Results tagged “sports”

One minute, you're a war hero, a national legend, and the greatest hitter in the major leagues. The next, you're dead and your cretinous son is producing a dubious document saying your final wishes were to have your head severed and put in a deep freeze in Arizona.

Boston and Los Angeles don't have much in common. We have miserable winters, they have palm trees. We have Ben Affleck, they have everybody else. They have Rodney King, we have Skip Gates. It's a different world.

When Red Sox owner John Henry robbed the cradle earlier this year, we had no idea that it was also a headhunting expedition. According to the Herald, Henry has replaced longtime Red Sox vice president Janet Marie Smith with Linda Pizzuti, his wife. Smith was the one who kept Fenway Park from being bulldozed, hatching the series of improvement plans that gave us the seats on the Green Monster and the generally pleasant seating atmosphere in the 97-year-old ballpark. Pizzuti? Well, she's married to John Henry, and she used to work for her family's development firm, building condos. Bad news for the Kenmore area, where Sox-owned parcels could easily be transformed into enormous, hideous luxury buildings? Probably. As one source told the Herald, "Janet Marie was told to go because Linda’s taking over the whole damn place." [Herald]

We said right up until 2004 that the guys who finally brought the World Series trophy home to Boston might get streets named after them (and we still haven't ruled it out, by the way, except for Damon and maybe Manny), but a Senate Seat? NECN got Curt Schilling on the phone, and the former Sox hurler admitted that he'd been felt out as a possible candidate for Ted Kennedy's seat. Schilling told NECN, "I've got a lot on my plate...right now, I'm not even going to speculate on it." It would be interesting to see which would be stronger: the state's love for Red Sox heroes, or the incongruity of a proud conservative like Curt following in the footsteps of a proud liberal like Teddy.

It's exactly what we didn't want to hear: The New York Times says that two of the names on that mysterious 2003 list of baseball players who tested positive for PEDs were our big sluggers, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. We know, of course, that Manny just served a 50-game suspension in L.A. for being caught with something; we'd never heard anything about Ortiz other than blanket suspicion and whispers. This isn't good, though.

A gathering of some of the greatest (and would-be greatest) sports bloggers in the country? Talking about where sports blogging is going, how it will and won't rule over traditional media? With free drinks? Count us in!

Did you need a reason to wish the Globe to death today? Sports columnist Bob Ryan has one for you: Untrammeled bigotry! Sure, Boston in general and Boston baseball in particular have a proud history of hating just about anything that isn't white and pasty, but those days are behind us, right? Well, no.

A new twist in the Manny saga! A source close to the suspended slugger says that the banned substance for which he tested positive wasn't steroid-related at all, but a sexual enhancer.

We were among the last stalwarts of the pro-Manny side of last year's big Red Sox controversy, but we can admit when we were wrong. Looks like the Red Sox dodged a bullet, since Manny's now suspended for 50 games for a positive steroid test, according to an ESPN/LA Times report. Manny, hitting .348 for the scorching Dodgers, might blame the test on something his doctor gave him, which doesn't sound fishy at all. We'll let you know more when we know more, and if you're going to link this to David Ortiz' sudden lack of power this season, well, you may not be the only one.

Smell that? That's the scent of blood in the air. The Bruins have a chance to notch their first playoff series win in a decade. And all they need to do is win one more game - but for the psyche of their fans and the region in general, we recommend they win tonight and end any suspense.

WBZ and the Herald suggest that Red Sox principal owner John Henry may be interested in buying the beleaguered Boston Globe in addition to the New York Times' share of the Sox. How would this affect the paper's sports and other coverage? Will it become even more of a Sox machine? Henry also reportedly emailed the Herald that “Baseball fans rely heavily on newspapers." What, not the 'dux? C'mon.

Even though he didn't actually even get thrown out of the game at the time, the Lords of Baseball have reviewed Josh Beckett's conduct on Sunday and suspended him for six games. Angry at a late time-out call granted by the home plate ump, Beckett whizzed a fastball near the head of Bobby Abreu, then committed "aggressive actions" as the entire Angels roster poured onto the field. Beckett was also fined an undisclosed amount. After the loss on Sunday, Josh said, "I've never hit anybody in the head, and it's not really on my list of stuff to accomplish." We'd like to see that list. He's got some time to work on it, it seems.

Is this Belichick's idea of a wedding gift? The Patriots traded Matt Cassel (not to mention Mike Vrabel) to the Kansas City Chiefs for a second-round pick in the 2009 NFL draft.

