A car bomb followed by a suspected suicide bombing left two injured and the apparent bomber dead in Stockholm on Saturday night.
A spokeswoman for the Stockholm Police said that a car exploded near Drottninggatan- a busy shopping district in the city center- which was followed by a second explosion further up the street. An injured man who later died from his injuries was found at the scene of the second blast.
Approximately 10 minutes before the first blast, police and Swedish news agency TT received an e-mail denouncing the presence of 500 Swedish military personnel in Afghanistan and cartoonist Lars Vilk's drawings depicting Muhamed. The e-mail also warned of unspecified 'actions' that were imminent and contained sound files in Swedish and Arabic.
Sweden had raised it's terror threat level from 'low' to 'elevated' as far back as October due to an increase in activity from Scandinavian-based groups. Still, the threat of a terrorist attack in Sweden remained relatively low compared to other European nations.
This has been one of those weeks that I simply gotta savor as a New England sports fan, and the biggest news being made so far is by a team that won't play a regular season game for another five months.
RED SOX: Good Lord- Why stop with Adrian Gonzalez?
Wondering of the Red Sox had any more tricks up their sleeve for the MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando, I headed off to bed assuming that Carl Crawford and the Angels were close to a terms on a contract. Then I woke up this morning to learn that free agent outfielder Carl Crawford signed a huge deal with the Red Sox.
The former Tampa Bay left fielder and the Red Sox had reportedly agreed to a preliminary deal for 7 years and reportedly worth $142 million. Crawford had a .307 BA last year while driving in 90 runs (and scoring another 110 himself) with 19 home runs and 47 stolen bases.
With 8 stolen bases and a .324 batting average against Boston, I would've been reasonably satisfied if Crawford was on his way out to the West Coast to face a team the Red Sox only face a few times in the regular season. Thanks to Theo playing it close to the vest, I wasn't even aware of the Red Sox and the extent of their interest in the speedy outfielder. Apparently this caught the rest of the league as well as the sports media off guard.
OTHER MLB NEWS: 92 year old Hall of Fame pitcher and former Cleveland Indian Bob Feller has been moved from the Cleveland Clinic to a hospice in the Cleveland area. Feller made his debut with the Indians in July 1936 and joined the US Navy the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After serving on the USS Alabama until 1944, Feller rejoined the Indians in 1945.
Feller retired in 1956 with 266 career wins, a career ERA of 3.25 and a total of 2,581 strikeouts. Six years later, Feller was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first year of eligibility and in 1995 the Bob Feller Museum opened up in the Hall of Famer's hometown of Van Meter, IA. Earlier this year, Feller was diagnosed with leukemia.
NFL: The Indianapolis Colts travelled to Nashville, TN to take on the struggling Tennessee Titans for this week's Thursday night game. The injury-depleted Colts had dropped three straight games against the Patriots, Chargers and Cowboys coming into the Thursday game, leading to all sorts of questions about the health of QB Peyton Manning as well as Indy's dimming playoff prospects with their 6-6 record.
The Titans were worse off, coming into Thursday night's game losing five in a row and roiled by injuries and very public infighting between QB Vince Young (now on the DL) and coach Jeff Fischer.
After going 25-35 with 319 yards and 2 TDs, including a 46 yard TD pass to WR Reggie Wayne, Manning demonstrated that the Colts weren't quite finished for the season in Indy's 30-28 win (it wasn't quite that close, as Titans QB Kerry Collins managed to find the end zone for a 3rd time as regulation expired). Presently, the Colts are a half game behind the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC South while the loss pretty much stuck a dagger in the Titan's season.
NHL: Sad to say, I completely missed Thursday night's Bruins home win against the NY Islanders- although I understand there was a Tukka Rask sighting.
The Bruins held off a 2nd period surge from the Islanders where they were outshot 17-9, but still managed to get a shorthanded goal off the stick of Brad Marchand and held on to a 2-1 lead heading to the second intermission.
In the 3rd, Micheal Ryder got what would prove to be the game-winner on a power play goal with about 5 minutes remaining, and while the Islanders would come right back to make it a 1-goal game less than 2 minutes later, Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron would put the game out of reach with two empty-netters of their own with less than two minutes left in the 3rd to give Boston the 5-2 win over the Islanders.
