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Post by dex on Jul 4, 2019 8:26:20 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing '82
I have empathy for the nitwits bec I was a nitwit similarly about 6 decades ago. I had a cherry bomb that had a damaged wick so I cut open the bomb to expose the powder and it it with a friggin match. Burnt my hand pretty good but fortunately not the face that would make the girls swoon all these many years.
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Bunky
Jul 6, 2019 10:20:25 GMT -5
pcdad likes this
Post by dex on Jul 6, 2019 10:20:25 GMT -5
I wish Kmac would tell Bunky that the Big East admitted uconn
COMMENTARY Time looks to be running out on the Red Sox BILL REYNOLDS
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH:
■ What's the old line about baseball, the one that seems to be more and more appropriate in this disappointing Red Sox season? It seems to be getting late early. Yes, it does. For this appears to be a team exactly what it looks like: a few shades north of mediocre. The kind of team that's not particularly easy to like. Can it get better? No doubt. Will it? Don't bet the ranch on it. For it's gotten late early.
■ Rafael Devers? Raise your hand, Bunky, if you had him as the best Sox hitter back when the season started?
■ You can't really appreciate the Patriots, unless you were around for the old days.
■ No one ever called it the East Bay when I was growing up there, Bunky.
■ Is Chris Sale really an ace, or is he just playing the role before a real one comes along?
■ QUIZ OF THE WEEK: Four teams went down to the wire in the famous pennant race in the American League in 1967. Who were they? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)
■ LINE OF THE WEEK is this classic from Oscar Wilde: "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
■ There's no truth to the rumor that if you look up "underachieving" in the dictionary there's a team picture of the Red Sox.
■ The football magazines were out before the Fourth of July.
■ The world will never run out of kids shooting off fire crackers on July 4.
■ ESPN's Bob Ley is retiring, two months shy of 40 years at the network.
■ There's no truth to the rumor that the Red Sox need an intervention.
■ Or that South County already has surrendered to Connecticut for the summer.
■ Or that the Independent Man is saying he's already up for bid for next summer.
■ Remember when the Yankees had real swagger?
■ Gone, baby, gone.
■ Even with their great record.
■ The top three money leaders on the PGA Tour? Brooks Koepka ($7,289,444), Rory McIlroy (6,989,374) and Matt Kuchar (6,166,194).
■ Tiger? He's 16th ($3,158,915), if you're keeping track.
■ Do they still call drive-ins "passion pits," or is that all gone with the wind, too?
■ Michael Holley, the former Boston Globe sports writer, is excellent on TV sports talk shows.
■ Athlon Sports magazine has Tom Brady as the second best quarterback in the NFL behind only Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City.
■ The magazine also rates the NFL's top running backs, and the Pats' James White is 30th.
■ "Ohio,'' a novel by Stephen Markley about a group of high school friends who return to their small Rust Belt town, is a powerful look about both this country and its problems.
■ The Red Sox too often seem to play like a team with little urgency, as though this season is going to go on forever, so it's all cool.
■ How did we all survive back there in the day when no one ever heard of the expression "log on?"
■ Megan Rapinoe is right. Playing the Women's World Cup final on the same day the men will be playing takes something away from the women's event.
■ It's been a tough offseason for the Celtics, but now Kyrie Irving, the basketball diva, is gone, and much of the drama was packed in his suitcase as he walked out the door.
■ Or so we hope.
■ It's too bad he's such a pain in the you-know-what, because his skill level is off the charts.
■ Things always are better around here when both the Sox and Yankees are good.
■ And the General Assembly's on vacation.
■ QUIZ ANSWER: Minnesota, Detroit, Chicago, Boston.
■ If this were a horse race, and I were Joe Biden, I'd be very worried about Kamala Harris coming down the stretch.
■ Did you see where Chris Simms, the former NFL quarterback, has Brady as the ninth best quarterback in the NFL?
■ Ninth? Talk about heresy.
■ Can you have a baseball season that just can't seem to catch fire?
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Bunky
Jul 7, 2019 11:02:13 GMT -5
via mobile
dex likes this
Post by wtm97 on Jul 7, 2019 11:02:13 GMT -5
Michael Holley is indeed excellent as he was first as a reporter then columnist for the Globe.
