CLOSED!! ? The Official 2006 Sports Thread ? CLOSED!!

Michael Felger's report card

The offense (except for the running backs, which got an A-) got poorer than usual grades, while the defense was around a B+ (with the secondary getting an A). Felger also noted that while the talent isn't as good as recent years, they haven't forgotten how to win, as they have now won 23 of 26 games decided by 6 points or less (and 15 of 18 games decided by 3 points or less) since Tom Brady became the starting quarterback in 2001.

 

This year's Can-Am League Championship Series will feature the Brockton Rox ( ) against the Quebec Capitales, with Game 1 of the best-of-five scheduled for tonight @ Le Stade Municipal in Quebec City. Quebec will have the first two at home, then the series will move to Campanelli Stadium in Brockton on Thursday for the remainder of the series (including Games 4 and 5, if necessary).

 

According to an Associated Press story posted on NBCSports.com, the Patriots have filed a tampering charge against the New York Jets, contending that the Patriots gave then-holdout WR Deion Branch permission to discuss only terms of a contract with other teams and not what they would offer in trade to the Patriots. The story quotes both major Boston newspapers as saying the Patriots are contending that the Jets told Branch that they would offer a second-round pick to the Patriots for him.

 

The Patriots in this week's NFL power rankings. FoxSports.com has dropped using Football Outsiders' DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) rating in their power ranking, so I'll include how the Pats rank according to DVOA as posted on Football Outsiders:

ESPN: #10
CBS SportsLine: #3
Fox Sports: #6
Sports Illustrated: #14
Football Outsiders: #17

Peter Schrager has taken over the FoxSports.com power ranking and notes, "The Deion Branch drama is finally behind the Patriots. Who needs receivers when Maroney, Dillon, and Faulk can rush 36 times for 180 yards?" Dr. Z at Sports Illustrated asked, "So are they just scraping by, as they did in Belichick's first Super Bowl season, beating the Bills on a safety? We'll see."

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In Bruins news, training camp gets underway tomorrow @ the Ristuccia Memorial Arena in Wilmington. Also, individual game tickets for the 2006-07 season will go on sale tomorrow at 11:00 AM. Much as the Red Sox have been doing, current players, including the newly-acquired Zdeno Chara, and Patrice Bergeron, will be on hand tomorrow at the Garden box office along with Bruins alumni.

 

Wednesday's injury report for the Patriots' second game @ New York Jets (players in italics were reported to have missed a portion of team drills):

Patriots

Questionable: ILB Tedy Bruschi (wrist), WR Chad Jackson (hamstring), OT Nick Kaczur (shoulder), HB/TE Garrett Mills (flu)
Probable: QB Tom Brady (right shoulder), WR Doug Gabriel (hamstring)

Jets

Doubtful: C Trey Teague (ankle)
Questionable: CB David Barrett (hip), WR Tim Dwight (thigh), G Pete Kendall (thigh)
Probable: LB Matt Chatham (foot), LB Trevor Johnson (neck), S Kerry Rhodes (ankle), S Derrick Strait (chest)

The changes to the Pats' injury report from last week's final injury report include the absence of G Stephen Neal and the addition of Mills.

Notes from today's practice:

1) The only two players not present were DL Richard Seymour and HB/TE Garrett Mills.

2) Tedy Bruschi participated once again, and again he was wearing a cast (reported by Mike Reiss to be larger than what he was wearing last week) to protect his right wrist.

 

If the Brockton Rox are to win the Can-Am League championship, they will have to do it with a sweep at home, as they lost both games in Quebec, 7-2 in Tuesday's opener and 3-2 last night. The Rox have been hurt by fielding mistakes, as unearned runs have been the difference in both games. Stars for the Rox include Guye Senjem, who had solo homers in both games so far, and starters Brad Guy and John Kelly, who both pitched well enough to only allow 2 earned runs, Guy in going the distance in the series opener, and Kelly going 7 1/3 innings last night.

 

There were a couple of changes to the Patriots' injury report from yesterday: S Rodney Harrison was added as probable with the flu, and S Artrell Hawkins was added as questionable with a thigh injury. Again, every player listed except Tom Brady was reported as having missed a portion of team drills.

The Jets made no changes to their injury report from yesterday.

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Is it too early to look forward to the next baseball season? Given the sorry state of affairs with this year's Red Sox, it is not. Gordon Edes reports in [link=http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/]"Extra Bases"[/link] on the changes to the 2007 schedule. Highlights of the revised schedule:

Season opener: 4/2 @ KC
Fenway opener: 4/10 v. SEA
Patriots' Day: 4/16 v. LAA
Interleague: home v. COL, SF; away @ ARI, LAD; home-and-home v. ATL
Yankees dates: home 4/20-22, 6/1-3, 9/14-16; away 4/27-29, 5/21-23, 8/28-30

Gordon Edes did not expect the revised schedule to change much, and some clubs will announce their 2007 schedule by the end of the season.

 

I just got tickets at my office for the Jets/Patriot game. Is anyone here going?

 

This weekend? No, but I may be going to the Nov. 12 game against them up here in Foxboro.

