This season will be very interesting. I have a few question marks to go along with my still existing Super Bowl depression.

Can the Defensive line actually control the game? They will need to if they want to hold oppenents uner 21 points. The LB's are old and can be exploited. The 2 rookies are what they are. Unproven and will probably tire come December like so many other rookies do. The only problem is that's the biggest part of the season and the playoff's are right around the corner. If the DL can't control the line and get pressure on the QB then the DB's will have their hands full. Harrison has benn injury ridden and I can't count on him playing the full schedule. They are young at the corners and that's not a easy thing for a rookie. The DL must play at the top of their game all season.

The offense was exploited in the Super Bowl. Take Moss out of the game and control the underneath stuff. Moss doesn't want to catch underneath stuff and Maroney doesn't want to run up the middle. Morris should get the bulk of the snaps. Maroney should be the new 3rd down back coming out of the backfield catching swing passes and using his speed in the open field. Ben Watson has to have a Pro Bowl year and starting the 1st game on the injury list as doubtful doesn't bode well for that. Last year proved all the points scored and touchdowns made mean nothing if you come up short in February.

The last 22 games are upon us and the Sox are 2 1/2 out of 1st place and solidly in place for the wildcard. The Yankee's are all but a memory and have nothing left for a final push.

This leaves us with the ........RAYS? Who would have thought they could have kept the lead all summer. Now comes their first pennant race and the schedulers couldn't have been harder on them. They have 23 games left 7 at home and 16 on the road. They have to play at the likes of the Sox and Yankees next week. Then they get the last 7 games at home but 4 are against the Twins who are battling for the Wildcard and 1st place. They end the season with a 8 game road trip.

The Sox have the opposite schedule and 22 games left. They have 2 more in Texas and then come back to Fenway for 7. The Rays come in for 3 and the Jays are in for 4. They then go on the road for the opposite having 3 against the Rays and 3 against the Jays. They then come back to Fenway for the last 7 of the season. The last 3 of which are against the Yankees. The Yankees won't be in the playoffs so this will be their World Series and the Sox will have their hands full. The Yankees will still play a huge part in where the Sox finish in the standings.

The schedule favors the Sox and I see them cruising to a first place finish. The Sox have a chance at best record in the A.L. also as they are a game behind the Angels. The Angels have 22 games left with a long 10 game road trip coming up playing 10 games in 10 days starting on the 16th.

With Beckett looking strong last night the outlook for the Sox has gotten a lot better. Beckett, Lester, Dice-K and Byrd are a formidible 4 man rotation and should be solid come October.

So my six year old Aidan decided he wanted to play Flag Football this year and the first practice was this week. I have never had anyone close to me involved in this activity so I was unsure of what to expect. I'm thinking the kids delightfully toss the ball to one another, have some giggles and head on home. Boy did we have another thing coming!

We arrived right on time with the coach's wife yelling instructions firmly and at the top of her lungs. Nice lady...just loud and to the point minus any cutesy comments. Once all the kids were accounted for we switched fields and the hour and a half practice began.

As the coaches yelled "eyes open and mouths shut", I realized right away this was serious business. Those kids were on their bellies counting out push-ups, on their hands and knees running around across the field, jogging the length of the field and back, walking lunges, high knee runs...the list goes on! All the while the coaches are yelling for them to shut their mouths and pay attention. One kid fell to the ground and said "Is practice over yet?" and the coach responded "Do you want it to be over?"

I know...i know...football is a tough sport and they have to toughen the kids up...it just seems so harsh when you first take part in it. I'm looking at Aidan who is the first to cuddle up with me in bed, find bugs and pick flowers. Now he's covered in grass stains doing push-ups! One poor kid got hurt and his mom had to be called on the field. The kid was mortified and although clearly upset, he walked back with the coach to take another beating. I wanted to just run out there, give him a hug, ice cream cone and a big wet kiss...but these mommy antics don't fly on these fields.

Today is practice #2 for the week and every muscle in Aidan's body is sore from the first practice. I'd love to take his place tonight. I could use the ass beating by these coaches to get me working out...but I'll settle for being a silent cheerleader on the sidelines and save all the hugs and kisses for bedtime...

