Michael Femia makes the case:
... The kids aren't really getting better. The timeouts and substitutions still make no sense. Scalabrine is still getting minutes. Pierce is starting to mail it in. Wally Szczerbiak gives you all of Antoine Walker's negative (shaky defense, indefensible 3-pointers, driving into triple teams) with none of Antoine's positives (hustle, obvious desire). This team's on a treadmill, and something needs to give. ...
We have it on good report that Japanese TV news crews have descended en masse on our fair Hub and they are, even as I type, Borat-ing innocent tourists from Iowa at Quincy Market demanding to know what they think about Daisuke Matsuzaka. Given that most tourists from Iowa have no idea what they're talking about, the crews are extremely grateful when somebody like Jose Melendez, being half-Japanese himself, wanders by:
... "Do yoo seenk, oder peoper in Boston, will know how to say hees name?"
There's nothing funnier than a sports writer warning a ballplayer to ignore all the mean things he'll see in the papers when he gets to Boston. Especially when it's Dan Shaughnessy.
Soxaholix muses:
... Shaughnessy's like the O.J. of sportswriters. Always innocent, always some othah guys calling playahs "pieces of filth."
Mike Mennonno educates the local media on how to pronounce the first name of the Man Who Would Save Fenway:
... It's as if no one at the news station knows any Japanese or Japanese-American people--in a supposedly world-class city like Boston--that they could call up and ask, "am I getting this right?" World class, guys! ...
If the Sox do sign Daisuke Matsuzaka, obviously, we can't call him by his name - try saying it three times fast. Lewis Forman starts a list of possible nicknames for the would-be savior of Fenway:
... Suki
D-Mat
D-zaka ...
A picture of Jason Varitek riding a star-spangled unicorn, of course. Basegirl posts it for everybody to gaze upon while recovering from yesterday's Patriots game, as well as from being assaulted by John Madden and John Mellencamp.
Red is disgusted for baseball because Derek Jeter won the Golden Glove for shortstop instead of Alex Gonazalez.
Dave Bonner: A quick reminder to everyone that we have a soccer team we should be cheering for:
... A really, really good one. The Revolution are playing DC United in the Eastern Conference Championship game this Sunday at 4. ...
Tribute compiled by Boston34Celtics:
Jim Sullivan: Auerbach was a one-man civil rights movement:
... Here's what made Auerbach a legendary figure, though. He didn't do any of those things because he felt sorry for black people, out of some sort of white liberal guilt. He did them because they were the right things to do, at those moments, for the success of the Boston Celtics basketball team. In my book, that makes him far greater than someone trying to address a past inequity or whose main purpose is to fill a quota. ...
Dave Bonner: I grew up in a Celtics family:
My grandparents were huge fans, and I still remember running up the stairs to their apartment after dinner to sit and watch the game with them. ...
Bruce Allen interviews sportswriter and editor Griffith a year after he took a Globe buyout.
Well, even if religion weren't an issue, some people aren't ready to nominate Red Auerbach for sainthood.
Jesse: I met the man several times, and he had the bedside manor of a thumbtack:
... Did all of you forget that he was famous for being a jerk too? He may have been super at what he did, a wonderful coach, a friend, a husband, a father~ I don't know... but I DO know that I am not the only one who has had more than one not-so-nice encounter with the man. ...
Peter N. remembers going to a Celtics game in Hartford during the Bird era when the Celts came from behind at the last minute to beat the Knicks:
... It was a magical moment for players and fans alike, as the Civic Center erupted with an earthquake of cheering. And leave it to my Dad to go over to where Red Auerbach was sitting and hand him a cigar. Red promptly slid off the band and lit up. Right there! ...
Michael Femia: Goodbye, and thanks, Arnold:
... You've made this city a much better place. You've given us a ton of memories. And we'll miss you. I'm going to go buy a cigar now.
Lance launches a rant against "Let's go Bruins!" and the related "Let's go Red Sox!" chants:
... 30 years ago that cheer would have got you beaten in Fenway Park. Had you run a "Lets Go, Bruins" in the Boston Garden in the 70s, Mike Milbury would have come into the stands and beaten you with your shoe.
Jose Melendez doesn't get the Timlin re-signing:
Members of the 2004 World Series Team who are no longer good baseball players are, it turns out, a lot like Crazy Glue. If you remain in contact too long, they are impossible to get rid of and make you want to pull your skin off. ...
David Scott chronicles "the rapidly-aging and fastly-fading" Bob Lobel's performance on Sunday night's "Sports Final" - was he really giggling over the way that guy collapsed at the finish line of the Chicago Marathon?
Lewis Forman is loving the fact that he can now be buried in a professional-sports casket or urn. But he wonders about the Boston versions:
... Does the Celtics version come with a piece of the parquet or some actual Red Auerbach cigar ashes? ...
If part of Bronson Arroyo's plan to get back to the Hub is pissing off Reds fans, then it seems to be working.
Red, meanwhile, writes he'd love to see Kevin Millar come back to Boston - just not as a player:
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