one big holiday

made it to fenway wednesday night for the first time this year and even though the flu-ridden sox lost to the o.c. angels there were several times when a notepad and a pen would have come in very handy - luckily i had both... and given the fact that wasn't a typical april night at the ballpark, e.g. 40-something degrees and dropping with people everywhere crushing hot chocolates as opposed to watery beer, the experience was much more enjoyable - i'll bet all seven of you would be ok in an infield grandstand seat when its still 75 after the sun has set, no? good times were had by all, even the couple in front of us who were asked to move at least three times because they were occupying someone else's seats yet still managed to not have to leave the row... so let's get on with it then, yeah?

6:34 - relatively quiet on the T for rush hour on a game night, though getting on the red line in cambridge at this time vs. jumping a green line train bound for kenmore square at park street isn't exactly a fair comparison... very much looking forward to being knocked down by some goon in a papelbon jersey while simultaneously suffering a claustrophobia-induced panic attack in a few minutes... good times!

6:53 - arriving at kenmore 10 minutes before the first pitch is a nice sneak preview of going to grab a beer or hit the head at fenway: a crapload of people (one wearing a trot nixon jersey!!!) all fighting tooth and nail to get to the same place everyone else is going only without resorting to violence... not that i condone this sort of thing, but what would happen if say, the trot lover kicked the guy trying to squeeze past him on the staircase then laid a forearm shiver into the back of the dude in front of him who's not actually moving? would everyone just keep shuffling along? would there be a full-scale, every man for himself riot in which pink hat wearing fans started wildly swinging their studded purses and nine-year olds broke free from their parents and began biting? does anyone think of this stuff but me?
(by the way, we're getting there at the time when the scalpers are starting to get that "uh-oh" look in their eyes... at least they have a celtics playoff game to work in an hour before heading off to "scalpers night" at the glass slipper...)

7:08 - through the turnstiles, into the beer line, six pitches into the game and the angels lead 1-0... i understand that jon lester took a hit by voluntarily pitching on short rest because dice-k came down with the fenway flu, that the angels are very good and that it's just one run... but no matter how hard i try to convince myself, the guy just doesn't inspire a lot of confidence... i grant him the benefit of the doubt in that he's still very young and had his development hindered due to his illness last season and i want very much to like him not just because of his comeback from the cancer ordeal but because he has loads of potential and is going to be counted on to be a big part of this team for years, but he always seems to pitch just well enough to lose... don't think i buy the assertion that he could be another andy pettitte, a) because pettitte was much better already at a similar stage of his career, b) because even when he was young, pettitte was a prototypical crafty lefty whereas lester seems stuck between being a power guy and a finesse guy and c) because lester isn't friends with roger clemens and doesn't do steroids...

7:33 - no place where you can get wicked, bordering on inappropriately close to complete strangers (and benjah) than the grandstands at fenway...

7:37 - i may have hallucinated this, but it appears there are now beer vendors at fenway... people coming to your seats with beer at the ballpark instead of fans having to miss 2-3 inning stretches of games due to having to get up and wait in line has been such a foreign concept for me for so long that i haven't quite known what to do when one strolls past my seat in places like wrigley field and shea stadium... thankfully, i won't have to face such circumstances as they seem to be patrolling only the high-roller sections near the field - ah progress...

7:52 - in two innings, julio lugo has made two great defensive plays and driven in the first sox run with a ringing base hit up the middle... he's smack in the middle of an impressive hitting streak at this point, averaging something in the .450 range over a 10 or 11-game stretch... now before anyone thinks julio might be growing on me, i might as well mention that in the top of the third, he drops a routine popup... even when the guy is going well he still manages to suck... the red sox have had some limp shortstops in my time, but i can't think of any who made complete sucktitude look as easy and routine as julio... with julio, booting ground balls right at him, grounding into key double plays and generally looking like he has no clue looks like an art form - i sometimes imagine ted williams' hitting prowess being akin to julio's sucking prowess... oh and did i mention that the sox still owe him two years and $18 million after this season?

7:54 - at least six of the people sitting near me think julio's not that bad... i probably wouldn't either if this was little league and everyone else on the team also couldn't hit or catch or throw...

