Long Overdue Sports Chowdah Update- Trojan Horseplay, Boston College Upends #9 USC at Chestnut Hill; Feeling Minnesota- Patriots Thump Vikings; Pirate Booty- Pittsburgh Sweeps Red Sox As Rusney Castillo Makes Boston Debut.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Without a doubt, the biggest upset of week 3 was what took place on Chestnut Hill Saturday night when the BC Eagles hosted the USC Trojans. Heading into last weekend, USC was coming off of a triumphant 13-10 win over the Stanford Cardinals while BC was coming off of a 30-20 loss to the Pitt Panthers at Chestnut Hill.

Last weekend's game was 'Red Bandana night', which honored former BC Lacrosse player Welles Crowther who was killed in the September 11th attacks while rescuing others at the South Tower of the World Trade Center.



The heavily favored Trojans got out to a quick 10-0 lead in the first before Boston College got on the board with a 4 yard catch and carry TD run from RB Tyler Rouse to open up the 2nd quarter- however, Launceford would miss the PAT and it was a 10-6 game. USC quickly responded with a TD catch and run from Cody Kessler to Javorious Allen to give the Trojans a 17-6 advantage.

On the next possession, though, BC would put together a 75 yard drive that took all of 3:48 before Jon Hillman hit paydirt on a 3 yard TD run. After a couple of three and outs for each side, BC got the ball back with 1:48 at their own 46 when Sherman Alston ran 54 yards to give Boston College their first lead of the day, putting them up 20-17 before halftime.

For the second half, BC's defense really clamped down on the USC offense [Kessler was sacked five times on the night- NANESB!] and Jon Hilliman would make it a 10 point BC lead, punching it in with 7:35 to go in the third to make it 27-17. With under nine minutes to go in the game, Joey Launceford kicked a chip shot FG to make it a 30-17 contest.

But USC wasn't done yet- with 4:57 left in the game, Cody Kessler connected with Nelson Agholor for a 10 yard TD pass to make it a one score game as the clock ticked down. However, a minute later the Eagles jumped out to a 37-24 lead thanks to a 66 yard TD run by Tyler Murphy. However, the Trojans weren't done yet and after getting the ball back, Kessler connected with Darrius Rogers for a 14 yard TD run to cut Boston College's lead to 37-31. After closing to within 6 and with less than two minutes to go, USC went for the onside kick which was immediately recovered by the Eagles.

QB Tyler Murphy had a better night rushing the ball than passing it, rushing for 191 yards and a TD on 13 carries while ging 5 of 13 through the air for 54 yards.

Boston College's homestand continues this weekend with the Eagles hosting the University of Maine Black Bears. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 ET and the game will be streamed on ESPN3.

NFL- After a lackluster season opener in Miami in which the New England Patriots were outmaneuvered in the second half and lost by a 33-20, New England took their show on the road to Minnesota to take on the Vikings at TCF Bank stadium on Sunday.

With former Patriots backup Matt Cassel under center, the Vikings got out to an early 7-0 lead before New England answered with 30 unanswered points. Stevan Ridley managed to tie the game up with a TD rush from the Vikings 1 yard line before Gostkowski put the Patriots up 10-7 with a 48 yard FG with 30 seconds to go in the first. In the second quarter, Brady found Julain Edelman for a 14 yard TD pass to make it a 17-7 game. With time running out in the first half, Cassel managed to get the Vikings close enough to try a 48 yard FG attempt with 9 seconds left, but that was blocked by DE Chandler Jones who immediately returned it 58 yards for a TD to put the Patriots up 24-7 at the half.

The only scoring in the second half would come from two Gotskowski FGs and the Patriots would go on to thump Minnesota by a 30-7 final for their first win of the 2014 regular season. Tom Brady would go 14-21 with 149 yards and a TD while Cassel went 19-36 with 202 yards, a TD, four interceptions and 6 sacks. Stevan Ridley led the Patriots ground attack with 25 rushes for 101 yards and a TD.

This Sunday will be the Patriot's home opener when they host the Oakland Raiders. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 and the game will be televised on CBS.

OTHER VIKINGS NEWS- The Patriots didn't have to face RB Adrian Peterson on Sunday. Peterson is facing felony child abuse charges in Texas after punishing one of his kids by hitting him with a tree branch. The boy's mother took him to a doctor where he described some of the marks as open wounds.

Although he was cleared to play in this weekend's game at New Orleans, the front office quickly did an about face and exepted him from team activities.

BATLIMORE RAVENS- In another high-profile domestic abuse incident, was cut by the Baltimore Ravens after video from his February 2014 arrest in Atlantic City on assault charges surfaced. Earlier surveillance video from an Atlantic City hotel and casino had shown Rice dragging his unconscious fiancée- Janay Palmer- out of the elevator by her hair, but TMZ was able to obtain video from inside the elevator that showed him knocking Palmer unconscious. Initially Rice was suspended for the first few games of the 2014 season before being indefinitely suspended and outright cut by the NFL.

BOSTON RED SOX- Perhaps the most noteworthy event [at least from Boston's presepctive- NANESB] from this week's sweep of the Red Sox by the Pittsburgh Pirates is the MLB debut of Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo on Wednesday night, who went 1-4 in Boston's 9-1 loss to Pittsburgh. After the 3-game sweep the Pirates are just 2 and a half games behind St Louis in the NL Central and three and a half games ahead of Milwaukee for the second and final NL Wild Card berth. The Buck-os will host a pretty important series this weekend as the Brewers come to town to try and close the gap as time is running out on the regular season.

OTHER MLB NEWS- With just under two weeks to go, three teams have already clinched their respective divisions. The Nationals clinched the NL East with a 3-0 shutout over Atlanta while Baltimore clinched the AL East pennant with an 8-2 win over Toronto- both of these wins coming on Tuesday night.

The following night, the Angels shut out the Seattle Mariners by a 5-0 final- that alone wasn't enough for them to win the pennant, but players and savvy fans stuck around to watch the rest of the Rangers vs A's game on the stadium's jumbotron. The A's were nursing a 1-0 lead heading into the top of the 9th, but the Rangers scored 6 unanswered runs to go on an win by a 6-1 final. The loss gives the Angels the win and right now the best Oakland can do is hope for one of the remaining Wild Card spots [the Royals are a game ahead in the Wild Card chase while the Mariners are only a game behind the Athletics- NANESB!].

Not Quite The Weekend Sports Chowdah for Dec 1st- Bruins November Reign Continues; Valentine's Day Arrives at Fenway; Perils of Paulina

Mike Cassese/ Reuters photo

NHL: The defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins wrapped up their already strong November with a road game
against one of their Original 6 archrivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Interestingly, despite Boston's 10 game winning streak (and subsequently going 1-0-1 since then) the Toronto Maple Leafs held a narrow lead for 1st place in the Northeastern Division heading into Wednesday night's game.

The Leafs got out to the early 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Mikhail Grabovski on Toronto's first man advantage of the evening. The Bruins got on the board thanks to a Milan Lucic power play goal with 4:52 remaining in the 1st. Both teams would head into their locker rooms with the contest tied at 1-1 thanks to Tim Thomas denying Phil Kessel on a one-on-one breakaway with 4 minutes to go in the first period

The Bruins would take a 2-1 lead on a David Krejci tally before Toronto's Joffrey Lupul got one past Tim Thomas to tie the contest at 2-2 three and a half minutes later.Boston would once again go up by a goal after Zdeno Chara beat Leafs netminder Jonas Gustavsson with 4:30 remaining in the secon period to make it 3-2 Boston.

