway.

C) As exhilirating as all of these come from behind wins have been lately, you cannot be too happy about the fact that they have consistently fallen behind and need to claw their way back every night. Right now, the Sox have the 4th worst team ERA in baseball, are 21st in WHIP, and have allowed the third most walks. Those are horrible numbers. What's worse, their starters have not been going deep into games and at some point needing four innings from your bullpen almost every night is going to bight you in the ass. Just look at the Mets last year. The only silver lining in all this is that their pitchers are second in K's which leads you to believe that there is some room for improvement. Let's hope so.

D) Even if the pitching save for Beckett has been uniformly bad, there is something about this team and the way they battle - I think it has a ton to do with Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youklis, and a happy Manny - that I really like. Last year's team seemed like a bunch of robots and I never really "liked" the team a ton. I honestly think that all of the hatred that everybody was directing towards Drew and Lugo put some sort of haze over the team from June through late September. This year the vibe is different and I love it.

That's it for now.
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Quick Post

I have spent most of my day hard at work rating out Utah Home policies, I know it sounds like a ton of fun, anyway as the day was winding down I surfed on over to SI.com to see if anything had happened all day that I need to know. In there truth an rumors section I had to see my local teams in a negative light.

First of course I see that Matt Walsh has agreed to speak with the Commissioner about his former job with the Patriots. Am I the only one out there who thinks that he can't have anything that exciting to say. I mean Kraft and the Coach wouldn't have moved on like they have if this guy had anything. He is a hack golf pro just trying to make a name for himself.

Second, I had to read about how the Red Sox fans are a bunch of racists according to Torri Hunter. Now I love Torri's 2007 Allen and Ginter baseball card with the greatest Oh face every, but what is he smoking. Saying we threw batteries at him, that we chanted the N word at him. I have been to many games including games against his former team the Twins and I never saw anything like that. Would anyone do that in this day and age, and if someone did throw batteries and beer at him like he claims why wouldn't he have told security. As I witnessed at the Yankees game they will not hesitate to throw someone out or at least yell at them.

Finally, Mike Bibby needs to shut the hell up. Are Celtics fans band wagon fans? Maybe we are, but I don't know if he saw the team last year but they SUCKED. Tickets are way to expensive so why would people pay to cheer on a team that was trying to lose. Let me say that again THEY WERE TRYING TO LOSE. Mike Bibby we don't all make 10 million dollars a year, and I don't care if it makes us bandwagon fans but who is going to pay that kind of money to see the likes of Sebastian Telfair. I would also like to point out that Bibbys Kings only visited once last year in the middle of an 18 game losing streak!!!! I'm sorry your on the Hawks now Bibby and you are going to be watching the Celtics play in the next round as soon as they kick your ass, but GET A CLUE!!! Basketball is a product and when the local team offers crap not nearly as many people are going to go or pay attention. Read more!

April 22, 2008 - The Biggest DC Sports Day in Quite Some Time

I have lived in DC since the summer of 2002 and for the first time today, April 22, 2008 - after almost six years - I can say that DC is legitimately a sports Mecca. Well, for a day anyway.

Consider this:

The Capitals

I know next to nothing about hockey and have not followed it really at all since the days of Cam Neely in Boston. As you can see, I am obviously a huge sports fan but other than a guy named Chara, a 6'9" defenseman from what I gather I cannot name another player on the Bruins. This is not about the Bruins of course but I tell you this just to illustrate how blatantly out of the hockey loop I am.

Despite all that, DC has been galvanized by the Capitals since around the New Year. From what I have been able to gather, they started out the season sucking it up and were bringing up the rear of their division. Then they somehow turned around their season, lead by Alex Ovechkin, a guy who mildly resembles the Anton Chigurh character from No Country for Old Men and who along with Sydney Crosby in Pittsburgh is tasked with making the NHL at least kind of relevant again. Long story short, Ovechkin put the team on his back, scored 65 goals on the year and lead the team from the basement to the division crown.

