Sporting Word, at davedonofrio.com

A sudden end

2010-01-11T17:01:00Z

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Before yesterday's wild-card playoff game, the New England Patriots urged their fans to get seated at Gillette Stadium by 10 minutes before kickoff.

They didn't say why, or share details; they just said something big was going to happen early in the afternoon.

Little did they realize that surprise would come courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens.

Ray Rice shocked the 68,756 people in the seats by going 83 yards on the first snap from scrimmage, Le'Ron McClain joined him in the end zone less than four minutes later, and the Ravens piled on 24 points in the stunning first quarter of a 33-14 win that simultaneously eliminated the Patriots from the NFL postseason and smacked any semblance of mystique clear off New England's collective face.

"It's very disappointing because we played this game like it wasn't a playoff game. It

just felt like we was out there just to be out there," said Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork. "We talked all week about how we needed to step our game up - and we didn't. We didn't, and it showed."

The replacement

2010-01-10T11:57:00Z

With an act of brazen insubordination, followed by a show of intense solidarity, football season came to an end for California's Woodside High School.

It wasn't supposed to end. Not for another few weeks. But after the team's fifth straight loss, Head Coach Packy Moss reportedly returned to the dressing room and heard his players pounding on their lockers in rhythm with the chant, "(Bleep) Packy." When none of them would give her the names of those leading the mutiny, the school's principal canceled the rest of the 2003 campaign.

Moss resigned before 2004, leaving Woodside with some motivated athletes in his wake. They wanted to prove they were better, both as players and as people, than the perception of them after three straight losing seasons and the ugly chanting incident - so they used it as fuel. They focused on their job. They fought for their reputation. And they followed the lead of their quarterback.

His name was Julian Edelman.

"He was a leader," said Steve Nicolopulos, who took over for Moss as Woodside's coach. "He was one of the main characters. Kids looked up to him; he set the tone by example.

"He knew how to take care of business - and he took care of business."

A year after its season was truncated by turmoil, Edelman's three-touchdown title game helped Woodside cap a 13-0 season with a state sectional championship. And more than five years later, Nicolopulos is confident the New England Patriots can count on his former player to take care of business again.

See more at ConcordMonitor.com

Middle of the pack

2009-12-03T15:32:00Z

Maybe he got caught up in the moment, or overcome by the atmosphere created by a Superdome crowd drunk on delirium (among other things). But while sending his viewers to a commercial break with only 5:26 left in his broadcast of Monday Night Football, and the Saints in command of the 38-17 lead that ultimately stood as the game’s final margin, ESPN’s Mike Tirico couldn’t get over what he’d just witnessed.

“This score,” he told us, “is shocking.”

Really, though, it shouldn’t have been.

Not in the least.

After all, results like the one-sided slaughter rendered that night in New Orleans are rather commonplace when a member of the NFL’s elite meets an opponent from the league’s middle-class – and that was exactly the sort of matchup that played out Monday for Tirico’s primetime television audience.

Forget the week’s worth of hype. Forget the expectations of an instant classic. Forget the idea of a showdown. By the time Drew Brees had used the second quarter to become the first quarterback ever to throw three touchdowns in the same period against a Bill Belichick-coached team, it was clear his balanced, explosive and super-athletic Saints were every bit the title contender their 11-0 record would suggest.

And just as clear that the Patriots were on a different level altogether.

Headed for trouble

2009-11-16T19:26:00Z

We saw the look so often, some of us in New England might’ve thought they started using it as Peyton Manning’s headshot. Cheeks scrunched. Mouth agape. Hands on the helmet. And befuddlement all over the face.

It didn’t matter if it was a midseason game at home in his dome, or a midwinter game on the frigid field in Foxborough. Marked by that quizzical look, and the mediocrity that matched it, every time the Colts’ quarterback went up against the Patriots in the early part of this decade he appeared a different guy than the one who’d routinely carve the rest of the league – and so many reached the same conclusion: Bill Belichick must’ve been in Manning’s head.

Sunday night, however, we learned that those roles have been reversed.

At the end of a decade during which each has established himself as a no-doubt hall of famer, it’s become Belichick whose judgment is clouded by the presence of the other. Who cowers fearfully at the brilliance of his foe. And who lets that lack of mental clarity cripple his decision making at the most critical moments.

That was a fact proven painfully on Sunday, when Belichick made an inexplicable – and inexcusable – choice in trying to convert a fourth down from his own 28 with a six-point lead and two minutes left, and it cost New England a key conference game, 35-34, in Indianapolis. Forfeiting 40 yards of field position, it was reckless. It was foolhardy.

But it wasn’t the first evidence to suggest Manning has made his way into Belichick’s head.

See more at ConcordMonitor.com

Start spreading the views

2009-11-06T18:29:00Z

Tying the bow on baseball season with a World Series observation for every game it took for the Yanks to give the Phillies the downtime necessary to discover the lotta, lotta culture their city has to offer ...

1) Overcome by the inevitable talk of cash flow and competitive inequity, something rather significant has so far been ignored in discussions of New York's postseason dominance. It took its first hit in 2001, and the hits got harder each year thereafter, but this fall marked the return of the Yankees as an intimidating presence.

The proof is in the path to title No. 27. The Yankees went 11-4 in the playoffs, and in each series left themselves three opportunities to close things out. Never did they need more than two – though it's not as if they enjoyed a cakewalk every night. Of the 15 games, the Yankees actually trailed in 11 of them. Six were tied in the seventh inning or later. And eight of New York's 11 wins were decided by the three runs or less.

But the Yankees wound up on the right side of those results because all three of their opponents played scared in the pivotal moments. As a team New York hit just .225 against Minnesota, .279 against Los Angeles, and .247 against Philly, but all three of those clubs seemed to feel a pressure that they needed to make every play perfectly in order to compete with the high-and-mighty Yankees, and they wound up looking tight, and stiff, and trying way to hard because of it.

