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Red Sox vs Yankees II: THE RIVALRY IS OFFICIALLY BACK

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It took yearrs, but the Red Sox Yankees rivalry is officially back after last night. That game had everything. A ton of hits, a few four baggers, wild momentum swings, oh and Joe Kelly inciting a legitimate benches clearing brawl after nailing that dickhead Tyler Austin. The benches cleared once earlier in the game after Austin spiked Brock Holt on a takeout slide at second. That was really more guys arguing than anything else.

But, Joe Kelly don’t play that shit. After nearly hitting Austin in the top of the 7th, Kelly went right back to it and nailed him two pitches later. Austin smashed his bat in his rage and after taking a few steps towards Kelly he charged the mound. But Kelly, this man goes into the GIF Hall of Fame with an all-time reaction.

Before we move on, I have to just touch on this guy Tyler Austin. A motherfucking star was born last night. Just look at this guy.

Incredibly hatable. This guy is destined to be the next great dickhead Yankee that we all love to hate. In the same roid rage filled vein as Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield. The dude clearly and deliberately spikes Holt breaking up a double play and then flips out when Holt calls him out for it.

Then rather than taking his medicine like a man after getting beaned, he smashes his bat and charges the mound before getting body bagged by Joe Kelly. This kid may only be a career .239 hitter, but if he can stay in the lineup I will take great joy in booing him all year long.

Back to the actual game!

I gotta give the Sox credit for not only physically assaulting the Yankees, but for fighting back from an early 8-1 hole to make a game out of it.

Andddd David Price might be hurt. He got hammered for 4 runs in the first inning, getting slapped around like he was Fredo going against the family. After getting out of the inning he immediately walked down the tunnel and the Sox trainers raced after him. Still no idea what actually happened, but he left the game apparently after experiencing “sensation in his left hand.”

So what was supposed to be another pitching duel was yet again derailed in Game 2 of this series. After Price left the game the Sox trotted out basically everyone in the pen: Bobby Poyner, Heath Hembree, Matt Barnes, Joe Kelly (my man), Brian Johnson, and Carson Smith.

(This is what I wrote during the game BEFORE Kelly beaned Austin): For the first time in what seems like years there appears to be some genuine dislike between these two teams and that is awesome to see. It was bound to happen as both teams have been up and down, but now both are starting to get really good at the same time with a core of young players that came up in each team’s farm system. This is what this rivalry needs. Both teams being good helps, but both teams legitimately disliking each other is what will ultimately light the fuse.

After the Austin/Holt slide you could tell Pedroia was just itching to get out there and scrap it up as cameras caught him giving an absolute death stare to the entire Yankees bench since ya know his knee is still fucked after being on the receiving end of a very similar play last year.

El Gary was beating the Sox brains in all night with 2 dingers including a 2-run HR in the first and another 2-run HR in the 4th to put the Sox in an 8-1 hole, but luckily for us Masahiro Tanaka imploded in the 5th giving up 5 runs.

How about JD Just Dingers Martinez breaking out in a big way too? 24 hours after missing his first grand slam as a member of the Sox by the length of a hotdog, he crushed one to center field to claim what was rightfully his.

The Sox then proceeded to throw the ball around like a bunch of assholes though. Vazquez chucked a ball into CF on a steal attempt and then a pass ball that smoked the ump in the facemask trickled away, which gave the Yankees a free pass to third base twice. Those immediately came back to bite the Sox in the ass for 2 easy runs, and that 10-6 lead was ultimately what put the nail in their coffin.

I know its early, but if the first two games of this series are any indication this year of Red Sox vs Yankees is going to be a lot more fun than its been in a long time. And for that I am thankful.

