2008 NFL Preview - Post 4

2008-08-21T16:31:00.001-04:00

Today, it’s the final installment in a four part series for the annual NFL preview! Please, contain your excitement. Another beautiful day here in Southern New England – started with 18 holes and a good solid lunch, and now the final NFL Preview Post before tomorrow’s post with SpartyAndFriends.

2008 NFL Preview - Post 3

2008-08-20T22:34:00.000-04:00

Today, its part three in a four part series for the annual NFL preview! Please, contain your excitement. My apologies for the lack of a post yesterday – a headache kept me in bed until the mid afternoon and by then, I wasn’t in much of a mood to post. In the past, I’d throw a 20,000 word epic post up here that would

2008 NFL Preview - Post 2

2008-08-18T15:39:00.002-04:00

Today, it’s part two in a four part series for the annual NFL preview! Please, contain your excitement. It’s a beautiful day – sun’s shining, birds are chirping, and Season 4 of The Wire is in the DVD Player ready to go.In the past, I’d throw a 20,000 word epic post up here that would take everyone a week to read. Last

2008 NFL Preview - Post 1

2008-08-17T15:05:00.001-04:00

Beginning today, it’s a four part series for the annual NFL preview! Please, contain your excitement. In the past, I’d throw a 20,000 word epic post up here that would take everyone a week to read. Last year I realized that’s not the best idea, and this year I’m following my model. Two divisions a day through Thursday.

Goodbye Manny

2008-08-01T00:13:00.000-04:00

I’ve said it many times. I’m a baseball fan first and foremost. I have never once tried to hide my Red Sox bias on this page, and I won’t try to do it here.The Manny Ramirez trade had to be done. No question about it, Manny needed to be out of Boston, and he needed to be out ASAP. But the way everything went down in the past couple of weeks might have damaged baseball more than anything else.What

I survived...

2008-07-25T22:40:00.000-04:00

...Though barely. My bankroll, however, did not.I've been home for a little over a week now, still trying to sort out exactly what went wrong in my twenty days in Las Vegas through June & July. For the time being, let's just call it a bad experience, on the whole.As I wrote in the last post from Vegas (wow, it's really been two weeks? Yikes...) I never would have booked the second trip had I

2008 WSoP Post 8 - My head hurts...

2008-07-10T05:55:00.001-04:00

My head hurts. The room is spinning. Nothing is working the way it’s supposed to, and I really don’t know what to do about it.Since last I typed, I’ve seen nothing but continuous stretches of terrible luck, terrible players, and my money going the wrong way. Aside from a 48 minute run of time last night, I have not had a winning hour in three days.Two weeks ago after returning home from the first

2008 WSoP Post 7 - Gotta Love the Symbolism...

2008-07-08T05:11:00.000-04:00

I’m back in Vegas, mostly because I just didn’t feel good about the way the last trip ended. I won the freeroll entries two weeks ago and I didn’t want to miss the chance to cash in on a good thing if I had the opportunity, so here I am, up at 2am blogging away. Of course, the more things change… I got into town just at

2008 WSoP Post 6 - On coolers and plain old bad luck

2008-06-26T02:17:00.000-04:00

First things first – sorry for the lack of updates after Saturday. I changed hotels and was out of range for the wireless service I had been using, and was not about to pay $24.99 a day to use the hotel’s network. As a result, this post is going to be abnormally long.Now, into a little “Catch-Up”. After my great run at the Wynn on Friday night and into Saturday, I checked out of one hotel

2008 WSoP Post 5 - Thank God for consistency

2008-06-21T01:13:00.001-04:00

There are certain things that you can count on for every trip to Las Vegas. You’re going to be hot. You’re going to be dehydrated. You’re probably going to drink. You’re probably going to gamble. And when it’s all said and done, barring catastrophe you’ll probably be sad to leave.For poker players, there are a few

2008 WSoP Post 4 - Another tournament, another cash…

2008-06-20T05:12:00.003-04:00

Weird couple of days out here. I actually was having so much fun playing cards that I forgot to eat, anything, from Tuesday at 8pm through Thursday at about 6pm. That's saying something.I had planned to enter today’s WSoP Event #36 over at the Rio, and even moreso after a fairly successful day of cash games at the

2008 WSoP Post 3 - My first Las Vegas tournament win!

2008-06-18T07:36:00.001-04:00

No, I don’t have any new bracelets to show off when I get back home. Yet. But I did finally take down a tournament in Las Vegas – in fact, this is the first time I’ve ever cashed in a tournament in this city.Sadly, it was only a $60 tournament with rebuys at the Harrah’s Casino. The payout was nice, recovering some of the losses from yesterday. And even more sadly, it took three tournament

2008 WSoP Post 2 - One-outters and other nonsense...

2008-06-17T05:52:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, you can’t make this shit up.I’m not going to lead with my bad beat story. I’m instead going to acknowledge the fact that I put two bad beats on two good players early on in my turn at today’s 6-Handed No Limit tournament at the WSOP. With starting stacks of 5000, I took about 3800 off of a player only five hands in when I turned a set of 9’s to bust his A-10 after a 10 hit the flop.