Although the Leafs had just killed a penalty early in the 3rd period, Benoit Pouliot scored on Gustavsson to make it a 4-2 Boston lead. About three minutes later on the other end of the ice, Matt Frattin got on by Tim Thomas to make it a one-goal game once again. But with less than 5 minutes to go, the Bruins would start to pull away, getting a tally from Lucic followed by an empty-netter from Brad Marchand to wrap the game up by a 6-3 final.

Tim Thomas turned aside 34 of 37 shots faced while Toronto's Gustavsson stopped 34 of 39 faced. The bruins went 1 for 3 on the man advantage while Toronto went 1 for two. The win caps a 12-0-1 November, the first time since 1969 that the Bruins have played an entire month without a regulation loss. The win also gives Boston sole possession of 1st place in the Northeastern Division, with Toronto just a point behind.

The Bruins and Leafs go right back at it from the Garden on Saturday at 7PM ET geaturing a game that will be broadcast on both the NHL network and CBC's Hockey Night in Canada.

OTHER BRUINS NEWS: Boston has signed Center David Krejci to a 3-year contract extension. The 25 year old Krejci was a 2nd round pick by the Bruins in the 2004 NHL Draft.


OTHER NHL NEWS: I did not know about this until the other day, but apparently hockey legend Wayne Gretzky's daughter Paulina has (or HAD) a Twitter account.

The 22-year old is the oldest child of Wayne Gretzky and actress Janet Jones and has been pursuing a career in modelling and singing. Although an enthusiastic user of the microblogging site Twitter, her most recent Tweet has led to some rumors on possible ownership changes regarding the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Throughout most of November, speculation was ramping up that the current majority owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs were interested in selling their stake. Among the reportedly interested parties included a group led by Wayne Gretzky as well as Providence Equity Partners- the firm behind the YES Network and Canadian cable and media company Rogers Communications Inc [NYSE: RCI/ TSX: RCI.A & RCI.B], who also happen to own the Toronto Blue Jays.

The current ownership group- the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced last week that it was no longer interested in divesting their 79.5% stake in Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, but various rumors out are that Gretzky had a talk with Paulina about keeping a low profile on Twitter and other social network sites while Gretzky's group is making one final push to purchase a share of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, pre-empting any gaffes, wardrobe malfunctions or meltdowns on Paulina's part via the 140 character or less microblogging site.

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

RED SOX: Former Mets manager and ESPN analyst Bobby Valentine was announced as the Red Sox new manager this week. After multiple interviews, the 61 year old Valentine agreed to a 2 year contract as manager with club options for 2014 and 2015.

Initially, many observers had initially thought that the Red Sox would go with a 'newer' face and that Valentine wasn't a serious candidate for the position. Valentine's previous experience as manager includes the Texas Rangers, New York Mets and two stints with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese League. In 2005, Valentine became the first foreign-born manager of a Japanese team to win the Japan Series- the Japanese League equivalent to the World Series.

NFL: If New England didn't deliver the death blow to the Eagle's playoff chances, Seattle certainly did Thursday night, roughing up Philly in a 31-14 win. The Eagles started the 4th quarter down 24-7, but managed to punch it in on a long drive into Seahawks territory. However, Seattle LB David Hawthorne picked off a Vince Young pass attempt and returned it 77 yards for a TD with just over 4 minutes remaining.

OTHER NFL NEWS: The Minnesota Vikings have released QB Donovan McNabb on Thursday. So far this season, McNabb has been 1-5 and threw for a total of 4 TD passes before being benched. McNabb was benched for rookie Christian Ponder back in mid-October.

The struggling QB's services could still be demand elsewhere, however. The Houston Texans lost QB Matt Schaub for the season to a foot injury, and replacement Matt Leinart lasted all of a quarter before suffering a fractured collarbone to end his season.

The Chicago Bears also lost the services of QB Jay Cutler for the season, and McNabb is a Chicagoland native as well, so that may be a more realistic place for him to wind up.

NCAA FOOTBALL: One game in the books on Thursday night as the West Virginia Mountaineers rallied past the South Florida Bulls to win by a 30-27 final in Tampa. The win guarantees West Virginia at least a share of the Big East title and may secure them an automatic BCS bid depending on the outcome of Saturday's other games in the Big East.

End of Decade Sports Chowdah Update- Whack A Bowl; Pats Rout Bills, Secure 1st Round Bison; C's Winning Streak Snapped? Must be Magic; B's Head South

NEW POLL UP: What a decade, huh? For those of you so inclined, I'm wondering what your thoughts are regarding the defining moment in New England sports between 2000 and the end of 2010. The best part is that there's just so much to choose from (I'm even leaving a few out for the sake of brevity). C'mon people! Celebrate diversity!

But with that said, I have some catching up to do. Between my shuttling around between Cape Cod and the southern tier of New York state as well as waiting out the blizzard this week, I was able to follow some of the NFL action on the radio (not so much the NHL, NBA or many of the Bowl games).

NFL: To hardly anybody's surprise, the Patriots came into Sunday's game at Orchard Park and routed the Buffalo Bills. The 34-3 win came thanks in part to two TD receptions by Buffalo native son and Pats TE Ron Gronkowski. New England was helped considerably by seven Bills turnovers, including five from QB Ryan Fitzpatrick. Brady was 15 for 27 with 3 TDs on the day while Gronkowski had 54 yards on 4 receptions, including two TDs.

New England will close out the regular season with a home game against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday at 1PM ET.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: The NFL commissioner decided to postpone Sunday night's game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings at Philly's Lincoln Financial Field as the region was in the teeth of a massive snowstorm.

The game was rescheduled to Tuesday night as many cities across the Northeast were digging themselves out from the global warming blizzard [OK...what is it about the Vikings- an indoor team, no less- and snowfall this season? You know those cartoon characters that are sometimes walking around with a rain cloud over their head? Substitute the solitary cloud for a blizzard dumping 3 feet of snow overnight and that would be the 2010 Vikings- NANESB!].

Last week's Sunday night game featured the nationally televised Sunday Night debut of one surprising NFC North QB in Green Bay's Matt Flynn. But there would be no Sunday Night game. There would be no Brett Favre on Tuesday.....or Tavares Jackson for that matter. Instead, the Vikings 6th round draft pick from the University of Alabama-Birmingham- Joe Webb- got the start for the beleaguered and depleted Vikings on Tuesday.

You'd think that even with most of their starters healthy, the Vikings wouldn't have stood a chance against the NFC East leading Eagles. Lord knows I did, but I watched anyways. As it turns out, I was glad I did as Minnesota staged a stunning come-from behind rally thanks to RB Adrian Peterson and the rookie Joe Webb.

The Eagles got out to the early 7-0 lead, but with less than a minute to go before halftime, Philly QB Micheal Vick fumbled as he was sacked by Vikings cornerback Antoine Winfield. Winifield then scooped up the loose ball and returned it 45 yards to paydirt to tie the game at 7-7. The Vikings would then score on their first 2 posessions of the 2nd half, getting a FG off the foot of Ryan Longwell and a rushing TD from Joe Webb to take a 17-7 lead. The Eagles would take about five minutes to march down from their own 47 to score a TD of their own and close the gap to 14-17. But that would be it for the Eagles while the Vikings got another TD from Adrian Peterson to put them up 24-14, in what could only be described as a stunning upset given the way how easily the Eagles handled other (and better) NFC teams this season.

