The Boston Pro Sports Blog

The Celtics officially announced the contract extension of star player Paul Pierce today in a press conference. The 3 year $59 million extension, which keeps Pierce in green for the next five years, was reached last week but officially announced today. Pierce actually declined the advice of his agent to test the free agent waters after the 2007-08 season and agreed to the deal himself. Its a good thing Theo Epstein isn’t the Celtics GM or else Pierce might get traded to the Reds next week.

I am extremely happy Paul Pierce will stay a Celtic for the next five years. Especially since he proved that the 2004-05 season that featured the Paul Pierce Pouty Bitch Face could in fact be an anomaly. Lets just hope that Ainge can actually get a decent ensemble cast together to help Paul out. I am not sure Sebastian Telfair is a step in the right direction, but that still remains to be seen. I’ll give him a game or two before I begin my criticisms.

Congrats Paul. Thank you for ignoring your agent. I’ll be cheering for you with the hope that your legacy includes bringing another Championship to Boston.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

OK so my apologies to those of you out there who have been wondering where I have been. I took some time to travel a little bit(actually a lot a bit), see some old friends and family, and take care of some work related stuff(yeah I have another job. For whatever reason the blog gig doesn’t seem to pay for my extravagent addictions like fur coats, asian masseuses, and internet porn).

A lot of action has occured since I last checked in. The Bruins did some restructuring atop their Front Office including acquiring a new General Manager and Head Coach. The Patriots will be gathering together for mandated camps soon after their optional mini-camps last week.

The Celtics made some, shall we say “interesting” moves in this years 2006 draft as well. Led by GM Danny “At Least I’m Not Isiah Thomas” Ainge, the Green swapped their first round pick, Raef LaFrentz, and Dan Dickau to Portland for Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, and a 2008 2nd-round pick. They then acquired the number 21 pick from Phoenix for cash and a future 1st round pick and drafted Rajon Rondo from Kentucky. In a third trade, Ainge got Cal star Leon Powe for a future second round pick as well. The Celts’ 1st round pick became Randy Foye, essentially equating the deal to drafting Telfair over Foye in the first round. Many of you may recognize Telfair from an ESPN documentary “Through the Fire” which follows Telfair from his days as a high school superstar in New York City through his experience during the NBA draft. If you didn’t understand any of the last paragraph or simply spaced off here’s a quick summary:

2006 NBA Draft:
Celts get Rajon Rondo(1st round) - good
Celts get Leon Powe(second round) - should be good although he has bad knees
In Trades:
No more Raef LaFrentz - very good
No more Dan Dickau - who?(the white guy that backed up the back up point guard)
Celts get Theo Ratliffe - neutral
Celts get Sebastian Telfair - hopefully good although the jury will be out on this one for a while
Get it?

Obviously a lot going on in Red Sox Nation as well. The Sox hit the all star break 3 games up in the AL East to rival New York. Big Papi represented the BoSox in the Home Run Derby with Manny, Papelbon, and Mark Loretta joining him as the Sox All-Star representatives. Mike Lowell is having all All-Star caliber season as well although its no surprise that A-Rod got the nod over him to represent the AL at third base. In all honesty it really doesn’t matter as long as he continues to play well. Also the AL won with a great comeback in the ninth to secure home field advantage for the American League in the World Series. We all hope this becomes a good thing.