The Twins and Angels -- the AL's first- and fourth-ranked defensive clubs during the regular season – uncharacteristically combined to make 10 errors in the nine games they played against New York, some of which were as silly as dropped throws to first base, or tosses sailed to Brooklyn. And while the Phillies were a bit better -- with only two official miscues -- they were hardly mistake-free. Just look at gold-glover Shane Victorino allowing Derek Jeter's routine fly to fall in front of him to start the series-winning rally in Game 6.

Based on last year, and their performance earlier in this postseason, we wouldn't have expected such failure from the Phillies. But this Yankee team – this never-ending onslaught of superstars and swagger – had a way of owning the moment while making others feel inferior. And that's where the game's biggest payroll might've paid off the most.

2) We in Boston should never gripe about the Yankees' ability to outspend the competition, given our perennial status among baseball's biggest spenders. But the argument seems particularly out of place this year, given what New York's title signifies in a broader perspective.

People say the disparity between those with and those without continues to widen, but if the end-game for every organization is winning a championship, then that's simply not true. By winning the Series, the Yankees (as would have the Phillies) ensured that there would be eight franchises who won world titles in this decade.

That's the second-most diversity in the history of the World Series. The only period with more was the 1980s, when the Dodgers were the only two-time champion, and only two others (1920s and 1960s) had as many as seven.

As a point of comparison, in seasons that finished between 2000-09, the NFL has had seven teams win titles; the NHL had seven (in nine seasons); and the NBA had six.

Sounds like baseball's got some parity, to me.

3) Alex Rodriguez reminded us how hard it is to really like him in the aftermath of Game 6, when even after winning his first World Series he somehow managed to come off as a phony. But this year he also reminded us how great a player he really is.

Flash back to February. It's just been revealed that A-Rod took steroids. His career is at a crossroads. His personal life is in turmoil. There's a behind-the-scenes book coming out about him. Oh, and he'll soon need hip surgery that's being riskily modified so he must only miss the opening month. It looked like Rodriguez's days as dominant player might be done.

Then he proved all that wrong. Statistically he had a stellar season, managing 30 homers and 100 RBI despite playing just 124 games, as well as an adjusted OPS of 143 that ranked fourth in the American League. What was even more remarkable, though, was that -- for as much credit as Mark Teixeira, and Derek Jeter, and CC Sabathia, and Mariano Rivera all received for maybe being the MVP of the Yankees -- A-Rod is really just as worthy as any of them.

When he came back on May 8, New York owned a record of 13-15, and was 5.5 games back of Toronto in the Eastern division. Only four AL clubs had worse records, and Teixeira was hitting .198. From that point forward, though, the Yankees went 101-48, soared over every team in their way, and Teixeira hit .310 with 34 homers and 107 RBI with A-Rod protecting him the rest of the way.

Add in an excellent postseason -- he had a 1.308 OPS -- and suddenly a contract running through 2017 doesn't seem as ridiculous as it might've nine months ago.

4) Speaking of reconciled images ... can anyone begin to understand what it must've been like to be Roger Clemens on Wednesday night? Picture him sitting at home in Kady, with Mindy McCready's latest melodies lingering in the background, while Debbie is rubbing the hottest possible liniments on – well, let's not picture THAT part – and watching the postgame show with some of the biggest imaginable regrets.

Not only was A-Rod on stage in all his glory less than a year after being linked to performance enhancers -- but so, too, was Andy Pettitte. The same Andy Pettitte who was tied to drugs along with Clemens, but chose to treat those accusations very differently. And who is today being paraded as a champion, not a cheater.

The Rocket couldn't help but think that if he had done what Pettitte did, and merely came clean immediately, his life would be entirely different than it is today. He, too, would be being celebrated -- instead of being ostracized in embarrassment. Let his be a lesson to all.

5) Red Sox fans who saw the Series and would suddenly be willing to take whichever free agent the Yankees don't retain -- either Hideki Matsui or Johnny Damon -- let that six-game set also remind us why that would be a bad idea unless it's at a bargain-basement price.

As I was discussing with a friend about five seconds before he launched his two-run homer off Pedro Martinez, Matsui is still a guy the enemy never wants to see at the plate in a big spot. And Damon is a ballplayer's ballplayer who battles pitchers and makes the plays that help his team win.

But both are old. And subject to breakdowns. Damon had to be lifted from Game 6 after scoring (without a throw) from second base, having tweaked his leg. And Matsui's mobility was such an issue that he had to sit when the series moved to Philadelphia. It'd be crazy to think either is worth signing here as the Sox' replacement for Jason Bay.

6) It's time for the annual mea culpa, when I look back at my predictions at the start of the year ... and we all laugh at how stupid I am. Here goes nothin':

AL EAST
Prediction: Red Sox, Yankees*, Rays, Blue Jays, Orioles
Actual: Yankees, Red Sox*, Rays, Blue Jays, Orioles
Analysis: Not too bad, actually. Forgive me the hometown bias.

AL CENTRAL
Prediction: Indians, Twins, Tigers, White Sox, Royals
Actual: Twins, Tigers, White Sox, Indians, Royals
Analysis: I picked the team that used to have both guys who started Game 1 of the World Series. Too bad the leftovers really sucked.

AL WEST
Prediction: A's, Angels, Rangers, Mariners
Actual: Angels, Rangers, Mariners, A's
Analysis: I fell for it, Michael Lewis. To quote myself, circa March, "I love what Billy Beane did this offseason."

AL PLAYOFFS
Prediction: Red Sox over A's, 3-1; Indians over Yankees, 3-2; Red Sox over Indians, 4-2.
Analysis: Not. Even. Close.

NL EAST
Prediction: Mets, Phillies*, Marlins, Braves, Nationals
Actual: Phillies, Marlins, Braves, Mets, Nationals
Analysis: I'm never picking the Mets to win anything, ever again. Ever.

NL CENTRAL
Prediction: Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, Brewers, Astros, Pirates
Actual: Cardinals, Cubs, Brewers, Reds, Astros, Pirates
Analysis: I think I'll pick the Pirates to finish last next year, too. Living on the edge.

NL WEST
Prediction: Diamondbacks, Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Rockies
Actual: Dodgers, Rockies*, Giants, Padres, Diamondbacks
Analysis: I should stay up later watching games; for both western divisions, the team I picked to finish first finished last. Yikes.

