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?????)
Monday, October 22, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Boston...Again
Finally, after working at my current job for almost 3 and a half years, I finally got a business trip to Boston. I have been to the UK four times, the rest of Europe twice for the company, I have gone to San Fransisco twice and also Dallas, Miami and Indianapolis for the company, but never Boston. I finally got to go for a Trade Show in Boston. It worked out perfect because we had a wedding to go to the following weekend anyways, so I saved on MY airfare (even though the need for a rental car offset the savings).
I had to work from Monday to Thursday, so I booked a flight for the Friday before and returning the Monday after. Since I had to work 4 days, I figured I would spend 10 days out there. Makes sense, right? Right?
So I flew on Friday and went right up to Beverly, to hang with my buddy John and his wife, Melissa and his super friendly 1-year old, Ray. We treated ourselves to some Nick’s Roast Beef. Personally, I dig the Super Beef (on the onion roll) with a slice of American cheese and ketchup. This place has the best roast beef sandwiches in the world, even though there is a ton of good roast beef places in the “North Shore” (i.e. Kelly’s in Rever and Saugus, Supreme’s in Danvers, Bill and Bob’s in Salem, etc.). You can not get those kind of sandwiches in the Midwest. The closest thing to them is Arby’s and I would rather like my cat’s taint than eat their sandwiches.
Saturday, I drove up to Methuen to visit an old high school friend. I hadn’t seen him in at least 10 years even though we had talked through email a few times and even on the phone twice. He is thinking of getting into comedy and it was fun to talk about how you get in while drinking beers at the 99. I forgot how cool he was and how funny he was, so I am fired up for hearing how his venture into comedy goes. After hanging with him, I went up to see goofy friend, Jay. He is one of those friends who I act 100 times more retarded than I normally do. We really act like 12 years together, it is really pathetic. His wife, Ghazel cooked an awesome salmon dinner and we just chilled out all night.
Sunday was probably one of the highlights of the weekend. My buddy Matt, had a cookout at his house in Plainville. Exciting sounding town, huh? Trust me, it lives up to the title. But Matty’s house was a blast because I got to see most of the college crowd, but I also got to see their kids. Jeff and Dana, Jay and Ghazel, Sean and Kim, Erin and Chris, Greg, Rob and Nikki, Karen and Rich, and Carol all showed up to Matty and Heathers. Everyone’s kids were adorable and pretty darn funny. They had a blast because Matty rented one of those inflatable bouncy things that the kids can climb into and jump around. Greg and I thought it would be a good idea to climb in and hop around. That turned out to be way harder than in looked. We were completely out of breath and bitching about our knees within 5 minutes. I think I heard CJ (Sluggo’s oldest) whisper “pussy” as I stumbled off the toy.
Monday I had to set up our booth in Boston. It was in the Hynes Convention Center attached to the Prudential Tower. It was a lot more work than I thought it would be, but we finished in enough time for me to wolf down some dinner, change and head back to the show for 2 hours before we headed out and watched the Patriots kill the Bengals.
The cool thing about this show that went till Wednesday evening was that it was a Millipore reunion. I used to work at Millipore before I moved to the wild Midwest. It seemed like half the show was either current Millipore employees, or ex-Millipore employees (like myself). Two of my best friends from the Millipore days, Jon and Matt, we there and it was cool to catch up with them. We went to some of the seminars together, we grabbed lunch one of the days and Matt came out with us Monday night to watch the Patriots kill the Bengals (did I mention that the Patriots won?).
Tuesday Night I went to the North End with two co-workers and had some really cool Italian food. Wednesday we tore down the booth and I scrambled to meet Rob and Nikki at Boston Beer Works to watch the Red Sox game. It as killing me that the game started at 6:30, but I was pretty sure I could make it close to the start of the game and I was fired up to have my favorite beer, Pumpkinhead Ale. I soon found out that they had no Pumpkinhead (DAMMIT!!!!!). But I made in time to see the game. Rob and Nikki caught up and we had a blast. When the game ended, we had to catch our trains (mine to Beverly, Rob’s to Walpole). We each had a train for 10:30, but I started talking shit about how cool it would be to hang out for another 2 hours and catch the 12:30 trains. Rob has that sparkle in his eye that he was on board, fortunately his girlfriend, Nikki has more intelligence than us and recommended that we call it a night. She was right because I was ready to fall asleep as I got onto the train. Also, if I drank for another two hours, getting up for customer calls the next day would have been a whole lot harder.
Thursday, I went Kent (our Sales guys and avid Patriots and Red Sox fan) to my old stopping grounds, Millipore. More of the reuinion stuff. It was really cool to see some old faces and see the new facility. The visits took up most of the day and I ended up back in Beverly to catch up with an old friend, Michele. We caught up at Bertucci’s (kick ass pizza) and she brought her adorable little 3 year old girl, Kaitlyn. Her daughter was an absolute cutie and extremely friendly. Michele and I caught up as Kaitlyn got to realize how childish I am (which I think she enjoyed).