The Sox defense has been the most noteworthy, with only 33 errors committed so far this season which leads the American League. The pitching has been better but still needs improvement. Matt Clement, or as my buddy Hahs has deemed him Matt “Clement-al Case”, is still on the Disabled List as well as Keith Foulke, David Wells, and slugger Wily Mo Pena. Gabe Kapler and Mike Timlin have both returned to the line-up. Ironically, the highest paid and more highly touted off season acquisitions in Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez have taken a much needed back seat to prospects turned major leaguers Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen as the go to set up men. This has taken some pressure off Timlin and will keep his appearances and arm in more reasonable shape. Javier Lopez was also acquired as a left handed specialist from the White Sox for David Riske, an off season pick up that worked our horribly. The starting pitching has been inconsistent yet just quite good enough to not cause panic. Schilling has been the best although Beckett has posted the better record so far. One disturbing statistic has been Beckett’s amount of homeruns which have been the most in the American League. As a big game pitcher though, I am pretty sure we are going to like Beckett come crunch time. Wake has been much improved from the beginning of the season and will hopefully be a consistent number three starter or better for the rest of the season. The best surprise has been Jon Lester who is 4-0 since coming up to the Bigs. Lester has showed that he is as good as everyone has made him out to be although he does have some room for improvement, mostly cutting down his walks. Our fifth starter has been a little bit of an issue though with patchwork replacements holding down the fort until either David Wells or Matt Clement return. Kansas City Royal reject Kyle Snyder has been the latest invalid to bear the title of “Red Sox Fifth Starter”. Its not a good sign when one of you starting pitchers was cut from the Kansas City Royals. Its even worse when said person is picked up by a team with a $120 million payroll. Keep an eye on this one folks because if Clement or Boomer don’t show signs of improvement we could see a little trade action in the next few weeks.

Overall the Sox have been solid recently. Dropping three of four from Oakland is a little discouraging though. Even more discouraging is that as good as the Red Sox have been, and as bad as the Yankees have supposedly been, we are only a half game up in the AL. And considering all signs point to a AL Central Wildcard team, the Sox better turn it up for the second half stretch or else October could be a baseball free month in the Hub. Just more incentive to stay tuned I guess. Well its good to be back.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

Last night was just an example of how fragile and capricious personal emotions can be during the months of a baseball season. Yesterday my psyche was on cloud nine, this morning it sat by the blue rubbermaid barrels waiting to be dragged off and slung onto a pile of other Red Sox fans’ disheartened mindsets. This will last for another few hours until Tom Caron and the NESN pregame show will arouse my Red Sox libido back to its rightful spot on a small dip in between the twin peaks of hopeful inspiration and dreaded fear.

I thought about the nature of my relationship with baseball, in light of yesterdays 7-3 loss to the Yankees, over my Rice Crispies this morning. My key realization, however obvious, is that baseball is indeed a game of averages. Not just numbers on a piece of paper, but emotional averages as well. As with any competitive league, there is essentially only one team, and their fans, who are left happy, satisfied, and fulfilled at the conclusion of any given season. However, I believe it to be how happy your team has made you on average, that is the ultimate test of a successful season, week, or month in the game of baseball. There is certainly the relevance of how much you enjoyed watching your team play. As well as the lesser details of how much your team causes you to invest your time, how hopeful you are before a given contest or season, and how much you believe they could win a title. But those are less essential than an over-simplified summary of just how happy your team actually made you.

You could rank your team on a .1000 percentage scale as to how happy they made you if you would prefer to stay loyal to the Bill James school of baseball numbers. I am sure you could create a mathematical formula as well that would include such numerical variables as how many hours you spent watching, thinking, or talking about your team; how many souvenir items you purchased within the last year; and how much you would be willing to pay for a playoff ticket. You could also throw in the team’s record as well.

As residents of a city that has enjoyed an abundance of championship trophies in the past few years, it might be a little more difficult to fully embrace this concept. After the Patriots’ streak of dominance, its almost hard to comprehend that anything but a championship could still be considered a good season. But if you really try to empathize with an average fan from an average franchise(and remind yourself you are a Celtics and Bruins fan too), its less difficult than you think. For example, I am sure Buffalo Bills fans of the ‘90s were pretty happy with their teams during the seasons. And if you don’t think Philly fans were happy just to have gotten to the Superbowl, well, then you need to talk with a member of the Department of Public Works. I am sure there are also a few(perhaps very few) Tampa Bay fans who actually enjoy watching Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, and Scott Kazmir play on a daily basis, despite their abysmal record. And likewise a group of Yankee fans who can’t possibly enjoy watching their team play.

