The Celtics were competitive in Cleveland last night, pulling to within two points in the fourth quarter before LeBron James and Kyrie Irving exerted their will on the court, leading the Cavs to a 99-91 win and 2-0 series lead on the Celtics.

LeBron James takes charge, leads Cavaliers past Celtics in Game 2 – Adam Himmelsbach notes that while the Celtics cleaned up many of their game one issues, poor shooting doomed them in this one.

Celtics need to make their own breaks – Chris Forsberg says that while the Celtics may feel they got the short end of some calls last night, they need to make some of their own breaks.

Jae Crowder: LeBron James and Kyrie Irving’s late dominance not why Boston Celtics dropped Game 2 to Cleveland Cavaliers – Jay King has the Celtics forward lamenting other lost opportunities which he feels doomed the Celtics.

As Celtics look to take next step, Kevin Love is a good place to start – John Tomase thinks that the Cavs free-agent forward to do would be a great fit here.

Get all the coverage at CelticsLinks.com.

The Red Sox picked up a 1-0 win in Tampa last night, with an error accounting for their only run of the game.

First-pitch strikes ‘huge’ for Wade Miley vs. Rays – Sean McAdam has Miley’s 5 2/3 shutout innings due largely to his ability to throw strikes early in the count.

Bullpen pitches in to cap Red Sox’ victory over Rays – Peter Abraham has the ‘pen nailing down the win for Miley.

Mookie Betts’ slide latest reminder: Red Sox’ runners are starting to get a reputation – Rob Bradford notes how the Red Sox are becoming known as “bullies on the basepaths.”

The Patriots learned the dates and times of their 2015 schedule last night, and will open the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 10th.

I’m always amazed at how many people who are paid to talk/write about sports and have no idea how the NFL opponents are formulated each year. They honestly think the schedule is made up fresh each season.

Patriots’ 2015 schedule offers drama, intrigue – Mark Farinella looks at some of the highlights of the schedule, and while it’s bit too early for the game-by-game predictions (we haven’t even hit the draft yet) the schedule does have a number of interesting quirks this season.

Nothing routine about Patriots safety Devin McCourty – Mark Daniels has the newly re-signed defensive back being counted on for his leadership like never before.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

67 thoughts on “Celtics Outmanned in 4th. Sox Win, Patriots Scheduled”

  1. Three not so random thoughts:

    1) I am not sure who is going to kill Tanguay first Minihane or Callahan but it is coming. Their tolerance for him seemed to be seriously waning this morning.

    2) About the Celtics and their playoffs. I am sorry, the Celts threw all they had at Cleveland and they looked like a LV squad against them these last two games. Could they steal one in Boston sure. Anything is possible. My bigger observation is that the Celtics are really far away from Cleveland who is the class of the East. The problem is the Cavs are maybe the 4th or 5th best team in the league…which tells you how far away the Celts are from really competing against the good teams in the West. I think adding Kevin Love would be a good move. But they need a lot more.

    3) I think the announcement of the NFL schedule is a great media event. They fact that the NFL has been able to monetize the releasing of 32 8.5″ x 11″ pieces of paper is amazing to me. But the thing I find unbelievably stupid is not that prognosticators are predicting wins and loses…it is that as the off season, draft and training camps unfold, these people will not move off these early predictions. Its as if they are set in stone.

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    2. Regarding #2, I’d give them a little more time. They only just “blew up” the whole thing in 2013 when they dealt away KG and Pierce to Brooklyn after trying to drag out that era for one more season (Personally, I would have blown it up after they just barely got edged out by Miami in the East Finals the year before). They’re making decent progress. Making the playoffs in Year 2 was a pretty stellar accomplishment considering where they were in June of 2013, and considering how much the roster has been overhauled since then. As we saw in the summer of 2007, things can change quickly, too — one mega deal can alter the entire makeup of the team and its contender status. They were in much worse shape that summer (2007) than they will be heading into this summer. And they certainly have the assets to make such a mega deal, maybe even two.

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      1. I think you misunderstand my criticism. I am not at all questioning the progress the Celtics have made in rebuilding their roster or questioning their future. I am questioning the way the media looks at the team and its unpredicted march into the playoffs. I am condemning what I see as really bad journalism that on the whole seems to be missing some pretty obvious observations.

