Sports Chowdah Recap: Pink Bats Come Alive in Fenway & Quiet By the Bay, Flyers Force Game 7, C's Even Series w/Cavs

It's been awhile, hasn't it? Alot's been going on in the sports world since I last updated, and not much of it centered in Boston either.

MLB: Well, after dropping the first two games to the Yankees by at least a touchdown (yeah yeah- wrong sport, but that's how bad it was), the Red Sox managed to salvage Game 3 of the series on the nationally televised Sunday night game with a convincing 7-inning performance from Jon Lester, giving up 4 hits, two runs and two walks while striking out 7 and walking two batters and getting the 9-3 win. Jeremy had a home run and 3 RBI, going 1 for 4 on the night and Big Papi had an RBI ground-rule double.

This was followed up by a 7-6 win over Toronto on Monday and strong outing by Matsuzaka Tuesday night good for a 6-1 win. Toronto managed to avoid the sweep yesterday on a two-hit, 7-inning shutout effort by Shaun Marcum.

The Sox have tonight off and will start a 3 game series against the Tigers at Comerica park on Friday night with Buccholz getting the nod for Boston and Max Scherzer starting for Detroit.

Other MLB News:
Part of the joy of being an XM subscriber is that you can tune in to some of the out-of town games if you think the one you're listening to is a dud. Such was the case on Mother's day when I was driving around in the hills and waiting for the Sox/Yankees Sunday night game to start. Second-place NANESB! baseball broadcast poll finisher Dave Niehaus had jut informed listeners on the out-of-town scoreboard update that not only was there a no-hitter brewing down in Oakland, but a perfect game.

Not just a perfect game, but Oakland starter Dallas Braden was throwing a perfect game against the white-hot Tampa Bay Rays. I mean, you gotta figure that it's difficult enough to get 27 straight outs against 'scrub' teams like the Orioles or Royals, but the AL-East leading Rays? Seems like a tall order. I was able to tune in in time for the top of the 9th at the Colesium and Gabe Kapler grounding out to short for the final out of the game and the 4-0 Oakland win.

Even before the perfect game, Dallas Braden made some headlines when he called out A-Rod for breaking one of the unwritten rules of baseball when the Yankees were playing in Oakland in late April. When asked about the incident, Slappy McBluelips had this to say:

"He told me to get off the mound," he said. "I was a little surprised because I never heard that, especially from a guy with a handful of wins [17] in his career."

Hmm....guess Braden's stock went up even further all around MLB. Well...since I am inherently biased towards Boston, this does remind me a little of Dustin Pedroia chirping at A-Rod when he threw an elbow at the Sox shortstop in a pretty weak effort to break up a double-play and the Yankees announcers saying something along the lines of "Who does this Pedroia kid think he is?". That was in 2007, the same year Pedroia would win Rookie of the Year. One sure sign that you've arrived is to earn the snide, dismissive contempt of the Yankees fans and media. Way to go Dallas.

MLB Comissioner Bud Selig announced that he has no plans to move the 2011 MLB All-Star game from Arizona, despite non-stop bitching pressure from advocacy groups and union thugs to move next year's mid-summer classic elsewhere in response to Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration laws. Over the past week, several city councils have passed resolutions threatening to boycott the state over Arizona's law, while the law itself reportedly has an approval rating of 70% in Arizona and over 60% support nationwide. It's not often I get to say this, but Selig made the right decision here.

NBA: Man.....as infrequently as I've been doing the sports updates, looks like there's only one or two Celtics game that takes place between updates. It seems like there are no close games in this series against the Cavs. After winning 97-87 at home on Sunday, the Celtics went on the road and stunned the Cavs again with a 120-88 beatdown of Cleveland at Quicken Loans arena Tuesday Night. LeBron James was kept pretty quiet with only 15 points on the night while for Boston, Rajon Rondo had 16 points and 7 assists and Ray Allen had 25 points on the night.

The Celtics have the opportunity to finish off the Cavs tonight at the Garden and start fuelling speculation on where LeBron James could win p as a free agent.

