Virtually Pissed in a Virtual Waiting Room

I'm a member of Red Sox Nation's online thingy with the Red Sox. They say I can enter for an exclusive opportunity to win a chance to buy Green Monster seats. So I enter and "win." Now I'm in a virtual waiting room. I know I'm not going to get Sox/Yanks tickets but I'd like to sit up in the Monster. I really think the Red Sox should develop a system like they have for European soccer teams. The more tickets you buy, the higher priority you are to get more tickets. It rewards loyal fans/customers. Or maybe they could just build a new stadium. Don't you think its a funny coincidence that every time they build new seats at Fenway, they're $50 to $300 a piece? I'm pretty sure they could build an overhang over the bleachers and sell those for $15 a pop and maybe more people could go to the games and more people could afford to go to games. As it is, it looks like the only Sox games I'm going to this year will be in Cooperstown, Baltimore, New York, Philly, and maybe Chicago.

Sox, Celtics, Eagles

David Wells will start opening day in Yankee Stadium. Schilling will start his first game since ankle surgery on Monday in a minor league game. He may miss 2 weeks and the team might go with a 4 man rotation until the 18th thanks to some off days.

Boston.com Story

Clement is slated to follow Wells after an off day, then Wakefield and then Arroyo. Wells and Clement will finish off the Toronto series and Wakefield will pitch opening day at Fenway. Of course, a rainout here or there will alter things but because the Sox are playing divisional opponents they probably won't schedule any doubleheaders.

The rotation looks to be the same as I said it should be with 2 changes. Wake and Arroyo have been switched and Halama is left out altogether. I guess I didn't think of a 4 man rotation because I was so used to Pedro needing extra days here and there in order to stay healthy throughout the season.

The Sox have been busy with transactions lately, assigning people to their minor league affiliates. The following players were optioned to AAA Pawtucket:

P Abe Alvarez
IF Alejandro Machado
C Kelly Shopach

The following players were optioned to AA Portland:

P Chris Smith
IF Hanley Ramirez

The following players were optioned to A Wilmington:

P Manny Delcarmen
P Anibel Sanchez
P Luis Mendoza
P Juan Cedeno

The following players were assigned to minor league camp:

IF Kenny Perez
OF Chip Ambres
P Denny Tomori
P Kris Wilson
IF Dave Berg
IF/OF Simon Pond

The Sox got crushed by the Orioles today.

The Celtics beat the Hornets in New Orleans. They've won 7 straight and 11 of 12.

BIG CHOKERS

So Boston College gets a break with #5 Alabama being upset by #12 UW-Milwaukee. BC starts the game going up 11-0. I'm thinking, it's in the bag, they'll move on to the regional semi-final with ease. Nope. Boston College likes to do this. They like to get the spotlight of Boston sports fans on them and then shrivel up and die. Their football team was on the verge of a Big East championship and a bid to a BCS Bowl. All they had to do was beat lowly Syracuse in Boston. What do they do? Get blown out. The hockey team is ranked #1 in the country and probably the most emotionally important game of the season, a Beanpot game against BU, they lose. The basketball team starts the season 20-0, then loses to Notre Dame, Villanova, and Pitt down the stretch. The Big East doesn't give BC a trophy so in order to prove that they deserved one, they need to do some damage in the Big East tournament. What do they do? Come out flat and lose to West Virginia, a team they beat by double digits twice during the season. They have an opportunity to prove themselves once again in the NCAA tourney and what do they do? Lose to a Horizon League team.

BC Hockey won the Hockey East tournament over UNH. BC, BU, Maine, Harvard, and UNH all got berths in the NCAA tournament. BC will play Mercyhurst in Worcester. BU will play North Dakota in Worcester. UNH will play Harvard in Amherst, MA. In order for BC or BU to win the championship they will probably have to go through Cornell, Minnesota, or Maine and then probably Denver or Colorodo College.

Worcester=Upset City

I hate Syracuse. There are alot of people up near my school that are Cuse fans and it sickens me. Anyone who has ever been to this part of the country knows how pathetic Syracuse fans are. They think they have a top football and basketball program. Granted, they've had alot of succes and have produced alot of quality players in both sports, but they aren't on the same level as the Oklahomas or Floridas of the world. They just aren't. That's why the ACC didn't invite them.

I also picked Bucknell to upset KU because I really didn't think Kansas was all that good. Coming down the stretch, they were absolutely terrible. I can't beleive they got a #3 seed and a game in Oklahoma City and BC got a 4 seed and games in Cleveland. KU was 3-5 over their last 8. Bucknell was a prime upset candidate team too. They beat Holy Cross in Worcester to win the Patriot League and that isn't easy to do. They also beat Pitt in Pittsburgh, that is flat out hard to do.

I picked alot of 1st round games wrong but none of my elite 8 teams are eliminated and only 1 of my sweet 16 teams is gone (LSU).

Green With Envy?
Apparently other baseball teams besides the Red Sox were sporting green on St. Patty's Day. I have my doubts that the Mets or Cards or Phillies are trying to represent their Irish communities, I think they're just trying to sell merchandise. Granted, the Red Sox sell alot of green shirts and hats, but they were wearing the green hats before they sold them to fans.

