The Official Boston Sports Thread

Some notes from the NFL owners' meetings on rule change proposals:

• A proposal to move the kickoff spot in overtime from the 30 yard line to the 35 yard line was tabled. It will be discussed again in May, but no vote on it will come until after this season.


• Players will now be penalized 5 yards for spiking the ball in the field of play (there is no penalty for spiking the ball after a touchdown).


• The Bears' proposal to expand game-day rosters from 45 to 47 players was defeated.


• A penalty for illegal touching will not be called if a quarterback hits an offensive lineman w/ a pass unless the lineman makes an attempt to catch the ball.


• The Buccaneers withdrew their proposal to make all penalties except holding reviewable in instant replay.

 

Bill Belichick told NBCSports.com's Tom Curran that Patriots icon Troy Brown is in the team's plans for 2007.

The Red Sox broke camp with a 3-3 tie at City of Palms Park against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays thanks to a 9th inning home run by infield prospect Argenis Diaz. Top pitching prospect Clay Bucholtz was solid through 4 innings before giving up the 3 D-Ray runs in the 5th, but still got a nice hand from the crowd as he left the game. The Sox will play 2 tomorrow and Saturday in Philadelphia before traveling to Kansas City, where they will work out on Sunday before the season opener Monday.

 

According to a report in the Herald by Albert Breer, the degree of WR Chad Jackson's ACL tear was very slight compared to most cases, and that he was able to have surgery sooner than what would have been the norm. As a result, he could be back running by the time veteran minicamp rolls around in June, could be cleared for contact when training camp opens, and may see game action sometime after the China Bowl game in August.

In Bruins news, the team's "7th Player Award", given to the player voted by fans as "having performed above and beyond all expectations", was given to goaltender Tim Thomas before last night's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Unfortunately, it would also be the night the Bruins were officially eliminated from playoff contention, as they lost by a 4-2 score. Thomas is only the 4th player to be honored twice with the award, the others being Randy Burridge, Cam Neely, and Bill Guerin.

 

"PLAY BALL!"

Sorry... just had to say that!

 

According to multiple reports, the NFL has decided to postpone the China Bowl exhibition game, which was to involve the Patriots. The game will likely be rescheduled for the 2009 preseason, and will be played in Beijing's National Stadium, which is being constructed for next year's Olympic Games.

EDIT: In a statement released by the NFL today, the league said it would shift its international focus for 2007 entirely to the Oct. 28 game in London between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants, which will be the first regular-season NFL game played outside of North America.

 

The 2007 season got off on the wrong foot for the Red Sox today, as they suffered an ugly 7-1 loss in Kansas City to the Royals. David Ortiz drove home Kevin Youkilis with an RBI double to grab the lead early, but it was all downhill from there. Curt Schilling struggled, going 4 innings and giving up 8 hits and 5 runs (all earned), walking 2 while striking out 5 in taking his first-ever Opening Day loss. Players making their Red Sox debuts today:

Julio Lugo: 1/4 3K
J.D. Drew: 1/2 BB
Hideki Okajima: 1.2IP 2H 1ER 2K HR (to John Buck on 1st pitch in 6th inning)
Brendan Donnelly: 0.1IP 0H 0R 1K
Joel Piñeiro: 0.1IP 2H 1ER
J.C. Romero: 0.2IP 0H 0R

The Sox will have the day off tomorrow, then resume playing on Wednesday night. Josh Beckett is the expected starter.

 

http://www.patriots.com/news/index.cfm?ac=latestnewsdetail&pid=24709&pcid=41

Because of the postponement of the China Bowl, the Patriots' pre-season schedule has been reduced to 4 games, all of which were announced yesterday. The Patriots will now open up the exhibition schedule @ Tampa Bay between Aug. 9 and 13 (exact day & time to be determined). They will then be @ Gillette the following week against Tennessee before traveling to Charlotte for a nationally-televised game (CBS) on Friday Aug. 24 against Carolina. To wrap up the pre-season, the New York Giants, who are on the regular season schedule, visit Foxboro between Aug. 31 and Sept. 2.

The regular season schedule can't be far behind.

 

Daisuke Matsuzaka made his much-anticipated major league debut in today's rubber game against the Royals in Kansas City, and he did not disappoint. He went 7 innings, allowing just a single run off a home run to Royals center fielder David DeJesus in the 6th inning, one of 6 hits the Royals would get off of him. Dice-K struck out Royals left fielder Ross Gload in the 2nd inning for the first of 10 he would have in the game, just missing the Red Sox record of 11 strikeouts in a major league debut set by Don Aase on July 26, 1977. Matsuzaka threw 108 pitches, 74 of those for strikes. The Red Sox took advantage of 2 errors by Kansas City in the process of supporting Dice-K w/ 4 runs, and Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect 9th inning in his season debut to save the win.

