Archive for January, 2009

Yup, I’m taking Arizona to win the Super Bowl. I’d be lying if I told you that I was picking the Cards for solid factual reasons. I’m not, well not entirely anyways. First and foremost, I want them to win. I think that Kurt Warner is a good dude, and it would be a heckuva comeback story if he could win another Super Bowl title. His wife is a bit annoying, but he’s the type of guy that you can’t help but pull for.

Secondly, and I tell you this for full disclosure, I despise the Steelers. A lot of it is due to the fact that I am a Patriots fan, and the two teams have had their share of battles over the last couple of years. I’ll never forget the 2002 AFC Championship game when Troy Brown returned a punt and the Pats also scored on defense and Drew Bledsoe came in for an injured Brady and found David Patten in the corner of the end zone. That was one of the greatest football games I’ve ever seen.

Also I have family from the Pennsylvania area that adore Pittsburgh and hate the Patriots. I can’t root for a team that will bring them joy. I just can’t, It’d bring on a major case of acid reflux. The thought of my cousin-in-law Geoff toasting the Steelers is enough to make me sicker than my poor son was the last couple of nights.

So I’m picking Zona, and rooting for them, but can they win? Really, I think they can, even though I said back in September in this blog that Brady getting hurt was basically handing Pittsburgh the championship (I really did, you can look back in the archives if you don’t believe me).

To beat the Steelers the Cardinals are going to have to do a couple of things, and the most important is spread it. Spread it around, and spread the field. We all know that Larry Fitzgerald is capable of putting in some huge plays, but Pittsburgh knows that too and they’ll double him as much as possible. That means that Anquan Boldin will have to get over his whining and go play hard and that Steve Breaston will have to play out of his gord. Breaston may be the most important man in this Super Bowl, and no I’m not kidding, because not only is he a guy that could make some huge plays for the Steelers, but he’s also the No. 1 kick returner for Arizona.

Special teams could be very big in this Super Bowl, and that’s an area where Arizona flourishes and the Steelers are mediocre at best. A lot of people overlook that area of the game, but that stuff is huge. If Arizona has to drive 80-yards to score every time they touch the field they’ll be in trouble. However if they can get a short field then everything opens up.

Pittsburgh’s defense is very good. That’s where the Steelers are hanging their hats, because they excel on that side of the ball and have a couple of big-time playmakers. Arizona shouldn’t worry about trying to run the ball much, I’m expecting them to huck it at least 70-percent of the time. Sure they’ll need to run from time to time to keep Pittsburgh honest, but Tim Hightower and Edge James are not going to win or lose this game for them. Kurt Warner and his receivers can, though.

Defensively the Cardinals have played very well of late. They’ll have to continue to do that. They are one of the best teams in the league at forcing turnovers, with 30 to their credit this year (one more than the Steelers). Arizona also gave it up 30 times this year, while the Steelers committed 25 turnovers. Arizona led the NFL in taking away fumbles, and the Steelers had the 10th most fumbles in the entire league. Maybe I’m reaching here, but that could be big. Big Ben has been known to cough it up from time to time because he has a bit of tendency to hold onto the ball too long and take big hits. Super Bowl Sunday is known for weird things happening (um, hello David Tyree), so we’ve got to look at lots of information.

But in the end I’m picking with my heart. I’ve always had a soft spot for Arizona since Pat Tillman passed away. We live in a country that needs heroes more and more every day and he was the definition of one. I’ve never liked Pittsburgh, so I’m following my heart.

Arizona 27,
Pittsburgh 21

I almost cried when I watched this, and I had seen it before. You remember the story of the autistic kid from upstate New York, Jason McElway, that got in for the final game of the year last year and couldn’t miss. It’s so heartwarming and is such a contrast to the 100-0 Texas girls basketball game.

My take on that, there’s no reason to score 100 in a game if the other team hasn’t scored. Sure you want kids to play hard, but you also don’t want to embarrass anyone, it’s just bad form. After the first quarter the coach knew that his team couldn’t lose the game, so all he had to do was tell his team to slow things down, work on stuff they needed to work on, and let the game come to them. Maybe it would have ended up 65-0, or 70, but when I see 100 I know that he was running and gunning all day long. It’s not easy for a girls team at any level to score 100 points, it’s just not. I saw the Falmouth girls catch absolute fire last night in the fourth quarter and I think they scored maybe 25 in the quarter. For a team to do that for four quarters, even against a poor opponent, would have to mean that that team was chucking up shots one after another after another, and crashing the offensive glass.

Those of us that have been around enough games know, and regardless of what that coach said, he’s got to feel bad about what he let his girls do at this point. If not, he’s got bigger problems.

Ahh, the doldrums have begun. No football this weekend, and then after next weekend there will be no football again for months and months. Baseball doesn’t even start training camp for nearly a month. Sigh.

