I love my name. Ian. Three common letters, only one a consonant. A variation on the Gaelic form of John, but so much cooler. When I was growing up I rarely met anyone else named Ian, and I never
saw any playing sports. I'm sure if I'd grown up in the U.K. following soccer I probably would've seen more than I could keep track of, but here in the U.S. it was a different story. As Ian has gradually moved into the Top 100 boys' names in America though (this site is great), my fellow Ians and I finally have several of our own among the finest in athletics.

Look at baseball, the American Pastime. Before 2004 there had never been a Major League Baseball player named Ian. There now have been four, and each of them has played this year. There's Ian Snell, the first Ian in Major League history and a semi-promising pitcher for the Pirates. I actually listened to him pitch a no-hitter over the radio when he was in the minors. There's Ian Kinsler of the Rangers, arguably the best second baseman in the American League (and in my opinion he is). There's Ian Kennedy, an underachieving pitching prospect on the Yankees who most fans have heard of because, well...he's a Yankee. Most obscure is Ian Stewart, who's been playing a mean third base for the Rockies since late May. He may be one to watch for in the future. Interestingly enough, Stewart and Kennedy were teammates at La Quinta High School in Westminster, CA.

It might appear that the first Ian in the NFL was Ian Sunter, a Scottish kicker who played three games for the 1976 Lions and ten more for the 1980 Bengals. In fact, it was Johnny Scott, a player from the 1920's who went by the American version of his actual name. The 1990's saw a few more on the gridiron, most notably guard Ian Beckles. Beckles (a Canadian) played nine years in the NFL for the Buccaneers and Eagles, starting 122 games during that span. The others from that decade were English kicker Ian Howfield for the 1991 Oilers and offensive lineman Ian Rafferty for the 1999 Jets. This decade has seen an unprecedented four Ians in the NFL. There's been linebacker Ian Gold (named to the Pro Bowl on special teams in 2001), journeyman offensive lineman Ian Allen, defensive tackle Ian Scott (who played for my Bears) and running back Ian Smart (Gold's teammate on the 2004 Buccaneers). Even though he hasn't played in the NFL, Boise State running back Ian Johnson deserves a mention for his college heroics.

The NBA has only had two Ians so far. There was Ian Lockhart, a forward from the Bahamas who played one game for the Suns way back during the 1990-91 season. The other is Ian Mahinmi, a French center taken by the Spurs in the first round of the 2005 Draft who finally made his debut this past season, playing six games. So far the NBA hasn't seen an American Ian.

Of the major American pro sports leagues, the NHL just beats out the NFL with ten Ians in its history. Perhaps I would've had more Ians to root for if I'd followed hockey growing up. As we've seen, it's a more common name outside the U.S. It comes as no surprise then, that eight of the ten NHL Ians have been Canadian. The first was longtime minor leaguer Ian MacIntosh, who had a cup of coffee with the 1952-53 Rangers. The next was Ian Cushenan, who made the All-Star team in 1958 representing my Blackhawks but who also spent the majority of his career in the minors. Ian Turnbull was the first to become a real star. With the 1970's Maple Leafs he made the 1977 All-Star team and set a defenseman record with five goals in one game that still stands. Other Ians with noteworthy NHL careers are Avalanche right wing Ian Laperriere, former Penguins defenseman Ian Moran, and Maple Leafs defenseman Ian White. The obscure Ians have been Ian McKegney (another Blackhawk!), Ian Kidd, Ian Herbers and Ian MacNeil.

The name Ian is already more common in sports than it was ten years ago. Within a few years there'll be so many of us that you won't even notice when a player has that name. At last we live in a world where boys named Ian can vicariously live out their sports fantasies through someone with the same name. It's good to be us.


(Special thanks to the Sports-Reference websites for help with this research.)

As this calendar year winds down I'm starting to reflect on just how much has happened during this year 2007. It seems like such a long time ago now, but I started this blog back in January, and my first post was about how miffed I was that the Chargers were upset by the Patriots in the Playoffs. At that point 2007 was just getting started, and none of us knew what this year held in store for us. Looking back on it all, there were some sports moments in 2007 that I really enjoyed, but just about all of them ended disappointingly.