8:01 - lester celebrates the sox cutting a run off of the angels' lead by giving it right back on a base hit to someone named eric aybar, who appears to be even smaller than dustin pedroia... in the fifth, not quite half an hour later and approximately 54 seconds after the sox cut the l.a. lead again, he serves up a mammoth homer to gary matthews, jr., matthews' second of the evening... lester isn't pitching that badly... he's also not pitching that well... this is a recording...

*on a totally unrelated note, there is a fan at this game wearing a t-shirt that says "balls models" which of course is the name of the modeling agency in "zoolander" run by maury ballstein... if the sox had hit seven consecutive home runs at some point during the game, this t-shirt still would have been the coolest thing i saw all night...

8:43 - scoreboard says the celtics are lighting up the hawks down the street at the fleetcenter in game 2... everyone raise a $7.25 cup of bud light to the celts...

8:51 - big papi turns on a jon garland meatball and crushes a homer into the 10th row of the bleachers next to the visitors' bullpen in right... it's not terribly timely to say this in the aftermath of his 0-for-6 on friday night against tampa and subsequent two-game respite, but i think the guy is coming around... look, it's obvious he's not fully healthy, that his knee has not completely recovered from the surgery he had in the winter... i think that as long as this post-surgery pain lasts, he will not be the big papi we're used to at all... but even if that lasts all season, he is such a great hitter that he will learn how to make the proper adjustments and still be able to be all-star level productive... it's already happening - the dismal 3-for-43 start was symbolic of his learning how to deal with the discomfort and react at the plate accordingly... now that he's started to get it, he's hitting homers and driving in runs at a much more papi-esque pace (he hit another absolute bomb the next afternoon)... here's hoping that this break he's on doesn't last much longer...

9:12 - the return of craig hansen, who looks much more like the tough, intimidating guy he was purported to be when drafted than the scared, absolutely no confidence looking kid he's been since two summers ago... he gives up a solo homer to casey kotchman in the sixth (more unfortunately, just minutes after papi's homer tied the game) but he's looked mean and nasty, working quickly, challenging guys and snapping off sliders the way he's always been expected to... i'm fairly certain theo and his peeps share this sentiment but given how (sigh) mediocre the sox pen has looked thus far, it sure would be nice if hansen is able to cultivate this new persona and help out by summertime...

9:26 - j.d. drew ends the seventh by grounding into a 4-6-3 double play... i'm not going to rag on drew because of how money he was last fall when it really mattered and because he got off to a reasonable start this year relative to last... but i will say that it felt as predictable as the sun coming up...

9:45 - mike timlin comes in and gives up an insurance run... feels lousy to be down on timlin after what he's done the last five years but let's face it - he's 75 years old! sooner or later, someone might want to inform him and the sox of this...

9:55 - jed lowrie - who looks like a player - bounces into a double play to end it... as mostly negative as the tone of this little diary is, it's only because of the outcome of this particular game and not because i feel particularly down on the team... the current losing streak isn't quite at the alarming stage with the pitching being as good as it has (clay buchholz has silly good stuff) and half the team being hurt or sick, not to mention the fact that the (devil) rays are actually decent this year... naturally, there are things that they need, but it's so early, they have ample time to get them...

and the negativity also has nothing to do with the night at the ballpark which, as usual, despite the crowds and the prices and some of the accommodations being more suited to 1912 than 2008, was absolutely awesome... there may be more bandwagon jumpers than ever these days, but it still felt like the crowd was on every pitch, reacting to each morsel of the game... the weather was so awesome it felt like midsummer in april... the atmosphere was perfect and even though the game ended in a loss pretty much everyone around us seemed to share the proper perspective on the state of things (except for the fellow who called sportsradio the next day and ripped francona for using lester even though he volunteered and the sox only other option was julian tavarez for the fourth time in five games)... maybe if was 40-something degrees and dropping with people everywhere crushing hot chocolates as opposed to watery beer, it would have been a bummer - but i doubt it...