That would be the final from a snowy Philadelphia, and as the Brett Favre era no doubt comes to an end in Minnesota, I'm sure the Vikings fans had to have liked what they saw in QB Joe Webb who went 17-26 with 195 yards (as well as 6 rushes for 31 yards and a TD)



NCAA HOOPS: I normally leave the NCAA Basketball coverage to others, but I couldn't let the UConn Women's Basketball team breaking the all-time NCAA Hoops record for regular consecutive wins (either men's or women's) set by the late John Wooden's UCLA Bruins Men's Basketball between 1971-74 pass without mention. The Huskies 89th straight win came against #22 Florida State on December 21st at Hartford's XL Center, with UConn downing the Gators by a 93-62 final to break the 88 straight win mark set by Wooden's Bruins (Wooden's Grandson was present at the game).

The Huskies women's team is in the midst of a west coast road trip where they handled the University of the Pacific Tigers for win #90 by an 85-42 margin in Stockton, CA. Their next game will be a rematch of the 2010 NCAA Women's Championship between UConn and the #8 Stanford Cardinals on Thursday night. Stanford's lady Cardinals currently have a streak of their own going- 51 straight home wins- and was actually the last team to defeat UConn- an 82-73 win in the NCAA semifinals in April 2008.

NHL: Well, while I was away the Boston Bruins clawed their way back to the top of the Northeast Division and are working on a win streak of their own. Apparently getting out of town ahead of blizzard and heading to Florida was just what the B's needed (although they have been burned by Southeast Division opponents before).


One night after Blake Wheeler scored the only shootout goal (and a flukey one at that) to beat the Florida Panthers by a 3-2 final, the B's travelled to Tampa to take on the Lightning. Tim Thomas turned aside 31 shots and the venerable Mark Recchi got the game-winning goal on a power play with 20 seconds remaining in the 3rd. Micheal Ryder, Brad Marchand and Steve Kampfer also tallied goals for Boston in Tuesday night's 4-3 win (Ryder's also coming on the power play).

The Bruins trip through the Southeast will continue Thursday night as they travel to Atlanta to play the Thrashers for the second time in a week- Boston beat Atlanta 4-1 on Dec 23rd at the TD Banknorth Garden.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: Preparations have been well underway for the 2011 NHL Winter Classic at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field on New Year's Day. There are some concerns about the integrity of the ice surface as the weather forecast for the Pittsburgh area is calling for temperatures in the high 40s/low 50s and rain showers for New Years Day.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are scheduled to take on the Washington Capitals on Saturday at 1PM ET, although both the league and NBC has said they'd be willing to delay the start of the game.

NCAA FOOTBALL: I have some catching up to do as far as this is concerned. As I'm writing this, it looks as though the Army Black Knights are going to hold off a 2nd half rally by the Southern Methodist Mustangs to win by a 16-14 final for their first Bowl win since I was in the Army.

As disappointing as the first trio of Bowl games were, there were some good ones to follow those up. Interestingly, this included some of the bowl games whose corporate names lent themselves to easy ridicule and derision (i.e the Beef O'Brady Bowl, Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl).

Here are some of the finals:

12/21- Beef O'Brady Bowl:
Southern Mississippi 28- Louisville 31

12/22- MAACO Bowl:
#20 Utah 3- #10 Boise State 26

12/23- SD County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl:
Navy 14- San Diego State 35

12/24- Hawaii Bowl
#24 Hawaii 35- Tulsa 62

12/26- Little Cesar's Pizza Bowl
Florida International 34- Toledo 32

12/27 Independence Bowl
Air Force 14- Georgia Tech 7

12/28 Champs Sports Bowl
#22 West Virginia 7- North Carolina State 23

Insight Bowl
#14 Missouri 24- Iowa 27

12/29 Military Bowl
East Carolina 20- Maryland 51

Texas Bowl
Illinois 31- Baylor 14

Alamo Bowl
#16 Oklahoma State 36- Arizona 10

12/30 Armed Forces Bowl
Army 16- Southern Methodist 14.

Pinstripe Bowl
Kansas State 34- Syracuse 36

A couple of random notes- Thursday's win for the Black Knights was their first bowl appearence since 1996.

The Little Cesar Bowl was the first ever appearance (and win!) for Florida International.

The SDSU Aztecs appeared in their first bowl game since 1998 and the win over Navy was their first Bowl win since the 1969 Pasadena Bowl (against Boston University).

The rest of the games for Thursday include the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl (Kansas State vs Syracuse), the Music City Bowl (North Carolina vs Tennessee) and the Holiday Bowl (#17 Nebraska vs Washington).

Friday's slate of games include the Meineke Bowl (South Florida vs Clemson), the Sun Bowl (Notre Dame vs Miami-FL), the Liberty Bowl (Central Florida vs Georgia) and the Chick Fil-A Bowl (#19 South Carolina vs #23 Florida State).

NBA: Humbug! The Celtic's winning streak was snapped on Christmas day at Orlando by an 86-78 final. The C's then swung through the Midwest where they beat the Pacers 95-83 before losing to the Detroit Pistons by a 104-92 final.

OTHER CELTICS NEWS: GM Danny Ainge announced Thursday that Kevin Garnett could be out for up to two weeks with a strained right calf after undergoing an MRI.

Shaquille O'Neal was fined $35,000 by the NBA this week after comments questioning NBA officiating and calling the referees 'control freaks'.

Point Guard Rajon Rondo is listed as day-to-day with a sprained ankle and has been out since the December 15 game against the NY Knicks. Doc Rivers said there was some swelling on the ankle that would make his return to Friday night's home game against the New Orleans Hornets questionable.

Quickie Cuppa Sports Chowdah- Free Agent Cliff Hanger; Ocean's River's Eleven; B's Hit w/Stafford Infection; WWII Vet, HOFer Feller Passes Away

Image: USA Today

MLB: WWII Navy Veteran and Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller passed away in a Cleveland area hospice on Wednesday night. The 92 year old was suffering from acute leukemia and pneumonia.

Feller, a first ballot hall of famer, first appeared with the Indians at the age of 17 in 1936 and stayed with the Indians his whole career. His career totals of 266 wins, 3,827 innings pitched, 2,581 strikeouts and 279 complete games remain a franchise record to this day.

The day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Feller enlisted in the United States Navy and ended up as a Gun captain serving on the USS Alabama until 1945.

"I'm proud of that decision to enlist," Feller said. "It was important to serve your country. I didn't worry about losing my baseball career. We needed to win the war. I wanted to do my part."

Feller never considered himself a war hero: "The soldiers that didn't come back were the heroes. It's a roll of the dice. If a bullet has your name on it, you're a hero. If you hear a bullet go by, you're a survivor."

Feller also was on the last Indians team to win a World Series title. Although he went 0-2 in the 1948 World Series against the Boston Braves of the NL, Cleveland would go on to win the series 4 games to 2.

Feller would retire in 1956 and go on be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1995, a museum in his hometown of Van Meter, IA opened up and in retirement, 'Bullet Bob' or 'The Heater from Van Meter'- as Feller was sometimes referred to in his playing days- was a regular fixture around Cleveland's Jacobs Field.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: Just when it was looking like highly prized free agent pitcher Cliff Lee had to choose between the Yankees or Rangers, the Philadelphia Phillies swooped in- seemingly from out of nowhere- and signed Lee to a 5 year $120 million deal.