Baseball is the ultimate example of how this concept is important. On any given day their could be a slew of fans around the country happy with how their team played that day, regardless of whether they lived in St. Louis, Pittsburg, Chicago, or Kansas City. However, it is exactly the average feeling that is most important. Just as any big league slugger is not judged on any single game performance, but rather his average over a particular span of time. That time period could range from a week, to a season, to a decade, to a history of the franchise. For me and the Red Sox right now, it’s this season, with the occasional streak thrown in as well. And despite last nights hurtful loss, I’m pretty happy. Cautious, intrigued, anxious, and excited, and sometimes frustrated as well, but pretty happy nevertheless.

The most efficient way to fully evaluate your team based on this philosophy, would be to judge them at the end of the season, but prior to playoffs. This is a lot like giving a grade before the final exam, but it would put things in perspective a little more. As a fan, you might be more appreciative if you took as second to think about how your team made you feel during the duration of the season. No we’re not going to hold hands, take deep breaths, and really open up to the lesbian hippy moderator sitting Indian style across the circle, nodding her head like she really cares. But maybe you can crack a beer and appreciate(or scorn) how happy your team made you that season, before the ultimate disappointment of them not winning a championship.

As this strategy exists on averages, it is appropriate especially for baseball. As it transcends numbers, it can be universally applicable. As a baseball fan, it can be emotionally exhausting riding the highs and lows of a 162 game season. And many of us are not quite seasoned vets at it. Its tough to balance the appropriate detachment with the necessary passion of being a dedicated fan. So at any given time during the duration of a season, you can stop and think about the overall sensation of rooting for you team. If you’re a die-hard Pirates fan, you might not want to do this around razor blades, thick rope, or a medicine cabinet filled with old half-full prescription bottles. Or maybe you don’t want to think about it at all. But for the average Red Sox fan, it might be imperative for your sanity to think about the slightly bigger picture every now and again.

Or maybe you could just listen to what your Rice Crispies have to say.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

I am sure by now you have all heard the sad news that ABC Sports Broadcasting legend Keith Jackson has retired. Mr. Jackson was one of the most well known and well liked sports broadcasters in the business and had one of the most distinctive voices as well. He primarily covered college football and was especially known for his catch phrases and unique pronunciation like “…a 6’3” soph-O-more out of Dayton Ohio…aaallllll leather and hampstriiings.”

I once declared that if my life were ever recreated into a sporting event, I would like Keith Jackson to do the play-by-play. Al Michaels might be in consideration as well but probably wouldn’t beat out Johnny Most. Tommy Heinsohn and the Rem-dawg would be the color guys. Mostly because it would be funny to hear Tommy call out everyone who tried to screw me over.

I am sure I am not along in saying that Saturdays just will not be the same without Keith Jackson. It’s like when you were a kid, Saturdays just weren’t the same without Bugs, Garfield, or the Smurfs. I honestly could watch a college football game with two teams whom I care nothing about just to hear Keith announce the game. Hopefully those Gatoraaaaade commercials will keep going so I won’t have complete withdrawal. Also I think ESPN Classic should do a Keith Jackson marathon sometime and show his best games.

Allow me to say, Mr. Keith Jackson, thank you for all your wonderful commentating and nonsensical phraseology that only you could pull off. It truly was a pleasure. And unlike some of your peers like Dick Vitale, you made your name synonymous with a college sports broadcasting without ever annoying the shit out of me or convincing everyone that you were on powerful anti-depressants. Keith Jackson, broadcasting legend and personal favorite.

WOOAAAHH NELLYYYY!!!

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

The Bruins and Celtics seasons are over. Unfortunately I can’t say that either was a success. For some reason people continued to root for the Celtics down the stretch despite their atrocious record. Some days it was downright painful to watch. I think because the collective record of the Atlantic Conference is perennially morbid, it allows us to somehow maintain hope that a 33-49 record will make the playoffs and thus be a successful season. Or maybe our Celtic standards have dropped so low that everything has become relative to itself. Meaning that if we sucked real bad last year then this years sucking pretty bad wasn’t all that bad even though it was bad. Get it?

