Cursed To First - Sox and Pats forever.

Happy Opening Day

Though of course, around Boston, the real Opening day won't be till 4:05 pm tomorrow...

...and this is just a quick note to say that while I will try my best to watch and blog the game, if I don't, it's because I'm out of state visiting a close friend whose husband was recently deployed to Afghanistan. My friend also has a son who is not yet 2 and is expecting their second child.

If I miss the game tomorrow, it will be an infinitesmally miniscule sacrifice, of course, compared to the one this family is making. So whatever happens tomorrow, while the National Anthem is playing before they yell "play ball", please keep them -- and all the families like them -- in your thoughts.

Probing the mind of Belichick, cont'd

I wasn't disappointed by last night's PAA, whether it was the Belichick mic'd up stuff or all the other behind-the-scenes moments...

...like this shot of four out of the seven Patriots Pro Bowlers. A handsome bunch, eh? Now that Brett Keisel has announced he will be shearing his mighty face-mane for charity, Matt Light, especially, may be poised to take over the league's Most Viking-Like Appearance title. But, uh, Logan? We Need To Talk about that mustache...

Meanwhile, what I wouldn't give to have had THIS conversation mic'd up...

...and then there was The Big Man and the Sea - Vince Wilfork pondering the mysteries of life while deep-sea fishing off Honolulu.

But the main attraction, as previewed, was Belichick.

Super Bowl XLV, and the Elephant in the Stadium

originally uploaded by Fixed Image on Flickr

As soon as the Patriots were eliminated, my preferences for the rest of the playoffs were never really in doubt: for the Steelers to knock off the Jets, because if the Jets even made it to the Big Dance at the expense of the Patriots, we'd never hear the end of it around here. And then for the Green Bay Packers to eliminate the Steelers -- there would be no love lost between them and Patriots fans, either.

There's plenty of on-field history between the Patriots and the Steelers over the last decade to account for that. As with the Jets, there is also a bit of a culture clash between the Patriots and the Steelers as expressions of their home cities / regions, just to add an extra chip to the proverbial shoulder. All of that was enough to have me watching last night, and with a definite side I was rooting for.

But what had me hollering at my father's television during last night's tense second half, as if my team were actually in the game, mostly had to do with -- you guessed it -- the guy playing quarterback for the Steelers.

Rocco, We Hardly Knew Ye

photo by Kelly O'Connor, used with permission

For a baseball-obsessed area of the planet, New England doesn't produce many professional ballplayers, even fewer Major-Leaguers, and a scant few greats of the game. Warmer climes are usually looked upon as the cradles of the sport: Florida, Georgia, Arizona, California, and, of course, Texas.

The comparative rarity of a native New Englander reaching the Show means most Boston fans have always had a soft spot in their hearts for Rocco Baldelli, The Boy from Rhode Island Made Good, even if he spent all but one year of his career in a Tampa Bay Rays uniform (and will remain with that team's front office, now that his playing days are done).

Matt Cassel, I Had Such Hopes for Us

originally uploaded by Jeffrey Beall, on Flickr.

No, really. As foolish as it looks now to have doubted the Ravens in KC, as soon as both your Chiefs and my Patriots got into the playoffs, somehow it felt like some crazy turn of events was going to lead to a matchup between us.

Or, more likely, I hoped some crazy turn of events would pit Patriots West, if you will, against the mother ship -- since about this time last year, as a matter of fact, when the Chiefs added Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis to the coaching roster.

Just think of all the new storylines there would have been to explore. A defense composed largely of a Bill Belichick-led draft class vs. a team recently re-architected by his former partner in crime, Scott Pioli, with an offense featuring you and good ol' Charlie. Romeo Crennel versus Tom Brady & Co.

It certainly would have been a more pleasantly novel prospect than what we're actually getting, which is, for you, the proverbial playing of golf, and for us, 2010's rubber match in a Pats-Jets rivalry that's going to have fans on both sides stocking up on antacids for the rest of the week.

No, Matt Cassel, as it turns out, our storybook reunion is not to be. And oh, what punishment there was for you today in the game which ensured that, punishment at the hands of the terrifying tandem of Terrell Suggs and Ray Lewis.

Suggs seemed to be the ringleader in the rush that left you for dead this afternoon, and would record two of the three bone-crunching sacks you took today. And at this point in both their careers, Suggs is equally if not even more fearsome than Lewis.

But it is Ray-Ray, seven years Suggs' elder, who is, at this point, an institution of badassery, and a player who fascinates me more than any other non-Patriot. He was hardly upstaged by Suggs today, handling your third sack of the day, plus a forced fumble on one of your teammates, generated by one of his signature, stomach-turningly audible hits.

And so, Matt Cassel, my most prominent memory of watching those two gigantic, scary men just about break you in half today was a moment that featured the inimitable Lewis.