Tukka Rask and Rick DePietro each faced 35 shots on the night, with Rask stopping 33 (but not a penalty shot from Frans Nielsen, incidentally) and Lucic had two goals on the night.
I did catch the pretty awesome Tuesday night game against the Buffalo Sabres, including the extra 50 seconds of sudden death overtime after Mark Recchi scored the game-winning goal [seen at the 4:55 mark below].
Recchi's shot came in and out of the net so quickly, it's possible the officials assumed it had simply hit a crossbar, but it was reviewed during the next stoppage of play, which came some 49 seconds later. Recchi's power-play goal was made official and the Bruins won by a final of 3-2 in OT. Tim Thomas stopped 28 of 30 shots faced while Ryan Miller blocked 33 of 36 shots on the night.
The Bruins will next play host to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday Night at the Garden. The puck drops at 7PM ET, 4PM Pacific.
NBA: Well, much like tonight's Bruins game, I wasn't able to catch any of tonight's C's game either [TWO nationally televised Celtics games back to back? What are the odds!?- NANESB]. Looks like this one peaked late, though.
If the embedded video isn't working, you're missing Kevin Garnett bank in an alley-oop pass with only 1.4 seconds left in regulation to give the Celtics the 102-101 win over the 76ers for their 9th straight win on Thursday night.
I DID catch most of Wednesday Night's home game against the Denver Nuggets. They didn't bother playing Carmello Anthony, even though he appeared to be healthy, which no doubt fuelled more speculation that a trade from Denver was imminent.
The C's were up by as much as 19 in the first half, but the Mello-less Nuggets managed to chip away into the Boston lead, coming within one point of them before heading into the half trailing 52-59.
In the second half, Boston really began to pull away and win by a final of 105-89 and Denver head coach George Karl is still looking for career win #1,000.
The Celtics' road trip continues into the weekend with a swing through Charlotte, NC against the Bobcats on Saturday night- also at 7PM Eastern.
NCAA FOOTBALL: Well, we're down to one last regular season game this weekend, and that's the Army/Navy game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia this Saturday at 2:30 PM ET. Interestingly, both teams head into Saturday's game already accepting invitations to Bowl Games. The Army Black Knights have a 6-5 record and will be taking on the Southern Methodist Mustangs in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth, TX on December 30 while the Navy Midshipmen sport an 8-3 record and will go up against the San Diego State Aztecs in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on December 23rd.
ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: Florida head coach Urban Meyer, citing family concerns, announced his resignation on Wednesday afternoon. This comes after a fairly disappointing 7-5 season fir the Florida Gators. Meyer was hospitalized with chest pains after last year's SEC championship game against Alabama, but eventually decided to stay on through the 2010 season. There had been speculation that Florida was interested in Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen, but Mullen said he had no immediate plans to leave Mississippi State.
ACC: Nebraska's athletic director has denied reports that head coach Bo Pelini is a candidate to fill the coaching vacancy for the Miami Hurricanes. He told a Lincoln, NE newspaper that he neither gave Pelini permission to interview with Miami, nor had Pelini sought permission.
