What we have to look forward to in 2006:

January 1st: The New Orleans Saints win the #1 Pick in the 2006 NFL Draft

January 2nd: USC 45, Texas 27 in the Rose Bowl... I saw Vince Young against Texas A&M which makes me think his 2006 will not start off well.

January 7th/8th: Wildcard round of the NFL Playoffs, Pats and Steelers advance in the AFC, Redskins and Panthers in the AFC.

January 14th/15th: Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs, Pats win at Denver with more trickery, Colts over Steelers... Seahawks and Panthers move on in the NFC.

January 22nd: NFL Conference Championships, Colts over the Patriots to break Brady's 11-0 postseason mark in a game for the ages and Seahawks over Panthers.

February 1st: Boston College breaks Duke 20-0 start 76-71 at Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.  Sean Williams blocks seven shots.

February 5th: Super Bowl XL, Colts 37, Seahwawks 30.  Colts are up 27-21 through three quarters before Matt Hasslebeck is intercepted on consectutive drives to start the fourth quarter.

Early March: Duke, Connecticut, Illinois and Florida enter the NCAA Tournament as #1 seeds.

March:  Japan wins the first World Baseball Classic.  After the end of the WBC, a  Red Sox ownership group nervous about Manny being Manny sweetens the pot to the Orioles and land Miguel Tejada for Manny Ramirez, Bronson Arroyo and Kelly Shoppach.

April: Boston College, Villanova, Duke and Illinois advance to the Final Four.  Duke is crowned National Champion.

Mid-April: The Saints draft Reggie Bush #1 overall and trade Deuce McAllister and picks to the Jets for the #2 overall pick and draft Matt Leinart.  Following the draft the Saints announce they are moving to LA and hiring Pete Carroll.

May: Johnny Damon is booed after the Yankees start the season 18-23 and Damon's .321 OB% is the lowest among American League lead-off hitters.

June: The NBA saves a lacklusters eason with a huge Finals, San Antonio over Miani 4 games to 3 as Shaquille O'Neal misses two free throws with 1.2 seconds left and the score 91-90 Spurs in Game #7. Pat Reilly promptly retires.  The NHL playoffs are cancelled due to lack of fan interest.

July: The Dodgers Nomar Garciaparra hits a walk-off grand slam to win the All-Star game 11-9, for the National League.

August: Every starting quarterback is simultaneously injured and goes on IR in Week #3 of the preseason.  Except Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, of course.

September:  In the first true non-steroid year, it appears that Orlando Hudson's 13 home runs will lead major league baseball. The Yankees finish a dismal 75-87 as Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina combine for a 19-27 record.  American League Division winners are Boston, Chicago and Oakland with Cleveland winning the Wild Card and the National League has the Mets, St. Louis and Los Angeles with Atlanta winning the Wild Card.

October: The Red Sox and White Sox advance to the ALCS and the Mets and Cardinals to the NLCS with the Red Sox and Cardinals repeating the 2004 series with similar results... Except after this 4-1 win, the celebrating is at Fenway and the ball is promptly accounted for.

November: Since the Big East has no out of conference wins for any of their member teams, their BCS status is stripped in season.

December:  A now healthy Patriots squad enters the last week of the season 15-0... Coach Bill Belichick's head expodes over constant questions on whether or not to rest regulars.

Greg

It's been a while since my last entry, between catching up on Christmas presents, getting ready for the whole family on Chrsitmas Eve, setting and wrapping all the presents for four boys and a very long Christmas Day.  I just have two words for you: Santa Hangover.

I know I am quite a bit older than most of my readers and let me assure that the smiles on Christmas morning are a great as it would seem... and the thought of not seeing those smiles keeps you going.

Funny how the New York media is painting Johnny Damon's grand slam in game 7 of the 2004 ALCS as "bittersweet" for Red Sox fans.  Wishful thinking.  It's still one of the top ten moments of this incredible Boston run.  I knew that the New York media would try to take this away from us.   World Series count for the 21st century still stands: Red Sox 1, Yankees 0.

My (only) four year-old television's cable tuner went this week and am looking into high def... Plasma vs. LCD vs. DLP, man am I absorbing alot... screen and contrast ratios, pixels, HDTV vs. EDTV.

Speaking of absorbing a lot, I picked up the year-old Patriot Reign by Michael Holley yesterday morning.  Only put it down sparingly until I finished it last night.  Great book for a Patriot sports fan or anyone who wants to see how a healthy organization should function.  Also a blueprint of how to break into sports so you aren't 38 saying woulda, shoulda, coulda...

I thought I had my scare of the football season when Asante Samuel got hurt last night, only  to have it trumped ten times over when special teamer Tedy Bruschi got hurt a few minutes later.