If you recall, you were facing a third and 3 on the Baltimore 47 in the early part of the second quarter, When you first lined up for that play, it was the Ravens defense, rather than your offense, which was featuring an empty backfield. In particular, CBS cameras caught a shot of Lewis, panting and puffing just across the line from you like a bull in a chute, standing with his bloodthirsty eyes trained right on your face.

You proceeded to call a probably life-saving time-out. You also may have needed to change your pants.

All I can really say after seeing what they did to you out there today, Matt Cassel, is that from a Patriots perspective, it can only be a good thing that we will not be hosting Messrs. Suggs and Lewis in Foxboro next Sunday. Especially since it appears that Suggs has a rather unhealthy obsession with Tom Brady as it is, even when his team is not playing the Patriots. In fact, it would not surprise me to find out that Suggs is also in possession of a voodoo doll, which lately just happens to feature long, flowing locks of hair. 

Anyway, hope you have a good off-season. As for me, next week I'll be rooting for the Ravens defense to visit on Ben Roethlisberger what they laid down on you today, dear Matty Cassel. He definitely deserves it more.

And as for another episode of Patriots vs. Jets...ugh. I've got at least a little more time before I really have to reopen that whole noxious can of worms, I think.

The 5 Stages of Manning Face

Before tonight's Wild Card playoff between the Patriots' two most hated rivals began, it seemed like most New England fans on Twitter were making some variation on the "asteroid" or "meteor" comment when asked to pick a winner ("I'm rooting for [insert preferred extraterrestrial object here] to hit the stadium."). If there'd been a way both of these teams could've lost, I believe that's what most Pats fans would've chosen.

Given the back and forth right down to the final seconds of this game tonight, you could say that in a way, that's what happened -- at alternating intervals in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, both teams spent time holding a lead, only to be crushingly disappointed. As long as someone had to win, for those of us who hate both teams with a visceral passion, the deciding moments really couldn't have unfolded in a much more satisfying way.

With less than a minute to go, Adam Vinatieri hit a 50-yard field goal that left me momentarily paralyzed by cognitive dissonance, to give Indy the 16-14 lead.

Then, somehow, the Jets were putting together a drive...and inexplicably, Indianapolis used one of its time outs during that last-minute Jets drive...and then Nick Folk, of all people, was sent out onto the big stage.

Folk is approximately the last player in the league I would want my team to be depending on to win a playoff game (now that Mike Vanderjagt is no longer with us). Even though earlier this season he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with the ball to save his life, in true Jets fashion, he has never lost his swagger!

And tonight, from 32 yards out and with 3 seconds left in the game, Folk split the uprights. You could actually hear his primal holler of "YUS!!" on TV the second it went through.

It's not like I'm happy for the bastid Jets. Of course not.

But there are two bits of good news in this for the Patriots and Patriots fans. First, this means the Patriots don't have to play the Ravens next week. Instead it will be the season's rubber match between the Jets and Patriots, which is not without its difficulties, but I still think Pats v. Ravens the worse matchup from a NE perspective.

Secondly, tonight gave us what may have been the most exquisite display of the proverbial Manning Face yet.

In fact, it wasn't just one Manning Face. It was actually a whole series.

The Official Patriots Fan's "Running up the Score" Rant

Let me just get this out of my system.

Once again, angst has been building up within the Patriots-related synapses of my brain, until I feel the need to at least plant a verbal stake in the ground on behalf of the apparent minority of NFL fans who feel the way I do about this.

I know I shouldn't let things like this get to me the way they sometimes do. There's that expression -- haters gonna hate. I also can't say I have an exactly spotless record when it comes to irrational hatred of and criticisms for other teams (Peyton Manning and the Colts being the prime example).

And yeah, there are a lot of ways in which I really can't defend Bill Belichick, in particular. I understand why people find him gruff, persnickety, sarcastic, pedantic, condescending and generally a dick, sometimes all in the same sentence. The man has obviously not built his professional success on his stellar social skills.

But I've long since had enough of Belichick's team, its owners, and associated fans, being the subject of plainly idiotic double standards and / or collective amnesia because of the widespread personal distaste for the head coach. And there are times, like this time, that all the understanding in the world that sometimes these things are meant to get a rise out of me, to stir the pot, to get the phone lines lighting up and the eyeballs glued to the TV screen, or at the very least are an irrational defense mechanism akin to my own vis a vis the Colts, still can't make me abide the continued insistence on reverting to the oversimplified pigeonhole the league has collectively created for the New England Patriots.

On...whatever's going on with Rex Ryan

originally uploaded by JetsTwit on Flickr

I do not care if Rex Ryan is a foot fetishist.

Let me say that again. I do not care if Rex Ryan is a foot fetishist.

