Group C Scenarios

Here's the ESPN breakdown of the scenarios in which the US can advance in the World Cup:

USA advances with:
(a) Win versus Algeria on Wednesday
(b) Tie and Slovenia-England tie IF England does not outscore USA by 2+ goals
(c) Tie and England loss

Slovenia advances with:
(a) Win or tie versus England
(b) Loss AND USA tie vs Algeria
(c) Loss and Algeria win as long as Algeria doesn't make up tiebreakers*

England advances with:
(a) Win versus Slovenia
(b) Tie AND USA-Algeria tie AND outscore USA by 3 goals

Algeria advances with:
(a) Win versus USA AND Slovenia win/tie versus England
(b) Win versus USA AND Slovenia loss versus England AND makes up tiebreakers on Slovenia

Note: If the U.S. draws with Algeria and England draws with Slovenia, and England scores exactly two more goals than the U.S., the U.S. and England would be even on all tiebreakers for second place. The tie would be broken by drawing lots ... aka, a coin flip.

* Tiebreaker order: (1) Goal differential in all group matches (Algeria is -1, Slovenia is +1); (2) greatest number of goals scored (Slovenia has 3 goals, Algeria none); (3) greatest number of points obtained in group matches between the teams concerned; (4) goal differential resulting from group matches between the teams concerned; (5) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned.

(Only way both USA and England advance is if both win.)

If USA finishes atop the group, they will face the 2nd place team from group D. If they finish 2nd, they will face the 1st place team from group D. Two of Germany, Ghana, and Serbia will likely advance, but the order is up in the air.

You got Rondoed!

Empire State of Mind

.

Hitler reacts to Ohio State's loss to Purdue

Bastardo!

The Phillies have a pitcher named Bastardo. I mean, c'mon. That's just too fantastic. He struck out Jason Giambi on 4 pitches today. Of course he did. Because he's Bastardo! And it's Giambi.

Yankees' Playoff Preview

A 10 run 6th inning capped the Yankees' 103rd win this afternoon. I was optimistic about their chances in the regular season after the acquisitions of Sabathia and Texiera, and the returns of Posada (from injury), Pettitte (from free agency), and Cano (from bad form). But 103 wins well exceeded those optimistic expectations. CC and Tex have been worth every penny, Jeter's been fantastic, Mariano's been Mariano, and pretty much everyone's contributed substantially. And there's that A-Rod guy. Thanks to the prankster principal for this link.

Questions remain for the playoffs. How will their starting pitching fare beyond CC? Will Joba and Burnett be effective? And who will catch Burnett? Will their offense suffer if Molina's in the line-up? Will their bats stay hot?

But there are questions every playoffs. I'm just glad that October matters again. I'm not going to get into saying I'd rather have one team over another because I've been wrong about that the last few times. It'll either be the Tigers (and Verlander on short rest) or the Twins. Bring em on. The playoffs have a knack for sorting out who the best team is, so we'll have to beat all comers. Go Yanks!

The Super Depressing NBA Playoffs Preview

Alright. It's just basketball. "Super Depressing" is relative. But I'm still wearing green shoelaces in my Stan Smiths to celebrate last year's championship. So I'm sticking with "Super Depressing". We'll have to use a different adverb for things that are really really super depressing. "Superer Depressing"?

Wednesday night, I was thinking about this post and how I was going to break down the Finals against the Lakers. I was hoping that it wasn't going to be a repeat of the 1987 title defense. I was confident of a 5 game beatdown of the Chicago No Defenses, an impressive 6 game series win over the Orlando Paper Tigers, and a hard fought series-for-the-ages 6 game squeaker over the Cleveland LeBrons.

Thursday morning: KG's out for the playoffs. Fuck.


Eastern Conference Preview

1 Cavs v 8 De Troit Bas Ket Ball - Cavs in a sweep. Detroit wasn't going to do anything this year with Chauncey Billups. They'll do less without him. I've always been an Iverson fan and have never been a Pistons fan. It's over for both.

2 C's v 7 Bulls - C's in 5. I don't want to hear it. Chicago is not going to score at will against the Celtics' playoff D. KG or no KG. They'll gut out one win.

3 Paper Tigers v Six Sixers - O in 5. Dwight Howard's a force. Several other Orlando players can shoot three pointers. Philly is scrappy and has traces of talent here and there. The last three sentences will be completely irrelevant after Orlando wins this series.