Celtics Still Rolling
This last win against Houston was very impressive. The Rockets are a good Western team that normally manhandles us but we did that to them. 10-1 with 'Twan and a game tonight against the hapless Hornets.

St Patrick's Day!!!

Name me any other holiday in which people wish they were a certain race. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

The Celtics won again 110-109 over Toronto.

Some Links

Just a few links I've added to the site recently.

Boston Sports Media Watch
This site does a pretty good job of keeping tabs on the Boston sports media which is a difficult task considering the size of it.

Friendly Fenway
A pretty solid and regularly updated Red Sox blog.

Mark Bellhorn.net
A web-site devoted to the underrated and under appreciated Mark Bellhorn.

Red Sox Wire
This is a great site for obsessed Red Sox fans who can't get enough info on the team. Every day this site features links for everything going on in the Nation from redsox.com, newspapers, and lowly blogs.

Sox fan in Connecticutt
That's not the title of the blog but Connecticutt is easily abbreviated to fit neatly into my links section. This unfortunate Sox fan is in the disputed territory of Connecticutt. I know how you feel buddy. Ithaca College is definately an outpost of Red Sox Nation but there are alot of insurgent Yankee fans.

Dressed to the Nines
I found this site via the previous site and it's really cool. You can look at team uniforms throughout the years. Any team, any year. They even have most of the Federal League's uniforms.

Sports-Blogs
This site was kind enough to include Blood Sox among its vast list of blogs so I'm returning the favor and linking to them. It's a pretty comprehensive site and if you wanna know random stuff like how Mariners fans feel about their bullpen, this site is perfect.

Between the Lines
My friend Ben has a column on this site and it is pretty solid. He's a Cubs fan though but its still good to get a non Boston/NY opinion once and awhile.

Coast to Coast Tickets
I got an e-mail from this site asking about a link exchange. I checked it out and it seems like a good place to find tickets which will be a necesity if any Sox fan actually wants to go to a game this year. I'll have to give them a shot and buy some tickets during the season.


Is there any stopping the Celtics? 8-1 with Walker back and a 4 game lead over Philly.

The Hockey East semi-final field was set when BU downed PC 2-0. Maine will face off against Boston College and Boston University will play UNH. Both games will be on Friday at the Fleet Center. The winners will play for the Hockey East Championship on Saturday.

The Red Sox cannot buy a win in spring training. Let's hope they get sick of losing come April.

Nicknames: Position Players, BC, Celtics

Now it is time to give the position players nicknames. Some of these are old, some are new.

Doug "The Grand Baron" Mirabelli
The best backup catcher in baseball deserves a grand nickname. Going along the same theme as Varitek's nickname (that's coming up) Doug has been given a noble title of distinction. Furthermore, because he has hit a few Grand Slams, he is the GRAND Baron.

Kelly "Insurance" Shoppach
All throughout the offseason while Varitek and Mirabelli's fates were unknown, the end of every sentence dealing with these guys was "well, we got Shoppach in Pawtucket."

Jason "The Count" Varitek or Captain Tek
This guy just looks like a Count. He's big and somewhat scary. Captain Tek is somewhat obvious. He is the captain of the Red Sox.

Mark "Rodney Dangerfield" Bellhorn
Much like Rodney, Mark gets absolutely NO respect in this market. All the stupid Pokey Reese fans who are already overrated Edgar Renteria (who I like by the way, I even bought a Renteria t-shirt today, but I think people are overrating him a la Pokey Reese) are saying Renteria should bat 2nd, not Bellhorn. Mark was part of the reason why the Sox were such an offensive machine last season, and you don't fix stuff that isn't broke.

Kevin "Moose" Millar or The High Life
Moose is a classic from when I first did this on the old blog. The High Life is pretty obvious. I think Millar is a High Life man.

Johnny "The Evangelist" Damon
This is an ode to an old time player who stole aobut 80 bases a year without getting caught. I forget his exact name and will try to find it on Baseball-Reference.com.

The Glove (Jay Payton)
Homage to Gary Payton of the soon to be world champion Celtics.

Manny "Lunchbox" Ramirez
This was a suggestion last year. I think it fits.

David "Crusher" Ortiz
We all know he is Big Papi, but DO is also the Crusher. This goes back to one day in 2003 before the Sox played the Yankees at Fenway. I was sitting on the dugout during BP as Big Papi came out. I yelled at him "David, you're gonna crush em!" He grinned and replied "Oh yeah." One of the best moments of my life.

I still need nicknames for Alejandro Machado, Bill Mueller, Hanley Ramirez, Edgar Renteria, Ramon Vazquez, Kevin Youkilis, Adam Hyzdu, Trot Nixon, and Adam Stern so leave a comment or e-mail me. Next time, I'll give some of the Yankees nicknames.

Boston College got a 4 seed and will be playing Ivy League champion Penn in the 1st round. Then they have the winner of the Alabama/UW-Milwaulkee game. Then they will probably have Illinois if they mnake it to the 3rd round. I don't have BC going very far in my bracket.