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Bunky
Jul 13, 2019 8:41:14 GMT -5
pcdad likes this
Post by dex on Jul 13, 2019 8:41:14 GMT -5
COMMENTARY Is baseball down to its final out? BILL REYNOLDS
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH:
■ Memo to the Lords of the Game: Speed it up. Now. Not after a two-year commission studies the situation. Now. Before you drive too many people away from baseball. Before you drive too many people away from this grand old game. Before baseball becomes something we just used to love.
■ Drive the speed limit on Route 95 and you feel like a Thump.
■ Look up “diva” in the basketball dictionary and Kyrie’s picture stares back at you.
■ Speaking of divas, are there any left in baseball?
■ QUIZ OF THE WEEK: I won batting titles in three different decades. Who am I? (Answer near the bottom.)
■ LINE OF THE WEEK comes from O.J., who after opening up a Twitter account, said, “I’ve got a little getting even to do.”
■ This from the New York Daily News: In the 1971-72 school year just 2,000 girls were playing high school soccer across the country. Now? Almost 400,000 do.
■ The sports world we now live in? Kevin Durant reportedly turned down a five-year contract with the Warriors for $221 million.
■ You should have worked more on your handle, Bunky.
■ Did you see where Joey Chestnut downed 71 hot dogs in just 10 minutes last week to win his 12th Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island? Athletes come in many forms.
■ Bud Selig has a memoir out called “For the Good of the Game.”
■ “Launch angle?” Is that what it’s all about now at the the plate?
■ If you didn’t know any better, Bunky, you might have thought it was a bunch of guys getting ready to hit the town on a Friday night.
■ Rajon Rondo, now 33, has signed a new two-year deal with the Lakers.
■ Robot umpires? Really?
■ “Mad Magazine” is calling it quits after 67 years.
■ Just when women’s tennis was starting to feel a little stale along comes 15-year-old Cori “Coco” Gauff of the U.S. to brighten it up.
■ Speaking of women, Taylor Swift was named the world’s highest paid celeb, according to Forbes, taking in roughly $185 million over the last year.
■ Really? $185 million? For what?
■ Red Sox icon Jerry Remy has a new book out called “If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Boston Red Sox Dugout, Locker Room and Press Box,” written with longtime Boston Globe sports writer Nick Cafardo, who died in the spring.
■ The word is that new Celtic Kemba Walker is not as flat-out talented as Kyrie Irving, (who is?), but is more of a classic point guard.
■ Zion Williamson? He played in one game in the NBA Summer League, had a knee-on-knee collision, and is out for the rest of the summer.
■ Baltimore. Great baseball city, right? Then what in the name of Jim Palmer are the Orioles doing here in July 30 games out?
■ Maybe because they don’t have the latest version of Jim Palmer, among other things.
■ The worst shot in this new basketball world? The 15-foot jumper, one of the game’s age-old standards.
■ The National League’s starting lineup in the All-Star Game had an average age of 25.8, the youngest ever in an All-Star Game.
■ But the real question? Does the All-Star Game now matter the way it once did?
■ Sports were better when no one knew what the players made.
■ QUIZ ANSWER: George Brett, in 1976, 1980, 1990.
■ The “dumbing down” of America? Go check out some movie previews.
■ You know this is not your daddy’s NBA anymore, Bunky. Not when it’s become routine to see an NBA team hire a woman as an assistant coach.
■ Mookie Betts? The second half of the season can’t be as bad, right.
■ Unless his “launch angle” gets in the way, of course.
■ There’s no truth to the rumor that the Independent Man wants to go to South County for the rest of the summer.
■ Why not? Isn’t most of the General Assembly already there?
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Bunky
Jul 20, 2019 8:06:13 GMT -5
Post by dex on Jul 20, 2019 8:06:13 GMT -5
COMMENTARY ‘Pumpsie’s legacy shouldn’t be forgotten BILL REYNOLDS
Picture FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH:
■ Why is Elijah “Pumpsie” Green important?
Because he was the first black player on the last team in baseball to integrate.
That’s why.
He is important because the Red Sox were the last major-league team to integrate, forever their Original Sin.
He is important because he was the franchise’s racial pioneer, doing so 12 years — yes, 12 years — after Jackie Robinson broke the barrier.
He always will be remembered as part of this franchise’s long history, even if it’s the part that has little to do with hits, runs, and errors.
That’s why.
■ Thursday’s game notwithstanding, what’s up with Chris Sale?
■ Don’t invite Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the others in the supposed “Gang of Four,’’ to the same party.
■ Kevin Durant has become the NBA’s “this gun for hire.’’
