Providence lost to undefeated Boston College Wednesday night, mainly because it didn't take (or make) any free throws...

Coyne's Clippings

Bob Ryan came to the Providence / Boston College game last night, of course, PC did its part to make the game competitve, yet still lose. 0-5 in the BIG EAST does NOT do wonders for your national rankings. Interstingly enough, PC has the nation's No. 2 ranked toughest schedule behind only Kansas... I think it was too tough because we can't win a thing.

Part of the negative media relations our office is NOT putting out is that Providence is one of a hanful of programs across the country that still have yet to win a conference game. We're fully entrenched with Iowa State, Purdue, Campbell and of course, Saint Bonaventure. Hey it could be worse, we could be winless on the year like Savannah State, 0-23.

Also, Tim now has a web blog based on political mumbo-jumbo... looks a lot like mine!

Coyne's Clippings

Bob Ryan professes "Now I have sworn complete allegiance to The Man In The Hooded Sweatshirt".

And this was something I've been meaning to post, Dick Baker from the Springfield Republican has a great article on the Bryant University (they changed from a College this past fall) basketball teams. The best are the quotes from Max Good (men's head coach) who talks about why he hates playing zone so much, and why he never yells at officials. Something that only a true Bryant Bball follower would know!

A view out the back window to the apartments behind us Sunday afternoon. Sometimes I feel like we live in shantyville... this picture sums it up.

The Italian market across the street all snowed in Sunday morning. Notice the phone booth that has all the plowed snow almost covering it.

A view down Atwells Ave which on a Sunday morning, is usually filled with Sunday morning coffee / newspaper types at all the little Italian places...

The car snowed in Sunday morning. Notice there's no snow on the roof thanks to the 35 mph winds that where whipping around. Also, the snow drifts all the way up the side. You can see where I opened the passenger door to get the car started.

Let It Snow!

Coyne's Clippings

A couple of things while we wait for this huge blizzard to snow us in for a couple of days...

People in Cinci (or at least this writer) think Corey Dillon is a fraud and the team attitude he shows with the Pats is merely a farce.

The Spicy Italian (Calapari) is in some REAL hot water. One of his players, junior guard Jeremy Hunt is accused of beating a woman. But that's not all, star player Sean Banks didn't make grades this semester, and can't play the rest of the year. It's a season that needs to end immediately, you can see all their crap the program is going through here on their website. As bad as PC's record it, at least we're not dealing with stuff like this. I am real thankful for that.

This Memphis stuff is an SI story away from getting real ugly. Hopefully Calapari makes through this, and is able to stay on as HC.

THIS is Friartown

Coyne's Clippings

A couple of articles from today's Globe while the reality of a 9-8 (Providence MBB) season (including a win over a Division II team) sets in... Mark Blaudschun on Mark Whipple coaching Big Ben and a little look back at a year ago at UMass. Then there was this story on the "other" guys at the Sox who do a lot of Theo's dirty work... An interesting read, but nothing shocking to me. I guess that ideally where you want to end up, but you certainly don't see a job posting laying around to be the assistant to the GM.

The best part of the game (no lie, we lost)

Providence men's basketball at The RAC.

Needed a little color on the ole webpage...

Coyne's Clippings

Hasn't been much to write about as far as things go, the Patriots keep rolling, the Red Sox have been pretty quite, UMass men's basketball is as inconsistient as ever, and Providence men's basketball can't win...

Dan Shaughnessy has a feel good story on the Pats.

PS - What's up with Pittsburgh men's basketball? They lose to Bucknell and Georgetown, then lose AGAIN last night to St. John's!?! And Georgetown took Syracuse to overtime, IN SYRACUSE! What in the wide-world of sports is happening in the BIG EAST? I guess that bodes well for PC (currently 0-3) in that you could go 10-6 in the conference and be right in the middle of things. I guess it also reflects on how wide open the BIG EAST is this year, and that there are no power teams. It looks like the ACC all the way.

Dan Shaughnessy - May 26, 2002

BUNT NOT DOWN BUT FANS ARE POOR EXECUTION FROM OFFERMAN CRUCIAL BUNT NOT DOWN, SO NOW FANS ARE, A BIT - The most violet piece of writing I've ever seen. First read during graduation from the University of Massachusetts. It sets the standard for ripping someone.

It was all going a little too smoothly. Beating the Yankees was getting to be almost routine at the Fens and fans came to the park yesterday fully expecting another Red Sox win. Why not? The Sox already had taken five of six from New York this year and had the hottest pitcher in baseball on the mound.

There was actually too much good news for all of us to handle. Red Sox and Celtics success on the heels of the Patriot magic carpet ride brought national attention to New England for Memorial Day weekend. Toss in some rare sunshine and Beantown was finally feeling like the true Hub of the Universe.

But then Jose Offerman couldn't get a bunt down and the Sox' world crumbled.

Let us consider for a moment the piece of junk that is Offerman. He gets paid $6.5 million per year, hits .250 with zero speed and power, can't get a bunt down in a crucial situation, then won't talk about his failure after a 3-2 loss to the Yankees.

