Dirty Water: Another Jew with a Blog

(Baked Beans has changed its name to Dirty Water. I hate Baked Beans but I "love that Dirty Water")

As Senator George Mitchell's investigation is winding down, former Red Sox outfielder Gabe Kapler is laying low. First as a manager for the Red Sox Single A affiliate in Greenville, SC, now as a blogger tracking the Red Sox 2007 postseason. Kapler plans to make a comeback to attempt to make the Sox roster once he squashes this Jacoby Ellsbury girlie-man like a bug.

You can check out his musings at Kapler's Corner

While I'm nobody to critique anybody else's blog (at least his is regularly updated), here is Gabe's words of wisdom:

Dateline:October 6, 2007
Subject: It's over!
Text: Manny...wow

Dateline:October 7, 2007
Subject: Let's start now!
Just a personal opinion, but I bet the Red Sox want to play ASAP. After a convincing sweep of the Angels in the ALDS, the last thing a team wants is to let that energy die down.

If the Yanks/Indians series drags on, The Sox don't have as much opportunity to utilize the positive emotion. As a hitter specifically, I want to be back in the batters box after one off day. Hitting is so much about timing and the bat can feel like a foreign object initially after a significant layoff.

For now let's enjoy an incredible ALDS victory and get ready for the ALCS!!

He does know the ALCS would start Friday regardless right?

Baked Beans: 'VideoGate'- The Sentence and My Thoughts

The Patriots got their punishment from the NFL tonight for secretly videotaping the Jets signal callers during their Week 1 win. The punishment for the Three-Time Super Bowl Champions* is:

-$250,000 fine to the Patriots
-$500,000 fine to Bill Belichick himself
-A forfeit of their 2008 First Round Pick shall the Patriots make it to the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season* and sixth out of seven*
-A forfeit of a Second AND a Third Round Pick shall the Patriots not make the postseason for the first time in six seasons*

To gauge the reaction of the Patriots lemmings I temporarily broke my boycott of Bar Stool Sports to see how they are taking it. As you can see they ain't taking it well

(It now surprises me even less that I stopped hearing from them after writing a tongue-in-cheek Anti-Patriots column in May)

Funny thing is I have to agree. This is kinda bullshit for a practice that may not have even affected games at all especially in a sport as complicated to call from a coaching standpoint as football is.

On the other hand, anything that taints the pristine image of the New England Patriots Dynasty* makes me downright giddy. I've already put four asterisks in this post and I'm looking for context to put more in. Here we go, even with the illegal surveillance the Patriots Dynasty* came to a halt in Mile High in January of 2006.

'Baked Beans': Kevin Garnett at Fenway

As you know by now the Boston Celtics traded for Forward Kevin Garnett. The city of Boston is ecstatic and gave him a standing ovation when he threw the first pitch before the Red Sox game vs. Baltimore. Here is a picture that will further disturb the good people of Minnesota.



Garnett brought his wife to the ballpark and I think its safe to say Doug Mirabelli and Eric Hinske were impressed.

Baked Beans: Manny being Ameche

There's no defending this...



Now back to my latest episode of Writer's Bloc...

Baked Beans: The Boston Marathon and Patriots Day

Today is the running of the 111th Boston Marathon. This race has lost relevance nationwide as American runners have lost relevance when it comes to any chance of winning the race. In Boston and New England however it is covered ad nauseum by every major news channel in the city providing footage from all points of the race. Friends and acquaintences run the race, sometimes as a means to raise money for charity, most of the time as a personal challenge. While there won't be many today, usually spectators line the Marathon route to cheer on (or heckle) oncoming runners.

Of course the Marathon always falls on a much more interesting day, Patriots Day in Massachusetts. Patriots Day commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord which started the Revolutionary War. It is the biggest blowoff holiday in this country. Schools, State Offices, and some businesses along the Marathon route close and leave their employees free to throw parties and drink all day during the Marathon. When I was little my parents would take me out of school (New Hampshire still has school) to watch the Lexington Patriots Day Parade and battle reenactment. My senior year in high school a friend of my dad fed me jello shots in his Beacon Street apartment.

Also the Red Sox are scheduled to play today at 10:05am, the only morning start time on the entire MLB schedule. Today they are playing the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Meaning their fans will need an explanation as to why they had to wake up at 7am to watch their team.

It's PATRIOTS DAY! Duh!

Weekend in Sports Purgatory: Boston College vs. North Carolina

Okay enough with these "Color-Outs", when Penn State started this in 2005 it was an awesome visual effect, when Louisville did it this football season, it was impressive. When I participated in one at Ohio State, it was a fun gimmick. Now its been beaten to death. I credit BC with actually giving away the gold shirts to fans who attended Saturday Night's game. Of course Syracuse is behind the curve on this as they just trust the people of Skaneatles and Manulius to show up in Orange.

Extra! Extra! BC chokes in a big game again! You could send the #2 Sports Betting team into Chestnut Hill and they'd beat BC, and of course BC would be #1. For more New England perspective, the most hated "local" team in New England, Boston College. The media that covers the teams, wonders why Boston is such a pro sports town and is weary of embracing Boston College. That's not it. We HATE BC! For one almost every one of us went to ANOTHER college that played BC. Two they sold out their fanbase alumni by joining the ACC and playing half their games south of Baltimore. You can't ever get me to root for BC in anything. To prove the point they played Duke and Greg Paulus and I was cheering harder than Dickie V for the Dukies.

Anyway overrated Jared Dudley could've tied the game with some free throws. They did an Andy Katz profile on him walking through Boston. He's from California probably did everything he did with Andy Katz for the first time then and he won't be caught dead in Boston after he graduates, which makes me happy.

Baked Beans: The Beanpot

The 55th Beanpot concluded last night when Boston University beat Boston College 2-1.

The Beanpot (a four team tournament between Boston's four college hockey teams, Boston College (BC), Boston University (BU), Harvard, and Northeastern) is a unique event because 1) Few cities have four colleges with Division 1 sports programs and 2) Few sports provide an opportunity for small, academic colleges like Harvard to compete with larger athletic budget schools like BC. You couldn't have a college basketball tournament between St. John's, Columbia, Manhattan and Fordham. For one, nobody would care and in the 80's St. John's would've blown every team out.

Recently The Beanpot has become more of a joke to Boston sports fans. Mainly because it starts the day after the Super Bowl (three out of five years, some smartass has called WEEI saying "Enough about this football game, I'd like to talk about The Beanpot!") and its also seen as just a reason for the priviledged youth of Boston's colleges to drink their asses off in the bars surrounding the Boston Garden/Shawmut Center/Fleet Center/TD Banknorth Garden.

As is, The Beanpot isn't even that competitive. Boston University usually beats Boston College in the final every single year. As happened this year, BU won it's 28th title last night.

Baked Beans: Daisuke's Here

From time to time, I will discuss Boston sports, not exclusively the Red Sox but anything relative to the Boston sports scene which is unique and one that I am blessed to live in. The title of these posts will be "Baked Beans". A reference to outsiders' name for Boston "Beantown". Reference "Beantown" in Boston and you'll get the same look San Franciscans give you when you say "Frisco" or New Yorkers give you when you ask where to go in "The Big Apple".



He may be the Red Sox' newest ace pitcher. He may be a running punchline which will be painfully funny. In either case, Daisuke Matsuzaka has reported to Spring Training.