Since the start of the playoffs two weeks ago, the Capitals have been the talk of the town around these parts and earlier tonight they played a Game 7 against the Flyers, apparently their arch rival. As if there needed to be more to fire people up for the game, Game 6 was played last night and the Caps won that coming back.

With all that as the backdrop, Tuesday night I decided to hop on the old bandwagon. Or rather, I turned the game on in the third period when it was tied. After an exhilarating third period, the Caps committed a tripping penalty in OT and with nine seconds left on the penalty, the Flyers scored the game winning goal. Honestly, for the hour I put into watching the end of this game I was on the edge of my seat. I was even running over options in my head of becoming a bandwagon Caps fan for the spring. And then of course they lost. I was upset for about two minutes after the fact, not because I was bummed about the team losing per se but more that I was bummed about not being able to hop on the bandwagon. I mean, I really enjoyed myself during the third period of that game and I was entirely prepared to invest more into the team. Whats more I was even congratulating myself for finally being able to find a DC team that I would not be conflicted rooting for. I've hopped on the Wizards bandwagon for times in the past but it was always half-assed and I always knew that in a Celtics/Wizards game I was going with the Celtics no matter what. Here though, I was completely willing and ready to sell my soul to the Caps. But, like I said they lost. And, by the time the hockey season starts again in October I can promise you that I will go back to being apathetic as I am now because sugar buzzes don't last forever you know?

Still, it's always fun being in a city when they are rallying around a team and that was the case here with the Caps. It's over now, but you can't deny that a Game 7, in DC against a team from Philly is a relatively big story in the sports world when competing against April baseball, relentless and annoying NFL draft "hype", and Games 1 and 2 of the first round of the NBA Playoffs. So there, in this case DC mattered.

The Wizards

I used to love Gilbert Arenas back in 2004. That was back before he had a blog and before he decided that he wanted to go for 50 every game instead of actually coming out of a game with a W for his team. In a lot of ways, Arenas of the past few years reminds me a ton of Antoine Walker.

If you can remember way back when what made Antoine look like he was going to become a top tier power forward in the NBA was the quickness and passing ability he possessed from the 4 spot while being big enough to get 10 boards a game and bang with larger forwards on the blocks. I remember a game in maybe 1997 when he was playing against Karl Malone and Malone was clueless as to how to defend him because 'Toine could beat him off the dribble at ease but then could take him down in the paint and score on him there too. Needless to say, Tommy Heinson gushed over his potential after years of watching Dino Radja. But what potential it was! If Antoine had stuck to that instead of deciding that he was going to become a three point chucker and point forward known for leading the break and either dribbling the ball off a body part or jacking an ill-advised three who knows what he would have been like? I tend to think C-Webb in his prime would be a comparison. That would have looked pretty nice alongside Paul Pierce on the O'Brien teams right? Of course it was not meant to be though and now - unfortunately I think - he may have ended his career in Minnesota playing for an awful team and racking up DNP CDs. Despite all I said, I still have a soft spot for Antoine and would love to have him as a token scrub on the 2008-2009 Celtics. I know I'm not alone.

I guess I was supposed to be talking about Gilbert Arenas there and the point I was trying to get at was that Gilbert, like Antoine eschewed his main skill which made him so unique - BLAZING speed from the perimeter - in favor of jacking up shots left and right and is now a much less enjoyable player to watch than he was a few years ago. Also, he seems to think he is the NBA's best player and has probably read his press clippings a bit too much which really aggravates me. I just hate seeing players ditch what made them great to begin with trying to become an all world scorer or doing something else on the court that may be more fun or glamorous than what got them to the league and what made them initially great.

Enough about Gilbert though - and Antoine too - I need to actually talk about why the Wizards are relevant right now. I'll be quick this time.

The Wizards have apparently gone to the San Diego Chargers school of talking constantly about how great they are despite never winning anything. The Chargers are lead by the loathesome Ladanian Tomlinson and the Wizards are lead in this regard by the not quite as loathsome Gilbert Arenas and the "why the f--- are you running your mouth, your career peaked in the 1999 McDonalds All American Game" Deshawn Stevenson.