■ QUIZ OF THE WEEK: I wore No. 2 for the Red Sox longer than anyone in team history. Who am I? (Answer near the bottom of the column. )
■ LINE OF THE WEEK comes from Phil Mush-nick in the New York Post: “Perhaps the biggest drug cheat and liar in MLB history, Alex Rodriguez, is now the face and voice of two national baseball networks, ESPN and Fox.”
■ LINE OF THE WEEK II comes from Bud Selig, in “For the Good of the Game,” his new memoir: “I inherited a freaking nightmare, if you’ll pardon the expression.’’
■ Speaking of lines, can we somehow find a way to ban the incredibly obnoxious phrase “you da man,’’ from the language?
■ I wouldn’t miss it, Bunky. I don’t know about you.
■ Is the Red Sox bullpen the worst in baseball, or just that it too often seems that way?
■ Jim Bouton, the former major-league pitcher who recently died, was famous for his book “Ball Four,’’ published in 1970. It is a baseball classic.
■ Major League Baseball under the lights is a beautiful game.
■ Did the movie industry have a pact to lower its standards, or did it just turn out that way?
■ Am I the only one who thinks baseball needs a bigger strike zone?
■ That, and a clock.
■ Jackie Bradley Jr. simply has to hit better, because the .226 average is simply not getting it done.
■ UConn is back in the Big East? It never should have left.
■ The Red Sox always used to be behind the Yankees when I was a kid. So it’s not like I’m not used to it.
■ There are no flies on Danny Ainge.
■ The word is baseball attendance is down this year.
■ Kudos to Sox manager Alex Cora to help his native Puerto Rico.
■ Did you see where Bud Selig went on “The Dan Patrick Show’’ the other day and said he considers Hank Aaron baseball’s real home run king.
■ QUIZ ANSWER: Jerry Remy.
■ Memo to David Price: You’re not going to win any battle of words with Dennis Eckersley. No way. No how.
■ In short, go down to the corner and buy a clue.
■ Look up “Longest Soap Opera in New England” and there’s a team picture of the Red Sox.
■ There’s no truth to the rumor that this might just be the summer South County drops the pretense and surrenders to Connecticut.
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Bunky
Jul 27, 2019 8:09:47 GMT -5
Post by dex on Jul 27, 2019 8:09:47 GMT -5
Book by R.I. trainer a must-read BILL REYNOLDS
Picture FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH:
■ You want a great behind-the-scenes look at the basketball world?
With a foreword by Stephen Curry, no less?
Check out “Net Work: Training the NBA’s Best and Finding the Keys to Greatness,’’ by Rhode Island’s own Rob McClanaghan, in which some of the best players in the world tell their secrets. McClanaghan’s book takes you inside a place you’ve never seen, into the very heart of the NBA, a place to which McClanaghan has had access for a long time. And maybe it’s this simple: If you like basketball, odds are you will like McClanaghan’s book.
I certainly did.
■ You don’t have to be Columbo to believe that everything doesn’t seem to quite add up in the David Ortiz situation.
■ What’s up with the Nets getting both Kyrie and Durant? Wasn’t it supposed to be the Knicks?
■ The Red Sox need a sense of urgency real soon.
■ Because the Patriots are starting to warm up in the bullpen.
■ QUIZ OF THE WEEK: Besides Jackie Robinson whose No. 42 has been retired across baseball), who is the only player to have his number retired by three different major league teams? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)
■ LINE OF THE WEEK comes from a mother in Cindy Adams’ column in the New York Post: “I saw kids picketing their school in sweatshirts hanging out, shredded shorts, hightop sneakers, a cap on backwards carrying signs that said ‘no school uniforms.’ “
■ LINE OF THE WEEK II comes from sports talk show host Gerry Callahan, who was recently let go by Boston radio station WEEI after 20 years: “Unfortunately, this isn’t a movie. Sometimes the bad guys win.’’
■ The latest power rankings I saw in baseball? Dodgers, Yankees and Twins are three of the top four. The Sox? 11th.
■ The last four? Blue Jays, Royals, Tigers, Orioles.
■ Or as they’re called in Baltimore when things are going south — The “Woes.”
■ Did you see where New Hampshire just became the sixth state this year to legalize sports gambling?
■ Speaking of questions, have the Yankees found a managerial gem in Aaron Boone?
■ Tiger is 43, if you’re trying to keep track at home.
■ “Where the Crawdads Sing,’’ by Delia Owens, is the best-selling book in the country, and has been for a while.
