The Texas Rangers looked very much like a squad out to remind everyone, especially the much-hyped Red Sox, that they are the reigning American League champions. They pounded Red Sox pitching in all three games this weekend, sweeping the season opening series for both teams. Get the full coverage at RedSoxLinks.com. Dan Shaughnessy can have his fun today, I still think the Red Sox will be fine in the end.

Shaquille O’Neal returned to the Celtics last night, but the big man only lasted five and a half minutes on the floor before having to exit with what turned out to be a calf injury. The Celtics used a huge third quarter to defeat the Detroit Pistons 101-90 at the Garden last night. Get all the stories at CelticsLinks.com.

Red Sox suffer from Worst Timing Ever – Michael Silverman attempts to convince the masses that this was “nothing more, or less, than one god-awful, three-game series.” Jeremy Lundblad also attempts perspective. Tony Lee has the Sox looking for positives after their worst start since 1996.

10 Things We Learned from the Red Sox’ opening weekend – Alex Speier with a look back at what we can take from this weekend.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia takes long view – Gordon Edes has the young catcher trying not to let the horrible openign series get to him. Nick Cafardo has more on “Salty.”

Carl Crawford down, not out – John Tomase says that the Sox $100 million man is too good to have an extended slump.

Beckett of old could be just the right medicine – Brian MacPherson’s Red Sox Journal says that a vintage Josh Beckett could be huge for the Red Sox tomorrow. The Globe notebook from Peter Abraham has more on Crawford’s slow start. The Herald notebook from Scott Lauber has more on Saltalamacchia.

Shaquille O’Neal impressive before new injury – Steve Bulpett has the big man showing his skills before limping off with yet another injury. Peter May says that the short glimpse we got just proved that the Celtics need Shaq in the postseason.

Latest Shaq injury leaves Celtics looking for answers – Paul Flannery notes that the silver lining is that Nenad Krstic should be ready to go tomorrow night. A. Sherrod Blakely notes that the Celtics still have yet to get their ideal playoff roster together.

Ray Allen shows signs of shaking slump – Mark Murphy’s notebook in the Herald has the guard looking to get more comfortable in the offense as the playoffs near. The Globe notebook from Gary Washburn has more on Krstic’s encouraging news on his knee. The Gatehouse notebook from Scott Souza has Jermaine O’Neal looking to play every game the rest of the way.

Claude Julien tries to keep Bruins loose – Joe McDonald has the Bruins coach mixing things up at practice yesterday.

Bruins hope to maintain momentum – Mike Loftus has the Bruins trying to stay sharp with a game against the desperate New York Rangers.

Who’s Howard? Answer man – Bob Ryan profiles Butler senior forward Matt Howard, who along with his teammates will play UConn for the national championship tonight.

UConn Men Face Butler For National Title Monday Night – Mike Anthony says that this UConn team will be remembered forever.

Tom Brady puts image on line in union fight – Ian Rapoport says that the Patriots QB could be costing himself endorsement dollars with his front-line role in the labor fight.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

9 thoughts on “Lost Opening Weekend For Sox, Celtics Get Shaq, Lose Shaq”

  1. "We have all speculated on what marrying her has done to his football focus and his life."

    So, if he married his famous actress ex instead of the famous model, his football focus would be better is what you're saying.

    Like

    1. Not at all…I am only saying it would be a different set of circumstances. Maybe he would have been in an unhappy marriage, maybe she plays Susy Homemaker rather than the current wife who plays Suzy CEO. I am simply arguing that the effect of marrying Gisele carries over to his professional life. The endorsement opportunities, the branding…everything is different than if he had married Bridget. Bridget did not have a corporate staff and experience to create international brands…Gisele does. With the amount of money and opportunities Brady and Bundchen have together the football at this point can be seen as secondary. Sure he loves the game, and he is damn good at it…but objectively…their family derives the majority of its income from none football related activities. That is why I think Brady is willing to be out front on the lawsuit…he actually has less to lose than almost any other player.

      Like

  2. Wasn't the biggest part of the calculation simply putting the 'a' after the 'Br' in 'Brady'? If he had gone with 'o', as in 'Brody', Drew Brees would have been "out front" risking his endorsement deals.

    Like

  3. After the Sox weekend disaster, I wanted to hear some Sox Talk(member of the Fellowship, here) so I thought I'd give Mut and Merloni another try. All I heard was Mut talking a mile a minute, trying to act like he's one of the "cool kids". I hoped that after a month they'd have improved, but I think they've gotten worse.

    By the way. There is an ad for something named KUMON covering about half of the first post. I can't make it go away. Very annoying.

    Like

    1. Use a browser with the AdBlock addon and you won't have to worry about ads for KUMON covering half of the first post.

      Like

  4. Yeah, glad we are depending on Shaq down the stretch. It's almost comical he lasted only 5 minutes. Get ready for massive minutes for KG and Glen Davis in the playoffs.

    Like

  5. Worse than that Classless, get ready for massive minutes and hours of sports talk that will make your ears bleed.

    At a time when the winter teams are readying for the playoffs and the Sox are just beginning what should be a promising season (it obviously will get better than this weekend's Texas baseball massacre), it would be great to listen to the local sports yakkers. But instead of providing some actual analysis, all these hyperbole-heavy hosts want to do is create WWE melodrama while emphasizing the negative. It truly is a shame that it will only get worse in the weeks to come, with these windbags actually rooting for the worst to happen so they can say, 'I told you so.' Utterly maddening.

    Like

Comments are closed.