SleepingPoliceman

I wanted more time to write a little eloquently and/or ramble haphazardly about how lucky I feel to be a Red Sox fan now. If I had told you in 2003 that that would be the first of five trips to the playoffs in six years, and that at least two titles would come out of that stretch…I would have punched you in the neck for lying to me. And then cried. I was very emotional and volatile in 2003.

But the point stands: these are the golden days. And here’s hoping for 11 more wins and a third title. Not because we’re greedy, or because we deserve it, or because we’re entitled to it. But because…it would be awesome. And maybe we’re a little greedy. Come on, Sox…let’s get down to it.

And, yes, I love being in school. It’s going great. But I’m really, really unsatisfied that I will be in class from 7-9:40pm PST tonight. I guess that means I could catch the final inning or two somewhere on campus. Hopefully, when I get in front of the TV, Delcarmen will be pitching with an eight run lead. That would be nice.

Go Sox! It’s on, it’s on, it’s on.

Whether or not you care about the Celtics, I highly recommend watching this video of KG after the game last night. The man is certifiable. It’s disappointing that this official online version cuts out the four or five curses he dropped (leading to the audio being cut) right after the huge “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!” And when he starts a bunch of obscure shout-outs to ’sota and Chi-town, it sound like he’s talking in tongues. Then…then he calms down and gives a very sane and reasoned response to one of her questions. All the while, at any moment he might fall over and pass out like that spelling bee kid.

This is, of course, after he almost fell over right after the buzzer, and Leon Powe had told hold him up, saying, “I got you, I got you.”

Additionally, if you can find it (I can’t right now), check out the end of his locker room interview from Comcast Sports NE (formerly Fox Sports New England, if you didn’t know it changed over). He was yelling and screaming and jumping up and down, spraying beer everywhere…then he suddenly turned and grabbed Dickerson’s mic and said started talking like a concierge: “Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the locker room party. We’re going to be having a good time tonight. I’m your host, KG. Or as you may want to call me tonight: Champion.” Totally insane. And awesome.

Congrats to the Celtics, and congrats to the SP readers who stuck by this team even when they were garbage. This championship was for you. You…you’ve earned it.

First Red Sox (or any) post in a long, long time coming here soon. No-no? Yes-yes.

edit: well, this was an empty promise, huh? The bottom line: this was the only Sox game I went to in 2008. A friend at work had tickets, but didn’t want to go because he was tired after commencement weekend. He asked about 15 people around the building before getting to me, and was grateful I took the tickets off his hands. What proceeded was probably the greatest single baseball performance I’ll ever see in person. And I’m talking about the fact that even Lisa understood that a no-hitter was going on, and that she wasn’t supposed to talk about it. I was very proud of her.

All in all, it was a good night. Who doesn’t love Jon Lester?

6:10am: Greetings from the land of the rising sun. Or at least a couch in Brighton where the sun is rising. We’re about ready for the first pitch of the 2008 season. What better way to jump start the SP than a little half-awake live-blogging? Joe Blanton takes the mound to a decisive shrug of the Japanese faithful. Play ball!

6:12am: Pedroia hits a dribbler up the middle for the first hit of the season. Picking up where he left off and reaching across cultures, Dusty talks smack in Japanese all the way up the baseline.

6:16am: Manny flies out to end the first. NESN pretends that it’s not going to go to commercial to cover the historic moment of Dice-K taking the mound. Then they say, “Eh, whatever,” and start running the first of many, many Southwest ads of the year.

6:18am: It’s nice to see that the Sox have endured a 16 hour flight around the world to end up in the Asian version of the Tropicana Dome. It’s, uh, not the prettiest ballyard in the land. Or maybe it is…I don’t know. They could at least have looked to the SkyDome for inspiration, right? Or maybe included more neon and flashing lights.

(more…)

The Sports Guy: ‘Free fallin’ out into nothing’

I’m going to point at everyone’s friend for a moment: I think it’s perfect that he parallels the ‘02 Super Bowl and this one. I mean, they’re right there. I don’t think a reasonable Patriot fan can be too pissed about losing this game…we toughed out an improbable victory back then, and we had one toughed out against us now. What goes around comes around. Yes, it would have been great to win and go 19-0 and be the best team to ever be a team in the history of ever. But…it didn’t happen. So it goes. I’m not happy about it, but I can’t be too upset either. The team has won three titles this decade after being a joke forever. That’s pretty great. Then was good, now is bad…at least there was a then.