Hopefully this year’s draft will help us out a lot(don’t we say that every year?). Its hard to pinpoint what this team needs. The problem with the Celts is that it doesn’t seem that one player will solve all this team’s problems. We kind of need help in every department. We don’t have a true point guard, we don’t have any solid or experienced post players, and our veteran leadership exists in only two players on the roster. You could also lay some pretty heavy lashings on the coach and Front Office. Yes we can make arguments that our youth has potential, but it seems our distorted green lenses have compelled us to make that argument for the past few years. Its obvious that the Celtics need something(or someone) yet you and I and apparently Danny Ainge have yet to put our finger on what that something actually is. We’d like to think it will come in the form of our 2006 First Round Draft Pick. Although Ainge’s track record of drafting young potential with promise isn’t very comforting. Can we please not draft a high schooler this year. I think it would be pretty embarrassing if Danny Ainge was arrested after we made the playoffs for purchasing alcohol for minors in the form of celebratory champagne. Well here’s hoping another Draft Pick works out. Go Green(sigh).

In other news, the polar opposite franchise(y’know the one that sucked for a long time and recently has been dominant) also has a draft coming up. This one is a lot longer and much more anticlimactic(sounds like a bad porn star). I am saying our top priorities are running back and linebacker. We have a solid O-line, a great young D-line, and our wide receivers are ok as well, despite the loss of David Givens. Of course it is always smart to stack up on Offensive Linemen since it seems they do down faster than a sedated Bill Parcells. It would be great to pick up a young and talented running back that could mentor under Corey Dillon for a year. Same goes with a linebacker. Obviously kicker is a need. Despite us picking up Tebucky Jones in the offseason we will probably need some depth in our secondary as well. Don’t expect Bill and Co. to break the habit of drafting the best football player/athlete available though. With his track record though, I am ok with that. He knows a hell of a lot more than I do. In Bill We Trust.

Schilling goes for his 5th win tonight. He will try to join the likes of Pedro Martinez and Babe Ruth for Sox pitchers to record five wins in April. I hope he does it.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

Yes its that time of year again folks. With Opening Day a few painsaking weeks away, the unpredictable, incomparable, and gamble-inducing NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament emerges in the nick of time to quell sports fan’s insatiable appetite for action and rescue us from having to…*gasp*…watch the NHL.

As I have been struck with March Madness for yet another year, I will place the mundane yet addicting motions of Spring Training onto the back burner while I enjoy the nation’s most exciting, nerve-racking, down-to-the-wire sporting event this side of the National Spelling Bee.

So while my comments on the Pros might be few and far between for the next few weeks, I promise to deliver once our anticipatory Opening Day finally arrives. Enjoy the Madness.

My Final Four: Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan State, Boston College.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

If any of you watched the NBA All-Star Skills competition on Saturday evening, you probably saw a familiar face to Celtics fans introduce the challenge. Former Celtic and leading Tommy-point winner Walter McCarty, who now plays for the Clippers, showed off his pipes by singing the National Anthem. I think good old Waltah was a little nervous though since the rendition was certainly not the best I have witnessed. I give him credit for getting up there and doing it though. He was probably doomed from the start knowing that Destiny’s Child was doing the Anthem before the actual All-Star Game. By the way, their a cappella version was one of the best National Anthems I have ever heard. The only thing that could have made it better would be a Tommy Heinsohn “I LOVE BEYONCE!!!” at the end of it. Actually nevermind. That probably would have ruined it.

The All-Star weekend overall was just ok in my opinion. I actually enjoyed watching the skills competition. Obviously the Dunk Contest has faltered in recent years. It has been a sharp decline since Vince pretty much set an impossible to top performance 7 years ago. His show at that dunk contest is like the oldest child being the star athlete and then going to Harvard. No matter what the younger children do they are not going to top that.

I did thoroughly enjoy Andre Iguodala’s behind the backboard dunk though. And little Nate Robinson did well for himself, especially with the over-the-Spud Webb dunk. Obviously everyone is upset that Robinson got to take 50 chances to finally get his dunk right. I understand the point that the crowd wants to see a great dunk rather than an easy-gimme-because its your last chance dunk but I am pretty sure everyone agrees that giving Robinson that many chances is pretty ridiculous. I do agree that it was absurd and seemed a little fixed, but is anyone completely surprised and disgusted by this? C’mon people it’s the 2006 NBA Dunk Contest. Does it really strike people as the kind of event that’s completely uncorruptable? They probably just needed to give Knicks fans something to cheer about or be proud of. It is a big market you know.