But at least our favorite TV shows are coming back, right?

Lost was awesome last night and I can’t wait to watch it again when Lyra gets home from her mom’s because i know I missed a lot on the first viewing. I wish I could have talked about it at work today, but for some weird reason everyone that watches at work, lest my good friend Murph, had only watched half of it. Apparently the other reporters in the office can’t make it past 10 PM.

As always, if you’re a big fan of the show, you really need to check out this blog, The Wayward Cynic. Like me, he’s a huge Pearl Jam fan, and unlike me, he seems to have a deep understanding of what’s going on with the show. Also I know my man Crazy Kazarian loves the blog, but probably forgot the web address, so that’s as much for him as you.

Anyways, I’m going to speculate that you saw the show. If you didn’t skip ahead a graph or two.

I’m frazzled by the time travel stuff, it seems kinda Dr. Who to me. Daniel Faraday is a great character, as are the other two from the freighter, but I have no idea how they’re time traveling, and how he seems to be able to do it at will, and why what applies to everyone else doesn’t apply to Desmond.

What i do know is that Sun is up to something. I think she’s somehow planning on using Kate to get to Ben and that they’ll all end up back on the island, where we will discover that Jin never died after all, but on top of it all she’s now become the conniving evil businessman that he used to be before coming to the island. Also I loved Hurley’s storyline and how he surrendered to the police to stay away from Ben, but we all know that they’ll somehow bust him out. I’ve grown a bit tired of Jack’s woe-is-me drugged out loser turn, but I’m sure that will turn itself around. I also like Sawyer becoming a bigger power payer on the island and am sure that he and Juliet will be hooking up, which will be interesting when Kate comes back

And having Jack Bauer back in my life is a good thing as well. I love 24 and the storyline this year is pretty good so far. Having Jack pretend to be a bad guy, along with soul patch Tony, has been riveting thus far.

Oh, and you either love it or hate it, but I’m also a bit\g Battlestar Gallactica fan — this is where Eagle One will chime in and call me a huge nerd, although he’s a walking stereotype with his favorite show being The Shield. BSG came back last week and dropped a few jaws. It was great.

But perhaps my favorite show right now is The Office. If you don’t watch it, and you like to laugh, then there is something very wrong with you. Without a doubt that show is the best comedy since Seinfeld. Michael, Jim, Pam and Dwight are great. But what makes that show fantastic is the background characters like Kevin, Toby, Meredith and the rest.

Here is one of the cut scenes from last week’s show. Enjoy, I don’t know how this didn’t make the show. It’s just as funny as anything that made the air.

Winter is a busy season, so it’s good to have a chance to riff when I’m at the rink. The following stuff may or may not make complete sense.

First and foremost, Jim Ed Rice. Shame on the Hall of Fame voters for taking this long to vote No. 14 into the Hall of Fame. Who gets into the Hall of Fame is always open to debate, and sometimes it’s treated like indecency, you know a Hall of Famer when you see one. Well, Jim Rice was obviously a Hall of Famer, especially to those of us that saw him play all of the time.

Jim Rice was one of the most feared hitters of his generation, and he put up great numbers in the pre-Juice era. I actually think that’s why he finally got in. Voters finally wised up to the fact that the stats put up back in the 70s and 80s are a lot different than they are today. Take the roids out of the picture, players today work out more than back then. They have a much greater understanding of the science behind sports. Back in the 70s and 80s it was not quite as specialized or complex as now. It was more than just see ball, hit ball, but players weren’t spending hours in front of a video monitor breaking down the intricacies of their swing either. It wasn’t quite the stone age, but it comparison to the way things are now, it was close.

I’m glad Rice got in and Eagle One and I are discussing maybe going to Cooperstown for the ceremony this summer. EO plays golf with Jim during the season from time to time and they’ve become casual friends. EO’s never been to the Baseball Hall so we’re thinking about hitting both C’town and the hoops Hall in Springfield. Could be a great trip.

***

I saw an amazing basketball game last night at FHS. The Falmouth boys got up by 15 early in the game and then Marshfield came roaring back, cutting it to five by the half. MHS then started to rain the threes from the outside in the third quarter and would take a 15-point lead of their own in the early stages of the fourth quarter.

Then Falmouth rallied like it was the NCAA tournament and they were a 13-seed trying to bust everyone’s brackets up. The Clippers did not allow a point to MHS in the final 6:12 of the game and came within a basket of winning it, outscoring the Rams 13-0 down the stretch. They had couple of chances to win the game, but spent so much energy coming back that they ran out of gas at the end of the trip.

The hardest part for the Clippers was that Marshfield won by two and hit a three from the far side of the court at the buzzer of the third period, and the shot looked like it was heaved late. And it was a HEAVE that miraculously rattled in. That’s tough to swallow when you lose by two.

