Comcast SportsNet New England analyst Lou Merloni took some time to talk with Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury about the art of stealing bases.
video is courtesy of Comcast SportsNet New England
Michael Felger Interview With Theo Epstein
Michael Felger of Comcast SportsNet New England sat down with Boston Red Sox GM Theo Epstein earlier in the day to talk about a few different things. They talked about the Mark Teixeira talks, no Manny Ramirez this year and the draft.
Part 1
Part 2
video is courtesy of Comcast SportsNet New England
Celtics Make 3-Team Trade With Raptors, Kings
Patrick O’Bryant: During all the frenzy on the NBA trade deadline day, the Boston Celtics traded Patrick O’Bryant to the Toronto Raptors for Will Solomon. The Celtics then traded Solomon to the Sacramento Kings for a future second round draft pick. [WEEI.com]
Jonathan Papelbon On Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight
If you’re lucky enough to have Comcast SportsNet New England (one more week and I’ll be back in CSN NE land) you may have caught this last night. Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon played host with Michael Felger and Gary Tanguay. Last night’s guest were Manny Delcarmen and Javier Lopez.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Tonight’s guests are Theo Epstein and AL MVP Dustin Pedroia.
video is courtesy of Comcast SportsNet New England
Paw Prints – The Daily Roundup – 2/19
UConn women’s basketball links
Huskies finish off Friars early [New Haven Register]
UConn steamrolls Providence [Connecticut Post]
UConn women’s report card [Connecticut Post]
UConn women’s basketball notes [Connecticut Post]
Huskies making it look easy [Norwich Bulletin]
Huskies defense stops Friars [Hartford Courant]
UConn women’s basketball notes [Hartford Courant]
Huskies barely have to sweat to beat Friars [Waterbury Republican-American]
UConn women’s notebook: 8 seems to be enough [Waterbury Republican-American]
Just another night [New London Day]
Get less Husky with Ex-Huskies All-Star [MSNBC]
Diana Taurasi [Body by Milk]
UConn men’s basketball links
Reports: Price in court for traffic violations [New Haven Register]
Price in court for speeding [Hartford Courant]
UConn’s Craig Austrie aims to finish No. 1 once again [Stamford Times]
Big East’s beasts are making waves this season [New York Daily News]
UConn Huskies will pull through [NYU News]
Marcus Williams talks to the Globetrotters [UConn Huskies Basketball]
“The House That Griffey Built”
Back in 2007, the Seattle Mariners gave Ken Griffey a framed photo of Safeco Field, which he helped build in a way after spending 11 seasons in Seattle.
Now after being traded away from there in 2000, Griffey is returning home to Seattle making good on a promise of “retiring as Mariner” as it was announced that Griffey had signed a 1-year deal worth $2 million plus incentives. Griffey was also considering playing for the Atlanta Braves but ultimately decided on his former team.
He spent the 2000-2007 seasons in Cincinnati and was traded to the Chicago White Sox during last season.
Griffey ranks 5th on the all-time home run list with 611 home runs and is sure to be a first ballot Hall of Famer whenever he announces his retirement.
Griffey says yes to Mariners [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
Griffey’s best moments as a Mariner [MLB.com]
UConn Basketball Recruits Named McDonald’s All-Americans
Two UConn recruits named McDonald’s All-Americans: UConn Huskies men’s basketball recruit Alex Oriakhi and UConn women’s basketball recruit Kelly Faris have both been named to the 2009 McDonald’s All-American Team. The pair will both participate in the McDonald’s All-American Game to be held on April 1st in Miami. [McDonald’s All-American High School Games]
UConn’s Defense The Key In 36 Point Rout of Providence
We all know how good the No. 1/1 UConn Huskies women’s basketball team is on the offensive end of the floor. And tonight they showed why they are one of the best defensive teams in the country holding the Providence Friars scoreless for the first 9:22 of the second half.
Maya Moore led five players in double figures with 16 points as the Huskies rolled to a 75-39 win over the Friars in Providence.
The Huskies move to 26-0 (12-0 Big East) while the Friars drop to 9-16 (3-9).