BOWL SCHEDULE: And here is the lineup of Bowl games for the next few weeks-
12/18 NEW MEXICO BOWL, Albuquerque, NM- BYU Cougars vs UTEP Miners; 2PM ET ESPN
HUMANITARIAN BOWL, Boise, ID- Northern Illinois Huskies vs Fresno State Buldogs; 5:30 PM ET ESPN
NEW ORLEANS BOWL, New Orleans, LA- Ohio Bobcats vs Troy Trojans; 9PM ET, ESPN
12/21 BEEF O'BRADY BOWL, St. Petersburgh, FL- Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles vs Louisville Cardinals; 8PM ET, ESPN
12/22 MAACO BOWL, Las Vegas, NV- #20 Utah Utes vs #10 Boise St. Broncos; 8PM ET, ESPN
12/23 POINSETTIA BOWL, San Diego, CA- San Diego St. Aztecs vs Navy Midshipmen; 8PM ET, ESPN
12/24 HAWAII BOWL, Honolulu, HI- #24 Hawaii Warriors vs Tulsa Golden Hurricanes; 8PM ET, ESPN
12/26 LITTLE CAESAR'S BOWL, Detroit, MI- Toledo Rockets vs Florida Int'l Golden Panthers; 8:30 PM ET, ESPN
12/27 INDEPENDENCE BOWL, Shreveport, LA- Air Force Falcons vs Georgia Tech Yellowjackets; 5PM ET, ESPN2
12/28 CHAMPS SPORTS BOWL, Orlando, FL- #22 West Virginia Mountaineers vs NC State Wolfpack; 6:30 PM ET, ESPN
INSIGHT BOWL, Tempe, AZ- #14 Missouri Tigers vs Iowa Hawkeyes; 10PM ET, ESPN
12/29 MILITARY BOWL, Washington DC- East Carolina Pirates vs Maryland Terrapins; 2:30PM ET, ESPN
TEXAS BOWL, Houston, TX- Illinois Illini vs Baylor Bears; 6PM ET, ESPN
VALERO ALAMO BOWL, San Antonio, TX- #16 Oklahoma St Cowbowys vs Arizona Wildcats; 9:15PM ET, ESPN
12/30 BELL ARMED FORCES BOWL, Ft. Worth, TX- Army Black Knights vs SMU Mustangs; 12:00PM ET, ESPN
NEW ERA PINSTRIPE BOWL, New York, NY- Kansas State Wildcats vs Syracuse Orangemen; 3:30PM ET, ESPN
MUSIC CITY BOWL, Nashville, TN- North Carolina Tarheels vs Tennessee Volunteers; 6:40PM ET, ESPN
HOLIDAY BOWL, San Diego, CA- #17 Nebraska Corhuskers vs Washington Huskies; 10:00PM ET, ESPN
12/31 MEINEKE CAR CARE BOWL, Charlotte, NC- USF Bulls vs Clemson Tigers- 12:00PM ET, ESPN
SUN BOWL, El Paso, TX- Miami Hurricanes vs Notre Dame Fighting Irish; 2PM ET, CBS
LIBERTY BOWL, Memphis, TN- Georgia Bulldogs vs UCF Golden Knights; 3:30 PM ET, ESPN
CHICK FIL A BOWL, Atlanta, GA- #19 South Carolina Gamecocks vs #23 FSU Seminoles; 7:30 PM ET, ESPN
1/1 TICKET CITY BOWL, Dallas, TX- Northwestern Wildcats vs Texas Tech Red Raiders; 11:59AM ET, ESPNU
OUTBACK BOWL, Tampa, FL- Florida Gators vs Penn St Nittany Lions; 1PM ET, ESPN/ABC
CAPITAL ONE BOWL, Orlando, FL- #15 Alabama Crimson Tide vs #7 Michigan State Spartans; 1 PM ET, ESPN/ABC
GATOR BOWL, Jacksonville, FL- #21 Mississippi State Bulldogs vs Michigan Wolverines; 1:30PM ET, ESPN2
ROSE BOWL, Pasadena, CA- #4 Wisconsin Badgers vs #3 TCU Horned Frogs; 5PM ET, ESPN/ABC
FIESTA BOWL, Tempe, AZ- #25 UConn Huskies vs #9 Oklahoma Sooners; 8:30PM ET, ESPN
1/3 ORANGE BOWL, Miami Gardens, FL- #5 Stanford Cardinals vs #12 Virginia Tech Hokies; 8:30 PM ET, ESPN
1/4 SUGAR BOWL, New Orleans, LA- #6 Ohio State Buckeyes vs #8 Arkansas Razorbacks; 8:30PM ET, ESPN
1/6 GODADDY.COM BOWL, Mobile, AL- Middle Tenn St. Blue Raiders vs Miami (OH) Redhawks; 8PM ET, ESPN
1/7 COTTON BOWL, Arlington, TX- #11 LSU Tigers vs #18 Texas A&M Aggies; 8PM ET, FOX
1/8 BBVA COMPASS BOWL, Birmingham, AL- Pitt Panthers vs Kentucky Wildcats; 12PM ET, ESPN
1/9 KRAFT FIGHT HUNGER BOWL, San Francisco, CA- BC Eagles vs #13 Nevada Wolfpack; 9PM ET, ESPN
1/10
BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, Glendale, AZ- #1 Auburn Tigers vs #2 Oregon Ducks; 8:30PM ET, ESPN
With the calendar turning to December (already? where did 2010 go?) today's train of through brings us back to a wintry scene on Michigan's lower peninsula.