Friday was my scary day because that was when Holly and Quinlan were coming to Boston. I say scary because I was petrified on how Quinlan would like the flight. I was worried that he would have a three hour meltdown that he would hold a grudge for into his college years. There was a delay on the runway in Minneapolis and they landed an hour after schedule. He ended up being awesome on the plane and he was cute as a button when they came off of the gate. We brought him to Kowloons (so Daddy could get the best chicken fingers on the planet) and then to Beverly so he could meet John, Melisssa and Ray. Later that night, John and I went to his brothers where the two of them and their friends beat me up in poker (I finished 2nd once out of 4 games, I suck).
Saturday, Holly and I took off for the wedding. We checked into the hotel in Milford, let Quinlan nap and then brought him to my college friend Liz’s house in Millis. Unfortunately, we rarely get to see Liz when we fly home, so this was cool to see her, plus I get to meet her baby for the first time and see Meredith for the 2nd time. Both of her girls are adorable (naturally). Liz agreed to watch Quinlan while we went to the wedding and I kept worrying the whole night that the little guy would be a wreck for her. I guess he did great (or so she claims), and we left the wedding a little early to grab him. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were toast. Some of the wedding guests were partying in the lobby, but I had nothing in me. The wedding itself was fun because we got to hang with Matt and Heather, Sluggo and Shannon, Rita and Rob, Sean and Kim and Carol. Not to mention watch Chris and Erin tie the knot.
Sunday was a lazy day. We went to Rob’s place in Walpole and watched the Patriots beat the Browns and the Red Sox complete the sweep of the Angels. It was a blast to watch the games on HDTV and hang out with a friend who I don’t get to see as much as we should. We ended the week back in Beverly so we could get up at 3:15 for our flight the next day.
It was insane how quick the week went by. What kills me is that even though I ran around like crazy, got to a see a ton of people, I missed out on seeing some people I was hoping to see. I really wish I could have seen Lashy and Christy, but time never permitted. One thing about the week is that I do not think I had a healthy meal the whole week. I ate about as bad as I have ever eaten over the course of a week. I had a ton of Dunkin Donuts iced coffees, a few chocolate glazed donuts, three steak and cheese subs, two super beefs at Nick’s, Italian food in the North End as well as Tiramisu at Mikes, Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwichs, appetizers at Champs, Finnish pancakes from Melissa, pizza at Bertucci’s, chicken fingers and a scallion pie at Kowloons, etc. I think the only decent meals were the salmon from Ghazel and the turkey tips at Beer works. I was already on an awful role with eating the two months before, but last week really went over the deep end. I think I gained 5 to 10 pounds last week (I wish I was lying). I actually scheduled a physical for Monday when I came back.
I had to work from Monday to Thursday, so I booked a flight for the Friday before and returning the Monday after. Since I had to work 4 days, I figured I would spend 10 days out there. Makes sense, right? Right?
So I flew on Friday and went right up to Beverly, to hang with my buddy John and his wife, Melissa and his super friendly 1-year old, Ray. We treated ourselves to some Nick’s Roast Beef. Personally, I dig the Super Beef (on the onion roll) with a slice of American cheese and ketchup
Saturday, I drove up to Methuen to visit an old high school friend. I hadn’t seen him in at least 10 years even though we had talked through email a few times and even on the phone twice. He is thinking of getting into comedy and it was fun to talk about how you get in while drinking beers at the 99. I forgot how cool he was and how funny he was, so I am fired up for hearing how his venture into comedy goes. After hanging with him, I went up to see goofy friend, Jay. He is one of those friends who I act 100 times more retarded than I normally do. We really act like 12 years together, it is really pathetic. His wife, Ghazel cooked an awesome salmon dinner and we just chilled out all night.
Sunday was probably one of the highlights of the weekend. My buddy Matt, had a cookout at his house in Plainville. Exciting sounding town, huh? Trust me, it lives up to the title. But Matty’s house was a blast because I got to see most of the college crowd, but I also got to see their kids. Jeff and Dana, Jay and Ghazel, Sean and Kim, Erin and Chris, Greg, Rob and Nikki, Karen and Rich, and Carol all showed up to Matty and Heathers. Everyone’s kids were adorable and pretty darn funny. They had a blast because Matty rented one of those inflatable bouncy things that the kids can climb into and jump around. Greg and I thought it would be a good idea to climb in and hop around. That turned out to be way harder than in looked. We were completely out of breath and bitching about our knees within 5 minutes. I think I heard CJ (Sluggo’s oldest) whisper “pussy” as I stumbled off the toy.