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        1. I hear ya. Part of it could be that even though they C’s don’t have a chance in this series, the media has to cover it as if they do have a shot in order to keep people interested. Not sure. It’s quite a contrast to how the truly dominant sports team around here gets treated, right? Total 180 — the Pats never have a chance win anything unless BB and Kraft do things the way the media would do them, and even then they would need the opposition to “crap all over themselves” in order to win a championship.

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          1. Maybe. I just think there is a way to be honest with the fans. Mike Gorman’s Celts in 6 prediction was just silly. Of all sports Basketball is the easiest to handicap. The favorites win way more than 50% of the time. Int he playoffs upsets are rare. 8 v 1 or 7 v 2 upsets never happen. The underdog just does not have the horses. So as a fairly astute fan, I would like the coverage to be a little more objective, no so cynical and realistically look at the games, the players, the coaches and then the future. Instead we are talked down to as if we were the 15 year old boys the NBA markets at relentlessly.

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          2. Gorman’s prediction was a head-scratcher. He’s usually more level-headed than that and he’s got 35 or 40 years of experience broadcasting basketball games to boot. He should know better. However, it’s simply possible that he just got caught up in how well the C’s were playing during that final couple weeks of the regular season and thought it could carry over into the post-season, talent gap or not (even though some of those wins were “give-aways” by teams like Cleveland who were resting their key guys).

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    4. Considering the other crap on sports radio not sure why all the hate to Tanguay. It’s not as if this is a step down from anything else on morning sports radio. I’ve been wandering through the morning desert for years seeking my oasis. Nothing on the horizon. Rode to work sucks.

      Celtics . . . Love the coach love I. Thomas, but I mostly hate the NBA game. Seeing LeBron walking to the game in his silly hat and fake glasses makes me puke. FU nba

      NFL schedule. I’m all over that! I can now plan from Sep to Dec and tell my wife when to leave me alone. I love it. They should make the schedule announcement a 3 day event like the draft. I’ll get chinese food and never leave my couch! !! $$

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      1. I can’t speak for anyone else but my issue with Tanguay is one of expectations. He sounds like he should know what he is doing. He makes grand sweeping pronouncements like he does know what he is talking about and then when you actually listen to what he is saying it is absolutely gibberish. The guy has one of the best radio voices I have ever heard. He comes off dumber than most of the porn stars that play dumber than a box of rocks with Howard Stern.

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        1. Tanguay is lost. It’s been even more obvious since he didn’t get the Pats job as their play by play guy. He had the inside track to that job for years by being on the pre and post game show for the flagship. The fact that a professional broadcaster like himself who was affiliated with the Pats and carried their water for them for years got passed over for a guy from outside the market had to be a big blow for him. Hence all the attacks on the Krafts since.

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      2. Imop, morning radio has never been the same since Howard went full blown Hampton’s Howie. I haven’t had a show I listened to religiously ever since. Flip around between music stations on XM with a sprinkling in of T&R,D&C and Mike &Mike.

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  2. Better prepare ourselves for more proclamations from F&M about how the Red Sox, despite being 9-5 and in first place, SUCK, and their record is all due to their opponent crapping all over themselves. Which is incidentally enough the same argument they use for every single Pats win. They need more variety!

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    1. Funny how they can’t see – as Bradford notes well in the linked article – that errors are often the result of the opposing team’s aggressiveness (which is true in any sport). I also recall a line from Ball Four, when Jim Bouton references the Pilots taking advantage of an opponent’s error to win a game: “they opened the door and we stepped through, just like the Yankees used to.”

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  3. The latest in the line of twitter parody accounts, @YoureRightMike is hilarious…

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    2. Brilliant! Nothing funnier than mocking the predictability of Tony Mazz.
      He had his panties in a bunch yesterday making reference to people who call him out for being Felger’s beeeotch and when he did shows with Ordway he would actually debate him instead of rubber stamping every take.

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  4. There is a flaw in Felger’s defense of how he does a show. He always defends himself by saying “well what are we going to talk about” or “why are we here” when he gets called out for all his negative narratives. That kind of justification is a poor excuse.
    It’s lazy.
    Oh I don’t know Mike, you could maybe talk about the actual game on the field once in awhile?
    Creating story lines or attacking players for any reason for hours on end is just lazy. Takes no creativity or much effort. It’s much more work to actually watch the games you’re paid to talk about and talk about it in a knowledgeable way instead of complaining non-stop about how long games are. “Waaah…I get paid lots of money to talk sports and the games are too long for me!’ boo-hoo Mike. No one feels sorry for you.
    DO YOUR JOB. 🙂
    All the years of experience between Felger and Mazz watching sports and covering the games they should have excellent insight but instead all we get is 4 hours of endless takes of “it’s crap” and “this sucks”. Lazy.
    It’s just a shame that WEEI still has no clue how to really comnpete.
    Instead of being bold they continue to reach into the past (Ordway, Tanguay) to put the same old same old on air. Same formula and same old names that lead to their downfall from the top 5 years ago.

