Fluff it Up

It’s Friday and time for another post. It seems that a pile of jeremiads are stacking up, on a variety of topics germane to the news cycle at the moment. First and foremost in my ever-growing slush pile of things to blog about is the lying mainstream media. I also jotted down a bunch of stuff the other day about the mayoral run-off that happened Tuesday, one town over.

Again, the media’s misinformation was central to some of my concerns—not the least being national reporters meddling around where they have no business treading, and even less understanding of local matters. Hacks like this one—elitists really—love to belittle places like Lewiston (aka, Trumpland, Maine) and the people that live there. Voters voting for a candidate she can’t understand from her urban zip code? Call them stupid, ignorant, or wracked with fear. But anyone keeping score knows journalism now equals propaganda, at least coming from the driveby set.

But since we are in the midst of the holiday season—even though it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me—I’m going to defer writing about topics that divide and keep it light. Maybe I’ll start a tradition of easier-on-the-eyes and lower stress blogging on Friday—call it something like Fluffernutter Friday. Apparently the sandwich of the same name has a New England backstory.

Fridays are for Fluffernutters.

Fridays are for Fluffernutters.

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Late Summer Baseball

If you are still following Boston’s baseball team, the Red Sox, you are well aware that the odds of a post season this year are slim to none. In a town that’s grown entitled to having their professional sports teams play meaningful games late into their respective seasons, losing becomes a hard pill to swallow. Nowhere is this more prevalent than with the members of Red Sox Nation.

Winning a World Series in 2004, again in 2007, and then the improbable championship run in 2013 has only heightened expectations among its fan base. However, when you look at the reality of baseball played in places like Cleveland, Arlington, and San Diego, the carping about Ben Cherington and Red Sox ownership on sports talk radio ought to cease. It won’t, but winning championships nearly every season isn’t the norm—except perhaps if you are a follower of one particular franchise whose players are adorned in black pin stripes—a club with 40 World Series appearances. Dare I utter “the New York Yankees” in these parts? Continue reading

When the deal doesn’t go down

The last of the old school Celtics.

The last of the old school Celtics.

The NBA trading deadline came and went. Residents of Celtics Nation (of whom I count myself one) were equal parts relieved and disappointed. The relief for many came when the team’s two aging superstars, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, weren’t dealt. The disappointment camp felt that both of these players, on the downside of stellar NBA careers and sure Hall-of-Fame inductees, could have brought pieces for the future. Some believe not trading one or both of them now will result in their value continuing to diminish. Continue reading

Boston sports fans, what ails ‘ya?

Boston’s prominence as a sports city has been documented in various places, including here and here. It’s been said that the Hub’s sports fans are a nation onto their own; loud, boisterous, but yet knowledgeable and fair.

Jim Rome, a sports talker of national renown refers to Boston fans as “chowds,” and has often been much kinder to Boston’s fans than he usually is to other sports hubs.

Boston’s baseball fans are reputedly more  well-versed on the nuances of the national pastime than in most of the other 29 MLB cities, although former Sox closer, Jonathan Papelbon, would demur. Continue reading

A winter without pucks

Matt Kassian vs Darcy Hordichuk, 9/20/2011, AP Photo

Matt Kassian vs Darcy Hordichuk, 9/20/2011, AP Photo

In a country with fading memories of the triumphs of unionism and their inherent power to better the economic conditions of working people, it’s interesting that the only remaining labor issues involve round black objects–Ding Dongs and hockey pucks. Actually, the reason pucks aren’t flying around hockey rinks might have something to do with the non-snack food kind of ding dongs–people like Gary Bettman, Jeremy Jacobs, and I’ll include Donald Fehr, although adding Fehr to this list is probably a knee-jerk response typical of the union-baiting set, because it’s so much easier to blame the “greedy athletes.” (Actually, here is a really good article by Charles Pierce in Grantland on Fehr, and the economics of the NHL lockout and in the course of reading, a really good primer on what American corporate sports is all about. Read to the end of the first paragraph, the bit about Mike Illitch, billionaire pizza magnate and how he has turned an $8 million investment in 1982 into an investment now valued at $346 million, whether the team plays or not.) Continue reading

Why Rondo got suspended (and Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband didn’t even get fined)

Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband knocks Rajon Rondo to the floor early in Wednesday night’s game.

For a brief period yesterday, football and the Patriots got pushed off the front pages and down the list of topics covered by Boston’s talk radio morons hosts. The reason was that Rajon Rondo, the point guard that fans love to hate, pushed Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband into the crowd after he committed a flagrant foul on the Celtics’ Kevin Garnett. Continue reading

It’s all about the energy

I’m a big basketball fan. My favorite team is the Boston Celtics. If you are a fan of the NBA and follow the professional game at all, you know that the Celtics are one of the league’s iconic teams.

Like all organizations that have been around for any length of time, there are those periods when you lose your way, requiring reassessment and analysis to figure out what’s gone wrong. That’s where the Celtics were at during the summer of 2007 after closing out a dismal 2006-2007 season with a record of 24-58 in April, one of the worst Celtics’ seasons ever.

The team’s general manager, Danny Ainge, who had played for the Celtics during the Larry Bird glory years in the 1980s knew something had to be done and made a couple of amazing chess moves on the personnel side. This resulted in the long-awaited 17th banner that fans had been clamoring for since 1986, the last year the storied team won a championship. Continue reading