In taking the Phillies offer, Lee leaves an estimated $30 million on the table that the Yankees were offering and leaves the Bronx Bombers scrambling to try and find any big-name free agent they could sign this offseason. I imagine this signing is a particularly bitter pill to swallow in the Big Apple, not only for the blow to the Yankees, but also the fact that the NY Mets are on the same division against a team that features a starting rotation of Roy Halliday, Roy Oswalt, Cliff Lee and....um......Joe Blanton? OK....you gotta admit the first four are pretty formidable.

*The Washington Nationals have signed free agent right-fielder Jayson Werth to a 7 year, $126 million contract this week. In his final season with the Phillies, Werth had a .296 batting average with 27 homers and 85 RBI

NFL: Brett Favre's streak of consecutive regular-season starts was snapped Monday night in Detroit when the Vikings home field was moved from the collapsed roof of the Metrodome to Detroit's Ford Field. The streak that began on September 13, 1992 on the road against Tampa Bay unceremoniously came to and end as backup QB Tavaris Jackson and the Vikings offense sputtered in their 21-3 loss to the NY Giants.

That was actually Game 1 of a rare late-season Monday Night doubleheader (although unless you had DirecTV or Sirius/XM, the Vikings/Giants game was only broadcast in NY and the Twin Cities). The regularly scheduled Monday Night game got underway in Houston's Reliant Stadium shortly after Favre's streak was snapped

And while I have not rooting interest in either team, the nationally televised Monday Night Football game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans got very interesting very late.

The Ravens took a 21-7 lead into halftime and almost immediately added to that with a 103 yard kickoff return by Baltimore's David Reed to make it a 28-7 game. At this point, the casual observer would've figured it was over, shut off the TV and found something else to do.....clean up around their place, go to a Christmas party, update their crappy blog.....anything but continue to watch this one-sided ass kicking.

In all honesty, I didn't tune in until the score was 28-13 Baltimore, but wouldn't you know it? That Reed kickoff return was it for the scoring for Baltimore in the second half. Texans QB Matt Schaub engineered two drives in the 4th quarter- including one from their own 5 yard line with 2:42 remaining in regulation- to tie the game with a successful 2 point conversion attempt with 21 seconds left in the 4th.

So on to overtime- Baltimore's offense gets the ball to start off the OT, but the drive sputters when Ravens QB Joe Flacco [who just happens to be a Colonial Athletic Association alumnus- NANESB!] was sacked for an 11 yard loss on 3rd and 10 from Baltimore's own 41 yard line. Texans get the ball back, but thanks to a pretty good punt and shoddy return by Texans special teams, they're pinned inside their own 10 yard line. Schaub's first pass attempt falls incomplete. His next pass attempt is complete to Ravens CB Josh Wilson, who runs the interception back 12 yards for the Ravens TD in a 34-28 OT win.

NHL: The only Sabre to get on the board against the Bruins on Wednesday night was returning RW Drew Stafford, but that's all Buffalo would need. Stafford injured his shoulder in a November game against Montreal, and while returning in a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Stafford re-aggravated the injury. The Wednesday night game would mark his first time back on the ice since Dec 3rd.

And apparently he decided to celebrate with a hat trick. David Krejci would open up the scoring in the first with a goal just two and a half minutes in, but Stafford got Buffalo on the board with a power-play goal to tie the contest up at 1-1 with less than 90 seconds left in the 1st. After a scoreless 2nd period, the Bruins briefly took the lead in the 3rd on a Micheal Ryder power play goal. Stafford would knot the contest back up with an even strength goal to make it 2-2 30 seconds after Ryder's tally and then put the Sabres up for good on his 2nd power play goal of the night midway through the 3rd with what would prove to be the game-winner.

Stafford scored his 3rd career hat trick and the Sabres win by a final of 3-2 at the HSBC arena on Wednesday night. Tukka Rask stopped 32 of 35 shots faced while Buffalo's Ryan Miller let in two on 34 shots faced.

This is the second straight loss for Boston, although they're still only two points behind Montreal for 1st place in the Northeastern division.

Speaking of Montreal, the Bruins will travel there for Thursday night's game. Puck drops at 7 PM Eastern time.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: The Glendale, AZ City Council approved a 30 lease agreement with new Coyotes owner, Chicago financier Matt Hulsizer.

The City council's decision comes a few weeks before a December 31st deadline to find a new owner for the team or have it relocated. The city also asked the council to authorize the sale of up to $125 million in municipal bonds to accommodate the terms of the lease.


NBA: Yikes...they don't come much tighter than that.

Instead of rolling over as they had done so many times before for so many teams, The New York Knicks put up an uncharacteristically tenacious fight on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

And since I missed most of the game, might as well fast forward to where it really counts, with Paul Pierce hitting what he thought would be the game winning with all of 0.4 seconds left in the 4th. However, the Knicks Amare Stoudemire immediately heaved a 3 pointer that was good, but after the referees reviewed the videotape, they determined that the ball left Stoudemire's hands after the final buzzer had sounded.

Boston hangs on to win this one by a final of 118-116 for their 11th straight win. The Wednesday night win brings to an end the Knicks own, respectable win streak of 8 games.

The Celtics will next take on the Atlanta Hawks at home on Thursday night. For the 2nd week in a row, the C's will be broadcast nationally on TNT at 8 PM Eastern, 5 Pacific.

Sports Chowdah w/A Blizzard Update- Bears Mauled By Pats O; Raise Raze the Roof; C's De-Claw Bobcats; New Outdoor Record Set

NFL: These guys must be on suicide watch after Sunday.

Coming into Sunday's game at Soldier Field, the Pats were favored by 3 points. Seems a little understated in hindsight.

In the driving snow, Tom Brady went 27-40 with 369 yards and two TDs- including connecting with Deion Branch for 59 yards to find the Bears end zone as time expired in the first half.

And that was just an exclamation point on a half in which the Bears were outscored 33-0. Brady connected with TE Ron Gronkowski for a 7 yard TD Pass on their second drive to open up the scoring, capping off a 6+ minute drive that started on their own 15 yard line. In the 2nd quarter, Danny Woodhead put the Pats up 14-0 on a 3 yard TD run and on the Bear's next possession, a lateral from Jay Cutler to WR Johnny Knox was fumbled and Pats LB Gary Guyton returned it for a TD. Shayne Graham added to the scoring with two chip-shot FGs in the 2nd period as well (although he missed the PAT after Branch's TD as time expired in the first half).

The Bears only socred once- a one yard TD run from Chester Taylor in the 3rd- while the Pats 2nd half scoring was limited to a 29 yard Graham FG.

New England wins this one by a final of 36-7, with the Patriots outscoring their last two opponents by a 81-10 margin and scoring more than 30 points for the 6th straight week. The win clinches a playoff berth for New England as well.

Next Sunday's game will be a nocturnal affair as the Pats host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football.

ELSEWHERE IN THE AFC EAST: Apparently the Patriots broke the Jets. This time, the Miami Dolphins were able to successfully keep the Jets out of the end zone in their 10-6 win over New York on Sunday afternoon (this would mean the Jets lost their last 2 games by a combined total of 55-9).

Even so, that wasn't the most noteworthy event to take place on Sunday in the Meadowlands. Jet's strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi tripped Miami CB Nolan Carroll from the sidelines as the Dolphins rookie as he was running along the sideline to cover a punt. Alosi issued an apology a few hours after the game but will likely face some sort of fine or disciplinary action.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: There was already talk of moving Sunday afternoon's Vikings/Giants game to Monday night in the wake of a massive blizzard that struck the upper Midwest this weekend.