After running their mouths incessantly and stupidly calling Lebron overrated, the Wizards now find themselves down 2-0 in their playoff series, have resorted to trying to beat up the Cavs physically because they can't beat them regularly, and are coming off a 30 point road loss to boot. Needless to say they look like idiots. Probably because of this, and because of Brendan Haywood's hard foul on Lebron on Monday, the Wizards are finding themselves in the sporting news right now making them part two of our puzzle. Sure it's not in a glowing light but all publicity counts right?

The Redskins

DC sports cannot be DC sports without the Redskins. As such, they made the news Tuesday by trying to trade the Bengals their current first round pick and a pick next year (maybe another first rounder) for Chad Johnson. For some idiotic reason the Bengals turned this trade down forgetting that the Pats got Randy Moss for just a fourth rounder, not realizing that this package will inevitably blow away any other offer they get for him, and that by TOing Johnson and kicking him off the team they may get rid of him but they also get nothing in return. If you ever wonder why the Bengals consistently suck, this gives you a pretty good idea as to why.

The funniest thing about this trade is that I said to my wife last week, when news came out that Johnson wanted no part of the Bengals that Redskins owner Dan Snyder would offer up a ransom of draft picks to the Bengals for Johnson because Johnson coming available came at a perfect time for the Redskins, AND a player like Chad Johnson was way too much for Dan Snyder to resist. It was almost like a Dan Snyder perfect storm and you know he is pissed he cannot get him. Snyder looks for certain things in a player it seems to me. First the player must be high profile and a famous name, and second he must be willing to play for a lot of money. Johnson fits that profile to a T, and because the Redskins were uncharacteristically quiet in free agency this year, they had the cash to take him on. Oh yeah, and they also have a need for a big play receiver to take some heat off of Santana Moss so the position was even one of need! As I said, it was the perfect storm for Synder to strike and he did. Unfortunately for him the Bengals turned down his offer.

Even if no trade happened, you still must admit that one of the most famous and infamous players in the league almost getting traded to one of the NFL's marquis franchises is a big deal. Maybe it did not happen ,but talking about it is fun anyway.

And there you go. April 22, 2008, the day DC sports as a whole actually mattered. Like I said, it was kind of crazy because I've never been in this city with all this sports stuff going on. Normally we're just stuck with Client 9 at the Mayflower Hotel or the DC Madam. Read more!

Weekend Notes

Some notes from a very exciting sports weekend in Boston.

- I can't stand Hockey, I flip right by it every time but tonight I might just tune in and see how the Bruins do. I was at the Sox game last night and as if they planned it the Bruins game ended just as they were playing Sweet Caroline and the crowd went nuts. I have been at Fenway for playoff games and it had the same atmosphere.

- The Sox are playing out of there minds again this April. Ortiz has his average up to .160, and Manny is piecing together the beginnings of an MVP type season. When he hit the one out on Sunday it looked as if the ball was still rising when it hit the light tower over the monster. I would also like to encourage you all again to donate money to get Lugo out of town, Lowrie is ready and I think Boston is ready for him.

- The Celts absolutely thumped Atlanta. I would like to know what the Hawks were thinking that they would upset the Celtics just like Golden State did to Dallas last year. There were some differences there. First Golden States plays in the western conference and were vastly superior to the Hawks. Second, they had beat Dallas during the regular season Atlanta lost to the Celtics every time. And Lastly, Dirk is a wimp and can get pushed around, KG will not take that kind of Shit.

- Danica Patrick finally won a race, it took 50 races and it finally happened. The best part was the video of an older woman who I assume is her mother running down to her car and Danica not seeing her and hugging everyone else and her mother kind of jumping around.

- We are one week from the NFL Draft, it should be interesting what the Pats do with the number 7 pick, they always seem to surprise people when they pick later so lets see if they stick to what all the mock drafts have them doing.

- Finally I was there for the moment of silence that was held for John Marzano at Fenway Park. My future father in law and I both knew who he was but there were a lot of who's that from the pink hats that sad around us. Also from all my googling I can't find out if Carlos Quintana is dead I will give you these two facts I learned. He lost his first base job to Big Mo Vaughn back in 1993, and he is once played a game in Pawtucket and Boston on the same day. Boy I love the crappy sox teams of the early 90's.

