Sports Chowdah Update Jan 6-8: Original Sux- B's Give up 5 Unanswered to Chicago; Horns Swept Away by High Tide; Sox Sign 3B Beltre

(Mark Garfinkel- Boston Herald)


The Red Sox and third baseman Adrian Beltre have reached a one year $9 million deal with a player option for 2011. Beltre had a batting average of .266 with 25 home runs in his last 'full' season (143 games in 2008) with the Mariners. Health permitting, Beltre's offensive production is anticipated to go up in the much more compact confines of Fenway versus his old home in pitcher-friendly SafeCo

Blowing a 2-0 lead to the Chicago Blackhawks was the least of the Bruins problems after Marc Savard's right leg buckled on a Johnathan Toews hit just 28 seconds into Thursday night's game. The visiting Blackhawks would go on to score 5 unanswered goals to beat Boston 5-2. Tim Thomas was pulled in favor of Tukka Rask after giving up the 4th goal and the game marked the return of Milan Lucic to the ice for the first time since November and Miroslav Satan notched his first goal as a Bruin. The club was awaiting the results of an MRI on Savard's knee as of Friday afternoon. For their next game, the B's will take on the NY Rangers at the TD Banknorth Garden tomrrow at 1PM.

Coming off a 106-112 OT winner against the Miami Heat on Wednesday, the depleted Celtics came up short agianst the Atlanta Hawks 93-85 Friday night [Was anybody else having flashbacks to the first round of the 2008 Playoffs?]. Atlanta's Jamal Crawford hit two pivotal 3-pointers in the 4th quarter. Kevin Garnett missed his fourth straight game with a hyperextended right knee and Ray Allen was sidelined with flu-like symptoms. The Celtic's current road trip will wrap up on Sunday when they take on the Raptors before heading back to Boston where they will host none other than.....the Atlanta Hawks

One year removed from their embarrassing beatdown at the hands of the Mountain West's Utah Utes, the undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide found themselves in the BCS chamionship game in Pasedena Thrusday. After screwing the pooch pretty early (what would've been a 3 and out on their first possesion if Saban hadn't decided to reach into his bag of tricks early on and go for the fake punt which was promplty intercepted by Texas). However, on the ensuing posession, the Longhorns had to settle for a FG and Colt McCoy was knocked out of the game. In a game that was supposedly intruiging but turned out to be even less interesting than the GMAC Bowl (which I'm not knocking, at least that one went to 2OT), Alabama beats Texas 37-21. And of course, one is left to wonder how the Tide would've fared against Boise State- admittedly an Alabama/TCU or Alabama/Cincinnati matchup would've been more clunker than cash. Having said that, as flawed as the BCS system is, the only good I can see from a Congressional committee and inquiry is that these nimrods wouldn't be writing so-called 'health care reform' or cap and trade legislation.