DSL is Back Up

I am back from the stone ages of dial up access. Seems there was an outage of DSL down here and some static in the lines. The problem has been fixed and I will be working feverishly to finish up my thoughts on the UCONN men’s and women’s games from Saturday and also the weekly UCONN in the NBA feature. There might be a few other things that I might write about later but for now my focus is currently finishing those 3 articles.

Many people have asked me who I want to win in the Super Bowl today. Well my logic is this. The Bears killed the Patriots in ’85 and the Colts beat the Patriots to get to the Super Bowl this year. So I am just rooting for a good game and great commercials. A few posts below this one, you will see a preview of the Budweiser Ads.

DSL is Down

Right now my internet connection is down and i am forced to use dial up til probably tomorrow. So my men’s and women’s game updates will be running a little bit behind schedule. I apologize for the inconvenience and blame AT&T for this….

Budweiser Super Bowl Ad Previews

Here is a look at two one of Budweiser’s Super Bowl Ads that will run during the Super Bowl. As a faithful reader pointed out (i think she really wants to be an editor or writer here), the second one is probably a year old. But I still think its pretty friggin funny so I am leaving it here.

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Joey Chestnut Devours 182 Wings

What were you doing at 6 A.M. this morning? Well if you lived in Philadelphia, odds are you were at the 15th Annual Wing Bowl at the Wachovia Center. The event consisted of 15 Philadelphia natives against 5 professional eaters.

Joey Chestnut, who routinely finishes second to Kobayashi at Coney Island, devored a record 182 wings to win the Wing Bowl. This is what Chestnut had to say:

“I love to eat. Today I was swallowing wings, swallowing bones, whatever it took.”

For his efforts, he won a 2007 Suzuki Grand Vitara. The top local finisher, Jerry Coughlin, finished fourth overall with 167 wings eaten. He also received the same prize as Chestnut for being the top local yocal.

Rumors are that the other prizes awarded were a new toilet from Home Depot, a years supply of Charmin with Aloe, Imodium AD with Gas, Pepto-Bismal, and some hot sauce.

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Francona Speaks About Spring Training & 2007 Season

Terry Francona was in Hartford on Friday night to be the keynote speaker at UCONN’s annual preseason baseball dinner. But instead of telling you the details of the dinner, I’d rather point out these comments that Francona made (From the Hartford Courant).

“I think our bullpen will dictate our success. We have a right to be optimistic, but we have to answer some questions. If we answer them successfully, this is going to be a lot of fun.”

When asked about using a closer-by-committee approach:

“The idea of using a guy in situations, on paper, is outstanding. In reality, you just can’t do it. You have to designate roles. We might be down a run or tied and we bring them in. That’s more how I feel.”

His thoughts on the pitcher’s roles during the beginning of spring training:

“It won’t happen early. We’ll tell the pitchers that. If they try to compete the first week of camp, that’s not what they need to do. We need them to establish arm strength, work on mechanics and throw strikes, and then there will be the time to kick it into gear and we’ll talk to them about that.”

Francona’s thoughts about Jon Lester returning:

“We’re not going to let him hurt himself because he’s competitive and a great kid. We’ll get advice from the medical people. He’s been working hard, and he’s been through a pretty traumatic offseason, but we will look out for his best interests, long term. We’ll be very careful with him.”

His thoughts on the language barrier with Matsuzaka:

“The lack of communication is going to be frustrating at times. There’s no way to get around it. But after eight good innings, I can pat any guy on the fanny in any language.”

Some really interesting quotes from the fearless leader of the beloved Boston Red Sox. What are your impressions of what Francona had to say? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

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Can Mel Thomas Break Diana Taurasi’s Career 3 Pointers Made Record?

So here is something interesting that I started to think about when I was perusing the UCONN Women’s Basketball Media Guide the other day. I got to thinking about whether or not Mel Thomas could break Diana Taurasi’s career 3 pointers made record. So I started to crunch some numbers and this is what I came up with.

