The Sports Zoo

PATS vs CHARGERS

• Quinten Jammer is lined up on Donte Stallworth instead of Randy Moss…add Jammer to the Zach Thomas all stars for guys surviving on thier name instead of talent.
• Phillip Rivers looks absolutley terrible…he is obviously hurt still.
• Only the 2nd quarter, but we are getting a LOT of the Norv Turner Face.
• Asante Samuel and Ellis Hobbs are taking this game over.  The SD WR’s are completely overmatched.
• Can’t figure out if NE has a really good red zone D or if SD has a terrible red zone O.  I’m going with the latter.
• Laurence Maroney is running very similar to Marion Barber of the Cowboys tonight…when exactly did this happen?  As I write this, Maroney has completely De-Cleeted Marlon McCree…yowza.
• Brady marching downfield in the 4th quarter…how in the world did SD  beat indy???  This question has to be answered.  (Wide open Wes Welker TD, NE up by 9)
• 4th quater, BOOM goes the SD punt.  SD has punted 3 times inside the NE 45 and has kicked 4 red zone figgies today.  Norv Turner, please take a bow.  I write GAME OVER in my notebook.  WHY ARE YOU PUNTING FROM THE OPPONENTS 43 YARD LINE DOWN BY 9 WITH 5 MINUTES TO GO??????
• Brady marches downfield and ices the game, leaving me dissapointed there was no F.U. TD pass to Moss just to rub Norv’s dumb decisions in his face.

From the getgo, I thought that the Red Sox only involvement in the Johan Santana talks was to up the price the Yankees were going to have to pay for me.  Now it appears that Boston is set to deal a package of young studs to Minnesota that includes cancer survivor John Lester, and possibly young gun Jacoby Ellsbury.  Those guys are great, but if you can deal kids to get possibly the best pitcher in the game, you do it.  If this goes through, think of the rotation in Bean Town: Johan, Beckett, Dice-K, Schilling, Wakefield…with Clay Buckholtz, Kyle Snyder, Manny Delcarmen, and Craig Hansen all waiting for an opportunity to show what they’ve got.  That is some SERIOUS talent…even the young guys that will sit in Pawtucket and Portland this year are good enough to form a rotation for the likes of the Kansas City Royals or the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays. Also, for the record, since October 10th, the Red Sox, Celtics, BC Eagles, and Patriots have lost a COMBINED total of 5 games.  The Sox win the WS, then go out and improve their team with the best pitcher in baseball.  The Celtics are running wild through the Eastern Conference.  BC could have a Heisman Trophy winner (already won Unitas award) and are probably going to walk all over Michigan State in the Champs Sports Bowl.  Hell even the Bruins are in 2nd place in their division at 14-9, and it looks like they have a real chance to make the playoffs for the first time in 5 years. God its a good time to be a Boston sports fan.  How long can this last?????  (knock on wood)

Haven’t posted in quite some time, family drama and chaning careers will do that to you.  Also coming off of the high of your favorite team winning the world series, its hard to get any more inspired about sports than that.  As I get in a groove with the new job, posts here will probably pick up at the same clip there were at before.  But today is a day of rest, food, football, and tryptophan…so get out there and enjoy that wonderful family of yours.  Oh, and prepare for that anual Lions beatdown at about 12:00pm.  On a side note, the NFLN is still not allowing us to watch the late Thanksgiving Day game, becuase they are greedy bastards.  Don’t believe the NFL’s hype that it is the cable companies who are holding out, as NFLN’s contract demands are absolutely rediculous for the genre they offer.  If anything, shoot an email over at NFL.com and let them know how rediculous it is that consumers aren’t even given the option to pay for products if they wanted them.  Also see NFL Sunday Ticket (exclusively on Direct TV).

In keeping with the theme of holiday joy, here is quite possibly the best YouTube video ever made.  The Oakland Athletics completed a deal for thier new stadium in Fremont, CA last week….thankfully, Ben and Nate have something to say about it.

I waited a few days to post this entry because I wanted to be able to gain a piece of perspective before I wrote, and I think finally I’m able to articulate my feelings for this team properly.  This isn’t the same feeling Red Sox Nation had in 2004.  It’s not nearly as emotional, not nearly as releaving, not even close to as overdue.  But it’s definately sweeter.  It feels good to know that your team beat the two best teams in baseball before it even got to the World Series, then completely manhandled the NL team.  It feels good to have a wire-to-wire best team in baseball.  It feels good to not just win, but to completely dominate.  It feels good to know how Yankees fan’s feel.  Finally, it feels good to win when you are expected to; when you can’t sneak up on anybody because you have a giant bullseye on your chest every single night.

