Tag: Sports

MLB Playoff Predictions — Division Round

The Wild Card games are over. How did my picks do?

Not great, not bad. There were only two and I was 1–1. I got Toronto right and San Francisco wrong. It’s an even number year so I should have known the Giants were going to advance. Oh well, live and learn.

Now on to the Division Round. First, the American League.

Boston vs Cleveland. I always pick the Red Sox. I live in Boston. Duh. This year I feel it is the correct pick even without my bias. The Indian’s starting rotation is in injury shambles. The Red Sox greatest strength is their offense. They should devour Cleveland’s pitching. Go Red Sox.

Toronto vs Texas. These two cats hate each other. It could be a fun series to watch. I look at this more in terms of who I want to face should my Red Sox advance to the next round. The answer is… I don’t know. Toronto scares me. Texas scares me too. My head tells me that the Blue Jays will advance because they are rolling at this point. I think I’ll go with that. The Blue Jays will win.

Now for the National League, aka the league I barely noticed at all this year.

Los Angeles vs Washington. Far be it from me to dis Clayton Kershaw, but there’s no way I’m betting against Max Scherzer. Oh how I wish we had signed him when he was a free agent. Life in Fenway would have been so different had we snagged that dude. I’m picking Washington.

San Francisco vs Chicago. Here we go, kids. The longest championship drought on Earth (is it?), the Chicago Cubs. Is this the year? It sure sounds like it. They are a hell of a team. Obviously I am picking them, they are the safe bet, but having lived through the Red Sox tragedies leading up to 2004 I have experience watching great teams blow it in colossally horrid ways. We just have to sit back and wait to see how the Cubbies will blow it this year. We all know they will.

So there you have it, I am predicting a Boston vs Toronto AL Championship series, and a Washington vs Chicago NL Championship series. Will any of those picks be correct? Not likely!

GO RED SOX!

MLB Playoff Predictions — Wild Card

Most years I try and post my predictions for each round of the Major League Baseball and National Hockey League playoffs. In baseball, the wild card round starts tonight (and ends tomorrow) so I best get to it!

American League – Baltimore vs Toronto: Can you believe that three teams from the AL East made the post season this year? Less than an hour from now two of them will duke it out for the opportunity to play Texas in the Division round. I seriously want Baltimore to take this game because I want all teams that seem like a threat to the Red Sox winning the American League to lose. Sadly it’s not going to happen. Toronto is going to win tonight.

National League — San Francisco vs New York: A couple of confessions here. First, I barely followed the National League at all this year. Second, my playoff picks are not exactly logical. Often I’ll just pick the team that I traditionally hate the least. Third, I hate all baseball teams that have any connection to New York. The Mets are from New York. I effin’ loathe them. The Giants used to be from New York. I effin’ loathe them too. That means I want both of these chumps to lose tomorrow. Sadly, I have to pick one. I am going to pick the Mets and I hate myself a little for doing so. You suck, Mets.

There you have it. My ever so well thought out picks for the wild card round. Toronto wins tonight, and New York wins tomorrow. I’ll go over the results and make my picks for the division round on Thursday.

Play ball!

Red Sox: Feels Like Pre-2004

There are so many people today who are fans of the Boston Red Sox who have no idea what it means to be a fan of the Boston Red Sox. Once they finally won the World Series, back in 2004, the idea of the Fellowship of the Miserable sort of went away. Now, 12 years later, it’s a distant memory.

For those who don’t understand what it used to be like, let’s just say that last night was like old times.

The Sox magic number to clinch the American League East was one. One Red Sox win or one Toronto Blue Jays loss and the Sox are division champs. The Blue Jays were playing Baltimore, and the Red Sox were playing the Yankees (of course).

Late in the game down in New York, the word comes through that the Blue Jays have lost. Congratulations, Red Sox, you’ve won the division. They had a 3–0 lead and just needed to put away the Yankees so they could start celebratin’.

Bottom of the ninth, their closer on the mound. Kimbrel decides he doesn’t want to throw any strikes. One hit and a slew of walks later and it’s 3–1 Yankees. In comes Joe Kelley to try clean up Kimbrel’s mess. At first it looks like he might get through it. He gets the first two hitters out. Then, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two outs, friggin’ Mark Teixeira hits a grand slam. Yankees win, 5–3.

This is what the damn Red Sox used to do to us all the time. Just as it’s time to start the party… lose in gut wrenchingly awful fashion.

Thanks for the memories, guys. Now DON’T DO IT AGAIN!

Rick “Cy Young” Porcello

Rick Porcello is a 20 game winner.

I owe him an apology.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2016/07/29/rick-porcello-goes-distance-win-over-angels/3zSza2D2Gxz4G2Hyh0jAhO/story.html

Last year the Red Sox signed Porcello to an absurdly huge contract that was way over his head and he was awful. He couldn’t get my grandmother out and she passed away 18 years ago.

When the 2016 season started I, like most Red Sox fans, expected more of the same. something happened on the way to last place though. Porcello wasn’t terrible. He started pitching really well and going very late into games. I thought it was a fluke. I jokingly called him Cy Young. Oh look, Cy Young Porcello made it into the seventh inning with the lead. Oh look, Cy Young Porcello made it into the eighth inning. Stuff like that. I thought it was a statistical anomaly. Even the worst players can go on hot streaks, right? Right?

Last night, pitching in Toronto against the team in which we are in a serious playoff race, Porcello won his 20th game of the season. He’s 20–3. 20 wins and three losses. Given his performance last season, that is freakin’ insanity.