2008 WSoP Post 1 - So far so good…

2008-06-16T12:25:00.002-04:00

It’s amazing – three years ago, I was so much more anxious and less confident about playing in a World Series of Poker event than I am today. Back in 2005, I couldn’t sleep consistently the night before I was scheduled to play, grabbing short 30 minute naps throughout the night. I doubt that was what doomed me to a 9-hour stay in a 10-day tournament, but I’m sure it didn’t help.Last night, after

Quick Update...

2008-06-14T01:33:00.000-04:00

OK, so I know this isn't my usual posting time (1:30am on a Saturday morning... no, I'm not drunk), but I figured I'd give you all the head's up.Sunday morning I'm heading to Las Vegas for my second crack at the World Seris of Poker, this time playing in a handful of smaller events rather than the Main Event, as I did back in 2005.With the new format this year, as well as wonderful technological

NBA Finals Preview

2008-06-04T13:56:00.000-04:00

OK, I’ve refrained from writing anything at all about the NBA during the playoffs for two reasons. First, I’m kind of superstitious, and didn’t want to risk the chance of a Celtics/Lakers Finals. Yes, I realize it’s stupid. But it’s easier to sit back and wait a couple weeks (months) for the first three rounds to run their course before writing it all up. And second, let’s face it – I don’t write

Just a quick update...

2008-05-29T14:45:00.002-04:00

So... For the past few months, in case you hadn't noticed, I've been posting more and more sporadically. As I mentioned back in March, I've returned to playing poker full time as a job. I actually started in late January, and for the most part it has been a fun experience. I haven't bothered to update this page with poker stories because - let's face it - the only purpose they serve is to let me

A Letter to WEEI, and Mainstream Media in general

2008-05-01T17:15:00.000-04:00

There was an argument on WEEI's Big Show this afternoon, once again rehashing the difference between the "old" media and the "new" media. I, by no means, consider myself a member of either. But I am proud to be a blogger, and proud of the fact that I have been doing it for four and a half years now.Anyway, something struck a nerve and I fired off an e-mail. Since I doubt there's any chance it

2008 NFL Draft - Pseudo Live-Blog

2008-04-26T15:13:00.028-04:00

6:45pm: With the first round over (and in record time - 3 hours less than last year, thank God) I'm packing it in for the night. All in all, a pretty exciting NFL Draft so far. Lots of trades, some surprises, and two outright stick-ups by the Eagles & Ravens. Glad to have been here. Let's see who wins the Chad Johnson auction tomorrow...6:38pm: Nice, Mort makes a fried chicken joke to Keyshawn,

2008 NFL Draft

2008-04-25T15:34:00.002-04:00

Alright everybody. I’ve been studying. I’ve read everything I can get my hands on relating to this year’s NFL Draft. I’ve watched countless hours of Mel Kiper & Todd McShay arguing about Glenn Dorsey’s knees, Vernon Gholston’s arm strength and Matt Ryan’s presence. And after all that, I’ve come up with this analysis of the 2008 NFL Draft. Ready?

2008 MLB Preview - Part 2: American League

2008-03-31T17:53:00.001-04:00

Rather than bombard everyone with my standard MLB breakdown of the impending season (you know the type… six divisions, postseason predictions, takes me two weeks to write and takes you three days to read – though most of you probably realize how stupid I sound after about twenty minutes), I’ve decided to break this year’s preview up into two separate posts.

2008 MLB Preview - Part 1: National League

2008-03-19T19:04:00.000-04:00

I owe you an explanation...

2008-03-04T21:52:00.000-05:00

Contrary to popular opinion, I am not in fact dead. Nor have I given up blogging after four and a half years. I do realize, however, that it has been exceptionally long since last we spoke (OK, let's be honest - I'm rambling, you're reading. Not like we're having a civilized conversation and following Robert's Rules or anything).There's a couple of good reasons for that. First, let's face it -

Clemens in Congress - the Live Blog

2008-02-13T09:15:00.027-05:00

12:33pm: You've got to be kidding... Rep. Clay just asked Roger what uniform Clemens is wearing into the Hall of Fame. That's it - this is officially a complete farce. I'm breaking for lunch, maybe I'll come back, maybe I won't.12:32pm: This is brutally boring. I'm not going to lie to you - I've dozed a couple times. Not unlike some of our older Senators & Congressmen. At least I'm not getting

Programming Note

2008-02-12T22:52:00.001-05:00

Just because there's nothing else happening this week - I'm going to try to run a live-blog of Roger Clemens' testimony in Congress tomorrow.I'm not expecting to add anything insightful. Hell, I'll be shocked if I'm even out of bed before he's sworn in. But if all goes according to plans, maybe you'll all have something fun to do while bored at work.Kicking things off - A leaked transcript of

Super Bowl XLII Recap

2008-02-04T05:18:00.000-05:00

It's about 5:30am on the day after the Super Bowl, and I just got home, so this is going ot be short. And probably full of spelling and grammatical errors.I'm not even upset that the Patriots lost. Actually, check that - of course I'm upset that the Patriots lost. But I'm thoroughly disappointed in how they lost.How the defense quit on a play where Eli Manning was in the grasp of three lineman,

2007 NFL Picks - Super Bowl XLII

2008-02-02T23:33:00.000-05:00

Just get it over with already.Seriously. Just get it over with. Start the pregame shows, start the game, have the crappy halftime show, crown a winner and get tne Miami Dolphins on the clock.It's sad that a die hard football fan such as myself has grown to have this attitude, especially considering that my team is actually in the game. I can't imagine what non-Giants / non-Patriots fans must be

