Sports Chowdah Update for Oct. 27- Celtic Marauders Raid King James' Castle; Astros Hire BoSox Bench Coach as Manager; Arrest Made in Howard Murder

(Getty images/David Liam Kyle)

[Full disclosure- I'm by no means the most avid NBA fan out there, but given that it's opening night, the game was nationally televised and there was little else in the way of sports on tonight, I figured I could accommodate some Celtics news tonight- NANESB!]

Tonight was the opening tipoff of the NBA season, and the C's started out on the road at Cleveland's Quicken Loans arena- a venue where Boston hasn't won in their last 11 appearances there. It looked as though Boston was on it's way to dropping 12 in a row when the Cavs got out to an early lead, but the C's rallied to take the lead right before halftime and managed to hold on to the lead for the second half, winning 95-89. Paul Pierce had 23 points, Ray Allen 16, Kevin Garnett 12 and offseason free-agent acquisition Rasheed Wallace had 12. Boston's bench outscored Cleveland's 26-10. The home opener for the Celtics is tomorrow night at the garden against the Charlotte Bobcats.

In other Celtics news, Glen 'Big Baby' Davis is expected to miss six weeks after surgery to his fractured right thumb after a fight with a former college teammate. Celtics management is also discussing a suspension of the forward, as his conduct could be considered a breach of contract.

Talks for a contract extension with Rajon Rondo's agent have resumed this week. Agent Bill Duffy and Celtics president Danny Ainge have until Sunday to work out an extension for Rondo. Duffy had said earlier that his client would prefer to become a restricted free agent at the end of this season (Sources: Yahoo! Sports, Boston Herald).



A Bloomfield, CT man has been formally charged in the murder of UConn cornerback Jasper Howard. UConn Police Major Ronald Blicher announced 21-year old John W Lomax III has been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree assault. Police have also arrested Hakim Muhammed, 20, and charged him with conspiracy to commit first degree assault and Jamal Todd, 21, and charged Todd with reckless endangerment and filing a false report for his role in pulling the fire-alarm at the school-sponsored party that preceded the deadly altercation.

Lomax is being held on $2 million bail. The team travelled from Morgantown WV to Miami over the weekend in order to attend Howard's funeral Monday. (Source: The Hartford Courant)


The Houston Astros have announced the hiring of former Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills as their new manager today. Mills worked with Terry Francona for 6 seasons in the Red Sox dugout and his hiring by the Astros leaves the possibility that he might persuade current Boston 3rd base coach DeMarlo Hale to come down to Houston and sign on as Mills' bench coach.

Sports Chowdah Recap for October 20-21- That's a Big 10-4, Phils Advance to World Series; Predators Fall Further Down Food Chain

AP

OK....first of all, God? Remember when I was praying and telling you 'I don't want to see Joe Torre's team in the World Series again' like...ten years ago? This wasn't what I had in mind!

With that out of the way, congratulations to the National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies. Cole Hammels was ineffective in his game 5 start against the Dodgers, giving up 5 hits- including solo home runs to Andre Ethier and James Loney- 3 earned runs and walking a batter in 4 and a third innings. However, none of that seemed to matter as the Phillies offense did not let up against Vincente Padilla, who only lasted 3 innings and gave up 4 hits and six earned runs while walking two batters. The Dodgers managed to load the bases with nobody out in the top of the 8th inning, but relieer Ryan Madson was able to pitch out of it. Brad Lidge pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for a 10-4 Phillies win.

Meanwhile, a day earlier and on the other side of the country, the Yankees took a 3-1 series lead over the Angels [I hesitate to say 'commanding', since there's recent precedent for teams down 1-3 or 0-3 in the ALDS- NANESB!] with Yankees starter CC Sabathia going with only three days rest and the Yankees winning 10-1.

(AP)

The Bruins placed Marc Savard (broken foot) and Milan Lucic (broken finger) on injured reserve

this week. Tonight, the Bruins hosted the Nashville Predators at the Garden. Nashville jumped out to the early lead and broke a 1-1 tie on former BU Terrier Colin Wilson's first career NHL goal. Steve Begin scored the go-ahead goal for the B's at 8:33 into the 3rd and Tim Thomas stopped 28 of 30 shots, including several in the final few seconds of regulation, for the win.

Police blotter: Investigators in Connecticut are reviewing video footage from Sunday morning sent in by tipsters that may lead to an arrest in the Jasper Howard case.

"It is known that other video and images exist that need to be reviewed," UConn Police Chief Robert Hudd said in a statement.

Sports Chowdah Recap for Oct 19th- 11th Heaven, Halos Get Past Yanks in Extras; Broncos Special Teams a Royal Pain for Chargers; Phillies J-Rolling

AP
Eddie Royal had a 71-yard punt return and a 93 yard kickoff return in Monday Night's game against San Diego. Darren Sproles had a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown for the Chargers. Same story as last week with the Broncos, right down the the old AFL uniforms and striped socks- Denver trailed at the half then held the opposition to 3 points or less while their offense finally got going (the first offensive TD for Denver came late in the 3rd quarter). The Broncos remain undefeated at 6-0 while the Chargers are 2-3.

Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images

Today's games in both the ALCS and NLCS came down to the final at-bat. After getting out to a quick 2-0 lead, the Phillies found themselves trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th with two out. Jonathan Broxton walked pinch hitter Matt Stairs before getting pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs to line out to 3rd and then hitting Carlos Ruiz with a pitch. Jimmy Rollins then proceeded to hit a deep liner that rolled all the way to the wall in center-field, driving home Stairs and Ruiz and putting Philly up 3-1 in the NLCS [and himself under a pile of enthusiastic teammates].

(Harry How/Getty Images)

Earlier in the afternoon and across the country, Angels backup catcher Jeff Mathis, who had been batting .211 all year came through in a big way at the best possible time for the Angels. After squandering a bases-loaded nobody-out opportunity in the bottom of the 10th, Ervin Santana pitched a hitless top half of the 11th inning for the halos. Alfredo Acevedes came on for the Yankees to replace Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 11th and got the first two outs before giving up a single to Howie Kendrick- who had already homered in the 5th inning- and the game-winning double to Mathis.

In my fairly humble opinion, this was important for the Angels not just to avoid being down 3-0 in the series, but because they managed to make the Yankees burn through much of their bullpen as well as starters being pulled for pinch-hitters or late-inning defensive replacements [Of course having said that, Kendrick and Mathis are bench players themselves- NANESB!]

The next game will be Tuesday night with CC Sabathia starting against Scott Kazmir. The Angels are down 2-1 in the series.

Police Blotter: Police are questioning a man in Bloomfield, CT in connection with the stabbing death of UConn cornerback Jasper Howard this weekend. Early reports from Sunday indicated that the fatal altercation between students and non-students took place outside a university-sanctioned dance at the UConn student union building after a fire-alarm was pulled.

Sports Chowdah Recap for Oct 17-18: Tragedy in Storrs; Extra Extra! Yanks Take 2-0 ALCS Lead After 13; Snow Contest @ Gillette; Winning Convincing-Lee

(File Photo/AP)
JASPER HOWARD: 1989-2009

University of Connecticut cornerback Jasper Howard was stabbed in an altercation near the UConn Student union at 12:30AM Sunday morning. Howard was airlifted from Windham Community Memorial Hospital to St. Francis where was pronounced dead.

The Hartford Courant has more on this.

Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
The Philadelphia Phillies took a 2-1 lead in the NLCS at Citizen's Bank ballpark Sunday Night on the strength of Cliff Lee's eight shutout innings, winning by a final of 11-0. Lee gave up only three hits in his outing while Dodgers starter Hideki Kuroda lasted only 1 and 1/3rd innings, giving up 6 runs. Ryan Howard was 1 for for with 3 RBI and a run scored while Jason Werth has a 2 run homer and Shane Victorino a 3-run homer. Game 4 will be Monday night with Joe Blanton on the bump for the Phils and Randy Wolf starting for the Dodgers.

It took 13 innings to decide a winner at Yankee stadium on Saturday night (early Sunday, east coast time) but a leadoff solo home run by Alex Rodriguez in the bottom of the 11th off of Brian Fuentes when the Yankees were down by a run extended another cold and occasionally rainy game in the Bronx. More costly errors for the Angels, as Maicer Izturus' throwing error with runners on in the bottom of the 13th, allowing Jerry Hairston Jr. to score the go ahead run.

(Elsa/Getty Images)

To say it wasn't even close in Foxboro on Sunday would be something of an understatement. New England effortlessly rolled over the hapless Tennesee Titans/Houston Oilers 59-0 in the driving Global Warming.....I mean....Climate Change....damn! I mean snow at Gillette Stadium today. Apparently there hasn't been this one-sided a beatdown since the Bicentennial, when the then-L.A. Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons by the same score in 1976. Tom Brady was 29 for 34 with 380 yards and six touchdowns. Just out of curiosity, where was this offense for the 2nd half of last week's game in Denver? Or overtime? Curiously, after facing a bunch of then-undefeated teams (Atlanta, the Jets, Baltimore and Denver), New England winds up with two winless opponents (Tennessee and Tampa Bay) for consecutive weeks.

The New York Jets lost in overtime to the Buffalo Bills at the Meadowlands in E. Rutherford, NJ, 16-13. Joe Namath was 10 of 29 for 119 yards with five turnovers after taking a 13-3 lead today.....wait. Did I say Joe Namath? I did it again....I keep getting him and Mark Sanchez mixed up for some reason. Mark Sanchez was 10 for 29, with 119 yards and five interceptions today. [Five? Wait- that's as many interceptions from Mark Sanchez all day as touchdowns from Tom Brady had in the 2nd quarter- NANESB!]. This brings the Jets record to 3-3, with a 1-2 record within the AFC East.

Boston College running back Montel Harris rushed for 264 yards and 5 TDs as the Eagles beat the North Carolina State Wolfpack 52-20 in former Eagle's coach Tom O'Briens return to Chestnut Hill. Harris broke the school's records for touchdowns in a single game and yardage in a single game; the previous best was 253 in 1972 by Phil Bennet [Yes, I had to look that up- NANESB!]. The Eagles are now 5-2 and take on the 4-2 Fighting Irish next week at South Bend.

Phoenix's Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced for a 4-1 Coyotes win over the Boston Bruins at Glendale, AZ Saturday night. The Bruins also have traded RW Chuck Kobasew to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for RWs Craig Weller and Alexander Fallstrom on Sunday. The next game for the B's will be at home against the Nashville Predators on October 21st.