Here, Railpictures.net contributor Jim Thias caught GMTX Leasing GP38-2 #2652 leading what's pretty much the entire Marquette Rail fleet northbound on Grand Rapids to Baldwin, MI train Z151 as it's getting ready to duck under Route 82 outside of Newaygo, MI on February 27, 2010.
With a fresh snowfall on the ground (as well as the trees and rails) and 100+ freight cars, the train needs all the traction it can get out of the mixed bag of leased GP38-2s and SD40-2s. The leading unit is still painted in Conrail blue with 'Conrail Quality' lettering still visible on the hood, while the trailing unit is identified as Marquette Rail SD40-2 #3001- the only unit to be painted in the railway's colors so far (some of the leased GP38-2s have a Marquette Rail logo applied to their front hood, but nothing as distinct as the 3001's paint scheme).
The swan in the creek to the right seems oblivious to the locomotives roaring past as it continues paddling away.
Federal authorities said Antonio Martinez, a recent convert to Islam who called himself Muhammad Hussain, watched videos of Osama bin Laden and mused about "dying for the cause" by joining militant forces overseas.
Unable to afford to travel to Pakistan or Afghanistan, Martinez instead proposed hitting local military installations to send a message. Officials say those plans culminated when he parked an SUV equipped with a dummy bomb in a suburban parking lot not far from his home.
Martinez was described by authorities as a 'lone wolf' with no known ties to terrorist groups.
The Wednesday arrest comes only a few weeks after a Somali immigrant attempted to blow up a van parked near a crowd gathered for a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Oregon in a similar sting.
I'm sure somewhere at some point, somebody asked you this hypothetical question: Would you rather have a high paying job that you didn't like as much or wasn't as secure or take a lower paying job that you loved?
A 24 year old conductor-trainee with the Norfolk Southern Railroad declined an offer to sign with the New York Jets for the remainder of the season.
After a brief stint earlier with the Jets and Ravens at safety, former Mississippi State standout Keith Fitzhugh said that he'd prefer to remain at his present job than risk further uncertainty at the end of the season with the possibility of an NFL lockout looming over next season.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while Fitzhugh is thinking long-term with his job at Norfolk Southern, he's also pursuing another childhood dream.
"Just hearing the horns getting blown, how fast they were rolling, it always looked cool," Fitzhugh said of trains that rumbled along Tara Boulevard. "I was like, ‘Man, I want to get up there. I want to ride.'"
"You can't play [football] when you're 40 or 50 or 60 years old," Fitzhugh said. "But you can get on a train and you can ride."
Good for Keith- it probably was a difficult decision for him. You don't always see this sort of long-term thinking from some of the veterans in the NFL, let alone a guy who's not even 25 yet.
Today marks the 69th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor which destroyed 4 battleships, 4 cruisers, nearly 200 aircraft (most of them on the ground) and killed over 2400 men.
The quote 'I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve' has been widely attributed to Admiral Yamamoto, Commander of the Combined Imperial Japanese Fleet, immediately after the attack. Although the Japanese commander was depicted as uttering those lines in films such as Tora! Tora! Tora! or Pearl Harbor there are no official documents or communications in which he uses that phrase.
Another more timely and prophetic quote from Yamamoto I can run wild for six months … after that, I have no expectation of success. As it turned out, the decisive Battle of Midway that would severely limit Japan's Naval power for the rest of World War II took place exactly 6 months after Pearl Harbor.
NFL: Wow...what a night. I only wish Teddy Bruschi was there to see the outstanding job the New England D did in completely shutting down all aspects of the Jet's offense.
Oh wait! He was! That worked out pretty well then.
What was supposed to be the game of the week turned into an unmitigated disaster for the Jets on Monday Night as they travelled up to Foxboro.
New England would start off the game scoring on their first 4 possessions (3 TDs and a FG) while the Jets offense could only muster a solitary FG- not just in the first quarter, but all night.
17-3 was as close as the score would get on Monday night. With a 24-3 halftime lead, the late 'Dandy' Don Meredith could've started serenading viewers with Turn Out The Lights.
And this isn't an attempt at being ironic or sarcastic and trying to and build up suspense. This was an old fashioned ass-kicking with the Pats pretty much moving the ball down the field at will. The guys dressed as minutemen who fire off muskets at the stadium probably ran out of powder on Monday night as New England absolutely throttled the Jets by a final of 45-3. This was the worse loss for the Jets since 1986.