Dynasties and the definition of greatness

2008-01-25T12:22:00.000-05:00

I'm going to expand on two questions from the DS.com Commenters blog posted earlier today - which dynasty was greater, the Steelers, Niners, Cowboys or Patriots (assuming that, you know, they win next week...), and also who was the best player to never win a Super Bowl. This is way too long for a regular comment, so what the hell - I'm bored.First, the question of dynasty. Full disclosure - I am

2007 NFL Picks - Championship Round

2008-01-19T00:22:00.000-05:00

So much to cover in such a short period of time. Before breaking into the picks, a couple of random thoughts from the past couple of weeks. 1) The West Coast is far too nice to ever visit without immediately wishing you didn't have to leave. I just came back from a five day trip to

2007 NFL Picks - Divisional Round

2008-01-09T18:03:00.000-05:00

Ah mediocrity. "You don't have to be first, just don't finish last" My cousin gave me that advice back in high school, and I've more or less adopted it as my personal credo in life, work and picking football games against the spread.I started this playoff season off 2-2 (though to be fair, the Jags' line moved from (-2) to (-3) only about 6 hours before I posted on Saturday... Jags(-2) would have

2007 NFL Picks - Wild Card Round

2008-01-05T11:41:00.000-05:00

Ah, the second season. Where the mistakes of the past 4+ months are erased, and everybody's record is reset to 0-0. Where the real games carry a single elimination consequence. And where I usually stink up the joint.I haven't exactly been outstanding picking playoff games against the spread in the first four playoff seasons since I started this blog. In the '04 playoffs following the '03 season,

My own personal sporting heaven

2007-12-31T22:48:00.000-05:00

You know, once before in my life as a sports fan, I thought I was witnessing something special. Something once in a generation, if not once in a lifetime. I watched my two favorite professional sports teams win titles, with a third only a month away.I wrote something heartfelt, something deep, something that I expected to only be able to write once. I wrote: "This year was Next Year."Since that

2007 NFL Picks - Week 17

2007-12-29T20:40:00.000-05:00

There's a serious problem with gambling on football in the final week of the season - more often than not, the games mean nothing. Looking at this week's schedule, there are exactly 6 of 16 games with legitimate bearing, either on the playoffs or on history.So, basically, if you actually wager this week, it might be time to look into getting some help. And don't point fingers - I haven't had a

Week 16 Rants, Ranks, and Picks

2007-12-21T18:06:00.000-05:00

I'm making blogging history here folks. Well at least I am on this page. Actually, not really. I've done this once before.I'm blogging from the airport. (And a hearty "huzzah" comes from the crowd...)Anyway, I'm flying back to Boston for the holiday, staying at home with family until next Wednesday. So obviously this week was been ridiculously hectic, topped off by a head cold that kept me out of

2007 NFL Picks - Week 15

2007-12-16T12:46:00.000-05:00

Very quick picks today. Been busy and felt lousy this weekend. Sorry 'bout that.Cardinals (+4) over SAINTSFalcons (+13) over BUCSDOLPHINS (+4) over RavensBROWNS (-5) over BillsPackers (-8) over RAMSJaguars (+3.5) over STEELERSJets (+21) over PATRIOTS (Pats win by 17... 20-3)Seahawks (-8) over PANTHERSTitans (-4) over CHIEFSColts (-11) over RAIDERSCHARGERS (-10) over LionsEagles (+10) over

207 NFL Season - Week 15 Rants & Ranks

2007-12-13T17:44:00.000-05:00

Clearly, today is not the day to be discussing football. Maybe tomorrow with the rest of the picks. For today, let's just jump into the rants & ranks (oops... should have been up here yesterday. Sorry...) and the pick for tonight's Denver/Houston game and the Saturday Mega-Tilt between the 3-10 San Francisco 49ers (led by the immortal Shawn Hill under center, backed up by Chris Weinke) and the

2007 NFL Picks - Week 14

2007-12-07T17:23:00.000-05:00

Well, after a less than stellar 7-9 showing in Week 13, I'm looking for a rebound to boost my record back up to where it should be. I'm 93-92-11 for the year, including the loss on last night's Bears/Redskins pick. Not my best week, but still above .500 for the season.Let's keep it going.As always with the picks, home teams are in ALL CAPS, and the lines are from bodog.com, accurate as of 5:30

2007 NFL Season - Week 14 Rants & Ranks

2007-12-05T18:47:00.001-05:00

Before jumping into this week's Rants & Ranks and the Thursday night pick, a quick sidebar about the MLB Winter Meetings - specifically, the rumored Johan Santana to the Red Sox deal.Look, I'm a Red Sox fan. A pom-pom waving, Yankee hating, die hahd Sawx fan. So if that colors my opinion of this trade, than so be it. It's not like I've ever tried to promote journalistic integrity on this blog, or

2007 Rants & Ranks - Week 13(ish) & Picks (Part Two)

2007-11-30T17:14:00.000-05:00

Well, awful glad I waited until after last night's Cowboys/Packers game before jumping on and trying to setup the weekly ranks. Makes things a little bit clearer for me.Since I haven't done this in awhile, there's a chance I might be a little rusty with these rankings. Are the Patriots still good? Are the Dolphins still bad? OK, I guess everything is normal...The Fave 51. New England (11-0): Even

