Sports Chowdah Update- Sox on Sox Violence; Capital Punishment; Patriots Getting Defensive in Draft; C's Feeling Hawkish;

RED SOX- As it turns out, the AL Central is providing quite the platform for the Boston Red Sox to rebound.  After last Saturday's fiasco at Fenway in which Boston squandered a 9-1 lead against their archrivals, Sunday night's game against the Yankees was rained out before the Red Sox hit the road.

After sweeping the Minnesota Twins at Target Field, the Red Sox headed to the south side of Chicago for a four game tilt against the White Sox. Thursday's Game 1 saw Felix Doubront in his first start since Saturday's trainwreck against the Yankees going up against Phillip Humber in his first start since throwing a perfect game against the Seattle Mariners.

The Red Sox got on the board in the top of the first with an RBI double from Adrian Gonzalez and an RBI single from David Ortiz to take the early lead. Although Chicago would get a run back on a Paul Konerko RBI double, the Red Sox blew the game open the next inning with a grand slam from Kevin Youkilis immediately followed up by a Jarrod Saltalamacchia solo shot.

Doubront would go on to get his first win of the season and the Red Sox took Game 1 in the South Side by a 10-3 final.

Friday night's game in the south side saw Daniel Bard back on the mound as Boston's starter against ChiSox starter John Danks. The White Sox go out to the early 1-0 lead thanks to an AJ Pierzynski RBI double in the bottom of the 1st. Boston would go on top on a 2-run homer from Big Papi before the ChiSox would knot things up at 2-2 on a passed ball down in the bottom of the 3rd, then re-take the lead on a Konerko solo homer.

However the Red Sox would break the game wide open in the top of the 6th- after Cody Ross tied the game up with an RBI single and with the bases still loaded, Darnell McDonald cleared the bases with a 3-RBI double before coming home on an RBI single from Marlon Byrd to give the Red Sox a 7-3 lead and chased Danks from the mound. Boston would get 2 more RBIs in the top of the 7th- from Cody Ross and Kelly Shoppach and a solo homer from McDonald in the top of the 9th.

The RedSox would go on to replicate their 10-3 final from Thursday night, with Daniel Bard getting his second win since Monday when he came on out of the bullpen against Minnesota. Friday night's win in Chicago is Boston's 5th straight since coughing up that 9-1 lead in Fenway Park last weekend.

Saturday's matchup will take place at 7:10 PM with Jon Lester [0-2; 6.00 ERA] getting the start against Jake Peavy [3-0; 1.88 ERA]. The game from Comiskey Park will be televised on NESN.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- Detroit Tigers outfielder Delmon Young was arrested in New York on hate crime charges stemming from an altercation outside the Midtown Manhattan Hilton as the Tigers were in town to take on the Yankees.

Young reportedly began shouting anti-semitic slurs at a group of men from Chicago and a panhandler wearing a yarmukule outside the hotel and knocked at least one member of the group to the ground before police showed up at the hotel.

In 2006, Young recieved a 50-game suspension from the International League after throwing a bat at an umpire while with Tampa Bay's AAA affiliate in Durham, NC.

BOSTON BRUINS- Although the Bruins won the Stanley Cup last season after no less than three Game 7s in the postseason, there will be no Stanley Cup finals for the Bruins this year as they were eliminated by the Washington Capitals in the first round of this year's Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Caps got off to the 1-0 lead in the first with a goal from Matt Hendricks before the Bruins got the equalizer from Tyler Seguin in the 2nd. After a scoreless 3rd, the game headed to OT where Caps RW Joel Ward scored the game-winner less than 3 minutes in- and apparently unleashed a torrent of ethnic slurs directed at him on social media. Both Washington and Boston later issued statements condemning the remarks directed at Ward, who's parents emigrated from the Barbados to Canada. [While some of the remarks appeared to come from Red Wings or Sabres fans, most of the comments directing racial slurs at Ward seem to have come from Bruins 'fans' who need to learn how the fuck to Google 'Willie O'Ree'- NANESB!]. Then again, the slurs directed at Ward also give Canadian sportswriters a chance to talk about something besides how no Canadian team advanced past the first round.

Tim Thomas made 25 saves on 27 shots faced Wednesday night while the Caps' Braden Holtby turned aside 31 of 32 shots faced. Boston went 0-3 on the power play (inlcuding one late in the 3rd) while Washington went 0-1 on their only opportunity with the man advantage.

On Saturday, Washington will go on to face the NY Rangers- who won their series against Ottawa in 7 games- while the Flyers will resume play on Sunday against the New Jersey Devils after nearly a week off.

Out in the Western conference, the Phoenix-Nashville series got underway with the series opener heading to OT (much like all but one game in the Coyotes-Blackhawks series went to OT) where Phoenix won by a 4-3 final on a Ray Whitney OT goal.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- The New England Patriots are clearly thinking 'defense' with this year's draft, trading up to take Syracuse DE Chandler Jones at #21 and Alabama LB Dont'a Hightower at #25 in the first round.

In the second round, the Patriots drafted former fighting Ilini Tavon Wilson at strong safety, although he's also had some experience at corner and could offer some versatility. Wilson was the 16th pick in the 2nd round, 48th overall while in the 3rd round, the Pats selected Razorbacks DE Jake Bequette in the 27th slot- number 90 overall.

BOSTON CELTICS- The C's wrapped up the regular season and first place of the Atlantic division this week with a 74-87 win over the Milwaukee Bucks at the Garden on Thursday. For the first round of the NBA playoffs, they draw the #5 seed Atlanta Hawks. Game 1 gets underway from Atlanta at 7 PM ET on Sunday and will be televised on TNT.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NBA- The Laker's Ron Artest- who now goes by the name Meta World Peace- recived a 7-game suspension from the NBA for a vicious elbow against Oklamoha City's James Harden last week. Artest's elbow connected with the back of an unsuspecting Harden's head, sending the Thunder's top reserve to the hardwood with a concussion during Sunday's game in which the Thunder lost 106-114 to the Lakers.