I don't care if he and other consenting adults are into further, more obscure fetishes, for that matter. Particularly not when one of them appears to be his happily willing, legally wedded wife.

Around here we root for two teams...

As you might imagine, most of my reaction to the Yankees' epic defeat at the hands of the Rays tonight, which I absorbed through Twitter-osmosis while watching Monday Night Football, is comprised by a deep ennui.

But if I had to pick a scenario, I would much rather hear certain Yankees fans of yesteryear have to eat their words about the Wild Card not "really" meaning you made the playoffs, and how anything after that doesn't "really" count, than watch them waltz to the division crown for another year.

Even more appreciable, if you're a hater of New York teams, was tonight's exhilarating victory by the Ravens over the Jets to break in the new Meadowlands for the regular season, following an off-season and pre-season of trash talk, reality shows and hype.

The only improvement I could've suggested would be for Ray Lewis to have swooped into the stadium on the back of a giant raven during the National Anthem, and then taken off on it again as Joe Flacco took a knee and the final seconds ticked off the clock, waving cordially to Jets fans as he and the bird flapped off into the night.

Livebloggery of the All-Star Game Kind

PREGAME

Again, let me preface this with the fact that I do realize I don't know the man, but I wasn't the only one who noticed Jon Lester's general demeanor as he mingled along with the other All Stars on the field with the "Everyday Heroes", the community activists the league honored with a pregame ceremony. This was exactly the impression he gave me at last year's Fan Appreciation Day; here he seemed to be positioning himself between the other ballplayers so as not to have to actually interact with anyone.

I'm still not drawing any conclusions. I'm just noting this and wondering why it is.

TOP 1ST

I am doing my best not to be bitter with Joe Girardi. Obviously Youkilis's numbers weren't better and Girardi was being disingenuous when he gave that as the reason for selecting Konerko. I think reports of Pirates fans teaming up with Yankees fans to vote for Swisher are appalling if true. But it's also not like there aren't enough Red Sox on the roster, we did our best to vote him in, and there's only so much complaining we can do about it before it reflects poorly on us, too. Just my $0.02.

I understand All-Star Game cognitive dissonance when it comes to Yankees players, but cheering a mistake for Cano is cheering a mistake for the American League team, the same team their beloved Angels are playing for. (If you can't bring yourself to cheer, stony silence would be more appropriate given it's meant to be a celebratory occasion -- and if you take it more seriously than that, it must be because it decides home-field advantage in the World Series, in which we come back to how imbecilic it is to cheer for a mistake by an AL player). Then again, these are fans that use Thunderstix and believe umpires conspire to hand the Red Sox playoff victories, so I don't know what I'm expecting.

Ichiro makes a swooping, circus catch in center to end the inning. At least he got a nice hand.

BOT 1ST

Ubaldo starts for the AL. Chin music for Jeter, who runs away. Heh. Nice touch with the Bob Sheppard call, if we're being non-partisan. Unfortunately this inevitably leads to Tim McCarver waxing rhapsodic about the Yankees.

More nice defense on display in the form of a sick double play by the NL to end the inning, begun by Jimenez, who stuck a daisy-cutter off the bat of Josh Hamilton.

TOP 2ND

Price for the NL. Pettitte warming for the AL. Filth to Ryan Howard for a swinging K. Cheers dimmer when Cano makes another error. Is this where I say, with a wink, "Pedroia woulda had it?"

A shattered bat almost decapitates Price, but Longoria and Cano turn another beautiful two-fer to end the inning.

BOT 2ND

Huge ovation for Vladi Guerrero when he steps to the plate, to go with the one he got at introductions. Now that, I can get behind.

Cano up with a runner on and two outs. Chops a 2004 A-Rod style weak grounder to second to end another inning. Pitching and defense -- where have we heard that before?

TOP 3RD

Pettitte for the AL. All I'm gonna say about FOX so far is that when it comes to patronizing stat break themes, I preferred the talking cartoon baseball to "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." 

Pettitte's no joke, but Hart made a convincing case for the "Home Run Derby messes up swings" faction just now. 

BOT 3RD

Lester warming in the pen. OK, I can't resist one more shot at Girardi, via Dan Lamothe: "Doesn't Girardi have three other Yankees he wants to get in first?" But really, that's all. Really. I'm going to repeat that till I mean it.

Jeter back at the plate. Funny how McCarver conditioning helped me block out most of Morgan last night, but I have more trouble doing it when it's the man himself. I guess he's the ultimate test. A formidable opponent for my selective-attention skills.

Johnson is made of filth. Jeter smiles and shakes his head. The Pitching and Defense Show continues.

TOP 4TH

I'm glad Cliff Lee is a Ranger and not a Yankee as was rumored at least briefly. Sox may have dodged a bullet on that one.