2007 NFL Picks - Week 13 (Part One)

2007-11-29T17:46:00.000-05:00

Less than two and a half hours before kickoff, I'm coming to you with the most up to date lines for tonight's games. And it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the fact that the NFL has completely screwed up my posting schedule by having weekly Thursday games. I understand the Thanksgiving Day game. It's tradition. It's an American Institution. Blah blah blah... But why this week? Or next? Just

2007 NFL Picks - Week 11 (Part Two)

2007-11-23T16:44:00.000-05:00

Banner day yesterday - a solid 2 out of 3! Hey, 2 outta 3 got me through college - it's certainly good enough for me in weekly picks. Let's see if we can get 2-for-3 the rest of the season!A solid 10-5-1 last week to setup a nice run for the final five weeks of the season (wow, that looks suspiciously like... 2-out-of-3!), moves the overall record for the year to 75-74-11. Add in the Thanksgiving

2007 NFL - Week 11 Picks (Part one)

2007-11-22T11:41:00.000-05:00

My apologies for the lack of a Rants & Ranks post this week. I was a little preoccupied. I was in Vegas. Probably not a good idea, after the week I had following blowing out a tire on my car. In fact, I blame that single event for screwing me up totally. I'll bring a couple stories from the trip to the table later in the week.Real quick, before I go gorge on turkey and all the fixings, the picks

Week 11 Picks

2007-11-15T09:27:00.000-05:00

Early picks this week everybody. Tired of putting up the picks late Friday afternoon and having people e-mail me to complain that they didn't read them in time. Not that my picks are stellar this year - I think people are pissed once they realize we picked the same way and they're about to lose money.Anyway, after my back to back runs of 9-4 in Week 8 and 8-5 in Week 9, I cam crashing back to

Week 10 Rants & Ranks

2007-11-13T09:17:00.000-05:00

Well, that's certainly the last time I use photographic evidence to make a point on this page. Looks like, yet again, the oddsmakers have proven me wrong. I've said it before - that's why they keep building casinos in the desert.Also, I completely neglected to address a comment from my Week 9 Picks post, regarding that little... "incident" with the Patriots and the camera back in September. The

2007 NFL Picks - Week Nine

2007-11-09T20:36:00.000-05:00

We've officially reached the halfway point of the NFL Season (yes, I realize technically last week was the halfway point, being Week 9 of a 17 week season... let me finish making my point before you jump all over me). Every NFL Team has played at least eight games, or half of their schedule, and four teams have played

Week 9 Rants & Ranks

2007-11-08T14:06:00.000-05:00

Man, I've really got to get on the ball with this. Tuesday night, I set up the ol' laptop to write up the weekly Rants & Ranks. Unfortunately I also ended up getting stuck on the phone for an hour, and by the time I hung up, all I could think about was going to sleep. Scratch Tuesday.Wednesday, I realized that there was nothing on TV (Wednesday nights really suck for TV until "LOST" comes back),

2007 NFL Picks - Week Nine

2007-11-03T00:26:00.000-04:00

Hallelujah Holy Shit – Where’s the Tylenol? Was that a 9-4 record last week? More importantly – is that a 51-56-9 overall record after ½ of the season (and after being at 35-46-8 just two weeks ago? Maybe things are starting to turn around here folks…Actually, let’s not get too excited. Although I managed to pick last week’s games at a 9-4 clip, I actually managed to find a way to parlay the

Week 8 Rants & Ranks

2007-10-31T09:54:00.000-04:00

Listen guys, I could spend two hours and 10,000 words espousing the virtues of the 2007 Red Sox. I could go on and on about how the best team won, and how it's a dynasty, and blah blah blah. But I won't. I'll leave that to the rest of the Internet. Just know that A) I've had a smile on my face for three days straight, no matter what else arrises in my life, B) My buddy Tim now has a reason to

2007 NFL Picks - Week 8

2007-10-26T10:34:00.000-04:00

Way to completely slack off there D. I've ignored everything not related to work, sleep, and the World Series since about Sunday night/Monday morning. That includes this blog, and my weekly rants/ranks post that was supposed to be written and put up here Tuesday. Oops. For the record, let's get that out of the way right now, in abridged form:The Fave 51. New England (7-0). Duh.2. Indianapolis (7-

2007 ALCS Wrap-Up

2007-10-21T23:58:00.000-04:00

That's the only way it could have ended. Honestly. Nothing is a more perfect ending for this 2007 Red Sox team. The only way these Red Sox know how to win is slamming into a wall at 100 miles per hour, going full out for an "ohmygodhowthehelldidhedothatIdon'tcarewe'regoingtotheWorldFreakingSeries!" type of play, forcing willing themselves to comeback against any type of odds. Down 3-0 in ’04? No

2007 NFL Picks - Week Seven

2007-10-19T17:50:00.000-04:00

Well, at least Week 6 was better than Week 5. Of course, that’s kind of like saying that Pol Pot was a better person than Hitler.Yes, I just referenced two genocidal maniacs in a post about NFL gambling. Judging by the recent readership numbers, I doubt I’ll be pissing off too many people.I managed to pull out a 4-7-2 week of picks last week, following up my stellar 2-11-1 in Week Five. I’m in

Week 6 Rants & Ranks

2007-10-16T07:16:00.000-04:00

I covered a lot of the outside topics in yesterday's quick morning post, so let's jump right into the ranks...The Fave 5... ("Fab 5" just sounded contrived... plus, I get bored easily)1. New England (6-0): They're on another planet right now. There's the Patriots... and then everybody else.2. Indianapolis (5-0): The "Best of the Rest", as it were. That mega-clash on November 4th just got even

This deserves it's own post...