Really, would it be that tough for Offerman to tell Red Sox fans what happened up there? Maybe he thinks manager Grady Little was asking him to do something that he shouldn't be asked to do. Certainly, you wouldn't ask Manny Ramirez to bunt. But Offerman? Please, Jose. Do tell.

This isn't the first time this year Offerman's inability to perform the fundamental task cost a ballgame. He tried to bunt (sort of) in the eighth inning of a tie game Opening Day and popped up. The Sox lost by a run.

Yesterday, Offerman came up with men on first and second, none out, and the Sox trailing by a run in the eighth. Obvious bunt situation. But again, Offerman looked about as happy as a man who'd been ordered to attend a Kevin Costner film festival.

Offie gave it the standard halfhearted effort, fouled off one bunt attempt, pulled back and took a strike on another, then eventually got to swing at a 3-and-2 pitch and grounded into a rally-killing double play. That's when Yankees manager Joe Torre made the call to Mariano Rivera and for all practical purposes, the game was over. Offerman is 5 for 41 on this homestand.

Call him Offie. Call him Jose. Call him a bowser. Just call him a cab. Get him gone.

"Offie has been doing some good things for us on this ball club [he did make an excellent throw home in the first]," said the generous Little. "It just didn't work out for him right then."

Did Little think about pinch hitting (Framingham Lou Merloni can get a bunt down) for Offerman?

"We thought about it, but you know, Offie has gotten bunts down before in his lifetime. Probably more times when he was bunting for a base hit, which is a technique he tried to use right there, but it just didn't work."

Privately, Little's bosses were less generous in their assessment of Offerman's efforts. Pass the mustard. It could be time to swallow the salary. Those who keep applauding Dan Duquette for his creation of the 2002 Sox need to remember that Offerman was one of his biggest signings.

The loss prevented the Sox from moving to 20 games over .500 for the first time this season. Five of the seven Red Sox-Yankee games this year have been decided by one run and the Yankees have a shot at a weekend split tonight when Mike Mussina goes against Darren Oliver.

The Yanks look good anytime Mussina is on the hill and that's why the Sox figured Saturday in the park was a lock with red-hot Derek Lowe pitching.

"It's good to think that, but they're not easy to beat," said Lowe (7-2, 2.12). "I pitched OK, but OK against these guys is not good enough. It's too bad because we had a chance to win three straight games against them, which is not easy to do. I had a chance to pitch better, and I didn't."

Lowe, Yankees starter David Wells, and four relievers all were victimized by plate umpire Jim Reynolds, who missed more times than Paul Pierce in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Like most of sporting New England, Lowe and his teammates are caught up in the Celtics' quest to make it to the NBA Finals and many of the Henrymen went to the New Garden for the 5:30 start of the Celtics-Nets game. The baseball players didn't give themselves much cushion. The Sox and Yankees took 3 hours 18 minutes to play nine innings.

"I looked up and we had already played an hour and it was only the second inning," said catcher Jason Varitek.

"We would have liked a fast game," added Lowe, a huge hoops fan. "We were supposed to leave here for the [Celtics] game at 4:30."

Eventually they made it, and saw the incredible Celtics comeback.

But at Fenway there was just poor execution and a missed opportunity. Offerman couldn't get the bunt down and New England's perfect weekend dissolved.

This issue was brought up by some friends in reponse to the article written in the Providence Journal about the lowly Providence women's basketball team. Basically, its not that bad in my mind, and more so, its factual, accurate and has the right to be written.

Coyne's Clippings

Former Sox Wade Boggs gets elected into the Baseball Hall Of Fame, and Dan Shaughnesy has a recap of his career both on and off the field. Here's one of my favorite parts...

Two years later, his personal life became tabloid news and put Wade and Debbie Boggs on an interview couch with Barbara Walters after a California woman filed a $6 million palimony suit against him. Later that summer, he got into a fight with Dwight Evans aboard the team bus, but Boggs was a guy who could turn down the sound when he got into the batter's box. Despite all the public ugliness in '88, he still batted .366 to win his fourth consecutive batting title, fifth in six years.

There were more absurd moments after that. He said the newly constructed 600 Club diminished his power. He said he escaped a knife-wielding assailant by willing himself invisible. He fell out of the family Jeep when Debbie wheeled out of a Winter Haven restaurant parking lot. After the back tire ran over his arm, leaving the imprint of a steel-belted radial, Wade displayed the wound and announced, "I'm the white Irving Fryar."

In the spring of 1992, one year after the fall of the Soviet Union, Boggs announced, "The Red Sox always win the World Series the year after the Russian Revolution." Historian Wade was citing the 1918 Sox, who won it all after the 1917 uprising in St. Petersburg forced the czar to abdicate. Unfortunately, the 1992 Red Sox finished last under Butch Hobson. Sox fans were Bolshevik. Boggs, too. He didn't like Boston's contract offer and went to New York where he won his only World Series ring (1996).

Get Out The Pens!

East Longmeadow needs to make a voice heard!

Requests for the 2004 World Series Trophy visits may be submitted in writing to:

Colin Burch
Boston Red Sox
4 Yawkey Way
Boston, MA 02215

Sox Press Release

B.R. with a good article from Dec. 29, while Shaughnessy says goodbye to 2004, the best year of your life.