4 Atlanta Hacks v 5 Miami Dwayne Wade - I love this series. I joke about the Hawks being hacks. They're chock full of grit, talent, and heart. Nothing but respect for these guys. Dwayne Wade is a monster talent playing at the peak of monsternosity. He'll win 3 but home court advantage gets the ATL the WIN. Sorry, NBA fans. No Wade v Lebron.


Eastern Conference Semifinals

1 Cavs v 4 Hawks - I watched a great Hawks-Cavs game this year in which the birds got jobbed by the refs on a LeBron go-ahead basket in the final seconds... and then jobbed by a Joe Johnson last second miss. That's your preview. Add in Cleveland's home court start and 3 games worth of rest, and the Cavs will sweep the Hawks.

2 The World Champion Boston Celtics v 3 The Orlando Magic Kingdom Make Believe Contenders - KG's absence will hurt them in this series, but I'm still not buying what Orlando's selling. Don't be fooled by power rankings or those meaningless last 2 wins by Orlando in the season series. The Celtics are better. But without KG, this might go 7. I'll say 7.

Eastern Conference Finals

Fuck. This sucks. The Cavs really needed to get a karmic adjustment for their regular season hubrisistic celebrations during their victory over the Celtics last week. A healthy KG would have been enough - barely. But now, I just don't see it. I think the C's will make a series out of it, but the Cavs' rest and their home court advantage will likely be enough. And LeBron, which I think is French for The Candy. He's good. Cleveland in 7.

Western Conference Preview

Ah, who fucking cares. Lakers are going to win. They'll beat the Jazz in Round 1, they'll beat Portland or Houston in Round 2, and they'll beat Denver, New Orleans, San Antonio, or Dallas in the Conference Finals. Those other series should be entertaining, but the Lakers will be playing the Cavs in the Finals.


The NBA Finals

I think it's going to be the Cavs. I wouldn't bet a lot on it, but that's my call. The Lakers are great, but LeBron, home court advantage, and that Eastern Conference defense are a little bit greater. Cleveland in 6.

But who cares.








UPDATE

Damn it. He's pulling me back in. I was out and he's pulling me back in. 1% chance that he's coming back ...

Opening Day 2009

I'm still working on that promised documentary recommendations post, but Opening Day dictates that I leapfrog it with a tip of the cap to the return of baseball. Here's a Yankees video primer from our buddies at NoMaas.org:


Opening Day 2009 from nomaas on Vimeo.

I'm warming up with a nice scoreless Mets-Reds game right now. The first pitch of the Yankees season gets chucked in a little less than 2 hours. The Bronx Bombers had a healthy offseason of purging dead weight and signing big money power players. I'm looking forward to checking out the Big Two - and I mean Big - this afternoon when CC Sabathia throws his first pitch and Mark Teixeira takes his first swing as Yankees. Let's go Yanks! Let's go blue skies in Baltimore!

Two Title Town

Thanks to an epic last minute drive culminating in this catch, the Steelers are world champs again! And VTK is a two title town. Three cheers for the three rivers of Pittsburgh.

terrible towel time!

There are all sorts of scarves and foam fingers. There are countless thundersticks and pom poms. There are even a handful of clackers and cowbells. But there's only one towel: the terrible towel™. The pride of Pittsburgh will be out in full force this weekend as the Steelers try to win their 6th Lombardi trophy. I was unaware of the history of the towel until I read Greg Garber's article on ESPN today. It turns out that what started as a ratings gimmick is now a 2.5 million dollar boon for a home for mentally disabled and autistic people. I'm pretty sure that trumps Kurt Warner's "faith". Sorry, Kurt. God's going with the Steelers in this one. And so is Obama, apparently.







In my June 18th post-Celtics-championship post, I noted how extraordinary it is to watch your favorite team win a title and how the Steelers had made me wait 26 years for a Super Bowl win. Sunday evening brings another chance for glory for the towel-waving, faithful fans of the Black and Gold. Go Steelers! Let's make VTK a two title blog!