NHL: The 7 game series giveth and the 7 game series taketh away. After getting out to a 3-0 lead over the Flyers, Philly has come back to even the series at 3 games a peice, beating the Bruins 2-1 in the most recent game on Wednesday night. Milan Lucic would wind up with the only tally for the Bruins that night, coming with a minute left in regulation while Tukka Rask stopped 25 of 27 shots faced. The all-or-nothing Game 7 will take place Friday night.

Other NHL News: I'm not as surprised about this as I was about the first round upset against the Washington Capitals, but this should still be filed under 'H' for 'Holy crap!'. Montreal beat the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 in Game 7 of their series to advance to take on to the winner of the Philly/Boston series.

Speaker Pelosi Finds Religion

The year was 2008. An obscure Presidential candidate named Barack Hussein Obama was on the campaign trail obfuscating his 20-year association with a bigoted hate-preacher and explaining the joys of wealth redistribution to an Ohio plumber. Elsewhere that summer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- San FranFreakshow) appeared on NBC's Meet the Press in an attempt to singlehandedly rewrite Catholic Doctorine in order to mitigate her pro-abortion stance.

“… I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition … St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know. The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose,”

This did not go over well with the cardinals, bishops and numerous practicing Catholics at the time. Look- it's one thing to claim to be both Catholic and pro-abortion, but it's another to flat out lie and tell everybody that most other Catholics and the church itself are 100% down with abortion just like you are. Or that the Church hasn't made up its mind yet. Or whatever.

In advance of the 2008 Democrat Party convention in the Mile High city, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, issued a scathing rebuttal to Pelosi's opportunistic and selective amnesia on Church doctrine.

Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it - whether they're famous or not - fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith.

Why are you bringing this up now? you might be asking (and for good reason). I'm not here to singlehandedly fight the abortion debate [although I do find it amusing that the same women's groups who would shout "Keep your laws off of my body!" at pro-abortion rallies apparently have absolutely NO problem with 0bamacare- NANESB!] but it should probably be revisited now that Pelosi's trying to curry favor with the Church once more.

Lately, it seems the human lamprey known as Nancy Pelosi has decided to opportunistically attach herself to the Catholic Church once again, this time weighing in on immigration 'reform'.

"The cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops that come to me and say, 'We want you to pass immigration reform,' and I said, 'I want you to speak about it from the pulpit. I want you to instruct your' -- whatever the communication is," [emphasis mine- NANESB!] said Pelosi, who is Catholic, speaking at the Nation's Catholic Community conference sponsored by Trinity Washington University and the National Catholic Reporter.

And how would the human lamprey with the 28% Approval rating feel about those same Catholic leaders speaking out in opposition to same-sex marriage or abortion from that same pulpit? Or would the Speaker magically rediscover the separation of Church and State once the Catholic Church's opposition to those particular issues were clarified from the pulpit.

Can anybody else believe the unmitigated chutzpah of this caricature of a woman? Not even two years ago, she was on national TV telling the nation the Catholic Church's stance on abortion was uncertain and ambiguous, so her pro-abortion legislative views weren't in violation of the Church's teachings. Now we're supposed to believe that the same church she gave the middle finger to has come crawling to her to beg for her assistance on amnesty immigration reform.

Actually, that could be partially true. Why do I get the feeling that the church officials who visited Pelosi begging for some kind of amnesty immigration reform to pass would be considered 'Liberation Theologians'? For those of you who don't know what Liberation Theology is, think along the lines of Rev. Wright's Trinity Church of Christ or Jim Jones' People's Temple, but under the guise of Catholicism.

Lord knows I'm a far from ideal Catholic. Hell, the only thing that gets me showing up at Mass in the warmer months is the chance to ogle some of the sundress-clad female parishioners. But I'm not going to take the Nancy Pelosi way out and misrepresent my flaws and shortcomings as a Catholic as being representative of the Church and other parishioners in general.

Since you've suddenly and conveniently decided to find religion, Nancy, here's a little Matthew 22:21 for you.

Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's

Catholics are supposed to be a forgiving lot. But Pelosi's cynical and one-sided use of the Church to try and further her own anti-Church legislative agenda is testing the patience of Catholics far more forgiving than myself.

Black Politicians Inspired By President Obama to Run For Higher Office......As Republicans

This story has actually been around for a few weeks already, but was picked up by the New York Times recently.

According to the conservative Fredrick Douglas Foundation, at least 33 black candidates are running for seats in the US House of Representatives as Republicans for the 2010 mid-term elections.

Of the more than 30 black Republican congressional and senatorial candidates running for office this election cycle, the Frederick Douglass Foundation held a leadership summit for more than 15 of them this weekend.

“Because [Obama's] policies are so out of touch with most of America I think specifically you have black conservatives that are looking beyond just the image. They’re looking at policy and how it impacts us,” [Douglass Foundation Vice Chairman] Nelson said.

He also said there’s “a stronger network of visible black conservatives than many have not seen in the past.”

“What we found is a lot of candidates are feeling like, ‘Hey, I’m not an island by myself, there are other black Republicans who are out there who are not afraid to say it,’ and I think that that has given them a greater sense of confidence,” Nelson said.

This would likely include some of the candidates winning the support of the attendees of the tea party rallies, so apparently they haven't gotten the memo that all tea partiers are inherently bigoted and racist. Yet I somehow get the feeling that if they're running on a platform of lower taxes, limited government and blocking or repealing some of the President's top legislative priorities (such as cap & trade, card check or 0bamacare), they'll have the ear of alot of Americans, not necessarily limited to those who regularly show up at the tea parties.

The following is a list of some of the candidates for the US House of Representatives listed by the Fredrick Douglas society:

Lester Phillip, Alabama’s 5th District
Princella Smith, Arkansas’s 1st District
Vernon Parker, Arizona’s 3rd District
Virginia Fuller, California’s 7th District
Star Parker, California’s 37th District
Chrystopher Smith, California’s 39th District
Mason Weaver, California’s 53rd District
Ryan Frazier, Colorado’s 7th District
Prince Brown, Florida’s 8th District
Eddie Adams, Florida’s 11th District
Corey Poitier, Florida’s 17th District
Allen West, Florida’s 22nd District
Deon Long, Florida’s 24th District
Cory Ruth, Georgia’s 4th District
Deborah Honeycutt, Georgia’s 13th District
Rupert Parchment, Georgia’s 13th District
Isaac Hayes, Illinois’s 2nd District
Robert Broadus, Maryland’s 4th District
Charles Lollar, Maryland’s 5th District
Bill Hardiman, Michigan’s 3rd District
Angela McGlowan, Mississippi’s 1st District
Barb Davis White, Minnesota’s 5th District
Martin Baker, Missour;s 1st District
Shannon Wright, New Jersey’s 6th District
Michael Faulkner,New York’s 15th District
Jerry Grimes, North Carolina’s 1st District
Lou Huddleston, North Carolina’s 8th District
Bill Randall, North Carolina’s 13th District
Jean Howard-Hill, Tennessee’s 3rd District
Charlotte Bergmann, Tennessee’s 9th District
William Hurd, Texas’s 23rd District
Stephen Broaden, Texas’s 30th District
Coby Dillard, Virginia’s 3rd District

There are also some black GOP and Libertarian candidates for state offices in Georgia that Jammie Wearing Fool has been following lately.

Like I said regarding last month's tea parties, I'm not really into the whole ethnicity-to-ideology headcount deal that liberals and their mainstream media enablers insist everybody follows, but I imagine issues near and dear to conservatives such as lower taxes, strong national security and a less invasive or overreaching government wouldn't be limited to a select ethnic group.

Now most of the aforementioned races haven't even gotten beyond the primaries yet, but I will be interested in keeping track of their progress as we get closer to election.

[Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool; Alex Pappas of The Daily Caller]

Noted Vexilloligist And Asshat Weighs In On Northern California Flag Controversey

Fresh off his shocking discovery that the Tennessee state flag is actually a neo-nazi banner, noted flag expert and husky, pony-tailed blogger Charles Johnson has weighed in on this week's Northern California flag controversy. In case you missed it, on May 5th, school officials at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, CA told five students who were wearing clothing adorned with the American flag to turn their clothes inside out so the flag wasn't visible or change out of them altogether after receiving complaints from some of the latino students that they considered the attire 'disrespectful'. The students refused and were sent home by the vice-principal. To hardly anybody's surprise, sombrero de culo and the world's best-est race detective weighed in on the side of the Live Oak High School officials and special little snowflake princesses latino students who lodged the complaint. Curiously, at least two of the star-spangled students are reportedly latinos themselves.

...isn’t it blindingly obvious that they [school officials] need to take action when students do things that are designed to create conflict and bad feelings?
How would these bloggers feel if a group of Mexican students came to a school event wearing Mexican flags on July 4th? You can just imagine their overheated reactions. The hypocrisy reeks.

Wow. It's like playing "Count the Mistakes" with Johnson himself providing an embarrassment of riches. Pretty safe to assume that Charles Johnson is indeed the bitter, humorless, childless prick most of us imagined him to be judging from his hypothetical July 4th question. Seriously, how many parents have reminisced about picking up their kids from school on the 4th of July?

OK- Number 1....if a bunch of Mexican kids came to school on July 4th wearing Mexican flags, they'd probably be wondering where the hell everybody went, since Independence Day is a holiday....thus the school would be shut down. Even if there was school in the middle of July, I cannot emphasise enough that it, like many other banks and government offices, would be closed due to the fact that it's a national holiday.

Number two, Cinco de Mayo isn't viewed by Mexicans as a significant holiday outside the city of Puebla, where the 1862 battle against advancing French troops took place. Banks, schools, post offices and even the Mexico City Stock Exchange (Bolsa Mexicana de Valores or BMV) are open on May 5th. And if those aforementioned places are up and running on a particular day in a country that loooves it's siesta come crippling currency devaluation or chaotic narco insurgency hell or high water, you can be pretty sure it isn't a national holiday. Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexico's Independence Day, as that falls in mid-September.

But what do I know? It's not as though I have multiple Mexican stamps in my passport or stayed with a Mexican family in the country's interior as an exchange student or anything....

Perhaps most obviously, I think wearing clothing adorned with the stars and stripes on a significant Mexican holiday could honestly be considered offensive....and this is very important....if I was doing so in the nation of Mexico. Last time I checked the ol' Rand McNally, Morgan Hills was in the United States of America- somewhere off of US 101. If any 'bad feelings' were created by some students wearing clothing with the American flag on a holiday that's not even celebrated in most parts of Mexico, frankly I think that speaks volumes about who is doing the complaining.

Now granted douchebaggery isn't something that's completely beyond the pale for high-school students, but almost from the onset the complaining students are on record objecting to the students sporting the stars and stripes on what's supposed to be 'their' day. Very little's been said about the 'offending' students conduct, as though their choice of attire is supposed to be offensive in and of itself. Maybe this is nothing more than cliquish high school snobbery and melodrama with each side wrapping themselves up in their respective banner and shouting at each other until they're hoarse. But for those latino students who were complaining about how offended they were about their classmate's choice of wardrobe, perhaps they'd be more comfortable in their corrupt, crime-ridden, poverty-stricken 'homeland' than to take their chances in a disrespectful and intolerant USA.

I'm curious- maybe one of the princesas especial can answer this for me....let's say a fire broke out at the Live Oak campus on May 5th. The Santa Clara County Fire Department is called in....but wait a second! I imagine like many other fire departments, the fire engines and uniforms are adorned with the American flag that they find so offensive. So would the same students complain to the school officials that the firefighters were being insensitive and disrespectful on 'their' day? Come to think of it, they probably walked by a flagpole with an American flag flying from it on their way to or from the campus...should that have been removed so as not to offend their (or Johnson's) sensibilities?