That's all for now, today is going to be a good day the sox are winning and the Bruins are on tonight. Read more!

John Marzano RIP

Sad, sad news here regarding one of the quintessential fringe Red Sox from late 1980's and early 1990's. Maybe it was my age at the time they were playing but I can rattle off a number of these guys without blinking and now one has passed. I think the others in this group would have to be Danny Heap, Kevin Romine, Randy Kutcher, The Big Q Carlos Quintana (also dead I think?), and of course the great Nick Esasky whose 1989 season has to go down as the most surprising great season of my lifetime. Anyway, good times whenever you bring up those late 80's/early 90's Sox teams, but very sad times when you hear of a passing.

Any other names I should throw out there? I'd say Jody Reed and Billy Hatcher too but they were too good I think. Ditto that for Tom Brunansky. And no, I will not give any love to two time All Star, Scott Cooper.

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Quickie Story

To get you all revved up for the playoffs, I'll share a little story with the group. I found it pretty interesting, I hope you will too.

After an event in Boston last week an old roommate of mine headed to a bar with another guy he attended with to catch the end of the Sox-Yanks game. At the bar, he saw two large, well cut, and athletic looking black guys. With it being Boston and all he immediately peered in for a closer look thinking that they could in fact be athletes. Well low and behold he was correct. The two aforementioned gentleman happened to be James Posey and Eddie House and let's be honest, like Timlin and Embree back in the day, it's only fitting that these two roll together and are tight.

Here are some things he passed on about his encounter which I found interesting and decided to share:


1. Both guys I was happy to hear were incredibly friendly and down to earth. I always love learning when athletes that I hate are assholes and conversely, I love hearing about when random but respectable role players like Posey and House are good people.

2. Eddie House was much larger than anticipated. This just once again reinforces how tiny in the NBA world (six foot, one inch) is normally on the tall side in the regular world. Meanwhile, James Posey seemed incredibly lanky.

3. It was their belief that the Lakers were the best team and that the Spurs were too old.

4. According to them, the only players in the league right now that can carry their teams single-handedly through the players are Kobe, Lebron, and Chris Paul. The last one's kind of a shocker huh? Well, maybe not so much after Saturday against the Mavs.

I understand none of that is groundbreaking news, but I still thought I would share. It should also be noted that my buddy left the bar at the same time as Posey and House and as he got into his Prius, Posey retrieved his Aston Martin from the valet. Exactly.

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Thank You Tito for Not Being Joe Torre

One thing I really like about Terry Francona - and probably Joe Torre's greatest detriment in his later NY years - is his understanding of the fact that you won't win every game. This might seem a little blasphemous, but I think last night is the perfect example.

Heading into the bottom of the eighth, the Sox were down 9-7 with the bottom third of their order due up in the ninth and the middle portion of their bullpen already gutted due to Bucholz not making it out of the 4th. Realistically, the chances of them winning this game were not the greatest. As such, Tito had a decision to make. He could either roll the dice with Mike Timlin who is officially in year three of, "why do the Sox still employ him if he can't get guys out?" status and hope that he can somehow hold the game at 9-7, or he could go with Manny Delcarmen or Hideki Okajima, his eighth inning guys of choice. Thing is, both Delcarmen and Okajima pitched the night before.

If the Sox have the lead, he definitely calls on one of those two, and if the game is tied then maybe he summons one of them. But they were losing, and I think Tito knew deep down that the chances of the bottom third of the order scraping together a couple of runs off of Mariano Rivera were not too great. Possible of course, but the odds were highly stacked against it. Knowing this, he figured he'd see one more time if Timlin was really as washed up and useless as he has appeared to date with the understanding that they probably weren't going to win anyway so he may as well see if he could steal a scoreless inning from Timlin - and just as imporant a night of rest for Delcarmen and Okajima - and then maybe the team could improbably rally in the ninth. Of course Timlin got crushed per usual and the Sox lost a game that they might have normally lost by two or three runs by six. A loss is a loss though and while that eighth inning abomination changed the ninth inning from "maybe we can win" to "let's take some hacks and get back to the hotel" the bottom line is that a loss was most likely coming regardless, the one that took place just looked a little uglier than it could have.