Below the Rim

A friend called yesterday afternoon and offered me a free ticket to the Celtic's game. So instead of watching on the tube while working and eating leftovers, I watched the champs from center court, third row - actually below the rim. And exactly on the half court line. My feet were on the hockey boards track. It has ruined me for basketball. I'll never be able to watch it the same again. It's crazy to me that people pay $195 for a midseason midweek game, but it's almost worth it. You really get a whole different sense of the mood and dynamics of the game down there. The players are bigger, better, and more graceful than you think (except for Rondo, who is smaller than I thought, which makes his play even more impressive). Garnett is completely insane - really - the cosmos shakes when he enters into it. He's on a totally different plane than everyone else. I was also entertained by Patrick O'Bryant during every time out. He's the biggest man on the court and he knows he's not going in so he just wanders around. hilarious. Conversely, Bill Walker, who also knows he's not going in, is completely zoned in during every time out. He's like a hoop junkie. Get this guy some minutes, Doc. As for the game, Pierce went off for 39 and the Celtics won in OT. Not bad.

Celtic's Start Strong - 1st Quarter Report

The World Champion Boston Celtics destroyed the Wizards last night for their 21st win - in their 23rd game. The 21-2 start is the best in the franchise's illustrious history. I think we can put to rest any concern about a post-championship letdown. The intensity is clearly still there - just ask Big Baby Davis (actual nickname) who was overwhelmed to tears during a timeout this week. The C's aren't lacking for emotion or drive. As Paul Pierce pointed out, you don't get remembered as a great Celtic if you only win one championship - even if you do set the record for best start to a season. These guys are hungry for # 2.

But they lost uber-sub James Posey! How could they continue to win? Last night, the usually insightful and entertaining commentator Reggie Miller said that Posey was the reason the Celtics won the Championship last year. With all due respect (always a preface for a statement of disrespect), that's complete bullshit. That's like saying that a good 8th inning set-up reliever on a baseball team is responsible for that team's success. Bullshit. Posey was a great sub, clutch shooter, staunch defender, good energy guy, character guy, etc, etc. But the reasons the Celtics won the Larry O'Brien trophy were named Pierce, Garnett, Allen, Rondo, Perkins (yes, Perkins), and the bench as a whole. And they're all still on the team, and all still playing well. Pierce, Garnett, Perk, and the bench have been very good, and great at times, but the specific reasons the Celtics are 21-2 and the best team in the NBA right now are in the backcourt - Rondo and Ray. Both players have elevated their games beyond last year's level of play and I'd put them up against any backcourt in the league, including Fisher/Bryant, Iverson/Hamilton, Williams/West, Paul/Peterson, etc. There are better guards in the league, but there is not a better starting tandem. Rondo's triple double last Friday put him in rarified Boston air: only Pierce and Bird have had games with stats that high in points/assists/rebounds. [here's a great breakdown of his skills from truehoop, making the case for Rondo as an all-star] And Ray's been the team MVP so far, shooting over 50% from the field for 20 points a game. He credits the continuing healing of his ankles for his success. If his ankles, and the other key body parts of the team, stay healthy, I think we'll be attending another parade this spring, and I'll be getting another Tommy Point for my flourescent green wig / geriatric sunglasses look.

Barring any big news developments or new creepy VTK photos, this'll probably be the last post until after Christmas. I'm sure I'll cook up a good year in review, which hopefully will be more interesting than "Celtics Win! Obama Wins!". For those, and other reasons (yes you, BVM), it's been a good year. Happy Holidays, VTKountry.

Paul Pierce is a Big Crybaby

.

Paul Pierce humiliated himself, his teammates, and the city of Boston tonight by opening up the waterworks at the TD Banknorth Garden when he received his championship ring and raised the Celtics' 17th World Championship banner to the rafters. After he stopped bawling like a kindergarten bitch, he went on to further shame his family and friends by scoring a piddly 11 points in the first quarter to "set the tone" and finished with a pathetic 27 points, "leading" his team to an season-opening win. What a pussy.

And we're done with Bizarro World. I admit it: I got a little chill seeing the oft-stabbed warrior-captain (-) of the C's crying and raising the long-awaited 17th Banner to its place next to the 1986 banner. Trivmaster John and the Practical Slacker were watching the ceremony with me and they had the decency not to scrutinize my moist eyes. Perhaps they were busy concealing their own.

