Give me a break

New York construction workers spent 5 hours over the weekend at union scale digging up the supposedly 'cursed' David Ortiz jersey from the concrete floor of the new Yankee Stadium. Now that the Red Sox have won the last 2 out of 4 World Series titles and the Yankees haven't won one yet this century, it is amazing how the tables have turned and how paranoid New Yorkers have become now.

BC takes title!

The Boston College men's hockey beat Notre Dame 4-1 Saturday night to win their third NCAA Hockey Championship title. Amazingly, BC has been to the Championship game 6 times in the last 10 years but their only other title during this time came in 2001 when they beat North Dakota. Their only title prior to 2001 came way back in 1949.

Decline of the Empire

If Jimmy Hoffa is truly buried within the concrete of Giants Stadium in New Jersey, then it's only fitting that there be another artifact placed in the concrete of the Yankee's new stadium in the Bronx. Unfortunately, this artifact has upset Yankee fans and New Yorkers alike. It appears a construction worker who is a Red Sox fan from New York poured a Red Sox shirt into the concrete of the new visitor's clubhouse at Yankee Stadium. The new stadium is set to open next year but fans think the Yankee's new home may be cursed now. Take it easy New York. You should probably be worrying more about your starting rotation than a little red shirt. Just be glad the guy didn't bury Ted William's frozen head in the bullpen.

Jesuits On Ice

The Boston College Eagles defeated the North Dakota Fighting Sioux for the third time in 3 years to reach the NCAA Hockey Championship game. BC has lost the last 2 championship games and have not won the Frozen Four title since 2001. The Eagles now their Jesuit counterparts from the Midwest, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, in the championship game Saturday night.

Bring on the Habs!

The Good News:

The Boston Bruins got the necessary points in the final two games of the season to secure the final spot and make the NHL play-offs for the first time in 4 years!

The Bad News:

Because the Bruins lost their final game (and everyone else won), they will now have to face Les Habs, the new 'Beast of the East'. The Montreal Canadiens not only finished first in the Eastern Conference but they also destroyed the Bruins all year. So beginning tonight in Montreal, the B's will have to work overtime to pull the upset over their longtime rival to the North.

Red Sox Ring-In A New Season

Even without Public Relations guru Dr. Charles Steinberg (now with the LA Dodgers), the Red Sox still know how to put on a party at Fenway. The Sox returned home yesterday to recieve their 2007 World Series rings in front of Red Sox Nation and even the weather was great. Where else but opening day at Fenway could you see Boston sports legends Bobby Orr, Johnny Bucyk, John Havlicek, and Bill Russell walking side by side.

Another nice moment came when after two World Series titles, Red Sox Nation forgave Bill Buckner and allowed him to throw out the first pitch. However, the most sincere moment came when David Ortiz helped Johnny Pesky raise the 2007 World Series flag. Two great Red Sox ambassadors, 50 years apart. Afterwards all the players hugged Pesky and you could hear a tearful Johhny saying good-bye as if he knows this could be his last year.

Home Opener "Welcome to Fenway Park!"

This is why Boston fans are great. Last year, on Disabilities Awareness Day at Fenway Park, this man with autism, who was chosen to sing the national anthem, got a case of the giggles half way through. Listen to what the crowd does to support him. Good Stuff!

Mass appeal

UMass lost the NIT title game to Ohio State last week but hopefully they won't lose upstart Coach Travis Ford too.
With the Oklahoma State and LSU coaching jobs still open, Travis Ford may be a hot commodity. A former Rick Pitino pupil, Ford is the best coach UMass has had since John Calipari (another Pitino recommend) resurrected the program and took UMass to the Final Four back in 1996. Now only time will tell if the new Mullins Center and all the campus facilities that Calipari inspired will be enough to make a top coach stay at UMass and not just use the program as a stepping stone to a bigger coaching job.

Who needs a Bartolo?

For all you nay-sayers who thought that giving Bartolo Colon a 1 year contract was a waste of money, consider this...the Red Sox got off a 19 day/3 country road trip where they finished below .500 and were swept in their series in Toronto. Except for Daisuke Matsusaka, the starting pitching has struggled. John Lester is 1-1, Clay Buchholz is 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA, Tim Wakefield doesn't have a win yet, and Josh Beckett has a 9.64 ERA.

Curt Schilling is guaranteed to receive $8 mill this year but not guaranteed to return to the starting line-up before the All-Star break, if at all. Bartolo Colon is only getting $1.25 mill in guaranteed money and before tweaking his oblique muscle last week (an injury that should only sideline him for a short time), the 2005 Cy Young winner had command of 4 pitches and topped out at 96 m.p.h with his fastball in a recent start in Triple A.

Considering most of the other pennant contenders including the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox are already searching for pitching help, having Bartolo Colon in your back pocket and possibly the starting line-up is a win-win situation for the Red Sox.

Doctor's orders?

Celts' Coach Doc Rivers has decided to give the PGA tour (Pierce/Garnett/Allen) a rest before the NBA play-offs start. A couple of weeks ago Rivers said the team would practice less as the the grind of the season wore on the team. Then he said he would just alternate the practice routines to keep everyone fresh. Now Doc has decided to give his starters (other than Kendrick Perkins) games off during the last 6 games of the season.

True, chasing the best record all year long has been a grind, but the only player that probably needs the rest is Paul Pierce who has played every game this year. Both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen have already missed time due to injury and are averaging less minutes per game than in previous years. Rajon Rondo is young and still needs his playing time to improve his game. At this point, any unnecessary rest could derail the team's momentum heading into the playoffs. Coach Rivers has done very little wrong this year, so let's hope he doesn't start now.

Celts Set the Record Straight

The Celtics have now won 60 games for the first time in 22 years. They also set the record for the greatest turnaround by a franchise in NBA history breaking the previous 36 game record set by the San Antonio Spurs in 1997-98, the year the Spurs stole Tim Duncan away from the Celtics in the NBA Draft. But the most important accomplishment for the Celts this week was to clinch the best record in the league, thus giving them home court throughout the NBA play-offs!

Minutemen in Final!

In a battle between former Rick Pitino point guards and proteges, Coach Travis Ford (Kentucky '94) led his UMass squad over Billy Donovan's (Providence '87) Florida Gators 78-66. The Florida Gators are the defending NCAA Champions but graduated most of the players from last year's championship team. The Minuteman are a senior-laden team and will now face the Ohio State Buckeyes (the team that Florida beat in last year's NCAA final) for the National Invitational Tournament title at Madison Square Garden Thursday night.