The Official Boston Sports Thread

Trying to take these in chronological order...

The Bruins, in an apparent signal that they've given up on this season, have shipped D Brad Stuart and C Wayne Primeau to the Calgary Flames for D Andrew Ference and former Boston College RW Chuck Kobasew. Both Stuart and Primeau will be free agents at the end of the season.

The BC men's basketball team survived a wild game in Tallahassee against Florida State, getting a left-elbow jumper from transfer center Tyrell Blair, known for his shot-blocking rather than his shot-making, with 3.3 seconds left to win 68-67. The Eagles take an ACC-best 9-2 conference record into home games against Duke and North Carolina this week.

The Minnesota Timberwolves got a last-second jumper from former Celtics property Ricky Davis to continue the C's franchise-worst losing streak, which now stands at 18 games, by a 109-107 score. The C's had led the T-wolves by 4 with less than 3 minutes left after a personal 9-0 run by captain Paul Pierce, but could not hold the lead.

 

Before I forget, the equipment truck left Fenway today, bound for Ft. Myers, FL!

 

The Boston College basketball team has moved back into the top 25 of the national rankings for the first time since the third week of the season. The Eagles are ranked #21 in both the AP media poll and the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll this week.

 

Our condolences today go out to Bruins legend Bobby Orr and his family on the passing of his father.

 

Hey Richie!

Heard this morning that BC gave them a run for the money but, BU won the Beanpot yet again this year at last night's game - in overtime.

Congrats to them!

 

Yup, WoV. Brian McGuirk, a fourth-line winger for BU, beat BC goaltender Cory Schneider with a wrister at 5:06 of overtime. BU's John Curry won both tournament MVP and the Eberly Award (tournament outstanding goaltender) by stopping 37 of 38 BC shots in the championship game and recording an .985 save percentage for the tournament, the best in the tournament's history.

 

Bet both McGuirk and Curry will have great NHL careers. We will watch them "with great interest".

WAAF this morning was saying that the team captain (Curry, I believe) was unbelievable in the locker room before they went into the OT. They were saying he was really showing himself as a true leader of the team.

 

Can't be Curry who's the BU captain. By rule, the captain has to be a skater, not a goaltender. Curry could still be the emotional leader of that team, though. BTW, I'd love to see the Bruins get Curry...he'd probably be better than either Tim Thomas or Hannu Toivonen.

 

In a pair of minor moves, the Patriots today waived S Raymond Ventrone and WR Zuriel Smith. Both players were injured in NFL Europe last spring and did not play for the Patriots in '06.

 

Forgot to mention that the New England Revolution signed striker Taylor Twellman, the MLS MVP in 2005, to a four-year extension.

 

By way of a Red Sox update, the arbitration case of OF Wily Mo Peña is scheduled for a hearing in Phoenix on Friday. Peña is asking for $2.2M, while the Sox are offering $1.725M. The case still could be settled, but if it reaches a hearing, it will be the Red Sox' first arbitration case to do so since Theo Epstein became GM before the 2003 season.

In other Red Sox news, the Oakland A's announced that they have claimed Red Sox lefty Lenny DiNardo off waivers. The Red Sox today also officially placed OF J.D. Drew, signed on January 26, on the 40-man roster.

In Patriots news, Mike Reiss reports that, according to league sources, Brian Daboll, the Pats' receivers coach for the past 5 seasons, will be leaving the team to join Eric Mangini and the New York Jets. Mangini had high praise for Daboll in the press conferences leading up to the 2 regular season games against the Patriots last season.

 

The C's losing streak is finally over! They overcame a 15-point second quarter deficit to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks at the Garden 117-97, ending the losing streak @ 18 games. Paul Pierce led the way with 32 points, Gerald Green saved the team off the bench with 16 of his 21 points in the second quarter, and Al Jefferson chipped in 17 points & 10 rebounds. It had been 40 days since the Celtics' last win, and 61 since their last win at home.

The BC Eagles made a more spectacular comeback try across town @ Conte Forum against the Duke Blue Devils. They trailed by as many as 24 early in the second half and clawed their way back to within 6. That try fell short, however, as they could not get closer and lost 78-70. Sean Marshall led the Eagles with 23 points and Tyrese Rice chipped in 22 points, but Duke got Jared Dudley into early foul trouble and Dudley only scored 11 on the game.

 

By way of an update, former Sox closer Keith Foulke, who had been scheduled to report to Winter Haven, FL for Cleveland Indians spring training, has instead decided to retire after experiencing pain in his right (throwing) elbow.

 

Spring training has officially begun in Ft. Myers, as this is the reporting day for pitchers and catchers. The first workout will take place on Sunday, and position players will be reporting on Thursday.

In other Red Sox news, the team avoided an arbitration hearing scheduled for today in the case of OF Wily Mo Peña by reaching agreement with him on a one-year, $1.875M contract. The Red Sox still have not had an arbitration hearing since Theo Epstein became GM in 2003.

 

In a not-unexpected move, the Patriots today informed CB Asante Samuel that they have assigned the franchise tag to him. This means that Samuel has received a one-year tender contract for $7.79M (the average of the top 5 salaries at the cornerback position), which can be ripped up if the two sides agree to a long-term deal. Alonzo Shavers, Samuel's agent, said his client is not upset at this development and hoped that this was the first step in working out a long-term deal. He also said that it is not Samuel's intention to hold out of training camp.