In the midst of a World Series freeze-frame and a month of obsessive political poll-monitoring, it's a joy to welcome the Celtics back into my life. It was nice to see the pomp and ceremony celebrating last season's title, but it was great to watch Pierce, Powe, Rondo, and the gang grind their way to a solid win against a very good Cavs team. The first half of the game was not the most impressive performance, but the sloppiness could easily be explained away as an emotional hiccup after the pre-game ceremony. Their defense locked down in the second half, limited LeBron and the Cavs to 35 points, and closed it out. Good win. I like the C's chances to make it back to the NBA Finals this year. The loss of James Posey will be felt, but I feel good about those minutes being redistributed between Powe, Tony Allen, and super-rookie Bill Walker. If Rondo, Perk, Powe, and Big Baby all continue their improvement this year, we're going to be in good shape.

In addition to the Celtics, I'm excited about the whole NBA this year. The Lakers, Hornets, and Cavs are all better, the Spurs, Mavs, and Suns are all older, and the Sixers, Jazz, Rockets, Pistons, Raptors, and Blazers are all intriguing. I was looking forward to watching the debut of the Blazer's "Glass" Greg Oden in the 2nd game of the doubleheader tonight against "Glass" Andrew Bynum and the Lakers. Oden looked like the man-child he is in the first 13 minutes, pulling down 5 boards and awkwardly missing 4 shots. Then he sprained something in the foot-ankle range of his right leg. Not the knee though. He was held out for the rest of the game and the MRI is forthcoming. I really hope he's alright because he seems like a great kid and a monster talent. I hope he's not going to end up on the long list of of NBA disappointments.

Random trivia question: who started their NBA career by getting their first points on a goaltending call and finished their career in the top 20 all-time for points and steals?

Welcome to the Bill Walker Era

Welcome to the next generation of Boston Celtics basketball hero/crazyman: rookie Bill Walker, monster dunker, uninhibited urinater. He was rumored to have been a good pick, if not a steal, in the NBA draft when the Celtics picked him up after several teams passed on him, presumably because of his recent knee surgery. He looked pretty good in his first NBA preseason game, throwing down back-to-back, athletic, monster dunks. Here is the second one, which sent the crowd and the Celtics bench into a tizzy:



Then the other day I read an article about him and his dunks which sent me to youtube to check out some more of his jams. I was clicking through the related videos on the right margin when I noticed one that was titled "Bill Walker pees on a towel" or something. Not being interested in the watersports, I passed and clicked on another dunk highlight video. Then I saw another similar title. And another. The images all looked like they were on the court, so I had to check it out. There's no way he pissed himself in a game and I missed it. Could it be? All of the videos were shot from the stands without zoom or commentary so you couldn't really tell what was going on. So I googled "Bill Walker pees" and checked out the deadspin link (they're all over this sort of weird sports news) Amazingly, it appears that with seconds left in a close college game, Bill Walker decided that he couldn't hold it, shoved some towels down his shorts, in front of 15,000 people, and drained the weasel. No stagefright there. Wow. How did I miss this story?

And now today, youtube is buzzing with this video about him in their most recent preseason game against the Houston Rockets. Not as outlandish as pissing on some towels in front of a packed house, but some pretty punchy play against the new team of Ron Artest. (keep in mind that this is a Rockets' broadcast)



There's not going to be any shortage of intensity in the Celtics' quest to repeat.

Well, it was a good run, Pittsfield. Toodle Pip, 1791.

Fifty two months. For fifty two glorious months we were on top of the American sports world. On May 11 of 2004, it was reported that Pittsfield MA was the true home of baseball (go shit in your hat, Cooperstown), by virtue of a document uncovered in the Berkshire Athenaeum library referencing baseball in 1791, a full 48 years before Abner Doubleday, that despicable fraud, supposedly invented the sport. I, of course, took great pride in the fact that America's pastime came from hometown, my "scruffy little burgh", as Henry Fool would put it. I even bought a hat that proudly displayed "1791". And I've been using my newfound pedigree in lieu of actual knowledge for the last 52 months. Well, no more. ESPN is reporting today that there is a new reference to baseball, one that predates the Pittsfield document by an additional 36 years. It would now seem that America's pastime actually came from England, not Pittsfield, and was being played in some form as early as 1755. So, alongside Cooperstown, I guess I can now go shit in my hat.


Not a great baseball year for VTK.