It feels really good.

If you would have asked me ten years ago if Boston would even be a condender with the departure of Clemens and Mo, I would have thought you were crazy.  Amazing what an owership change can do for not just a franchise, but a city (are your reading, Cubs fans?).  Now the Sox appear set for a decade of dominance, something so strange to a long time fan that it took a few days to settle in.  It still feels like we just had the All-Star break, and are nursing a 13 game lead on NY.  That was ages ago.

2007 World Series Champions.  It feels good.

(note: here is a video of the royal rooters outside the fens sunday night..man…)

I don’t mind the whole Rox vs Sox slogan that everybody made up this year, god knows it better than another “Subway” Series, but I fail to realize how making up a stupid name is going to generate any more excitement for the World Series than there already is.  So long as the Yanks or Sox are in this thing, enough people love them or hate them enough to acually watch every game.  This is in contrast to last years Tigers-Cards crap fest, and the 05 series between the ChiSox and the Astros feels like it never even happened.  So, memo to ESPN, you don’t need to come up with catchy little slogans for every single big game thats about to be played…we can figure out the magnitude of the matchup quite easily without rhyming.

(more after the jump)

Nevertheless, we are about 25 hours away from Josh Beckett thowing the first pitch of the 2007 World Series at the Fens, and hopefully we can be as entertained this week as we were over the past 10 days.  Kudos to the Indians, who played their tails off, and to the entire Cleveland organization for putting together what would appear to be a first class organization.  You can’t say enough about the influx of young talent on that team, as well as the great power pitching at the top of the rotation.  Hopefully they can keep it together next year and have another slug fest with Detroit for the AL Central title.

As for the Red Sox, I think a lot of people miscatagorize this team as an over the top, bloated payroll, pompus group of individuals.  They couldn’t be more off base.  This team is far from the mold that the Yankees have helped carve for role of the dominant team, and I can’t think of a team that was favored going into a World Series having so many flaws from top to bottom.  The truth is, this is not a very good team.  And this is not a group of jerks.

Sure, the Sox have a payroll of $143 millon.  That is second in baseball and double the payroll of most of the teams the Sox play, but tale a deep look at that payroll and you might be surprised.  Combined, the starting 2B (Pedroia), 1B (Youkilis), Closer (Papelbon), and Set-up man (Okijima) compose only $2.5 million in salary.  For as much “Million Dollar Man” montra that has been thrown around for Dice-K, he makes the same yearly salary as Jeff Weaver and Ted Lilly.  Most of the $143 million in salary will be gone next year as expiring deals leave the books.  See you later Matt Clement (9.5 mill), Curt Schilling (13 mill), Eric Gagne (6 mill), and Eric Hinske (5.99 mill).  Make room for the under 1 million salaries of Clay Bucholtz, John Lester, Jacoby Elsbury, Manny Delcarmen, and Kyle Snyder.

“Feeding the Monster” by Seth Mnookin outlines the personalities of the Red Sox players in a surprisingly intimate manner.  One chapter details how David Ortiz will bust open the door to Tito Francona’s office durring a press briefing with goggles and a backward’s hat, exclaiming “What up, bitches?”, while holding Kevin Millar in a headlock.  Curt Schilling often gets miscatagorized as a self promoting ass when he interjects himself into popular debates, but don’t give Schill the Michael Vick treatment so quickly, he has raised over $75,000 this season alone for Lou Gehrigs disease research.

Lots of people like to root for the underdog, and thats fine.  But this World Series, take a closer look at the “New Evil Empire”, and maybe those lovable Rockies will be the club that turns into just another team.  That is because this group of Red Sox is not only talented, but they are easy to like, and easy to cheer for, even if you’ve never been a fan of them before.  Give the boy’s a chance, you might just be surprised at how good a group of idiots makes you feel.

Thats all on this till later in the week, hoping for a great series with Colorado, and hoping to get one championship closer to catching the Yankees.  Go Sox!

You can find inspiration from anywhere.  Even from punching somebody while eating a turkey sandwich, then doing the Zombie Dance.

Nancy Drew attempted to make everyone like him last night, and I have to say, it worked.  Game 7 of the ALCS is tonight, the nerves are running high, and the excitement is even higher.  With the news breaking this morning that Indians pitcher Paul Byrd is an HGH user, this could be the shift in Karma that the Sox need to push them over the top.  Dice-K gets a chance to earn that high price tag against the far over-achieving Jake Westbrook, who’s tricky sinker unnerved the Sox typically patient lineup in game 3.

Six months of following every game for the Red Sox, and it comes down to one night for a trip to the World Series.  Dane, take us to game time buddy.