Red Sox vs Yankees I: A Beatdown in Boston

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The first of 19 matchups between the Red Sox and the Yankees kicked off last night and it was a coming out party for the Boston offense. The Sox dropped two touchdowns on the Yanks in their first meeting. Thats 14 runs for those that don’t partake in American football. Going into the game it seemed like it would be a pitchers duel between two guys in Chris Sale and Luis Severino who had allowed 3 runs combined and a total of 29 K’s between the two to start the year. Chris Sale continued his excellent start to the year going 6 innings, giving up 1 run and striking out 8 while FINALLY getting his first win of the year. We all know its an arbitrary stat, but I’d love to see Sale get the 20+ wins he deserves, assuming the bullpen and the offense does their job this year.

Meanwhile Severino got curb stomped for 5 runs in 5 innings and that was before the Red Sox *really* broke it open later in the game. How the hell did Severino get hit so hard? Well the ESPN broadcast booth noticed that he might have actually been tipping his pitches, showing replays with his hands being closer to his belt or farther away depending on if he was throwing a fastball or an offspeed pitch. So while I would love to dance on Severino’s grave, I’m sure that’ll be the first thing the Yankees fix and he’ll be spinning zeroes next time he takes the mound.

Giancarlo Stanton continued his historic strikeout pace with another pair of Ks courtesy of Chris Sale. This guy looks lost out there. He looks like he’s trying to crush everything out of the park so he’s swinging out of his shoes. I’m no hitting coach, but even I noticed last night how he looks halfway out of the box before he’s even through his swing like he’s goddamn Ichiro.

I must admit this is immensely gratifying to watch as a Sox fan who was pretty bullshit the Yankees swooped in and stole another megastar home run masher in his prime when the Sox could have [and should have] had him (i.e. A-Rod).

To make it even more satisfying, our statistically similar, for a third of the price, power hitter JD Martinez broke out in a big way with a towering double that if it was hit literally 2 feet to the right would have been a grand slam. Either way it broke the game open as the Sox piled it on, including an actual grand slam later on from Mookie Betts, who was rewarded for his efforts with an awkward interview with his best friend!

Farrell has been decent in the booth, but I have to give him credit for not losing his shit on Steve Levy last night.

After getting crushed all day on the radio, specifically by Tony Mazz who went out of his way to say the guy sucked defensively, the Brock Star was flashing the leather rather impressively last night.

The Sox were firing on all cylinders though with 8 different players crossing the plate, Mookie went 4-for-4, JD had a huge double, Sale was lights out, Hanley was even stealing bases like it was 2006 for christ’s sake.

Red Sox vs Yankees II is tonight and this one might be the pitching duel we had hoped for last night as Masahiro Tanaka comes in with a 1-1 record to go along with a 2.92 ERA and 15 K’s. He’s taking on a seemingly rejuvenated David Price who has yet to allow a run this season to go along with his 10 K’s and he looks to have really built on the momentum from his dominant run as the most expensive relief pitcher in MLB history during the playoffs.

Was Sunday the Best Sports Day of the Year?

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Sunday may have been the best sports day of the year with the Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins each playing home games all while the final round of The Masters was going on.
Patrick Reed won his first green jacket yesterday and I don’t think anyone summarized that battle down the stretch better than the wifey:

Reed had a slim lead heading into the final 9 and Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Rickie Fowler were all gunning for him. Reed was putting his body on the line though, broken hands be damned.

Rory couldn’t capitalize on a couple of missteps by Reed and imploded himself so he was out, but Spieth was putting on an absolute show shooting -9 on the final day to almost come all the way back to take it, finishing 2 back.

Rickie Fowler once again sexed up the whole course with his wardrobe:

Fowler quietly and maniacally hunted Reed down like the goddamn Terminator and almost pulled it out. It ultimately wasn’t enough as he finished 1 back as Reed set himself up to 2-putt his way to the victory. I watched the last 2 hours of The Masters at a bar by the Garden and the energy was awesome.

During all this, the Red Sox were getting their teeth kicked in on Sunday afternoon and after starting the year 7-1 I wasn’t too broken up about it. Eduardo Rodriguez looked lights out in his first start back since knee surgery with 7 K’s through 3 innings though.