we live again

a day late on this but i needed to put it out there that the bruins - yes, the bruins - must be commended and applauded for their performance against montreal in the playoffs, which came to a disappointing end on monday night... as anyone who knows me is aware, i hate the bruins, less because of anyone actually on the team or behind the bench and more because of the way the ownership and front office skinflinted the team into mediocrity throughout my formative sports watching years while showing no commitment to anything except selling hot dogs and $8 sodas in plastic yellow souvenir cups... well, i rooted for them and heartily so through the series against the habs mostly because they had no business doing anything but getting swept due to the complete and total mismatch in talent and class, yet they displayed more heart and grit and determination than i thought was possible and it was those three characteristics that allowed them to make it to the verge of a huge upset... although they didn't finish the job, they deserve so much credit for putting themselves in position to do it... i know it's a bit odd to be backslapping anyone after a first-round playoff loss, especially here in championship-ville, but the bruins pulled a lot of people out of the woodwork with their play over the past couple weeks and maybe, just maybe, made pro hockey a relevant activity around here again... we won't know more until the fall when the new season starts - which means that the powers that be have not quite six months to sabotage everything, AGAIN... but for now, it's safe to say congrats, b's - didn't know you had it in you...

oh and by the way, since this wouldn't be a post on this site without at least a little teasing of the spoked B, i give you this photo - thanks to awful announcing for bringing it to my attention... and also - to the imbecile who called sportsradio yesterday and proclaimed he was, "disgusted," with the bruins on monday night because they, "lost their heart," let me remind you, smartguy, that if it weren't for their heart, they never would have been there to disgust you in the first place... their heart is what carried them to the brink of a gigantic series win... good to know that the first time i listen in weeks, i hear the same style brain surgeons still patrolling the airwaves - what a comfort...

you're the good things

finally... dunno know about all four of you, but for me, waiting for the celtics playoff run to start has been arduous to say the least - it hasn't just been the past six months of regular season time killing, it's been roughly three years, or the last time the celts played a meaningful springtime game... and how can you not eat it all up? my first favorite team is an absolute, nationwide darling, getting the kind of press and love that is routinely reserved for teams like the lakers and spurs and suns... everyone - more or less - loves them to sweep atlanta starting tonight, then slightly sweat out the cleveland/washington winner before dispatching the flip-switching pistons en route to a dream, '80s-style title bout with the lakers (accordingly, that's exactly how i have it in my nba.com playoff pool bracket)...

anyway, now that i've gotten the prediction part out of the way, i need to take a moment to reflect on all this attention being showered upon the celts... i think the first time i saw the new gatorade commercial - the one where kg is deified as power ranger warrior who sweats sugary sports drink - it really hit me just how important and significant this team is... there's no way that the hype machine has exploded over the celtics the way it is now since those golden-hued days of the mid-80s, when larry bird ruled this town... when the celts made it to the eastern conference finals under jim o'brien before antoine walker put on 50 pounds back in 2002, it was fun and exciting and all, but no one really gave them much credit thanks to the presence of jason kidd in his prime on the other side of the series, the presence of shaq, kobe and phil jackson in pursuit of a three-peat on the other coast, and the fact that kenny anderson was the celtics point guard, tony battie manned the paint and vitaly potapenko was the team's third highest paid player... that series was pretty much a lost cause even though the celts were on the winning end of the biggest comeback in nba playoff history in game 3... the celtics played a pretty ugly style due to their personnel (your basic run down the floor and shoot a three-pointer regardless of game situation, shot clock or any other variable sort of thing)... there was a feeling of inevitability about that team - it was great to feel excitement about them after so long, especially so soon after the rick pitino debacle... but everyone knew that even though they made it farther than anyone not seriously disturbed could have fathomed, it was only a matter of time before the ride came to an end... the evidence was in the coverage - can anyone name a single commercial/tv spot/iota of publicity surrounding that team? except for antoine's adidas, "employee no. 8" ("i make baskets") ads, which i think arrived well before that season, i certainly can't... the celtics made it all the way the the nba's final four in 2002, yet still seemed to be the mystery guest that no one really wanted to sit next to at the table...