On a completely unrelated note, Teddy Bruschi was honored at a ceremony at halftime where his number 54 was retired by Pats owner Robert Kraft.
Perhaps the only infuriating thing from the perspective of Pats fan about the Monday Night game was the fact that pretty much all of the starters for New England were still in when the game was well in hand.Tom Brady went 21-29 with 326 yards and 4 TDs on the night, connecting with Brandon Tate, Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Aaron Hernandez. This is Brady's 26th straight regular-season win at Gillette Stadium.
Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis had 18 carries for 72 yards and 2 TDs while Shayne Graham was 1 for 1 in field goal attempts.
The next Joe Namath Jets QB, Mark Sanchez, went 17-33 with 3 interceptions and 164 total yards on the night. He actually did get the Jets down inside the Pats 10 on their opening drive of the 2nd half, but his pass was intercepted by Brandon Spikes at the 2 yard line, which in turn culminated in Brady connecting with Welker for an 18 yard TD run. James Sanders- hero of the game against the Colts a few weeks ago- and Devin McCourty also had interceptions on the night; McCourty's INT was his 6th of the season.
No 10-day wait for the next Pats game, though. The Pats will next travel to Soldier Field to take on the 9-3 Chicago Bears at 4:15 PM ET. There is one more night game left for New England, actually- and this comes against another NFC opponent when they host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday December 19.
BRONCOS: The Denver Broncos fired head coach Josh McDaniels on Monday, a few weeks after allegations of team personnel videotaping the San Francisco Giant's practise before their regular season game in England earlier this year- a game that the Broncos lost anyway. Under McDaniels, the Broncos traded Denver's top draft pick Jay Cutler to the Chicago Bears.
Denver RB Coach Eric Studesville will serve as interim coach for the remainder of the season.
COWBOYS: Broadcaster and former SMU and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith passed away from a brain hemorrhage at his Santa Fe, NM home at the age of 72 on Sunday night. With the Cowboys from the very beginning, 'Dandy Don' Meredith played in back-to-back NFL Championships against the Green Bay Packers and Bart Starr, including the 1967 'Ice Bowl'. The Cowboys would lose both of those games.
After his playing career, Meredith made a name for himself in the early 1970s from the broadcast booth of ABC's brand-new Monday Night Football. Trading barbs with fellow sportscaster Howard Cosell, Meredith would often close out a broadcast by singing an off key version of Willie Nelson's Turn Out the Lights.
CHINA: Engineers in China celebrated late last week as a Chinese-built passenger trainset became the fastest unmodified train in the world, setting a new record at the speed of 302 MPH. In 2007, a modified SNCF high speed train in France reached speeds of 357 MPH during a special test run. The Chinese CRHtrainset reached the 302 MPH speed on a recently completed line linking Beijing and Shanghai and reportedly took 22 minutes to accelerate to the record-breaking speed from a standing stop.
The Beijing-Shanghai line opened up nearly a year ahead of schedule and is expected to begin regular service next year. It is estimated that the journey between the two cities will take 4 hours versus the current 10 hour trip.
IOWA/ILLINOIS: Organizers in the Quad Cities have announced details for Train Festival 2011, set to take place in Rock Island, IL from July 21-24, 2011.
Some of the locomotives expected to appear include Nickel Plate Berkshire #765 as well as Iowa Interstate's Chinese built 2-10-2 QJ Class steam locomotives #6988 and #7081 (above), among the last mainline steam locomotives to operate in the world. China Railways retired the QJ locomotives in 2005 and the Iowa Interstate purchased the pair the following year.
The San Bernardino Railway Historical Society also announced that Santa Fe #3751 is expected to make the trip out from California to attend the 2011 Train Festival. Minneapolis/St. Paul-based Milwaukee Road #261 has been the featured power on previous excursions to and from the Quad Cities, but is currently undergoing it's 15 year overhaul and it's not known if it will be ready in time for Train Festival 2011.
Excursions are expected to run between Rock Island and Bureau, IL to the east and Iowa City to the east, as well as shorter excursions to Walcott, IA.
NORFOLK SOUTHERN: The Norfolk Southern has announced plans for a limited return of mailine steam excursions, which were discontinued in 1994. Initially the excursions are supposed to be limited to southeastern Tennessee and use a trio of restored steam locomotives from the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.
