Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
Consider this Dracut Pride!
Yeah, yeah...I know. The rest of you Merrimack Valley townies are sick of all this Middies football bragging, but I couldn't let this one pass by without at least posting a picture.
Look at those rings baby! That's what its all about!
Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
One man’s 2009 Major League Baseball predictions (snarky comments come free of charge, as well):
American League East
1) Boston - Assuming Theo acquires another bat before trading deadline, or uses a bat on Julio Lugo’s ankle during rehab
2) NY Yankees - Has A-Rod discovered every way possible to totally humiliate himself?
3) Tampa Bay – Have a strange hunch the Devil is ready to collect on his end of the Rays deal
4) Toronto – Could finally be the year the clock runs out on Worcester native J.P. Ricciardi’s dream job
5) Baltimore – Peter Angelos’ performance as owner is an affront to competent Greek businessmen worldwide
American League Central
1) Minnesota – Best of a mediocre bunch…wasn’t Boof Bonser in Death of a Salesman?
2) Detroit – Manager Jim Leyland should hire Ponce De Leon as bench coach for this aging group
3) Kansas City – All you need to know about ’08 Royals: Coco Crisp is considered an upgrade in center for ‘09
4) Chicago – Ozzie Guillen finally snaps and sucker punches some poor middle reliever or sportswriter
5) Cleveland – Cliff Lee, meet earth.
American League West
1) LA Angels – Best of a weak bunch…La-La land media darling Mike Scioscia would have been run out of Boston years ago with all those baserunning blunders
2) Oakland – Some people pick them to win the West…I ask those people to name one starting pitcher with more than 10-career victories
3) Seattle – Land of the Rising Sun’s favorite son, Ichiro, is setting
4) Texas – Former President George W. Bush is throwing out ceremonial first pitch…sadly, might be the highlight of the entire year
National League East
1) NY Mets – With K-Rod now anchoring the bullpen, my pick to win it all
2) Florida – Hanley Ramirez: 2009 NL MVP…2010 trade bait
3) Philadelphia – Remind me again how they won the World Series last year?
4) Washington – Pitching staff is a bigger mess than Capitol Hill
5) Atlanta – Counting on 43-year old Tom Glavine to be a major contributor…enough said
National League Central
1) Chicago – One of these years…but not going to be this year.
2) St. Louis – Sometime in September, Tony LaRussa will pass John McGraw for the #2 spot in career games managed…With all his pitching changes, he’s already #1 in most time spent in a dugout
3) Milwaukee – When C.C. Sabathia’s arm falls off in New York, Sox fans can thank the Brewers for using him like a video game pitcher
4) Houston – Funny how we don’t hear much talk about Roger Clemens legendary “workout” regimen anymore
5) Cincinnati – Reds are the Queen City’s longest running flop since Dr. Johnny Fever and Venus Fly Trap spun records at WKRP
6) Pittsburgh – Willie Stargell’s not walking through that door…
National League West
1) LA Dodgers – This is going to tick some people off (you didn’t think I’d get through an entire column without doing so, did you?), but I’m still a Manny fan
2) Arizona – So much young talent in one of the retirement capitals of the world…am I the only one who finds this ironic?
3) Colorado – That ’07 World Series loss to the Bosox seems like ages ago, doesn’t it?
4) San Diego – Bring back the Chicken and those McDonald’s uniforms
5) San Francisco – Forget the auto industry…President Obama and Speaker Pelosi should have the federal government intervene on behalf of this disaster
That’s the view from here…how do you see the Pennant races shaping up? Who is your champion this year?
This couldn’t have been a more exciting NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament if it had been scripted by Hollywood’s James Cameron. Not just last-second goals but last-tenths-of-a-second goals, overtimes, comebacks, and one upset after another. Boston University was the only regionally top-seeded team to advance to the Frozen Four. Notre Dame ousted by (allegedly) the weakest team in the tournament, Bemidji State. Air Force shutting out powerful Michigan. Wow!
At least one Hockey East team, Vermont or BU, will be playing for the national championship.
