Got a little scared watching Inside The NBA on TNT last night when I realized that Chris Webber might be making more sense than Doc Rivers about what is currently ailing the Boston Celtics.
I'm trying real hard to remember the old saying that any NBA playoff series doesn't really begin until the home team loses a game, because the Atlanta Hawks have proven to be more than a handful in the opening round of the Eastern Conference postseason. Atlanta edged the Celtics again on Monday night, 97-92, to tie their best-of-7 quarterfinal series at 2-2 and put a temporary stop on the Banner 17 t-shirts that were being printed in The Hub. All that Celtics-Lakers nostalgia Finals talk seems like ancient history now, as Boston finds itself in a dogfight against a young, hungry team that took advantage of a Celtics' bunch that played some questionable basketball in Game 4.
Bill Koch's New England Patriots fan blog
| View blog | Archive | Friends' blogs
April 29, 2008
April 27, 2008
Bill Koch
Besides the fact that the Red Sox have lost two straight games in Tampa, it's been a pretty good weekend already. We'll get to Boston's struggles later on. For right now, here's a few thoughts to ponder from the part of the weekend that's already happened.
--Mike Bibby
Just a quick aside to the Atlanta Hawks' point guard, who accused Boston Celtics' fans of being bandwagon jumpers after Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series -- where did all those Atlanta fans come from for Game 3?
The Atlanta area has long been one of the worst professional sports communities in the country. So many people have dressed as empty seats for the Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers in recent years that the situation bordered on disgraceful. The Falcons didn't sell any tickets until Michael Vick, a convicted dogfighter, started playing quarterback, and the fans won't return as long as he's sitting in prison. The Atlanta Braves couldn't sell out home playoff games despite their dominance in the National League East for all those years -- and save the talk about how Turner Field is too big to sell every seat. The Boston Red Sox could sell 150,000 tickets to a playoff game and still have people begging to get through the gates at Fenway Park.
--Mike Bibby
Just a quick aside to the Atlanta Hawks' point guard, who accused Boston Celtics' fans of being bandwagon jumpers after Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series -- where did all those Atlanta fans come from for Game 3?
The Atlanta area has long been one of the worst professional sports communities in the country. So many people have dressed as empty seats for the Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers in recent years that the situation bordered on disgraceful. The Falcons didn't sell any tickets until Michael Vick, a convicted dogfighter, started playing quarterback, and the fans won't return as long as he's sitting in prison. The Atlanta Braves couldn't sell out home playoff games despite their dominance in the National League East for all those years -- and save the talk about how Turner Field is too big to sell every seat. The Boston Red Sox could sell 150,000 tickets to a playoff game and still have people begging to get through the gates at Fenway Park.
Continue reading "Celtics' attendance numbers burst Bibby's bubble"
Posted by Bill Koch | 1 comment(s)
April 25, 2008
Bill Koch
Saw a guy out at the bar last night wearing an orange shirt with the words "Game Next" written across the front in white letters. You couldn't miss this thing -- it was the type of shirt that ground control at a major airport would wear in thick fog. And the shirt made me think a bit -- why Game Next? What happened to Game First? What if the current game was Game Last? Then there wouldn't be Game Next. And why would adidas sell something so hideous?
Anyway, you can see that my mind is a little scattered today thanks to that guy. We'll focus on a few different things heading into what promises to be a very interesting weekend.
--The 2008 NFL Draft
We already know that Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long is the No. 1 overall pick after signing a deal with the Miami Dolphins earlier this week. It shouldn't come as any surprise that Miami's vice president of football operations, Bill Parcells, would attempt to rebuild the 1-15 Dolphins by starting in the trenches. For those clamoring for Matt Ryan, stop and think about the quarterbacks that Parcells brought to the Super Bowl. Phil Simms and Jeff Hostetler won't be going into the NFL Hall of Fame any time soon and Drew Bledsoe is a fringe Canton candidate at best.
Anyway, you can see that my mind is a little scattered today thanks to that guy. We'll focus on a few different things heading into what promises to be a very interesting weekend.
--The 2008 NFL Draft
We already know that Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long is the No. 1 overall pick after signing a deal with the Miami Dolphins earlier this week. It shouldn't come as any surprise that Miami's vice president of football operations, Bill Parcells, would attempt to rebuild the 1-15 Dolphins by starting in the trenches. For those clamoring for Matt Ryan, stop and think about the quarterbacks that Parcells brought to the Super Bowl. Phil Simms and Jeff Hostetler won't be going into the NFL Hall of Fame any time soon and Drew Bledsoe is a fringe Canton candidate at best.