Because the Sox pitching staff currently consists of 4 guys (everyone but Beckett) where you can put the odds at 50/50 of them making it into the 6th inning on any given start - and I'd put Lester's odds at more like 25/75 (making it/not making it) on account of his quest to master the 30 pitch inning - you are going to need a lot from your bullpen throughout the entire year. As such, any night you can rest your three best bullpen options even at the expense of a relatively tight game exploding into a laugher you have to do that. If in said game your worst and oldest reliever finally proves to his manager once and for all that he should be put out to pasture and only used in games where the spread is ten either way, then all the better. So, if last night's game forces Tito to relegate Timlin to the bottom of the bullpen totem pole or better yet gives the Red Sox the ammo they need to forcefully put him on the DL then isn't it all worth it? Won't that potentially save some games in the long run? Granted we all know that a Tito hallmark is his rabid loyalty to his players so the chances of this actually happening are slight, but it should be noted that last year he did buck tradition in this sense in benching Coco in the ALCS when it became painfully obvious he was an automatic out in favor of Ellsbury. Because of this, maybe there is hope this year of Timlin officially taking up the position of Mopup. Keeping all of this in mind, not only do I think Tito made the right tactical decision in not using Okajima or Delcarmen last night, I also am holding out hope that there could be a silver lining contained therein which is no more Timlin in relatively close games unless absolutely necessary. We shall see.

I've been wanting to say that since last night. Now with that out of the way, three more thoughts about the game:


1. Despite his ugly line, I actually thought Clay looked pretty good after the first inning. In the fateful fourth he was victimized by a couple of tough calls behind the plate that didn't go his way, a bloop hit, and a classic Derek Jeter moment as he took a tough fastball the other way for a two run single where you must credit the hitter and not blame the pitcher. If you ever wonder why that guy will be a first ballot Hall of Famer or why he strikes fear into opponents whenever he is up with runners on base despite having moderate power, well that is the reason. Regardless, I think the numbers lie here about Bucholz's start and I actually came away encouraged.

2. Make no mistake about it, if Joe Torre were managing in Tito's shoes last night he absolutely would have used Delcarmen or Okajima in the game in that situation. Maybe the Yankees would have won and maybe they would not have - again, odds are highly in the favor of taking the L - but you know either way that Torre would have put in his Tom Gordon/Paul Quantrill Memorial Late Inning Reliever I Will Burn Out by August. Whenever it is documented that relievers were terrified to go to the Yankees because they thought Joe Torre would burn them out and possibly ruin their career you probably want to take note of that model and do the exact opposite. Francona did that last night and I appreciate it.

3. Tim Mcclelland's delayed ball/strike calls last night bordered on the absurd and were a perfect example of an umpire trying to make himself part of the game. I found his entire act to be completely obnoxious and I did not blame Manny at all for snapping at him early in the game. Yes, the 3-2 pitch he got called out on was a strike, but why did Mcclelland have to wait until Manny had already started his trot down to first to ring him up. This was not a case of Manny tossing the bat and immediately heading to first after the ball landed in the mit either. Manny paused for a second at home seemingly waiting to get rung up, then upon not seeing a call started down to first only for Mcclelland to make the strike three call after Manny had left the batter's box. If this was not a case of an ump trying to show up a player than I do not know what else would constitute that, but he kept the act going for the entire game and I found it thoroughly obnoxious and grating.

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Friday Night at the Ball Park

So fellow RBB writer Ben and I visited Fenway Park on Friday night to watch the first game in the Red Sox Vs. Yankees series. As it turned out it was the only game that the Sox would lose. It is certainly a different atmosphere at Fenway when the Yankees are in town I wouldn't say it is better. People take these games against the Yankees way to seriously there was a tenseness that I hadn't felt there since I was at a playoff game in 2004. People need to be reminded that it is only April, and we are months away from each game mattering this much. I have some messages for some of the people we ran into on Friday.