2007-10-15T08:41:00.000-04:00

After watching the beatdown yesterday that the Patriots handed to the Cowboys, I couldn't help but write something this morning. Let's start with... wow. I mean, wow. Aren't the Cowboys supposed to be one of the "elite" teams in the NFL? And what ever happened to the conventional thinking of "if you can stop the run, you should win the game"?

2007 NFL Picks - Week Six

2007-10-13T12:18:00.000-04:00

Since I've written three times since last week's disatrous post on the Week 5 NFL picks, I'll keep this short and sweet. I'm much worse at this than I thought. Or at least, I was last week. 2-11-1 is completely inexcuseable. That debacle dropped me to well below .500 on the year at 31-39-6 (.408). I've got a lot of work to do to get to my goal of a .600 winning percentage for the season.As always

2007 NFL Season - Week 5 Recap

2007-10-09T16:03:00.000-04:00

My mind is moderately fried right now, so let's get right into this:The Fab 5... 1) New England (5-0): They finally beat an opponent by less than 21 points. That's the biggest story of the game, and that's saying something. For all you Patriots haters out there, get used to this - they're going to be up top here for a long time.2) Indianapolis (5-0): Boy is it going to be fun watching these two

Quick MLB Update

2007-10-09T14:39:00.000-04:00

Quick MLB update before the Week 5 NFL Rants & Ranks. I know you're all desperate for that. It's coming in a couple hours - I need to get out of this damned shirt and tie first and relax (i.e. drink...) a little.-- Although no one will believe it, I actually posted in my Blogger's Fantasy League my postseason picks early last week: First round - D-Backs in 4, Phillies in 5 (oops), Red Sox in 5,

Mea Culpa!

2007-10-08T09:54:00.000-04:00

As Brian said in the comments from Friday's post... Thank God for the Giants.Everyone, I'm sorry. I take full responsibility for my less than stellar picks last week. no matter what happens tonight, I cannot have more than 3 correct picks against the spread for the week. In fact, heading into the Monday night game, I'm 2-10-1 for the week; by far, the worst week in my three-plus-year history of

2007 NFL Picks - Week Five

2007-10-05T13:44:00.000-04:00

Real quickly, before the picks, a review of the AL preview I posted back in April. As I wrote in the comments of that post, I'll usually settle for getting the records corerct within 5 games. I think I nailed that pretty well on half the league. In some cases, I was pretty damned close (if not exactly right). In other cases (ahem... the White Sox to win the AL Central with 95 wins... whoops!)

2007 NFL Season - Week 4 Recap

2007-10-03T07:24:00.000-04:00

This week's Rants & Ranks. I'm too tired of being at work at 6AM to think of any better introduction.The Fab 5...1) New England (4-0): Just so we're clear - until they lose, or at least beat a team by less than 20 points, they're not getting moved from the top of anyone's rankings, much less a die-hard Pats' fan like me. They've got the best offense. They've got the best defense. That leaves

2007 NFL Picks - Week Four

2007-09-28T21:38:00.000-04:00

Giddy-up! It’s Week 4 of the NFL season, so there’s a few things we know (The facts), a few things we’re pretty certain of (The theories), and some things we have no idea how to comprehend (The Bears). Generally, by about Week four I’ve got my two or three teams that I won’t bet against under any circumstance, a couple teams that I won’t bet with under any circumstance, and a pretty good idea

2007 NFL Season - Week 3 Recap

2007-09-25T16:26:00.000-04:00

I'm reviving a modified version of my Weekly "Rants & Ranks" that I began writing after Week 9 of last season. This year, I'm limiting it to a top & bottom 5, and just to be all witty and special-like, I'll even give it a name. How about "Fab 5" and "Foul 5"? Will that work for everyone? Can we get a consensus vote real quick?Eh, screw it. It's my page, I'll do as I please. Onward and upward...

2007 NFL Picks - Week III

2007-09-22T17:39:00.000-04:00

(Editor’s note: This was typed and ready for upload on Thursday Night. Apparently, Blogger decided to save it as a draft until I checked the page this morning - Saturday. Fuck Blogger, and my blind reliance on them. Someday I’ll learn how to write the code myself and just host the blog on my own domain. Until then, my apologies. So I’ve taken the time to re-evaluate things and check on new lines

Pseudo-Live Blog: Big sports day

2007-09-16T14:24:00.000-04:00

So, I'm gonna give the whole live blog another shot. It seems like everytime the Patriots play the Chargers, I'm in the mood to keep a live blog. Anyway, check back here throughout the day for updates - I doubt I'll be updating every three minutes or so as I've done in the past, but maybe 10-15 updates between the early games, the late games, the National Pats/Chargers game, and the Red Sox /

What a weekend!