 

I'll post about today tomorrow, but I did want to mention that yesterday, the #23 Boston College Eagle football team went to another double-overtime at home, this time against the BYU Cougars, and won by a 30-23 final margin. Matt Ryan connected with receiver Tony Gonzalez on a 25 yard TD pass at the start of the second overtime, and the win was sealed when linebacker Robert Francois tipped a pass attempt by BYU quarterback John Beck and was intercepted by a diving Jamie Silva. The win was Tom O'Brien's 69th as BC head coach, making him the winningest football coach in school history.

 

Just a roundup of what happened in Boston sports yesterday...

The Red Sox completed a win of the four-game series in the Bronx against the Yankees with a sweep of a previously-unscheduled day/night doubleheader (Friday night's scheduled series opener was rained out), winning the afternoon game 6-3 and the nightcap 5-4. Also, with a homer in the afternoon game, David "Big Papi" Ortiz is now within one home run of tying Jimmie Foxx's single-season club record of 50. Papi will have many chances to break the record, as there are 12 games remaining.

On the Red Sox farm, the AA Portland Sea Dogs defeated the Akron Aeros (AA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians) 8-5 in a decisive Game 5 to win their first Eastern League title. The Sea Dogs got 8 strong innings from right-hander Devern Hansack, Brian Myrow belted a two-run homer, and Keoni DeRenne highlighted a four-run third inning with a three-run triple.

The Brockton Rox forced a deciding Game 5 of the Can-Am League Championship Series against the Quebec Capitales with wins on Friday and Saturday night, and were leading the Capitales 3-0 after 6 innings, but could not hold the lead, and eventually lost 5-4 on a two-out RBI double off the bat of the Capitales' Ed Montague in the top of the 9th. The Rox had the tying run in scoring position with two out in the bottom of the 9th, but former Capitales first baseman Francisco Lebron flied out to deep right field to end the ballgame and the season. Congrats to the Capitales on the championship, and congrats to the Rox for a good season and a great playoff run.

Now, for something we really care about...the Patriots took a 24-0 halftime lead @ the Meadowlands against the New York Jets, but had to hang on, as the Jets scored 17 unanswered second half points. The Pats had an attempt at a 29 yard field goal approaching a minute to go in the game that would've sealed the game, but it was blocked and recovered by the Jets' Jonathan Vilma. Chad Pennington then led the Jets' offense close to midfield before having a deep pass intercepted by Tedy Bruschi with 5 seconds left. Rookies WR Chad Jackson and RB Laurence Maroney each scored their first NFL touchdown in the game. With the win, the Patriots' overall franchise record (357-356-9) climbed over the .500 mark for the first time since the end of the 1968 season, when the Boston Patriots were 60-59-9 overall.

 

I was at the Patriots game, with a bunch of Jets fans...they weren't too happy with me after the game.

 

Michael Felger's report card

Better grades overall this week. In fact, the only bad grade Felger gave was to the secondary (a D), and he singled out safety Eugene Wilson for bad play, taking bad angles and missing tackles. The running backs got another A-, indicating that the running game is the strongest phase of the Patriots' game right now.

 

This week's power rankings:

ESPN: #10
CBS SportsLine: #2
Fox Sports: #11
Sports Illustrated: #12
Football Outsiders: #14

The most encouraging words for the Patriots were written by CBS SportsLine's Pete Prisco: "We've said all along not to worry about this team, and you shouldn't. They're rounding into shape. If Chad Jackson is the real deal, will anyone think they made a mistake getting rid of Deion Branch?"

 

Wednesday's injury report for the Patriots' game Sunday night against the Denver Broncos:

Broncos

Out: RB Cedric Cobbs (ankle)
Doubtful: DE Courtney Brown (knee)
Probable: RB Mike Bell (finger), WR Rod Smith (head)

Patriots

Questionable: S Artrell Hawkins (thigh), WR Chad Jackson (hamstring), OT Nick Kaczur (shoulder)
Probable: QB Tom Brady (right shoulder), WR Doug Gabriel (hamstring), OT Matt Light (knee)

(Note: Players in italics were reported to have missed a portion of practice)

Changes to the Patriots' injury report from Friday are the addition of Light, and the removal of ILB Tedy Bruschi, S Rodney Harrison, and TE Garrett Mills.

 

With a solo homer in the 6th inning off of Minnesota Twins starter Boof Bonser last night, David "Big Papi" Ortiz became only the second Red Sox player to hit 50 in a season, tying him with Jimmie Foxx for the club record. The great ones have that sense of the moment, and this was no exception: the homer came off the team that gave up on him and, in true "Big Papi" fashion, put his team ahead. Unfortunately for Papi, the bullpen could not hold the lead, and the Sox lost again, 8-2. Furthermore, the loss clinched the American League East division for the New York Yankees, who win the division for the ninth straight year.