It's nearly official. The New York Times reports that Stephon Marbury will be wearing kelly green as early as tomorrow night, when the Celtics take on the Pacers. Is this the beginning of a Randy Moss-style rehabilitation or of the end of the Celtics' chances to repeat? [NYTimes]

He even hit Gary Tanguay in the face with a bat. Well, just a picture of him.

Sports Illustrated is reporting that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003, the year that he won the AL Most Valuable Player award for the Texas Rangers. (He also, um, hit a lot of home runs.) [Sports Ilustrated]

A weight was lifted from the hearts of the New England bear community today when Red Sox captain and catcher Jason Varitek reluctantly agreed to be paid $5 million to play a game that he is no longer that good at. (Just in case you hadn't heard.) [Boston.com]

You didn't wish hard enough. The Dolphins have vanquished the Jets. The Jaguars lost to the Ravens. The Patriots' season is over. On the other hand, the Bruins have won 8 straight.

The blog Fan Foodie recently asked Bostonist to provide a guide to eating before seeing a game at the TD Banknorth Garden. We were suitably amused by the blog's guide to tailgating in Foxborough, that we were happy to oblige.

You might have trouble getting tickets at Fenway, like most of us do. But it's comforting to know that when all those and myriad other troubles have gone away, you can still proclaim your allegiance to the boys even as you while away the centuries.

As if you didn't know already, Tom Brady was hurt early on in today's win over the Chiefs. It had nothing to do with the right ankle injury that kept him from playing in the preseason; instead, his left knee gave out after a hard hit from Brandon Pollard. Brady limped away and soon enough KC quarterback Brodie Croyle was injured too (right shoulder). Matt Cassel prevailed over Damon Huard int he battle of the backup QBs. More details in tomorrow morning's Sports Redux.

The NFL season is set to open Thursday, September 4th, but for millions of people around the world, the season has already begun. We're talking about fantasy football, of course, and the beginning of the fantasy season begins with the draft. Talking to a fantasy football aficionado about the draft is like talking to a six-year-old about ice cream. Eyes light up. Palms start to sweat. It is the one moment in your season when you can control your own destiny, and your own insights can make or break your season. You can ridicule your friends in online drafting rooms, or hold a live draft party with full plates of food and plenty of Madden '09 on Xbox. But before engaging in your own fantasy football draft, there are a few things you should know.

Tomorrow, 32 teams will compete in a Wiffle ball tournament at the Boston City Hall Plaza. Get there at 9:30 to register your team, or just show up and cheer. More information is located at the Boston Social Sports page. Relive your childhood, but remember to keep that day job, folks.

The U.S. Women's Soccer Team, featuring former Boston Breakers player Kate Markgraf, won the Olympic gold medal today. The team just squeezed past Brazil, who had beaten the U.S. in last fall's World Cup, which was won by Germany (Brazil placed second; the U.S., third). This is the U.S. Women's third gold medal in four Olympics. After a scoreless match dominated by Brazil, U.S. player Carli Lloyd kicked one in during overtime to make the U.S. golden once again.

Boston.com is reporting that Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski is at Mass General Hospital after some chest pains, according to his spokesman, Dick Gordon. "Any time you are in the hospital, it's got to be pretty serious," was Gordon's reply to the predictable question. Yaz is 68 years old, but since he was always suspected of having a training regimen based more on lifting a lighter than a barbell, it's an old 68. Our thoughts and best wishes are with you, Yaz. 4:30 PM UPDATE: They're saying a bypass operation looks likely.

It looks like the Manny Ramirez trade is dead. The latest news has the deal stalled over the Pirates' concerns that they were the pegboy of the Pittsburgh Three-Way. And Bostonist can't help but agree with them. The deal has the Pirates trading away an All-Star caliber left fielder with a monster on base percentage for a bag of magic beans. Insiders also claim that some in the Red Sox front office weren't really down with the deal anyway. But, with all this acrimony and hype, can everything just go back to normal? Surely, that is not how baseball is played.

CelticsBlog and Adam at Universal Hub have pointed us to plenty of reading material today. We thought we'd spotlight some of our favorite bits:

The National Baseball Hall of Fame is based in Cooperstown, NY, of course, but they've been taking their show on the road. Their traveling exhibition, called "Baseball As America", makes its final stop at the Museum of Science beginning next week, and it's amazing.

Gino, oh Gino! Someone finally found out who the guy is who appears on the Jumbotron every Celtics game. Sadly, Gino has gone to that great big dance floor in the sky.

New England Patriot offensive lineman Nicholas Kaczur was busted for buying oxycontin in April. On the spectrum of sports shenanigans, that's fairly minor. But what makes this story especially impressive is that Kaczur turned in his suppliers to the cops, and the news of the arrest just got out today.