Week Log: Of Public ‘Thanks’ And Public ‘Sorry’s

Driven by an intense Olympics spirit, we headed north last weekend for some skiing on the final days of school vacation. For my seven year-old, it was his fifth outing – all with me, all in the last 12 months – and, although I was initially cool to the realization, there was no more denying that the child had now become father to the man. I could no longer keep up with him and worse, I had to rely on others further down the slope to look out for his welfare until I got down. Gotta let him fly and take comfort in gold medalists Sean White and Maine’s own Seth Wescott, who thanked their familes for their success. As Snow Zone observes, nothing is better than having them say, “Thanks, Dad, for teaching me how to ski!”

Winter Olympics

More from the slopes, where Bode Miller says the energy he felt on a crazy Sunday are what the Olympics are all about, as he hammered the downhill and absolutely charged it in the slaloms en route to a cool gold in the men’s super-combined. In the women’s giant slaloms, Fourth Place Medal has Lindsey Vonn’s wipeout ruining things . . . for Julia Mancuso and the two skiers’ already frosty relationship. Jessica Isner has Vonn acknowledging she probably peed off Mancuso.

In the rink, Blog Of Ice says even the empty-net goal sealing Team USA’s 5-3 win over Canada on Sunday was great. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman didn’t seem to enjoy things, but don’t buy his Debbie Downer act as Joe Haggerty theorizes he’s positioning future Olympics participation as a League concession in the next CBA. The win, of course, was inspired by Josh Sacco’s Herb Brooks speech, but Bingo Bar Blog suspects the five year-old may be half of a father-son ventriloquist act. Postcards From Vancouver has a raucous Canadian crowd extracting revenge against the U.S. in curling.

In the men’s medal round, both Teams USA and Canada drew a step closer to a gold showdown yesterday. Olympic Hockey Blog has Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller complicating the task for Team USA, while Out Of Bounds has the Swiss getting even in a cheese fondue pong match. Puck Daddy calls out our beloved Mike Milbury as an American Don Cherry after he Eurotrashes Team Russia in the wake of their 7-3 drubbing by Canada, who will now take Zdeno Chara & Co. Rink Rap has the beat-up B’s defenseman turning the corner after Slovakia’s win over Sweden last night. BlogsNH disses the Canadian propensity for falling all over themselves, but will still be very disappointed if Team Canada does not take hockey gold. If they don’t, they could always mint themselves a platinum, as The Dish Rag has Evgeni Plushenko doing after losing to Evan Lysacek in men’s figre skating. And it was another New Englander medaling yeasterday, as Olympics Blog has Connecticut’s Erin Pak getting bronze in women’s bobsled.

Are you a Peacock Puppet? You may be, suggests The Sporting Blog, as NBC has been using us like lab rats to help generate evening viewership.

Celtics

Make it four wins in five post All-Star games for the C’s. Celtics Stuff Live sees the remaining games as a fork in the road, and they’ve extensively analyzed the harder path.

It was Defenseless in Denver on Sunday, as Celtics Central observes that top teams feel confident in beating Boston even when the C’s play well over stretches. ESPN Boston Celtics Blog has the D finally showing up late in Tuesday night’s Knicks game. Celtic Dynasty doesn’t care about the defensive no-show on Tuesday, because a win is a win.

CelticsBlog found it bittersweet watching new Knick Bill Walker skying for his first dunk against the C’s. Tuesday’s game was also the Big Three’s first at TD Garden since the trade deadline, and Green Street has Ray Allen taking the court as nonchalantly as he left it before the deadline. North Station Sports did not expect the Big Three to return intact after their last performance at TD before the All-Star break. Evans Clinchy has Allen taking his game to another level since the deadline passed.

And ProBasketballTalk has Brian Scalabrine paying up after losing his bet with 98.5 The Sports Hub‘s Toucher & Rich.

Red Sox

ESPN Boston Red Sox Blog has less practical joking and more hands-on for John Lackey this spring.

One If By Land laments Boof Bonser’s plight in a bullpen where long relievers are persona non grata. Clearing The Bases braced for an onslaught after suggesting Clay Buchholz would be bullpen-bound, but it never came. Fenway Nation calls Daisuke Matsuzaka the linchpin to Theo’s pitching-and-defense mantra.

Utility Lou has Victor Martinez seeing himself first and foremost as a catcher, which makes his free agency value considerably higher than his runners-caught-stealing percentages. The good news is that, as long as Victor is in Boston, he won’t have to worry about the base-stealing of Jacoby Ellsbury, whom Nuggetpalooza cites as the second-biggest kleptomaniac in the AL last year. Boston Dirt Dogs has David Ortiz in search of some protection. Hang in there Papi, because HardballTalk has Adrian Gonzalez not about to give the Padres any hometown discounts. In the meantime, Michael Hurley has Dustin Pedroia willing to pitch in.

Boston Sports Then & Now looks back on baseball’s last triple crown season.

Odds & Sods

. . . an unstructured wandering through the Boston sports world.

Hey, they’re held for hockey, rowing, and even cycling, so Thoughts From Press Row asks, why not a Beanpot for men’s basketball?

Wth six straight starts before the Olympic break, ESPN Boston Bruins Blog says Tuukka Rask’s time is at hand.

Given the damage that a hockey rink has caused to re-sodding efforts, CSNNE’s Boston Red Sox says the jury is still out on the future of pucks at Fenway Park.

In the aftermath of the infamous Tiger Woods presser, Jerry Thornton tells baseball to move over because public apologies are the new National Pastime. Not even MMA is immune to the fad, as old friend Josh Nason from the now defunct Small White Ball brings us Frank Mir’s sincerest act on MMA Madness.

Masshole Sports finds it mind-blowing that #21 is officially being unofficially retired on Yawkey Way, while Blaug offers the Kraft family 30 reasons why Mosi Tatupu’s #30 should be retired. Rest in peace, Mosi.

In another public apology, we took a week off from B’s blogs as – well, they’re not playing and there’s not much on the trade front. The action should pick up again next week, which is when we’ll next talk. In the meantime, I’m available on Twitter and on Facebook.