NL PLAYOFFS
Prediction: Cubs over Phillies, 3-2; Diamondbacks over Mets, 3-2; Cubs over Diamondbacks, 4-2.
Analysis: We're worse off as baseball fans for not having seen that D'Backs-Mets NLDS. Would've been a doozy, I tell ya.

WORLD SERIES
Prediction: Red Sox over Cubs, 4-3.
Analysis: Maybe next year.

Clarifying for the critics

2009-11-04T16:06:00Z

Shame on me for not articulating this more clearly in the original column yesterday, but I wanted to quickly clarify a couple things -- particularly for anybody who may have been redirected here by the hilarious folks at Barstool Sports. I do not mean to suggest, nor do I believe, that the Red Sox are so vastly inferior to the Yankees that the gap between the teams is hopelessly insurmountable. And I do not mean to suggest, nor do I believe, that Josh Beckett is anything but an excellent major league pitcher. (If I didn't, I wouldn't think he'd be so valuable in trade.)

But I don't think it's debatable that the Red Sox have some work to do in order to catch up to the Yankees -- or that the Sox should try to close that gap as quickly as possible. And that's where Beckett comes in. He's got one year left on his contract, so he could be gone after next year anyway, and at 29 he's probably the Sox player other teams would most covet other than Jon Lester and maybe Dustin Pedroia. In other words, I think Theo could potentially turn his No. 2 starter (sorry, the 14th best ERA in the 14-team AL does not automatically make you an ace) into a solution at shortstop, at clean-up hitter, at the back of the rotation -- or maybe all three at once.

Ideally, I'd like them to keep Beckett and address those concerns by spending in free agency. But the fact of the matter is that the Sox don't do very well when simply opening up the wallet. Look at the 2009 roster: Their best players were brought in by trade (Martinez, Bay, Lowell, Beckett) or developed internally (Youkilis, Pedroia, Lester, Ellsbury, Papelbon). JD Drew had a good year, but he's the exception to the rule of free agency failure that has seen them -- in this past season alone -- write empty checks for guys like Lugo, Smoltz and Penny.

In the next 13 months the Sox could potentially lose Bay, Beckett, Martinez and Lowell; and a year after that Papelbon and Drew could be gone, too. That's a lot of talent to replace, particularly for a team that is already chasing the rival that just beat it by 8 games in the division race. If I had faith the Sox could simply use that freed money to fill those holes, and do it effectively, I'd be all for Beckett staying -- but I don't. They don't identify free-agent targets very well. And the Yankees won't let their archenemy outspend them for the elite commodities (see: Teixeira, Mark). That's why I think it's time to cash in on Beckett's reputation, get heaps of talent in return, and kickstart the rebuilding of a club that's going to look quite a bit different in a couple years.

By the way, let me know if you'd like to borrow any slightly used tin foil. I've been saving up.

Trumping the ace

2009-11-03T16:15:00Z

As the Yankees close in on their 27th title, it’s become clear they are the best team in baseball. They have a genuine ace at the head of an effective starting staff, a sturdy bullpen anchored by an untouchable closer, and a relentless lineup that never leaves them hopeless.

Along the course to their rival's 3-2 World Series lead it’s also become clear that the Red Sox have some work to do in order to narrow the gap between themselves and New York’s gold standard. They must add a slugger to the middle of the order. They must add reliability to a rotation that this September counted on Paul Byrd in a pennant race. They must add to a relief corps that became unsteady as summer turned to fall.

And they can make all those additions with one simple – if foundation-shaking – subtraction.

By trading Josh Beckett.

It isn’t something the Sox need to do. In fact, it isn’t something they should do if not presented with the proper, hole-plugging package. But in baseball’s realm of player evaluation there are perceptions, and there are realities – and Boston could be in position to capitalize on the fact that when it comes to Beckett those tend to be two different things.

The perception of Beckett is that he’s a bona fide ace. A guy who has earned a mention among the game’s elite, and is in the midst of his prime. A guy who grabs the ball and gets it done, whether it takes guts or guile or his own good stuff. A guy who delivers every five days through the summer, then can single-handedly wins playoff series in the fall. And, at times, he has been all that.

But, by and large, the reality has been something else altogether.

He was downright brilliant a couple years back, and Duck Boats rolled through Boston’s crowded streets because of it. He posted a 3.27 earned run average. He ranked second in the American League’s Cy Young voting. He won 20 games during the regular season. Then he won four more – while allowing only four runs over 30 innings – in the playoffs.

In reality, however, Beckett’s 2007 stands as the exception among his seasons since 2003. And essentially among his career on the whole.

Most probably don’t think it’s possible for a pitcher of his repute, but that season remains the only time in his eight big-league seasons that Beckett has finished among his league’s top 10 in terms of ERA. It’s also the only season in which he’s received even a single vote for the Cy (or the Most Valuable Player award, for that matter). And it’s the only year he’s won more than 17 games.

His total of 20 victories that year was tops in the AL, making it the only time Beckett has ever led the league in any remotely conventional pitching category -- a classification that doesn’t simply cover wins, ERA, strikeouts and innings, but also includes WHIP, adjusted ERA, whiff-to-walk ratio and pretty much anything else conceivable -- and that helps explain why he's only twice even been an All-Star.

With a 4.05 ERA as an American Leaguer, and 3.79 overall, he’s certainly had a decent career. But there’s a reason that, according to the comparison tool at baseball-reference.com, Beckett’s most comparable pitcher at age 27 and 28 was the remarkably mediocre Kevin Millwood. The year before that it was Ben McDonald.

By now we thought those names would be more like Roger Clemens. John Smoltz. Roy Halladay. Maybe even Curt Schilling or Kevin Brown. But because he’s been just merely good far more often than he’s been truly great, Beckett instead finds himself grouped with a troupe of middle-of-the-road types – and appropriately so.

He’s never struck out 200 in a season, he’s only once made it through a year without missing a start, and recently he’s even begun to relinquish his reputation as the best big-game pitcher of his generation. In his last four playoff starts the Sox have exactly one win, thanks to their starter’s 7.71 ERA and the opponents’ 1.014 on-base plus slugging average in 21 innings against him.

