Archive for June, 2008

As many of you know, I am a movie fan, especially sci-fi and action, you know, guy stuff. So it comes as no surprise that above all other movies I’m looking forward to Batman: The Dark Knight. That’s the one this summer that I’ve been pinning my hopes on being the best flick of the summer, and it’s still a few weeks away and we’ve got reviews started to come in and they’re doing nothing to make me any less pumped up.

You’ll remember way back when in the late 80s when they first launched Batman, with Michael Keaton as Bruce/Bats, it was Jack Nicholson that everyone talked about. His over-the-top antics at The Joker had the world raving. Basically, though, if you look back, it was Jack playing Jack with a purple suit and green hair. Nearly 20 years later, you watch that movie and it’s a bit under-whelming. It’s not bad, but it isn’t the be all to end all. It’s campy and fun, sort of like the old TV show. It holds up okay, but it doesn’t compare to Batman Begins.

But now we’ve got TDK to look forward to, and apparently Heath Ledger steals the show in his final big movie appearance. Check out this story and you’ll see why I’m so pumped up. Apparently Heath owns The Joker. It’ll be interesting to hear what Nicholson has to say.

That’s it for today. Be back tomorrow, probably with a little Pearl Jam review.

Eagle One loves to chide me and say “you’re the best poker player on Cape Cod” or “wow, you moved up to No.1 in the Cape poker rankings.”

He knows I take my game seriously and enjoy it. He also hates the fact that he taught me how to play and the student has surpassed the teacher. No longer the learner, now I am the master (sorry, but when else am I ever going to get to use a good D Darth Vader line? It’s not like I named my son Luke).

Thursday night was one that i had looked forward to with great anticipation for some time, the Dino’s Poker League Main Event. For those of you that don’t know, the local sports bar runs a league on Monday and Thursday night. It’s a $10 buy-in and it pays the top three finishers. The top two also earn seats into the main event. Over the last couple of months the top-ranked player on Cape Cod had won four seats into the ME, it’s just too bad you can only use one of them.

So Thursday came and both myself and Donny Camera headed over to play in the big game. We’re both what I call TAG (tight-aggressive). That’s my style all the time, and that’s what he forces himself to be, even though it’s against his nature. He likes to say “I swear, I’m playing Maclone style tonight.”

Well Maclone style wasn’t working for the first hour of the big game. I played all of two pots through the first hour and a half and saw my stack dwindle from 3,400 to 2,200, it was getting ugly. Finally I told myself that I had to make something happen or just go home. I didn’t want to simply get blinded off.

I noticed that the guy that would be sitting in the big blind on the next hand was someone I respect as a player a great deal, someone who’s game I know, and someone that knows I don’t play rags at all. With all of that knowledge I forced myself to shove all-in with any two cards that I got if it folded to me, knowing that Mike was not calling without a monster hand.

So it folded to me and I look down at Q5 offsuit and decide to employ my gambit.

Bad decision, he woke up with pocket queens. To give you an idea of how bad of shape I was in, the poker math says that I will win that hand once in about every 19 hands.

It was that one time, and did I luck out. Flop brought a five, then the turn card was a five. Mike looked at me like I had defiled his sister. I explained my thinking of knowing that he’s need to have a monster to call me, blah blah blah, but he didn’t care. I had just put a monumental bad beat on him in the biggest game of the year.

And it propelled me. I ended up finishing third overall for a nice score of money and bragging rights. I’d love to talk about the final table, but doing that could have bad ramifications. Let’s just say it got spirited, heated and scary at times, to a point where they had to move us away from the crowd. It was like a modern-day wild west game, and yes I did think that at some point someone might eat a six-shooter.

Shaquille O’Neal is one funny dude. First of all, we know he’s got personality, but he loves to give interviews in that flat, monotone voice that has less delivery than an in-car GPS. In fact, if his voice was the GPS voice people would never get where they were going because they’d tune him out pretty quickly.

But the guy actually is full of humor. And, he’s got a vendetta against everyone’s favorite fake family-obsessed superstar, and his former teammate, Kobe Bryant.

All you have to do is visit either TMZ.com or youtube and do a little searching and you’ll find the freestyle rap that Shaq did at a concert this past week. I’d link to it directly, but the bosses like family content, and some of the language is a little strong. But, it’s worth watching just for the chorus “Kobe, tell me how my a** taste.”

Also, look for disses on Pat Ewing and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in that rap too, which got a lot less press, but are still funny. And, you’ve got to love the over-sized ‘BIG’ chain that Shaq busted out for the show.