With the collapse of the Metrodome roof, the NFL announced the game is being moved to Detroit for Monday night. The delay might've given the Viking's Brett Favre enough time to add to his NFL-record 297 consecutive regular season starts streak although the QB appeared doubtful.

The Lions will start giving away free general admission tickets on Monday morning at 9AM Central Time while repair work begins on the roof of the Metrodome. The inflatable roof is expected to be open in time for next week's Monday Night Football game between the Bears and Vikings.


NCAA FOOTBALL: The Army and Naval Academy football teams clashed in Philly on Saturday, with the Midshipmen coming out on top 31-17. This the 9th season in a row that Navy has topped Army. Navy leads the series all time at 55-49-7.

With that said, both teams will be playing one more game this year. The Midshipmen will be taking on the San Diego State Aztecs in the SD County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 23rd while Army goes up against the Southern Methodist Mustangs in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl on December 30th.

FCS: Not only was I wrong about the number of remaining teams in the FCS playoff, but there are now no more New England teams competing with the UNH Wildcat's 16-3 loss to Delaware.

I completely overlooked two separate FCS playoff games this weekend- Eastern Washington's 38-31OT win against North Dakota State and Georgia Southern holding off Wofford by a final of 23-20.

That said, the Colonial Athletic Association is still going to be well represented in the semifinals, as Villanova handled Appalachian State 42-24 to take on Eastern Washington while Delaware's win over New Hampshire earns them a date with Georgia Southern. The winners of each game will play each other for the FCS Championship on Jan 7th at Frisco, TX.

HEISMAN: Perhaps not surprisingly, Auburn's Cam newton won the Heisman Trophy in a landslide on Saturday. It barely took 5 years for USC's Reggie Bush to be stripped of his Heisman.

SEC: Former Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator Will Muschamp was named as the new Gators head coach according to a UF statement released Saturday night.

NHL: So close to a shootout, but it just wasn't gonna happen on Saturday night.

Philly jumped out to the 1-0 lead against Boston at the Garden early in the second period of Saturday night's game. Nathan Horton managed to tie the game with his goal about 10 minutes into the third. From then on, neither Tim Thomas or Philly's Brian Boucher let anything by them for the rest of regulation and overtime. Well....most of overtime.

The Flyer's Mike Richards managed to tally an unassisted goal against Thomas with all of 3 seconds remaining in sudden death OT, thus ending the game before the shootout was necessary. Although the way Boucher was turning away the puck on Saturday night, one had to wonder if a shootout would have more work to get to the same net result.

Boucher stopped 35 of 36 shots faced, while in the Bruins net Thomas stops 31 of 33 shots faced. The Bruins have to settle for the one point and Horton gets the only Boston goal of the night.

The Bruins next game won't be until Wednesday at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, NY. The Sabres are coming off of a 5-2 loss to the Penguins on Saturday night.

OTHER BRUINS NEWS: The Bruins sent Marco Sturm to the LA Kings before Saturday's game against Philly. Technically the Bruins would be getting 'future considerations' from LA, but GM Peter Chiarelli admitted in a statement that the future considerations 'meant nothing'. The Bruins GM admitted the trade was done to make more room under the current salary cap. Currently the Kings have close to a $6 million salary cap and could absorb the cost of Sturm's contract for the rest of the season.

NBA In what could be considered the least shocking outcome of the NBA this weekend, the Celtics continued their win streak at 10 with a 93-62 rout of the Charlotte Bobcats on Saturday.

Nothing like the Thursday Night cliffhanger against the 76ers, but it's not like these games are being decided by style points.

The C's will next take on the NY Knicks in a game that's scheduled to be televised on ESPN at 7PM ET on Wednesday night.

MLB: Perhaps lost in the news surrounding the signings of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez is the fact that the Red Sox have signed catcher and team captian Jason Varitek to a one year extension worth an estimated $2 million plus another $300,000 in incentives should he start 80 or more games as catcher.

NCAA HOCKEY A new NCAA Hockey attendance record was set this weekend when 113,411 fans came to Michigan's Big House to see the outdoor contest between the Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans.

The Wolverines won by a final of 5-0.

[H/T Eat it or Wear It on Metrodome footage]

Sports Pumpkin Chowdah Recap- Huff & Puff and Blow the Rangers House Down; Pats Don Old School Jersey, KO Old School QB; B's Veto Sens; BC Halts Skid

NFL: Brett Favre took it on the chin- literally- in Sunday's game at Foxboro. While engineering a drive inside New England's 10 yard line midway through the 4th quarter, the Vikings QB was levelled by DT Myron Pryor and had to leave the game with a laceration on his chin.

Coming into this week's matchup, there was some doubt whether or not we would even get the Tom Brady/Brett Favre matchup, with the possibility that Brett Favre would miss his 292nd consecutive career start due to multiple fractures in his ankle. Prior to that the sub-plot for Sunday's game was supposed to be Randy Moss' return to Foxboro for the first time since he was traded earlier in the year, but Moss was a conspicuous non-factor with only one reception for 8 yards on the day.

After a scoreless first quarter, Minnesota took the lead to start off the 2nd quarter with a drive that started out on their own 24 and was capped with a one yard TD run from RB Adrian Peterson. The Pats responded by putting together a drive from their own 25 that went into the Viking's red zone thanks to long completions from Brady to Deion Branch and Brandon Tate, culminating when RB Danny Woodhead took a direct snap from the Vikings 3 into the end zone.

Although Minnesota moved the ball around effectively with Favre at QB, twice they made it inside the Pat's red zone and were shut out, the most pivotal stop coming on a 4th and goal with a minute left in the 1st half, when Adrian Peterson was stuffed at the 1-yard line to keep the game tied at 7-7- heading into the half.

The Pat's D also factored into keeping Minnesota Vikings out of the end zone on their first posession on the second half, with the Vikings getting as far as New England's own 5 before settling for a chip shot field goal from the 24 yard line.

New England came right back with a drive that quickly put them up thanks to a completion from Brady to Brandon Tate good for 65 yards to make it a 14-10 contest.

With five minutes to go in the 3rd quarter and Minnesota getting the ball mid-field, Brett Favre was intercepted by Devon McCourty, who ran it back to the Vikings 37 yard line. The ensuing Pats posession was almost literally all Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis. Aside from a 10 yard completion to Danny Woodhead, the ball was handed off to the RB for 3 carries for 27 yards, including his 13 yard TD run to put New England up 21-10.

Starting at their own 20, Favre put together a drive (including a 30 yard pickup by WR Percy Harvin) that got them inside the New England 10 before Pryor's hit knocked him out, with Tavaris Jackson coming in at QB. The next play was a quick pass to Nafahu Tahi for the touchdown, followed by a 2 point conversion to Harvin to close the gap at 18-21.

New England began their following posession at their own 20 yard line and strung together a lengthy, time-consuming drive that included converting in a 3rd & 12 thanks to a 16 yard pickup by Danny Woodhead and yet another Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis TD run to put the Pats up by 28-18 marign inside the 2-minute warning.

That would be the final from Foxboro as the Pats went to 6-1. With the Jets 9-0 loss to Green Bay at the Meadowlands earlier in the day, New England takes sole posession of first place in the AFC east. The cherry on top of that is with Pittsburgh's 20-10 loss to New Orlenas on Sunday night, the Patriots have the best overall record in the NFL.

Next week will have the Pats travel to Cleveland for a 1PM ET/10AM Pt kickoff against the Browns (who lest we forget, absolutely manhandled New Orleans a few weeks back). Then comes a particularly difficult stretch where New England will be going up against the Steelers and Colts.