Posted by Bill Koch | 1 comment(s)
April 24, 2008
Bill Koch
A fourth-round draft pick must be the going rate for National Football League malcontents these days.
That's the price that the New England Patriots paid to take Randy Moss off the Oakland Raiders' hands before the 2007 NFL Draft. The move worked out pretty well if you consider Moss' league-record 23 touchdowns and his role in New England's record-setting offense.
I guess Dallas is trying the same thing with its defense and special teams this year, but the Cowboys' trade for Pacman Jones seems more like madness than genius disguised as madness.
Moss' status as an NFL player wasn't in doubt. He wasn't suspended the previous season for his role in almost a dozen incidents like Jones was last year. Moss' talent was never in doubt, while Jones still remains a largely untested 5-foot-9 cornerback who can be overpowered by big, physical receivers. Is Jerry Jones really desperate to get back to the Cowboys' salad days during the 1990s that included three Super Bowl rings, drug-filled parties in The White House and a string of player arrests for solicitation and disorderly conduct?
Posted by Bill Koch | 0 comment(s)
April 15, 2008
Bill Koch
The fact that the Boston Bruins are about to be eliminated from the NHL postseason by the Montreal Canadiens is sickening enough.
Watching the Bruins be relegated to visitors' status in their home building, however, is just one more reminder of what a complete and utter debacle hockey has become on Causeway Street.
Montreal fans swarmed the TD Banknorth Garden for Tuesday night's pivotal Game 4, a match-up that Boston desperately needed to win to avoid falling behind 3-1 in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference quarterfinal. I didn't think that the eighth-seeded Bruins stood any chance against the top-seeded Canadiens when the pairings were announced, what with that 11-game losing streak against Montreal and all, but to see Boston be humiliated on home ice by thousands of traveling Canadiens fans was the last straw.
Watching the Bruins be relegated to visitors' status in their home building, however, is just one more reminder of what a complete and utter debacle hockey has become on Causeway Street.
Montreal fans swarmed the TD Banknorth Garden for Tuesday night's pivotal Game 4, a match-up that Boston desperately needed to win to avoid falling behind 3-1 in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference quarterfinal. I didn't think that the eighth-seeded Bruins stood any chance against the top-seeded Canadiens when the pairings were announced, what with that 11-game losing streak against Montreal and all, but to see Boston be humiliated on home ice by thousands of traveling Canadiens fans was the last straw.
Posted by Bill Koch | 0 comment(s)
April 08, 2008
Bill Koch
Leave it to this Boston Red Sox ownership group to get it right again.
John Henry and the rest of the crew come up trumps every time the Sox have a special occasion to celebrate, whether it is Opening Day, a playoff series or a Jimmy Fund event that raises millions of dollars for charity. But there are few sweeter days than the ceremony that follows a World Series win, something that Boston fans have been treated to twice since 2004 after waiting 86 torturous years to savor victory.
Tuesday afternoon's highlight wasn't the ring ceremony or the banner flying high above the Green Monster in left center field. Red Sox Nation opened its collective arms and welcomed back one of its past goats, a man who was vilified and whose excellent major league career was stained forever by one slow bouncer up the first base line off the bat of New York Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson at Shea Stadium on a cool fall night in 1986.
John Henry and the rest of the crew come up trumps every time the Sox have a special occasion to celebrate, whether it is Opening Day, a playoff series or a Jimmy Fund event that raises millions of dollars for charity. But there are few sweeter days than the ceremony that follows a World Series win, something that Boston fans have been treated to twice since 2004 after waiting 86 torturous years to savor victory.
Tuesday afternoon's highlight wasn't the ring ceremony or the banner flying high above the Green Monster in left center field. Red Sox Nation opened its collective arms and welcomed back one of its past goats, a man who was vilified and whose excellent major league career was stained forever by one slow bouncer up the first base line off the bat of New York Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson at Shea Stadium on a cool fall night in 1986.
Posted by Bill Koch | 0 comment(s)
April 07, 2008
Bill Koch
This is how Phillies' fans felt watching Terry Francona manage their team into oblivion during his disastrous four-year run in Philadelphia.
Francona authored yet another masterpiece on Sunday, sealing Boston's sweep at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays and sending the Red Sox home from their three-week, 16,000-mile odyssey in a mini-slump after a 7-4 defeat.
I realize that this guy has won two World Series in four years. I know that he's manager for life of the Red Sox because of that. He does a tremendous job communicating with his players and protecting them from the rabid Boston media. He's the one guy that most of the players in that clubhouse would demand to have as their manager. That doesn't mean that he should be immune from criticism, and seven games of this season has given us plenty of talking points. Some of them were glaring this weekend.