In a sad bit of Patriots news, Darryl Stingley, who was on his way to becoming a star receiver when he was paralyzed in a collision with Oakland Raiders safety Jack Tatum in an exhibition game nearly 30 years ago, has died at the age of 55 in his home in Chicago. The cause of death is not known at this time, and an autopsy will be performed.

 

The NFL Network's Adam Schefter reports that free agent cornerback Asante Samuel, whom the Patriots assigned the franchise tag to back in February, has said that he is unhappy with the way contract talks with the Patriots are going and that he will seek to play elsewhere in 2007. He could be given an offer sheet by another team, but the Patriots have the right to match, and if the Patriots don't, the team that signs Samuel must surrender two first-round draft picks. A sign-and-trade deal is also possible, but the Patriots will, of course, be reluctant to deal him to a team in their own division.

 

The Boston College men's ice hockey team will be playing for the national championship for the second year in a row after a thrilling 6-4 victory over North Dakota in the second of the two "Frozen Four" games played yesterday in St. Louis. The Eagles will play the Michigan St. Spartans, who defeated Maine 4-2 in the earlier semifinal game, tomorrow night. Sophomore Nathan Gerbe led the Eagles with a four-point effort (2 goals, 2 assists), including a key power-play goal at 15:54 of the third period that gave the Eagles the lead for good.

 

Boston College hockey fans had their hearts broken last night when Michigan State's Justin Abdelkader sent a feed from Tim Kennedy by BC goaltender Cory Schneider with just 18.9 seconds left in regulation to break a 1-1 tie. The Spartans added an empty-net goal for a 3-1 final, and sending the Eagles home just on the doorstep of a national title for the second year in a row. Better luck next season!

 

The Red Sox head home for the first homestand of the season with a 3-3 record, thanks to a good pitching performance by Curt Schilling and a pair of home runs by "Big Papi" in a 3-2 win last night in Texas.

Looks like I'll be at Opening Day tomorrow...my brother scored a pair of box seats behind the 3B dugout and invited me to join him. With all of the work that's been done in recent years, I may not even recognize the place.

 

I'm sure more than a few of you saw the game today (even if it was the replay on NESN), so I'm not going to tell you what happened, since I want to devote this post more to my thoughts and observations during and after the game.

Noticed quite a bit of Japanese signage in an around the ballpark. The big Dunkin Donuts sign behind the right field bleachers was in Japanese, an Avaya sign painted on the wall near the Red Sox dugout was in Japanese on the bottom, and there's a street sign thing outside on Yawkey Way where the only thing in Roman characters was "Dice-K"...the rest of it was in Japanese.

Dice-K got nearly as big an ovation from the crowd in the pre-game as Schilling, Ortiz, and Papelbon did, so you have to know from that that we're expecting big things from him.

I don't think we'll have to worry about Josh Beckett this year...he's not going to suck if he's striking out Ichiro three times.

Brendan Donnelly got tossed from the game for hitting Kenji Johjima with a pitch, but some of his history with the Mariners from playing with the Angels got recalled when he buzzed Jose Guillen with an inside fastball for a strikeout, after which Guillen nearly charged the mound. It almost became an ugly scene, but it fizzled out almost as quickly as some fights in the NHL do these days.

Finally, it seems I've been going to blowout games, as the Patriots game I went to (the final regular season game @ Gillette last year against the Texans) was a blowout win, as well. Maybe I should go to more games...who knows, Kevin Durant or Greg Oden (assuming the Celtics get one of them in June) could use my help.

 

Hi guys!

Not really a Sox question but, my room mate and I have been going back and forth on this for a few days now and he's asked me to throw it out to the people I know... Here goes:

I am just kind of taking a general poll about something cause its been bugging me lately.

Which are you more interested in and why.

Barry Bonds chase of the all time HR record
or Craig Biggio's quest for 3,000 hits?

He can't access this site from work and we don't have the internet at home so, I will send his responses when you guys post them! Thanks...

-K.

 

To be honest, I wasn't aware of Biggio's upcoming milestone until now. I guess I'd be more interested in Bonds' chase of "the record", except that I believe Bonds was doing it illegally (and by that, I mean taking steroids without a prescription for them), so about the only thing I'll say about that is that I hope Bonds doesn't break the record @ Fenway.

