No Fun League

Despite Tampa Bay fixing game five for Las Vegas bookies, along with game six they held on to advance making my logic behind the Redsox loosing make more sense than if they had lost. More importantly though we have to have a discussion about the no fun league.

Countless numbers of coaches and players in the NFL have been fined over the past three seasons but over the past few months the fines have been comming out of no where. Apparently after scoring a touchdown a player is supposed to walk back to the sideline instead of celebrating. We can all blame Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson for ruining it for everybody but no it's not just touchdowns. It's hits, comments, looks, everything. Roger Goodell aka The commish, seems to be fining anyone who smiles or hits at more than a half pace speed. The money being fined is usually around $10,000 or so and the money supposidly all goes to charity. The NFL is lucky their isn't other semi-elite football leagues like the NBA is dealing with because I guarentee the entire league would leave, and the only people left would be Matt Cassell and the Detroit Lions. My proposal is stop fining everybody for everything. When players can just play the game instead of wondering if they can do this or that, I guarentee that fineable plays would drop. Goodell is ruining what was once a great league, maybe even a sport that was becomming America's new pasttime. Fortunatly for the NFL the MLB had that whole steroid thing, but if the "pansy" NFL league continues it's shenanagans, it's not only going to loose respect, but fans. And incase Goodell didn't take economics in college, Fans = money...

I'm Back

There has been a delay of writing all summer, and for my one or two fans at most, I appoligize. I feel I should at least begin by bragging. I predicted the MLB playoffs last March and only got 50% of the teams right. However, I did predict three teams exact record. Not an easy thing to do over the course of 162 game season. Let the record show that on March 29th B Shea only predicted two playoff teams right. I also had the Phillies in the World Series. Not bad at all.


Today however marks the final two teams left in the hunt for october. Tampa Bay is up 5-0 in the 7th as of right now and will beat the Boston Redsox. Tonight, I want to explain why the Redsox will not be making the world series.

A) Jason Varitek: Currently 0-11 in the ALCS against Tampa Bay. Slighty worse than his piss poor regular season. But, the one thing that has kept him in the line-up and not on the DL is his ability to handle the pitching staff. So far this ALCS he's let up 0,9,9, and 13 runs. Currently Tampa Bay has 7 runs. Clearly, V-tek has lost it. Thank god his contract is up after tonight. Have fun signing with someone like Washington Jason.

B) Not taking pitches: For some reason Boston has been good at taking the first pitch, but after that it's nothing but swinging like batting practice. I have never seen so many 1-1 or 1-2 count, pop fly outs. This is because the Redsox batters have been nervous for the first time in years.

C) Ortiz: I'm saying it on October 16th. Big papi is done. Not as a Red sock, but as a feared MLB hitter.

D) The Boston Media: Thanks for blowing the Manny thing out of control. Who needs that production, especially at a time when no one can hit the ball. Manny is the one hitter in baseball who cannot be rattled. Even though he has faired well, no one is scared of Jason Bay. Manny just adds that postseason presense and talent that everyone in the locker room can feed off of.

E) Theo Epstein: Why is Timlin on the post season roster? Oh, yeah, and why is it that when a few Boston Media personal like the co-hosts of the Vagina Monologues, Dennis and Callahan rip Manny, you trade him? At least Schilling might come back next year. Theo gets a D for this season, and only because he made the playoffs.

F) Tampa Bay: I'm going to give them credit. Despite the fact that Boston has more fan weather Tampa Bay fans than any other city in the world ( even Tampa Bay ) they have played unbelieveably. Pitching has been amazin, except for game two. The hitters are playing like they have all won rings in the past. And Joe Madden is managing like a legend, something Francona has forgotton how to do. Good luck against Phili Tampa.

Calling out the Wiz

First off, if you ask me who my favorite basketball team is I would say the Boston Celtics. Thus making them my team. They are also other people's team as well but my team.