Oh...and just to show us how sooper mega ultra serious the Special Snowflake Princesses offended latino students were, about 60 of them staged a walkout the following day and marched through downtown Morgan Hill to 'demand respect' while waving Mexican flags. Apparently the fact that respect usually has to be earned is something the faculty at Live Oak High School forgot to teach.

Respect can be squandered pretty easily, too. That's something Charles Johnson is learning with each passing keystroke.

Times Square Bombing Attempt Update- "What? He's From Pakistan!? LA LA LA! Nothing to See Here! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!! Edition

Well....he's from Pakistan, and they DO drink tea over in Pakistan. What the hell? Might as well say he's involved in the tea party movement.

Shortly after I reported that a suspect was in custody in the failed Times Square car bombing attempt, he was identified as 30-year old Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized US citizen originally from Pakistan and residing in Bridgeport, Ct. Faisal had a degree and reportedly worked as a budget analyst before being laid off. And for those of you who argue that terrorism is the last-resort weapon of the poor, oppressed, downtrodden and disenfranchised, Faisal Shahzad came from a well-to-do and influential family. The father was a high-ranking officer in Pakistan's Air Force and founder of the Sherdils, the country's military aerobatics team and the family lived on a compound outside of Peshawar in an upscale suburb. Not exactly some dirt-poor goat herder who's spent his whole life in rags and grinding poverty.

Faisal was arrested by law-enforcement on an Emirates Airlines flight as it was getting ready to take off at JFK this week. How he managed to get past the security checkpoints and onto the flight raises all sorts of questions about Homeland Security and the TSA.

This apparently hasn't been a good week for media 'personalities' like MSNBC's Contessa Brewer, either. Never mind that a mass casualty terrorist attack was narrowly averted in the heart of New York City thanks in large part to alert T-shirt vendors and the attempted bombers own ineptitude. According to Contessa, the real tragedy of Faisal Shahzad's unsuccessful attempt to detonate an explosives-packed Nissan Pathfinder in Times Square last weekend was that he wasn't one of those evil, white, backwards, scary, gun-wielding, angry tea party bigots that the mainstream media, Southern Poverty Law Center and Janet Napolitano have been hyperventilating over for the last year or so. In a radio interview, Brewer has this to say:

"I get frustrated...There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country."

Brewer continued, "...There are a lot of people who want to use this terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry."

So would she have been willing to 'discuss the root causes' with the perpetrator and his sympathizers if it was a lilly-white Timothy McVeigh clone at the wheel of the Pathfinder?

Turns out Mayor Bloomberg's guesswork is just about as good as Contessa's, which is pretty sad when you stop and think about it.

"If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that. Homegrown, or maybe a mentally deranged person, or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could be anything,"

Except for the really REALLY obvious scenario, Mayor McCheese.

Long Overdue Sports Chowdah Update: Extra Special Rubbernecking Version

Wow....where does the time go? To be honest, I was more than a little embarrassed at the Red Sox getting swept by Baltimore last weekend (hell- wouldn't you be?) as well as the C's lackluster performance in Game 1 against the Cavs. The only silver lining last weekend was the Bruins taking the opening games from the Flyers, although not before Philly rallied from 2 goals down to tie the game and send it into overtime.

However, everything from Monday onwards has been gravy for the teams inside the Hub. Again, this is one of those deals where us Boston sports fans should savor it while it lasts, since not every week is going to be good for the Boston teams.....at least simultaneously. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), due to some real-world obligations, I was able to catch very little of the action after Monday night and only update the blog infrequently.

(Getty Images)

MLB: No point in complaining about how come the Sox couldn't show similar signs of life against the Angels back in October. A four game sweep is a four game sweep- and as Patriot's Day weekend has shown, it's better to be the ones holding the broomhandle than to be the ones caught up in the bristles.

While swivelling my head to catch the Bruins and Celtics at my friendly neighborhood watering hole, I saw that the Red Sox managed to put up 17 runs on the Angels Monday night...and while last week's series opener against the Blue Jays saw the Sox reach double-digits, this one was nowhere near as close with Boston getting the 17-8 win.