  • Taurasi has 318 career 3 point shots made.
  • Thomas currently has 158 career 3 point shots made thru 2/2/07. This puts her almost halfway to breaking the record.
  • Thru 85 career games, Thomas currently averages 1.85 three point shots made per game.
  • There are 9 games remaining in the regular season with 3 possible Big East Tournament games and 6 possible NCAA Tournament games. Plus there will probably be 30 regular season games next year along with the Big East Tournament games and the NCAA’s.
  • With that being said, Thomas probably has 57 games left in her career and needs 161 three point shots to break the record.
  • Given those numbers, Thomas would need to average 2.82 three pointers made per game to break the record.
  • This season, Thomas is averaging 2.76 three pointers made per game (21 games so far, 58 three pointers made).

My conclusion is that Thomas can in fact break Taurasi’s record of 318 career 3 point shots made. But for this happen, obviously she needs to average the 2.82 three pointers made. Also, UCONN would have to get as far as the NCAA Championship the next two seasons. If they don’t get that far, we will have to subtract that from her career games remaining, thus making the average she needs to make, go up per game.

More on this after the jump. Continue reading →

Boston Red Sox Spring Training Games On NESN

The following spring training games of the beloved Boston Red Sox will be shown on NESN.

NESN Spring Training broadcast schedule

Wed. Feb 28 Minnesota Twins vs. Red Sox 7:00 PM
Sat. March 3 Philadelphia Phillies vs. Red Sox 1:00 PM
Wed. March 7 Red Sox vs. New York Mets 1:00 PM
Sun. March 11 Baltimore Orioles vs. Red Sox 1:00 PM
Mon. March 12 New York Yankees vs. Red Sox 7:00 PM
Sat. March 17 Cincinnati Reds vs. Red Sox 1:00 PM
Sun. March 18 Red Sox vs. Baltimore Orioles 1:00 PM
Sun. March 25 Florida Marlins vs. Red Sox 1:00 PM
Wed. March 28 Red Sox vs. Minnesota Twins 7:00 PM

NESN just added the March 2nd game vs the Boston College Eagles. Daisuke Matsuzaka will be pitching. The game starts at 6:00 PM. They may only show the innings that Dice-K pitches as they have hockey commitments that night.
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Red Sox-Yankees Rivalry Goes To Japan

This is something I didn’t even think about til I read the article over at the Boston Herald. I forgot about the Yankees having a new pitcher from Japan, Kei Igawa, plus Hideki Matsui.

This is what Yankees General Manager, Brian Cashman, had to say about the “The Greatest Sports Rivalry” heading to Japan now:

“We have two great organizations that both respect each other and now we’ll take that battle overseas. Bringing the rivalry over here is something special.”

Cashman made that quote at a press conference in Tokyo where him and Randy Levine are in town to meet with the “NY Yankees” of Japan, Yomiuri Giants. The two teams have a working partnership. They then are heading to Okinawa to visit the Hanshin Tigers, who are holding spring training there.

Honestly, I really never thought about the rivalry going to Japan. But with almost every Yankees game and now Red Sox games on television over Japan, I can definitely see how the rivalry will become big over there. Matsui is huge over there and so is Matsuzaka. If you don’t believe me of how big Matsui is, take a look at this picture:

Matsui Plane

Matsui is on a friggin plane. I am sure it only a matter of time before Matsuzaka’s picture is on the plane that flies from Tokyo to Logan Airport in Boston.

Another rivalry, in my opinion, that will take place between the two teams has to deal with the merchandise sales. I would have to think that the Yankees and Mariners are the top two selling teams of merchandise in Japan. With Matsuzaka now pitching in Boston, I would have to think the Red Sox will move to the top in merchandise sales in Japan.

All I have to say is, it will be very interesting this season to see what transpires in the rivalry here in the New England area and also overseas in Japan between the beloved Red Sox and the ‘Evil Empire’.

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