The UMass Lowell River Hawks have to be watching all this unfold with more than a tinge of sadness. Vermont, a team the River Hawks went 3-0-1 against — all the games on the road — during the final weeks of the season and then swept in the first round of the Hockey East Tournament, is in the Frozen Four with a chance to play for the national title. With all the upsets in the NCAA Tournament, the River Hawks can’t help but think they might have made a real run for it all had they not lost that controversial 1-0 game to BU in the HEA championship game.
Thank you, Referee Tim Benedetto, for doing more than your part to keep UMass Lowell out of perhaps the most exciting NCAA Tournament in history.
If you haven’t purchased your Hockey East 25th Anniversary DVD and you’re not an alumnus or fan of Boston University, Boston College, Maine, or New Hampshire, save your money.
If you were totally unfamiliar with Hockey East and watched the DVD, you’d swear Providence dropped out of the league after the first winter and it’s been a four-team league ever since. The 66-minute main portion of the DVD is devoted almost exclusively to BU, BC, UNH, and Maine.
It’s almost as if the league’s other six teams — Providence, UMass Lowell, UMass Amherst, Northeastern, Vermont, and Merrimack — don’t even exist. I didn’t time it, but I’d be surprised if the scenes involving those six teams didn’t average less than two minutes apiece.
The tipoff should be a glance at the back of the DVD cover. There are four still photos of ... yep, you guessed it, BU, BC, UNH, and Maine.
Even when UMass Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald, assistant coach Shawn McEachern, and former assistant coach Kenny Rausch appear on camera sitting in front of a River Hawks sweater, they never talk about UML. Only about their days at BU.
Several minutes of the video are devoted to former BU forward Travis Roy, who gets far, far more time on air than he got during his tragic 11-second college career.
There are some featurettes included on the disc, including one about Merrimack goalie Joe Exter’s near-fatal on-ice collision with BC’s Patrick Eaves, and one about the UMass Lowell hockey team’s work in the community. But there’s no framework for the UML segment, leaving it hanging there like a dangling participle.
The DVD will be a terrific recruiting tool for BU, BC, UNH, and Maine ... at the expense of the other six teams.
UMass Lowell has videotaped every one of its games for the last several years and should have decent access to earlier video. MacDonald and his staff should create their own highlight video and make it available to potential recruits, because all the 25th Anniversary video will do is make league’s four powerhouses even stronger and the other six teams weaker.
Posted by Teddy Panos
Sharing a few thoughts while wondering if I someday announce my retirement in a blog, will anybody read about it?
In this space, there’s really no debate. Curt Schilling is a Hall of Famer. If Phil Niekro, Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins and Don Drysdale are Hall of Famers, then so is Schilling. There isn’t one of them, nor many others already enshrined in Canton, I’d rather hand the ball to in a winner-take-all game.
Sorry, but I’m not buying the Julius Peppers to the Patriots story. Think about it…when was the last time Bill Belichick let it be known he was working on acquiring a player a month or more down the road?
This was the guy who traded for, and totally reworked the contract of, Randy Moss before anybody had a clue what was going on. We simply woke up one Sunday morning to the news. Prime-time free agent acquisitions Roosevelt Colvin and Adalius Thomas? Signed, sealed and delivered without a peep or a leak to the media.
Now all of a sudden Belichick’s plans to add a little spice (Peppers, get it?) to the defense, even the exact draft pick that will be used to acquire the player, are public knowledge? Nah, doesn’t pass the smell test. I think we’re catching a whiff of an agent trying desperately to get his client out of Carolina.
The power brokers at the NCAA and their network television apologists are beating their chests again, telling us what a wonderful job they did selecting the field for the Men’s Basketball tournament. They point to the number of major conference teams still standing in the Sweet 16, as opposed to the number of mid-major entries, and tell us they got it right in excluding so many little guys.
Hogwash! When you select 6 or 7 teams from one conference, you’re bound to advance at least a couple of them into the later rounds. When a lesser conference gets only one or two entries max, all it takes is one slip up to eliminate that conference from Big Dance.
Oh, and the other little thing the selection committee does is place the power conference top seeds on familiar turf. North Carolina and Duke hardly ever leave their home state. Gee, you think it’s an advantage for the Tar Heels and Blue Devils to play in Raleigh and/or Greensboro? Not to mention, Villanova played in Philadelphia last weekend, where American gave the Wildcats all they could handle. Would that matchup have turned out differently if played on neutral hardwood?
