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The Sports Edge (78)
I'm talking about the animosity built up between two teams and their fans over the course of generations. As the clich goes, 'Throw the records out when these two rivals meet.'
Offense wins games; defense wins championships. It's a saying as old as the game of football itself and if it holds true, the New England Patriots don't have a chance this season.
On this Sunday evening as I sit writing this article, I have just watched the Pittsburgh Steelers walk all over the Pats Defense en route to a 23-17 victory.
Sidebar: I'm also watching '60 Minutes' and I feel no sympathy for the Madoff clan. There is no way you were out of the loop and didn't know what was going on - I don't feel bad for you.
(With sincere apologies to anyone with actual poetic talent.)
When you first took the Sox job,
You were barely out of school.
The youngest GM ever,
Compared to Dan Douquette, you were too cool.
You always dreamed big,
Really shooting for the moon.
Your team almost made the series in '03,
Until that Aaron Freakin' Boone.
In Bill Belichick we trust. This has been our saying for a long time, and now with the addition of Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco in the same day, our trust in the "hooded wonder" is going to be tested.
It's worked before, but the question is whether the big man has bitten off more than he can chew. And on Shark Week no less!
First, however, let's go back in time. It's been more than a decade now that Pats fans have had their faith in Bill. It started in 2001 when he stuck with Tom Brady over a healthy Drew Bledsoe who was ready to return. The result: a Super Bowl victory.
It seems ever since "The Bucket List," starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, came out a couple of years ago, everyone has been working on their own bucket list. For the record, a bucket list is a list of things you hope to accomplish before you kick the bucket.
I recently reconnected with an old (she will not appreciate that word) high school friend through the wondrous technology that is Facebook. She told me she had put together a bucket list. It contained very reasonable items such as visit Niagara Falls and vacation in Hawaii. Her list got me thinking; maybe I should assemble a sports bucket list. As the song says, "The lines on my face are getting clearer."
Here's what I have come up with in no particular order:
The Sports Edge - They are throwing us a change-up
Written by Jeff SolariThings change in sports all the time. Some changes are sudden, but most often they're very subtle and gradual. You don't notice anything different, but then one day you look up and say, "When the heck did that happen?" One such change is happening right now, right here.
Eastern Maine is very engaged with the local sports scene. Sure, we love our regional professional teams. But since they're all more than 200 miles to the south, high school, UMaine and Husson rightfully garner the bulk of the fandom around these parts. Yet coverage of local sports is changing, and we're not far from waking up and saying, "What the heck happened to local sports reporting?"
Let's start with sports talk radio. WZON AM 620 had been one for the premier local sports stations in the country for much of the past two decades. But due to owner Stephen King's passion for left-wing politics and what I maintain is general mismanagement of Zonecorp, WZON's sports talk flame is slowly but surely being snuffed out. I hear from people every day who tell me how much they miss local sports talk on the radio.
Before you get worried by this title, I assure you it has nothing to do with myself, a desert island and Scarlet Johansson. Have you seen those pictures of her that recently showed up on the Internet? Holy Toledo!
No, this fantasy weekend was all about baseball. I attended the Maine Baseball Fantasy Camp from Friday to Sunday and as I sit here watching football man am I sore.
If you aren't familiar with a Fantasy Camp, here's the deal: Grown men come together, get out the old glove and cleats, throw on a uniform and play some ball. In my case, I hadn't worn my baseball cleats in nine years! They took some breaking in.
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