Coyne's Clippings

Dan Wetzel - A wild success A story on the success of the wild card and how Bud Light seems to have done decent job as commish. Some great info to back up his point.

Francona the Zookeeper

New York Post Sports Nelson de la Rosa aka: the Latin Mini-Me makes an appearance in the Sox clubhouse... words fail expression...

Toronto Star A booze story on Blue Jays catcher Greg Zaun who has given up drinking. An interesting read, anyone care to guess the aforementioned hotspot he went to in Providence?

Zaun says he can handle friends sipping wine at dinner. His only real temptation came on a night off during a trip to Providence, R.I., with Toronto's Triple-A affiliate.

Zaun's biggest help staying off booze has come from his girlfriend, Jamie Thibert, whom he met on a road trip to Cincinnati last season. She was managing the bar at a steakhouse...

Coyne's Clippings

Bob Ryan - Backup keeps popping up (from Sunday) In addition to BR's crazy quote, I didn't realize Mirabelli caught three pop ups, COOL!

"(Ah, the good old days, before managers started using PCs and drinking bottled water instead of scotch)."

And C.H.B. has some interesting stuff at the bottom of his article Sunday. Any hear Pedro drop an F-bomb live on NESN after Friday's game as Shaughnessy asserts?

Meanwhile, Martinez is never going to live down the "Yankees are my daddy" quote. In one expletive-interrupted midnight confession (the f-bomb heard live on NESN), he said the Yankees owned him. He provided back-page headlines for the rest of his career. It sounded like he quit.

Coyne's Clippings - Fustration is high

Shaughnessy - He's just a babe in these woods "What can I say? I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy," said a frustrated Pedro...

Clearly better than Curt Schilling's line earlier in the week of "Because you don't see us playing grab-ass on the field doesn't mean a thing", but sad part is that's the only thing Pety has been better than Schil at this season.

Pedro's line reminds me of the line he had in 2001 when he said 'I don't believe in curses, wake up the Bambino and I'll drill him in the ass.' Of course we all know Pedro didn't win another game that year (from early summer-on) and went on the DL a couple of times.

Coyne's Clippings - Chief Metawampe statue vandalized

The Daily Collegian - Chief Metawampe statue vandalized

Again, words fail me at a time like this. But apparently not our fearless leader, Larry Snyder, Assoc. Director of Buildings and Grounds.

"The Chief is okay, but he's damaged,"...he continued..."The poor guy is in our [The Physical Plant's] storage facility until we can fix him."

Coyne's Clippings

Bob Ryan - The 'W' he gets for this is: Wow BR with a great article after a couple of weeks off. And for the record, I like the headline.

- Jerry Remy said it was the best game any Red Sox pitcher has thrown all year, and I don't know about you, but when the Rem Dog barketh, I nod in agreement.
All 14 of his season-high punchouts were swinging.
- Said Dave Roberts, a former Dodger, "He was pitching, not trying to blow guys away. He had them off-balance. He was in complete control."
- You know what? This game was the opening night of Curt Schilling's personal second season. You'll see.

And Nick Cafardo, who I'm not a big fan of, has a decent article. It just happens to be about the Pats saftey Eugene Wilson. There are also examples of how great Belichick is, as well the stardard Patriots answers to things. It just reinforces the point that everyone buys into Patriot Mantra.

UMass grad Dan Wetzel follows up with our team Cheyney that got blown out a couple of weeks ago. The Wolves posted a triumphiant win over West Virginia State, 6-0, this past weekend. Good for them, here's my earlier post on them.

Coyne's Clippings

Sunday's Dan Shaughnessy article: "So now the Sox trail the Yankees again by 3 1/2 games with only 15 to play. If Martinez doesn't beat New York today, the Sox realistically can give up the Quixotic hope of totally erasing that 10 1/2-game deficit of mid-August."

Coyne's Clippings

C.H.B - Unrelenting rivalry moves into lion's den Shaughnessy's all fired up... and includes rumor in his story..

Varitek has been vilified in New York since the brawl. The episode even inspired an urban legend that held Varitek taunted Rodriguez by telling him, "We don't bother hitting .260 hitters."

"I never said that," a chuckling Varitek said while standing in front of his locker before the Sox' 11-4 win over Tampa Bay last night. "It's like when some New York guy wrote that [Curt] Schilling and I had a problem. Probably the same guy. Let's just play baseball and let the teams get the job done on the field."

Bob Ryan is all a tizzy over Colin Montgomerie... it just doesn't do it for me though.

And the Providence Journal has a little piece on Ryan Gomes helping out his younger teammates.