While greed dictates the basketball wing of the NCAA, I’m starting to believe incompetence rules the hockey wing. These jokers wax poetic about taking objectivity almost completely out of the selection process. They rely on the PWR (PowerWise Rankings) and RPI (Rating Percentage Index) to select the field. So naturally, you end up with scenarios like this one playing out:
UMass Lowell and Vermont each had 20 regular season victories. They were the #5 and #4 seeds, respectively, in the Hockey East tournament. Yet despite losing to UML twice at home in the conference playoffs, the Mountaineers got the bid over the River Hawks, who just so happened to be one of the hottest teams in the country over the last month of the season. Yet, and I kid you not, the NCAA computer rankings place no more importance on a conference tournament game than on the first regular season game of the year.
Now, I might not be much of a college hockey Krishna, but I’m thinking it would be a great idea if the NCAA replaced the PWR and RPI rankings with the CSI….the Common Sense Index!!!
Happy Greek Independence Day tomorrow!
After UMass Lowell stunned fifth-ranked Northeastern 3-2 in overtime in the semifinals of the Hockey East Tournament, Huskies coach Greg Cronin had only words of praise for the River Hawks.
“They have been one of the best teams in the country the last few weeks,” Cronin said.
At the time the River Hawks were ranked 19th in the country in the U.S. College Hockey Online Poll. A highly controversial 1-0 loss to second-ranked Boston University in the Hockey East Championship Game the following night that kept the River Hawks out of the NCAA Tournament did nothing to diminish UML’s 2008-09 campaign.
UML went 11-4-2 in its last 17 games, finished the season 20-16-2, and rose to 16th in USCHO’s final poll, the team’s highest ranking of the season.
When you consider the River Hawks played the eighth-toughest schedule in the country this past winter, their record is even more impressive.
Next year’s outlook appears so bright, it’s hard to believe that 24 months ago UML’s hockey program suffered through a school-record 20-game winless streak and was at death’s door.
“We did face a lot of adversity, a lot of it played far away from the boards and glass,” said UML coach Blaise MacDonald after the win over Northeastern.
For the second time this decade, some politically influential people on Beacon Hill were trying to de-emphasize UML’s hockey team or terminate it completely, arguing that the state’s resources should be thrown completely behind the hockey program at the flagship campus, UMass Amherst.
“Fortunately (new UML chancellor) Marty Meehan was coming on board,” MacDonald said, “and he is why we’re where we are today.”
The River Hawks should be virtual locks for an NCAA Tournament berth next year. They lose only three seniors.
The graduation of Mark Roebothan and Mike Potacco will break up UML’s hard-working CPR Line and leave the team’s leading scorer, sophomore Scott Campbell, looking for new wings to play with in the fall.
But the River Hawks bring back all six of their regular defensemen, who combined for 20 goals and 98 points, including All-Hockey East sophomore Maury Edwards. Edwards scored 11 goals and 29 points and was second on the team in scoring behind Campbell. He was also the top-scoring defenseman in Hockey East and eighth overall.
Both their goaltenders are back, and statistically Nevin Hamilton and Carter Hutton are the two best goalies in school history.
Hamilton’s career 2.33 GA average and .915 save percentage are tops among goalies who played at least 50 games, and Hutton’s 2.46 GA average and .905 save percentage rank second. Hamilton’s .925 save percentage this season was a team record.
Looking ahead to the fall, here are some of the recruits the River Hawks are bringing in.
The coaching staff is especially excited about 5-11, 190-pound forward Robert Visca, who played for Orangeville in the Ontario Junior Hockey League this past winter. Visca battled some early-season injuries, which is why he was overlooked by other colleges. But he scored 17 goals and 33 points in 26 regular-season games and then added seven goals and 14 points in 16 playoff games.
Riley Wetmore, a 6-0, 195-pound forward, was the third-leading scorer in the Eastern Junior Hockey League this past season, netting 33 goals and 75 points in 42 games for Green Mountain.