The chances of seeing Shaq show up at the concerts I’m going to this weekend are very slight. I’ve got Pearl Jam tickets to the two shows they’re playing at GreaTweetCast Center Saturday and Monday. But, I have seen Theo Epstein go up on stage and play guitar on Rockin’ In The Free World. Personally I’m hoping that we’ll get a Peter Gammons jam, which would be great. I’m sure we’ll get a few Larry Bird and Celtics references as well. I’m chomping at the bit for these concerts to get here. I’ve actually lost count as to how many times I’ve seen Pearl Jam, but I think these are either shows 14 and 15 or 15 and 16.

It’s Saturday night and we’re officially old, doing nothing and not caring. I’m wasting time on the computer and Lyra is watching a move in which English people argue in their annoying English voices. I’d like to force her to turn the table, but then we might argue in annoying New England voices.

Anyways, thought you might enjoy this video of KG and Pierce still in the afterglow of winning it all. “I realized something, we live in Titletown.”

Tiger Woods is something special, not that you need me to tell you that. Watching the man play golf is a treat, and I for one am going to miss him over the rest of the calendar year.

There’s only so much hyperbole that you can use before it gets lost and worn out on the masses. The dude is tougher than any other golfer in the world, that’s for sure. Eagle One and I were talking about his feat, capturing the US Open title despite two stress fractures in his tibia and having a blown ACL. Most people simply couldn’t walk through that pain. Tiger Woods, by our estimates, walked somewhere around 30-35 miles during that week of golf. He played 91 holes of championship golf, and kept making clutch putts and shots, even though just to line up over the ball had to make him grimace.

There’s really nothing else to compare it to. True a basketball player, or baseball or football or hockey player, simply couldn’t perform their sports with those injuries. It would be career-threatening. I don’t know if Tiger could have hurt himself considerably more than he was already banged up, but it sure wasn’t career-enhancing to tough it out for the week. Well, maybe in terms of money, fame (like he could gain more of that at this juncture), and championships, but not longevity and quality of life.

Eldrick Woods is without a doubt the definition of what it means to be a champion. The guy carries himself with class, and delivers time and time again. I heard people were betting against him to make that putt on 18 at the end of Sunday’s round. Did you really think he would? Maybe at some point he’s due to blow up and not come through, but I don’t know when. Even hurt like he was, he’s the best golfer in the world.

I’ve heard other people say that rooting for Tiger is like rooting for the house in Vegas, or the Yankees, or OPEC. I don’t think so at all. Rooting for Tiger Woods is rooting to see something special. We watch him because he can make shake our heads in disbelief. We watch him because we want to see him stand over that impossible putt and rattle in off of the back of the cup and then pump his fists with authority. There is a joy in watching the best in the world. I used to love to watch Pedro pitch in the late 90s. I loved watching Larry Bird shoot jumpers, or Michael Jordan drive to the basket. I imagine it was the same watching Jimi Hendrix play guitar, or Bobby Orr skate in the free, or Stu Ungar dominate a card table.

Certain people are given gifts in life that others can’t contemplate. Instead of being jealous of those gifts, we should sit back and enjoy what we’re seeing, because eventually it all has to end. Sure someone else will come along to create in unfathomable ways, but it’s never quite the same.

They have their gifts to perform. Our gift is being able to watch and enjoy.

So, yeah, I’m going to miss watching Tiger for the next couple of months.

When you’re 12 years old and your team always seems to be in The Finals, you just expect that they’ll keep that up. You don’t know any better. ‘Oh, the Celtics won again, that’s great.’ Ho Hum.

But then as you get older the team you always expected to be at the top of the mountain can’t seem to even make it halfway up anymore. At first it’s no big deal, but then after a while you start to have those thoughts. ‘Will we ever see them win again? Are they just as cursed as the Red Sox?’

To appreciate what the Celtics accomplished last night you have to know where they were, and understand and appreciate it. Len Bias’ overdose started it all. Then The Big 3 v1.0 began to break down. Then Reggie Lewis died. Then the losing really started. For a while they were still able to get close, but then they were a middle of the pack team, and then they were a lower tier team.

Then there was last year. Oh goodness, last year couldn’t have been any worse. Every night it seemed like they’d lose by more and more. And the feelings of when you were younger were the direct inverse. Instead of seeing them win all the time, all they did was lose. Apathy nearly set in. People didn’t wonder if they’d win again, they started to wonder if they’d be relevant around these parts again.

Oh they’re beyond relevant. They’re the 2008 NBA Champions.

Let’s put aside the 2004 Red Sox. For many of us nothing will ever top that run to a title. It was on a whole other level. It was downright cathartic. It was special. It was cleansing.

But this was so much fun. I can’t remember the last time that I’ve had so much fun watching a team play, in any sport. This playoff run was joyous. Sure the first two rounds were closer than they could have been, but they were great games and fun to watch. Remember Game 7 against LeBron and the Cavs. Remember Game 7 against Atlanta. How about the Detroit series. The whole run to The Finals was a non-stop nail-biting joy to be a part of. You looked forward to each game’s tip-off, and hated how long they had between games just because you wanted to see them play again.