- To the four jackass kids behind us, SHUT THE HELL UP. I can deal with hecklers, in fact most of the time I welcome it. Ben can be quite effective at it when he gets a few beers in him, but the 4 nerdy frat boys behind us were drunk and just stupid. When you can't come up with anything other than swears and yelling Joba you should have your baseball fan license taken away from you.

- To the usher who seemed to grow attached to the kids behind us and talked someone from security into not throwing them out in the fifth inning. Thanks allot, we paid over 200 dollars to be there, plus a hundred or more for parking and food, and the last four innings would have been immensely more enjoyable if they had been watching it from the drunk tank.

- To the mother of three who sat in front of us and thought it was her job to talk to us throughout the game. She spent the first two innings insisting that Ben and I have to have a favorite Red Sox player, and that we had to love Varitek even though he hits .250. Vartiek is fine and 20 years from now when he is the guy they bring back for special occasions I will yell the loudest for him, but as long as he in uniform I am not going to blindly like the damn pink hatted woman who sat in front of us. Also as she got drunker how she insisted that Matt could not be friends with Ben and I, as he was much nicer than we were.

- To the drunk 5 foot 2 inch blond Yankees fan the next section over who in the seventh thought it would be a good idea to start taunting the wet and cold Red Sox fan. If you wanna get kicked out of the game when your drunk then go right ahead, but for your own sake leave when security tells you to. This genius got dragged out by the cops and the usher later told us she took swings at them. If you leave willingly its the street, you protest its a night in the drunk tank, you throw a punch at a cop then your going to end up in jail.

- To the woman who saw Ben, Matt, Jeff and I walking towards the parking garage and asked if we were a gang. Your an idiot, I am not sure what part of our appearance other than the fact that we were walking next to each other gave her the impression we were a gang.

So that is about it, work has been out of control so I apologize it took nearly a week to get this posted. I will be back soon with my NBA playoffs preview. Read more!

25 Most Famous Baseball Players

Seeing all this stuff posted everywhere about the decrease in the amount of African-American baseball players today got me to thinking. No, not about what this means or if it's worth getting up in arms about, but instead about who the 25 most famous baseball players of the last 15 or so years have been. Don't ask me how I got there, but that's just how my mind works. For fun, I even have them ranked. Oh, and because this started from the diversity news I included all the player's race (in generic terms) to see what that breakdown may be. Regardless, the list is the fun part right? Here it is! And keep in mind I said, "famous" not "best" and because of that, off the field "stuff" like endorsements, PTI mentions, and showing up on Page Six count too.



The List:

25. Chipper Jones (white)
24. Gary Sheffield (black)
23. Mike Piazza (white)
22. Vlad Guerrerro (Latin)
21. Johan Santana (Latin)
20. Albert Pujols (Latin)
19. Tom Glavine (white)
18. Tony Gwynn (black)
17. Manny Ramirez (Latin)
16. Pedro Martinez (Latin)
15. Mariano Rivera (Latin)
14. Curt Schilling (white)
13. Greg Maddux (white)
12. Randy Johnson (white)
11. David Ortiz (Latin)
10. Ichiro Suzuki (Asian)
9. Derek Jeter (black - but not "all the way" right Gary Sheffield?)
8. Alex Rodriguez (Latin)
7. Ken Griffey Jr. (black)
6. Jose Canseco (Latin)
5. Cal Ripken Jr. (white)
4. Sammy Sosa (Latin)
3. Mark McGwire (white)
2. Roger Clemens (white)
1. Barry Bonds (black)

9 White
5 Black
10 Latin
1 Asian

Do with that information as you please.

Some notes on my choices:

* As great as he has been since coming into the league, Albert Pujols seems to have the Barry Bonds "I'm a standoffish pr*ck" thing going for him. This is not a plus.

* Pedro's prime was better than any pitcher's prime during this era, but thanks to self-promotion, the bloody sock, and 3 World Series rings, Big Schill has a marked edge on him.