Coyne's Clippings

New York Daily News - A piece that shows that the Mets are just a mess. They can't even fire their manager!

Additionally, people have been asking me about grad classes... here's my take, I think its ap-pra-po (spelling? us grad students have the vocab, not the grammer) with all the hurricanes out there

GA classes are like tidal waves in the ocean. I'm like the bouy out there, I'm hangin in there, but leaning from side to side pretty heavily. Just when I think I'm ok I get blind sided by another wave of information. Still learning how to brace myself. We'll see how long it takes.

Kazmir's an All-Star

Red Sox - Rays are spoilsports: Best line of the article regarding future All-Star Scott Kazmir

"'I was very impressed with how he was able to throw the curveball, for someone to make me look that silly,' said Johnny Damon,"

And here's the Globe profile article which goes a little more indepth with our rookie phenom. Flat out, he could be pitching for the Mets right now. As soon as they fire Art Howe, and pry away Lou Pinella from Tampa, things will be okay. Jim Duquette or who ever had the final say on the Victor Zambrano trade should be fired immediately. And not just from the Mets, fired from professional baseball. Let them spend a couple of years at the collegiate level getting back in touch with the game, and learning who is good, and who isn't! Here's to Tampa hitting its goal of a team-record 70-wins on the season.

And our man Joe Burris has an article on Connecticut quarterback Dan Orlovsky who leads the Huskies against Boston College this Friday.

Don't know why I'm putting this article in here, other than the fact Burris is the man, and I want to see how bad one of these teams shows up on Friday night. Who plays on Friday night by the way? Its high school football night in my mind, you're devaluing your program by bowing to the demands of ESPN. And if you talk about exposure, what high school recruit is going to watch your game on a Friday? WINS get more respect than anything else. Look at New Hampshire who posted huge wins at Delaware (good riddence) and at Rutgers (suprising because I thought maybe coach Schiano had turned the program around). The Wildcats are what its all about, NOT Friday night college football.

Must be a good news day, and the Providence Journal kicks in with a little research on this school Cheyney that got clobbered by Northeastern two weeks ago, 71-0. Apparently they got crushed again this past week against Western Illinois, 98-7.

The shame of it all

Coaches and administrators at Cheyney University in Pennsylvania should be ashamed of themselves for what happened to their football team the last two weeks. Cheyney, a Division II school (think Bryant), scheduled not one but two Division I-AA opponents this season. And on consecutive weekends! The results were humiliating: Northeastern 71, Cheyney 0; Western Illinois 98, Cheyney 7.

Playing up a division can be a rewarding experience, even if a loss is inevitable. URI players will always remember their trip to Syracuse two years ago, despite the 63-17 drubbing. Plus, the financial guarantee from a I-A opponent helps ease the sting of defeat.

But there is no excuse for putting a team in position to lose by such wide margins as Cheyney did. Fifteen freshmen started against Northeastern, ranked No. 21 in The Sports Network I-AA preseason poll and No. 18 this week. The offense generated 149 yards, and the defense allowed 563.

Western Illinois, ranked No. 16, scored touchdowns on 14 possessions and ended its 15th by taking a knee as time expired. Cheyney's offense produced 190 yards this time, and the defense gave up 688. Western Illinois rushed for 517 yards. The score was 42-0 after the first quarter and 70-0 at the half. Western Illinois coach Don Patterson played his fourth-stringers in the fourth quarter and struggled to keep them from scoring.

"This was one of the more awkward positions in coaching that I have ever been in," he said on the school's Web site. "In 30 years of coaching I just have never seen a game like tonight's. My concern was that there is a moral dilemma. What were we going to do? The men in that game were intent on proving to their coach that they were better than fourth-team players, and you have to admire them for that."

Cheyney coach Lee Brown said: "We knew this game was going to be grueling and a learning experience for our players and for our coaches. We knew that Northeastern and Western Illinois were two of the top Division I-AA programs in the country, and we had realistic expectations about this experience when we scheduled the games. But the bottom line wasn't about the game. It was about the opportunity to acquire something to take with us for the next eight weeks of the season . . . for our team to experience the game at the finest level we could."

Brown should reconsider if another I-AA school calls for a date in 2005. His team also lost its opener to D-II Lock Haven, 35-19.

Coyne's Clippings

Bud Collins - Tennis / Warm feeling from bagels

Now I think Bud Collins is one of the best sports writers at the Globe, and as far as knowing history on the game of tennis, he'd be my phone-a-friend. And I know that he writes zany, wears loud clothing and is a flat out good-guy. But this article on Roger Federer (first time I've ever typed a tennis players' name) down at the US Open is just wacky... If you ever see something more outlandish than this, I'd like to read it.