When they got to The Finals so many ‘experts’ picked LA to win it all. They said that the Celtics couldn’t handle the Lakers quickness. They couldn’t stop the Black Mamba.

But this team was more about what they could do. First and foremost, they played defense at a level that LA simply couldn’t handle. Sure Kobe had some nice games, but how many times did he miss jumpers that he usually makes. He wasn’t missing them because he suddenly forgot how to shoot. He was missing them because the Celtics made him shoot further from the hoop than he wanted to, with a hand in his face at all times. He couldn’t get the separation that he likes to get that shot off. And, the Celtics owned the glass. In the first half of Game 7, the Lakers had ZERO offensive boards. No second chance points.

This Celtics team is just tougher than the Lakers, and it really comes down to that. They played with much more passion. They dove for every loose ball. They fought for every rebound. KG said “the defense is our backbone” during his post-game interview, and he’s right. They did everything off of that defensive and rebounding edge.

Now they’re champions. Who’d have thunk it? And, they’re the best kind of champions, the kind that did it because of a complete team.

It all starts with Paul Pierce, the MVP. Before the other Big 2 arrived, this was his team, but so what. Do you want ownership of something that stinks? When the help arrived, he became The Man. KG and Ray Ray didn’t exactly defer to him, but he was still Mr. Celtic, and he cemented himself as a guy worthy of having his jersey number retired in those rafters with his performance in The Finals. He wasn’t the MVP of Game 6 (that was Rajon Rondo in my opinion), but he was unreal throughout the entire playoffs.

It wasn’t so long ago, in this space, that I was wondering what the heck was wrong with Ray Allen. Jesus Shuttlesworth couldn’t hit the side of a building with a basketball for a two-week stretch, let alone put it in the basket. But in Detroit he got hot, and they wouldn’t have done it without him.

KG didn’t really explode until Game 6, but he was solid throughout as well. I type this while wearing my No. 5 T-shirt jersey. I’ve always loved his passion, which at times might have kept him from playing his best because he tries almost too hard. But, there’s no way that they win without him. He changed the culture in Boston. He’s the reason that defense became cool at the Gahden. He’s the emotional engine that made this team run. And, he turned in the moment that we’ll remember most of this clincher when he shook off a hard foul by Lamar Odom and banked in a shot one-handed shot while horizontal to the floor. That highlighted the 23-point halftime lead. And from there, it was just a coronation.

It’s been a long time since we got to see the C’s win a title. I know you’ve got your friends that are excited about it, and so do I. Caddyshack Aaron, first and foremost, is beside himself. This is his team. He bleeds green and tonight I’m sure that tears were present at his place. Eagle One, Easy Elias, Scotty Doesn’t Know, Dave Fone, and the list goes on and on and on of my buddies that are dancing a Papelbon-like jig right now.

That’s all for now. We’ve got a parade to get ready for.

Tonight I think we’ll be seeing them earn their 17th one of these. Go Green …

Hank Steinbrenner is more and more like the old man every day. When I heard that he went off about the National League’s rules I first wondered when the last time it was that we had an edition of Hankisms. Wouldn’t you know it, very close to one month exactly. So Jr. is pretty ticked off about the NL rules, and we’ll let him explain like only he can.

“My only message is simple. The National League needs to join the 21st century. They need to grow up and join the 21st century.”

“I’ve got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He’s going to be out. I don’t like that, and it’s about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s.”

It’s Monday, which means madness here in the sports department. Some quick thoughts on Game 5 and the rest of the sports world.

** Really, Dick Bavetta? Am I surprised that the Celtics didn’t seem to get the close calls late in the game? No.

** Also, I thought that was a foul on Kobe as he swiped at Pierce, from behind and way out of position, to knock the ball loose. But, there’s no way that they’re calling that against Mr. CryKobe.

** My hate for Sasha Vujajic knows no bounds. Let’s just say that at the Eagle’s Nest last night that there were plenty of bad words aimed at the slimy-haired one.

** Speaking of Eagle One, he felt he was smited by me when I didn’t make it CLEAR that he came up with the Red Sox tickets last week. There you go, full disclosure, he was given the tickets. Eagle Two, of course, backed me up with the “we fell into tickets statement.” She’s a good woman.

** I tried and tried and tried to secure tickets for Game 6 when they went on sale this morning. Let’s just say that I hate squiggly words almost as much as the slimy-haired forward. However, I realized that if I got through that I probably would have had to drop at least $250 for two tickets, so maybe it’s for the best. I did, however, find a good seat for the first Pearl Jam show in two weeks, which I hadn’t planned on attending, so it all worked out okay in my opinion. That will make two shows in three nights, Nos. 15 and 16 for me. I know, I have a sickness.