Now to my real problem with you. For you to say that we would have been fine with Tony Allen instead of James Posey is ludurcious. Are you out of your mind? That is one of the stupidest comments I have ever heard of in my life. Who is the better shooter? Posey. The better defender? Posey. More versatile? Posey. More clutch? Posey. Don't get me wrong, I like Tony Allen. He is a good defender who can slash to the hole. But the Celtics have Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett to go the hole and draw fouls. What the Celtics needed this season was someone who could stretch the floor and knock down shots. Posey helped fill that hole. Posey's real value was in his leadership and experience. Posey had those pre game hugs where the starters said that he had a different thing to say every time. Posey is an ultimate glue guy. Keeps everyone together. Now I'm not saying he is the true team leader, KG and Pierce are, but he was certainly a key.

Posey is also a experienced winner. Before Sam Cassell arrived for the last 2 months, Posey was the only guy with a championship. He had what the Big Three was striving for. Its no accident that this guy has been a big contributor on 2 championship teams. In that Heat/Mavs finals, he was the guy that had to guard Dirk and did a great job. In The Comeback Game in this past finals, he had 18 and buried 2 huge threes in the 4th including one to cut the Laker lead to 2 after being down five. Plus he is so versatile where he can guard a 2, a 3, and some 4s. And when the Celtics went small he was drawing power forwards away from the hoop to open up lanes for Rondo, Pierce and KG. The guy is probably one of the more coveted free agents this year because he is a winner and has a ton of intangibles you need on a championship club.

The Celtics needed this guy if they were to win this year. He helped share his experience to the Big Three. Even they will tell you that. Even Danny Anige will tell you that. In fact Anige said he provided a type of craziness that was good for the team. Jeff Van Gundy was drooling about the guy during the finals saying that he would to coach a James Posey. For this year it was important to have him because he is clutch and had a ring. Next year I would love to have him back but at the right price. Now that the Big Three and the rest of the team has championship experience they know what their in for. But if he doesn't come back, his presence will be missed come playoff time. Believe that.

And in my eyes Wizard, you my boy but you lost a lot of credibility in my book.

Sports and Tampa.

What do you mean "your" celtics? The Celtics belong to everybody sir. I'm going to call you out on some lies to being this blog. At no point can anyone love alien face Sam Cassell. At no point is stealing the ball from Sebastian Telfair impressive. And how many games has scallups won this year? Tell me how he helped, other than the game were he carried pierce off to the locker room. Next, I feel you are over-hyping James Posey. He contributed, but I feel we could have won the championship without him. Tony Allen would have seen more playing time if their was no Posey and he showed he is still not scared to go to the hoop. Then you rip my boy Karson Kressley. Who are you to rip this huge Redsox fan? Would you have smelled Doug Mirabelli's Jockstrap? Plus his sexual orientation is unknown, so who knows what he would do at the playboy mansion. You were wrong about Schilling. I believe he is a hall of famer despite his wins in the low 200's, and his personality. That spineless fish of a human shouldn't talk publicly unless it's about baseball. And their is still zero proof he had a bloody sock nation. ketchup inside a sock looks alot like blood. Keep thinking Jason Varitek will come around, and keep thinking Kevin Cash is a solid backup. Varitek certaintly calls a great game, but he has done nothing for this bullpen. And Kevin Cash couldn't hit a beachball. Lugo is awful, and despite everything he has done offensivly, you still managed to miss his league leading, sixteen errors. The sox have manny being manny and manny being Carl Everett. This man is a disgrace to baseball, the the way the redsox are handling it is awful. Attacking players and elderly employees, along with not performing on the field? Theo and Francona are showing no class as they continue to let these actions go unpunished. Maybe a strong moral stance would have got them at least one win in Tampa. Finally, out of all the things you have said B Shea, your comments about the Tampa Bay fans is the most off. The fans remind me of college fans, or even better, little league world series fans. The reason they make noise and go crazy all games is because half of Tropicana field is sox fans. They want to be heard and the best way to hear them is to win. They beat the Redsox up and down all series.