My dad is a lifelong Boston sports fan and, therefore, is a natural pessimist.  So I was really surprised when he said about four weeks ago, "Just wait until the playoffs, the Pats will win it again."  I thought he was nuts, but now I am back on that duck boat bandwagon.  IF our aforementioned special teamer is fine.

Dad was the first to call the demise of Drew Bledsoe in New England and is a man  of few words, but the ones he speak are measured and usually right on.  Like all dads, when do I get a bit of that magic dust?

The Blue Jays got Glaus today and you can see everyone will pick them ahead of the Red Sox this year.  Let's just say I've seen this story before and it usually doesn't work out well for the Nove Riche' spenders. 

Sean Williams is back to blocking shots for BC Hoops and the world seems to slowly be getting back to normal.  Now let me get to bed so my eyes can adjust to watching BC football play on that blue turf tomorrow.

Greg

As the calendar turns on another year, we should all take the time to take stock of our lives.  I, personally, have taken hours from my work days this week to write a blog that no one may ever read.  Popular culture is littered with people who must, based on subpar performance, have trouble looking themselves in the mirror.  But we all know attaining goals wouldn't be so exhilirating if reaching them wasn't so hard.  Unlike the dunken, naked Finnish guy in Norway, the following distinguished did not attain their New Year's resolutions for 2005 and should, in a just world, be searching for new employment in 2006:

- Matt Millen, General Manager Detroit Lions:  Too easy;

- Mark Schlereth, NFL Analyst - ESPN: Speaking of naked pictures, who does he have naked pictures of at ESPN that allows him to keep his job?  His analyses are horrendous, his predictions worse than throwing darts and his antecdotes crude and not entertaining (his Mike & Mike analyses of how he peed on Stan Humphries hands is a crowd pleaser at any Christmas Party)... he's bad enough at football, but it gets downright offensive when he starts butchering other sports... throw pretty boy adulterer Steve Phillips on that pile as well;

- Brian Cashman, General Manager New York Yankees:  $200 million payroll, no World Series championships since 2000 (Gene Michael's team back then, anyway)... what exactly was the criteria for his extension?

- George W. Bush, President of the United States: When we went into Iraq, I (as a Desert Storm vet) supported the war and said "Why would he make a weapons of mass destruction scenario when it is easily can be proven false if he's wrong?  No, he has to have positive human intellignce or why would he risk his presidency?  No one can be that stupid."  Well I definitely underestimated the level of dubya's stupidity.  That is why in mid-2004, I became the first and coined the term "dubyacrat;"  He should have been unelected in 2004 and would do us all a favor if he could give us grounds for impeachment in 2006.  For a very Christian man, he doesn't believe in protecting his flock;

- All NBA General Managers:  It's one thing to make a bad move (i.e. Edgar Renteria), it's another to know you are making a $50 million mistake while you are shaking the man/boy's hand.

- Herm Edwards, Head Coach New York Jets: Hate to put such a nice guy on here, but that's exactly the problem, he is too nice o####uy.  To be successful, NFL coaches have to be "glass half empty" guys, "glass half full guys" like while most of the head coaches without the last name Parcells in Jets history are doomed to failure.  But they have nice articles written by them on the way out of town;

- Billy Joel's Agent: Does he/she/they realize what all of his farewell tours have done to his reputation?  Well the annual DUI arrest in the Hamptons doesn't help, either;

- Dave Wannstedt, Head Football Coach Pittsburgh Panthers: A walking, talking sub-.500 season waiting to happen;

- Jim Bowden, General Manager Montreal Expos:  Were Alfonso Soriano's road statistics not made available to him?  And now he won't move to the outfield to boot;

- Jodi Rell, Governor - State of Connecticut: Have you tried putting a 60 pound four year-old back into a car seat?

- Norv Turner, Head Coach Oakland Raiders:  With the Raiders performance against the Jets last Sunday, he is lucky he isn't lynched;

- Donald Trump, Supposed business tycoon, expert at driving casinos into bankruptcy: Your 15 minutes are up, it's time you got fired!

Greg

Let me correct my Fast Break from December 14h about how Boston College students and alumni and new Colorado coach Dan Hawkins not wanting to be at the MPC Computers Bowl on December 28th in Boise (thus making it the most disinterested bowl game, ever).  I went onto remark that only the Boise St. players and fans wanted to be there... apparently that isn't the case, either.  The only people who seem to be interested in this blue clad boondoggle are the hearty, spud eating residents of Boise. 

Can't they just send BC a check and cancel the game due to apathy?

Greg

While I am a big Tom Brady fan, SI, as per usual, got it wrong.  The Sportsman of the Year was Brady's mentor, former Patriots offensive coordinator and current Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis.  Think about Weis' year:  A fifth Super Bowl ring in February, bring Rudy into talk to the Notre Dame players in August, grant a dying child's last wish in September and bring Notre Dame back to the BCS and reawaken the tradition in December after a season that will mean untold millions of dollars for the school (not that is important in the pristine world of Division 1-A college football).