which leads us to this season which, the 2005 campaign notwithstanding, is the first time anyone has ascribed any playoff expectations to the celtics since before the original big three were gray and old... of course this has been a foregone conclusion ever since july 31, 2007 - the day kg arrived... now we have commercials and billboards and interviews and espn sunday conversations everywhere we look, a set of circumstances that has been the norm all year long... 38-year old sam cassell joins the ranks and has 73 articles written about him in a month... big baby davis gets a mohawk and its the lead item in a newspaper notebook... leon powe goes from being the last guy on the bench to the sixth man and has tommy heinsohn refer to him as a superior offensive force... big papi, dustin pedroia and mike lowell sit courtside for an 8:30 p.m. playoff game even though they have to be at fenway at 7 a.m. the next day due to marathon monday... and of course, pierce, garnett and allen rule the world...

over the past seven years, as the patriots have risen to the top of the ranks and the red sox have shed their demons to become the best and most popular team in baseball, it's felt at least slightly bittersweet due to the celtics being a step or two behind... now that they enter the playoffs carrying a similar cache (can't quite call it the same cache until they win) all feels right with the world... sure, we won't know the outcome for another couple of months and as talented as the celtics are, a lot will need to go their way for a 17th banner to be raised... but it's just the feeling, the genuine anticipation of something great being so close that's what's so cool... it could happen again, for the first time in 22 years... and it says here, it will.

parting of the sensory

i'm so taken aback from seeing curtis leskanic, dave mccarty and brian daubach (brian daubach??!!) represent the 2004 world champs and BILL BUCKNER getting a standing ovation and crying on the fenway mound that i've decided my only recourse is to provide you, fair reader(s) with a spring-infused set of rules - so here goes...

Rule No. 1 - about 10 days until the nba playoffs and yes, the celtics are still the best team in the league... i've occasionally worried throughout the season that what was going on around the garden was all a dream and that one morning i'd wake up and the celtics would be 24-53 again and any publicly aired scuttlebutt would again revolve around the chances of getting the first pick in the draft, whether or not al jefferson was capable of growing up to be an elite big guy and what the odds were on paul pierce walking into the locker room one night with a 12-gauge shotgun and opening fire... thankfully it's all real and with the first-round matchup with the sub-.500 hawks looming, it's almost time to really begin to assess whether or not this team can do something amazing... i'm still of the mind the toughest task facing them is detroit (cleveland and lebron's bad back are no longer in the conversation), though the pistons are currently operating in neutral, doling out frequent nights off to certain guys and losing at home to the ungodly knicks... i wonder if it's wise to push my luck given all of this sweetness that's been going on since the day of the garnett deal, but i am hoping for a couple of things: 1) that they don't just beat detroit, they punish them - the pistons' cool arrogance, their misguided, collective belief that they can flip the switch whenever, wherever and against whomever they want and succeed really bugs me - luckily this attitude has failed them miserably in the playoffs the past two seasons, 2) that sam cassell does something really important at some point, not to justify his signing (although he has not appeared to fit very well since he arrived) but because he has already authored a few big playoff moments in his career and to see him dial up another while wearing celtic green would be outstanding, and 3) that if they get to the finals, they play the lakers - anyone over the age of 30 who grew up here and says that matchup wouldn't be the epitome of appointment viewing has obviously been smoking crack... oh and also, my new favorite non-big 3 player is leon powe, or, as kg referred to him when he first got here, "security"... not only is leon a classic overachiever but he's always working, making things happen for the team and himself and just basically being the kind of guy you'd hope every bargain, young reserve could be... i'll probably delve more deeply into the celts when the playoffs actually arrive, but it's certainly safe to say today that they're a big-time favorite...