***

Nice to see that the Celtics seem to finally be breaking out of their funk. That win the other night over Toronto was fantastic. The Raptors looked like they might pull it off when they knocked down the three at the end of regulation to force OT, but Paul Pierce played huge and the Celtics finally played like the team we’ve expected them to play like before the funk they found themselves in. The move that Rajon Rondo put on in OT was one of the prettiest I’ve seen in a while. I spent 20 minutes trying to find it on Youtube, but the guy has so many highlights on there now that apparently it didn’t wow anyone else enough to put it up there. Just trust me, it was pretty.

***

Real quick, here’s my NFL picks for the weekend, at least how I’m leaning right now. I like the Eagles and the Ravens.

The Eagles should roll. I still can’t believe Arizona beat the Panthers. I’m sure Vegas did well on that one, and I’m glad that I don’t bet on football games. Philly looks like a team of destiny if you ask me, and I think they’re going to win easily.

As for Pitt-Baltimore, the Ravens are the best defensive team I’ve seen this year and I think they’ll be able to stop Willie Parker. I’m not expecting a lot of points, but I think it’s Baltimore, 12-10. Yup, four field goals do the trick.

We’re live at the Falmouth High-Marshfield High hockey game at the Falmouth Ice Arena, hoping that I won’t come out to find my car buried in two feet of snow when this thing ends. The Clippers are up 2-1 after one on a nice goal by Steve Laliberte late in the first, sliding across the slot and burying a wrister to the far top shelf.

While watching hockey I’ve had the gamecast of the Ravens-Titans game on, which just went final. Looks like Baltimore will be playing for a spot in the Super Bowl next weekend. I’m glad I didn’t have to sit through that game. That was a match-up between the two most boring teams in the NFL playoffs, a true battle of attrition.

I have no idea which team is going to win the Super Bowl, though. Thursday night I went out with Eagle One and kept asking people which team was the best NFL team left? There was no consensus and no one felt all that strong about any of the options. Right now I think we’re looking at a Pittsburgh-Carolina Super Bowl, but I could be convinced that either San Diego or Baltimore will be there, and I think the Giants can make it too, and even the Eagles. The only team I have completely written off at this point, other than the eliminated Titans, is Arizona. You don’t dump Gatorade over your coach’s head after winning a round 1 game and go on to win the whole thing. You’ve won your Super Bowl once the Gatorade’s been broken out, unless it’s a Conference title game.

Other thoughts between whistles: I love the Rocca Baldelli, Brad Penny and John Smoltz signings by the Red Sox. They are all classic Theo Epstein moves, low risk, high reward moves. If the guys don’t pan out, they’re only on the hook for a year with each guy.

Just saw a penalty shot, you don’t get those every day. Shawn Price didn’t cash it in, though. He tried to go glove side and didn’t get it up high enough.

Wow, weird game. Andrew Kelly just scored a beautiful goal, tucking a backhander from behind the net, and the refs disallowed it for no good reason. Very strange, they said the net was off, but it didn’t look it from here. Not your average night at the rink that’s for sure.

Happy B-day to the little guy, who’s not so little any more. Rye turned 7 yesterday and I’m blown away. The boy is too smart for his own good, keeps me busy and is my pride and joy. I never knew I’d enjoy being a dad as much as I do. But it still begs the question, where did the time go?

That’s it for now. Third period is about to start and then I’m outta here in a flash.

My favorite sport has always been baseball, ever since I was a little boy I’ve loved that game. I watch tons of baseball, in person and on TV.

I’ve found over time, though, that I can’t really watch games that I’m not either covering for the paper, or have a rooting interest in. If I’m flicking through the channels I’m not going to invest much time in a June contest between the Indians and Royals, even if my fantasy team has a bunch of those guys.

Now football, that’s a different story. I don’t have the love affair with football that I do baseball. I never played it growing up, though I wish now that I had. But if there’s a pro football game on, I can watch any two teams.

Granted this weekend’s games were playoff games, which up the ante considerably, but it’s funny how with the NFL I can throw on any game and watch the whole thing. Time and family restrictions did not allow me to watch every game, but I caught the majority of three and was into all of them. Because of the work schedule, I didn’t see any of the game I thought would be the most entertaining, Arizona-Atlanta. Saturday night I TiVo’d the second half of the Chargers and Colts and watched with glee as the Colts were eliminated, guaranteeing us that we won’t have to sit through a Manning Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday.

On Sunday I watched large portions of the Fish and Ravens, and I’ve got to say, I’m glad that the Pats didn’t have to face Baltimore. That defense is tough, and I’d want no part of them. At least finishing 11-5 and missing the playoffs the season ended with a win and not a bitter taste after watching Ed Reed do something like that to Matt Cassell.

And I’m pumped up for next weekend’s games. Of course having a new plasma HD to watch the games on doesn’t hurt either, but as long as there are NFL games to watch next weekend I’ll be tuned, and you probably will be too.