The suspension was effective immediately and Artest missed the final game of the regular season against the Sacramento Kings. Artest will reportedly lose nearly $348,000 in salary if the entirety of his suspension is served this season- if the Lakers are quickly eliminated from the playoffs by the Denver Nuggets, Artest's suspenstion will carry over into the next season [one more reason to root against the Lakers, I guess- NANESB!].

Sports Chowdah Update- Manning Lands in Mile High City; 8 is Enough, Leafs on Losing End of Beantown Beatdown; Valentine Announces Opening Day Starter

NFL- After less than 2 weeks as a free agent and being courted by a number of teams, former Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning has decided on the Denver Broncos.

Reports of Manning's decision circulated throughout sports media on Monday, and on Tuesday, the Broncos announced that they have reached a five year deal with the former Colts QB that guarantees $18 million for next season and could be worth $96 million.

The deal ends the idle guesswork on where Manning was likely to wind up, but immediately triggers all sorts of speculation on the future of Broncos starting QB Tim Tebow. Many observeers are fully anticipating Tebow to be traded after being named starter in Week 7 and leading the Broncos to an AFC West title and getting them past the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime in the first round of the playoffs before losing to the Patriots in the Divisional round.

Early talk lists the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins or Jacksonville Jaguars as potential destinations for Tebow. However, there is the remote possibility that he not even leaves Denver.


NHL- The Bruins wrapped up their short two-game homestand as well as the season series against Toronto on Monday night.

It was all Bruins all the time from the very beginning, as Chris Kelly beat James Reimer to get out to the early 1-0 lead. Reimer allowed four goals altogether [the other three from Campbell, Pouliot and Marchand- NANESB!] on nine shots in the first period before being pulled for Jonas Gustavsson.

After Gustavsson was put in net, the Leafs allowed four more goals- comeing from Pouliot, Chara, Rolston and Seguin to give Boston the 8-0 win and sweep of the season series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Between the two of them, Reimer and Gutavsson allowed eight goals on 24 shots faced. Thomas hardly broke a sweat, facing all of 13 shots on Monday night and getting his fifth shutout of the season.

Unfortunately, unlike the last couple of years, there is not a top-tier draft pick riding on Boston beating the ever-loving shit out of the Maple Leafs and making sure they finish at the bottom of the conference. Still, the Bruins have outscored the Maple Leafs 36-10 in their 6 meetings this season.

Boston begins a 3-game West Coast road trip this week that starts off in San Jose on Thursday night. The game gets under way at 10:30 PM ET, 7:30 Pacific.

NBA- The Celtics managed to hold off a late rally from the Atlanta Hawks in the first meeting between the two teams this season as Boston's road trip continued on Monday night.

Although the Celtics trailed early, they took the lead in the second half and were up by as much as 15 in the 4th before the Hawks began to close the gap. Still, the C's managed to hold on for the 79-76 win. Ray Allen had 19 points and 3 rebounds while Kevin Garnett had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. The Celtics going 15-17 from the free throw line also helped them out on Monday's low-scoring game. The win leaves the still a game and a half behind Philly for 1st place in the division.

The C's will next travel to Milwaukee on Thrusday night to take on the Bucks- who are currently riding a 6-game winning streak. The game gets underway at 8PM ET and will be televised on Comcast Sports New England and NBA TV.

MLB- Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine announced the opening day starters this week, with Jon Lester slated to take the mound for opening day in Detroit on April 5th and Josh Beckett starting against Tampa Bay in the April 13th home opener against Tampa Bay.

Really Quick Sports Chowdah Update- C's Make it Cheaper by the Dozen; B's Drop 3rd Straight; Chargers Trample 49ers

Well, I missed out on both the Celtics and Bruins games on Thursday night, but figured with the busy weekend coming up that another update was in order.

NBA: For the second straight week in a row, the C's were nationally televised on TNT. And while this one wasn't as close as last week's game against the 76ers, Boston still came out on top.

Although the Hawks got out to an early lead, the C's came back thanks in large part to double doubles from Kevin Garnett, Glen 'Big Baby' Davis and Paul Pierce to go on and win by the final of 102-90 on Thursday night. This brings the Celtics current win streak to a dozen games.

Missing from the lineup on Thursday was Rajon Rondo, who is expected to miss at least a week after spraining his left ankle in Wednesday night's game against the Knicks.

The C's next home game will be at 1 PM ET on Sunday afternoon against the Indiana Pacers.

NHL: The Bruins lost their third consecutive game on Thursday night against Montreal. Marc Savard got his first goal since coming back in the losing effort. Tim Thomas stopped 37 of 41 shots faced on the night, and while Milan Lucic's power play goal late in the third would pull the B's to within one, Montreal hangs on to win by a final of 4-3.

The Habs victory snaps a 3 game skid of their own and puts them 4 points ahead of Boston for 1st in the Northeast division.

The Bruins will try and snap their losing streak on Saturday night at the Garden when they host the Washington Capitals. The Caps are somewhat worse off, coming into the Garden riding a 7 game skid.

NFL: Wow.....the Thursday night game this week was a laugher, to put it modestly.

The San Diego Chargers helped themselves out considerably in their push for the playoffs by manhandling the San Francisco 49ers by a final of 34-7 on Thursday.

QB Phillip Rivers connected with WR Vincent Jackson for three TDs against the hapless niners. This was first game back for Jackson since the road win against the Colts on Nov 28th.

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.