Throwing 73 pitches in 3 innings is not exactly peak efficiency though. So I left my house and headed to the bar to watch the end of The Masters. After sitting down with a couple Bud Lattes the bar had both golf and the Sox on and it was some of the best TV I’ve seen all year. Boston orchestrated a huge comeback scoring 6 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning. All with two outs in the inning. Incredible.


Kind of a kick in the junk that Xander Bogaerts got hurt as he’s been red hot absolutely crushing the ball. But this team looks real good so far. I’m not gonna get crazy after a bunch of W’s against teams like the Rays and the Marlins who are likely going to set baseball back 20 years in the state of Florida this season, but hey you play who’s on the schedule.

Meanwhile the Celtics and the Bruins, who both lost in uniquely painful ways, played back to back games at the Garden. Props to the crew thats responsible for flipping that arena from a basketball court into a hockey rink in like 2 hours. The C’s blew a game to the Hawks that they should have won, but this team is fighting tooth and nail with bench players as we head into the playoffs.

Once the C’s wrapped up the Bruins were going against the Panthers and just need a W to clinch first place in the East. Now they obviously lost following a listless effort from the team, but the buzz around the city was palpable on Sunday.

AND to top it all off it was Rene Night with the Bruins honoring the legendary National Anthem singer who is retiring after 42 years with the team. I was at the game last night and let me tell ya, the crowd was Fired. Up. about Rene. I think possibly more so than they were for the actual game. The Bruins also really dug deep with the giveaways, completely mailing it in by giving away Rene Christmas Ornaments (in April) that were from 2010 to random rows of fans.

There were sports on TV basically from the time you got out of bed until the time you went to sleep. You don’t get that very often, but Christmas came early yesterday.

Eric Hosmer and the Padres Lost on a Walkoff Infield Pop Up and Its Hilarious

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Okay just to set this clip up, its important to remember that the Padres’ Eric Hosmer is a FOUR time Gold Glove winner at first base. Anddd roll the clip.

This is an error that I would make on my beer league softball team, not one a guy making $144 Million should commit. Woof. In the end though the jokes on us because Hosmer is still dating NESN royalty.

Celtics Shutting Down Kyrie Irving for the Rest of the Season

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ESPN – In the aftermath of left knee surgery, All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving of the Boston Celtics will miss the rest of the regular season and playoffs, league sources told ESPN. The Celtics are expected to make an announcement soon, sources said. The Celtics and Irving are evaluating further medical options to treat his left knee, sources said.

Well, shit. For a season that was once so promising with the shiny new additions of Kyrie and Gordon Hayward, its only fitting that it ends with yet another injury. This team has been a MASH unit all year long. Just the other night they had their top FOUR point guards out. Hell Jayson Tatum has been running the point the past few games.

A few months back I couldn’t believe the Cavs would deal Kyrie for a package that featured an injured Isaiah Thomas. Well, it seems like Kyrie’s knee has been a ticking time bomb that Danny has fully admitted he knew about before making the deal. So this season is a wash as both IT and Kyrie will end the year on the DL.

Its a real goddamn bummer too because even without Hayward the Celtics looked poised to finally get over the hump in Cleveland to earn their right as sacrificial lamb for slaughter by the Warriors in the Finals. But that right has been taken away from us. Unless Scary Terry averages 30 a night in the playoffs, I don’t see a team of Al Horford, Shane Larkin and a couple of 19 and 20 year olds making a serious run in the playoffs.

So the next truly meaningful Celtics game won’t take place until October. Um, we hope. A friend of mine immediately challenged that notion asking do we really think Kyrie will be ready by October. He’s right, we have no idea. What was originally knee discomfort that was supposed to be helped by rest alone. The Celtics went out of their way to say that Kyrie’s knee was “structurally sound” whatever that means looking back.