■ This from The Associated Press: New Jersey gamblers put down down more than $3 billion on sports gambling the first year it became legal.
■ And this from Tom Keegan in the Boston Herald: “John Henry and his gang bought the Red Sox for $700 million in 2001. They are now worth $3.2 billion.”
■ Maybe that’s why John Henry has real money and the rest of us don’t.
■ Bob Mueller looked like he needed someone to throw him a life raft the other day.
■ Either that or he was waiting for the bullpen to bail him out.
■ R.I.P. Ernie Broglio at 83, a 21-game winner in 1960, and who played high school baseball in California with the Red Sox’s Elijah “Pumpsie” Green.
■ TB12 is staring at 42, Bunky, if you want to send him a card.
■ I suspect people will still be talking about speeding up baseball 30 years from now.
■ Every time I hear a reference about being “woke,’’ I want to take a nap.
■ QUIZ ANSWER: Nolan Ryan — the Angels (No. 30), the Astros and Rangers (No. 34).
■ One question about the weather. Is this the new normal?
■ Kudos to Frank Coletta, a Rhode Island institution, heading for the showers after 41 years at Channel 10.
■ Hey, we all love baseball, but the older I get, the slower it seems.
■ When did almost all sports seem as though they’re year-round?
■ What are the odds that a year from now, TB12 will be arriving in camp and nothing will have changed?
■ So the last thing I’m going to worry about, whether its today or moving forward — I mean the very last thing — is the state of Brady’s contract.
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Bunky
Aug 4, 2019 9:08:58 GMT -5
Post by dex on Aug 4, 2019 9:08:58 GMT -5
COMMENTARY Mediocre describes these Red Sox BILL REYNOLDS
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH:
■ They are not real good, but not real bad either. And every once in a while they’re a tease. But only once in a while. Ah, the 2019 Red Sox. They’re over .500, but they’re behind both the Yankees and Rays here in early August. Tampa Bay? That’s probably all we have to know. At least for now.
■ Or you know it’s not a dream season when the Pats in training camp seems like the bigger story.
■ Speaking of the Pats, TB12 is in the final year of his contract, if you’re trying to keep up.
■ And if you read between the lines, he doesn’t seem real happy about it.
■ Is WPRO still “the station that reaches the beaches?”
■ There’s nothing more boring in professional sports than contract stories.
■ Or start from the premise they’re all overpaid, and go from there.
■ QUIZ OF THE WEEK: “I am the only player to lead the NBA in both points and assists in the same season. Who am I? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)
■ LINE OF THE WEEK comes from Marc Buoniconti, son of the Dolphins linebacker Nick Buoniconti, who died this week at 78: “He could have been sitting on the beach sipping champagne for the rest of his life. But what did he do? He went around and gave the rest of his life to help his son.”
■ LINE OF THE WEEK II comes from Yankees general manager Brian Cashman in the New York Daily News: “We did nothing, and we did nothing for a good reason.”
■ Remember those words, Yankee fans.
■ They don’t make states much better than Rhode Island in the summer.
■ This from The New York Post: Forty percent of Generation Z send nude pictures of themselves to friends.
■ Then again, I’m not really sure what Generation Z is these days.
■ They probably don’t know either.
■ Did you see where star cornerback Jalen Ramsey arrived at Jaguars training camp in a Brinks’ truck?
■ The word is Yankee ratings on the YES Network are down 26% from last year.
■ Or maybe it’s this simple: The good old days don’t seem like they’re about to come walking through the door anytime soon.
■ There’s no truth to the rumor that President Trump is going to invite “The Squad” to dinner at the White House.
■ Which is a conversation I’d love to overhear.
■ There are few people in my childhood who symbolized professional football any better than Nick Buoniconti.
■ If he didn’t actually invent tough, you just somehow knew he was there at the creation.
■ Another NFL season on the horizon. Another year of Tom Brady. How lucky are we?
■ Rhode Island summers are beautiful, and all too short. So enjoy.
■ The Sox and Yankees played two nine-inning games in London that lasted a combined nine hours and four minutes.
■ I mean really. I’ve known people who’ve had relationships shorter than that.
■ Speaking of the Yankees, their pitching is starting to go south.
■ R.I.P. West Warwick’s Mike Roarke, at 88. Roarke was in professional baseball for an amazing 42 years, as a player, coach and manager.
■ This is the 65th year of the Newport Jazz Festival, a much more sedate version of an event that all but used to howl at the moon back there in 1950s and ‘60s.