* Should Mo Rivera be higher? I can't decide. I do feel bad for him however as he is the greatest closer ever but the first two images that probably come to people's mind when thinking of him are blown saves - the Luis Gonzalez bloop to win the 2001 World Series and Dave Roberts steal followed by Bill Mueller's RBI single in 2004. The guy deserves better but so it goes as a closer right?

* David Ortiz might seem high but he is the face of MLB right now and there is no denying that.

* Jeter was the face of MLB before Ortiz. Plus he plays for the Yankees, has dated A-List stars and super-models, has been in numerous Nike and Gatorade spots over the years (the big two for athletes), and has won 4 World Series titles.

* Ken Griffey Jr. was probably the best and most popular baseball player of the 1990's.

* Canseco has pretty much been a spectacle since the late 1980's and obviously, current events have done nothing to diminish this.

* Bonds or Clemens? Clemens or Bonds? I originally was going to go with Clemens because of all of the ridiculous shenanigans around his retirements, pool parties, and the Mitchell Report. Those things drove me crazy, but kept him in the news plenty. Still, there has not been a bigger day-to-day spectacle since almost the turn of the century than Barry Bonds. Whether it was his push for 73 or being the face of BALCO and steroids, the amount of breath devoted to and wasted on this guy over the past 7-8 years has been staggering. Clemens too of course, but I felt like Barry was the move here.

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Trying to Un-Scare Myself of the Wizards

Before I start here are three things you should know:

1) On ESPN2 on Monday night they were televising the NCAA Women's Bowling Championship. This is not a joke. I can't be alone in my amazement that this is an NCAA sanctioned sport to begin with. Isn't that the exact reason that club teams were invented? Just asking.

2) Seeing ESPN's baseball announcers Jon Miller and then on Monday, Dan Schulman pimp Mariah Carey's new CD has absolutely been killing me. Miller took his duties a little too seriously, not even hinting at the irony of a guy like him trying to sell a Mariah Carey CD. I give props to Schulman who immediately mocked the ridiculousness of what he was doing after the fact and openly passed the buck to his broadcast partners for the next read. Obviously, I enjoyed the Jon Miller promo much more.

3) Jon Lester cannot beat good hitting teams and more often than not neither can Dice-K. Wait, you probably already knew that. I hate being negative, but watching teams like the Yankees and Indians pick apart these guys is highly frustrating. As you watch the games all you can do is wait for the inevitable to happen which is of course the game being broke wide open after 15 walks and a bunch of hard hit singles and doubles.

And now, I gotta talk about the C's.



Really, I'm not going to say too much but I do come here to assuage everybody's doubts and fears of the C's meeting the Wizards in the second round. First, let me be completely blunt and say that the Wizards absolutely terrify me as a second round opponent. Part of me knows that they can and should beat them in a 7 game series, but the other part of me knows the hard facts that the Wiz took three of four from the Celtics during the regular season. What makes this even scarier is that everybody laughed off Golden State sweeping Dallas in the regular season last year once the playoffs started and we all know how that turned out.

Keeping in mind that the Wizards 3-1 record against the C's is a 3-1 record no matter which way you cut it, let's look a little deeper at each game.

Game 1 in Boston 11/2/07, Celtics win 103-83
This was both the first regular season game and home game of the KG Era. There was no chance the C's were losing this one. As such, I really don't put a ton of stock in the victory as it would have been a monumental shock if they were to lose this game.

Game 2 in DC 1/12/08, Wizards win 85-78
Again, this is another victory that I put little stock in, this time though the victory went to the Wizards. I was at this game and if you cannot tell by the score it was an absolutely horrid display of basketball. Both teams were sloppy and could not generate any offense and it gave me flashbacks to some Jim O'Brien specials earlier this decade. In the end, the C's gave up the lead in the 4th quarter - which was amazing to me because they never should have been winning in the first place - and lost a game which they had no business winning. So why do I put little stock in the Wizards victory? Well first off, they played pretty bad too and secondly this game was very similar to the C's game in Phoenix back in February where they were 100% out of synch and just plain flat. Those games will happen in an 82 game season and you really can't look too much into them as long as they are not habit forming. I think it is safe to say that that was not the case judging by the 64-66 games they will end up winning this year. Fluke game that was 1 of 82. No biggie.