The TVRM announced that the Southern Railway 2-8-0 Consolidated #630 was ready for steam up testing to check for any potential boiler issues as of November. Norfolk Southern plans on using the #630 along with Southern Railway 2-8-2 Mikado #4501 and former US Army Baldwin 2-8-0 #610- which the TVRM's current steam workhorse- for excursion service.
TVRM #610 leading excusrion through Rock Spring, GA on October 2008. Photo- John Higginson
In fact, the #610 is the only one of the three aforementioned steam locomotives currently operating. The resumption of steam on the NS excursions in Chattanooga and finishing touches on the #4501 and #630's restoration would also coincide with the TVRM's 50th anniversary.
MLB: The Padres and Red Sox Have agreed to a trade that would send San Diego's All Star 1st Baseman Adrian Gonzalez to Boston in exchange for prospects Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo and Reymond Fuentes as well as a player to be named later. The two clubs are expected to formally announce the deal on Monday.
During the 2010 season, Gonzalez hit for a .298 BA and 31 homers in San Diego's pitcher-friendly PetCo Park. On the road, Gonzalez was batting .315 with 20 HR and .279 with 11 HR at San Diego. Defensively, Gonzalez won two Gold Gloves with the Padres.
The Red Sox are also reportedly working on extending Gonzalez's contract beyond 2011 due to the high-level prospects Boston is giving up as part of the trade. The first baseman was entering the final year of a 5 year $15 million contract with San Diego. Although no formal agreement to an extension had been reached with Gonzalez, his agent and the Red Sox had exchanged parameters and were hoping to work out a deal from there. There's also the matter of some minor surgery Gonzalez had on his shoulder this fall, but he is expected to be ready by Spring training, whether it's in the Grapefruit or Cactus League.
Boston had previously tried to acquire Gonzalez in the 2009 offseason, but instead signed Adrian Beltre from the Mariners. It was considered likely that the Padres would deal Gonzalez at the trade deadline in the middle of the 2010 season, but the team remained atop the NL East and were in need of his services for the whole year.
For those of you who remember back to the Beltre deal last winter and were somewhat alarmed by his .266 BA in 2009, supporters of the deal pointed out that Beltre spent at least half the season in a pitcher-friendly park such as Safeco.
Now....apply that same line of thinking to Gonzalez and his .298 average at cavernous PetCo Park. Or better yet, take a look at his spray chart for home games in San Diego.
Umm...yeah. I'm just a little bit giddy right now.
NCAA FOOTBALL: The UConn Huskies managed to get by the South Florida Bulls on Saturday night to win their final regular season game of 2010 and be guaranteed the Big East's automatic BCS Bowl by virtue of their tie-breaker over West Virgina. The only touchdown UConn scored in the game came late in the 2nd period as LB Lawrence Wilson intercepted a pass from South Florida QB Bobby Eveld and ran it back 55 yards to paydirt. The pick 6 put UConn up 10-3 heading into the half.
Connecticut and South Florida traded field goals in the 3rd quarter, and while the 4th quarter opened up on a Dave Teggart FG for UConn to make it 16-6 the Bulls would come storming right back thanks to a 28 yard TD reception from Eveld to WR Dontavia Bogan and a game tying FG from the 22 off the leg of USF's Maikon Bonani to make it a 16-16 game with 1:19 left in the 4th.
After a good kickoff return that gave UConn starting position on their own 40, Huskies QB Zach Frasier was able to drive the ball as far as the USF 35 yard line, setting up Dave Teggart for his game-winning 52 yard FG with only 23 seconds left in regulation.
The win means that UConn will now face the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan 1st in Tempe, AZ. This will be UConn's first ever BCS appearence since transitioning from Division I-AA in 2002.
BIG 12: The #13 Nebraska Cornhuskers and #10 Oklahoma Sooners met in Arlington, TX for what would be the last time they'd match up as members of the Big 12- as well as the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday night.
The Sooners held on to win by a final of 23-20, guaranteeing them a berth in the BCS (against UConn, as it was revaled a day later). The Cornhuskers, meanwhile, would be joining the Big East conference at the start of the 2011 Football season.
ACC: No Boston College Football this week. Instead, the ACC Championship game took place on Saturday night at Charlotte, NC pitting #20 Florida State against #12 Virgina Tech. The Hokies won this one handily by a final of 44-33, giving them a berth in the Orange Bowl on January 3rd against the Stanford Cardinals.