■ QUIZ ANSWER: Nate Archibald in the 1972-’73 season with 34 points and 11.4 assists.
■ Remember when the Yankees were like THE YANKEES, their charisma all but running off their pinstripes? Now they’re just another big-market team with a lot of money. Nothing more.
■ This from Sports Illustrated: It’s been 25 years since anyone hit .380 in the major leagues, and that was Tony Gwynn.
■ This from the New York Post: The St. John’s basketball job was Bobby Hurley’s after Chris Mullin got bounced, but he decided to stay at Arizona State.
■ You’ve been in Rhode Island a long time, Bunky, if you know what “down the line” means.
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Post by petert on Aug 5, 2019 7:21:07 GMT -5
Seems to take a lot of swipes at the Yankees..giving them zero credit for winning this season even with a tremendous amount of injuries.
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mikemc
Friar Fanatic
Posts: 3,241
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Bunky
Aug 5, 2019 13:43:40 GMT -5
Post by mikemc on Aug 5, 2019 13:43:40 GMT -5
Seems to take a lot of swipes at the Yankees..giving them zero credit for winning this season even with a tremendous amount of injuries. Order restored this weekend. How's Price and Sale holding up? Talk about pitching going south. ....gotta love friartown...
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Bunky
Aug 5, 2019 16:16:15 GMT -5
Post by dex on Aug 5, 2019 16:16:15 GMT -5
Yep Mike
Chris "Big Game Sale Suffice to say that the Bosox have by far the worst medical team in the history of sports going back to the first Greek Olympics
Then of course there is
David "Big Mouth" Price who couldn't shine Eck's shoes as a pitcher but thinks he himself is some kind of legend...what a fool
Then there's Dave Dombrowski who should have wona couple of more WS championships in Detroit if he wasn't a Bullpen Killer...Dump His Arse NOW
Lastly we have our great manager Alex Cora phd PR a regular political scientist on everything including Puerto Rican politics
First this genius disdains the People's House, then backs the biggest thief ever in Puerto Rico, then the corrupt bastage resigns leaving the Phd holding his johnson bar in his hand, then we learn that the Feds paid an enormous amount to help after the hurricane but everybody and their brother-in-law was stealing it, and then the guy refuses to hold a team meeting all year until the season is hopeless. Ignorance hisses me off...do some research you nitwit before inserting your foot in mouth. For crice sakes Thomas Alva Edison installed that electrical grid that the Feds threw big money at over the years but the $$ was being robbed by their leaders. Wake up Alex you fool
ps just to be fair, Cashman is no genius either...there's a guy that still holds the world record for dead money on the P/R in the history of sports AND BTW failed miserable at the trade deadline to fortify his own staff. Fortunately the always injured Luis Severino is almost back...BUT the truth is the Astros stole Cashman's lunch
pps to make mike happy in his sometimes Miserable state of mind, let's all remember and never ever forget that Cooley did not foul TWICE at Georgetown...Happy Mike?
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mikemc
Friar Fanatic
Posts: 3,241
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Bunky
Aug 6, 2019 7:55:45 GMT -5
dex likes this
Post by mikemc on Aug 6, 2019 7:55:45 GMT -5
LOL..
I'm always happy, then I read one of your post and walk away hissed off and scratching my head wondering if there is too much Rhody Blue Dye in that Narragansett cesspool you swim in.
....gotta love friartown...
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Bunky
Aug 10, 2019 9:37:44 GMT -5
Post by dex on Aug 10, 2019 9:37:44 GMT -5
COMMENTARY Brady’s legacy: The way he’s endured
BILL REYNOLDS
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH:
■ Tom Brady’s ultimate legacy, after all the championships and all the plaudits start to fade away into the mists of time? His way of conditioning himself. The way he worked out. The way he ate. The way he kept lithe and flexible throughout his long career. The lessons that should endure, long after the particulars of his career are forgotten. This will be his enduring legacy, his ultimate gift to the game. One that will be remembered, Brady one of the pioneers of what will become the game’s future, if it is to have a future.
■ Summer is better around here when the Red Sox are in the hunt.
■ The Yankees are running away with the American League East despite a mind-boggling 25 different players going on the injured list.
■ It only seems a matter of time before the Red Sox start to wave goodbye, if that hasn’t happened already.