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    1. Unfortunately, there’s an audience for lazy, nasty, vindictive nonsense.

      I’m certainly not the only person who doesn’t want to listen, but somebody does. It’s not just the ratings – follow any Boston team’s twitter feed and you’ll see responses straight out of the Felger handbook.

      Unless I hear there’s going to be an interview I want to hear, I just avoid sports talk radio. It’s frustrating, as I’m a rabid sports fan and I’d love to listen to intelligent, insightful discussions, but F&M and their ilk are doing just fine without me.

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  5. Did Tanguay explain his comment going into the break at 7:30 yet? “John Henry treats the fans like soy beans”. Head scratcher right there.

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      1. Could be but it still doesn’t explain what the heck he was talking about. The man is just terrible at his career.

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  6. So what was Minihane railing about this morning? Did he get in a tussle with management or something?

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    1. It’s his whole act. He’s the angry guy. The trust fund douche is the biggest fake in all of Boston media. And that is not easy to do.

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      1. I hear you but all the way into work it was the three of them bitching about EEI and something that happened with Kirk but they never mentioned what it was (or if they did I missed it).

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  7. I know it’s not local but I have to mention ESPN’s despicable fawning over Mayweather. In the same week in which they rightly covered Greg Hardy’s past with his domestic violence and the controversy of the Cowboys signing him;they assigned Screamin A. Smith to follow Mayweather around like a puppy dog and just ball lick him to no end. Mayweather has many issues with beating women but according to Smith people only hate him because he shows off his money. Why ESPN feels the need to do this is beyond me. What better guy though than Stephen who definitely has a history of going easy on these kind of guys to carry Mayweathers water? Which says something about him. Hope we don’t see his name in the news one day for similar actions.

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  9. Ah, Boston 2024. Globe pushing hard. Some folks hate it. Others like it. The debate rolls on! Stay tuned after the break and I’ll tell you why it’s a [good|bad] idea!

    I heard all I needed to hear as to why I’m against it. I think you’ll agree.

    Gary Tanguay is for it.

    I rest my case.

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  10. Globe Editorial Board currently debating on the lead for tomorrow’s op-ed on if Brady wasn’t along with the team because he’s racist or a republican.

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    1. Mazz has apparently already been speculating on the air today that the reason may have been political. There’s absolutely no proof of this, of course, but hey, it’s now the hotsportztake of the day, so it’s time to ride that horse until it falls over and dies….and then beat the dead horse for another day or so before moving on to the next hotsportztake.

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      1. I’m still waiting for them at any point to mention just once that Solder got cancer treatment and it might explain his dropoff in play last season.

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        1. First thing I thought of when I saw that story. “Ah, so that’s why he looked a little shaky at times last year.” You don’t just immediately recover from something like that and go out and play at a Pro Bowl level in the best professional football league on the planet. He played much better in the second half of the season and held his own against some really good players in the post-season, so my guess is that his strength/overall conditioning and agility at the beginning of the year were not up to its normal levels after the surgery/recovery period. And you’re right, the media would rather focus on the non-controversy about the White House visit than focus on a “feel-good” story like Solder’s.

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    2. 2:05 pm – I have when people make these things political Mike, but if he did this for political reasons…Ugh. Click. Turned back at around 5:30 and they were still talking about it being potentially political.

      I just hope the same people complaining about the D&C politics take umbrage with Felger commenting about the wingnuts loving it and Mazz mocking the GOP among other things. I can’t stand these two.

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  11. Tom & Gisele are very conservative-every once in a while something leaks to demonstrate it. It would be ballsy because it’s not like him to take a political stand and screw up the Tom Brady Brand. I would bet that ~90% of Pats fans have no idea how conservative they are.

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    1. I’ll take him at his word on this one. Brady’s not the type who would cut out on his teammates like that if he didn’t have a legitimate excuse for not being there. We’re not talking about Manny Ramirez or Tim Thomas here. Brady’s unselfish when it comes to the team.