Turns out that wouldn't be the only time the Sox put up double-digits against the Angels this week. After taking Game 1, the Red Sox took the next two games (all while putting less than 10 runs on the board) which led to today's game and Daisuke Matsuzaka's first start at Fenway this year.

Dice-K was wild in the first, giving up 4 runs in the top of the 1st inning, but would go on to settle down and retire 13 of the last 16 batters he faced. The Red Sox would start to rally (no simians involved this time) with a 2-run Victor Martinez homer in the bottom of the 3rd and a 5 run bottom of the 5th (including 2 more RBIs on a double from Martinez) to take a 7-4 lead before the Angels came back with 2 of their own on a Mike Napoli home to make it a 1-run game in the top of the 6th. But Boston would get some insurance in the bottom of the inning with a bases-loaded walk to JD Drew followed by a Beltre RBI-single, Jeremy Hermida reaching on a Howie Kendrick fielding error with the bases loaded and Darnell McDonald grounding into a fielder's choice to bring in Drew to put Boston up 11-6. Manny DelCarmen, Hideki Okajima and Ramon Ramierez closed out the game for the Sox.

The Sox travel to the toilet Bronx tonight to take on the Yankees tonight with Josh Becket going up against Phil Hughes.

Other MLB News: Longtime Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell passed away on Tuesday at age 92. Harwell had been with the team for 40 years, finally retiring in 2002. But even after retiring, Harwell would occasionally call a few innings during some regular season Tigers games as well as the 2005 All Star game at Comerica Park and Detroit's appearance in the 2006 World Series for ESPN Radio, Fox and Fox Sports Detroit. Ernie Harwell announced late last year that he had inoperable cancer. He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Lulu, four children and seven grandchildren.

Harwell was the recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C Fricke Award in 1981 in which he delivered the following speech:

Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball. And so is the big, fat guy with a bulbous nose running home one of his 714 home runs.

There's a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh forty-six years ago. That's baseball. So is the scout reporting that a sixteen year old pitcher in Cheyenne is a coming Walter Johnson. Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.

In baseball democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team's uniform from another.

Baseball is a rookie. His experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream. It's a veteran too, a tired old man of thirty-five hoping that those aching muscles can pull him through another sweltering August and September. Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy.

Baseball is the cool, clear eyes of Rogers Hornsby. The flashing spikes of Ty Cobb, an over aged pixie named Rabbit Maranville.

Baseball just a came as simple as a ball and bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion.

Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World's Series catch. And then dashing off to play stick ball in the street with his teenage pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gherig saying., "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.”

Baseball is cigar smoke, hot roasted peanuts, The Sporting News, ladies day, "Down in Front", Take Me Out To The Ballgame, and the Star Spangled Banner.

Baseball is a tongue tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announcer and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown. This is a game for America. Still a game for America, this baseball!

In other broadcaster news, Brewer's Hall-of-Fame announcer Bob Uecker was released from a Milwaukee hospital yesterday after successfully undergoing heart surgery.

"You know what....? Go ahead and tase me, bro"

From City of Brotherly Love to "Don't Tase Me Bro!" : Controversy erupted at a Philadelphia Phillies home game on Monday night when Philadelphia Police tasered 17 year old fan Steve Consalvi as he was sitting quietly in the stands, minding his own business. Wait...what? Oh....Mr. Consalvi was tasered after running out onto the field and eluding security. I guess I'm supposed to be wringing my hands over 'excess force' or something, but wouldn't you know it? My give-a-damn broke the second Consalvi started running around on the field.

NBA: It's been awhile, hasn't it? The Celtics lost game one to the Cavs last weekend before they came roaring back in game 2 Monday night. Ray Allen led the C's scoring with 22 points while Rajon Rondo tied a C's playoff record with 19 assists and Kevin Garnett had 10 rebounds. Boston scored early and often, heading into halftime with a 52-48 lead. From there on out, it was pretty much all Celtics, all the time with Boston outscoring the Cavs 31-12 in the 3rd and taking a 25 point lead into the 4th. Cleveland would cut into the lead and make it appear close, closing the gap to 10 points with just over 3 minutes left. But Boston would close out the game with an 11-3 run for the 104-86 win, which ties the series at one game each.