UPDATE: Well, that didn't last long. On Monday, the Vikings announced that WR Randy Moss would be waived after an odd, one-man postgame press conference after the game.


WORLD SERIES: The series has moved to Arlington, TX and on Saturday night, the Rangers avoided the sweep thanks to Mitch Moreland, who drove in 3 of Texas' 4 runs with a 3-run shot in the bottom of the second inning. Colby Lewis lasted a good 7 and ⅔ innings in a must-win scenario, giving up two earned runs on 5 hits while striking out six. It got a little tense for awhile, but Darren O'Day and Neftali Feliz managed to close out the game for the Ranger's 4-2 win, the first-ever World Series game won in the state of Texas.

For Sunday night, both the Giants and the Rangers had their young starters going- Tommy Hunter versus Madison Bumgardner. Hunter gave up a 2-run shot to Giants DH Aubrey Huff in the top of the third to make it a 2-0 game. Outfielder Andres Torres would drive in another run in the top of the 7th off of Darren Oliver and catcher Buster Posey had a solo shot off of Darren O'Day to make it a 4-0 San Francisco advantage. Bumgardner went 8 scoreless innings, giving up 3 hits, 2 walks and striking out six while Londonderry, NH's own Brian Wilson had a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th to close out 4-0 win, putting San Francisco up 3 games to 1 in the World Series.

Game 5 is set to take place tonight at Arlington, with the game 1 rematch of Cliff Lee and Tim Linecum at 7:57PM ET, 4:57ET.


NHL: The Bruins took their first trip north of the border this season to take on the Ottawa Senators Saturday night. As it turned out, David Krejci would get the only tally (unassisted, no less!) Boston needed with 4 ½ minutes left in the first. Still, Tyler Seguin and Milan Lucic gave Boston some insurance in the 2nd period with seperate goals and Jordan Caron put Boston up 4-0.

[OK- who was ready to write off Tim Thomas last season? Don't you feel kind of dumb now?- NANESB!]

Tim Thomas stopped all 29 shots faced and now has a 6-0-0 record, in net for all six of Boston's wins. The Bruins 6-2-0 record and will travel next to the HSBC Arena to take on the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night.



NCAA FOOTBALL: How about that? The BC Eagles are off the schnide after downing the Clemson Tigers at Chestnut Hill on Saturday! This snaps the Eagle's longest losing streak since 1998. Saturday's game was by no means a track meet, with Clemson taking the early 7-0 lead. The Eagles replied with a Nate Freese field goal, which the Tigers responded to with one of their own to take a 10-3 lead to close out the first quarter. The Eagles got another field goal in the 2nd and then scored their only TD on a 36 yard play to RB Montel Harris with the Eagles holding on to a 16-10 heading into halftime.

There was no scoring in the 2nd half, with the Eagle's defense stifling the Tigers and getting the ball back thanks to missed field goals, interceptions and tunrovers on downs. After some close losses to Maryland and Florida state, BC beats Clemson by a final of 16-10. Montel Harris had 1 reception for 142 yards and BC's only TD.

Next week, the Eagles will travel to Winston-Salem, NC to take on the struggling Wake Forest Demon Deacons, who currently have a record of 2-6.

BIG EAST: Just like on Chestnut Hill, 16 points was all it took for UConn to break their losing streak against a favored opponent on a Friday Night game against the West Virginia Mountaineers.

The overtime win heading into the weekend was aided in large part by no less than 7 Mountaineer turnovers- four of them recovered by UConn. The most damning one for West Virginia came in the OT, which by rule gave the Huskies posession on WV's own 25 yard line. After being kept out of the end zone by the Mountaineer defense, UConn kicker Dave Teggart booted the game winning FG from the West Virginia 27 yard line for the 16-13 win.

The win halts the Huskies 2-game losing streak and gives UConna 4-4 record for their upcoming Veteran's Day game against Pitt at E. Hartford, CT.

NBA: Despite his non-compliant headband, Rajon Rondo had a career night against the NY Knicks with a triple double and 24 assists on Friday night. Paul Pierce wasn't too shabby either, with 25 points and 14 rebounds of his own during the C's 105-101 win against New York.

[Should I be Concerned that this was such a close game against what's normally considered an awful team? Has New York improved that much? Or is this something that can be attributed to early season rustiness on the part of both teams?- NANESB!]

The C's will next travel to the Palace at Auburn Hills, MI to take on the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.

Week Off Sports Chowdah Update- Bruins Split Czech; Braves Chopped Out of Playoff Picture; Pats Family Tree Gets Familiar Branch

NHL: The puck dropped on the 2010-2011 Bruins regular season in Prague this weekend with a two game series against the Phoenix Coyotes. After losing the opener by a 5-2 margin, Tim Thomas made an impressive regular season debut and 2010 first round draft pick Tyler Seguin scored his first NHL goal on Sunday's game in the Czech capital. Thomas stopped all 29 shots he faced while Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton got the Bruins out to a 2-0 lead in the 2nd period before Seguin's goal sealed the 3-0 win over Phoenix.

Boston's next game isn't until Saturday where the NJ Devils will host them at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.

MLB: And then there was one......well one division series remaining. After the Yankees finished off a sweep of the Twins on Saturday while the Reds were eliminated by the Phillies Sunday night. The Braves managed to stay alive in the NLDS matchup with the Giants and the series headed to Atlanta with the series tied 1-1 after Rick Ankiel splashed a solo homer into McCovey cove in the 11th inning to cap off the Braves Friday night win.

However, the Giants were able to take advantage of Atlanta miscues as the series went back to Turner Field tied 1-1. Perhaps most the most agonizing for moments for Braves faithful came after an Erick Hinske pinch-hit 2-run homer briefly put the Beaves up 2-1. In the top of the 9th, Aubrey Huff drove on, bringing home Travis Ishikawa to tie the contest up at 2-2. Giants Catcher Buster Posey scalded what looked like sharply hit groundout to 2nd base to end the inning, but in a moment eerily reminiscent of Bill Buckner, it went right under Brooks Conrad's glove and into center field to put the Giants up for good 3-2.

Monday night's game at Turner Field turned out to be Bobby Cox's last as Braves manager, as the Giants held on to a 1-run lead even when Giant's closer Brian Wilson allowed back-to-back walks to Rick Ankiel and Erick Hinske with one away. The Londonderry, NH born pitcher then managed to get Melky Cabrera to ground out into a double-play. San Francisco wins the Division series 3 games to 1 and Game 4 by a final score of 3-2.

ELSEWHERE: Game 5 of the ALCS Between the Rangers and Rays is set to take place tonight in Tampa/St. Pete at 8PM ET. The series is tied at 2 games each and Cliff Lee is expected to get the start against David Price. Curiously, the home team has yet to win in this series.

NFL: For those of us wondering 'Who's Brady gonna throw to now that Moss is gone?', wonder no more as the Patriots announced that they reacquired WR Deion Branch from the Seattle Seahawks last night (See!? Pats news even during the bye week!). The Seahwaks will get a future draft pick from New England in exchange for Branch and acquired a WR from another AFC East team, Marshawn Lynch, last week. Superbowl XXXVIII MVP Branch reportedly practised with New England on Tuesday. New England takes on the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday.

