Results tagged ‘ Boston Bruins ’
House of Horrors
Or what the Orange Bowl in Miami was to the Patriots…
But this place is becoming the Red Sox House of Horrors:
Tropicana Field aka The Trop!!!
Prior to last night, the Red Sox had lost 10 of their last 11 regular season games in the building. Not to mention, the 2008 season came to a screeching halt when the Rays won Game 7 of the ALCS.
The Sox had been very successful in Tampa, prior to 2007. They had posted a 50-35 record at the Trop; including a 2002 when they went 10-0. It was almost a home away from home. The place even had more Red Sox fan in it than Ray fans.
After going 1-8 there in 2008, the Red Sox have only won 2 (including last night) of their last 12 games. Hopefully, today the SOx will make it 2 in a row. However, I am not holding my breath since Boston is sending Brad Penny to the hill while the Rays will be sending James Shields. Seems like a mismatch to me.
Anyway, the Sox didn’t get a win last year in Tampa until September, so now that they’ve got it out of the way in May, maybe it will set the foundation for better success this season than last.
Go Sox!
PS. Can somebody make Evan Longoria a LITTLE uncomfortable at the plate today??? Penny plugged him, let’s see what happens in next ABs.
Looking Ahead
It’s that time of year. The time to look into the future and see what lies ahead. So, let me put on my swami headgear, take out some sort of crystal thing, and this magic little 8 ball thing:
Okay, now we are ready for our 2009 Predictions:
- The New England Patriots will not win the Super Bowl. (Okay, now that I got my obligatory bad joke out of the way, we can continue.)
- The Pittsburgh Steelers will win the Super Bowl.
- The Boston Celtics will win the NBA Championship….again!!
- The Boston Bruins will lose in the 1st round of the NHL Playoffs. (I really hope that is not true, but I only go by history.)
- Some race horse will win the Kentucky Derby and then the Preakness. Then for weeks we will hear about how great this horse is and it will be hyped up as the first winner of the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978. Then in the Belmont, the horse will finish in 8th place or something stupid. This seems like an annual ritual.
- Tiger Woods will win the first golf tournament he plays when he returns from his knee injury.
Now, let’s get to the baseball stuff:
- Jason Varitek will sign a 2-year contract with the Red Sox.
- The Dominican Republic will win the World Baseball Classic.
- Manny Ramirez signs with the San Francisco Giants. The city of LA has never done a complete 180 on anything faster.
- David Price will become the 1st pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young in the same season.
- A.J. Burnett will make 18 starts this season, however, J.D. Drew will spend more days on the DL than Burnett.
- C.C. Sabathia will be the AL All-Star Game starter while the NL will send Pedro Martinez to the hill.
- After throwing a complete game in the 10 inning All-Star Game, leading the AL to a 3-2 victory, Sabathia’s shoulder falls apart lifting the All-Star Game trophy MVP.
- Ryan Howard, Mark Reynolds, and Adam Dunn combine for only 400 strike outs between them.
- Curt Schilling signs with the Tampa Rays in mid-May, and goes 8-0 down the stretch to help the Rays surpass the Yanks for the AL Wild Card.
- The Dodgers win the AL West over the Giants after Manny sits out the final month with a “calf strain”, code for “I’m not happy with only getting a 2-year, $50 million contract.”
- The Red Sox win their 3rd World Series Championship of the Century. (Hey, this wouldn’t be a Red Sox blog without this prediction, am I right?)
Now, that those are finally finished, I must say I enjoyed watching the MLB Network and their broadcast of Don Larsen’s perfect game. I am looking forward to more of their stuff. However, I do hope they cut back on showing Viagra ads when I am watching the channel with my son. He is 4, and doesn’t really notice that stuff yet, but……Please MLB, keep those for after bed time. I know they pay the bills for you, but just do it. Okay? Great!
Turn the Page
Greetings all my loyal readers (stops counting after getting to the first finger of the first hand.) I apologize for the lack of posts lately, but a lot of factors converged at an epicenter that prevented me from the creative flow and motivation to write. But, I will not bore you with those details. I will just wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope that 2009 starts of better than 2008 ended. For some of you Yankee fans, I think the start of 2009 cannot get off on a better foot for you.