I know it is just Baltimore, but the Sox  did what they had to do.  Today's win was a scrappy come from behind great win.   Crisp even took time to give an interview.   The new additions are fitting in well.

How about Ellsbury in right field.  This kid can play it all.

Instant Replay is both good and bad for baseball.   Why shouldn't umpires use all the technology at their disposal to get the call right when it comes to fair or foul or in or out on home run calls?  But here is the problem, we all know this is only the beginning.  Once a couple of games are decided by home run calls that are overturned or held up because the replay got it right, then the cries will really begin.

Can't you just see it.  There will be a bang bang safe/out call at first base or homeplate in a playoff game in the 5th inning of a one run game.  A team will lose the game by one run and the crying will begin.  Use instant replay for more than just home run calls!  Why not get all the big calls right.   I'll tell you why.  Because the right call is the one made at that exact moment by the umpire in his judgement.  Is he always right?  Of course not, but how many times are you amazed that he is when you see the replay?

And furthermore, what are you going to do on close calls?  If it is a bang bang play and different replays prove inconclusive will you still overturn the call?  Or do you use what the NFL does.  Need to have "induspitable visual evidence" to overturn a call.  And then what? Do you allow managers to call for a replay?  And do you penalize them if the call is upheld?  Take away and out? a run for his team?  STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just home run calls.  This is what instant replay should be used for.  But you watch, a couple close calls and people will be calling for more.  I think that's wrong

Butch

June: 

You are without a doubt the most informed female, when it comes to sports.  I also put you in the top ten list of  all people I know.

So here is the question:   Does Brady start  the first game of the season?

It is all on you June.....Vegas is looking for your answer.

My son is currently working towards his Associate Degree and will finish this year.  My question to anyone out there (or in the field - Butch???); he is thinking of working in journalism, mainly sports.  We are searching for schools in the New England area or possible down south - Florida that offers Journalism. I truely do not know much about this subject, accept that he's an awesome writer and he could tell you anything about any sport, sport figure on any team.  I would appreciate any advise!  Hope everyone out there has an awesome week! 

PS:  I will miss all the zip trips!  I look forward to them every Friday!  TTYL 

The Patriots made their final cuts today to get down to their 53 man roster. A few suprising names on the list but the biggest surprise was QB Matt Cassell making the team. Cassell had an awful preseason starting for the injured Tom Brady and it was thought that he would be a cut day casualty. Instead QB Matt Guttierez was let go instead.

Another surprise was CB Fernando Bryant. The Pats cutting Bryant after signing him as a free agent in the offseason.

Heres the complete list of cuts:

CB Fernando Bryant

QB Matt Gutierrez

TE Tyson DeVree

DL Titus Adams

RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis

S Mark Dillard

C Mike Flynn

LB Vince Redd

LB Victor Hobson

CB Mike Richardson

T Stephen Sene

S Antwain Spann

DL Santonio Thomas

G John Welbourn

I don't know what to expect this year from the once mighty and powerful Patriots. Going 0-4 in the games that don't matter doesn't bother me but the way they went 0-4 does. Vanilla defense or not the star players din't make any plays whenit mattered and now with injuries this could be a un Patriots like year.

Tank Williams getting injured was a huge loss. Brandon Merriweather is out. Ryan O'callaghan is on IR and Stephen Neal is unavailable for the first 6 games. These are 4 huge injuries on both sides of the ball and the defense will be very vulnerable. If the DL can't apply pressure and get help from the LB then the secondary will be exploited. The 2 very old safety's won't have the speed to help the corners and they are too inexperienced.

The OL will be learning new schemes with the replacement players while learning to play at the speed of Brady. They have to learn to run block and that's a huge part of the offense as Brady is the best play action passer in the NFL. If the OL can't control the line and open holes for Morris, Maroney and whoever else then the Pats will be very one dimensional.

The experts will say the Pats have the easiest schedule on paper but I haven't heard them saying much about the 2 back to back trips to the West coast. This is a tough shedule and if the get out slow then it could snowball on the first back to back west coast trip.

I can't wait until 1:00pm Sunday September 7th.