Division II Hobey Baker winner Mike Carr, Lowell’s all-time leading scorer who has been bird-dogging for the River Hawks, raves about incoming 6-0, 187-pound defenseman Colin Wright, who tallied 11 goals and 50 points in 46 games for Burlington in the OJHL.
Also among the recruits arriving in September is 5-7, 165-pound Chris Ickert, who had five goals and 22 points in 37 games for Langley in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League.
Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
OK...I admit to being a bit of a homer, so let's leave the names out of this for a minute. I'll just give you the facts:
2 teams...only one gets chosen for the tournament.
Both ended the regular season with 20-wins.
Team A had one more conference victory than Team B.
Team A played Team B in a best-of-three conference playoff series, all gamesplayed on Team A's home turf. Team B won the series two games to none.
(Let's ignore for a moment, that Team B eventually went on to the conference championship game, losing to the #1 team in the country in a 1-0 game that could have gone either way)
Which team makes the NCAA tournament?
If you answered Team A, congratulations!!!! You're as nonsensical as the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament Selection Committee.
NO WAY ON "GOD'S GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE EARTH" VERMONT SHOULD GET A TOURNAMENT BID OVER UMASS-LOWELL.
Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
A few items of interest while wondering if there is a modern day St. Patrick, capable of permanently ridding the sports landscape of snakes like Terrell Owens:
After a slow start to free agency, the New England Patriots have been quite active the last few weeks. What remains to be seen is how effective all those signings will be.
While 27-year old cornerback, Leigh Bodden, has the potential to be a major contributor, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on 33-year old Shawn Springs or 37-year old Joey Galloway to sway the balance of power in the AFC. Those old hamstrings at the speed positions don’t generally respond well to cold weather, something to keep in mind come December.
You never want to root for injury, but Julio Lugo’s knee injury is a blessing in disguise for the Red Sox, who appeared intent on handing Lugo the starting shortstop job he couldn’t earn over former Lowell Spinner Jed Lowrie. At least now, we’re assured of the better player actually playing.
Theo Epstein has done a great job building a perennial contender, but the Lugo signing has to go down as perhaps his worst move ever. After watching Lugo, who had a nice little run in no-pressure Tampa, bat a pathetic .219 during a pennant drive for the Dodgers in 2006, Epstein decided to bring the shortstop into the Beantown pressure cooker for a measly $36-million over 4-years.
The only other organization to so richly reward employee incompetence is AIG.
Good to see Mike Lowell back at the hot corner. However, we should all hold our breath hoping Dustin Pedroia is right about his strained oblique being “nothing serious.” I can’t think of many teams that would survive the loss of a reigning league MVP, especially not a team with as many offensive question marks as Boston’s Boys of Summer.
Josh Beckett is going to win the American League Cy Young Award he should have won two years ago.
You may have noticed those “March Mayhem” ads in the paper and online, promoting our annual NCAA Basketball Tournament contest, with a chance to win as much as $1-million. If you haven’t already done so, get online and sign up ASAP…a million bucks goes a long way in this economy!
Of course when you do sign up, make sure to do so as part of our SunBlog Madness group for a chance to win a host of great local prizes as well. Here’s how to enter:
Go to the top of this page and click on the “March Mayhem” link near the top of the page. (You could also access the link through lowellsun.com, but I’m pushing for a commission check on each new visit to the sports blog, so cut a pathetic sports writer a break, would you?)
Once on the March Mayhem site, select the “Join Private Groups” option and enter the following:
Username: SunBlog Madness
Password: lowellsun
Voila…you’re entered! Make your selections before the games get underway Thursday (be sure to fill out your brackets completely), then sit back and watch the Mayhem begin. The top three finishers in our private group will win the following:
First Prize: 2 vouchers for a family of 4 to Cocoa Keys water resort
Second Prize: 1 voucher to Cocoa Keys water resort and 4 Lowell Spinners tickets
Third Prize: 1 voucher to Cocoa Keys water resort and 2 Red Sox t-shirts
Not to mention, the winner gets a year’s worth of bragging rights over all other contestants in our local group. And if you were with us in ’07 and ’08, you know how spirited the trash talking gets on the chat board!
So what are you waiting for? Hop online now, fill out your entry and join in the fun. Who knows, you just might end up with (insert Dr. Evil pinky in tooth here)…..1 million dollars!
Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
The Patriots continued to bolster an already potent offense, adding Joey Galloway to the mix. The 37-year old wide out spent the last five seasons in Tampa Bay.
At one point in his career, Galloway was the top deep threat in the league. However, injuries and age have robbed him of much of that explosiveness. Still, signing him to a year is a good gamble by Bill Belichick, as it won't really hurt should Galloway have nothing left in the tank.
Besides, with an uncertain labor situation, the one year deals signed by Galloway and Leigh Bodden earlier this week allow New England to maintain as much flexibility as possible heading into either an uncapped year or work stoppage.
That's the view from here....how do you see things? Good move? Bad move?
Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
Not to overlook the big men or the medium men, this time of the year belongs to the guards. Yes, those pipsqueaks who think they run things on the floor. Right now, they hold the post-season hopes in their hands.
They figure to have a huge impact when Umass Lowell begins NCAA Tournament plays on Saturday against Merrimack College.
(Visit The Sun Media Center for Kevin Jacobs' video preview)
“Guards in college basketball are paramount,” UMass Lowell head coach Greg Herenda said. “They have the ball the majority of the time, and post play has become less and less a part of college basketball unless you have the kid from North Carolina or you have a monster.”
The right team with the right guard on a hot streak can find its way deep into the NCAA Tournament. Think Stephen Curry (Davidson 2008), Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derek Rose (Memphis 2008) and Folarin Campbell and Lamar Butler (George Mason 2006), those are just a few teams that rode their guard play in recent years to Division I Final Four appearances.
Merrimack certainly has the capability of producing that sort of run with Darren Duncan, Dee Mency and Wayne Mack (each NE-10 All-Conference selections) in the backcourt or on the wing.
“Our guard play has been taking us all through the year,” Merrimack head coach Bert Hammel said of his squad this week.
Defensive pressure will be a key. UML loves to play full-court pressure defense, but the Warriors have given the River Hawks fits this year with their own pressure. UML turned the ball over 52 times in two games against Merrimack.
UML needs to maximize possessions.
“In tournament play now it gets a little bit slower, and its like the NBA Playoffs,” Herenda explains. “Scores come down. Possessions get more important, and your bench gets shorter. Everyone knows no one wants to go home. Everyone want to continue to play another day. I think the games in the tournament get a little bit tighter.”
The team with the best performance from the backcourt will have a decided advantage in a battle of fairly evenly-matched squads.
“I think, no matter who you play, it’s the team that makes the fewest mistakes,” Hammel said, referring to what it takes to be successful in tournament play.
Both teams will be rested. Both should be prepared. Both coaches anticipate the so-called “little things” making a big difference in the outcome.
“We know each other, the players know each other, its more mental than physical,” Hammel said.
The River Hawks were second in offense in Hockey East, averaging 3.11 goals per game in league play. They were third in defense, allowing 2.44 goals. They were the best penalty-killing team in the league, allowing power-play goals just 10.9% of the time and killing off 44 of the last 46 enemy power plays of the regular season. Their power play ranked second, scoring on 19.7% of their chances.
How on earth did this team finish fifth in Hockey East?
Here’s the difference between the River Hawks and Northeastern, which almost went wire-to-wire in a bid for its first-ever regular-season title before being overtaken by Boston University on the final day of the season:
The Huskies did not lose one game all season in which they gave up two goals or less, posting a 17-0-4 record in those games. The River Hawks lost five, going 13-5-0.
Turn around those five defeats, and the unranked River Hawks would have been 22-10-2 going into this weekend's Lamoriello Trophy Tournament, a record comparable to fourth-ranked Northeastern’s 23-9-4 mark. Yes, the River Hawks would probably be ranked in the Top Ten and virtually guaranteed an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Now if the River Hawks are to get to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years, they’ll have to do it the hard way.
They will have to beat Vermont two out of three on the road and then win the Hockey East playoffs.
Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
The Tilton School boys varsity basketball team defeated Hargrave Military Academy last night to win the National Prep Championship last night. Lowell resident and Uuniversity of Connecticut-bound big man Alex Oriakhi and point guard Scott Tavares-Taylor, who signed a letter of intent in February to attend UMass Lowell next year, were among the key players for the Rams.