That was Monday night- Game 2 isn't until tonight at the Garden.

Other NBA News: The Los Phoenix Suns generated some controversy this week by sporting 'Los Suns' jerseys in their playoff game against San Antonio on May 5th. While Arizona's recent anti-illegal immigration measure has brought Arizona and its capital increased public attention, apparently the 'Los Suns' jerseys were part of an already existing Cinco de Mayo promotion to draw in Hispanic viewers and fans in Arizona that's already been in place for a few seasons. The San Diego Padres routinely market south of the border, while the LA Dodgers have a large Hispanic following and the Angels are actually owned by an American of Mexican descent. So one shouldn't be too surprised if pro teams in another border state also begin marketing to the sizable Hispanic population as well.

Having said that, I have no problem with the Arizona law and I think noted US Constitutional scholar Phoenix guard Steve Nash has no idea what he's talking about when interviewed by ESPN's unfunny excuse of a whatever he is Tony Kornheier this week:

"I'm against it. I think that this is a bill that really damages our civil liberties and I think that it opens up the potential for racial profiling, racism. I think it's a bad precedent to set for our young people, I think it represents our state poorly in the eyes of the nation and the world. I think we have a lot of great attributes here and I think that it's something we could do without and hopefully will change a lot in the coming weeks."

Well now...since you put it that way, Steve, how about the Suns take the high road and have 'Amnesty Night'. Since somebody asking to see papers (whether it's a visa, passport, driver's licence or Suns tickets) sets a bad precedent and violates civil liberties, anybody who shows up at the arena should just waltz right in and plunk themselves down wherever they want- the broadcast booth, the 3 point line or even the owner's suite. Of course, the concessions should be free and all you can eat as well. Now, since 'Amnesty Night' is a pretty expensive proposition, I don't think that players like Nash will mind if Suns management takes some money from Nash's paycheck to cover the costs of throwing the doors open to anybody who wants to show up.

NHL: In what seems like the blink of an eye, the Boston Bruins are up 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Philadelphia Flyers. I caught some of Game 2 Monday night when I wasn't swivelling my head around to look in on the C's and Red Sox, and I caught some of Game 3 the other night when the Bruins already had a 3-1 lead. Apparently Philly scored first for their only lead of the series so far in the first. Boston would answer right back with two goals, one from Blake Wheeler and one from Miroslav Satan less than 2 minutes apart late in the first to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead. Mark Recchi added to the Boston lead early in the 3rd and Patrice Bergeron would get an empty-netter with just under two minutes left in the 3rd to make it a 4-1 win for the Bruins.

The Bruins will start game 4 tonight without the services of David Krejci who had his wrist dislocated in Game 3 and Marco Sturm left game one with a torn MCL and ACL in his right knee. Both are expected to be out for the remainder of the season.

Not Another New England Sports Blog! Wishes You a Festive & Happy Cinco de Mayo

Gil Elvgren

The word 'diversity' often gets thrown around by smarmy, agenda-driven morons to the point where it's meaningless, but one of my few gripes about the vintage pin-ups from back in the postwar-era was the apparent lack of.....wait for it....ethnic diversity.

Now, granted attitudes about race along with the demographics and marketing strategies were different back in the day. But would companies like Barbasol or Sylvania featured some sort of massive backlash from the public if the artwork in their ads featured an occasional Asian beauty, sultry Latina or ebony bombshell?

But with that said, there's this gem titled A Pleasant Sight to Si courtesy of the incomparable Gil Elvgren. This 1969 work was published some 107 years after outnumbered and outgunned Mexican forces clashed with a better equipped and numerically superior invading Napoleonic French Army that had occupied Veracruz and was advancing towards Mexico City at the Battle of Puebla.