Tampa Bay fans have just swept the Boston Redsox for the second time this season. The first time Boston has been swept twice in one season by one team since 2001. The question lies, is this team for real? Last year Balitmore took a AL East lead into July only to finish 4th in the division. A few years back the Washington Nationals took a league leading record into July, only to fizzle out and finish last in a good NL East. Who's to say Tampa Bay isn't going to be like the previous surprises? A team so good at home (33-13) and 500 on the road (19-19), despite averaging 19,000 fans per game. A pay roll of 44 Million, in a division with Boston and New York who pay over 140. What makes this team click? My bold prediction as of July 4th, is that Tampa Bay will make the playoffs, as a wild card team. Starting pitching is what will carry them. Baltimore and Washington lacked pitching on their runs. This team can flat out pitch. Their bullpen has questions but should remain stable as long as steroid ghost troy percival remains healthy. Rookie of the year, Evan Longoria has came up to the MLB alot quicker than anyone had thought and has performed well. The offense is shaky but you can't count out a young fired up team. When your number five pitcher Andy Sonnanstine has nine wins, your doing something right. Finally, when you get to play the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Orioles for the majority of your remaining games, your going to be sitting pretty... I am currently on the Rays Bandwagon and will continue to be. Go Rays

Stung by the Rays

Ya boy went down to St. Pete earlier this week with my dad to catch the first 2 games of the Rays/Red Sox series. I walked away from the first 2 games with 4 impressions.

1) The Rays are good. I mean really good. They are going to be in this race until the final day. People expect them to go on some long losing streak soon but I see differently. I saw Shields and Garza shut down the Sox and I have never seen any 2 pitchers do that in the Theo/Tito Era. With Shields, Garza, and Kazmir the Rays have 3 good pitchers that wont allow this team to go on a losing streak. Their bullpen is much improved with Dan Wheeler and Troy Percival at the back end. It'll be interesting to see how they handle the loss of Percival but with guys like Grant Balfour coming out of the pen throwing 99. Also, they come up with the hits when they need it. BJ Upton set the tone with a lead off home run on Monday. Evan Longoria came up with a huge hit on Tuesday as well as flash the leather and kill a Sox rally.

2) Rays fans are AWFUL. I cant emphasize this enough. They don't know how or when to cheer. On Tuesday, two loser in Johnny Gomes shirts were jumping up and down and giving each other high fives on the first out of the game! If you just walked in you would have thought they won the World Series. They bang their cowbells every chance they get. They explode if the Rays get a bloop hit in the 4th inning with 2 outs. On Monday, they were counting outs in the 7th. I know its their first real team in Tampa but still, they have seen Sox fans cheer for 10 years down there. You would think they learned something.

3) Something is wrong with Manny. Manny was 0-11 in this series. He was late on every fastball. He was going after every first pitch and he popped up on the first base foul line at least 5 times when I was down there. Manny has struggled recently and something has to be wrong. Either he misses Papi or his altercation with the traveling secretary is weighing on him. I don't know whats wrong but we need Manny to get hot again.

4) We miss Papi. With JD Drew playing out of his mind it hid the loss of Papi but now its starting to show its ugly head. In this series we have struggled to score runs. On Tuesday with 2 on, JD struck out looking on three pitches. In that situation, you know that David Ortiz is going to come through. As hot as JD Drew as been if you ask any pitcher they would still rather face Drew than David Ortiz.

Sox Talk

The Red Sox have reached the real halfway point of the season. Through 81 games they are 49-32. Pretty much exactly where I thought they would be considering all the injuries they've been through. Papi, Beckett, Dice-K, and Lowell have all been down at some point this year. One word that describes this baseball season for the Sox is depth. So many guys have come up and contributed. Masterson, Colon, Lowrie, Moss, and Hansen have been surprises. Now I'll give a old fashion analysis position by position of this team.


Catcher- I don't care what Varitek hits. No one handles a pitching staff like Tek. We all saw how valuable he was in 2006 when he got hurt and the Sox just collapsed. He is a streaky hitter and he always goes through slumps but he always ends ups hitting around his career numbers of .265/20/82/.348 OBP. Kevin Cash has been a surprise. Hes been handling Wake well and anything you get with his bat is a plus.


First Base- Youk's been as sold as he has ever been. He always gets off to hot starts and then cools off a bit but hes still getting on base at a high rate (.374) and hitting well (.303). I thinks its safe to say that we will see him at the All Star Game this year. Sean Casey has been a valuable bat off the bench and is a solid backup to Youk when he needs a day off.


Second Base- Dustin Pedroia is another player who should be getting into the All Star Game and probably as the starter for the American League. Pedroia has been great all year and he is the perfect guy to be hitting behind Jacoby because he never strikes out and is extremely patient.