Let's start with football. I experienced something this year that I never have before: I got to follow my team, the Chicago Bears, from the first game of the season all the way to the Super Bowl. I was surrounded by co-workers who only wanted to talk about the Cowboys and Redskins, but I always stood up for my Bears in football discussions. Once the Playoffs started one of my friends told me that they'd never make it to the Super Bowl with Rex Grossman at quarterback, but the Bears did me proud by proving all the doubters wrong. Unfortunately, the Bears lost to the Colts in the Super Bowl. It wasn't an ideal ending, but the season had been a great ride and there was reason to be hopeful about the future. As it's turned out, the Bears this season have been hurt by injuries and a dismal offense. They're going to finish with a losing record, and it's clear that several changes need to be made if this team is going to return to contention. The best thing you can say about the 2007 Bears was that they beat the Packers twice.

Super Bowl XLI now looks like a missed opportunity that the Bears may not get again for some time, but interestingly enough, it was also the biggest highlight of 2007 for me. I figured if the Bears were going to lose, it might as well be to a team that deserved the title. The Indianapolis Colts were most certainly that. Despite my team's loss, I was happy for the Colts. After having a very good team for so many years they finally got their hands on the Lombardi Trophy, and they did it with class. It was also nice to see the deluded New England fans who liked to say that Peyton Manning would never win the big one and who just couldn't accept the idea that he wasn't a born loser have to eat their words. I'll admit, that part made me feel good too.

In addition to the Bears' struggles, this NFL season has been pretty miserable for me. All five teams I hate (Patriots, Packers, Steelers, Giants and Cowboys) are in the Playoffs. The Patriots are close to going undefeated, but they've had a dark cloud of contempt surrounding them from day one. I'm forced to root for one of those teams I hate in their last game of the season in hopes that the evil Patriots won't pull it off. The Detroit Lions, a true underdog that would've made a great feel-good story, started out the season 6-2 and now could finish with a losing record. The only hope left for lovers of underdog franchises is the Cleveland Browns, who still haven't clinched a Playoff spot. Ultimately though, the only teams that look like they have a realistic shot of winning anything this year are teams whose fanbases have experienced the top of the hill recently enough that they have no underdog appeal. In the end I think it's likely that several of us will be picking a team to root for by figuring out which one we hate the least.

Then there was basketball. As a Bulls fan I was pretty excited when my team swept the defending champion Miami Heat in the first round of the Playoffs. The Heat were treated like a team with some magical formula for stepping up when it counted all season, but the Bulls dispelled that notion in four games. Having followed the Bulls through the post-Jordan years I was proud of those guys. They nearly got swept in the next round by the Pistons, but they hustled their way to two wins before bowing out in Game 6. It would've been nice to see them go farther in the Playoffs, but considering the progress they'd made it was nothing to be ashamed of. Like the Bears, it gave us fans a lot of hope for next season.

We're about two months into "next season" now and things haven't gone as expected. The Bulls have gotten off to slow starts each of the past three seasons, but they've always managed to get it together before too long. This time though, they've stretched out their poor start long enough that Scott Skiles has been fired as head coach and most people already consider this season to be a lost cause. I haven't completely given up on this Bulls team, but I think it's safe to say that even if they do turn things around and make the Playoffs they don't have what it takes to go very far once they get there. It's sad to see a team that started out as a favorite to win the East possibly headed to the draft lottery.