■ QUIZ OF THE WEEK: Who are the five longest-tenured coaches, with the same team, in the NFL? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)
■ LINE OF THE WEEK comes from author Frederick Buechner, via an article in The Journal by Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post: Old age is “like living in a house that’s in increasing need of repairs.”
■ LINE OF THE WEEK II comes from 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, when asked how Jimmy Garoppolo looked in camp: “He always looks good ... and he’s playing pretty good, too.’’
■ LINE OF THE WEEK III comes from a front-page editorial of The Boston Globe: “This is what we’ve become: Two mass shootings 13 hours apart, in El Paso and Dayton, leaves 29 dead and a nation reeling anew over unchecked gun violence.’’
■ Jacoby Ellsbury, 35, hasn’t played a game since October 2017 due to foot and hip issues, if you’re trying to keep track of these things, Bunky.
■ He’ll still be paid more than $21 million this season.
■ Pedro Martinez was quoted in The Associated Press the other day saying he thinks the baseballs are wound tighter now.
■ Speaking of the Yankees, their closer, Aroldis Chapman, has at least 30 saves in seven of his last 10 seasons.
■ Hell is other people’s music in public places.
■ Vince Carter, 42, is scheduled to return to the Hawks for his 27th season in the NBA this year.
■ Did you see where the Warriors’ Draymond Green agreed to a four-year deal for $100 million?
■ Like who wouldn’t, right?
■ But there’s no truth to the rumor that the Independent Man is in contract negotiations with the state.
■ The word is he wants the same deal the General Assembly has, plus a nighttime differential.
■ And summers off, of course. After all, this is Rhode Island we’re talking about, right?
■ If this were fiction, someday in the future we would find out Tom Brady made a deal with the football devil a long time ago.
■ I mean, you already know that he lives in a $39.5-million mansion in Brookline, Mass., right?
■ Has any big-time sports figure around here lived in virtual anonymity any better than Bill Belichick? If we didn’t know any better, its almost as though he’s in the Witness Protection Program. Coaches his team, then disappears.
■ And if you found out he lived in his office, would you truly be shocked?
■ Just another unique thing for this very unique football team.
■ Which I suspect is just the way Belichick wants it.
■ Darwinzon Hernandez Remember the name, Sox fans, because this young reliever with the great name might just be around for a while.
■ Last year, Alex Cora seemed like a budding genius. Now he seems like just another guy in the dugout with no answers. Tough game.
■ If you can find a movie out there that’s not made for 15-year-olds, send up a flare.
■ QUIZ ANSWER: Bill Belichick (Patriots, hired in 2000); Sean Payton (Saints, 2006); Mike Tomlin (Steelers, 2007); John Harbaugh, (Ravens, 2008); Pete Carroll (Seahawks, 2010). (Jason Garrett, of the Cowboys, was also hired in 2010 but after Carroll.)
■ Any novel by James Lee Burke is well worth it.
■ You know summer’s going too fast when we’re already into the late innings.
■ You might think that one of these days we might find a way to deal with this country’s gun issues.
■ Not like there’s any rush or anything.
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Bunky
Aug 16, 2019 8:51:33 GMT -5
Post by dex on Aug 16, 2019 8:51:33 GMT -5
COMMENTARY Some things never change BILL REYNOLDS
Two mini-columns for the price of one ...
BRADY & BELICHICK
Another preseason, same story. Tom Brady is back for another season. Bill Belichick is back for another season. And, oh yeah. The Pats are picked to go deep into the playoffs, and we all have come to know what that's code for, right? Just another August in Foxboro, right? No matter that Brady is now 42, an age when most men his age are lying on the couch Sunday afternoon watching the NFL on television. No matter that Belichick is now an old football lifer who stands on the sideline during games and watches them through eyes that have seen it all. Was he really there when the game was invented? Probably not. Gone is Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman is hurt, last year's defensive coordinator is now the head coach in Miami, and on and on it goes. But none of it really seems to matter. It makes for a lot of early-season talk-show debate but little else. There's Belichick and Brady. And the rest? Are they all just interchangeable parts — out with the old and in with the new?
Sure seems that way.
For here we are in August 2019, more than 19 years since these two found each other in this football story for the ages, the old lifer and the gangly quarterback that no one really believed in back when he first came into the NFL.
It's an unlikely twosome that's now gone on to be NFL immortals.
This unlikely twosome that once again sets out on another season with the same expectations they always seem to carry along, regardless of who else is on board. This unlikely twosome that once again is about to start out on another chapter in what's become one of the NFL's greatest stories.