Shortstop- If you are just looking at numbers for Lugo, .274 avg/366 OBP/.347 slug, then you would think that Lugo has been fine. But sometimes the numbers lie. And in this case they do. That .274 average is a soft .274 in my opinion. We are halfway through the year and Lugo has 1 home run and 18 RBI. Hes projected to have 39 RBI this year. His career average is 61 RBI. I don't know if he can turn it around but I hope so.

Third Base- I didn't expect Lowell to have a super year like he did last year but hes coming damn close. 11 homers, .287 avg, and 41 RBI is fine by me at this point of the season. He keeps coming up with clutch hits like he did the other night against the D'backs.

DH- For Papi to be out as long as he has and we are still leading the division, I'll take that any day. We should be even better when he comes back and start to pull away from the pesky Rays.

Outfield- Manny's being Manny. Jacoby has had his struggles but when hes on base he causes chaos. Coco has been key and has contributed with Papi going down. JD Drew has been the offensive MVP and has carried this team since Papi went down. Its been unbelievable to watch. Hopefully he continues it when Papi gets back because he is not going to be hitting 3rd and his hot streak came when he started hitting in front of Manny. The 3 hole belongs to David Ortiz.


Starters- Beckett has just been a little off all year but in his last start he showed that he was back. Lester has been great all year. Hes been very consistent all year and hes leading the team in innings pitched. Hes made huge strides and if the playoffs started today, he would the number 2 guy. Dice-K has been good until his last start but I'm willing to give him a pass on that. He still has outing where he'll drive you insane but as long as he gets the win I'll live. Wake has been doing what hes done for the past 10 years. Masterson has stepped up huge giving us quality starts and wins.


Bullpen-If there is one real weakness on this team, its the bullpen. Pap has a couple of fluke blown saves and I'm not worried about him at all. Okie has struggled big time. He needs to turn it around somehow, some way. Delcarmen has rebounded after a rough beginning to the year. I have like what Hansen and Aardsma has brought to the table. Power right handers out the pen. Aardsma has come on strong as of late. I'm we will make some deal at the deadline for some bull pen help.

38 Was Special

Recently, Curt Schilling had surgery on his throwing shoulder, effectively ending his season and possibly his career (at least with the Red Sox). That got me thinking about Big Schill's career and his time with the Red Sox. Schill is one of the best post season pitchers of all time, highlighted with his 10-2 record and a 2.23 ERA. I remember watching that 2001 world series vs the Yankees where it seemed he pitched every game. Pitching in 3 games on 3 days rest is the stuff legends are made of. That series helped him create a legacy of post season dominance. But then came 2004. He came to Boston to win a World Series and he promised it. Think back to the off season of 2003. The Red Sox were coming off a devastating 2003 ALCS lost to Yankees and "curse" talk was higher than ever. Before Schilling said he was coming to win a World Series, have you ever heard someone say that about the Red Sox? No, people were afraid to become next Bill Buckner or Mike Torrez. Schill was doing to commercials saying he was coming to Boston to break a 86 year old curse.


If the 2001 World Series didn't show that Schill is the ultimate gamer, than the 2004 post season proved it. Every Red Sox will remember how all hope was lost when Schilling got rocked in Game 1. If the guy we brought here to beat the Yankees couldn't get it done, then who else was going to do it? Later we find out that he had a messed up tendon in his right ankle and he couldn't push off the rubber with it. So now our big gun is down and the Sox are done 0-3 to the Yankees. David Oritz and Dave Roberts bring the series back to New York where Schill risks his career and plays with his tendon stitched all up. He goes out and puts on a show and ties the series up at 3 apiece. The rest is history.


Schilling has never really recovered from that injury. While hes pitched, he hasn't been the same. Last year, he added to his legacy by pitching and winning in the playoffs with a low 90s fastball by pitching with smarts and pure guts. I'll always remember what Curt Schilling did for the Red Sox. He promised us a World Series. He brought us 2. The Red Sox will miss when it comes playoff time. Say what you want about the guy but if I had a game to win, the guy I want pitching is Curt Schilling. I think he's a Hall of Famer. I know the Wiz will call me a biased ass but hey I call 'em like I see 'em. 3 World Series titles, 1 World Series MVP. Sound Hall worthy to me. So I'd just like to say, thanks Curt, thanks for coming to Boston.