Deano's Double

Ten minutes into the Premier League season, Dean Ashton had made his presence felt - twice. West Ham United's 24 year old striker pumped up the bubble-blowing faithful at Upton Park 3 minutes into the season by scoring the Hammers' first goal, and then sent them into a frenzy 7 minutes later by scoring their second. What a start. I can only imagine what it must have felt like in the stadium when the lofty optimism he'd launched was abruptly grounded by the sight of him limping off the field in the second half. With Ljundberg having been released (probably because of age and recurring injuries) and Bellamy and Dyer sidelined with injuries, much of East London's hopes rest on the performance of Deano and Julien Faubert. Both have been injured for the majority of their brief tenures at West Ham, so to see Ashton limp out of a season opener that was still 2-1 at the time must have been pretty brutal. (On a personal level, the exit cost him a chance to get another cap with the England national team.) Fortunately, an MRI scan has confirmed that it was just a cramp and not something more serious. He'll be back in action Sunday at Manchester City. If there's any hope for the Hammer's season, we'll need Deano to stay on his feet.



Here's a look at the healthy Deano in action:



I don't have much for you in terms of a West Ham season preview. In addition to the aforementioned names, the roster will include most of the same names from last year, Zamora and Pantsil excluded, a few rookies and a couple international signings included. Look for solid play from youngsters Kyel Reid, Fred Sears, and James Tomkins and from Swiss defender Behrami, freshly signed from Lazio. Management is intent on cutting payroll so there may be a couple transfers out and probably won't be much coming in, intriguing Saha rumors notwithstanding. My hope is that a healthy Hammers squad will challenge to remain in the top half of the table.

Nor do I have much of an EPL season preview. (Can you throw down a "nor" clause to start a paragraph, referencing the first sentence of the previous paragraph? Doubtful.) I expect the Big Four to finish 1-2-3-4, probably Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal. Sorry Fuge, but the other 3 made themselves better, while the Gunners gave up my boy Hleb, Flamini, and Gilberto, and haven't replaced them with equal talent (to my knowledge).

Harringtons Rule Detroit

Atta Boy Paddy Boy! VTK relative Padraig Harrington became the first ever Irishman to win the PGA Championship (first European in 78 years) He did it in dramatic fashion by nailing 3 consecutive +10 foot putts to punctuate a back-nine 32 for a 66, two strokes better than the leader on the 16th hole, Sergio Garcia. Spain's won enough this year. Plus, Garcia's a prick. Erin go bragh! I tuned in in time to watch him knock down a wicked bender of a 12 foot putt to pull even with Sergio Segundo on the 16th. Then he followed up a great drive on the 17th with a 10 foot birdie to put the pressure on the Spitting Spaniard who dutifully choked. Then he closed it out by coolly dropping a 15 footer on 18 to win his second consecutive major, third in a little over a year, and first PGA Championship. And he did it on a golf course near Detroit, where his Harrington relatives have been ruling for nearly a century. Just look at how much we ruled at a recent Harrington wedding:

Yankees.7.8 - weekend wrap / live blog

.
Due to the Celtics' glorious championship run, I have been remiss in my coverage of the Yankees. The reality is that between the Celtics and the non-sports-fan girlfriend, I haven't been able to watch/listen to enough games to intelligently comment on the season. But with baseball taking center stage in the sports world and the girfriend hiking the Appalachian Trail, I've had more time to check in on the Bombers over the last month or two. And it seems like they're happy to have me back, as they've won eight in a row since the All-Star Break, including an epic 1-0 win at Fenway on Friday night and a strong 10-3 drubbing of the Sox yesterday. The win yesterday was particularly fortunate considering that I was at the game, in my Yankees gear, in the bleachers, without a Yankee ally within four rows or so. It's been raining quite a bit here in Boston over the last couple hours so who knows what will happen, and I know it's just a midseason game, but I figure this is a good time for a live blog.

8:01 - ESPN broadcast just started and the tarp is on the field. Rain delay. But it hasn't been postponed.

