Yesterday was a terrible day to be a Boston sports fan. I’m most upset about the Bruins, not only did they lose game 7, but they lost it in sudden-death overtime to Scott Walker who had delivered an awful cheap shot to Aaron Ward and should have been suspended for game 6. I really thought this was the Bruins’ year. I should have known better. This is what they do. This is why I stopped caring about hockey for so long; rooting for the Bruins is like being a Cubs fan.
Posts Tagged ‘Boston
15
May
09
UGH
18
Jun
08
City of Champions
I remember being a little kid falling asleep as Johnny Most’s raspy voice called the game. I remember watching games on TV and emulating Most’s voice as I called the game myself. I remember my first Celtics game when my Dad offered to buy me a shirt of any player I wanted. “I was going to get a Larry Bird one, but then I remembered that Dee Brown is my favorite player,” I told my family later. (That shirt was dope though, it was black and had Dee with his no-look dunk for the slam-dunk competition, plus I had the same Reebok Pumps!) I remember getting Reggie Lewis’ autograph because I won a readathon for MS. I remember Chris Ford’s hair. I remember Reggie Lewis’ death. I remember the Celtics drafting Acie Earl. I remember when ML Carr did an excellent job of tanking so we could get Tim Duncan. I remember the shock of the Spurs winning the lottery. I choose to not remember the Rick Pitino era. I refuse to remember Vitaly Potapenko, Kenny Anderson, Ron Mercer, Andrew DeClerq, Tyrus Edney, Pervis Ellison and Zan Tabak. I remember Antoine’s wiggle. I remember Paul Pierce shooting jumpers yelling out the names of the 9 players drafted ahead of him. I remember Paul Pierce getting stabbed in the stomach and playing two weeks later. I remember that without Tony Battie last night couldn’t have happened. I remember not being able to watch anymore because the team was so hapless. I remember hoping for a resurgence with Greg Oden. I remember trying to convince myself that Yi Jianlian might be the next Yao.
I’ll remember 17.
I watched every game, fell asleep as a little kid to the Celtics, the Bruins, the Red Sox and woke up every Sunday to the Patriots. I remember when the Bruins playoff streak ended, when the Red Sox suffered through the Butch Hobson era and when the Patriots went 1-15. The only thing that upsets me is that I spent my first 18 years of life in Boston and no team ever won a championship. For the last 8 years I have lived in New York state, since that time, Boston has won 3 Superbowls, 2 World Series and an NBA Championship. Hell even the Revolution have been in the finals in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007–although they seem to be the Buffalo Bills of soccer. I’m not sure I can ever move back, I don’t want to ruin this streak of excellence.
Boston once more is the City of Champions. And I couldn’t be happier to be forever a Bostonian.
05
Jun
08
BEAT LA!
Here’s a video of a guy running across the field at Fenway; apparently some Lakers fans dared him to do it, and since he was wearing his Celtics jersey, I suppose he felt it was his duty to defend the Celtics honor. I appreciate how far he got, he even nearly got back into the seats, although I don’t think he would have escaped the clutches of the Fenway security forces.
09
Apr
08
All is Forgiven Bill Buckner
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to get a chance to go to Fenway Park for Opening Day. Now, I’ve never been to any opening day before and to get to go for a ring ceremony too, that’s simply amazing. And it was. The early festivities were great with famous champions of the Boston sports scene bringing out the rings to the Red Sox ownership group. The group included legends like Bobby Orr, Bill Russell, Tedy Bruschi, John Havlicek and Curtis Leskanik. Truly awesome.
After presenting the rings, the Sox players all went out to center field to raise the banner. Unfortunately the wind didn’t cooperate at first, and the banner just hung there, but then, the wind, which previously had been steadily blowing picked up again and unfurled the banner to a big cheer from the Fenway Faithful.
But the festivities were not done. Arriving through the garage door in center field, Bill Buckner came out to throw the first pitch. It was funny how Joe Castiglione introduced him, saying amongst other things, “the Red Sox would never have won the 1986 American League pennant without him,” clearly so that there wouldn’t be people in the stands booing. Even though we’ve won the Series twice now, people in Boston are definitely still miserable about ’86 and that could have put quite the damper on the whole afternoon if people had booed. I can’t seem to get the damn video to embed, and I have a bus to catch, so for the moment, the link is here.
Instead the crowd stood on its feet and gave a loud, hearty cheer as Buckner walked slowly in from center to the mound. When he got to the mound, the crowd started cheering wildly again. Clearly he was choked up. I was sitting high up in the rafters and could see the emotion on his face and him wiping his eyes. It was the first time he’d been back at Fenway since being the hitting coach for the White Sox in the late 90s. All in all, it ended up being a 4 minute ovation from the crowd. Add in the amazing music from the Boston Pops and Dwight Evans (one of my all-time favorites) catching the ball, and it was a truly epic moment and one I’m glad I was there for.
I’ll have some more on this later, but again, gotta catch a bus…
The Montreal Toronto Maple Leafs, (this sport is stupid excepting the playoff beards and the fighting) besides having a very imposing name, have been one of the most storied franchises in hockey. Right now they are struggling to make the playoffs and lost last night in an important game against the Boston Bruins where the 8th playoff spot was on the line. The Maple Leafs lost 6-2. Recently named Player of the Week goalie Vesa Toskala was taken out of the game with 3 minutes remaining and the Leafs down by 3. To further illustrate how efficient his game has been recently, and why he definitely deserved the Player of the Week award, check out this goal he allowed the other night against the New York Islanders.
That was only from 197 feet away, I can see how he might have found that so difficult. No wonder no one watches anymore.
19
Mar
08
O Say Can You See
Last night the Celtics met up with the Houston Rockets, owners of the second longest win-streak in NBA history, and when the game was over the Rockets had been shot down. It only makes sense that the Celtics would be the ones to beat them, after all, our football team from New England? The Patriots. Those awesome missiles that shoot down rockets? The Patriot. Made by? Raytheon. Home base? Massachusetts.
It was preordained by God. Or, if we want to use his real name, Red Auerbach.
The first half was somewhat exciting, ending up in a 40-40 tie with neither team having a real advantage. For a little while the Rockets made a run, at one point going up by 8 but the Celts came back and tied it up.
Once the second half started the Rockets had no chance. Their star player shot 4-11 from the field, and no one on the Rockets had more than 15 points. Meanwhile the Celtics defense was RELENTLESS, holding the Rockets to 33% shooting. Final score? Celts 94, Rockets 74. If it weren’t for a last second shot, the Celts would have won by 23, the number of games that the Rockets were going for, hows that for symmetry. Continue reading ‘O Say Can You See’
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