The only other New England teams in the tourney are UConn and Vermont. I fucking hate UConn and I would be very happy to see UVM beat the Cuse in the 1st round.

The Celtics are flying as high as I've ever seen them. They beat the Wizards 105-101 the other night. They play the hapless Bobcats tonight in Charlotte.

Nicknames: Pitchers

It's that time of year again. Time to come up with new nicknames for the new players, new ones for old players, and to remind people of the old nicknames. In the past 2 years, my nicknames have usually been negative because we were losers the year before. This year, however, I think they'll be a good amount of positive ones with a few negatives thrown in. For now, I'm just doing the pitchers, I'll do the position players next time.

Honest Abe Alvarez
Duh, allusion to Abe Lincoln, 16th president. I don't expect Alvarez to reuinte any countries but it would be nice if he could excel at AAA Pawtucket

Bronson No Cornrowyo
I miss the cornrows

Matt the Missile Clement
His name is kind of like Clemens's and Roger was the Rocket so why can't Matt be the Missile?

Manny Numero Dos (Manny Delcarmen)
I doubt Delcarmen will ever be referred to by his first name in this organization for a few years at least. Another possiiblity would be Manny II, or El otro Manny.

Lenny DinATO
Lenny is a member of my friend's frat (Alpha Tau Omega) and people often forget to pronounce the "r" in his name and turn the "d" into a "t" sound.

Lefty Embree
If you need help with this one, you probably don't watch much baseball. It's not original but he's the best lefthanded reliever on the team.

Keith "Beat the Traffic" Foulke
When he comes in, you can probably feel safe to leave the ballpark to beat the traffic because the game is most likely over.

John Halamanamalamana
Anyone who listens to WEEI's Big Show knows that Pete Shepherd has trouble pronouncing names and John Halama was no exception.

McCoy Stadium Kim
The only time BH Kim is going to see Fenway this year is if he buys tickets on a Paw Sox of day.

Sleepy Mark Malaska
Anyone who has seen Eight Men Out knows who Sleepy Bill Burns was and if you don't know, he was a mediocre pitcher whose biggest claim to fame was being involved in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Mark Malaska just screams mediocrity and that leads to sleepiness, hence the name.

The Only Martinez (Anastacio Martinez)
Since Pedro left, Anastacio is the closest thing we have to him. We should get Ramon Martinez to be a coach or something.

Luis "Thank God it isn't Ramiro" Mendoza
The name says it all. Thank God the embedded Yankee is gone. And guess who signed Ramiro to a minor league deal? The New York Yankees. Hmmmmmmmmm. Interesting.

Christ Schilling
I don't beleive in God, but I do beleive in Curt Schilling. The man came to Boston and went through alot of suffering to deliver us from the Curse. And now, a short prayer to Curt:

Our pitcher, who lives in Dover.
Hallowed be thy arm
Thy fastball come
Thy will be done
In Fenway as it is on the road
Give us a win, our daily bread
And inform the police of drunk drivers
As we inform the police of drunk drivers
And lead us not into last place
But deliver us from Steinbrenner.
Amen.

Knuckles Wakefield
Knuckles sounds like a tough guy's nickname which is why I picked it. for its irony. This isn't to say Wakefield isn't tough, but he's not the type of guy who would have a name like knuckles unless he threw alot of knuckleballs.

Babe Wells
A fat, beer guzzling, hot dog eating, loudmouth lefthanded pitcher on the Red Sox? Why the hell not. We won 3 World Series with Ruth.

That does it for the pitchers. I still need nicknames for Tim Bausher, Juan Cedeno, Matt Mantei, Wade Miller, Anibel Sanchez, Chris Smith, and Mike Timlin. I also welcome suggestions for players who already have a nickname. E-mail me at rawbeezeitz@yahoo.com

The Sox lost to the D-Rays 6-4.

The Arsenal beat Bolton 1-0 to advance to the FA Cup Semifinal.

Making a Statement

Detroit Pistons 113
Boston Celtics 115 - 2OT

Paul Pierce came out tonight and along with his teammates, made a statement to the National Basketball Association. The Celtics are contenders again. The Truth had 38 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and a block. The block was on the last shot of the game which could have won it for Detroit had Pierce not gotten a finger tip on it. The Celtics could have lost this game at several points and missed a few opportunities to win it, but they stayed strong and came out on top.

In other news, David Patten was let go by the Patriots and they picked up speedy WR Tim Dwight. The Sox lost to the Blue Jays 7-3 which puts their records at 6-4, 4-4, and 2-1. Holy Cross lost to Bucknell in the Patriot League final. They pulled a BC and had a shitty 1st half then nearly came back only to lose.

UNH advanced to the Hockey East Semifinals with a 4-0 win over Northeastern. Providence College upset BU 4-1. Top seed Boston College needed overtime to beat UMass 3-2. Maine crushed UMass-Lowell 7-2. BU, UMass, and UMass-Lowell need to win tomorrow night in order to stay alive in the Hockey East tournament.

Apparently Kevin Millar is going to be appearing on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I'm not a huge fan of the show but I'll probably watch this episode.

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