The only other thing that really upset me(the sloppy play and bad basketball is pretty much expected), was actually just one person. I think I actually got nauseous when Kobe was announced and people cheered. Seriously though, I almost threw up. I was totally shocked that people actually cheered for this guy? I don’t think I realized how much I actually hate Kobe Bryant. I mean I really hate him. There are no other active professional athletes that disgust me more than Kobe. I don’t care that he is a good basketball player. He is one of the most classless athletes I have ever seen. Is this guy fooling anyone? It really bothers me that people might actually believe he is a good person/teammate. On my Professional Athlete Hateometer, Kobe has successfully surpassed Jason Kidd to join the ranks of Barry Bonds and Warren Sapp. Good company. I think I actually hate him more than the Yankees at this point. Ugh I have to stop typing this before I vomit on my keyboard.

Lastly, its hard for me to believe its only the All-Star Break. I usually equate the All-Star Break with the mid-way point of the season. However with all the frustration that has consumed me as a Celtics fan, its kind of hard to believe this has only been a little more than half a season. I have been more upset than any fan should be over half a season. Yet I still can’t stop rooting for these guys. Well, maybe not until April 3rd. But seriously, can they turn it around? Is it possible for them to transform into a playoff caliber team? I am still hoping. But I guess only time will tell. I guess it’s a good thing that the phrase isn’t “it ain’t over ‘til the former sixth man sings”.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

Not that the Red Sox Nation needs anything “official” but tomorrow officially begins the first stage in the 2006 Boston Red Sox season: the reporting of pitchers and catchers. Its just in time too. I was starting to get impatient. After the Gonzalez signing sealed the position spots and the roster seemed to stabilize, there was a significant decrease in the action. I almost started watching Bruins games.

I did, in fact watch a few Celts games. I can’t help but to root for these guys. Even though they are not showing many signs of improving, I still can’t help but to check the newspaper in the morning to see how many games back in the Atlantic we are. By the way did anyone else think the game the other night epitomized our entire season? Pierce out playing the all-star on the opposing team(LeBron) on his way to 50 points and yet we still lose. Oooo I am so frustrated. But…just…can’t…get…into…draft…pick…mode… arrrrgghhhh….

Anyways back to the Sox. Of course, even though pitchers and catchers report tomorrow, there still is a substantial lack of action. I mean, how many times can we ask “How will Foulke respond to last year?” or “Will Schilling return to his past form?” The answers aren’t so proverbial as to be blowing in the wind, but we do have to wait at least another 8 weeks before we begin to get some concrete results.

Leave it to Red Sox fans to start next year’s hot stove before the beginning of spring training of this year. Already I have heard a bunch of rumors that the Sox might try to get Andruw Jones as a free agent next offseason. That, I suppose would be what we do with the extra Johnny Damon money since we didn’t exactly splurge to get Gonzalez(or any of our free agents for that matter). Considering Trot’s age, obtaining Jones and moving Crisp to right would possibly give us the best outfield in baseball. Well, maybe not defensively…ahem Manny. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here people. The only way that could happen this year is if Atlanta doesn’t think that a)they are contenders or b)they can afford to compete for Jones, then they might try to deal him before the deadline. And since I am not so sure Atlanta would be willing to concede their NL East domination so quickly this probably isn’t happening. So lets stay grounded shall we?

You don’t need me to tell you but coming into this spring training there are a lot of ‘if’s. The amount of offseason moves adds to the one big ‘if’ that relates to how this team will gel. It’s pretty much a fact that recent Red Sox teams rely on chemistry more than BALCO(there’s actually two ways you could read that sentence but I will leave it up to you). There has been a big change in the clubhouse this year. New faces. New personalities. New hitters in a lineup. It seems like the only two stable people in the clubhouse as of right now are Ortiz and Varitek. Even the 40 year old Timlin has some question marks, especially if the enigma that is Keith Foulke flops.