Clearly Boston's brass has lost some faith in him, evidenced by their choice of Jon Lester to open this year’s Division Series against the Angels; and the guess here is that you, too, as a Red Sox fan, have lost some faith in Beckett as well.

But there are plenty of people across baseball who haven’t yet. They see a 29-year-old who'll be a free agent next winter and perceive a pitcher in his prime. They see a sturdily built 6-foot, 4-inch right-hander and perceive a workhorse. They see the clutch performances of 2003, and 2007, and perceive him to be an automatic in the postseason. They see Josh Beckett and perceive him to be an ace worth paying a hefty price to acquire.

The reality, however, is something different. Cliff Lee is an ace. CC Sabathia is an ace. Beckett is not an ace.

But by boldly preying on perception, the Sox can this winter use the trade market to turn him into something even better: The trump card that helps them close the gap on those damn Yankees.

No chinks in his armor

2009-09-15T04:53:00Z

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – For much of this decade, most people in these parts believed Tom Brady was untouchable. He was so good, so often, he seemed superhuman compared with most quarterbacks. While they wore pads and jerseys, he appeared to be clad in a metal suit of armor.

Last night we learned, however, even that armor is prone to rust.

But once that’s knocked off, the man underneath – along with his magic – remains the same.

Trailing by 11 with barely five minutes left in New England’s season opener, Brady sandwiched two scoring drives between Buffalo’s fumbled kickoff and the Patriots somehow pulled out a 25-24 win that left the stunned Bills as losers of 12 straight against their division rivals.

“I’m really proud of the players,” said Bill Belichick, who couldn’t help his smile after watching Ben Watson haul in both of Brady’s bullets. “Not that we played our best, but we hung in there and came back and made the plays we had to make to win.”

The coach was speaking of his team as a whole, but in the process he summed Brady’s night in a nutshell.

Full tilt, full-time dad

2009-09-01T14:54:00Z

In his 35 years as an NFL Coach, Bill Belichick has had a hand in winning five Super Bowl championships. He's been to the big game seven times in total, while contributing to 13 division titles. And through all that team success he's guided his individual charges to 117 Pro Bowl selections.

He is unmatched in terms of both tenure and trophies in today's game, so when he speaks of a player in the scope of history his words are weighty. And, when doing so yesterday, so was his heart.

"How do I feel about Tedy Bruschi?" Belichick said with emotion that was as audible as it was uncharacteristic. "He's a perfect player."

History, as Belichick well knows, would argue with the coach. Bruschi was a role player at the start of his career, and a step too slow at the end. He doesn't boast statistics befitting a hall of famer. And of the aforementioned Pro Bowl bids, he accounted for just one of the 117 - that coming as Ray Lewis's injury replacement on the AFC's 2004 roster.

Yet it's easy to understand the coach's commendation, which came while the 36-year-old linebacker was announcing his retirement from football after 13 seasons. For almost a decade now, the New England Patriots have been built according to the vision and virtues of what Belichick expects of a football team.

And for just as long it's been Bruschi who has embodied those ideals better than anybody.

Junichi-wa

2009-08-12T14:14:00Z

BOSTON - Junichi Tazawa was an all-but-forgotten man on that evening in Manchester, seated between his interpreter and just a single reporter while the rest of the press corps huddled outside the dugout at Merchantsauto.com Stadium, eagerly anticipating the emergence of John Smoltz.

Smoltz, after all, was the hall of famer who was supposed to be the Red Sox's secret weapon for the second half. Officially he was on a rehab assignment, and technically he was something of a reclamation project, but many considered him more of an ace-in-waiting than either of those things. They expected he'd be a big part of Boston's pennant push and playoff run.

Last night, for example, was supposed to be one of those big starts Smoltz was brought here for. It was his turn in the rotation, and the team had lost six of seven. It was facing the Central Division leader. It began

the day up a half game in the wild card race.

But instead it was the afterthought who stood at center stage.

And who seized the spotlight rather nicely.

See more at ConcordMonitor.com.

Not time to panic quite yet

2009-08-11T13:26:17Z

Before going any further with this column, let's first take a field trip. To the porch. The parking lot. The window. Anywhere the outdoors are in sight. Then look up.

See. The sky isn't falling.

Chicken Little might have been screaming all weekend, and Sunday night it certainly felt as if the world's ceiling had, in fact, crashed on top of a crushed Red Sox Nation.

Yet it's still there this morning, even two days after Boston's baseball fans were forced to stomach their team being swept in four straight by the rival Yankees, and likely watching any aspirations of winning the American League East get brushed away with each game.

As of Aug. 3, the Sox were just a half-game out of the divisional lead, and tied with New York in the loss column. But after its collapse in the Bronx extended the club's overall skid to six games, and left it 0-for its-first-9 against winning teams since the All-Star break, Boston found itself 6½ games back going into last night's return to Fenway against Detroit.

That's hardly an insurmountable lead with eight weeks remaining in the regular season, particularly because the ebbs and flows of baseball's marathon suggest the Yankees can't possibly keep up the rabbit's pace that has allowed them to win 31 of 41 games since late June. They're almost certain to level off at some point.

But Sox fans shouldn't concern themselves with waiting for that day, and watching the scoreboard in the meantime. After this weekend there's no doubt the Yankees are right now the better team - and perhaps the best team in all the big leagues - so it'd be senseless to obsess over catching them. As Joey from the Bronx would tell you himself, just fugettaboutit.

Don't forget about the season as a whole, however. Because that's where - believe it or not - there's actually some reason for optimism.

Players' choice

2009-08-06T13:15:00Z

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - To really understand what Bill Belichick has accomplished during his tenure with the New England Patriots, we must first remember the state of the franchise before he arrived.

And not just the fact the franchise needed four head coaches to get through the 1990s. Or that it won just 68 of the 160 games it played during that decade. Or that it was regularly an afterthought in its own division, never mind the league at large.