2007-09-14T19:40:00.000-04:00

I must not have been paying attention when I filed my last post on here with My Week 1 Recap and Week 2 picks. How else could you explain how I missed possibly the biggest story in my sporting world?Since moving to Pittsburgh, my access to the Boston sports scene has been limited to the WEEI web stream during the day, MLB.com's Gameday Audio package (which was soooo worth the $15 yearly fee), and

2007 NFL Picks - Week 2

2007-09-13T12:54:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay. Normally, I post on Tuesday with a recap of the previous week’s games. This week just didn’t setup for that (next week won’t either, as I’ll be traveling for work). But from Week 3 – 17, I should be able to follow my normal NFL Posting schedule. Or at least I’ll try. But no promises…So let's jump

2007 NFL Picks - Week I: Part II

2007-09-07T18:05:00.000-04:00

Hey, how's it going? Everybody enjoying the season so far? Wait, what do you mean you took my advice and bet a bundle on the Saints to cover a +6.5 point line last night? Seriously? You believed me? Hmmmm... So, uh, how much do I owe ya?Well, I can't imagine too many people saw the complete dismantling of the New Orleans Saints coming, and even moreso after the score was tied 10-10 at the half.

2007 NFL Picks - Week I: Part I

2007-09-05T17:00:00.000-04:00

This is the best time of the year for me. I love it. I look forward to the beginning of the NFL season with drooling anticipation every week from the end of the Super Bowl until Kickoff on the Thursday Night Spectacular. And I'm a bigger fan of baseball than I am of football.But it's awful tough to turn a profit betting on baseball. Just ask Pete Rose.Anyway, tomorrow night begins the 2007 NFL

2007 NFL Preview - Part III

2007-09-03T22:46:00.000-04:00

Rather than bombard everyone with my standard NFL breakdown of the impending season (you know the type… eight divisions, postseason predictions, takes me two weeks to write and takes you three days to read – though most of you probably realize how stupid I sound after about twenty minutes), I’ve decided to break this year’s preview up into a few separate posts.

2007 NFL Preview - Part II

2007-08-27T22:19:00.001-04:00

2007 NFL Preview - Part I

2007-08-25T19:05:00.000-04:00

2007 Fantasy Football Preview

2007-08-22T20:01:00.000-04:00

(This is just shy of a 3,000 word opus. Do yourself a favor - print it out and take it to the can...) In advance of the forthcoming annual NFL Preview Post, I give you my annual Fantasy Football post.I don’t profess to know everything about Fantasy Football. In fact, I’ve never finished higher than 4th in a football

Never too early to start planning

2007-08-02T12:00:00.000-04:00

With the 2007 non-waiver trading deadline in the rear-view mirror, I thought I'd take some time to look through the crystal ball at the names being thrown around at this time next year. Well, not exactly this time - actually, 364 days from now (love the leap year), but you all get the point.With Johna Santana's comments to the media recently showing his feelings about the Twins' organization and

The Rarest of all Creatures...

2007-08-01T09:17:00.000-04:00

Sshhhhh. Don't make any sudden moves. Try not to make any noise. Just sit there, quietly, and enjoy something that is about as rare as seeing a live-dodo bird in the wild.A true win-win trade in the NBA.This kind of thing just doesn't happen anymore. Almost every trade made these days, with the salary cap rules the way they are, is either a one-sided salary dump, a one-sided rebuilding project,

2007 MLB Trading Deadline

2007-07-30T19:41:00.000-04:00

Holy crap - I might be the most incompetant sports blogger in the history of the whole InstaWebs. Seriously, we're in the middle of an historic run of sports stories, and I can only find the time to post here once?Like I said last week, there's Mike Vick and his nomination for PETA President, Tim Donneghy and his 15 minute Goodfellas cameo, and Barry Bonds' chase at history (just as long as he

Welcome to Hell

2007-07-20T12:45:00.000-04:00

My oh my. Which Federal Investigation involving the sports world to comment on first? The NBA referee who was allegedly shaving points for the mob over the past two seasons? The NFL Quarterback who has been indicted for sponsoring and running an illegal dog-fighting ring on his property? Or perhaps the fall of the most hallowed record in all of sports, being toppled by a man under Federal perjury

Why you don't support a real baseball team...

2007-07-03T08:33:00.000-04:00

There was a big debate here in Pittsburgh last week about the state of the Pirates. Pittsburgh is and always will be a football town first - hell there's a TV commersial for a local news station advertising "News from your mobile phone", and the choices to read about are "News", "Steelers", "Weather", "Sports" - but for many years from the 60's through the 80's, they were a very respectable

Boston Celtics Rebuilding Plan, Version 4.9.2.4824...

2007-06-29T08:38:00.000-04:00

Let me begin by saying one thing: I'm not much for using my imagination any more than I have to. I prefer to have things cut and dried, laid out before me. I choose what I like or don't like, and that's that.Which is why last night's NBA draft threw me a complete curveball. For the past week or so, all Celtics' fans have heard about was "We're getting KG... no, Marion... no, Jermaine O'Neal...