Anyway, the parallels between the Super Bowls just underscore how much the Sports Guy himself has changed. Back then he became famous for being the, “Holy shit, I’m just a regular dude who got to go to the Super Bowl and, wow, my team won and I just can’t believe it!” dude. Now he’s the “Yeah, I was all start to write my fourth Super Bowl victory column talking about the private 18 person party I was going to go to in Tom Brady’s hotel room. I have friends who have connections. I’m pretty cool, yeah, they think I’m pretty cool,” dude. The shift is seismic.

I still read his stuff every time he puts something up…but he’s definitely a different guy now. And his, “I’m a regular Joe” common man perspective is pretty much all artifice at this point. Not going to blame him or lament his path…just funny the way things turned out for him.

Any and all parallels you want to make between this transition and the evolution of the football team he roots for can be made without my participation. I will now go off to mull over the question of whether this marks the end of the Patriots as a top-tier football dynasty, with nucleus of players and coaching staff never recovering from this defeat…or if they are back in the thick of it next January, pushing to vindicate themselves and get that fourth title.

Or I won’t mull that…instead, I’ll just go to the Beanpot, where the team I root for is never the heavily favored overdog. Come on, Eagles.

SP’s official Super Bowl reaction:

It’s 11 days until pitchers and catchers report.

ESPNsoccernet.com: Liverpool fans trying to buy out American owners

More details of the plan are here at Anfield Online. The site went live at 5pm GMT today, but apparently crashed within 10 minutes. Whether that’s because so many people wanted to go there or because their bandwidth allocation could only handle three visitors is unknown at this time.

But…my God, this would be so cool. I would love to own a share in my favorite soccer team.* This would be as good for me as being part owner in a hotel in Ireland was for my grandfather. Too bad that I’ll never get a share, for the following reasons:

1. I could never afford to drop ten grand on this. (The only way this is overcome is if I hit the lottery, or if the British economy nosedives in the next few weeks, making one pound equal to half a U.S. cent.)

2. They will never successfully purchase the team. If for no other reason because the American owners won’t want to look like jackasses. (Damn you, Hicks.)

3. The website will likely never get up and running again.

Still, it got a mention on SoccerNet, and was linked from the main ESPN.com page. Somewhere there’s a bitter fan who will always remember that one night, drunk on Carlsberg at The Grapes, he drew up this cockamamie plan on a pub napkin to take over his favorite club. And the plan got far enough along that the Worldwide Leader in Sports was willing to put it on its website. He’ll always have that…the dirty Scouser.

Now, time to head back over to MyFootballClub and reconsider a share.

*That’s right, I said soccer…a rare instance of respect for the American gridiron. But it’s only in deference to the (no-longer-trademarked) Big Game of this weekend. Karma is a fickle mistress, and I have no need to flirt with her right now

Since Game 5 of the ALCS, the Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox have gone 44-3.

[Boston.com]

I wouldn’t describe the following link as necessarily Not Safe For Work. But…it isn’t really safe either. Be warned: it is full of foul and explicit language…which is sort of the point. The title of the article is accurate and apt.

Robert Edward Auctions: Can we even run this? 1898 Obscene Language Baseball Document – Not For Kids!

I’m sure I’m being naive, but it amazes me that people used such harsh and foul expletives back in the 1890s. That’s 110 years ago. William McKinley hadn’t even been shot, yet apparently ballplayers were throwing around phrases like, “I’ll make you suck my ass!” I know that things weren’t as innocent and chaste back then as I thought…but still, it’s somewhat shocking to see these things in print.

Those are some filthy mouths. What would Jimmy Collins of the Boston Beaneaters think? (From the looks of it, probably something about a dog.)

History and baseball: what can’t they do?

Goatees win championships.

Thank you, Red Sox. What a year. Let the Papelbon dancing begin…