Heck, if they had beaten USC, he may may have had the best year of any person of all-time.

Greg

Add Dan Hawkins, soon to be ex-coach of Boise St. to the legions of people who will NOT want to be on the blue turf of Boise for the MPC Computers Bowl on December 28th.  The Boston College football team, students, fans and alumni are already put off by going to a place actually colder than Beantown, now Hawkins either won't be there or interested, either.  Other than the people of Boise and the Broncos players, no one else wants to spend their holidays in the spud state.

Greg

·          When a baseball team has an overshift for a lefthanded hitter, they put three players on the right side of the infield and leave the third baseman on the left side.  Why don’t they leave the shortstop on the left side since the third baseman plays in the SS whole anyway and the shortstop has the best range of any of the infielders and move the third baseman to the “short field” position?  Except for the Yankees, of course, whose best shortstop is their third baseman.

·          Go to back to the good old days of the Olympics – western amateurs, eastern professionals and East German women swimmers with ####s?

·          I am not bringing this up as a Patriot fan and, therefore, must be a proponent of the tuck rule.  I have never read the tuck rule, all I know is that the rule was applied correctly and has been since upheld.  I actually thought before and since that the rule does not go far enough.  When the quarterback makes himself vulnerable because he is setting to pass (i.e. sets his feet and raises his hands from a ball carrying position to a ball throwing position) any loss of the ball, IMHO, that happens from there on out should be an incompletion.  What does everyone think is going to happen when a 200 lbs. QB holding the ball in one hand gets hit by a 350 lbs. lineman?

·          Only let only players with hall of fame credentials into the hall of fame (in all sports)?

·          Eliminate the kneel down play from football?  In the last two minutes of the game, any negative carry (probably would need technological help with the instant judgment needed for this) would force the clock to be stopped until the next snap (same as out of bounds).  It would force teams to play until the end and make the end of games much more exciting.

·          Put paid fans in the first rows of seats in baseball to make sure that balls aren’t legally or illegally interfered with to go against the home team?  (Yes, I mean you, Bartman!)  Sort of like "Seat Marshals."  By the way, to the Red Sox teenage brass, I am 6’3”, 300+ lbs. and can have a resume’ to you within the hour.

·          Even out the schedules to eliminate games in hand?  In (especially) the NHL and NBA, how do teams get two, three, four, even five games in hand?  Why don’t they just set up the schedule so as you reach certain milestones in the season, the teams all have an even numbers of games played?  Rain-outs?  I understand their maybe one or two game fluctuations here or there based on travel, but some of it is just out and out bizarre.

·          Create a baseball handbook “Double switching for dummies?”  Grady Little is going to need it.

·          Change the BCS to the Best Case Scenario?

·          If you were an NFL coach wouldn’t you get a 7-foot plus player and use him to try to block field goals, extra points and punts and for jump balls in a “popped up” onside kick?

·          Make Rent-A-Wreck pay the Red Sox the money he stole back?

Greg

Despite having about as hectic a week as humanly possible, I couldn't resist the temptation to start my own Blog.  This weeks highlights of my life include changing companies, Christmas shopping and decorating, cleaning the basement and garage, tax planning for 2005 and 2006 and debating whether or not to get our four year-old, Jake, kitten Santa promised LAST Christmas (It was delayed due to the kitchen remodeling which ended nine months ago) among many other things.  But, as usual, my mind is still wandering constantly to sports.  The top five sports topics on my mind at the moment:

1. The Patriots – is it possible?  They played great in Buffalo on Sunday and look better last Sunday when I went up to see them smack the Jets around, but, let’s not kid ourselves.  This Saturday’s contest with Tampa Bay will be a real test as to whether or not they are going to be able to make more than a token appearance in the playoffs.  Also, I have this lingering nightmare that Miami wins their next two and the Pats lay an egg this week and have to win in the Meadowlands the day after Christmas to avoid a winner-take-all game with the resurgent Dolphins in Week 17.

My gut feeling at this point is that the Pats will be a tough out in the playoffs, but I just don’t think they have enough DB depth to defeat the Colts in Indy.  I know we felt that way last year too, but that game was in Foxboro and Rodney Harrison was back there.  It’s amazing how much his loss has hurt.  I went up to the Monday Night game the Pats played against the Colts and I think that game was closer than the route it became, if Corey Dillon doesn’t fumble that ball at the end of the first half and the Pats tie it up, it could have been a real game.  The Pats also play very well in Indy, always have, but it would be an upset that would put Super Bowl XXXVI to shame.  I know the non-Patriot fans are not feeling any sympathy for me or my fellow Pats fans, but the chance to win three Super Bowls in a row isn’t coming around again; in some ways I want this one more than last year.