As for the rest of the basketball world, the San Antonio Spurs won their fourth NBA Championship in 2007. The Spurs are one of the most nondescript teams in the NBA. They win championships, but they don't inspire much emotion. The Phoenix Suns, a team that has been on the doorstep of NBA supremacy in recent years, had a chance to beat them in the second round of the Playoffs, but the Spurs ultimately prevailed. It left the Spurs as the only dominant team in the Playoffs and the almost inevitable champion. While I'm not a big LeBron James fan, I was rooting for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, since they'd never been there and the Spurs had. It wasn't even close, as the Spurs swept. When the Spurs won their first NBA Championship in 1999 it was exciting, as several players got their first rings and no former ABA team had ever even made it to the NBA Finals. Every championship they've won since then has been completely anticlimactic. It's like watching a computer win a chess game against a human opponent. This season the Spurs are again looking like the best in the West, while the team that's stepped it up in the East is the Celtics, from the dreaded city of Boston. Out of nowhere they acquired two All Stars in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, giving their ever-obnoxious fans something else to boast about. The Pistons and Magic right now are looking like our only hopes not to have to see them in the NBA Finals.

Of course, there was still the greatest game in the world, baseball. 2007 brought me higher hopes than usual in baseball, only to end with me watching them get crushed successively. First there were my Cubs. They hadn't won the World Series since 1908, but all season they showed flashes of brilliance that gave the optimist in me hope the it could finally be "the year." They made the Playoffs with a mediocre 85-77 record, but as the Cardinals had proven the year before, just getting into the Playoffs is the important thing. Once you're in, anything can happen. After the Cubs fought their way into the postseason, it was as if someone suddenly cut off their supply of "heart" just before they faced the Diamondbacks in the Divisional Series. They seemed completely uninspired throughout the series, and the Diamondbacks swept. In a matter of days all the optimism among Cub fans had turned to disgust.

With the Cubs out of the picture, I decided to pull for another team that had been waiting a long time for "the year": the Cleveland Indians. They hadn't won the World Series since 1948, and they had beaten the hated New York Yankees in the first round. Unlike the Cubs, the Indians had tied for their league's best record, and they looked like they had a real shot at winning the World Series. They went up against another evil Boston team, the Red Sox. They managed to take a 3-1 lead in the series despite some struggles from their best starters, and it seemed as if destiny was on their side. Then it all came crashing down. The Red Sox destroyed them in the next three games to win the pennant and deprive the baseball world of a potentially great story. It didn't help that many members of the irksome "Red Sox Nation" showed a complete lack of class in victory.

I was pretty upset about the Indians having their title as AL Champs usurped by that evil team from America's Most Annoying City, but there was still a glimmer of hope going into the World Series. The Colorado Rockies had spent most of the season playing at a level just below contention, but they'd finished on a tear that took them all the way to the NL pennant. They'd won 21 of their last 22 games going into the World Series, and they were the only team in the NL that looked like a legitimate threat against the superior American League. I loved watching their run, as I'd considered the Rockies one of my "side" teams for years. Unfortunately, they were just starting to cool down as the Red Sox were hitting their stride. The Red Sox swept, and for the first time in my life three teams I'd really embraced lost in one postseason.

I suppose the best way to sum up 2007 in sports would be a year that teased me with the hope of great things to come and ended up as a morass of Boston egotism and the same old teams winning. I'm just glad I've started to follow hockey, as it's been my only refuge in the midst of the disastrous sports scene we're currently surrounded by. I just hope 2008 is better than 2007 was. I don't know if I can take two consecutive years like this one.

Perhaps thirteen is an unlucky number after all. In this case thirteen is the number of days it took for this baseball season to fall apart. On October 16 I was feeling pretty good. The Rockies had won the NL pennant the day before and the Indians beat the Red Sox 7-3 to take a 3-1 lead in the ALCS. Everything seemed to be going my way. Then the Red Sox suddenly forgot how to lose and brought their amnesia with them to the end of the World Series. As a resident of the Eastern Time Zone it was just past midnight on October 29 when the Red Sox won it. It's not often that my heart is broken three times in one postseason, but it happened this year.

I don't blame the Rockies' loss on the eight-day layoff. People always bring up the six-day layoff when talking about last year's Tigers, but they forget that the 1995 Braves and 1996 Yankees both won the World Series after six-day layoffs. It certainly didn't hurt those teams. The Rockies may have had two extra days, but I don't think there's some magic maximum number of days you can be off before it starts hurting you. A long layoff is a long layoff. I don't think it affected the Rockies as much as people think. They just got outplayed by a team that was on fire. The way the Playoff system is currently constructed that seems to be the key to winning the World Series, and the Red Sox simply had everything going their way.