Although for the amount of uncertainty that exists, there is also an incredibly high ceiling of potential as well. Just imagine if this team reached even half its potential. With the start of pitchers and catchers tomorrow, let me be one to say I like our pitchers and I like our catchers. Despite his age, Varitek is coming off his best season yet. The Beckett trade was one of the most important acquisitions of the offseason and it gives us possibly two legit number one starters and an incredibly deep rotation(as of today). The best news however is that our bullpen is significantly improved. Time will tell exactly how much improved but if things stay relatively the same personnel-wise, I think its safe to say we wont be finding ourselves in the same situation as last year when we almost called up little leaguers to pitch for us.

I do kinda wish pitchers and catchers was more exciting. Although with all the new faces on the 2006 Red Sox, these next few weeks should be a good time to get acquainted. Now that I think about it, for the fans this spring training is kind of like a first date. Everyone is mostly excited about it but also kind of nervous. It’s a good time to kind of get acquainted with a new persona. You try not to put in too much effort but then you can’t help it. And the whole time you are just thinking if its going to end in a champagne bath with a bunch of half naked male professional athletes. Uhhh…well maybe those are just my first dates. I’m going to go now.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

So as part of my “Patriots lost to Broncos and are not in the SuperBowl this year” coping mechanism, I made some impulse purchases to help cheer myself up. One of which was a DVD entitled City of Champions: Best of Boston. It was a little more expensive than my SuperBowl XXXVIII DVD but I was hurting too much to care. I am since over it(seeing as pitchers & catchers is three days away) but didn’t actually have a chance to watch the DVD until this weekend.

The DVD itself was just about what you would expect. It showed just about every highlight clip from every important or big Boston sporting event. The opening reel, set to “O Fotuna” successfully gave me goose bumps and was about as inspiring as the first time you ever heard “Eye of the Tiger”.

The following format of the movie consisted of a musical highlight reel focusing on a particular motif(e.g. championships, the retirement of Boston sports stars, etc.), then interview clips with certain Boston sports figures discussing a particular person or team, and then finally clips of that person, team, or event. Pretty much every clip or event that you would want is featured in some aspect on the film. Some are given more time and effort than others though.

My main complaint with the DVD is that it didn’t seem to have much rhyme or reason to when each clip or highlight reel came up. It was also pretty random in terms of which events were given a lot of coverage. It seemed that they just sort of combined a few Boston sports clips in no particular order sometimes, hoping that the viewers will be so excited to see highlights of their favorite Boston sports figures that they won’t care what order they are in.

One thing that I did really enjoy and found pretty original was the format of the interviews. They used interviews from about twelve or fifteen Boston sports personalities including Peter Gammons, Theo Epstein, Tommy Heinson, and Doug Flutie. However, rather than solely include each person’s comments on their own sport or team, they primarily use comments of these sports figures on the other sports franchises or people. For instance Jerry Remy comments on the Patriots, Theo talks about the Celtics, Doug Flutie on the Sox etc. It kind of seems awkward at first but then you realize all these people grew up around Boston. It also unifies all the Boston sports teams in a certain way, which gave me one of those warm fuzzy feelings and really made me proud to be a Boston fan.

Its also obvious that the producers of the movie are from Boston or at least consulted with Boston fans during the making of the movie. There is no crap about the Curse of the Bambino and they even include interviews with Peter Gammons, Jerry Remy, and Theo dissipating the phony myth. The movie also includes footage of some real local stars including Rocky Marciano(no Lou Merloni though). It was refreshing to have a local spirit to the movie rather than come cookie cutter or professional take.

One thing I realized was how lucky we have been to be Boston fans. The movie was over an hour long and I still didn’t think it even came close to fulfilling its potential as an all encompassing Boston sports documentary. This disappointment eventually turned to pride as I realized that no 108 minute documentary could ever fully cover each memorable Boston sports moment, team, or player. It literally would take a mini-series or DVD box set to fully cover the sports history in the Olde Town. I look at cities like Tampa Bay, Seattle, or Milwaukee and think that their all encompassing DVD highlight film could be limited to a SuperBowl run, dunk highlight reel, or intramural softball tournament that they and some of their drunk buddies came in third place in.