Monday I had to set up our booth in Boston. It was in the Hynes Convention Center attached to the Prudential Tower. It was a lot more work than I thought it would be, but we finished in enough time for me to wolf down some dinner, change and head back to the show for 2 hours before we headed out and watched the Patriots kill the Bengals.
The cool thing about this show that went till Wednesday evening was that it was a Millipore reunion. I used to work at Millipore before I moved to the wild Midwest. It seemed like half the show was either current Millipore employees, or ex-Millipore employees (like myself). Two of my best friends from the Millipore days, Jon and Matt, we there and it was cool to catch up with them. We went to some of the seminars together, we grabbed lunch one of the days and Matt came out with us Monday night to watch the Patriots kill the Bengals (did I mention that the Patriots won?).
Tuesday Night I went to the North End with two co-workers and had some really cool Italian food. Wednesday we tore down the booth and I scrambled to meet Rob and Nikki at Boston Beer Works to watch the Red Sox game. It as killing me that the game started at 6:30, but I was pretty sure I could make it close to the start of the game and I was fired up to have my favorite beer, Pumpkinhead Ale. I soon found out that they had no Pumpkinhead (DAMMIT!!!!!). But I made in time to see the game. Rob and Nikki caught up and we had a blast. When the game ended, we had to catch our trains (mine to Beverly, Rob’s to Walpole). We each had a train for 10:30, but I started talking shit about how cool it would be to hang out for another 2 hours and catch the 12:30 trains. Rob has that sparkle in his eye that he was on board, fortunately his girlfriend, Nikki has more intelligence than us and recommended that we call it a night. She was right because I was ready to fall asleep as I got onto the train. Also, if I drank for another two hours, getting up for customer calls the next day would have been a whole lot harder.
Thursday, I went Kent (our Sales guys and avid Patriots and Red Sox fan) to my old stopping grounds, Millipore. More of the reuinion stuff. It was really cool to see some old faces and see the new facility. The visits took up most of the day and I ended up back in Beverly to catch up with an old friend, Michele. We caught up at Bertucci’s (kick ass pizza) and she brought her adorable little 3 year old girl, Kaitlyn. Her daughter was an absolute cutie and extremely friendly. Michele and I caught up as Kaitlyn got to realize how childish I am (which I think she enjoyed).
Friday was my scary day because that was when Holly and Quinlan were coming to Boston. I say scary because I was petrified on how Quinlan would like the flight. I was worried that he would have a three hour meltdown that he would hold a grudge for into his college years. There was a delay on the runway in Minneapolis and they landed an hour after schedule. He ended up being awesome on the plane and he was cute as a button when they came off of the gate. We brought him to Kowloons (so Daddy could get the best chicken fingers on the planet) and then to Beverly so he could meet John, Melisssa and Ray. Later that night, John and I went to his brothers where the two of them and their friends beat me up in poker (I finished 2nd once out of 4 games, I suck).
Saturday, Holly and I took off for the wedding. We checked into the hotel in Milford, let Quinlan nap and then brought him to my college friend Liz’s house in Millis. Unfortunately, we rarely get to see Liz when we fly home, so this was cool to see her, plus I get to meet her baby for the first time and see Meredith for the 2nd time. Both of her girls are adorable (naturally). Liz agreed to watch Quinlan while we went to the wedding and I kept worrying the whole night that the little guy would be a wreck for her. I guess he did great (or so she claims), and we left the wedding a little early to grab him. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were toast. Some of the wedding guests were partying in the lobby, but I had nothing in me. The wedding itself was fun because we got to hang with Matt and Heather, Sluggo and Shannon, Rita and Rob, Sean and Kim and Carol. Not to mention watch Chris and Erin tie the knot.
Sunday was a lazy day. We went to Rob’s place in Walpole and watched the Patriots beat the Browns and the Red Sox complete the sweep of the Angels. It was a blast to watch the games on HDTV and hang out with a friend who I don’t get to see as much as we should. We ended the week back in Beverly so we could get up at 3:15 for our flight the next day.
It was insane how quick the week went by. What kills me is that even though I ran around like crazy, got to a see a ton of people, I missed out on seeing some people I was hoping to see. I really wish I could have seen Lashy and Christy, but time never permitted. One thing about the week is that I do not think I had a healthy meal the whole week. I ate about as bad as I have ever eaten over the course of a week. I had a ton of Dunkin Donuts iced coffees, a few chocolate glazed donuts, three steak and cheese subs, two super beefs at Nick’s, Italian food in the North End as well as Tiramisu at Mikes, Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwichs, appetizers at Champs, Finnish pancakes from Melissa, pizza at Bertucci’s, chicken fingers and a scallion pie at Kowloons, etc. I think the only decent meals were the salmon from Ghazel and the turkey tips at Beer works. I was already on an awful role with eating the two months before, but last week really went over the deep end. I think I gained 5 to 10 pounds last week (I wish I was lying). I actually scheduled a physical for Monday when I came back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