Game 3 in Boston 1/14/08, Wizards win 88-83
The C's straight up blew this game allowing the Wiz to erase a 14 point fourth quarter deficit by ending it on a 25-6 run. All credit has to go to Washington here. They won the game just as much as the Celtics lost it. But the optimist in you has to go back to the last game mentioned and say that it too was a fluke game in a sense as long as blowing big fourth quarter leads did not become habit forming. They didn't save for the New Orleans and Philly games in March when the C's lost fourth quarter leads due to Doc using the second half of those games as scrimmages and toying with his rotations. You never like to lose games like that, but I'm taking the positive out of this one too and using the fluke/at least they were up 14 in the fourth arguments.

Game 4 in DC 4/9/09, Wizards win 109-95
Because by this time the C's had already wrapped up everything of significance for the postseason (best overall record in both Conference and NBA) the goal for Doc here was to keep Pierce and Ray Allen's minutes to around 30 and KG's minutes in the low 20's. That worked out fine for the first two quarters and then, in the third and fourth quarters, the Wizards came out and blitzed the Celtics. For a while, they did this against Pierce and the Celtics B-Team but then in the fourth quarter Doc decided to go for the W and brought back in his main unit. No matter, the Wizards withstood a Celtics run and ended up winning with relative ease. This, you cannot argue was a definitive W for the Wizards. Sure, they made their big run without KG playing but even when he came back he was more or less a non-factor. They won this game outright.

So there you have it folks. The four Celtics/Wizards games from this year. By my tally the C's won one game that they could not have lost, lost one game that did to basketball what Khloe does to the Kardashian name, lost another game they should have won, and lost a game where they were soundly beaten. The way I see it, the only game that you can really take anything away from between these two teams this year was the game the Celtics lost last week. Not good to be 0-1 but I think it's better than 1-3 right? We'll see. I think I have just made myself a little less scared of the Wizards in the second round, but not by much. It's just not a good matchup for them. We'll see though. Either way, bring on the playoffs even if it will be the Atlanta Hawks for the first week or so.
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Lay Off Drew and Lugo?

If you were to do a Family Feud style poll of Red Sox fans and ask them to name their two least favorite players on the team, I am willing to bet JD Drew and Julio Lugo would be mentioned as one of the two players on all 100 ballots and they'd both be named on probably about 75 of those. Obviously, those two guys are not popular and yes I know this is hardly a revelation.

Today I have actually come out to defend those two guys. No, I'm not going to try and hoodwink you and say that I think they are good players, undervalued by the fan base. Instead, I will urge you to direct all vitriol en route to those two guys directly upstairs to Theo and the front office. You see, you really can't hate on people for being themselves no matter how maddening it may be and like it or not, Drew and Lugo have turned out to be pretty much exactly as advertised and I'd like to open up the "what did Theo see in from the start" debate all over again.



Let's look at the red flags for JD Drew before signing with the Sox:

* Injury prone/will sit out with the smallest of injuries/soft -
He played in 140 games last year which was the third time in four years that he had reached that mark (maxing out at 146 in 2006 which really is not that impressive) and he probably would have played more if not for his ineffectiveness. Therefore, believe it or not I'd say that he actually outperformed his reputation in this regard.

* Plays with a lack of passion -
Maybe he was thinking about his kid, maybe he wasn't. Either way, you really can't argue this point. I'd call this 100% true.

* Wilts under scrutiny -
It's tough to definitively make a ruling on this either way. I'd say yes because he didn't start hitting until September which leads me to believe that it took him a full five months to figure out what the whole "Boston" thing was really about and how to deal.

* He was really not that great to begin with -
Yes he can get on base, but no he is not much of a power threat. Before joining the Sox, he hit 20+ homers exactly three times in 8 seasons. Yes there have b