I have to apologize to the guy. I thought he’d come back to Earth. Instead he just kept mowing down the competition. Now when I call him Cy Young it is because I feel he’s the man to beat in the Cy Young award discussion.

Congratulations, Rick Porcello. 20 game winner.

Calendar Hate

The one single month that I hate the most out of all of the months on the calendar is DecemberJanuaryFebruaryMarch.

September is a close second. Why? Because summer ends in September. First the temperature drops, then the leaves start to fall, and then summer ends. Screw you, September. I hate you. Hockey training camps and pre-season games make the pain a little more bearable, but not much. Not enough.

Ugh… I hate you September. You suck.

Happy September 1, world.

Oh What a Relief

Ahhhhhhhhh….

I just got home from work. I am officially on a four day weekend. Oh what a relief it is. I am professional responsibility free until Monday. Happy Happy Happy

The only thing left to do today is for David Price to pitch like an ace and beat the Orioles. The Red Sox have won five in a row and need to start pummeling opponents again if they are going to make the post season. Let the winning continue tonight. And if you blow it, Price? Then you can kiss my very fat ass.

Go Red Sox

Go Vacation

Huge Game

It’s a huge game today for fans in New England. This time of year it doesn’t get any bigger than this.

For some reason my gut is telling me that Jarome Iginla is going to light things up in the second period. I have no basis for that feeling except that Iginla is awesome. He’s a shadow of his younger self, but I am seriously digging the fact that he is finally a Bruin.

note: you didn’t think I was talking about the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, did you? Honestly, I could care less.

The Return of Tim Thomas

Tim Thomas agreed to a try out deal with the Florida Panthers. Let’s start by saying that no one was ever a bigger fan of Tim Thomas the goalie than I was. I watched him in Providence, I watched him come out of nowhere and steal an NHL job through nothing more than hard work, I watched him become a starter, a Vezina winner, and a Conn Smythe winning Stanley Cup champ. I rooted for him all the way. He was the best.

Off the ice he turned out to be a tea party-esque nut job, and while that was totally distracting and annoying, it never changed the fact that he was Tim “The Man” Thomas in net. I don’t care what his politics or personal life are like (although I’d draw the line at rooting for him if he turned out to be chummy with the Hitler or Stalin types, you know?), hell I don’t even care if you’re a complete asshole. If you work hard and do your best by us, the fans, then I’ll tip my hat to you and give you my sincere thanks.

But noooooooooooooo.

Timmy had to break the contract that he agreed to that would pay him a truck load of money in order to spend time with his family. What’s the truth? I would put money on Timmy not liking either his teammates, his management, or the city, but how do I know. What it comes down to is that he screwed us, the fans, last season and for that I say to hell with him. I hope he never plays another game in the NHL. It shows you how insanely desperate the Panthers are to give a deal, even if it’s just a PTO, to a 39 year old with a history of breach of contract. If he wants to go play in Finland again, then good luck to him. Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. I don’t ever want to see him playing in an NHL game again.

There is only one thing that Boston sports fans truly want from their professional athletes. We want them to work hard and do their best. That’s it. Really. If any fan base realizes that winning isn’t everything, it’s the fan base that stood behind a Red Sox team that went 86 years without a title. We want you to win, but if you work hard and do your best and come up short then we’re still going to hero worship the shit out of you. Thomas used to be the perfect guy for Boston, and then he screwed us over and went home for a year. To hell with him.

Bad Day for Boston Sports

It’s been a crummy day for Boston sports.  First, the Bruins blew a 2-0 lead over the Penguins last night, all in the late minutes of the third period, and lost 3-2.

Today, the Patriots lose Wes Welker to the Denver Broncos.

And to top it off, I now learn that Terry Francona, ex Red Sox manager, has made a Harlem Shake video with the Cleveland Indians.

Will the pain never end?

Another NHL Lockout Post

tick tock, tick tock.

The clock is ticking.  One week to go until the league’s deadline to cancel the season.  One week to go until the unthinkable happens… again… and the league cancels the whole entire season.  One week.

And the two sides didn’t meet face to face yesterday.  Are you kidding?

So here are two of the remaining sticking points.

Ready?

The league wants next season’s salary cap to be 60 million dollars.  The players want next season’s salary cap to be 65 million dollars.

Both sides have agreed that term length of the new collective bargaining agreement (assuming they ever actually agree to one) should be ten years.  The players want an option to back out after seven years.  The league wants an option to back out after eight years.

There’s also an issue dealing with player pensions that seems like it might be a legitimate problem, but is still something that a little give and take should be able to resolve in a short time.  Still though… they are hung up on seven years vs eight years, and 60 million vs 65 million.  Really.  Both sides are saying that publicly.  Honestly, they are.  Both sides are so incredibly stupid that they are risking the cancellation of ANOTHER NHL season over these issues.

My god people, how much of a collective group of assholes can you be?  For the salary cap?  How about 62.5 million.  Problem solved!  As for the term length, I have a more complicated solution.  Take a coin, right?  Flip it.  Heads means the opt out is seven years.  Tails means the opt out is eight years.  Problem solved!

They have had a Federal mediator at all of the recent talks.  I swear that poor son of a bitch must be ready to just start punching these idiots.  Meet with the players and punch Donald Fehr in his World Series canceling head.  Meet with the players and punch Gary Bettman in his season canceling head.  BOOM!  Problems solved!  Drop the damn puck!