Moore also had 9 rebounds, playing just 21 minutes tonight. Tiffany Hayes continued her excellent play as she had 15 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. Another solid game for Tina Charles as well as she finished with 14 points and 6 boards while Renee Montgomery had 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Kaili McLaren came off the bench to round out the Huskies in double digits with 10 points and added 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
The Friars were led by Chandler McCabe’s 8 points. Chelsea Marandola added 7 points and Ashley Etheridge had 6 points in just 3 minutes of action.
This game was pretty much over when the Huskies scored the first 11 points of the game. UConn continued to pour it on as it took Providence nearly 13 minutes to score over 10 points as UConn held a 30-11 lead. Things got ugly for the Huskies though closing out the half as they missed their 14-of-16 shots. UConn held a 39-18 lead at the break despite the missed and also committed 9 turnovers.
If there was any chance of a Providence come back in the second, the Huskies made sure all that talk was put to rest as they opened up the second half with a 25-0 run. McCabe ended that with 10:38 left to go in the game with a three-pointer as UConn was leading 64-21. Providence only made 7 baskets in the second half with 6 of them being three-pointers.
While this game wasn’t expected to be close, the play of the Huskies at the end of the first half was a little disconcerting. But as all good coaches do, Geno Auriemma sent them a message and the Huskies responded and oh boy did they respond. It was good to see Kaili have a good game off the bench as the Huskies will need her should Charles get in foul trouble.
The Huskies are back in action on Sunday when the No. 24/24 Notre Dame Fighting Irish come to the XL Center in Hartford, CT. Tip is scheduled for 2 PM and the game will be shown on ESPNU.
Afternoon Red Sox Delight – 2/18
Today was the first day that the entire Boston Red Sox team worked out together at the Player Development Complex in Ft. Myers, FL and it appears everything went off without a hitch.
For the most part, it was a relatively quiet day with the Red Sox ownership group making the most noise. Rather than rehash that in this post, you can head here to see and read it all.
While it sucks not having a job right now, it’s been nice to be able to watch the Red Sox spring training coverage on NESN. Today was especially nice because Peter Gammons stopped by to chat with Tom Caron. Gammons was in town to talk with Mike Lowell for a story that he was doing on him and Chase Utley about their hips.
It’s great that Red Sox baseball is back and things will start to pick up in the next week as we are just one week away from exhibition games starting. While the Red Sox will lose some players to the WBC, it should be an exciting time over the next 6 weeks as the team looks to build chemistry and prepare for what we hope is another run at a World Series title.
First up on the picnic bench today was the closer Jonathan Papelbon.
Second up on the picnic bench was Red Sox skipper Terry Francona
Links and more videos after the jump.
NFL Combine Gift Bag
Are you wondering what kind of free stuff the 4 representatives of the UConn Huskies football team are going to get at the NFL Combine that started today?
If you are, here’s a look at the NFL Combine gift bag from Under Armour (valued at over $900) that all of the players including UConn’s Donald Brown, Will Beatty, Cody Brown and Darius Butler will receive.
- 1 Under Armour Combine Bag
- 3 UA Metal apparel pieces — short sleeve compression, sleeveless compression and short sleeve loose shirt. All are personalized with position and number on the front, with the last name on the back. (UA says the compression shirts have the lightest fabric weight of any shirt on the market at 3.5 ounces.)
- 1 Travel suit, personalized with number and position on jacket.
- 1 pair of customized combine shoes (weigh 8.5 ounces, designed for NFL combine with footing for lateral, linear and vertical drills).
- 1 pair of UA cleats
- 1 pair of UA slides (sandals)
- 1 pair of UA running shoes
- 1 pair of UA trainers
- 1 Fleece Crew top and bottom
- 1 pair of Metal Compression shorts
- 1 pair of Heat Gear Leggings
- 1 pair of Micro-shorts
- 1 pair of Combine short
Like Brian over at Awful Announcing, I didn’t realize they gave the players a goodie bag.
Combine Invite=Free Stuff [Sports Biz]
A Look Inside the NFL Combine Gift Bag [Awful Announcing]