8:11 - They're reporting that the game should start "sooner rather than later" and the sky looks pretty good over here in Cambridge so I think we'll get some game in. Meanwhile, I'll recap a great Yankees-Red Sox weekend here in Boston. Per usual, the weekend format for Yankees-Red Sox was Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Sunday night. Friday night's opener brought an epic pitchers duel between Joba "Youkkiller" Chamberlain and Josh Beckett, and it didn't disappoint. Both pitchers took full advantage of the wide strike zone that the umpire established and stuck with from the first inning on. Joba delivered the best starting performance of his young MLB career, going 7 scoreless with 9 k's and only 3 singles and a walk. He had all his pitches going and was dominant. He also managed to get away with continuing his hilarious quasi-feud with Kevin Youkilis by sending another one in, high and tight, even getting a foul ball out of it. (Did he do it on purpose? Dunno. Maybe. Jerry Remy even said there's no way he would have done it on purpose in that situation, but maybe that's why he knew he could get away with it. You never want to see someone get hit in the head, but it is pretty funny to watch how red Youk's head gets when he's angry.) Beckett, for his part, was nasty on the corners of that wide strike zone, giving up only one run on an infield hit from the speedy Jason Giambi, who took advantage of the shift. Unlucky loss for him. The bullpens held their own, with the exception of Kyle "Small Stage" Farnsworth, who was saved by The Marinator, Mariano Rivera. Mariano got a huge 5 out save with his back against the wall.

8:41 - They've taken the tarp off the field and they're predicting a 9:00 start. I'm clearing the area around the broom closet here at the house. In case I need to get in there.

The Friday win was big in the standings, but equally as big for me as a Yankees fan taking the bus crosstown to Fenway and spending the afternoon at the park. As I said, I had my Yankees hat and nomaas.org t-shirt on so I knew that my recent Celtics fueled, hometown, love affair with the city was back on the shelf. Having won 7 in a row including a big one 13 hours before, my team's solid position would spare me the usual self-righteous Yankees Suck stuff. I met The Handsome Plumber, his brother, and their nephew at Game On for some beers and apps before the game. It was a beautiful sunny day with a late start because of the Fox broadcast, so the crowd was guaranteed to be juiced up and the scenery was guaranteed to be top shelf. We went in an hour early to enjoy the view and the roofdeck bar up above the rightfield grandstands. Enjoy them both we did. There were plenty of Yankees fans milling around but the mood was pretty mellow. I even got a fairly good natured reception/ribbing from the drunk New Hampshire meatheads seated next to me, deep in the heart of the bleachers. Pettitte was victim to an error and then gave up a walk for a tough start to the game. Both baserunners made it home to stake Wakefield a 2-0 lead. Fortunately for the boys in grey, Andy was great for the rest of the game and the Yankees were able to smack around Sox pitching to the tune of 10 runs. This, the company, the antics of the Granite State boys, and a handful of beverages, made for a great afternoon. Thanks again for the ticket, THP!

9:02 - Game on! John Lester pitching for the Sox against Johnny Damon. And ... he strikes him out on a nice curve. Up next - The Captain.

9:04 - Deep fly ball. Not deep enough. But Bobbreu follows it up with a double. Let's go A-Rod...

9:08 - Deep fly ball. Not deep enough. Caught by the always entertaining Manny Ramirez. Speaking of Manny, how about this quote he gave us today regarding his yearly desire for a trade: I don't care where I play, I can even play in Iraq if need be. My job is to play baseball. All class, Manny, as always. I don't think they need you in Iraq.

9:16 - The Dutch Dazzler, Sidney Ponson is in trouble in the first. Hits by Youk, Papi, and Manny. 1-0. Orel on Manny: "He's a little bit like a child." No shit.

9:20 - Ponson is getting hammered. The announcers are openly making fun of Manny now. And yet he scores a run that most other players would not have (because they would have listened to the third base coach). Manny being Manny. And Sox fans will put up with that other bullshit all day long. I know I would if he was on the Yankees.

9:27 - Lester, on the other hand, is looking sharp, getting soft ground balls from new hired gun, Xavier Nady, and red hot Robbie Cano. Then, .216 hitting Richie Sexson gets a bloop single. Who can figure baseball. Anyway, Lester's been tough so far this year. Tough to hate a guy who's mild mannered and recovering from cancer. And ... he strikes out Molina. Might be a quiet night in the broom closet. As far as the Nady/Marte trade is concerned, I'm giving it a medium-large sized thumbs up. They didn't give up much. Ohlendorf and Karstens have decent stuff but will probably never be better than mediocre in the majors, so I'm not too worried about it. The real trading piece was Tabata, who the Yankees had as their # 3 prospect in the minors, currently in AA ball. Normally, this would distress my conservative trading sensibilities, but he's had some disciplinary problems and there are some questions about his motivation. And he's batting .248 in AA. No problem saying goodbye to that for a good bat and a good arm in return. -- update -- Nady promptly misplays a ball in left field. It's Fenway. That'll happen. I still like the deal.