2. The Red Sox – Buy, don’t Rent! I can’t believe they found a taker for Rent-A-Wreck.  I second guessed that signing from the 2003 season when the Sox tried to acquire him midseason.  An unmitigated disaster.  I have been saying since 1991, that, just because of the rules, American League teams have to be superior.  If Renteria goes to Atlanta and is anything but a bust (does anyone really believe he is anywhere close to 30 years-old?), it will be the final proof of the inferiority of the National League.  The best was his complaining that the Fenway infield was the reason when 14 of his major league-high 30 errors occurred away from friendly Fenway.  It must be Colombian math.  As for the GM brothers, Hoyer and Cherington, I think they are having a great offseason and would love to see then land Tejada for Manny.  I have been thinking /saying that a three way with the Mets getting Manny would be a win/win/win and, finally, the Daily News reported it this morning.

Miggy is all I want for Christmas.

3. BC Basketball – Up in Smoke.   Sean Williams' suspension for marijuana possession last spring is wreaking havoc on the Eagles hoopsters, losing to Michigan St. and Maryland this week.  I went to see the Michigan St. game as part of the Jimmy V. Classic at MSG.  The game was sloppy, but the steak beforehand at Frankie & Johnny’s was first rate.  BC was ranked sixth (now 13^th), but won’t be that good until they get Williams’ back, which may not be until February, as apparently the Boston DA had a say in when he can return to campus as part of his plea bargain.  Up the road at UNLV-Conn, you could be the founder of the Crips and not get suspended for 20 games.  Like a friend of mine said recently, “UConn would let my cat in if he could shoot a three.”

BC sports, in general, have shown a tendency to take us right up until the final minute, game, play before letting their alumni down in earth shattering ways.  Part of me believes that Tom O’Brien and Al Skinner have deals with the opposing coach to let them win as long as they make BC look as good as they can as long as they can.

4. Youth Basketball – Fully Loaded.  I coach fourth and fifth graders coach in a youth basketball league called the Greenwich Basketball Association (GBA).  I should say this year I assistant coach as I have been reprimanded for one season for excess enthusiasm last year (that season, however, did result in a final four appearance for a team that had a regular record of 1-8 in a 15-team league).  The 4^th/5^th  grade league of the GBA is made up of Big East teams and we are Miami (don’t ask me why they are still in the Big East) and have a monster team, almost silly strong.  The teams are supposed to created equal but the evaluators missed how physical our team is (eight of ten of the players are football players) and we are 3-0 on our way to a huge season.  My 10 year-old step son Evan is the key point guard and my nine year-old step son Ryan (all 60 pounds of him) is a nice off guard.  This week: vs. Providence, key games upcoming January 15^th versus Boston College and January 22^nd vs. Maryland (Not exactly up on conference realignment or original alignment), both undefeated .

5. BCS – Best Case Scenario.  I think the solution to the BCS is staring everyone in the face, we are just too blind to see it.  The problem is that what we have now tears apart the format I grew up with – when it was unheard of to have anything but the Cotton, Sugar, Rose and Orange Bowls, in that order, on New Year's Day - and loved as a kid, but isn’t enough of a playoff system. By adding two more games to next year proposed championship game, we can have both.  Go back to the Rose Bowl matching up the Pac-10 and Big 10 champions, the Fiesta Bowl the Big 12 winner vs. a wildcard, in the Orange Bowl, the ACC champ vs. a wildcard and the Sugar Bowl, the SEC vs. a wildcard.  The wildcards are the three best teams in the country under the current ranking system, no matter if you are from South Bend or South Dakota, with the best of the ACC/Big 12/SEC champs playing the weakest wildcard and so on. 

I’d love to see all four on New Year’s Day, but that’s really not important to my scheme.  The four winners move on to the National Semi-Finals based on either geography vs. the best rated vs. the 4^th best and so on the NFL’s wildcard weekend (Sunday and Monday Nights) and the Championship game the weekend of the NFL off week before the Super Bowl.  If anyone talks about these “scholars” missing class, I’ll smack you.  The cities for the semi-finals and finals are irrelevant to me, but could help to fill some of these billion dollar elephants we are building for 10 to15 games a year.

Under this scenario, the BCS match-ups would be as follows:

                Rose Bowl – Penn St. vs. USC

                Fiesta Bowl – Notre Dame vs. Texas (is Earl Campbell available?)

                Orange Bowl – Ohio St. vs. Florida St.

                Sugar Bowl – Oregon vs. Georgia

Potential semi-final match-ups include Oregon-USC and Ohio St.-Texas rematches.

Just some warm thoughts on a very cold New England day.  Not like BC football, going to Boise to play on Blue turf!

Greg