Tilton captured it's second straight New England Prep School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) Class B championship on Friday night, and the Rams followed that up with victories over South Kent (Conn.), NEPSAC Class A champion Bridgton Academy (Maine) and Hargrave Military Academy (Va.) in games on Monday and Tuesday in the National Prep Championship at Endicott College sponsored by Reebok Basketball.
Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
The UMass Lowell River Hawks received the No. 3 seed in the NCAA Division 2 Men’s Basketball Tournament East Regional, and they will face Northeast-10 Conference rival and No. 6 seed Merrimack College on Saturday at C.W. Post's Edmund T. Pratt Recreational Center in Brookfield, N.Y.
UMass Lowell (21-7) and Merrimack (20-8) split the season series this year, each winning on the other's turf. The Warriors defeated UMass Lowell on Nov. 22 at the Costello Athletic Center (85-79) while the River Hawks exacted revenge at the Volpe Center (77-72) on Feb. 7.
Merrimack leads the all-time series with UMass Lowell 24-20 and has won three of the last four meetings. With a victory, UMass Lowell will face the winner between No. 2 Bentley and No. 7 Bridgeport Sunday.
The game also features a coaching match-up pitting teacher versus pupil in UML head coach Greg Herenda and Merrimack head coach Bert Hammell. A 1983 graduate of Merrimack, Herenda was a four-year standout and also served as an assistant coach from 1985-89.
UMass Lowell is 15-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and has never lost in the first round. Most recently, UMass Lowell, seeded No. 6, advanced to the 2006 NCAA Northeast Region Championship game (round of 16) at Stonehill, before falling 89-80.
The host C.W. Post Pioneers (27-0), which captured the East Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles, received the No. 1 seed and will play No. 8 Philadelphia (25-5), the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CAA) Tournament champion.
Bentley (24-6), the NE-10 regular season champion, was seeded No. 2 and meets No. 7 University of Bridgeport (20-8) while No. 4 Stonehill (21-7) faces No. 4 Assumption (22-9), the NE-10 Tournament champion.
Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
This is a reminder for River Hawks fans, today is Selection Sunday for NCAA Division 2 basketball teams across the country.
The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Selection Show will air online on NCAA TV tonight at 9:00.
To view the show on the web, log on to:
http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=ncaa&media=106752
The UMass Lowell men (21-7) are expected to be among the higher seeds in the East Region. The River Hawks were ranked No. 3 in the most recent NCAA East Region Poll. They were knocked out of the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament on Tuesday by Southern New Hampshire.
The Northeast-10 Conference crowned tournament champions this weekend as the Assumption College men and Franklin Pierce College women earned automatic berths to the NCAA Tournament.
In today's paper
In case you missed it in today's edition of The Sun, the UML men are getting into the spirit of the movie Top Gun. The River Hawks "feel the need, the need for speed."
Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
The Division 1 North Basketball Finals will be played this weekend, and the Merrimack Valley is well represented.
The girls side features familiar foes, Lowell and Central Catholic, battling it out for the right to play at the Garden Monday night in the State Semis. On the boys side, Central takes on Lynn English as the Raiders look to defend their State Championship.
We'll leave this thread open all weekend for you to chat about the games, tell us who you think will win, and talk a little smack along the way.
Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
Celtics second-year forward Glen Davis got ejected with 9:09 remaing in the third quarter of tonight's victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Boston. He caught Cleveland forward Anderson Varejao around the neck as he drove to the basket.
LeBron James and Zydrunas Ilgauskas each got tabbed for technical fouls for running at Davis following the fouls, and Celtics guard Ray Allen also got called for a technical in the incident.
Davis, who scored 10 points on 5 of 8 shooting in 17 minutes, described the play on his way out following the game, saying, "It was kind of an awkward situation because I got there late."
He also said he was sort of laughing when he found out he'd been ejected because it had never happened to him before. In fact, he was surprised when he the officials were explaining the call to head coach Doc Rivers.
Davis recalled, "I just heard flagrant two and I was like, 'Oh, that means I got to go.'"
Posted by Kevin Jacobs, Sun Staff
Steroids, money, and controversy.