Thoughts on copyright infringement

2007-06-27T10:04:00.000-04:00

Is it technically plagiarism if you're copying yourself? I don't know. That's one of those philosophical questions that can never be answered like "If a tree falls in the woods and squashes a squirrel, but no one is around to hear the thing get splattered, does it make a sound", or "If a pitcher stands on the mound but refuses to throw the ball, how does the game progress?" (Thanks for that one

2007 MLB Mid-Season Analysis

2007-06-20T10:07:00.000-04:00

With most of the teams in Major League Baseball having played about 70 games of their seasons, it seems like a good time to look back at the pre-season predictions of many an analyst and laugh, heartily, at their mistakes. Yes, myself included.Best team in the AL: Proud to say that, right now, it's The Red Sox. The rotation has been outstanding, the offense has been good if not record-setting,

Live (sort of) From the US Open... (Practice Round)!! It's Thursday Afternoon!

2007-06-14T08:35:00.000-04:00

First things first - I had planned to Live Blog this from the course, but cell phones & PDAs were not allowed. Plus, I wouldn't have had such great photos to illustrate my points. And before you call me a hypocrite because I'm about to spend much of a post devoted to golf not even one week after I wrote that I could never do that... well, there's only so many times in life to say that you went

The Sports World Comes to a Standstill

2007-06-09T21:40:00.000-04:00

This is such a lousy time of year for sports, it’s amazing. Baseball is the dominant day-to-day story, with the NBA & NHL Finals, the majors in golf & tennis, and not much else.Problem is, baseball is such a long season that on a day-to-day basis one game makes very little difference (I know – try saying that in September when your team misses the playoffs or loses home-field advantage by one

This is why they keep building casinos in the desert

2007-05-24T16:55:00.000-04:00

Because it's a gamble. Life's a gamble. No sure things in life - not even when you are guaranteed a 25% chance at a Top-2 draft pick in an absolutely loaded draft. I'll give you all a second to recover from the fact that I'm leading my first new sports post in almost a month by talking about the NBA. Here's the thing - I'm not the biggest NBA basketball fan in the world. I support the C's

Holy Crap!

2007-05-14T20:58:00.000-04:00

Geez, I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd posted on here. Sorry 'bout that. Even worse, my last few posts never got copied back to my "original" blog, including my NFL Live Blog / First Round of Golf of 2007, Day 1 or Day 2. Yeesh. And yet, I'm still far too lazy to copy it all over there.If it's any consolation, I've been running my ass off trying to get settled in a new job,

Why is this even surprising?

2007-05-06T22:49:00.000-04:00

Real quick update tonight on the most obvious story of the day: Roger Clemens' return to the New York Yankees.Listen, I shouldn't be surprised by this move at all. I've rolled my eyes every time a pro athlete said "It's not about the money - I just want the best chance to win one (more) ring before I'm done." There is only one franchise in pro sports where players say that and fans actually

2007 NFL Draft - The Ultimate Live-Blog: Day 2

2007-04-29T12:08:00.000-04:00

8:35AM (Monday) - Nice time to lose web access for over a day. Blame ComCast for their shoddy service. So glad to be dumping them in a week when I move. At least I got to watch the Sox/Yanks finale. By the way, since I obviously spent a lot of time watching ESPN this weekend, let me put this out there: The SportsCenter commercial with David Ortiz, Jorge Posada, Orestes Destrade and Wally the

2007 NFL Draft - The Ultimate Live-Blog!

2007-04-28T10:22:00.000-04:00

7:55 - Alright everybody, here's the plan. I'm heading out to once again consume frosty beverages. Since just about every other site out there has closed up shop for the night, I don't feel nearly as bad about leaving. HOWEVER, I fully plan to wake up at some point tomorrow (God-willing) and put up some analysis of the late second and all of the third rounds... and then sit in my comfy

This is just a test

2007-04-26T15:10:00.001-04:00

This is just a test of the blogger email posting system. Had this been an actual blog post, you would be reading disparagingcomments about Peyton Manning, Alex Rodriguez, and/or Kobe Bryant. Thank you for your patience. Please check back later for yourregularly scheduled blog update - NFL Draft: The Ultimate LiveBlog! Lata.

The Ultimate NFL Draft Live Blog

2007-04-26T13:34:00.001-04:00

Alright NFL fans, this weekend is the second biggest news time for the league, falling right behind Super Sunday, and somewhere slightly ahead of the daily "When Will Brett Favre Retire" headlines.Naturally, this is the best time for a young, aspiring, Internet junkie writer like myself to sit back, pop open a frosty alcoholic beverage or eight, and wax poetic about the "length" and "upside" of

Just a random update...

2007-04-21T20:40:00.001-04:00

So, a couple of life updates, and a couple observations from the first few weeks of the MLB season… First, moving is tough. I have to be in Pittsburgh by May 10th, yet I still have nowhere guaranteed to live. I might be sleeping in the

2007 MLB Preview - National League (Shortened)

2007-04-07T17:00:00.000-04:00

Hmm... So, a funny thing happened to me on the way to writing a 2007 National League Preview. I had all the papers ready to go, all my opinions formed, etc. I even was prepared to hand the reigns to the Mets’ preview over to my buddy Vinny, since he’s the biggest Mets fan I know, and probably knows more about the Mets than anyone else I’ve ever met.Last week, just after posting the American

2007 MLB Preview - Introduction

2007-03-29T14:29:00.001-04:00

2007 MLB Season PreviewIntroduction Alright, I’ve put this off long enough. I suppose it’s time for me to hunker down, pull together all the research, and actually put pen to paper. Or at least fingers to keyboard.In the 5+ months since the Detroit Tigers threw away the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, I’ve