Instead, remember that before Belichick came to town in 2000, Foxborough was a place about as welcoming as old Schaefer Stadium itself. It was football's equivalent of frozen metal bleachers, a place so dreadfully uninviting and unappealing that New England was hardly ever a viable option for the top-flight talent in free agency. Remember, it was a place future Hall of Famers like Bill Parcells and Curtis Martin couldn't wait to escape.

But when Belichick opened his 10th training camp as the Pats head coach last week, he did so in an entirely different place than he did his first. And not only because practice was held behind the state-of-the-art Gillette Stadium.

He did so surrounded by aspirations - expectations, even - of a trip to the Super Bowl, and by players who see Foxborough as the fastest way to get there. He did so having transformed football's Siberia into the sport's preeminent destination.

He did so with a variety of veteran free agents stretching around him, nine of whom figure to play a prominent role for New England this season, and every one of which signed with the Patriots for the same reason Roger Clemens became a Yankee, Ray Bourque became an Avalanche, and Bill Walton became a Celtic. They want to win. And they believe this is the best place to do that.

So while Belichick's first decade in Foxborough will forever be tangibly encased in sparkling sterling silver, and defined by a trio of Lombardi trophies, the intangible legacy of Belichick's first 10 years will be the way he changed the culture of the franchise, and its perception among players and pundits across the game.

Time to break out

2009-08-04T13:12:00Z

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - It's been three full seasons since Laurence Maroney arrived in New England to be the dash alongside Corey Dillon's smash, and to eventually carry the mail in the Patriots backfield. Yet, as he opened his fourth pro training camp last week, the 24-year-old runner still remained mostly enigmatic.

Is he the guy who has sporadically fit the bill of a first-round draft pick, and whose flashes of brilliance have included a five-game stretch near the end of 2007 in which he racked up 550 yards on the ground? Or is he the guy who has been largely unreliable, missing 18 games due to injury in his first three seasons, and averaging less than 56 yards per tilt in those he's been able to play?

Hardly anybody seems to know what to make of him, or his future.

Except for Fred Taylor.

"He reminds me," Taylor said, "of myself when I was younger."

Nowadays Taylor is as well-regarded as almost anyone in the game, with 11,271 rushing yards to his credit over an 11-year career some say could take him to Canton, Ohio, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But it was only seven years ago that Taylor stood where Maroney is now. Tabbed by the Jaguars with the ninth overall pick in the 1998 draft, Taylor produced a pair of 1,000-yard seasons among his first four in Jacksonville, though he missed significant time the other two years, and at least a game in all four. Between 1999-2001, he sat for 23 of 48 potential tilts.

Perfect fit

2009-08-01T13:10:00Z

Let's be clear. Although his middle name might be Jesus, and although most pundits will tell you he might have been the best offensive player moved prior to baseball's non-waiver trade deadline yesterday, Victor Martinez is not a perfect player.

He hit just .175 in July, and since June 18 - when he was batting a robust .345 for the season - he's gone just 18-for-119 (.151). Last year he had surgery on both his elbow and his knee, with those injuries keeping him homerless until Sept. 2. And he hardly qualifies as the long-term solution at catcher, given that he'll be 31 before next season, has since 2002 squatted for nearly 5,800 big-league innings, and has thrown out only seven of 46 base stealers this season.

But he might well be the perfect player for this team, at this time.

See more at ConcordMonitor.com

Different sort of gameplan

2009-07-31T13:07:00Z

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - It was halfway through the first day of training camp, so a smile was naturally more available than it might be, say, at the midpoint of the season with a divisional rival awaiting on Sunday. But, still, it was hard to miss the sinister satisfaction in Bill Belichick's smirk as he came to the end of an answer about putting his players through six straight days of double sessions to start the preseason.

"We've gone through different schedules," he said, a grin growing bigger as he finished his sentence, "but there's not much light at the end of the tunnel for right now."

That's the way a football-first guy like Belichick probably likes it; summer vacation's over, and it's time for his players to get back to school. Time to hit the books, and hit each other, once again.

But that's not quite the way it's worked throughout his tenure as head coach of the New England Patriots, a stay that started its 10th year yesterday with a rain-shortened session on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium. Last year, for instance, the Pats didn't hold their 13th practice of the season until the ninth day of camp.

In the years before that there was a variety of approaches used, most of which included a mix of two-a-days and single practice sessions. Sustainability seemed to have been the objective.

This year, though, something has happened to change his thinking. Perhaps it's the fact the Pats missed the playoffs last year. Perhaps he wasn't happy with the progress his team had made before opening day last season. Perhaps he just wants to mix it up a bit.

Or, perhaps, he's trying to weed out the weak.

Getting better with age

2009-07-27T13:04:00Z

Never having seen grass so green, or a wall so tall, my first steps into Fenway Park were taken on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon. It was May of 1987, and it was Wakefield Little League Day, so from my seat in the bleachers I didn't much care that the Red Sox got routed by the California Angels.

I didn't much care about their left fielder, either. Batting cleanup, he went 0-for-4 that day without hitting the ball out of the infield, and saw his average slide to .205 on

the still-young season.

He hardly looked like a slugger to me, or to any of the T-ballers assembled beyond the bullpens. We knew - and came to know through the formative years as baseball fans - a slugger to be someone like Mark McGwire or Jose Canseco, the Bash Brothers from Oakland.

Like Cecil Fielder, the Detroit heavyweight. Like Ken Griffey Jr., who blasted 56 bombs in back-to-back seasons. Like Juan Gonzalez, like Albert Belle, like Alex Rodriguez, and even like Sammy Sosa, whose head-to-head, homer-for-homer battle with McGwire reached its crescendo in the first month of our senior year.

We heard about Jim Rice, of course. But by the time we actually saw Jim Rice, he didn't seem all that special. We were a generation who grew to love baseball in an age when the numbers were as unnaturally buff as the players themselves, and when Rice's average season - .298, with 30 homers and 113 RBI - was sadly made to look almost routine.