The Worst Beat in the History of Dime Supers

I have to redboard; I got DQ'd out of a Huge Dime Superfecta August 27th as a result of a TRAINER'S OBJECTION in the 5th race @ Evangeline Downs! The Bet I made was a cheap one,
7th@EVG: LMSP (all)(1,2,4)(3)(1,2,4)=$5.40.. They crossed the wire 11~2~3~4.
Off Odds? The #11 is 33/1...the #2 is 9/1...the #3 is 18/1...& the #4,a paultry 6/1...
The tote board glowed my magic numbers for a good 90 seconds..then came
the dreaded announcement;

"Hold All Tickets!We have a claim of foul by the TRAINER of the 5th-Place Finisher, #9" The two horses made contact, but it was minimal!  Five agonizing minutes later, Disaster! "As a result of contact in the stretch, the #4 has been disqualified from 4th & Placed 5th for interference with the Nine Horse. The #9 horse will be placed 4th"
Have you Ever seen a trainers claim of foul result in a Disquailification?  ME Either!  UNTIL THIS RACE! Here's my "TVG Wager History" of my race bets below:
8/27/08-9:07 PM-EC225 -Evgline Downs-5-$0.10 SU--1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12/1,2,4/3/1,2,4ONLI
NE-$5.40

-------The Heartbreaking Results, after DQ:
1st 11-Lil Initiative -----------$69.80 ----$35.20 -$17.00
2nd 2-Bitsy's Parade Day----------------- $10.00 --$7.20
3rd 3-Kipper Zak- ------------------------------------------$11.40
4th 9-Adorable Prospect
$1.00 EXACTA 11-2 $366.40
$2.00 QUINELLA 2-11 $248.00
$1.00 TRIFECTA 11-2-3 $6269.40
$1.00 SUPERFECTA 11-2-3-9 $206,774.20

TVG is the Greatest Thing for Massachusetts Horseplayers, but this DQ cost me at least $5,000 for the dime denomination. OUCH!
"Purveyor of occasionally relevant information"~~~ www.myspace.com/bobgrant3 ~~~

He's missed all three of the Patriots preseason games, and a considerable amount of practice time during training camp, but Tom Brady is saying today that he will be ready for the Pats season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.

On Monday during his weekly radio appearance on WEEI, Brady said that he hoped to play during this week’s preseason finale against the Giants but said "If I don't play, I'll be ready for Kansas City." Brady went on to talk about how he wanted to play last week against the Eagles and that he is doing everything he can to get better.

To me, this is one big smokescreen from the Patriots. Yes, I think Brady has a foot injury, but my guess is that it's extremely minor. At this point in his career there is not a whole lot to be gained from suiting up for some meaningless preseason games. The Pats seem content on sitting Brady, letting his foot get healthy, and then suit him up for the season opener on September 7th.

I was thinking about Brady's situation over the weekend and it made me glad that I am not a paying ticket holder to any of the Pats preseason games. Think about the fans who bought tickets, or the season ticket holders that are forced to purchase tickets, to the preseason games, only to have their team sit Tom Brady throughout the preseason. I've always thought that preseason football was a complete joke, and the Pats are only re-enforcing that notion.

Every weekend thousands of people in New England flock to local short tracks to watch auto racing.  Twice a year more than a hundred thousand people gather at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for up to a week to witness NASCAR racing at its best.  Guinness just witnessed and verified for the record, a record breaking wave of 160,000 race fans at Bristol Motor speedway in Tennessee while millions of fans watch them on TV.  Sponsors of every product imaginable pay millions of dollars to have their names etched in paint on race cars.  We see race car drivers doing commercials for products on TV.  Lots of cars all over New England have race related bumper stickers and flags on them.  People are seen all over the country wearing t-shirts, jackets and hats of their favorite drivers.  Yet very few sportscasts in MA even mention the winner of a weekly NASCAR event.  Can anyone explain to me why? 

Auto racing is not a just a southern sport anymore.  Is it so hard to say; “Carl Edwards won the Sprint Cup race at Bristol last Saturday night”?  You do not need highlight films or special race reporters; just a 15 second announcement would suffice.  No one needs to be trained to know the difference between a tear off and a lug nut.  You can even get the winners name from nascar.com.  How simple is that?  Even the GEICO cave man could do it.

Well how you guys feel about the Instant replay in baseball? It only for homeruns if it was near the poll fair or foul.

