Boston Sports

Damn, it feels good be a Boston fan!! The Red Sox just came back from a 3-1 deficit against a solid team, the Patriots continued their amazing dominance, the Celtics have three All Star starters for the 1st time since the glory days and the Boston College Eagles are ranked 2. Now, if only the Bruins could get their shit together, it would complete the cycle.

The Red Sox

The Red Sox are a wild team to follow. They can bring you from complete lows to complete highs. Case in point, after game 4 when the Red Sox got dominated by a meatball pitcher (Byrd), I wanted to throw up. I was criticizing them to my co-workers and whining about them with fellow Red Sox fans. The only hope I had was knowing that Beckett was pitching game 5 and the series would go back to Boston if Beckett won.

Beckett has turned into a true stud 1 pitcher. When he pitches, you stand a VERY good chance to see the Red Sox win, especially in the playoffs. Beckett is amazing when it comes to the post season, not only is he a dominate pitcher in the regular season (he should win the Cy Young award this year), he is even better in the post season. He actually has more career post season shutouts than he has regular season shutouts. Not all top pitchers are like that. A lot of them fold under pressure, like C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona and John Lackey did (all alleged Cy Young candidates). Beckett rises to the occasion and has a 1.17 ERA for this year's playoffs so far.

Despite the insane role that the Colorado Rockies are on, I truly think the Red Sox will beat them up. I know the Rockies are playing great baseball, but there are three reasons why I think the Rockies do not stand a chance:

1) The Rockies play in the National League. The National is far weaker than the American League. It is essentially Quadruple-A baseball. Being the best team of the weaker division is not all that impressive. In fact, I think all American League playoff teams (Angels, Red Sox, Indians and the Yank-mees) are better than the Rockies.

2) The Rockies have been sitting idle for the past week. This can not be minimized. They needed to be playing another game right off the bat. Now they have had a ton of time to have their flames die out. Add in the fact that it was snowing in Colorado this week and the Rockies are frigid.

3) The Red Sox are just a better team. They have better pitching and hitting. All things equal, I still think the Red Sox win.

I am frustrated though that the first game is this Wednesday. I have a Statistics class on Wednesday Nights and I will be going out of my mind if I am missing the game. The only benefit is that we have a quiz, so typically class ends sooner. Hopefully I can be in the car by 7:00 so I can at least listen to the 1st few innings in the car.

The Celtics

They should be an interesting team to follow this year. I am not as sold on them as a lot of people are. I think they will be significantly better (how can they not be?), and they will definitely be more fun to follow. But I worry about the chemistry of the big guys - Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. They are all used to being the top guy on their teams; will they be able to share the load with another top dog? I don't know. The only one that I am pretty sure that will have no problem is Kevin Garnett. Everyone here in the Minnesota area loves him and they say he is a team player. I do not know enough about Allen, so I have no clue what kind of guy he is. I would think Pierce could handle it, but it is hard to tell with him.

I am also concerned with their ages. They are all over the age of 30 and have gotten dinged up a little over the last two years. In basketball, guys really start to slow down after the age of 30. Hopefully these guys still have some tank in the gas for the next two years because that is what this team is built for, the next two years. If this experiment fails, Ainge will be gone and the Celtics will suck for another 10 years.

The thing that helps the Celtics chances is that they play in the inferior conference (Eastern). Like the National League in baseball, the Eastern conference is filled with mediocre teams while all the top teams (Spurs, Mavericks, etc.) are in the West.

In the end, they will be a top 4 team in the Eastern conference and have a chance at the finals IF everyone stays healthy, they click together, and they have a point guard to bring the ball up the court and give it to the right top dog. The guard will have 3 guys to choose from, which is nice.

The Patriots

What else can I say about them that hasn't been mentioned in EVERY media outlet this year? After 7 weeks, they are hands down the best team in football. They are not only undefeated, they are DESTROYING teams in the NFL. Their closest game was against the Browns in which they "only" won by 17 points.

Moss has been everything we dreamed he would be and more. No one truly knew what to expect because of the preseason when he was allegedly hurt all preseason. Then he came into the Jets game and went off. He has been unbelievable since. In 7 games, he already has 732 yards and 10 TD's. Insane numbers. He has made plays that you watch with your mouth open and say, "How the hell do you defend that???" He and Brady are a lethal tandem.

Speaking of Brady look at these stats AFTER 7 WEEKS!!!!!

- Brady has 27 TD's. His season high is 28 TD's and he is on pace for 62 TD's. The record (set by Manning in 2004) is 49.
- He is on pace for 4,857 yards, his career high is 4,110.
- His QB rating is 137.9, the record is 121.1.
- His completion percentage is 73.8. Are you kidding me????

His is having an unbelievable year and he is showing any doubters who the best QB in the league is. I have always felt that he was easily the best QB in the league (including Mr. Manning) because of his success with mediocre weapons around him. It used to frustrate me that people thought Manning was better because he put up better stats. No one would acknowledge that Manning's weapons were ten times better than Brady's. I used to say that if Brady had weapons equal to Manning's, Brady would post equal or better numbers. Well, he got the weapons and he is completely out performing Manning in every aspect of the game (and Manning is great).

If Brady wins another title and actually breaks the TD record, people will start to argue that he is the best ever. I will be one of the people claiming that he is the best ever if he does it because I already think he is one of the best ever. I might even dare say that he is already in the top five.

At some point, someone has to stop the Patriots for at least one week. Even though they are the best team in the league, no one goes undefeated in the 16 game season. The Bears didn't in 1985, the 90's Cowboys didn't, and even the old Montana 49er's couldn't do it. At some point, there will be some freak turnovers and it will cost the Patriots a game. Or a team you do not expect will play way over their head and keep up with the Patriots and play mistake-free ball. I would be shocked though if the Patriots lose more than two games and I actually would be kind of surprised if they lose two (assuming there are no injuries). The game that will be VERY interesting will be the Colts game in two weeks. It sucks that it is in the Dome again, but I still think the Patriots will win in a shootout. I think it will be a 38-34 game. Even though the Pats defense is good, I think Manning can move the ball on them. They are a good defense, but not as great as everyone makes them out to be. You can move the ball on them.

In the end, the Patriots WILL win their 4th Super Bowl. They WILL be considered the best team in the history of the NFL. Brady WILL win the MVP and he WILL be considered the best QB ever.

I really would love to keep going with my mental masturbation of Boston sports, but it is late. I need to go to bed because I am now an old man.

God, I love being a Boston sports fan right now (I never even got to talk about the Eagles being 2 in the country. Are you shitting me?????)