 

"Big Papi" didn't take long to break Jimmie Foxx's single-season home run record, as he got a middle-in first pitch from Twins starter Johan Santana in the first inning last night and sent it over the bullpens into the right-field bleachers for #51. He also sent an offering from reliever Matt Guerrier into the center field bleachers in the seventh inning for #52. Continuing his sense of the moment, the record-breaker came off of the pitcher most consider to be the best in the game, who he had been 0/6 against prior to last night, and it also proved to be the game-winner, as Josh Beckett and Keith Foulke combined on an eight-hit shutout. Incidentally, the 50th home run ball is being auctioned off on Ebay, with the proceeds being split between the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and a childrens' hospital in the Dominican Republic.

In Bruins pre-season news, the team survived a major scare after newly-acquired defenseman Zdeno Chara blocked a slapshot with his foot during the first period of a 3-1 win in Montreal Wednesday night and left the game as a precautionary measure. Chara was reported to have asked to play in the second period, but the Bruins' trainers felt it better to get ice on the area, and Chara was seen walking without a limp after the game. Precautionary x-rays taken yesterday turned out negative, and Chara was seen at practice with his skates on. He told the media that he expects to be playing tonight against the New York Islanders in Moncton, New Brunswick.

 

Don't know if you guys have heard about this or not but I figured I'd throw it out there to see what everyone else thinks about this.

A Selectman from Allston/Brighton has suggested that the famous Citgo sign that lights up the Fenway sky be taken down. The oil company Citgo is actually owned by the government of Venazuela. The reason for this action is in response to the comments made by the President of Venazuela, Hugo Chavez, calling President Bush an alcoholic and 'the devil'! Normally I'm a big supporter of something like this but I think that this is one time that I might have to disagree with such a notion.
For one, how many people even know that the company is owned by the Venazuelan government? Second, and probably most important, the sign isn't really looked at as an advertisement as it is more commonly looked at as a landmark. The idea is to take the sign down and replace it with a huge American flag. I say leave the sign up AND hang the giant flag next to the Citgo sign. In my opinion if there is one thing that would piss off Chavez more than having to pay to take the sign down it would be for him to see a gigantic American flag waving next to it.

 

I agree with you there Mike. It's definitely not your traditional "advertisement'. I'm not even sure how much CITGO provides for it's upkeep. They put the original sign up back when they were known as 'City Services' back in the 40's. But I don't know for sure if they still 'own' it or if it is now an official landmark, falling under city/state ownership.

You want to rebel against CITGO and who owns it? Just don't but their gas. You don't have to go tearing down a historical landmark to do it. It reminds me of right after 9-11 when everyone was ticked off at the French and wanted to rename French Fries 'Freedom' Fries.

 

I know that a few years ago they changed the lights over to LED's and I heard this morning that they spent about $1M doing it. The other thing is that the sign sits on a building owned by Boston University, so it would be up to them to tell Citgo to take the sign down since they are the ones getting paid for it. As far as I know the sign isn't an "official" landmark, despite being a staple in the background from inside Fenway Park. I think that's the best way to protest Citgo, just stop buying their gas and boycott by getting your fuel from another station.

 

I must say I have been pleasantly surprised at the performance of Julian Tavarez since he became a starter. Since his 3IP, 3ER performance in a no-decision against Toronto on Aug. 31, he's 2-0 w/ a 3.51 ERA over 25.2IP in 4 September starts, and last night was the gem of them all, going the distance and allowing only 1 run on 7 hits. It may have to be seen if he can keep this kind of performance up over an entire season, but the way he's looking now, Tavarez could be a viable fourth or fifth starter for the Sox in '07.

 

With a 5-3 loss in Toronto and an 8-5 Minnesota Twins win in Baltimore, it's officially "wait 'till next year" for the Red Sox, as they have been eliminated from wild card contention. The Red Sox will fail to reach the postseason for the first time since 2002.

 

It's been really tough to watch the Sox lately. After the great start they had leading up through Interleague play and up to the All-Star break it was hard to witness all of the injuries and the general collapse of moral that led to this point. What makes it even worse is that the Sox really did have a great team this year but just lost it somewhere along the line. Hopefully they can get it together for next season.

 

Boston College football lost its first game of the season last night, 17-15 at North Carolina St., on a 34-yard TD pass from the Wolfpack's Daniel Evans to John Dunlap w/ 8.5 seconds to go. The Eagles had a chance to end it if they could get a first down on a third and one with under a minute to go and no timeouts left for the Wolfpack, but Josh Beekman's snap didn't connect with Matt Ryan and Ryan had to fall on the ball to prevent a turnover. The Wolfpack then stopped a fourth and two run by Brian Toal to gain possession. Points-after-touchdown were a problem for the Eagles, as Ryan Ohliger missed an extra point on the first possession of the game, which forced BC to go for 2 after a Toal 2 yard TD run late in the game, failing to convert on it.

The Eagles host Maine on Saturday, but then have a tough stretch coming up, hosting Virginia Tech the next week, then going to Tallahassee for a meeting with the Florida St. Seminoles.

 

The NFL made an announcement before tonight's Patriots game that the team will play an exhibition game against the Seattle Seahawks next August 8th in Beijing, China, the first NFL game to be played in that nation. Patriots' owner Bob Kraft was understandably excited about the news, as his company is New England's leading exporter to China. The game will be televised nationally on NBC.