Did You Know?

Did you know that Scott Boras represents 65 clients who are guaranteed $1.18 billion in guaranteed money? And that the Red Sox are responsible for $177 million of that. His clients on the Red Sox are: J.D. Drew, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jason Varitek, Craig Hansen, Alex Cora and Julian Tavarez. TechnoratiTechnorati: ,

Something Non-Sports Related

Here’s a little something for you before I head off to bed.

Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon along with LiveNation have announced that this year’s OZZFEST will be free. Yes, free!! They will be looking for sponsors to subsidize the costs associated with the concert. Look for more details in the coming weeks and months on how to get your free tickets at ozzfest.com. I, for one, look forward to this. It’s been a few years since the last time I went to OZZFEST. Simply put, it was one of the better shows I have ever seen.

A Little Blog Pub

Seems one of the writers at Cuse Country thinks I am doing a good job, especially when it comes down to recapping the UCONN Huskies win over Syracuse on Monday night.

All I can say is I try to do my best for you the reader every day. If you are a Syracuse Orange fan, I highly suggest you check their site out. I have included the link in my blogroll section over on the right sidebar. If you’d like to see the rest of their article about the game, click here to take you there.

UCONN Women Battle Past Rutgers

Led by the double-doubles of three players, UCONN was able to withstand a late run by the Rutgers Scarlet Knights to win by the final score of 60-50. Charde Houston, Tina Charles and Kalana Greene’s double doubles were the first by 3 UCONN players since January 9th, 1994, when Rebecca Lobo, Kara Wolters and Jamelle Elliot accomplished the same feat. Houston had 16 points and 11 rebounds while both Charles and Greene each had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Renee Montgomery rounded the Huskies in double figures with 10 points. Rutgers was led by former UCONN recruit Kia Vaughn, who had 16 points and 8 rebounds while Tina Charles best friend, Epiphanny Prince, had 11 points.

Rutgers got out to an early 3-0 lead on an Essence Carson 3 point shot but that was their only lead of the game. A Charles lay up put the Huskies up for good at the 16 minute mark. UCONN got their lead up to 7 early on behind the strength of 5 offensive rebounds and Charles’ 4 blocked shots in the first 10 minutes. A 12-2 run got the UCONN lead up to 10 toward the end of the first half as UCONN went into the locker room leading 30-23.

UCONN opened up the second half on 10-0 run behind the strength of 3 baskets by Greene. UCONN’s defense held Rutgers without a basket for the first 5:49 of the second half. Rutgers never got closer than 9 the rest of way as UCONN went on to their seventh consecutive victory.

Notes and Observations:

  • The starters were Montgomery, Thomas, Greene, Charles and Houston.
  • I was impressed again with the play of Houston. After being in the doghouse of Coach Geno Auriemma, she played with that killer look again and was virtually unstoppable for a short stretch. She did however commit 6 turnovers.
  • Mel Thomas had a bagel for the game. She was 0 for 4 from the field and was notably absent down the stretch run as UCONN was fighting off a late Rutgers rally. Oddly strange to me only because she is the best free throw shooter on UCONN’s team.
  • Brittany Hunter was in street clothes for the game. Her right knee must have been giving her enough problems for her not to even dress for the game.
  • Kaili McLaren only played 2 minutes and committed 3 turnovers in that short span. I am beginning to wonder if she is in Geno’s doghouse still. Her play tonight with the turnovers surely warrants it.
  • Of Charles 10 rebounds, an amazing 9 of them were on the offensive end. She also ended up with 6 blocked shots.
  • Even though she scored 10 points, Montgomery was an awful 2 of 11 from the floor. However, she was 6 of 8 from the charity strip and she also had 6 steals.
  • Towards the end of the game, it looked like to me that UCONN had never seen a full court press before. They were having trouble getting the ball inbounds.
  • If you’d like to read Cassie Kerns diary in her hometown newspaper, nwi.com, click here.

Good win for the Huskies. They showed a different look at times with Ketia Swanier in there instead of Thomas. It seemed to give the team a little more speed. However, I still think Thomas should be in there given the fact that most teams fear her 3 point shooting abilities. She is also UCONN’s best free throw shooter as mentioned above.

With the win, UCONN moves to 21-2 (11-0 in the Big East). Next up for the Huskies is a trip to Baton Rouge, LA to take on the LSU Lady Tigers on Sunday. Game time is 3 PM and the game is being televised nationally on espn2.

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Yale Football book

Recently, I was able to talk to one of my friends, Sam Rubin, about his new book titled “Yale Football”. I’ve known Sam since 1995 when I first started working in New Haven with him for the New Haven Ravens Minor League Baseball team. He was the webmaster and ran the scoreboard among many other duties there.

Tell us a little about yourself Sam:

I grew up in New York City but now live and work in New Haven. I have been in New Haven since 1991, my freshman year at Yale. I spent 10 years working for the New Haven Ravens, the local Minor League Baseball team that left town in 2003. I have also worked for the Yale Athletic Department since 1995, mainly covering the football team.

Tell us a little about your book “Yale Football” and what inspired you to write it:

I wrote a book called “Baseball in New Haven” for the same publishing company, Arcadia, in 2003. They have a series of pictorial histories entitled “Images of Sports” that are all the same format: 128 pages of black-and-white photos with detailed captions. The baseball book was very well-received, so Arcadia asked me to write one about Yale football as well.