Rule No. 2 - tough to have any real feel for the sox yet, eh? eight games and a 457,000-mile road trip will do that to ya... easy to see thus far that a couple of guys not named papelbon or okajeemer need to step up in the bullpen (not so sure about david aardvark and brian "skeletor" corey, though again, it's just been eight games)... also, dice-k has been truly awesome save for the first two innings in tokyo - if he pitches close to this for the better part of the year, he'll win 18-20 games and earn the right to be known as a co-ace... all he needs to work on right now is that mullet - i felt like it was the 1989 home opener watching him out there today and accordingly, i put on some parachute pants during the third inning... i find it difficult to believe that big papi will hit .103 with an ops under .500 all season or that world series mvp mike lowell will go much longer without a single rbi (though he will not duplicate last year's numbers by a long shot - mark it, dude)... all we really know right now, after eight whole games, is that the orioles and current league mvp front-runners aubrey huff and luke scott will not win the al east, the tigers will win a game sooner or later (and probably still contend for the al central) and that bill buckner is not such a bad guy after all... he probably never was despite his portrayal as the spawn of hell for the past 20+ years for having the temerity to make an error on a grounder when his knees were so shot, he shouldn't have even been on the field... i was pretty fed up with the ceremony (it all seemed slightly clumsy, no?) before buckner's entrance thanks in no part to the presence of daubach, a former replacement player, a self-made first baseman and all-around good guy who had some nice moments for the sox from 2000-2002 but was nowhere near the 2004 series (unless he was in the stands, as st. louis isn't far from his hometown of belleville, il) and hadn't been seen by sox fans since the entire tampa bay team tried to behead him in that beanball game back in 2000 when pedro drilled the leadoff guy (i believe it was gerald "ice" williams, referred to as a "punk" by that master of charisma and personality dan duquette) and then threw a no-hitter for 8.2 innings... don't want to get all over the dauber though - it wasn't his fault that the disciples of dr. charles steinberg in the pr department invited him to the party... no, the buckner thing erased pretty much all of the oddness that happened prior and was really quite touching, especially when he had to wipe away a tear during the ovation he received while standing on the mound... give the sox a lot of credit for that one - now can we please stop with all of these extracurricular things and just play? oh and by the way, sox staff - please don't ever show tom werner and wally dancing together ever again ever, please? if neil diamond really is coming here to sing "sweet caroline" this summer, werner and wally shaking it needs to be banned, along with that sparkly, sequined sox jacket neil was wearing - i beg all of these things of you, please...

Rule No. 3 - if anyone hanging around a major league ballpark needs steroids these days it's steven tyler... seriously, when did he have a sex change operation? i know aerosmith hasn't done anything good in at least 20 years but really, man...

Rule No. 4 - the nhl playoffs start tomorrow and the bruins are in - i know this only because of kevin dupont's full-page preview in the paper... apparently the b's are playing arch nemesis montreal which has only beaten them all eight times the teams met this season and something like 11 or 12 straight since last year... i also heard that the night after the bruins clinched, all they had to do to avoid the eighth seed and a first-round series against the canadiens was win their final regular season game against the golf course bound sabres... like all bruins teams we know and love, they instead chose to play the "happy to be here" card and subsequently rolled over and got shut out, assuring them a meeting with likely the only team in the east that they can't beat... i sure will be glad when there's more space for baseball, basketball and pretty much anything other than bruins news in the paper in about a week or so... at least the powers that be are guaranteed two more nights of beer and hot dog sales...

Rule No. 5 - it's masters time which doesn't just mean another season of losing major tournament bets is upon me, it means that watching golf on tv is about to become appointment-worthy for the weekend... i'm fascinated to to see tiger play, as always, especially because of all the grand slam talk swirling about... every year during masters week, the topic of tiger and his capability of winning all four majors comes up - only this year given that he's been playing better than at any time in his career other than in the summer of 2000... look, i'm not going to pick against the guy - in fact, he's probably going to win for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that all the other players are so scared of him - but as great as he is, can anyone really be expected to win every major in one year? even the greatest player of all time? so much goes into every one of them, from the course to the conditions - the biggest reason tiger lost to zach johnson (??!!) last year... if he does it, i won't be surprised, not in the slightest... but i think i need to see it to believe it's actually possible...

Rule No. 6 - it's supposed to be 70 degrees tomorrow so i'm going to have my own little masters and hit up fresh pond for the second consecutive day... like what would happen if i played in any real tournament let alone the masters, the string will stop at two consecutive days since i could never make the cut, even if i was wearing mitt romney's magic underpants... but really, who cares? it's golf, man, for the second straight day in early APRIL... and that's a beautiful, beautiful thing...

new english

really did mean what i said about multiple uniforms and the blue jays and the blue jays' multiple uniforms... but what they rolled out in their home opener against the sox last night earns them a shred of respect from their most outspoken critic - me... yeah, sure, they look like pajamas, but i'll be damned if they aren't some of the coolest pajamas i've ever seen...

oh and by the way, it's nice to see that someone at the mothership is not just reading this outstanding, finger-on-the-pulse-of-everything blog, but following my lead as well...