RED SOX
Here it is mid-August, creeping up on the dog days of summer, September all but on the horizon.
Do you know where your Red Sox are?
How about lost at sea, kind of like the old days, when the season's second half all but ensured a Sox swoon.
Boston may not quite be there yet — but, boy, are they close to looking at too many weeks of garbage time, like a season that never really was.
As of Thursday afternoon, the Red Sox sat 17½ games out of first place in the American League East, and 7½ games out in the wildcard race — not really in it, but not totally out of it either, even if they're chasing three teams with much better records.
Still lost at sea.
Just not officially drowned yet.
This has become another lost summer, one that failed to live up to its promise and expectations. And barring some unforeseen comeback, this figures to wind up as a very disappointing season.
For shouldn't this team be better? Don't they have more talent? Isn't this, for the most part, the same roster of players who captured the World Series trophy last fall? The same team that won a record 108 regular-season games? Didn't manager Alex Cora make all the right moves a year ago?
You would think so.
And they certainly spend enough money, for baseball history tells us they always spend enough money.
And as of Thursday, they have had four players among the top 10 in hits in the American League.
The pitching? Well, that's another story, and not a very good one. Only one Boston starter cracks the Top 20 in ERA leaders — Eduardo Rodriguez, with a 4.31 ERA for No. 20 in the A.L.
So, here they are in third place in mid-August, as hard as that may have been to believe back there in spring training, as though stuck in a rut, as the days keep falling off the calendar, each one another little reminder that the season keeps moving along, ready or not.
And this team wasn't ready.
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Bunky
Aug 17, 2019 9:08:12 GMT -5
Post by dex on Aug 17, 2019 9:08:12 GMT -5
COMMENTARY As usual, Brady got what he wanted BILL REYNOLDS
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH:
■ Tom Brady signed a two-year contract extension that is really a one-year deal for this season.
The new normal?
Sure seems like it.
Then again, if you have a one-year contract that you no doubt could live on until the end of time, what’s the big deal?
Probably not a whole lot.
Or maybe it’s this simple: If Brady wanted more years, odds are he’d have them.
■ The Red Sox should send their fans a “thank you’’ note for not turning on them in this very frustrating season.
■ Or as the adage goes, the fans shouldn’t care more about the season than the players seem to.
■ It still all but boggles the mind to realize that “Foxboro, Mass.’’ has become one of the most hallowed datelines in professional sports.
■ How bad are the Orioles? Their 12-12 record in July was their first month since 2017 in which they finished .500 or better.
■ Say it ain’t so, Jim Palmer?
■ QUIZ OF THE WEEK: Xander Bogaerts hit his 100th career home run on Wednesday, the sixth shortstop in Red Sox history to reach the century mark. Who are the other five? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)
■ LINE OF THE WEEK comes from Sox manager Alex Cora: “We live in an industry when it seems like hitting .200 and hitting 40 homers” is good.
■ LINE OF THE WEEK II comes from actor Nicolas Cage, in the New York Times magazine, on why he brought property in Rhode Island: “I went to Rhode Island, and I happened to find the place beautiful.’’
■ LINE OF THE WEEK III comes from David Ortiz: “Big Papi will be back soon.’’
■ Who has more job security these days — TB12 or the Independent Man?
■ Did you see that under it amended guidelines, the NCAA will no longer require prospective agents to have a bachelor’s degree before they’re allowed to represent student-athletes who are considering a career in the NBA.
■ This from Adrian Walker’s column in the Boston Globe the other day: “Curt Schilling, a great pitcher and patriot, is considering a run for Congress in Arizona. ‘’
■ Raise your hand, Bunky, if you’re shocked.
■ Eli Manning is 38, and the Giants have had one winning season in the last six years.
■ But there’s no truth to the rumor that they’re thinking of bringing back Y.A. Tittle.
■ You’ve seen too many players come and go, Bunky, if you can remember when the Giants were the local team around here.
■ Back when no one had ever heard of Tom Brady, or Bill Belichick, for that matter.
■ Raise your hand if you remember the first time you ever heard of the New England Patriots.
■ Has the ball stopped bouncing for Carmelo Anthony, as no NBA team seems overly interested?
■ Speaking of Schilling, you know that when he smiles into the mirror he believes the mirror is smiling back.
■ There’s no truth to the rumor that seeing a summer movie lowers your IQ.
■ It just seems that way.