That turned into a surgery to just remove a wire to alleviate said discomfort and Kyrie was expected back in the playoffs.

Now he’s being shut down out of nowhere, which means the discomfort hasn’t gone away and an even bigger surgery is a distinct possibility. Long term, if Kyrie is back halfway through next season and everyone is healthy for the playoffs next year then thats fine I suppose. But next year is also the last year of Kyrie’s contract and the Celtics will now have to make the decision of whether or not to offer a max contract (they have to) to a guy with less than 2 full seasons played in Boston due to injury. Not ideal.

This is an incredibly fragile fulcrum point for the next chapter of the Boston Celtics franchise. If Kyrie comes back next year and is back to near full health, Hayward is the desperately needed 2nd All-Star and No. 2 scoring option for the C’s, and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum continue to develop then the C’s are in prime position to make a run at a title or two.

Or Kyrie’s knee continues to be chewed up dog food and the Celtics are banking on Hayward and a suddenly 32-year-old Al Horford with Brown, Tatum, and Rozier rounding out the roster. Thats a solid 4 seed. Thats not a championship winning team. That puts the Celtics right back into no-mans land and has them considering grinding it out and hoping Brown or Tatum improve enough to be THE guy and lead a veteran team backed by Horford and Tatum. Unlikely. Or they push the last of their chips into the table and take a home run cut on a mega deal for a guy like Anthony Davis or Kahwi Leonard.
Either way, April 5th, 2018 will be a clear line of demarcation to look back on and see that was the day when the Celtics went one of two ways.

UPDATE: Kyrie is getting surgery and will be out 4-5 months. That would put him back on track for the start of next season, but we’ll see.

What is the Greatest NBA Jam Lineup of All-Time?

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Apparently one of the greatest video games of my generation is nearing its 25th Anniversary, which is insane because Big Z and I will still fire up a Best of 7 Series every holiday weekend. This almost always results in a clicker fired into the wall, but thankfully SEGA’s clickers were built to withstand a goddamn earthquake.

So with such a big milestone nearing for the most influential basketball game of our time we had to have the debate: What is the Greatest NBA Jam Lineup of All-Time?

Big Z: Um, I think we are forgetting about Reggie Miller and Derrick McKey from the original. Or, Miller, McKey and Rik Smits in the Tournament Edition. Miller was great for throwing up shots from downtown, especially with hot spots in play.

Stockton and Malone was always a strong lineup, too. Don’t sleep on Patrick Ewing and John Starks from the Knicks, or Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer from Detroit. Not much for dunking, but Thomas and Laimbeer had speed, could shoot the 3, and play some D. Dunks made the game fun, but the game was won from downtown.

Joey B: First off as I navigated to Yahoo to answer this my eye caught a headline that read “Could Von Miller go to jail for catching a huge shark?” so needless to say I am writing this a bit distracted. That said my answer is Sean Elliot and David Robinson.

It may go against gameplay wisdom to have a guy like Elliot, but the basketball side of my brain always got nervous not having someone who maybe could shoot. The Admiral speaks for himself. Just an absolute savage who ate double teams for all three meals.

Red:  Personally, I HAVE to go Reggie Miller and Rik Smits.

Unbeatable. I once scored 80 points with Reggie Miller in NBA Jam TE and those games are like 8 minutes long. He had a 9/10 rating from the 3 point line for christ’s sake. Rik Smits’ job was to basically stand in the corner so Reggie wouldn’t get double teamed. I would legitimately be furious when the computer took it upon itself to score and Smits somehow snuck in a 2 point game. Just get Reggie the ball and we’ll be good, Rik.

PS – NBA Jam is Tournament Edition or bust. I’m not running up and down the court doing the weave drill to score 35 points a game. Nope, I want Stomp blocks, Turbo charges, and of course an 8-point buzzer beater shot to win the game and really ruin someone’s day.