We grew up being told that chicks dig the long ball, and, based on what we saw, the girls must've been quite smitten. Eight of history's 15 best home run hitters played while we were falling for the sport. And of the 44 guys ever to hit more than 400 homers in his career, half of them (22) have reached that milestone since my first afternoon at Fenway. Watching all that happen, it was hard for us to get too excited about Rice's 382.

Until today.

The winds begin to blow

2009-07-23T14:13:00Z

As the trade winds have begun to bluster over recent weeks, it's been the same name blowing to all corners of the baseball continent, with most rumors swirling around Roy Halladay - the righty who for some is a pipedream, for others is a necessity and for everybody ranks among the premier pitchers in the game.

Red Sox fans, however, weren't quite so interested. At least not those citizens of the Nation who reside here

in central New Hampshire. Recognizing the needs of their team, rather than its wants, the response to a poll of the Monitor's online readers suggested this week that the Sox top priority before the July 31 trade deadline shouldn't be trading for Halladay - but, instead, acquiring a power hitter.

And yesterday Theo Epstein obliged that constituency.

Shipping a pair of mid-level prospects to Pittsburgh in exchange for first baseman Adam LaRoche, Boston's general manager effectively plugged that hole and a couple of others in a single deal, delivering depth, power and protection to a lineup that has lately looked beleaguered, and in need of an insurance policy at the corner infield positions.

"We've been in the market for a player who can do some damage against right-handed pitching, and can help our club's depth at the corner infield. We checked in on a number of players that fit that category, and found that by a large, large margin, the Pirates had the most reasonable acquisition cost," Epstein said in a conference call. "This was a chance to get, at a very reasonable acquisition cost, a player that we think will help our club."

The acquisition cost was so low, the deal appears to be a no-lose, no-brainer for Boston. They traded away Double-A shortstop Argenis Diaz, and Single-A pitcher Hunter Strickland, but neither appeared on Baseball America's list of the team's 10 best farmhands, and neither figured into the Sox's long-term outlook. To swap those type of prospects for a guy who has driven home at least 85 runs in each of the last three seasons, and is still only 29 years old, made the Pirates' offer a deal where risk was dwarfed by reward.

What a knucklehead

2009-07-13T12:54:00Z

(Fourteen years after Zane Smith said of his struggling teammate, "He's got a good curveball and a fastball, and I think, like anything else, maybe you have to mix it up a little," Tim Wakefield's knuckleball will float him all the way to St. Louis tomorrow night. Whether he's truly worthy of the All-Star honor based on solely this season is a different matter for a different day; but the distinction nevertheless gives us an excuse to look back and appreciatively remember what have been 14-plus interesting -- and at many times invaluable -- seasons in Boston.)

It was a nugget so barely newsworthy it got buried at the bottom of a column of baseball notes – meaning it was next to go if the editors needed more space.

It came after word of Bob Hamelin’s $435,000 agreement with the Royals. After a report about Pat Hentgen’s $6.75 million, three-year extension with the Blue Jays. And even after news that Brian Harper had inked a minor-league deal that would pay him $225,000 if he made the majors with the A’s. Each of those should tell you how long ago – and of how little consequence it seemed – that the next item was printed below them on page 59 of the morning’s Boston Globe.

“Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, Pittsburgh's postseason hero as a rookie in 1992,” the paper reported on April 21, 1995, “was released by the Pirates.”

Boston took a bit more notice when he signed with the Red Sox a week later, devoting eight sentences and a headline to report on Wakefield’s Triple-A contract. But there was hardly much hubbub, even leading up to his first start, after which Manager Kevin Kennedy was planning to make him a middle reliever.

The primary interest appeared to be in the novelty of the knuckleball, which made Wakefield a rare breed in baseball, and particularly in Boston, where it’d been decades since they’d seen someone of his ilk. Wilbur Wood was more of a conventional tosser by the time he reached the Hub in the early 1960s, so it had been 83 years, since Ed Cicotte in 1912, that the Red Sox employed a pure knuckleballer – a discovery Globe reporter Nick Cafardo put in perspective the morning after Wakefield donned the road grays and took the mound for the first time.

“Wakefield’s debut,” he wrote, “was historic from a Boston perspective.”

He couldn’t have known how true those words would ring some 14 years later.

Thanks but no thanks, J.P.

2009-07-08T19:56:00Z

So, says General Manager J.P. Ricciardi, the Blue Jays would be willing to trade Roy Halladay if the right offer came along. Even if that knock-your-socks-off offer would mean dealing Toronto’s ace within its own division.

So, for the right package of prospects, you’re saying the Red Sox could acquire the Roy Halladay who might well be the best pitcher in the game?

The Roy Halladay who has one Cy Young Award to his credit, and has received votes in each of the last four years he’s been healthy?

The Roy Halladay who has gone 10-2 with a 2.79 earned run average this season, when merely an average start has taken him to the eighth inning?

The Roy Halladay who is under contract for next season?

And the Roy Halladay who, for the next year and a half, would give the Sox an unenviable starting rotation headed by himself, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester?

Thanks, but no thanks.

As appealing as the possibility might seem for all the reasons cited above – and then some – the price tag the Sox could expect to pay to pull off such a swap would plainly be too steep.

Given the demand for a top-of-the-staff sort of right-hander, who’d come unencumbered by a huge contract, the guess here is that Boston most likely would be forced to part with a current major leaguer or two, as well as two or three of their top prospects. Think along the lines of Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard, Lars Anderson and a couple others. Minimum.

It would significantly deplete the Sox system of the type on-the-cusp talent that has keyed its successes over recent seasons, and has become a staple of the organizational philosophy – and for what?

1-on-1: Midseason report

2009-07-08T19:20:00Z

In hopes of lending a national perspective to the site, each week Dave will be joined by National Correspondent Donovan Burba to debate a relevant issue from within the world of sports. Burba formerly worked at the Concord Monitor, so he's got a sense of what makes we New Englanders tick -- but now that he's back in his native Chicago, his view of the sports world can sometime seem as though it's coming through Harry Caray's big, thick glasses.

THIS WEEK'S TOPIC
Baseball's midseason report.