9:40 - Weak hits by Molina and Damon and the Yanks have 2 on, none out. C'mon Captain! ... and ... double play. and a Bobbreu K. Tough. Ortiz and Manny up. We need to get Sid the Dud out of there.

9:52 - Is anyone still reading this? Write "Shaka Hislop" in the comment section and pat yourself on the back if you are. This is not riveting stuff.

9:58 - Ponson allows another run and Nady allows Varitek to stretch it to a double. Suffice it to say I have not yet classified them as "Real Yankees".

10:02 - Nady strikes out with A-Rod on 2nd. fuck this guy.

10:09 - Girardi on the dugout interview says that he's going to stick with Ponson, likes what he's doing so far. What the fuck? Generally speaking, I'm a huge Joe G fan and think he does a great job managing his pitching staff. Is there something I'm missing here? Is he mailing this in to see how his team responds?

10:12 - Nady baffled by another ball in left field. This guy better start hitting if he's going to field like this.

10:18 - OK, c'mon. This is ridiculous. Papi just crushed one. Ponson is absolute garbage. And he has been from the first pitch tonight. Get him the fuck out of there, Joe. ... and Manny crushes a 415 foot fly ball out to end the inning. Joe. C'mon. Nomaas. 7-0 Sox.



10:27 - I don't know why I posted that picture. Just felt right.

10:28 - 3 singles to open the 5th for the Yankees, 3 men still on base. Jeter, BobA, and A-Rod up. Let's go Yankees! ... Jeter with a ridiculous squibber hit that gets a run in. Still no outs. If they don't run Ponson out there for the 5th, this might still be a game.

10:35 - Nice BOB by Bob to force in a run. Tough break for a whistler by A-Rod. Crap decision not to run Damon on a Nady pop fly to Ellsbury (that's minus 10 more "Real Yankee" points for Nady). And Cano grounds to the pitcher to end the inning. Bases loaded, no outs, top of the line-up, tiring pitcher => 2 runs. Should've been more. I'm going to make a burrito.

11:09 - Checked back in the 6th just as Nady failed to get Youkilis out from 2nd from shallow left field. This game is over. Back to the burrito construction process.

11:45 - Well, this has been an utterly uninteresting live blog and the good guys are losing 9-2 with 2 outs in the 9th. I thought that the Friday night game would have made a nice live blog, so I decided to try it tonight since I needed to do a Y.X.X post anyway. Baseball games are always hit or miss. Oh well. If you'd given me 2 out of 3 at the start of the weekend, I'd've taken it. And now I have no choice but to take it: Sox win. Still a strong weekend and an impressive week by the Yankees. Ponson's crapper tonight notwithstanding, the pitching appears to be stepping up to the rubber, and Nady's 0-for notwithstanding, the hitting appears to be stepping up to the plate. Or at least getting closer to the batter's box. I don't know if they have enough to beat the Sox or whichever playoff team gets hot at the end of the season all the way to a World Series title. If they're that playoff team that gets hot, they certainly do. Especially if Wang and/or Hughes can come back and be good in September/October. Losing Posada and Matsui sucks, but if Nady can hit like he has been hitting in the NL, and Robbie keeps up his regression back to his mean, and Jeter can start hitting his customary 300+, we'll be looking good.

Congrats to great Yankee closer Goose Gossage on his Hall of Fame induction.