■ Do you ever wonder what Bill Parcells really thinks about Belichick and his amazing Patriots?
■ I suspect it’s complicated.
■ You don’t have to be very perceptive to realize that Megan Rapinoe has big-time ambitions.
■ This from the Boston Herald: For the fourth year in a row, the number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 is at a historic low.
■ QUIZ ANSWER: 1, Rico Petrocelli, 210; 2, Nomar Garciaparra, 178; 3, Vern Stephens, 122; 4, John Valentin, 121; 5, Joe Cronin,
119.
■ The Yankees have hit an amazing 61 home runs against the Orioles this year, breaking their own own record of 48 against the Kansas City Athletics in 1956.
■ R.I.P. Rosie Ruiz, 66, who cheated her way to winning the 1980 Boston Marathon.
■ Jordan Spieth has not won since the 2017 British Open, if you’re trying to follow these kinds of things.
■ But there’s no truth to the rumor that the state’s real business will be conducted at the Coast Guard House for the rest of the summer.
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Bunky
Aug 24, 2019 10:06:13 GMT -5
Post by dex on Aug 24, 2019 10:06:13 GMT -5
COMMENTARY Red Sox wallowing in their own mediocrity BILL REYNOLDS
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH
■ Here it is, late in August, and where are the Red Sox? Where they’ve been all year. Hanging around. Not really in it. Not altogether out of it. Just hanging around, as the games keep falling off the calendar. A requiem for a season. Just hanging around. All that’s missing is a street corner.
■ Raise your hand if you ever thought you’d see Lamar Odom on “Dancing With The Stars.”
■ Raise your other hand if you ever thought you’d be caught dead watching “Dancing With The Stars.”
■ The word is Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson broke an NBA record for draft-night sales of his T-shirts and jerseys.
■ Rafael Devers leads the American League in three offensive categories.
■ Yet, if he walked down the street, who would recognize him?
■ QUIZ OF THE WEEK: I am the only player in MLB history to turn an unassisted triple play and hit for the cycle. Who am I? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)
■ LINE OF THE WEEK comes from Bill Belichick at a recent news conference, after being asked a question: “I think I covered it. Did you get a copy of the statement? Sorry, I don’t do MyFace.”
■ At the start of the 2010 season the Patriots’ depth chart for receivers included Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Julian Edelman and Brandon Tate.
■ And the rookies? The rookies were Gronk and Aaron Hernandez.
■ But there’s no truth to the rumor the Independent Man was trying to get on the roster.
■ Or that “Coach Bill” has spent the summer working on his social-media skills.
■ Phillip Margolin writes best-selling crime novels, and his latest is “The Perfect Alibi.”
■ The Yankees beat the Orioles 17 times in 19 games this season.
■ If you didn’t know any better you might think it was a college basketball matchup in December.
■ You say you’re still not a big global warming believer, Bunky? July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, since records began in 1880.
■ I’m still looking for this year’s summer song.
■ There will be eight soccer games on television on Saturday.
■ Did you see where Larry Bird wants an artist to remove the tattoos from a painting of him in Indianapolis? Bird’s lawyer says the ex-Celtics great “needs to protect” his brand.
■ Hats off to the Barrington Little League for representing Rhode Island well in the Little League World Series down in Williamsport.
■ Taylor Swift reportedly has 121 million Instagram followers.
■ Which only means Elvis would have tripled that back in the day.
■ Do the Red Sox have any real spirit left, or has it all been beaten out of them?
■ My guess is it’s all been beaten out of them. But I’ve certainly been wrong before.
■ Good sliders get good hitters out.
■ I haven’t seen a real good movie in a theater in too long a time.
■ He hasn’t played since 2016, but according to The New York Times, Colin Kaepernick is the third-most recognizable football player in the country, behind Tom Brady and Eli Manning.
■ R.I.P. Jack Whitaker, a broadcast legend, at 95.
■ Bill Parcells turned 78 the other day.
■ QUIZ ANSWER: John Valentin.
■ You know that few things are ever going to surprise you in the future, Bunky, with the news that Governor Raimondo wants a third gender option on driver’s licenses in the state.
■ Yaz recently turned 80, if you’re trying to keep score at home.
■ The Red Sox “Impossible Dream” summer of 1967 was my favorite baseball summer of them all.
■ Complete with all the summer songs I remember from that year.
■ Can we charge Connecticut drivers from leaving Rhode Island at the end of the summer?
■ Sorry, I don’t do MyFace.
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