2007 MLB Preview - American League

2007-03-29T14:27:00.000-04:00

2007 MLB Season PreviewAmerican League By far, the dominant league throughout 2006, the American League lost its grip on the World Series trophy in last years’ postseason. Winners of 3 of the last four World Series, and eleven of the previous fifteen Fall Classics, the AL had owned the postseason since 1991. The only

2007 MLB Preview - American League East

2007-03-29T14:25:00.000-04:00

American League East Boston Red Sox: One year after they completely self-destructed in a mid-summer homestand against the Yankees, the Red Sox have completed the metamorphosis from “Moneyball team with slightly more assets” into “World

2007 MLB Preview - American League Central

2007-03-29T14:22:00.000-04:00

American League Central Chicago White Sox: One year after ending their own World Series drought, the White Sox failed to even make the playoffs in 2006, finishing third in their own division behind Minnesota and Detroit. Their 90 wins last year were only good enough for a 6-game deficit behind the division-winning

2007 MLB Preview - American League West

2007-03-29T14:19:00.000-04:00

American League West LA Angels: They got bit early and often by the injury bug last season, losing starters at a handful of positions for an extended period of time, not to mention their staff ace Bartolo Colon going down with a rotator cuff injury for the majority of the season. But they found a few bright spots with

Bracketology By D...

2007-03-12T21:04:00.000-04:00

I’m positively giddy. The only time of year that makes me happier as a sports fan is late September into early October, when baseball wraps up, football kicks off, and the NHL & NBA are just about to gear up and roll out for their seasons.March into April is a very close second. As I type this, I’m watching a Red Sox/Yankees game (preseason, sure. But still… Also, would it kill NESN to show the

2007 MLB Preseason Awards

2007-03-10T15:28:00.000-05:00

Long time, no type. Sorry ‘bout that. I’m not going to sit here and lie to ya – I’ve been lazy. Busy, sure. But also lazy. I don’t have the time to devote to a daily blog (although I would like to do exactly that), so most of the time my “everyday” thoughts end up as comments over on Shanoff’s Blog. Though I must say, I have been working on my annual MLB Preview pretty consistently. Most of it is

The best seat in the house is the view from the couch

Week 2 Recap

Week 1 Recap - So... about that Week One?

The Odds-On Favorite

2008 NFL Preview - Post 4

2008 NFL Preview - Post 3

2008 NFL Preview - Post 2

2008 NFL Preview - Post 1

Goodbye Manny

I survived...

2008 WSoP Post 8 - My head hurts...

2008 WSoP Post 7 - Gotta Love the Symbolism...

2008 WSoP Post 6 - On coolers and plain old bad luck

2008 WSoP Post 5 - Thank God for consistency

2008 WSoP Post 4 - Another tournament, another cash…

2008 WSoP Post 3 - My first Las Vegas tournament win!

2008 WSoP Post 2 - One-outters and other nonsense...

2008 WSoP Post 1 - So far so good…

Quick Update...

NBA Finals Preview

Just a quick update...

A Letter to WEEI, and Mainstream Media in general

2008 NFL Draft - Pseudo Live-Blog

2008 NFL Draft

2008 MLB Preview - Part 2: American League

2008 MLB Preview - Part 1: National League

I owe you an explanation...

Clemens in Congress - the Live Blog

Programming Note

Super Bowl XLII Recap

2007 NFL Picks - Super Bowl XLII

Dynasties and the definition of greatness

2007 NFL Picks - Championship Round

2007 NFL Picks - Divisional Round

2007 NFL Picks - Wild Card Round

My own personal sporting heaven

2007 NFL Picks - Week 17

Week 16 Rants, Ranks, and Picks

2007 NFL Picks - Week 15

207 NFL Season - Week 15 Rants & Ranks

2007 NFL Picks - Week 14

2007 NFL Season - Week 14 Rants & Ranks

2007 Rants & Ranks - Week 13(ish) & Picks (Part Two)

2007 NFL Picks - Week 13 (Part One)

2007 NFL Picks - Week 11 (Part Two)

2007 NFL - Week 11 Picks (Part one)

Week 11 Picks

Week 10 Rants & Ranks

2007 NFL Picks - Week Nine

Week 9 Rants & Ranks

2007 NFL Picks - Week Nine

Week 8 Rants & Ranks

2007 NFL Picks - Week 8

2007 ALCS Wrap-Up

2007 NFL Picks - Week Seven

Week 6 Rants & Ranks

This deserves it's own post...

2007 NFL Picks - Week Six

2007 NFL Season - Week 5 Recap

Quick MLB Update

Mea Culpa!

2007 NFL Picks - Week Five

2007 NFL Season - Week 4 Recap

2007 NFL Picks - Week Four

2007 NFL Season - Week 3 Recap

2007 NFL Picks - Week III

Pseudo-Live Blog: Big sports day

What a weekend!

2007 NFL Picks - Week 2

2007 NFL Picks - Week I: Part II

2007 NFL Picks - Week I: Part I

2007 NFL Preview - Part III

2007 NFL Preview - Part II

2007 NFL Preview - Part I

2007 Fantasy Football Preview

Never too early to start planning

The Rarest of all Creatures...

2007 MLB Trading Deadline

Welcome to Hell

Why you don't support a real baseball team...