Or just barley clearing the wall. Everything else is a judgement call, Which means its final and cant really agure it.

catch,hit by batter, safe,out, strike,ball, fair,foul, intefrence, check swing, balks.

As being an umpire, It is really a thankless job  I am umpiring fall ball right now i love it so much :D

Its under cal-ripken rules which is under baberuth leauge rules.

The Atlanta Falcons have announced that rookie Matt Ryan will be their starting quarterback to begin the 2008 NFL season.  I think this is the right move, don't you?

I'm a firm believer that it takes time to develop as an NFL quarterback and there is no substitution for playing.  Mistakes need to be made to learn and you can't make those mistakes holding a clipboard.  Now, there are plenty examples that support and refute this claim.  Here is a list of successful NFL quarterbacks who started either right away from game one of their careers or shortly thereafter.  Peyton Manning, Warren Moon, Troy Aikman, Dan Marino, John Elway, Drew Bledsoe.  Here is a list of quarterbacks who started early in their careers and weren't or haven't been succesful yet:  David Carr, Rick Mirer, Vince Young.  There are just as many successful quarterbacks who didn't start early on in their careers but did carry a clipboard and when it came time for them to play they were ready:  Tom Brady, Steve McNair, Carson Palmer, Brett Favre, Matt Hasselbeck.

While there is no perfect formula for success, again I feel like if you believe in a guy and you want him to be your quarterback of the future you play him sooner than later.  The Falcons obviously believe in Matt Ryan.  They took him with the third overall pick in the draft.  I don't know if Matt Ryan will become Peyton Manning or David Carr or someone in between.  But I sure get the feeling he might be pretty good and I know it's going to be fun watching him develop and get the chance to do it right away.  Plus, who wants to see highlights of Ryan holding a clipboard anyway?

Butch

So Tom Brady has yet to take a snap in a preseason game for the Patriots this year.  We will worry but should we?  I say no.  We're smarter than that.

If you are a season ticket holder, you are forced to buy two preseason games per year and therefore you have the right to complain if Brady and other regulars are not playing at all during these games.  Yes, you do have the right, but again you shouldn't complain in my opinion because you're smarter than that.  First of all they should be cutting preseason down to just two games instead of four.  Preseason games are a joke, but that's another subject for another day.  Will Brady be rusty on opening Sunday against Kansas City because he hasn't played in a preseason game?  To answer that question, all you need to do is go to Foxboro and watch just one Patriots practice.  While practice cannot exactly replicate the speed of a game, the Patriots practice so efficiently and with such speed that it's all that Brady and the offense really needs.

It's my belief that Tom Brady's health is perfectly fine and that Bill Belichick is holding him out of the preseason because he doesn't want to risk an injury to his star quarterback. Even Belichick, who preaches that the team is greater than any one individual knows that losing Brady would be devastating to their season.  Just this weekend two star players went down with injuries.  Jason Taylor for the Redskins and Osi Yumeniora for the Giants are lost for the season with a knee injury.

For some reason I just had a feeling that Josh Beckett's arm injury was a little more serious than the Sox were letting on. Terry Francona announced Saturday that Beckett's next start has now been pushed back even further, and he isn’t scheduled to start again until Friday vs. the White Sox. Francona is saying that Beckett has some elbow inflammation. (If you haven't seen the story, check it out here)

Here was a snippet of my blog from a couple of days ago:

As far as Josh Beckett's injury is concerned....Is it me or does this seem a little odd? Beckett supposedly has felt a tingling/numbness sensation in his pitching hand. He says he's felt it for quite some time, but Terry Francona says Beckett slept on his arm wrong, before Sunday's awful start, and that’s when the tingling started. What???? Hey, I think we've all slept on our arm wrong and woken up with a tingling arm, but it's lasted for a few days? Just seems kind of odd. Could Beckett have a more serious condition that the Sox aren’t letting on about? 8/20/08

Seeing the Sox drift away from first place is always tough.   It is really tough this year because I thought the chances of a repeat were high.

Obviously last year was easy to deal with the end of baseball.  I don't think the sox are making the playoffs this year.  If by chance they do, June has point out the problem with getting by The Angels and Rays.

Last night's loss was the nail in the coffin.  Losing to Baltimore should not happen.

Wait until next year!

How many days to spring training?