Jeez, can't a guy catch a break and land 16 more votes? Poor Jim Rice. The man listened to the annual chorus of "maybe next year" time and time again while his Red Sox teams tried to bring home a championship; now he has to listen to the same call again, for the 14th time, as he wonders whether he'll ever get voted into the Hall of Fame. Once again the MVP could have been voted in. Once again it didn't happen - and the margin separating him from official baseball immortality was a tiny little margin.
Jim only has one more year of qualification, but we're sticking with our Lucci reference here. There was a time when no one thought Lucci was ever actually going to get her Emmy, but then 1999 came and she did! It only took 19 years...aw, crap. You're a (super classy) Hall of Famer in our hearts, Jim! Moving on...
-- Feel good Celtics stories continue to pour out of the woodwork. Boston's showdown against Charlotte tonight gives Sam Vincent (rookie guard back in '86, first-year Charlotte Bobcats coach in '08) a chance to talk about the love he's still getting from his former New England home. It's a lot better to think of the aw shucks moments that could come pre-game tonight than think about Ray Allen with a pinched nerve, right?
-- We celebrate these things so that Tom Brady doesn't have to: as New England's QB has een busily preparing for Saturday night, the Associated Press named Brady the Offensive Player of the Year. Brady received 35 of the 50 total votes; runner-up was Randy Moss with a decent 12 votes. We were psyched to see that even Wes Welker earned himself a vote (tied with Brett Farve at one apiece).
-- The Bruins wanted to extend their winning streak to four with a victory over Carolina on the home ice. Unfortunately, Carolina missed the memo, beating Boston 1-0. Tim Thomas stopped 27 shots for the Bs, but there was only so much he could do without some support on the other end of the rink. Coach Claude Julien wasn't happy in the post-game interviews, summing up the game with, "Lack of effort. It's simple as that." In better Bruins news? Zdeno Chara is psyched to have been named a starter for the All-Star Game on Jan. 27
Photo by flickr user Paul Keleher. Is it too early to draft a Jim Rice Amendment to the Red Sox number retiring policy, just in case '09 doesn't go Rice's way?
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