Oh yes....there was some sort of Monday night contest involving Randy Moss and the NY Jets on the air, too. Man....I tuned in for that right after the Braves/Giants game....what a snooze-fest until the late 3rd quarter. Rain rain rain, Vikings 3 and out, rain rain rain Jet's field goal....lather, rinse, repeat....you get the idea. So fast forward to the third quarter where Brett Favre manages to get the Vikings on the board with a 3rd and 17 completion to Randy Moss for career TD #500 and became the first QB to eclipse the 70,000 yards mark....and parhaps more importantly make it an interesting game at 12-7. Brett Farve came up short [or insert your own Farve-centric joke- NANESB!] after a late interception sealed the win for the Jets, their 4th in a row, by a final of 29-20.

NCAA FOOTBALL: Boston College had their bye a few weeks ago, but they've been playing like they still have had every weekend off since then. This past weekend, it was a 44-17 loss to North Carolina state, which makes them 0-2 against ACC opponents. After averaging 10 points in their last three games, I'm not very optimistic about their chances against #16 Florida State at Talahassee on Saturday afternoon

To the South (or is it north, since both were away games?), UConn squandered a 24-17 halftime lead and were shut out by the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for the entire 2nd half to lose by a final of 27-24 on a Friday night game. The Huskies have a bye this weekend and will travel to Louisville on Oct. 23rd for another Big East matchup.

Scrappy Division 1AA UMass had the weekend off, but will be playing another FCS/Colonial Conference team that not only acquited itself against a FBS/Division 1A team (Virginia), but actually won- the Richmond Spiders. Since their close game against the Wolverines, the Minutemen have gone 2-0 and has an overall record of 4-1 (second only to 6-0 Delaware in the CAA).

Quicke Cuppa Sports Chowdah Update- Phil In The Blanks, Doc Holliday Throws No-No in NLDS Game 1; Pats Gather No More Moss

AP Photo

And there we were watching history with the sound off.

Long story short, I get together with some friends at the friendly neighborhood cantina for some Sam Adams and so I can show them the pricey and tax-free goodies I picked up while I was in New Hampshire last month. There's a flat screen over the bar that's showing the NFL network, and almost as an afterthought I ask the bartender if they can change it to the Reds/Phillies game. The barkeep obliged and we tuned in just in time to see Shane Victorino steal third and come home on a Chase Utley sac-fly in the bottom of the first.

By the time the bottom of the second rolls around, it's pretty clear that Cincinnati's Edinson Volquez isn't long for this game as he put two runners on with two away and facing his counterpart, Roy Halliday. The Philly starter helped out his own cause with the lumber when he hit an RBI single to shallow left to make it a 2-0 game. Volquez then walked Jimmy Rollins to put the Philly ace at 2nd and load them up once again. Shane Victorino then hit a 2-RBI single in which a jacket-wearing Halliday scored from 2nd before Reds manager Dusty Baker decided to pull Volquez for Travis Wood.

For those of us at the cantina who no longer had a dog in the fight, our attention began to turn to the more mundane such as the pricey shit I purchased in New Hampshire (did I mention it was tax-free) and vacation pictures that came out alot better than I thought. With the sound off, none of us gave the game on the TV much thought....until I happened to look up and see that TBS was flashing a graphic that pointed out the last time a postseason starter threw 7 no-hit innings was the Red Sox's Jim Longborg in Game 2 of the 1967 World Series against St. Louis. We figured that they wouldn't bother pointing that out unless Halliday was throwing a no-no.

Sure enough he was. The only runner he allowed was Reds outfielder Jay Bruce with a 5th inning walk. Halliday successfully continued mowing 'em down into the 9th, where he faced Reds 2B Brandon Phillips. Phillips chopped an 0-2 offering in front of home plate and sprinted towards first as Philly C Carlos Ruiz tore off his mask and deftly plucked the ball up from next to the bat laying down on the infield and managed to throw to 1B Ryan Howard in time for the final out of the game.

This marks the first postseason no-hitter since October 1956 when Don Larsen threw a perfect game for the Yankees against the then Brooklyn Dodgers in the '56 World Series.

OTHER MLB PLAYOFF GAMES: DJ Kitty was unable to weave his magic for Game 1 down in Tampa Bay. Cliff Lee got out of some early jams against the Rays and the Rangers win game one of that series 5-1.

The Yankees came from behind to win the first playoff game at Target Field in Minnesota by a 6-4 score.

Game one of the Division series between the San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves get underway tomorrow night at 9:35PM Eastern time.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: Not surprisingly, there's been some managerial shakeups with the end of the regular season upon us. Ken Macha's been dismissed as Brewer's manager while the Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager John Russel after 3 seasons. In New York, Mets GM Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel were fired on Monday.

NFL: The biggest bit of sports news before Roy Halliday got Brandon Phillips to ground out in the 9th inning was the departure of WR Randy Moss from New England. The mercurial wide receiver departed for the Minnesota Vikings on Wednesday in exchange for their 3rd round draft pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. So now he's the Viking's problem.

Moss was likely dissatisfied with his current contract status (a 3 year deal that would've finished up at the end of the year) while Brady, Banta-Cain and Gostowski among others received contract extensions. This in turn lead to all sorts of speculation about his future in New England and reportedly some loud exchanges with teammates and coaching staff. On the Minnesota end of the deal, Brett Farve was reportedly lobbying the Viking management to put in an offer for Moss.

Randy Moss is expected to start in time for the Monday Night game against the NY Jets and will return to Foxboro with the Vikings on Halloween [I used to scoff at the notion that the NFL is scripted, but nowadays, I sometimes pause- NANESB!].

Personally, I'm not glad to see him go, but if he doesn't want to stay then why bother forcing the issue. The Krafts managed to get a few relatively drama-free years from Moss, which was a few more than I anticipated when the trade from Oakland was announced in 2007.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: The Buffalo Bills traded RB Marshawn Lynch to the Seattle Seahawks for a pair of undisclosed draft picks earlier this week.

Sports Chowdah With A Chance of Sprinkles- Mariners On the Rocks @ Fenway, Bittersweet Lou; Trouble in Strasburg? Vin-Comprable

RED SOX: Well, after winning three out of the last four games at Fenway, mother nature decided to put a damper on Boston's modest winning streak Tuesday night. So tonight's game will be made up as part of a day/night doubleheader on Wednesday. Josh Beckett (3-3; 6.67 ERA) gets the start against David Pauley (2-4; 3.70 ERA) in the day game while Jon Lester (13-8; 3.26 ERA) goes up against Felix Hernandez (9-10; 2.51 ERA) in the nightcap.

Clay Buchholz got the W in Sunday's weekend sereis finale against the Blue Jays, pitching 6 shutout innings, striking out seven and allowing five base hits and three walks. Adrian Beltre started off the scoring with an RBI double to left in the bottom of the 5th and came home when Bill Hall homered. Victor Martinez and Bib Papi followed that up with RBI singles of their own in the bottom of the 8th to make it a 5-0 game. Papelbon had Sunday afternoon off and Felix Dubront came on for two innings worth of work to close out the game.

On Monday night, Seattle got off to the early 1-0 lead in the third when Ryan Langerhans came home on Jed Lowrie's throwing error. In the bottom of the 5th, Marco Scutaro would get a 2-RBI single off of Mariners starter Doug Fister while JD Drew would drive in another run to make it 3-1. The Mariners got both runs back in the top of the 6th with Casey Kotchman's 2-RBI single off of Lackey to tie things up at 3-3. However, the Sox would reagin the lead with another Scutaro 2-RBI single followed by a Victor Martinez sac-fly to make it a 6-3 game.