That's all baseball has been for the last few months. A-Rod, Manny, A-Rod, Manny. It's like a merry-go-round you can't get off of, fun and interesting at first but exponentially duller with each rotation. Eventually it's just nauseating.
While it's been all good news for Red Sox fans, there are many people, like myself, who are plain tired of hearing about Rodriguez, 'roids, and regret. The latest news is that he may be out a month or two due to hip surgery. Sure that's good news for Sox fans, but it has no relevance until the season starts. It’s worse than watching daytime television.
So what does matter? The World Baseball Classic, to me at least. And if you're a baseball fan, it should for you too.
The WBC is about national pride, heritage, and the love of the game. Maybe a little cheesy, but that doesn't make it untrue. And believe it or not, in 2006 we weren't the best. Not even close.
USA’s squad failed to qualify for the semi-finals and finished 8th out of 16 teams. We were embarrassed, and rightfully so. The U.S. underestimated the skill of unheralded teams like Japan, Cuba, and Mexico, who played harder and worked together better than the boys in red, white, and blue.
That's why it saddens me as a fan to see so many players choosing, or in some cases being forced, to stay with their Major League teams. Smart business maybe, but how can you call yourself a patriot or a fan when you applaud a Major League team for banning a star from representing his country?
Albert Pujols, arguably the best hitter in the game, is stuck with his St. Louis teammates while his Dominican Republic team is forced to play Eric Aybar at first base.
Why? Because insurance won’t cover any potential injury after his offseason surgery. Pujols says he’s 100% healthy and he expressed his desire to play, but simply can’t.
How about reining Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum? He casually declined to play for his country, so that he can stay and train with the Giants. He’s only 24 years old, he should be able to handle the extra load.
The list of non-participants goes on and on, especially for the U.S. However, one team bucking the trend is Boston, and yet again I find myself applauding Red Sox ownership.
The Red Sox have a total of six players that they will let play in the Classic, including DH David Ortiz, 1B Kevin Youkilis, 2B Dustin Pedroia, LF Jason Bay, SP Daisuke Matsuzaka, and RP Javier Lopez.
Of the six, Ortiz, Matsuzaka, and Lopez are all significant injury risks, but also key elements to their national teams. While the choice could come back to bite the Sox, they shouldn’t be ashamed for letting a man represent his country. Either way, Theo and the boys can always take solace in the fact that they didn’t deal for A-Rod.
As for the USA, we have something to prove in this year’s WBC. So why does it seem like Spring Training part II to so many people? The US faces off against Canada on Saturday afternoon, and the Rogers Centre in Toronto should be packed with thousands of unwelcome, screaming US fans.
We take for granted that baseball is our game. We feel that we own it, and that we’re the best at playing it. But neither of those statements is currently true.
Not only did the ‘06 WBC prove we’re not the best, but also that we’re apathetic. We don’t care to send out very best players, or to cheer harder as fans. How do you feel that the most passionate baseball fans are currently located in Japan?
I hope that makes you somewhat angry. Or that you disagree. And that you all prove me wrong.
Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
The calendar finally says March, which means the Mayhem can't be far behind. And this year, our SunBlog Mayhem contest is going big time, giving you a chance to win $1,000,000 (insert Dr. Evil pinkie-in-tooth)
Yup, sign up for this year's contest, and if you top the national charts, $1-million could be yours. Of course, we'll still offer our great local prizes for those who join our private group. Look for an announcement in the coming days about what those prizes will be. However, the greatest prize of them all in the past has been bragging rights for the winners of our local contest.
Here's how to sign up:
1) Visit the following site: http://lowellsun.collegehoops.upickem.net/
2) Set up your account by following the directions on the site
3) Choose the "Join Private Group" option
Group name is: SunBlog Madness
Password is: lowellsun
4) Voila! You're in! Just wait for the teams to be announced, fill out your brackets, then sit back and have some fun
So get ready gang! March Madness is almost here, and the Lowell Sun and SportsTalk Blog are the craziest places around!
Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
Admittedly, I’m a horrible card player.
Unlike “The Gambler” of Kenny Rogers fame, “making a living out of reading people’s faces” was never a strong suit. Usually, I’m the one with eyes easier to read than “Fun with Dick and Jane.”