** Hey KG, I love you, but how about making some free throws in the clutch? Oh, and that tip-in?

** They missed Kendrick Perkins, a lot. I hope he can play some in Game 6. Can they win without him? Yes. But, he does a lot of little things.

** Pau Gasol, buy the “L” for your first name. And, grow a pair. Just because someone breathes on you does not mean you were fouled. The same could be said for the whole Lakers team. They’re so easily despised because all they do is cry. My goodness, can you imagine them trying to survive a full eastern conference schedule?

** Tiger Woods, you are about as clutch as they come. One down on 18, he hits a drive into the beach, then puts his approach in the rough. Needing to get up and down from the high stuff, he puts a wedge pin-high from 105-yards out and then drains a 12-footer for the win.

Some people say rooting for Tiger is liking rooting for the Yankees. I wholeheartedly disagree. Rooting for Tiger is rooting for greatness. You watch him because he does what no one should be able to do, and he makes it look easy.

** Deepstack Jamie was at Game 5. He’s a Lakers fan, but other than that a really good guy. Hey, he paid over $700 to watch his team stay alive. He’s got that going for him, they are still alive, until tomorrow at least.

** Game 6, it’s the Celtics. They’re putting it away tomorrow night, no question in my mind. And I think it’ll be a blowout, over 12 points.

That wasn’t just a win by the Celtics last night, it was an experience. With an apology to M Night Shyamalan, that comeback victory was the real Happening.

I can’t even begin to explain the wave of emotion that the win brought upon C’s fans. That was the type of win that defies explanation. It defies anything that makes sense.

And it has an entire region pumped up. Anyone that thinks that the Celtics fans aren’t real fans has no understanding of Boston teams. They don’t get it. I will be the first to admit that during the down times I had stopped watching each and every minute of each and every game. It was kind of pointless to invest emotionally in a team that was going nowhere and didn’t seem to care.

But last year my buddy Caddyshack Aaron told me that he loved the team, even though they were horrible. I asked him if he was feeling okay, and he said to just watch, that they were putting together pieces.

The pieces they kept, and the ones that they moved, made this all possible. Danny Ainge was able to put together a master plan, and he not only put together a team that was good, but as we saw last night, he put together a team with a huge heart.

And that’s what it takes to make the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history. That doesn’t happen because of luck, that happens because of heart, guts and poise. And that’s why Boston fans are so pumped up right now. It’s not just that they have a team that’s a winner, they have a team that they respect, that they admire, that they love. They’re fun to root for.

And none of them gave up on that game last night. At a little before midnight my phone started blowing up with text messages. “Are they actually going to pull this off?” “Oh my God” “Can you believe this?” “Unbelievable.”

Four different friends were hitting me up at the same time. The conversations lasted until at least 1 AM.

Eagle One and I fell into Red Sox tix at the last minute and went to Fenway for the Sox game. We took off in the top of the eighth so we could get the game on the radio and planned on watching the second half at his house.

I won’t lie, we were ticked off in the first quarter. Lamar Odom had somehow become Shaq and the C’s just were getting lit up. We stopped at a bar to watch the second quarter, hoping that they’d comeback, but every time they made a run, the Lakers answered. It was so frustrating. When Jordan Farmar sunk that heave at the buzzer to put the Lakers up 18 at the half we weren’t feeling very confident.

With the traffic having thinned out, we got back into the car and listened to the third quarter as we drove down Route 3. Both of us kept saying “if they can get it down to 10 for the fourth, they’ve got a chance.”

All we wanted was for them to have a chance. Make it interesting.

And did they ever. Shots began to fall and we got that feeling, and you probably had it to. You could feel the tide turning. The defense kept getting stops and the offense kept making shots. The deficit dwindled and dwindled. They got it to 14, then it was 10, and before you knew it single digits.

The fourth quarter was unbelievable. Ray Allen was heroic. James Posey was clutch. Paul Pierce was immense. KG was great. And Eddie House, who had a chance to tie up game three with a shot on the wing knocked down that same shot to give the team the lead. When that shot fell you just knew. This was actually going to happen.

One more win is all it will take. They are going to win the championship. It is going to happen.

And we will never forget Game 4 for as long as we root for the Celtics. This is an entire generation’s Big Game. This is the Snow Bowl. This is bigger than JD Drew’s grand slam. This is on the same level as Dave Roberts’ stolen base.

All of those guys that were texting me throughout the fourth quarter, the best part is that none of us had given up on the game. None of us had to wake up on Friday morning to find out that we had missed something special. We all stayed with the game, and more importantly the team, when the chips were down. We had all made an emotional investment in this team and were seeing it through to the end.

It sure paid off.