Over the past few weeks I've been pretty open about my hatred of the Red Sox and Boston sports in general. I think it's time I moved on from the subject, since it only makes me angry and I've pretty much beaten it to death. I just want to make one last statement about it though. I've seen several people during these Playoffs saying that we should all be happy for the Red Sox and their fans because of the 86-year drought that ended in 2004. These people seem to think that the Red Sox deserve more titles after going so long without any. Sorry, but no. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you get to see your team win it even once you're a very fortunate person. Check out the droughts some of these other franchises have:

Cubs: 99 years since last title
Indians: 59 years since last title
Giants: 53 years since last title
Rangers: Never won a pennant (47 seasons in Majors)
Astros: Never won a World Series (46 seasons in Majors)
Nationals: Never won a pennant (39 seasons in Majors)
Brewers: Never won a World Series (39 seasons in Majors)
Padres: Never won a World Series (39 seasons in Majors)
Mariners: Never won a pennant (31 seasons in Majors)
Rockies: Never won a World Series (15 seasons in Majors)
Devil Rays: Never had a winning season (10 seasons in Majors)

The median age in the U.S. is about 35. That means that the average fan of over a third of the Major League teams has never seen a World Series title. Six other teams (Pirates, Phillies, Orioles, Tigers, Royals and Mets) have waited more than 20 years since their last one. The idea that anyone should be sympathetic to a team with "only" one title in the last few years is insulting.

Now that your team has won this one, Red Sox fans, you officially have no right ever to bring up the 86-year drought again. You are no longer a tormented fanbase. Your team is the new Evil Empire. People hate the Red Sox for the same reason they hated the Yankees back in the day. They know the Red Sox are the top dog and that they have plenty of resources available to acquire the best talent. Seeing the top dog win it is fun for fans of that team, but for the rest of us it's boring and makes an unmemorable story.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the true blue Red Sox fans who humbly appreciate the fact that they were able to experience this after so many years as an also-ran. As far as I'm concerned though, any fan who feels a sense of entitlement because of a defunct drought or a sense of personal superiority because of his team's success is unworthy to share in the joy of a championship. Your team won it. Be grateful and remember that you were lucky to witness it. Anyway, that's all I have to say about that. Hopefully I'll have no reason to say anything bad about Boston for the rest of the year.

Now that baseball season is over there's a void in my life. In a way it's a relief when the season ends, because you don't have to be nervous about the final outcome anymore. Still, I just spent seven months waiting for this anticlimactic ending and it'll be several months before the hope of a better one gets here. Oh well. The NBA season starts tomorrow and the Bulls are considered a favorite to win the East. Unfortunately, there's another East team everyone's talking about this year, and they hail from the city of...Boston. Sheesh. Still, the Celtics haven't proven they're legit yet and the Bulls have made the Playoffs the last three years. It should be exciting. There's also the NFL, but I just haven't been able to get into it this season as much as I was last year. It doesn't help that the Bears aren't doing very well and that the only team anyone seems to be talking about is New England. I think I'll just continue following the NFL lightly this year. I have a feeling that I shouldn't get too emotionally invested.

Here we are. We're three games into the World Series and the Red Sox are only one win away from another title. If you're a Boston fan (or bandwagoner) this feels great. If you're just about anyone else this feels pretty rotten. The one fanbase in baseball more arrogant than the Yankees' is on the verge of a celebration and the rest of us will never hear the end of it if it happens. The Rockies' offense hasn't been getting it done in the World Series, and the pitching staff that was so good throughout the Playoffs has been terrible. Right now everything appears hopeless.

