Beantown Sports Guys

Do the Patriots have their backs against the wall??

The first time I saw Rodney Harrison get bent in half I knew he was done for the season. I've seen that injury happen in real life a few times, and it is never pretty. There was no doubt in my mind that he blew all the ligaments in his knee. For an already banged up secondary, this could create bigtime issues.

But not as big if Matt Light misses extended time. It looks like something similar happened to him and he hurt his knee as well. How long will he be out? No one seems to know or is saying anything right now. Rookie Nick Kaczur looked shaky at times during the time he filled in for Light, but a with a full week of practice under his belt, I think he will plug the whole pretty well for Light if he is out for any amount of time.

Because of these injuries, people are writing them off for good already. How can people do that when the Jets are down to their 3rd string QB, signing Testaverde today in desperation. Buffalo isn't consistent enough, and Miami is probably the only real competition in the AFC East. It's usually a strong division, but the injury bug has hit every single team. Buffalo lost their defensive captain Takeo Spikes, the Jets lost both Pennington and Fiedler, and Miami doesn't have the luxury of having Ricky Williams on the bench at the moment.

Seeing Vrabel up on the line one play, and back in the secondary one play later leaves me to believe Belichick is going to continue to throw weird looks at every single team. But these work. They always seem to work. I've never seen a coach use drop all of their LBs to the d-line, while backing all the d-lineman back into LB territory. Normally you'd think a QB would exploit this. But he didn't. We did this in the AFC Championship game last year against Peyton Manning, someone who just about everyone thinks is the best QB in the NFL. But he didn't know what to think. And by the time he did, he was sacked. That is the kind of element Belichick can bring to you when you aren't expecting it. And that can win you a play here or there. In close games, sometimes that is all that matters.

If the Pats can go into the bye week 5-1, I think they'll be in firm control of the AFC East.

1/2...and yet, we're stronger now than we were before...

The Sox dropped a dismal game last night to the Devil rays 8-7, as they allowed the Yanks to creep up even closer as they won with a walk-off HR.

And yet, they are even stronger today than they were last week.

Craig Hansen is on the scene.The 6-foot-5-inch righthander has a 95-97 mile-per-hour fastball and a nasty slider. He pitched a perfect inning, striking out 2 of the 3, and collecting the other out via a popup. He threw 19 pitches, 13 for strikes, as the Sox tried to hold the Rays at bay for a bit while they tried to rally. He preserved the 1-run deficit and gave the Sox a chance to come back and tie it. They didn't. But that isn't what should be talked about. It's Hansen.

Forget the Yankees. Everyone knows they are winning cheap games left and right, their pitching is awful, and their hitting is barely winning those cheap games for them. But they are winning. But they won't in the playoffs, provided they even make it that far.

Even if the Sox miss the playoffs, people need to remember: we have this Hansen kid for a long time. A lot of people are likening him to Clemens, and saying he has magical stuff.

I'm looking forward to the end of the regular season even moreso this season because we'll have a chance to see Hansen pitch against the Yanks.

Those won't be games I'll miss, even for our beloved Pats.

It appears it's that time

It crept up on us but it's here and alive and well: Pennant Fever.

The Patriots are 1-1 now, losing to the Panthers 27-17 yesterday. The Sox dropped their series finale against the Oakland A's 12-3, but all the talk was about how everything thinks the Pats will bounce back from this and beat up on Pittsburgh next week.

And yet, the Sox are still only 1 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees.

Why is this??

Every single year, when the Pats start playing, people forget about the Sox.

Until they play the Yankees.

And then the Pats go away completely.

Isn't that odd?

New England fans are so fickle. People haven't figured this out I guess. Even myself. It shocks me every year it comes about. If the Patriots went on a 4 game losing streak you would see Pats 'fans' abandoning 'their team' faster than a pack of rats on a sinking ship. The same goes with the Red Sox. It's pretty embarrassing actually.

If the Sox turn it on against their remaining opponents, they could push the Yankees into chasing down the Indians for that last spot. As Sox fans, there is nothing more we would love than MVP-lock A-Rod (only because he plays the field) playing golf in October, wondering what could have been, just like a very quiet Derek Jeter. Spending over $200 million on their payroll, Steinsbaby would go off and probably fire Torre along with dumping salaries left and right.

Let's pull together for the next few weeks and root on the Sox. There is plenty of love to go around for our beloved Pats as well, and when the Sox are done, we can gear up for welcoming back the Bruins and the Celtics.

God, it's great to be a New England sports fan.

Our poor sweet Red

It is a sad day in Boston sports history when ESPN.com has the article about Red Auerbach being hospitalized with an undisclosed illness on their second main story, yet the Boston Globe site forces you to dig deep down into Celtics-land to find out the same thing. What is wrong with the Globe? I realize the NFL season kicks off and our beloved Patriots will go for the three-peat in about 6 hours, but this is Red Auerbach!?!

Some people might say, "Well, maybe it's not that serious. Maybe the Globe doesn't think it's a big deal." But when they have their excerpt on the site that reads, "Friends of Red Auerbach expressed concern yesterday over the health of the soon-to-be 88-year-old Celtics patriarch, who is hospitalized in Washington", that sounds pretty damn important to me. Of course this isn't as important as the article above it about the WNBA's Connecticut Sun and the article that starts off, "When Connecticut Sun forward Brooke Wyckoff suits up for tonight's Eastern Conference finals game, she'll try not to let her thoughts wander to one year ago. But it will be hard, she acknowledged."

I realize I may be way off base, but find it very hard to play Devil's Advocate when someone as important to Boston sports lore as Red is has health problems. Currently the leader in NBA titles, the Celtics still see Red at all their home games, in his red sweatervest and cane, sitting a few rows back with the rest of the crowd, not in a luxury box. He can feel the energy, he wouldn't be anywhere else. Unless he's in the hospital. Which he is.

It strikes me funny to think a simple webmaster or even Editor would fail to see the significance of this. It shocks me, especially if it's someone that cares about Beantown sports as much as all of New England does.

But I'm sorry, it's not the Red Sox or Patriots so it is second page news. Unbelievable.