In any event, the movie itself was slightly disappointing but not necessarily by its own fault. The opening highlight clip is worth checking out although it would be better for a few people to chip in and buy it. It was also make a pretty good gift for big Boston sports fans, especially dads because they would probably appreciate it more and because they never had cool “D-V-D-s” when they were young to constantly rehash Boston sports triumphs at the click of a button. Final Grade: B

Last night the hottest ticket in town wasn’t the Celtics hosting of the Phoenix Suns. And despite Paul Pierce’s 40 points, including 33 in the second half, the most exciting basketball didn’t involve the Green.

Perhaps the best basketball game that has taken place in Boston this side of the new year took place a few miles down the road in Silvio O. Conte Forum where the 14th ranked Boston College Eagles hosted the 2nd ranked Duke Blue Devils.

Yeah I know. This is a “pro sports” blog. However, with the amount of Boston Professional Sports names attending the game, it would be hard to talk about anything else today. Attending last nights game at the Heights were Sports royalty Mr. Bob Craft, Larry Lucchino, Bill Belichick, Brad Faxon, Tim Russert, John Harrington, and of course Mr. Doug Flutie.

Announcing the game was Mr. College Basketball Dick Vitale, which at first almost made me sick to my stomach. Having Dick Vitale announce a Duke basketball game is like sitting next to one of those parents who ONLY cheers for their child at youth sporting events and would never admit that he or she ever makes mistakes. Sometimes when Dick even talks about Duke University I can barely hear him. Someone should tell him he needs to take the Blue Devil cock out of his mouth before he announces their games. However, to be fair, I was pleasantly surprised. Mr. Vitale did a very good job staying objective and calling the game in a fair manner. He even went as far as saying that Duke was definitely second best to UConn this year. Although he did say he would pick Duke in a head to head game.

The game itself was nothing short of thrilling. Aside from the final minute, the first half was pretty much even. In the final minute, coming out of a timeout, Duke capitalized on a pair of BC turnovers to increase their lead from 5 with 1:05 left in the half to 10 by halftime. Sean Marshall, who had the daunting task of covering J.J. Redick, gave the Duke star fits in the first half, keeping the prolific scorer to under ten points before the break. Marshall brought a great physical presence and incredible intensity to his duty guarding Redick and solidified his role as BC’s top defensive specialist.

In the second half, BC slipped a little finding itself down 18 points at one point to the Blue Devils. The Eagles really showed some testicular fortitude, however, playing balls to the wall defense and clawing their way back with a 16-4 run. They fought back to a 6 point then eventually a 3 point deficit with less than three minutes left in the game, proving to Duke and the raucous crowd at Conte Forum that the Eagles can contend with the best in the country. Despite two questionable foul calls that removed Craig Smith and Sean Marshall from the game, BC still found themselves with chances to tie the game with under a minute left in the game. However, it was Duke’s near perfect free throw shooting that eventually sealed the game, as well as a horrendous no-call on a blatant Sheldon Williams foul on a driving Tyrese Rice in the final seconds of the game. The refs didn’t completely blow the game, but it certainly would have been an interesting final ten seconds had the correct call been made.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the Eagles’ tenacity and ability to compete with the Blue Devils. I was even more impressed at the intense environment that was created by the BC fans at Conte Forum. Despite the loss, BC proved it can and will compete with the best of the best both on the court and off. The Eagles’ basketball team showed its true colors in the 83-81 loss while the BC Superfans showed that Conte Forum is slowly but surely becoming one of the most hostile environments in the ACC.

Now if only the Celts could warrant that kind of praise…(sigh)…

[quick sidenote: Did anyone watch SportsCenter directly following the game? If you did you might have seen a commercial for Black History Month(February) starring Derek Jeter as the featured professional athlete. Now I don’t mean to insult Mr. Jeter’s ethnicity or cultural background, but I was a little confused as to why they chose him to be the spokesperson. Isn’t that kind of like having John Wayne Bobbit be the spokesperson for Viagra? Or like buying Rupaul a Mother’s Day card? I mean, out of the 6,382,096 African American professional athletes they chose Derek Jeter? I am confused.]