Boston College did manage to secure a bowl bid and will be heading back out to AT&T Park in San Francisco just like last year for the Emerald Bowl- Except this year it's being called the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. and will take place the second weekend in January. The Boston College Eagles are expected to go up against the #14 Nevada Wolfpack. [I should have a comprehensive list of Bowls and matchups in the next couple of days- NANESB!]
COLONIAL/FCS: Although William & Mary Tribe finished the regular season atop the Colonial Athletic Association, their season is over now that they were upended by the Georgia Southern Eagles on Saturday by a final of 15-31.
That said, three of the remaining four teams in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision hail from the CAA and will play to advance to the FCS Finals in Frisco, TX on January 7th, 2011 [remember what I said about the Colonial Athletic Association last year?- NANESB!].
The Delaware Blue Hens, who finished 2nd in the CAA this season, took down Lehigh by a 42-20 final on Saturday while the Villanova Wildcats downed Stephen F Austin by a 54-24 margin.
The sole remaining New England team in the FCS is the New Hampshire Wildcats, who finished tied for 3rd with Villanova to end the regular season. They brought down Beth-Cook by a 45-20 final and will go on to face Delaware on Friday night, Dec 10th.
Defending FCS Champions Villanova will take on 3 time Champion Appalachian State on Saturday.
NHL: The Boston Bruins got out to the early lead on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, but the Maple Leafs rallied to tie the game with less than a mintue left in the 3rd period and force overtime and then a shootout. And if you really savor irony, it was former Bruin Phil Kessel who netted the game winner in the shootout.
Nathan Horton got the first goal of the game unassisted in the first period, although the Leafs would manage to tie it by the time the 1st intermission rolled around. Boston would take a 2-1 lead on a goal from Gregory Campbell early in the 3rd before Toronto rallies late in regulation to tie the game. Out of the three shooters for Boston in the shootout, only Tyler Seguin was able to get the puck past Jean-Sebastian Guigere while Nazem Kadri and Kessel both got the puck past Thomas in the shootout.
The win halts the Leaf's 4 game skid and is Boston's first loss in the last three games. Toronto wins by the final of 3-2, although Boston was able to get a single point before leaving Toronto. Thomas stopped 38 of 40 shots faced in regulation and OT while Guigere stopped 25 of 27 faced. The Bruins head back to the Garden to take on the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night at 7:30PM ET. The game is scheduled to be broadcast on Versus.
NBA: Seemingly in the blink of an eye, the Celtics have put together a pretty impressive 7 game winning streak. Game #6 of the current strak took place in Friday night with their 104-92 home win over the Chicago Bulls.
Sunday night, the C's made a fairly quick road trip to New Jersey and made pretty quick work of the Nets (Nate Robinson led scoring for the C's with 21 points) and cut New Jersey down by the curiously-divisible-by-25 margin of 100-75.
The next game for the C's will be at the Garden against Carmello Anthony and the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night, with a tipoff at 7PM ET. ESPN is scheduled to be carrying the game that night.
The Puget Sound & Pacific is a fairly new arrival as far as some of the shortlines in the Pacific Northwest are concerned. After already successfully starting up the Arizona & California and California Northern railroads, the ParkSierra group ventured into the Northwest with their purchase of the former BNSF(nee Northern Pacific) line between Centralia and Grays Harbor, WA (as well as the branch between Elma and Shelton, WA and on north to the naval base at Bremerton) in the summer of 1997. In 2002, ParkSierra Group was purchased by Rail America and the Puget Sound & Pacific as well as the California Northern and Arizona & California were brought into the Rail America fold.
Traffic, like other shortlines in the Pacific Northwest, consists of about what you'd expect- like forestry products. Of course, with the line also serving the Naval base at Bremerton, there's also a touch of the unexpected, like garbage, munitions and Trident missile insertion tubes.
And like other Rail America operations, over time this would mean an influx of power from other, more distant Rail America lines. With the leaves changing on this sunny October 2010 afternoon, railpictures.net contributor Joel Hawthorn caught Puget Sound & Pacific GP38 #3802- still in its ParkSierra paint scheme- rounding the curve and in charge of seven units with the Shelton-Bangor Turn, including power from the Florida East Coast and Dallas, Garland and Northeastern (still in Norfolk Southern paint). The heavier grades north of Shelton require additional power.