That’s why televised poker tournaments are such a hoot. It’s fun to see how hands are played when the camera and graphics people show us exactly what each player at the table is holding. There’s something strangely riveting, in a car crash sort of way, when watching one card shark holding a pair of sevens go “all in” against another player you know is hiding a King-high Flush.
Except when that inevitable car crash involves the city you call home betting it all in a high stakes game against an opponent holding all the cards. And make no mistake, in this bid to up the ante at LeLacheur Park the Spinners ultimately hold all the cards.
Oh, there are some who think the Spinners need Lowell more than vice versa. They believe the Mill City has gotten the short end of the stick in what has been a lucrative lease deal at the ball yard by the Merrimack. Payback time is finally here.
I’m not here to argue the financial merits of the case. There’s no longer any point to it. The battle lines have been drawn. The sides have been chosen. The numbers have been shaped to bolster either side. I seriously doubt any minds will change.
All that’s left now is to watch it all unfold. Will the City of Lowell keep the gains made during the last round of RFP dealing and live to fight another battle? Or will those pushing for the big score not see what the cameras are showing?
For better or worse, Lowell got into the business of professional baseball in the ‘90’s. Folks like Paul Tsongas thought the city could greatly benefit by housing a professional baseball team. Having that pro team ultimately turn out to be part of a maniacal “Nation” proved them correct and made it a public relations grand slam.
How ironic then, that the same thing makes the Spinners so successful, the thing that brings in so much money that we’re now fighting over how much of it should go back into the city treasury, is the exact same thing that basically dealt Drew Weber the trump card he holds: the Spinners’ affiliation with the Boston Red Sox.
As we found out from Arthur Solomon’s failed bid to lease LeLacheur Park, minor league baseball doesn’t look very kindly on teams trying to move in on other people’s property. If you really believe Solomon withdrew from the process out of “respect for Drew Weber” and not because he got a firm smack on the hand from baseball’s powers that be, grab a seat at the poker table. You’re naïve enough where even I have a chance to take your money.
Let’s play out a little scenario: The city continues to push. A frustrated Weber shops his team elsewhere, perhaps even enlisting the Red Sox help in finding a new home. In exchange, he cashes in his chips, selling the team to the Sox or some other person who finances a new Spinners home that will include money-making amenities like luxury suites and corporate naming rights.
LeLacheur Park, meanwhile, goes empty save for college and high school games. (Don’t hold your breath for a rush of outdoor concerts. We’ve seen how much success there’s been in bringing them to Tsongas Arena. Do we really want to try our hand at open-air concert promoting?) The pristine ballpark by the river gradually falls into a state of disrepair because the Red Sox, who control the territorial rights, make sure no professional team is there to pour hundreds of thousands into maintaining it. Oh, and in this time of budget uncertainty, those guaranteed $200,000 dollars each year for 10-years never find their way into Lowell’s financial coffers.
Think this scenario is unlikely? Only one sure way to find out. Put down that pair of sevens. Move your entire pile of chips to the center of the table and call “all in.”
What are your thoughts on the Spinners and LeLacheur Park? How should this end? Should the city hold out for more money or should a deal be reached quickly, following the parameters set forth in the Spinners first lease proposal? Do you see a day where there's no professional baseball at LeLacheur Park?
Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
The Northeast-10 Conference had a conference call this morning and the UMass Lowell sent out the following release annoucing tonight's NE-10 Tournament game against Southern New Hampshire University has been pushed back to Tuesday (tomorrow) night.
Tonight's Northeast-10 Conference men's basketball quarterfinal game between No. 2 UMass Lowell and No. 7 Southern New Hampshire has been postponed to Tuesday night at 7:00 due to the inclement weather.
The matchup is one of the four NE-10 Tournament quarterfinal games to be postponed to Tuesday night. No. 1 Bentley will host No. 9 Saint Anselm at 8:00 while No. 3 Stonehill hosts No. 6 Le Moyne at 5:00 and No. 4 Merrimack hosts No. 5 Assumption at 7:00.
Semifinal rounds are slated for Thursday night (7:00) at the site of the higher seed while Saturday's Championship is scheduled for 1:00, also at the site of the highest seed.
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