In Red Sox news, it sure has been a quiet hot stove season. With the Patriots looking at the post-season from the outside, it is nice we have 2 winter sports team who have returned to glory to keep us from killing ourselves during this hot stove borefest. Anyway, a flurry of activity picked up with regards to Mark Teixeira a while back. However, nothing came of that. The Sox did sign two players recently. Brad Penny and Josh Bard are now in the Sox’ fold, Bard for his second stint.
We all remember Bard was part of that HUGE deal, that brought Doug Mirabelli back to Boston with the State Police escort to catch Tim Wakefield in a CRUCIAL May game. I love a sentence dripping with sarcasm. Anyway, that is probably one of the few blunders that the Red Sox front office have made in the Theo era.
As with Penny, I read an interesting and inciteful post from the Yawkey St. Yaker about why the Sox may have brought Penny here. It makes sense. I would love to see the Red Sox try to bring in one other guy, as I think Penny may be more injury prone than J.D. Drew and A.J. Burnett combined. And, although this guy has been shelved quite a few times over the past few seasons with arm injuries, if he is healthy, I think Mark Mulder provides more of an upside than Brad Penny. I think lefties can pitch well in Fenway Park. I remember the days of John Tudor and Bruce Hurst, lefties who fared pretty well in front of the Green Monster.
Anyway, the Red Sox still have a bit of work ahead of them to start the 2009 year off. The biggest hole in their line-up, obviously, is at starting catcher. So, I guess it is time that we start the Jason Varitek pool. When will the Sox resign him? How many years will it be? What will the average annual salary be? Maybe I can get Mark to hand out a prize for the winner of this pool, what do you say Mark? 
Haha.
I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year’s tonight. We are under 2 months before pitchers and catchers report.
Go Sox!!
Tom Who?
Well, since the Hot Stove flame seems like it is flickering and the off-season wheeling and dealing is moving a pace slower than this guy:
I figured I’d blog about something else.
This weekend, a Patriot QB did something no the other Patriot QB had
ever done. (No, I’m not talking about marrying a pregnant girlfriend.) Matt Cassel threw for over 400 yards in two consecutive games. That is also more 400 yard games in a span of 2 games than Tom Brady has thrown in his career (or so I’ve hard, there is no snazzy Play-Index over at Football Reference like there is a Baseball Reference.) Cassel has really done a great job filling in for Brady during this injury. The Patriots still have a great shot of another championship. The Pats currently sit a game behind the Jets in the AFL East and tied with the Colts and Ravens in the Wild Card race at 7-4. Aside from this upcoming week against the Steelers, the remaining schedule is pretty easy. It looks like the Pats can easily finish the season at 12-4 or no worse than 11-5 which should easily clinch a playoff spot. However, the Patriots are no longer the sole winter team in Boston vying for our attention.
Although it is still early in their respective seasons, both the Celtics and Bruins are the top teams in their conferences. Usually nobody pays much attention to these two teams. However, since Kevin Garnett came to town, the Celtics have returned to being the force they were from a previous era:
Not only that, but the Bruins are actually fun to watch. They play fast, the play hard, they hit hard, and they score goals. I’ve never been much of a Bruin follower or a hockey watcher for that matter. Usually I’d start to tune into hockey come playoff time. There are less whistles and faster pace that is funner to watch during the playoffs. However, I actually did flick the channel over the Bruins game the other night against the Canadians. They were down 1-0 at that time, but came back to win in a shoot out. I can’t remember the last time I flipped to that channel.
So, at least in Boston, we have some sports to keep us occuppied during this baseball void.
Oh, and since this is a baseball themed blog specifically tailored to the Boston Red Sox, there was a bit of news today. Rob Bradford at WEEI.com is reporting that the Red Sox opened negotiations with Jason Varitek by offering him a 1-year deal. If the story is true, I don’t think that is an offer that is going to get a deal done. Maybe it is only a starting point, as according to Peter Gammons over at ESPN, it doesn’t appear that the fax machine dedicated to Varitek offers at the Boras office isn’t exactly ringing off the hook.
I do hope that the Sox and Tek can work out a deal, possibly a 2-yr deal with a mutual option for a 3rd year, as I can’t picture him in any other uniform but Red Sox.
GremEQ
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