Sports Redux: Daisuke Fever Grips Florida

You know Daisuke-mania has hit when The Onion chimes in on the story. Daisuke and his Ultimate Galactic Dragon Gyroball Pitch Power Explosion take the mound in Fort Myers tonight, trying to do to the overmatched Boston College squad what B.C. basketball did to Fairfield, New Hampshire and Sacred Heart this year.

Also making his Spring debut (assuming he doesn't wander off) is Manny Ramirez. The Herald's Michael Silverman is the latest to take a stab at decoding the enigmatic slugger. Dan Shaughnessy eats up some column space by pointing out that these pro-vs-college exhibitions are usually routs. Thanks, Dan.

The bad news for the Bruins? They lost again, 4-3 to Philly. The Flyers' Scottie Upshall hit the winning goal with 9.9 seconds left in overtime, spoiling a valiant effort by Tim Thomas, who had to work a lot harder than he should have thanks to the B's porous defense. The good news for the Bruins? They can all chip in and buy an officially licensed replica Stanley Cup if the real one remains beyond their grasp. It won't quite be the same, but we have to take what we can get from our winter teams.

Speaking of our beleaguered winter teams, CelticsBlog goes into the vault to find a 1997 column by Jackie MacMullan describing the C's "win-by-losing" strategy that failed to net them Tim Duncan. If you think the '07 squad is weak, remember that in 1997 Brett Szabo started 24 games, Marty Conlon 15, and the execrable Todd Day averaged 28 minutes a game. Scalabrine doesn't look so bad anymore.

Celtics are off tonight, and in Jersey tomorrow. Bruins host les Canadiens tomorrow, and the Sox face the Blue Jays this afternoon, then fish-gut B.C. tonight at 6.

Daisuke image from The Onion.