Francona authored yet another masterpiece on Sunday, sealing Boston's sweep at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays and sending the Red Sox home from their three-week, 16,000-mile odyssey in a mini-slump after a 7-4 defeat.
I realize that this guy has won two World Series in four years. I know that he's manager for life of the Red Sox because of that. He does a tremendous job communicating with his players and protecting them from the rabid Boston media. He's the one guy that most of the players in that clubhouse would demand to have as their manager. That doesn't mean that he should be immune from criticism, and seven games of this season has given us plenty of talking points. Some of them were glaring this weekend.
Posted by Bill Koch | 0 comment(s)
March 31, 2008
Bill Koch
With all apologies to the Boston Red Sox, Oakland A's, Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals, Major League Baseball's real Opening Day finally came on Monday.
A full day of baseball in March always reminds me how much I miss the game after it goes away at the end of October. Not having to wake up at 6 a.m. to see it is a nice plus, and not having to stay focused after two Regional Finals in the NCAA Tournament allows me to appreciate a match-up between Jake Peavy and Roy Oswalt late in the evening.
I'm sitting on my couch right now watching Peavy's Padres and Oswalt's Astros trade zeroes, the two power righthanders dominating through four innings, and can't help but think that this might turn into the day's best game. We've had plenty to pick from for highlights so far, and here are a few of them.
A full day of baseball in March always reminds me how much I miss the game after it goes away at the end of October. Not having to wake up at 6 a.m. to see it is a nice plus, and not having to stay focused after two Regional Finals in the NCAA Tournament allows me to appreciate a match-up between Jake Peavy and Roy Oswalt late in the evening.
I'm sitting on my couch right now watching Peavy's Padres and Oswalt's Astros trade zeroes, the two power righthanders dominating through four innings, and can't help but think that this might turn into the day's best game. We've had plenty to pick from for highlights so far, and here are a few of them.
Posted by Bill Koch | 0 comment(s)
March 30, 2008
Bill Koch
Jay Gibbons proved to be quite an expensive mistake for the Baltimore Orioles.
The 31-year-old outfielder was released on Sunday with two years remaining on the four-year deal that he signed with Baltimore in 2006. The Orioles still owe Gibbons $11.9 million and will essentially pay him to go away. The organization made the decision after Gibbons struggled to a .189 batting average in 16 games this spring.
Orioles' club president Andy MacPhail spun the move as a decision between two players competing for one roster spot, and Baltimore elected to the retain younger and cheaper Scott Moore to be the club's utility man. MacPhail insists that the Orioles want to rebuild their roster. The truth here is that Gibbons stopped producing when he stopped cheating, and Baltimore wasn't going to look the other way for a player who didn't hit a single homer and drove in just four runs during the spring.
Posted by Bill Koch | 0 comment(s)
March 28, 2008
Bill Koch
Doesn't Jerry Jones remember The White House?
Jones and I are fraternity brothers after all (Kappa Sigma is for life), but apparently he believes that winning Super Bowls requires the same deviant behavior that his Dallas Cowboys practiced during their 1990s dynasty.
Jones' obsession with acquiring Pacman Jones borders on lunacy, a single-minded quest to outbid every team in the league for a man whose past is as troubled as any other player's in recent memory. Ghosts have followed Pacman ever since he was drafted No. 6 overall by the Tennessee Titans in 2005. His selection calls into question everything that Floyd Reese, the Tennessee general manager at the time and current football analyst for ESPN, has ever said. I can't even take the guy seriously when he looks into the camera and tries to criticize a personnel decision made by an NFL team. Reese became one of the biggest jokes in recent league history when he decided to select a player with as checkered a past as Pacman had -- and, like Ebenezer Scrooge, Pacman has only labored upon that chain since.
Jones and I are fraternity brothers after all (Kappa Sigma is for life), but apparently he believes that winning Super Bowls requires the same deviant behavior that his Dallas Cowboys practiced during their 1990s dynasty.
Jones' obsession with acquiring Pacman Jones borders on lunacy, a single-minded quest to outbid every team in the league for a man whose past is as troubled as any other player's in recent memory. Ghosts have followed Pacman ever since he was drafted No. 6 overall by the Tennessee Titans in 2005. His selection calls into question everything that Floyd Reese, the Tennessee general manager at the time and current football analyst for ESPN, has ever said. I can't even take the guy seriously when he looks into the camera and tries to criticize a personnel decision made by an NFL team. Reese became one of the biggest jokes in recent league history when he decided to select a player with as checkered a past as Pacman had -- and, like Ebenezer Scrooge, Pacman has only labored upon that chain since.
Posted by Bill Koch | 0 comment(s)