Can you tell the readers why you decided to use Walter Camp on the cover?:

Walter Camp, an 1880 Yale graduate who was both a player and a coach, was called the “father of American football” by John Heisman. He developed concepts such as downs, play from scrimmage, and keeping score by points instead of goals. He helped turn football from something that resembled soccer and rugby to the game we all know today. He is a Hall of Famer, and there is still an All-America team that bears his name, so he is clearly Yale’s most influential football figure. I was able to get a photo of another famous Yale coach, Carm Cozza, in the background of the cover. Cozza was Yale’s head coach for 32 years and was responsible for 10 of Yale’s 14 Ivy League titles.

How far back were you able to find pictures or documents for the book? Were you able to get all the way back to when Yale Football first started?

I was able to find a poster that promoted the first game Yale ever played — Nov. 16, 1872 (a 3-0 win over Columbia). Back then there were 20 men on a team so the posted referred to “Picked Twenties”. That was the only game Yale played that year so I was not able to find any team photos, but I did find the 1873 Yale team photo. I tried to get an even distribution of photos across Yale’s 130+ years of football, and fortunately the university and the athletic department have very good archives.

Give us a few names of some famous people who played football during the years at Yale :

Some Yale players have gone on to play in the NFL, such as Calvin Hill, Dick Jauron and Eric Johnson. There are also dozens of College Football Hall of Famers from Yale, including two Heisman Trophy winners (Larry Kelley in 1936 and Clint Frank in 1937). There have also been people who have gone on to fame away from the field, such as Stone Phillips and Jack Ford. Additionally, former U.S. President Gerald Ford was an assistant coach at Yale.

Have any of them given you feedback about your book?

I mainly hear from fans, who all enjoy the way books like this bring back memories. People who have followed the team for a while remember players such as Brian Dowling, who inspired the character “B.D.” in Doonesbury — I did write to Garry Trudeau to get permission to use a copy of the comic strip in the book. The baseball book I wrote contained photos of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, who both played for Yale. My father sent a copy to George W. Bush, who wrote a letter from the White House thanking him.

What was your most memorable moment you found during the process of creating the book?
One of Yale’s biggest wins was an upset at Princeton in 1934. The Tigers were 6-0 and had 15 wins in a row overall; one rumor even had them going to the Rose Bowl. Yale beat them 7-0 on a touchdown pass to Larry Kelley, who would win the Heisman Trophy two years later. The same 11 guys played the whole game for Yale, earning them the nickname “Iron Men”. I uncovered a photo I had never seen before of Kelley leaping to make the catch that won the game — a huge play in one of Yale’s greatest wins by one of its greatest players.

Any future works planned?:
I would like to eventually write another book, assuming I can find a subject that is both interesting to me and marketable to the general public. I’ll keep you posted.

I’d like to thank Sam for taking the time to answer a few questions about his book. If you would like to know more about the book, you can head over to Yale’s football site by clicking here. If you are interested in ordering the book, it is available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com.

Here are some photos of Sam being interviewed by Kandace Krueger during the Yale-Harvard football game this past season.

Francona Speaks to Media

On Tuesday afternoon, Terry Francona, Boston Red Sox manager, met with the media and discussed a few things. Most of the things he addressed were similar to what he said at the UCONN Baseball Pre-Season Dinner.

Here is an excerpt from Francona’s remarks:

Francona thought it was a “long shot” that Jonathan Papelbon would return to the closer role, though he hasn’t ruled it out completely: “I don’t see that happening. … If I had my druthers he’d be our closer but we have to respect the medical people’s advice. Unless that changes it’s not going to happen … even for it to happen we’d have to have a bullpen that struggles.”

My thoughts are that it does seems like he is not happy with the current situation at closer but is doing the right thing in respecting the health of Papelbon.Here is a link to the video of the press conference or read some tidbits from the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo.

See who the 18 non-roster invitees were to spring training by the Boston Red Sox after the jump. Continue reading →

UCONN White Outs The Orange

In front of a very loud crowd on Monday night at a sold out Gampel Pavilion, the sophomore trio of Craig Austrie, Marcus Johnson and Jeff Adrien led the UCONN Huskies to a 67-60 victory over the Syracuse Orangemen. Austrie led the way for the Huskies with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists while Adrien chipped in with 12 points, 12 rebounds and added 3 blocks on the defensive end. Johnson came off the bench to score 10 points. AJ Price and Jerome Dyson rounded out the Huskies in double figures with 12 and 10 points respectively. Syracuse was led by Demetris Nichols, who had 2o points and Paul Harris and Eric Devondorf, who both added 13 points for the Orange.

Syracuse got out to a 16-9 lead early in the first half as the Huskies struggled from the field. UCONN held the Orange scoreless for the next 5 minutes to take the lead at 17-16 until a Paul Harris jump shot got Syracuse back in front. UCONN scored the last 3 points of the first half to close it out with a 1 point lead at 28-27.

As the second half got under way, there were six lead changes between the two teams as they traded baskets. UCONN took the lead for good with 5:43 to go at 58-57 as they held Syracuse to 3 points the rest of the game. Syracuse’s last field goal actually came at around the 7 minute mark and they went without a field goal the rest of the way.

Read the notes and observations after the jump. Continue reading →