All my ire for Girardi momentarily dissipates when he has to think of a way to respond on national television to McCarver mentioning, totally at random, during his in-game interview, that Cliff Lee was renting Jamie Moyer's house in Seattle.

Apparently Jon Lester is no longer warming up. [Comment redacted.]

BOT 4TH

Cabrera's up. Last night as he hit lasers all over the park I really wanted to see him in-game. Unfortunately he grounds out like seemingly everybody else.

Verlander warming. #@%@$T%

You think that Ryan Braun catch was amazing when you first saw it, try watching it on slow-motion DVR rewind.

TOP 5TH

At the rate we're going, FOX is going to have to scrunch all the commercial time it sold against this game into a 20-minute Commercial Break from Hell.

Lester warming up for nothing isn't that big a deal, right? He probably would've thrown a bullpen session at some point this week anyway, correct? Verlander warmed up for no...oh, wait. Well, Phil Hughes being up next probably really is a coincidence.

Hang on, Robinson Cano just missed another one at second, and it's just that the logo on his cap is kind of taunting me. I'm going to go...um...meditate for a minute.

BOT 5TH

Lester is warming up for a second time. Just splendid.

The AL got out of a runners-at-the-corners jam behind Verlander, and the stalemate -- or proof that this is the Year of the Pitcher, depending on how you look at it -- continues.

No sooner had that been said, however, than Kuo air-mails a throw to first and it's runners at second and third with nobody out for the AL. A sac fly by Robinson Cano follows for the game's first run. Robinson Cano, I always liked that guy...

Gotta give it up for that Hanley Ramirez play at short, as well as the expertly applied tag by Scott Rolen to stifle Joe Mauer at third and end the rally. Can't front on that one. Just can't.

TOP 6TH

Jon Lester is pitching. *puts away pitchfork sharpener and torch supplies*

He makes short work of Hanley Ramirez with a quick strike and a grounder he fields himself for the first out. (as Sean MacAdam put it, "the Red Sox angles never stop").

Martin Prado fouls himself into a full count against Lester after starting off 3-0, before popping out to Jeter. Lester stays out of the zone with Adrian Gonzalez, but he earns a silly-looking swing on the cutter followed by a weak grounder to Kinsler to end the inning. And that's that. Lester got his due. That's all we wanted.

BOT 6TH

Marlon Byrd: Ichiro Impersonation Fail.

Oh, look, it's Paul Konerko! Oh look, Konerko is initiating a strike-em-out / throw-em-out double play! Admittedly most of the blame for this lies with Andrus. But still. It's the principle of the thing. In better news, Papi is on deck.

Roy Halladay lifted mid-inning, making way for Matt Capps to face Ortiz after a Josh Hamilton single. I don't blame Charlie Manuel given the game situation, but that's got to sting a bit if you're Halladay. Rehash of Papi's slump (the 6th on ESPN in the last 24 hours) comes three pitches into the at-bat. Capps drops Papi looking with a gnarly hopping fastball, inning over.

TOP 7TH

Derek Jeter is interviewed in the dugout. Joe Girardi is close-upped-upon and discussed. George Steinbrenner is discussed. Phil Hughes is pitching.I can only imagine this means A-Rod has changed into a suit and is headed to the booth for another six-minute interview.

Heads-up run to take third for Rolen. He does that Reds uni proud diving and sliding like that. Just call him Charlie Hustle.

Chris Young is not having the best All-Star week, at least not on the field. He bowed out of the Derby early last night, and tonight pops up to Konerko at first base in his plate appearance. 

Yeah, I said Konerko at first base, what of it? What are you talking about, my eye is twitching?

Hughes' relief, Matt Thornton, walks Byrd to load the bases. Brian McCann hits what McCarver described as "The biggest National League hit in 13 years," which would be a good call if it hadn't been 14 years since the NL last won. 3-1 NL. None other than Phil Hughes is on the hook for the loss.

BOT 7TH

In and out of Matt Holliday's glove off the bat of John Buck. Kinsler up.

I can only imagine what trash Pedroia has been talking at Ian Kinsler this week. He seems to do it whenever they meet on the basepaths when the Rangers and Red Sox play each other (Kinsler and Pedroia battled for the ASU starting job in college, and Pedroia wound up being king of the mountain there, but their rivalry still seems to be friendly). Kinsler doesn't squander his chance, though, walking to load the bases. He also gets in a sweet slide on a Vernon Wells grounder and breaks up the double play.

But then, representing the tying run, Torii Hunter strikes out swinging.

TOP 8TH

We're plumbing the lower levels of the depth chart at this point. But Rafael Soriano of the Tampa Bay Rays earns three flyouts for a neat 1-2-3 inning.

BOT 8TH

Brian Wilson pitches to Elvis. Elvis grounds out.

TOP 9TH

As my Dad would say, "let's just get this turkey over with."

BOT 9TH

Well, crap.