I refuse to give up, though. It's not impossible for the Rockies to win. The odds are almost negligibly slim, but there's still some hope. The Rockies did win 21 of 22, after all. If you want a team that can win four in a row with no margin for error these Rockies are a pretty good choice. That small hope is all I have left. I was bummed about the Yankees winning the pennant after Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS too, but we all know what happened there. Ever since that series the prospect of coming back from a 0-3 deficit hasn't seemed so crazy.

The Red Sox got a few lucky breaks during that hellish six-run inning. Why couldn't Yorvit Torrealba have made a good throw to first? Why couldn't Josh Fogg get Daisuke Matsuzaka, an American League pitcher, out? I wish the Rockies could avoid those big innings. I'd like to see how they play when they have some wind in their sails. As soon as they built up some momentum their bullpen let the Red Sox have it right back. It's hard to climb back into a game more than once, especially in the later innings.

Is anyone else getting tired of Jonathan Papelbon? That "death stare" is the goofiest-looking thing I've ever seen, except perhaps for those clips of him doing a celebratory ####. If someone tried to intimidate me with that face I'd be too busy laughing to take it seriously. I'm also tired of seeing shots of the Boston bullpen. Seriously, I don't care about their rituals. I want to watch what's happening on the field.

I actually listened to most of Game 3 rather than keeping it on mute (what a difference it makes not having to hear a Boston crowd cheering). Tim McCarver seemed like he was lost half the time and Joe Buck was his typical cold self while trying to maintain some sanity. In other words, I realized I wasn't missing much by keeping the game on mute.

Mike Timlin is incredible. He's 41 years old, he was a member of the Blue Jays' back-to-back World Series winners in 1992 and 1993, and he's still a key contributor for a World Series team. Even though he gave up a few runs in Game 3 he's been pretty solid this postseason. He probably doesn't have many years left, but the guy deserves some credit for being effective as long as he has.

I don't know about anybody else, but I loved those shots of the Rocky Mountains during the game. Colorado has some great scenery. Denver is a unique city whose teams don't usually get much of the spotlight, but I find they can be just as fascinating as any other city's teams. It'll be interesting to see what type of culture Colorado fans develop into once the Rockies have some sustained success. It's hard to believe that they had the National League's highest attendance for their first seven seasons and were in the top three for two years after that. In recent years the attendance has tailed off (somewhat understandable, since they haven't been very good), but hopefully the Colorado fans' interest in baseball will be renewed now that they have a good young team that's built for future success. It almost seems too soon for these Rockies to win it all, but I'd rather see them win it than the Red Sox any day.

Rockies, the comeback starts tonight. At least it had better, or this season is going to end on a low note.

Evil Empire 2.0 completely dominated baseball's hottest team in Game 1 of the World Series yesterday. The Rockies looked completely helpless against the Red Sox, as they lost in a 13-1 blowout. Surely this is the sign of an epic mismatch and an indication that the Red Sox are about to romp to another World Series title, right? Um, not quite.

Time for a trivia question. What do the 1959, 1982 and 1996 World Series all have in common? The answer? All of them featured a blowout in Game 1. That's not all they have in common though. Each of those Game 1 winners ended up losing the World Series. In fact, no team that's won Game 1 of the World Series by a double-digit margin has ever gone on to win it. True, there's a first time for everything, but anyone rooting for the Rockies should keep in mind that bouncing back from a Game 1 blowout is not unprecedented.

The Red Sox have been clicking on all cylinders since losing Game 4 of the ALCS, but I highly doubt they can expect to keep dominating at their current pace. Sooner or later the luck has to even out. These Rockies are a special team, and they won't go quietly. Josh Beckett has done a good impression of the 1999 Pedro Martinez, but no one else in the Red Sox' rotation is nearly as tough to beat as him. I think the Rockies' chances will be better in the games to come.

If I had my way the Rockies would win the World Series in the snow in Game 5, but I'll be (pleasantly) surprised if that happens. All I know is that there's still a long way to go, and the Rockies still have plenty of chances to win this thing.

In closing I just wanted to bring your attention to this article from a satirical website. It's two years old, but it pretty much sums up why the Red Sox are quickly becoming the most hated team in baseball. I got a kick out of it, and some of you might too.