Interestingly, Cinco De Mayo isn't celebrated in Mexico very much outside the state of Puebla, although it has clearly caught on North of the Border. Also, the May 5th Battle of Puebla does not mark Mexico's Independence Day- that actually takes place in mid-September. Apparently May 5th is the only acceptable day to drink a Corona beer as well, which suits me just fine.

UPDATE: Suspect In Failed Times Square Bombing in Custody

(AFP)

A suspect in Saturday night's attempted car bombing of Times Square was detained while attempting to flee the country, law enforcement sources reported earlier tonight.

Although an FBI spokesman declined to identify the suspect by name, reports are circulating that the man detained is an American citizen of Pakistani background who had just returned from a trip to the country a few weeks prior. No word on whether or not this was the same man who was seen on surveillance footage from nearby stores leaving the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder before taking off a dark shirt and stuffing it in a bag and fleeing the scene. The suspect was reportedly arrested at JFK airport.

While the Vehicle Identification Number had been removed from the Pathfinder's dashboard, investigators were able to track the vehicle thanks to two separate VINs stamped on the axle and in the engine block of the Pathfinder. The FBI and NYPD were able to trace the vehicle to a Bridgeport, CT college student who listed the vehicle on craigslist and tracked the new owner's e-mail address.

Oil Slick From Collapsed Offshore Rig Expected to Reach Shore

(Examiner.com)

Oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico has already reached some outlying and marshes along the coast of Louisiana this weekend.

The spill began to spread after the April 20 explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon offshore platform that killed 11 workers before the rig collapsed and sunk below the surface. The Deepwater Horizon rig was located 50 miles offshore from Louisiana, and the wellhead was approximately 5000 feet below the water's surface. Completed in 2001 by South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries, owned by Transocean Limited [NYSE: RIG] and leased to British Petroleum [NYSE: BP], the Deepwater Horizon sank nearly 48 hours after the initial explosion. The cause of the April 20th explosion is unknown and still under investigation and BP is attempting to cap the leak at the source, although earlier efforts with a submersible have proven unsuccessful.

President Obama took time out of his busy schedule of browbeating Wall Street, complaining about his critics and celebrating himself to reassure the public that he would use every tool at his Administration's disposal to....do something or other....I dunno- to be honest, it's getting to the point where I just start drifting off and daydreaming that I'm being served Cuba Libres poolside by some voluptuous Christina Hendricks look-alike whenever I hear the president drone on speak. And not to dogpile on the man or anything, but isn't he like a week or so too late on this?

The spill was approaching some 80 miles in length last week and is expected to have a devastating long term effect on the Gulf Coast's economy over the next few years, stifling or killing off the tourism and fishing industries until the slick is cleaned up.

Unexploded Car Bomb Found in Times Square

(NY Daily News)

The NYPD was alerted by a T-shirt vendor in Times Square to an apparent car bomb that failed to detonate Saturday Night. A Nissan Pathfinder with Connecticut plates was parked with its hazard lights on and billowing smoke out of the back windows when vendor Lance Orton noticed it and notified a nearby mounted police officer. The patrolman could see inside the vehicle several propane canisters and 5 gallon gasoline cans.

After smelling gunpowder, Officer Wayne Rhatigan and two other NYPD officers began pushing hundreds of passers-by away from the area, urging them to stand clear. The explosive device- which investigators are calling 'crude'- failed to detonate. Firefighters and the bomb squad were called in to remove explosive items from the scene: investigators would remove fireworks, flares, batteries, a granular substance later identified as fertilizer, electrical wiring and an alarm clock. A heavy, black metal box resembling a gun locker was also removed from the vehicle.

The scare came at around 6:30PM Eastern Time, when theatergoers were having dinner before the nearby Broadway shows would've started. The block that was closed while the explosives were removed housed seven theaters.

The NYPD and FBI are examining surveillance videos from the area to see if they can pinpoint the Pathfinder's driver from the crowds of tourists, merchants and passers-by before the bombing attempt. The plates were traced to a Connecticut man who said he turned them over to a scrap yard.