Extraordinary

This was an extraordinary year for the Boston Celtics. Despite their dynastic history and 17 championships, ordinary for the Celtics in the last twenty one years has been failure and disappointment, with the only difference being the scope of that failure and disappointment. In 1987, they failed to beat the Lakers in the Finals. In 1988, they were an aging great team and lost in their last reasonable chance at a title, giving way to the rise of Detroit and Chicago. After that, they were a team in decline for several years and we knew it. They would make the playoffs but would certainly lose, meaning that we would not get a high draft pick and would be stuck in the dreaded NBA cycle of mediocrity. In the mid to late nineties, there was a different type of failure. They weren’t good enough to make the playoffs, the quality of their play was sloppy and embarrassing, their draft picks were poor, free agents average, and their decent players were frustrated. And when they bottomed out, they even failed to get lucky enough to get the top draft pick and the guy who would win his team 4 titles. And then they gave up on the guy they did draft third overall and he went on to be an all-star and to win a title with his team. Ah Pitino. In his defense, the little scumball famously reminded us: Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish were “not walking through that door” and noted that "the negativity in this town sucks". Sorry, Ricko. That's what you get after a dozen years of failure and disappointment: sucky negativity. Soon after his departure in 2002, the Celtics hit what passed for a peak: two wins in the Crappy Eastern Conference Finals. But they failed to capitalize on an epic comeback win and they lost that series. And then there were 5 more years of the decline brand of failure: the lean years of that Danny Ainge five year plan. As a huge fan of the hometown Celtics in a town that was sports frenzied by unexpected and expected championships from the Patriots (not a "fan" of, but rooted for them when they didn't play the Steelers) and Red Sox (not at all a fan of), it was particulary frustrating. I remember trying to get a bar to turn on the Celtics playoff game in 2004ish and getting overruled by the other patrons who laughed and continued to watch an April Sox game against the Devil Rays. I knew the Celtics weren’t going to win that playoff series (a first round playoff series), but come the fuck on. It’s the Boston Celtics. It’s your hometown professional basketball team. They’re in the playoffs! But I couldn't say it was a completely irrational reaction either. Given their 15 years of ordinary, disappointing failure, they were not a team that captivated and inspired. Why bother watching that game and getting angry at their three-chucking style. Or at least that’s what those schmucks at that bar thought. Then last year, after yet another failure of a season – a particularly galling failure of a season – the Celtics piled on one more failure to punch the guts of those of us who were still following them on a regular basis: with the second worst record, they failed to get one of the two top picks, one of the two future franchise player hall of famers. That’s when I hit my personal low: advocating for the acquisition of Zach Randolph. How deluded was I. How distraught.

Shortly thereafter, things began to move from ordinary to extraordinary. They traded the # 5 pick, Delonte, Wally for Ray Allen. That move convinced KG to come and they traded everyone not named Paul, Rajon, Kendrick or Leon for KG. That convinced Posey and House to get on board. They bonded in Italy. They started the year on fire, playing like a team that had been together for years. They beat everyone. They eviscerated Nuggets and Knicks teams. They beat all three Texas teams on the road. They won and won and won, delighting a city of sports fans that was obsessed with a World Series champion team and a potential best-of-all-time undefeated football team. They completed the biggest turnaround in NBA history winning 66 games and then used home court advantage to win 16 more games and a 17th NBA Championship. 82 wins, the last of which was the most extraordinary of all.



Winning a title in sports these days really is out of the ordinary. While my sports fan life started with a surfeit of favorite team titles, each of those teams slipped into long droughts before they won rings again. The Yankees made me wait 18 years. The Steelers made me wait 26 years. Last night, the Celtics ended my 22 year wait. The UMass Minutemen? That could be a while. (I essentially stopped rooting for the Islanders years ago, so that 28 year wait doesn’t count and I’ve never followed a soccer team closely enough and for long enough to be relevant to this conversation). VTK Red Sox readers waited even longer. Many sports fans wait their whole lives and receive nothing but failure and disappointment in return (Chicago Cub fans, Cleveland Anything fans over 60). So having your team (a team thay you’re truly a fan of) win any championship is truly quite extraordinary – something that young Boston sports fans would be incapable of understanding. It doesn’t happen often so you have to savor it when it does. I’ve been remarkably fortunate as a fan in the last 12 years (with my 3 favorite teams having won 6 titles (oddly the same number as strictly Boston sports fans have enjoyed)). But this is not lost on me. When the Yankees won their 3rd consecutive World Series (4th in 5 years) in 2000, I was scorned for celebrating it; but I knew how long it might be until I got that moment again (and the way this season is going for the Yankees, it looks like it’s going to be a while longer). With all the possible things that can go wrong, with all the ways to choke, with all the great athletes in the world, with all the ways to lose, to win a title is extraordinary. And I’m savoring it. Bet your ass I’ll be out there on that parade route tomorrow - the first of the six post-millenial Boston sports parades that I'll be attending and hopefully not the last.