BREAKING: Patriots Trade Brandin Cooks to the Rams for a First Round Pick

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As per usual, I have no idea what the Patriots are planning here. On one hand, it really is great, great value to get the No. 23 overall pick for a guy with one year left on his contract. On the other hand, great value aside… Tom Brady might blow a goddamn gasket when he hears about this. First Danny Amendola walked, now Cooks is out, Gronk is still hemming and hawing about playing next year, and Julian Edelman is coming back from a shredded knee. Not exactly confidence inspiring for a QB in his 40s.

The real question here though is; what do the Patriots have up their sleeve? The Pats rarely trade up into the first round so I FULLY expect them to trade down again for five 4th round picks so they can fill out the team with more Rutgers and Navy guys. But, if we want to have a little fun for a minute; what could the Pats realistically do with this pick?

Well they could turn around and give it to New York in a trade for Odell Beckham Jr. It was rumored that it would take a 1st rounder to pry ODB from the Giants and the Rams were the team most commonly mentioned in those rumors. Now with their first round pick in hand, the Patriots could effectively trade Brandin Cooks for ODB straight up. That would be fine with me, but of course that would open up Pandora’s Box of yet another guy bitching about his contract in the locker room.

Or are the Patriots potentially looking to package No. 23 and their own No. 31 pick to move up in the draft and take say…a quarterback?

I’m still driving the Johnny Manziel hype train, but I was just listening to Felger and Mazz and they took a quick peak at the NFL Draft Value chart and according to them these two picks would, in theory, be enough ammo to move up to No. 9 overall in the Draft. Now that…that is interesting. Are the Pats looking to trade up and grab my boy Baker Mayfield?

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via GIPHY

Probably not, but Bill Belichick is nothing if not a sneaky and devious SOB so I fully expect this newly acquired draft capital to go to good use. So it sucks to see another one of Brady’s weapons, who I expected to improve in Year 2, leave the team but I’ll reserve judgement until we see what Bill does with the pick.

For what its worth Zolak seems to be thinking the same thing and I’d say and he’s *kind of* tapped into the team.

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Pro Football Talk is NOT Happy With WEEI or Kirk and Callahan

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Pro Football Talk – We posted an item earlier today regarding a report from WEEI that the Patriots will be trading tight end Rob Gronkowski in the coming weeks. The report, which was being picked up by other websites, appeared in a single tweet that had no equivocation of any kind. It was clear, it was plain, and it was getting noticed. And it was all some sort of time-delayed April Fool’s Day gag, apparently. Chris Curtis of WEEI called me a little while ago to explain that it was a joke. I’m still scanning the tweet for the setup, the reinforcement, and/or the payoff. That is a humorous anecdote. I can’t wait to tell that one at parties and other social gatherings. I told Curtis I’m not happy about any of this. Needless to say, nothing WEEI ever reports again will be taken seriously in this space. It’s hard enough to keep people up to date on everything that’s happening in the NFL without people throwing gratuitous and unfunny hurdles in our path.

Nothing like a little sports media beef to get you through a Tuesday afternoon. Pro Football Talk is absolutely bullshit that they got hoodwinked by an April Fools joke from WEEI. WEEI’s Kirk and Callahan show tweeted out that one of their guys was reporting Rob Gronkowski would be traded in the next couple of weeks.

Now if you ever listen to Kirk and Callahan you know they like to screw with people, especially those in the media. So while its not a particularly hilarious joke, April Fools jokes aren’t really meant to be funny. They’re meant to pull one over on people and make them look stupid.

So for PFT to get so pissed off seems like a little much. I understand the frustration of posting something on your website that ultimately turns out to have zero truth to it, but you should probably also be checking sources to confirm before posting a story OR just run it with the disclaimer that WEEI is saying this but you can’t confirm or dispute it. Problem solved.

You gotta be extra vigilant on April Fools Day or sometimes you get hoodwinked on Twitter and risk taking the L like me.