And for anyone that cares (which is no one, I know) Patty Shea, UMass field hockey head coach, needs to go. She a nice person, but talk about a program headed in the wrong direction. They're well on their way to a second staight 4-15 season. Having started off the year a robust 0-5, the team has been shutout 13-0 in its last two games. In fact, the squad has scored just two goals this year. Just like we were pushing for CanCarrie.com last year, I vote for PunishPatty.com

Sunday's News - Sept. 12, 2004


Dan Shaughnessy is off his rocker.

Truly, this 86-year Red Sox epic is the greatest sports story ever told, a quest of biblical proportions (the Sox even have a Jesus action figure playing center field), with layer upon layer of history, character, and subplot. The chase transcends sports and is followed, and chronicled, by giants of film, poetry, and music.

Coyne's Clippings

Shaughnessy on Ichiro Suzuki:This is why I don't like him! Along with the fact he constantly stretches in the field, he stole Shea Hillenbrand's Rookie of the Year award in 2001, and he calls himself by his first name! Conform to the rules of our game, or leave! (I know that sounds like a dictatorship, so I guess that means long live Bud Selig!)

"As the designated hitter last night, he led off the game with a single off Tim Wakefield's glove and scored Seattle's first run. But sometimes he annoys the opposition, like Wednesday against the Indians when he bunted for a base hit with two outs and a runner on second while the Mariners trailed by two in the fourth inning. The attempt failed and the inning ended. Similar selfish attempts have been tried other times during this historic march. Last night, he tried a two-out bunt with a runner on second and was thrown out by Wakefield."

Coyne's Clippings

Shaughnessy - They're letting their hair down

Then Pedro Martinez, last night's starter, stopped cutting his now jerri-curled hair, believed to be a tribute to a retro-haired Boston Globe columnist who was once labeled "Curly-Haired Boyfriend" by Carl Everett.

A reference to the origins of "C.H.B."! I think it came from the 1999 Ron Kulpa head-butting season.

And I would be remiss if I didn't note our Bryant women's soccer team, which rolled up a 21-0 win over the weekend. Their assistant coach assured me they were NOT running up the score though. He is also a Yankees fan though, and thinks Roger Clemens thought the bat was a ball when he hurled it at Mike Piazza.

Patriots - No flash in the plan

Soft spoken Joe Burris with an interesting piece talking about Tom Brady, and the psych of the game. The meat of the article where it discusses Winning Traits is pretty interesting.

"A winner has that Paul Silas, Bill Russell, Hondo [John] Havlicek ability to be ferociously competitive yet in full control, particularly at critical junctures of the game," Doyle said. "During competition, winners employ the sports psychology mantra of staying in the present, they don't worry about what just happened or what will happen.

Coyne's Clippings

I had my first grad class last night, Dr. Shaw for Marketing Management. It was pretty good, we got out an hour early, and there was this one dumb woman who kept asking questions or we probably would have gotten out earlier. By the end of class though, the teacher made fun of her for asking so many questions (one was about the format of the final) so that's been my impression on the difference between undergrad and grad classes: the teachers make fun of you.

I plan on keeping my mouth shut and sitting in the back.

ContraCostaTimes - Bambino's grandson claims 'Curse' is a sham

Interesting read regarding Harry Frazee and the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. My question is why is this written in a California newspaper? I know that's where Frazee's grandson is, but why would the editor of a California paper let the writer do this piece? No one in New England will read this, and no one in your readership market cares!

Coyne's Clippings

Went to the Sox game on Sunday afternoon, of course there's nothing better than a win.

This was clearly the highlight of the afternoon.

But Schilling's most important throws of the day may have been directed toward first base. In the fifth inning, he was determined to pick off Gary Matthews. He came close on his first three attempts. On his fourth throw, Schilling caught the Texas right fielder off the bag. The play sent a message about Schilling's determination, the determination needed to continue the team's hot streak on the road, catch the Yankees, and possibly much more.

Coyne's Clippings

Dan Shaughnessy (C.H.B.): "General George Steinbrenner had signs posted inside and outside Yankee Stadium last night. The message was, 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going.' (He probably also gave a locker room pep talk, starting with, 'Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No, and it ain't over now!')."

22-0 Worst Lost in Franchise History

New York Post

The Yanks look like Rosie O'Donnell trying to hold off Michael Phelps in the 100 butterfly.

Words fail me at a time like this... all I can say its that today is a beautiful day, cue the U2.