Lackey worked eight whole innings, giving up 6 hits, 3 runs, two walks and striking out 10. Since it was still a save situation, Papelbon came on to work the top of the 9th, giving up a leadoff single to Adam Moore before getting the next three batters out for the 6-3 Red Sox win.

OTHER SOX NEWS: Boston's highly anticipated reunion with Johnny Damon will have to wait, as the Tigers outfielder declined to accept being picked up by the Red Sox after being placed on waivers by Detroit. Damon had indicated that he was leaning towards staying with the Tigers from the beginning and had a no-trade clause that he declined to waive. In his first year in Detroit, Damon has been batting .272 with 7HR and 41 RBIs in 111 games so far.

ELSEWHERE: Cubs manager Lou Piniella stepped down Sunday afternoon after a 16-5 loss to the Atlanta Braves. Last month, Piniella indicated that he would retire at the end of the season, citing family concerns. The deteriorating health of his 90 year old mother is believed to have played a role in hastening his retirement.

Also this weekend, Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully announced that he was returning to the booth for a 62nd season. The team announced that Scully would be calling the play by play for the Dodgers home games as well as road games against NL West opponents- similar to an arrangement that's already been in place for the last few seasons.

“The love of the game still produces goose bumps. That might be my thermometer,” he said. “Every time there’s a good play, the other night when the kid at second base threw the ball to first behind his back, I had goose bumps like it was the first big league game I’d ever seen.

“I went home thinking, `Holy mackerel, it’s still deep inside of me, this love for the game.’ I’m so blessed.”

Washington Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg went back on the 15-day DL Tuesday after leaving the 5th inning of Saturday's game against the Phillies with what's believed to be a strained tendon in his right forearm. The rookie fireballer is slated to undergo further testing on Thursday.

NFL: Brett Favre is back with the Minnesota Vikings. Favre lasted exactly all of 4 plays, getting a 13 yard pass off to Adrian Peterson in Minnesota's 10-15 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

Long Overdue Sports Chowdah Update: Saints Go Marching on To 1st Ever Superbowl, Colts Ground Jets, Bruins Winless Woes Continue

Sorry about dragging my feet regarding the sports updates. Seems like political developments and posting photos of buxom actresses has taken priority over the sports chowdah recaps. And with the way the Bruins have been playing (Celts have at least shown some improvement), can you blame me for my being distracted by sweet sweet eye candy?

NHL UPDATE & NEW POLL UP:

Besides the new links I put up, I also have a new poll up speculating on where the 2011 NHL Winter Classic will take place. Feel free to vote and add to some of the speculation yourself.

[Thanks to design czar and Pi Guy over at Correspondence Committee for walking me through some of the blogspot features and how to use them. I told them at the time they'd probably have an easier time into talking a border collie into landing a 767 with jammed landing gear- NANESB!]

The Bruins in the last 10 days:

@ Los Angeles- 3-4 L(SO)

Ottawa- 1-5 L

Columbus- 2-3 L

Ottawa- 1-2 L

@ Carolina- 1-5 L

In that span of time, the Bruins have dropped from 2nd to 4th place in the Division, being overtaken by Ottawa and Montreal and are now 13 points behind division leader Buffalo. This includes getting hammered by the last place teams in the Central and Southeastern Divisions (Carolina and Columbus). The Bruins don't play again until Friday when they travel to the HSBC Arena to take on division-leading Buffalo Sabres.

So....yeah. The last week plus has pretty much sucked as far as that was concerned, but I'll try not to distract myself with more ocular sweetness.

OK- that didn't last long.

On the other hand, the NFL Conference Championship weekend turned out to be pretty good. Despite all the bold predictions from Rex Ryan and despite the early 17-6 lead, the Indianapolis Colts came from behind and shut the Jets out in the second half to win 27-17 and advance to their second Superbowl in three seasons.

However, the instant classic was the showdown in New Orleans with Drew Brees and the Saints hosting Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings. The game was knotted at 28-28 with the clock ticking down in regulation, the Vikings had the ball at the first and ten on the Saints' 33 yard line. However, the ball was handed off to Adrian Petersen and Chester Taylor for no gain, then the Vikings were flagged for 12 men on the field, putting the ball on the 38 yard line, putting the potential game-winning filed goal out of Ryan Longwell's range. However it was all academic as Brett Farve desperately chucked the ball with a sidearm throw that wound up intercepted by Saints DB Tracy Porter, sending the game into overtime. The Saints won the coin toss and methodically marched down the field after the kickoff return started them on their own 39 yard line, including a 4th down conversion that drew a lengthy review from officials in the booth. Replacing long-time veteran John Carney earlier in the season, Garret Hartley came on for the Saints' 40 yard FG attempt, which connected and catapulted New Orleans to its first ever Superbowl.

So there you have it- most of the teams that got bounced out earlier in the playoffs left with a whimper and we now have a New Orleans/Indianapolis Superbowl. Seems like this was the way it should be when both teams were making their undefeated runs earlier in the season.

OTHER NFL NEWS: Quarterbacks Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger have declined invitations to this years Pro Bowl. The game will be played January 31, 2010 in Miami, FL. This marks the first time the NFL's All Star game hasn't taken place in Hawaii.

A group calling itself the Women's Media Center is demanding CBS pull an ad featuring Florida quarterback Tim Tiebow and his mother that is slated to air during the Super Bowl. The ad is paid for by Focus on the Family which the National Association of Women and Feminist Majority complain will likely carry an anti-abortion message.

NBA: The Celtics are doing considerably better than the Bruins, although that's not saying much at this point. Still, as of today, they're riding a 2-game winning streak coming off home wins against the Portland Trailblazers and LA Clippers, beating LA 95-89

Archie Andrews is expected to return from Riverdale after missing the last two games with a separated shoulder....oh wait...that's Brian Scalabrine. Anywhoo, Scalabrine is slated to be in the lineup for Thursday night's game at Orlando.

Sports Chowdah Recap for January 16-17: Comeback Kings- US Olypians Face off In City of Angels; NFL Divisional Weekend Roundup

In a daytime matchup that pitted US Olympic goaltenders Tim Thomas and Jonathan Quick against each other, the LA Kings came from 2 goals down in the 3rd period to force overtime and then a shootout with the Bruins on Saturday. Although Boston got out to a 3-1 lead in the second period with goals from Blake Wheeler and Micheal Ryder- scored 11 seconds apart, the Kings came back to tie it on goals from Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar- scored 2:22 apart. With no score in overtime, that brought up the shootout where Brown and Kopitar would score again while Quick stopped shots from Krejci and Satan to give LA the 4-3 win in the shootout.

The Bruins went 1-1-1 on their west coast road trip and will face the Ottawa Senators tomorrow in a matinee at the Garden.

The NFL's Conference championships are all set after this weekend. Less than a week after embarrassing the Patriots at Gilette Stadium, the Ravens season came to an end with a 20-3 loss against the Colts on Saturday night. The only upset and close game of the weekend was the finale down in San Diego, where the underdog New York Jets took advantage of some turnovers late in the game to stun the Chargers by coming away with the 17-14 win.

In the NFC, the Saints handled the Cardinals pretty easily for a 45-14 win. The loss for Arizona has fueled speculation on whether or not this was QB Kurt Warner's final season.

Under yet another dome, the Vikings dispatched the Dallas Cowboys 34-3 on Sunday. I don't think Jessica Simpson was in the building for this one, so Cowboys fans will have to blame this playoff loss on something else.....maybe....I dunno- Tony Romo?