 

Was so busy with Easter stuff Sunday that I forgot to post that the Bruins season ended Saturday night with a 6-3 loss at home to the Ottawa Senators. The Bruins finished with a record of 35-41-6=76, 16 points behind the Islanders for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. Still, considering how bad the Bruins were the previous season, I'd have to say the Bruins took a step in the right direction this season. If Peter Chiarelli can make a few good moves in the offseason, I believe the Bruins will have a shot to contend for the playoffs in the 2007-08 season.

On the bright side, the Montreal Canadiens also missed the playoffs.

 

Hi there, Richie!

Biggio's apparently at 2,936 hits. He's gotten (I believe) 4 already this season.

 

The New England Patriots' 2007 regular season schedule

The full schedule is linked above, but here are the highlights:

Season opener: Sept. 9 @ New York Jets
Sunday night games: Sept. 16 v. San Diego (home opener), Nov. 25 v. Philadelphia*
Monday night games: Oct. 1 @ Cincinnati, Dec. 3 @ Baltimore
Saturday night game: Dec. 29 @ New York Giants (last game of regular season) (game televised on NFL Network)
National Sunday late-afternoon games: Oct. 14 @ Dallas (CBS), Oct. 28 v. Washington (Fox), Nov. 4 @ Indianapolis (CBS)
Bye week: Week 10

* denotes starting time subject to change because of flexible scheduling

Seems like a fairly balanced schedule to me. It looks tough, but the tough games (on paper) are spread out throughout the season instead of coming all at once (as it did two seasons ago). We also draw a fairly favorable bye week in Week 10, and it comes right after what looks to be the toughest game of all (the return to Indy). The season opener will not really be easy, either. On an interesting note, the Patriots will do a full-circle this season, starting the season @ the Meadowlands (against the Jets) and also ending the regular season there (against the Giants).

 

Based on opponents records from last year, the Pats have the 3rd toughest schedule this season (Oakland & Buffalo tied for 1st). The Pats opponents had a combined record of 137-119 last year for a .535 winning percentage.

 

Bledsoe's retiring....

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/sports/11665981/detail.html

 

Daisuke Matsuzaka didn't have a bad Fenway debut, allowing 8 hits and 3 earned runs in 7 innings, and would be enough to win on a lot of nights. Problem was, according to WEEI's John Dennis, "Felix Hernandez crashed Dice-K's birthday party, stole all of the presents, and sat on the cake." Hernandez allowed just one hit, that coming in the 8th inning by J.D. Drew, and basically had the Sox hitters off-balance all night (though he got a few excellent plays from his defense) en route to a complete game shutout.

The opening home series of the season should end today with a 4:05 PM ET game (weather permitting), and the Angels come to town for 4 games, including Patriots Day morning, this weekend.

 

Saw that last night on ESPN News. Kind of too bad. I think his ego got the best of him on this one. He could have gone somewhere, taken a back-up role and been a mentor to some young quarterback. Plus, with more and more QB's missing time every year he would have had a chance to start again.

He was the last of the 'Pocket Passing' QB's and the league moved in a new direction for what they wanted in a QB and he was incapable of adapting.

Thanks for the memories Drew.
[image=http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/topstory/bledsoe_drew0127.jpg]

 

The Patriots finalized their 2007 pre-season schedule yesterday, given below:

Fri. 8/10 @ Tampa Bay (7:30 PM ET start, Channel 5)
Fri. 8/17 v. Tennessee (8:00 PM ET start, Channel 5)
Fri. 8/24 @ Carolina (8:00 PM ET start, CBS)
Thu. 8/30 v. New York Giants (7:30 PM ET start, Channel 5)

 

With a 104-102 loss at the Garden to the Milwaukee Bucks last night, the Celtics are now locked into the second worst record in the NBA with 3 games left in the season. This will mean (I believe) that the C's will have a 19% chance of landing the top pick in the draft in June's draft lottery.

 

The Red Sox enter a key early stretch of the season tonight in Toronto against the Blue Jays, carrying a 7-4 record, good for first in the AL East by a half game over the Jays, and the next 13 games being against division rivals. Their pitching for now has set up nicely, with Dice-K going tonight, and the "big three" of the rotation (Dice-K, Schilling, and Beckett) due to face the Yankees at Fenway this weekend. With both the Yankees and the Blue Jays hurting (both teams with regulars on the disabled list), this would be a good time for the Sox to make some hay and build up a lead in the division.