EDIT: Also, as part of the franchise rule, Samuel can accept an offer from another team, but the Patriots would have 7 days to match the offer, and the Patriots would get two first-round draft picks from the team that signs him if the Patriots decide not to match.

 

The Celtics' Gerald Green was an easy winner of last night's slam dunk contest, held in Las Vegas as part of the NBA's All-Star festivities. Green got teammate Paul Pierce's help on a twisting dunk in his first try, did a Dee Brown (1991 slam dunk champion and former Celtic) impersonation, complete with Reebok pump shoes, for his second dunk, and a dunk over reigning champion Nate Robinson for the last attempt (Green had originally brought out a cardboard cutout of Robinson).

The BC basketball team lost another tough game, this time to #4 North Carolina 77-72 at Conte Forum. Free throws were a key to the loss, as the Eagles only made 11 of 21 attempts from the charity stripe, and the misses included a run of 3 misses by Jared Dudley (awarded after he was fouled attempting a three-pointer) with 1:27 left in the game that would've tied the game had Dudley made all of them. A trip to Blacksburg, VA to play Virginia Tech is next for the Eagles.

 

According to New York Post columnist Liz Smith, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will become a father later this year. His former girlfriend of two years, Bridget Moynahan, whom Brady broke up with in December, is three months pregnant, according to her spokesperson. The 36-year-old star of ABC's "Six Degrees" is said to be excited about the impending arrival.

 

In Red Sox news, manager Terry Francona announced that Daisuke Matsuzaka will make his Red Sox spring training debut in the evening (6:05 PM ET) split-squad game on March 2 at City of Palms Park against Boston College. Currently, there is only radio coverage scheduled for that game, but, given who is pitching, NESN may decide to add it to their schedule.

 

A report on WEEI stated that Manny Ramirez will not report to spring training until March 1, with the reason given that his mother has gone in for unspecified surgery.

As a correction to the spring training timeline I gave earlier, position players will report tomorrow, with the first full-squad workout scheduled for Thursday.

 

This might be more New Hampshire news, but given who is involved, I'll post it here...The Nashua Pride of the Can-Am League have announced that they have signed former Red Sox reliever Rich "El Guapo" Garces.

The Patriots have moved quickly to fill their receivers coach vacancy by naming director of pro personnel Nick Caserio to the position. Caserio has been with the Patriots 7 years, the last three in the aforementioned post, but was an offensive assistant in 2003, and filled in for running backs coach Ivan Fears during training camp in 2005 when Fears was forced to take a medical leave.

 

Gordon Edes has reported in the Boston.com Red Sox blog that Daisuke Matsuzaka's spring training debut against Boston College on March 2 would be televised live on NESN, but, as NESN has previous college hockey commitments, they could only show the couple of innings that Matsuzaka pitches.

 

Red Sox starter Curt Schilling told WEEI's "Dennis & Callahan" this morning that negotiations on a contract extension have reached an impasse, and that he would test the free agency waters for the first time in his career at the end of the season.

In Patriots news, it was reported that WR Chad Jackson tore an ACL in the AFC Championship Game in Indianapolis. Also, the Patriots have released S Tebucky Jones.

 

A bit of sad news...

Former NBA All-Star point guard Dennis Johnson, who was NBA Finals MVP in 1979 for the Seattle Supersonics and also played for the Phoenix Suns before joining the Celtics for their last two NBA titles in 1984 and 1986, has been pronounced dead in Austin, TX at age 52 of as-yet-undetermined causes. He had been coaching the Austin Toros of the NBA Developmental League and was conducting that team's practice today before collapsing. "DJ" was best-known in Boston for being the recipient of Larry Bird's pass (and scoring the winning basket) after Bird's steal off the inbounds pass of Isaiah Thomas in Game 5 of the Celtics' playoff series against the Detroit Pistons in 1987, which was immortalized by the radio call of the late Johnny Most.

 

According to his agent, Steve Feldman, Patriots running back Corey Dillon has asked the team for his release and that it would be granted on March 2, the first day of the NFL's free agency period. He would look for a contract with a different team at that point. From the Herald article: "We were in discussions the last few days, and based on the roster and the offense, we felt there were better opportunities out there in the NFL," said Feldman. "He felt like getting eight or 10 carries a game didn?t give him the opportunity to demonstrate the abilities he still has. He figures he has a year or two left where he can be a premier performer." The 32-year-old Dillon has 3 years remaining on his current contract, with a $4.4M cap figure for 2007.

 

Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell, filling in for a sick Terry Francona for today's media session, announced the starting pitching schedule for the opening Grapefruit League games. Curt Schilling will have the honor of opening the spring training schedule @ City of Palms Park on Wednesday night against the Minnesota Twins. On Thursday afternoon, Kason Gabbard will take the baseball in Dunedin against the Toronto Blue Jays, while Josh Beckett will start in Ft. Myers against Northeastern. Next Friday, Kyle Snyder will work the matinee game @ City of Palms Park against the Blue Jays, while Daisuke Matsuzaka will pitch in nightcap against Boston College (as has been reported earlier). The opening rotation rounds out next Saturday at City of Palms Park against the Philadelphia Phillies with Tim Wakefield making the start, with Jonathan Papelbon slated to get his work in starting in the third or fourth inning of that game.