Dave:: Let's start it up with the biggest surprise, team-wise. Surprise being a positive (so we'll save the Cubs for later).
Donovan:: haha, thanks. I guess I won't be a smartass and say the Pirates are the biggest surprise, since they're only 7.5 out. There aren't really any Rays-level surprises this year, but the Rangers and Marlins are both exceeding expectations big time.
Dave:: I agree with you on the Rangers. I was tempted to say the Tigers, who are on the verge of running away with the AL Central, but if you look at the rosters there's a lot more talent in Detroit than there is in Texas. The Marlins are definitely a surprise too -- but the bigger surprise there is how bad that division is. I think that makes Florida's 43-41 record look a bit more impressive than it really is.
Donovan:: fair enough.but as the 2006 Cardinals showed, all you have to do is win your division
and I believe I picked the Tigers to win the AL Central
and Miguel Cabrera to win MVP, which is still a possibility
Dave:: yeah, let's not talk about who we thought would win the AL Central.Because I think my Indians have already been mathematically eliminated.
Donovan:: haha
they got swept by the cubs, that's a bad sign
Dave:: Speaking of the Cardinals, though, they're in the mix as biggest surprise, too.
I never saw them commanding that division for the first half of the year.
Donovan:: if by "commanding" you mean having four teams within 3.5 games of them
Dave:: By commanding I mean 60 days in first place to this point. Is Pujols making it like the NBA: Best player wins?
Donovan:: he is ridiculous, and that team doesn't have much else
did I pass along his numbers with the bases loaded this year?
as of Saturday: 8 plate appearances, 6-for-7, 4 grand slams, 20 RBI
he's approaching "intentionally walk in a run" territory
Dave:: Holy crap. He's already reached that, as far as I'm concerned. If you're up 3 and he's due with the bases loaded, is there any excuse to pitch to him? NONE.
Donovan:: exactly.
Dave:: I might even do it if I'm up 2.
Donovan:: at least we don't have to debate mid-season nl mvp
Dave:: No, let's not waste time on that. Because you and me, we never waste time.
Very efficient, always.
Donovan:: I never like to get hysterical about this sort of thing, but it's worth noting he's 10 points away from having the midseason triple crown
Dave:: Well, looking at it closer: Of the top six in AVG there's really only one competitor, too.
Hanley will stay in the hunt, but Beltran's done, Sandoval and Tejada won't last, and Pierre won't have enough ABs to qualify.
Donovan:: don't say Beltran's done, he's on my fantasy team
but yeah, I don't think Pablo Sandoval is going to win a batting title
Dave:: Pablo Sandoval would've had a better chance in the eating contest on July 4th than he will in the batting race.
Dave:: Pujols is going to win the triple crown.
Donovan:: that would be amazing
this will be hard for you, raised in the Red Sox-Yankees crucible, but I love watching Pujols hit
Dave:: I love watching Pujols hit. I see the game outside of Sox-Yanks.
My favorite player growing up was Chipper Jones.
Donovan:: I know, but it's hard for you to understand respecting a great player on your rival, I imagine
Dave:: I respect the crap out of Jeter and Rivera.
Dave:: Even A-Rod.
Donovan:: woah, woah, woah
turn in your Nation passport on your way out
Donovan:: who's your first-half AL MVP?
Dave:: that's a tough one. Mauer and Morneau are in the mix again, but the Twins haven't been great.
Kinsler, maybe, from the Rangers ... though he isn't even an all-star.
Donovan:: somehow
Dave:: ...yeah, really.
Sox's best players haven't been consistent enough. I'm not sure. I may have to -- very painfully -- give it to Miguel Cabrera.
Donovan:: hehehe
he'd be my choice, and not just because I called it
first place team, hits for average and power
Dave:: I think Carl Crawford is a good candidate, along with the guys I mentioned, but none of those teams are in playoff position.
Donovan:: although I think you're being a little tough on the Twins
Dave:: I don't believe in MVPs who don't make the playoffs.
At the end of the first half, the Twins weren't in playoff position.
Donovan:: considering they played the first month without Mauer and they're like a game out
Dave:: True.
Donovan:: I'm giving it to Morneau or Cabrera
Dave:: Mauer is my pick.
You've convinced me.I'm putting too much stock in the standings after 81 games.
Donovan:: looks like Middle America knows how to play ball ... who knew?
Dave:: Yeah, I know. Pujols never gets MVP consideration.
Oh wait...
Morneau would never beat Jeter in the balloting.
Oh wait...
Donovan:: hahawell the Jeter thing was orchestrated by the Boston media
the all-powerful Boston media
Dave:: yeah, that year instead of 2 votes they gave the Boston media 10 votes.
Don't forget the New Hampshire media.We have power over, well, nevermind.
Donovan:: hey, you decide the Monitor Cup
Dave:: That's true. And players of the week.Those spark controversy.
Donovan:: I'm aware
Dave:: Let's get to the elephant in the room: Who is the biggest disappointment so far?
Donovan:: David Ortiz and Milton Bradley
Dave:: haha
Donovan:: something for everyone
Chien Ming Wang
Dave:: On Ortiz, if at this time last year I told you the All-Star game would not feature David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero or Alex Rodriguez, would you have believed me?
Donovan:: no, because I would have assumed at least three of those guys would have been voted in by the fans.
Which shows how badly they're doing, that even the fans didn't elect them
Dave:: That's what I'm saying.It's a changing of the guard this year.
Donovan:: it's refreshing.
I'd much rather watch Longoria than A-Rod, just because he doesn't come with all the baggage and is also great at baseball, obviously
Donovan:: biggest team disappointment: Mets
always the Mets
and maybe the Rays, although that was predictable
Dave:: Yeah, but the Rays have rallied.
The Rays are going to be in contention down the stretch if Kazmir gives them anything.
The Mets, though, what a disappointment.
And if Beltran is out for real, it's only going to get worse.
Donovan:: totally. As we're typing this I'm watching a highlight of them losing another game thanks to a dropped routine play
please stop saying that about beltran
what would you do to fix the mets?
Dave:: I'd blow it up.This isn't working.
When they consistently seem to have the pieces, but fall short, it's a sign that something isn't jiving.
Donovan:: yeah, they have a nucleus there with Wright, Reyes, and Beltran
Dave:: I'd think about trading one of them.
Donovan:: it'd have to be Reyes
Dave:: How many years have they been together? And predicted to win the division? And yet how many playoff series have they won?Reyes is among the most overrated players in the game.
Donovan:: they're in a tough situation being in New York, and they've really painted themselves into a corner. They can't blow it up because they're expected to compete, and they're expected to win with this group.
So if they do blow it up, the fans are going to be pissed for a few years
Dave:: I think of the Sox, with Manny, Pedro, Nomar ... and yet they missed the playoffs in 01 and 02, then fell short in 03.They started changing the culture in 03, traded Nomar in 04, and the rest is history.
Sometimes you just have to strap it on and take a risk.
Minaya just continually tries to patch it up with money -- K-Rod, JJ Putz, et al -- and it's not working.
Donovan:: might be that the best thing to happen for them is to totally tank this year, to make it easier to tear them apart
Dave:: Exactly. I'd agree with that.
Donovan:: get out of that "one player away" mentality
Dave:: Right -- especially if they finish below the Marlins.Let me ask you this: Are the Cubs going to win that division?
Donovan:: yeah I really think they are
Dave:: We both predicted a runaway at the beginning of the year.
Donovan:: Cubs are playing very well right now
it's going to be by 5 games
Dave:: Really? They'll be rolling come playoff time if that's the case.
Donovan:: just like last year
Dave:: Ahhh, can't wait for the Burba optimism of early October.
Donovan:: we're going to look back on the hand-wringing over the Cubs and wonder what it was all about
they have the best pitching in the division by a wide margin
Dave:: They're the best team in the division, on paper, by a wide margin.
But what's been wrong the first half?
Donovan:: Aramis has been out for most of the year, and he's backguys just weren't hitting, and they're starting to
D-Lee is on firethey've got a great bench bat now with Jake Fox
I'm assuming of Soto, Soriano, and Bradley, two of them will start hitting like they usually do
Dave:: Milt and Lou lasted longer than I thought they would before the first meltdown, by the way, so congrats on that.
Donovan:: blown totally out of proportionif Girardi or Francona did that, they'd be praised for "lighting a fire" or something
the media loves to hate the Cubsand look at that division.
Dave:: No team gets more love than the Cubs.
The "Lovable Losers"
Everyone thinks they're so cute.
Donovan:: they also have trading pieces, which could become big here in a few weeks
Dave:: Too bad Jake Peavy is hurt.I still think he's a Cub someday.
Donovan:: they'll trade for a bat, or at least they should
Dave:: What's their need? CF?
Donovan:: CF/RFpossibly 2b, but there's no one to trade for to fill that hole
basically they need to get either Fukudome or Bradley out of the everyday lineup
Dave:: I could see them getting a Kelly Johnson type. Someone solid.
So let's get it all straight, so we can be mocked and laughed at later in the season:

AL East champ
Donovan:: Yankees
Dave:: Red Sox

AL Central champ
Donovan:: Tigers
Dave:: Twins

AL West champ
Donovan:: Angels
Dave:: Angels

AL wild card
Donovan:: Red Sox (as usual, the AL East runner-up)
Dave:: Rays (as usual, the AL East runner-up)

NL East champ
Donovan:: Phillies
Dave:: Phillies

NL Central champ
Donovan:: Cubs
Dave:: Cubs ... damn.
Donovan:: ha

NL West champs
Donovan:: Dodgers
Dave:: (Already clinched?) Dodgers
Donovan:: haha, I was about to ask that

NL Wild Card
Donovan:: Cardinals
Dave:: Brew-crew
Donovan:: I knew that was coming
Dave:: Crack open the High Life!
Donovan:: you and your Crew
Donovan:: your boys just lost 3 of 4 on the north side

AL MVP
Donovan:: Cabrera
Dave:: Mauer

NL MVP
Donovan:: Pujols
Dave:: Pujols

AL Cy Young
Donovan:: Doc Halladay; as he should be every year
Dave:: Joshua Beckett; his second half is going to be ridiculous, mark my words.

NL Cy Young
Donovan:: Tim Lincecum again
Dave:: Matt Cain; which is why the Giants will give the Crew all they can handle in the wild-card race.
Donovan:: I can see that, although I see a lot of 2-0 losses in their future
Dave:: Don't diss Pablo Sandoval!
Donovan:: haha, says the guy who pegged him as a hot-dog eating champion not 20 minutes ago

World Series matchup
Donovan:: Dodgers-Yankees; classic matchup
but I think it's wide open in both leagues, it's not like last year, when everyone knew the Cubs were a lock
Dave:: I think you're half right.Dodgers-Red Sox.
And I'll be giving Manny a standing O from the press box upon his return.
Donovan:: I never would have predicted you saying that
Nomar got a nice ovation, I noticed
almost makes up for 5 years of talking shit about him
Dave:: He gave us eight great years.

Dave:: I really think it's going to come down to a Sox-Rays ALCS again.
Donovan:: you have more faith in the Rays than I do
Dave:: Yeah, I'm sold on their pitching.
Not sure where they stand now, but as of last week they had the best bullpen ERA in baseball, and with Shields, Garza, Kazmir, as well as that lineup, I think they're a force.
Even Ben Zobrist would get MVP votes if the season ended today.
Donovan:: that is true
Dave:: I think the Yankees' bullpen is going to bite them in the ass.
Donovan:: lotta games to be played though, and I think the Yankees have more talent
Dave:: The lament of season will be Joba in the rotation.
Donovan:: agreed, that was a mistake
that's going to be a fun three-team race whoever wins
more fun if the red sox don't win, obviously
but still fun
Dave:: Haha. I thought you'd gained appreciation with distance?
Donovan:: and not that you asked, but your AL rookie of the year is Ricky Romero, first profiled by yours truly in the Concord Monitor
I have softened towards the Red Sox, yes
Dave:: It's nice to have you in the Nation.
Donovan:: just visiting
I studied abroad in the Nation, we'll put it that way
Dave:: Well-said.