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      1. Tom scheduled hair updates months ago and couldn’t move the date. He grows it out in the offseason for transplants. Perry sure he is a bit conservative but Giselle is a tree hugger. Alas, how much of an environmentalist can you bee if you fly around in a private jet all the time. No a criticism, I could not care any less what they do. The drama on the radio today was hilarious.

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      1. Thanks for the link. I had read not long ago that Giselle was active in environmental causes but couldn’t remember where I’d seen it.

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    4. The guy from San Francisco area who eats fancy fake ice cream and gets brain workouts with the supermodel wife who rubs shoulders with the Zoolanders of the world are conservative? They seem like the ultimate limousine liberals to me.
      I never got why Felger always thought that Brady would be a moderate Republican. Someone needs to tell him that there is no such thing anymore.If you’re not a right wing anti-government type you get banished to the Democratic party or your twisting in the wind as a independent but that’s a different discussion.

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    5. People, Tom Brady goes out of his way to stay non-political/controversial.
      Thus, his reason for not going HAS to be legit. GOING, would have been the non-controversial move. He knows that. But, he couldn’t. Probably had a trip planned with the whole family and it’s not like his first time (hopefully not last) time he’s been there.
      Next time he speaks into the mic, I think this will be a non-issue immediately.
      As for Tanguay… Ugh… forget it… I don’t even have the energy to waste on that moron.

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      1. People have wanted to try to figure out his politics forever. Before all of this, I recall he supported some candidate (forget who), who happens to be from the side of the aisle most people aren’t around here.

        I think part of the curiosity is just because people are interested in athletes but the other derives from the modern ‘gotta know because if he’s a dirty [[party opposite mine]], he’s a bad person.”

        I thought it goes without speaking.. but why the hell is it any of our business? Unless he makes it some distraction for the team, I fail to see where it is. Don’t we just care about them showing up on Sunday and winning?

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    1. I hate that what just used to be confined to message boards has now infected the media. Trolling.
      Don’t feed the trolls people.

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  15. Even if the Celts get swept, i really like this team and Stevens (but why is Bradley getting meaningful minutes if he can’t shoot, handle the ball or guard Irving!?)
    I do think Gorman should get some grief for his unrealistically rosy prediction. Just like the gloom-and-doom pundits who have been foretelling the demise of the Patriots for a decade. However, we know he will get more heat from the 6-game prediction than Shaughnessey or Borges or F&M do on their “telling-it-like-it-is” predictions, which they quickly blow past when wrong. He will be labeled a homer, while they are truth-talkers. He was wrong, but at least he was giving a vote of confidence to a team he knows well and a coach he believes in. The other guys are just making lazy, cynical, button-pushing predictions to gain attention or settle scores (the Borges 73-0 being the worst of the lot).

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    1. He will be labeled a homer.

      Problem is, he’s the team’s broadcaster. There is nothing he can do to shake ‘homer’.

      I think he made the prediction in good faith, though. He’ll take some heat for it but he’s not some guy who puts things out there for the sake of #HOTSPORTZTAKEZ.

      Same on Stevens. it’s nice he wants to stay, also. There are clearly colleges who are out there, who could match his NBA-level salary, and would love him. It contrasts Doc, who like many others, wants nothing to do with a rebuild.

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    2. It doesn’t really count when it comes from a team broadcaster. Now if an independent broadcaster had said that then there would be some grief coming his way.

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  16. Florio had a post on PFT last night, basically hinting at what @SharksOfVegas has been reporting for months:

    As one league source recently explained it to PFT, the league’s investigation has expanded to explore its own behavior, including for example the identity of person(s) who leaked to the media information that suggested the Patriots did something wrong.

    Hm, no secret that the Colts GM has Kravitz and Doyle on speed dial.

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  18. Sooooo…. anyone want to go and pull up all the articles written by the local braintrust that argued how the Red Sox showed they weren’t committed to winning when they failed to pursue and sign Josh Hamilton?

    Because I don’t see them lining up to admit they were wrong.

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  19. So Gary Tanguay’s newest brilliant idea is to call Tom Brady arrogant for skipping the White House visit. (Pot Kettle Black) Mike Reiss reports this morning that Brady was seen at Gillette for part of the time the team was in DC. It sure lines up that Brady is arrogant until you read the rest of Reiss’ piece. He suggests that Brady is still offended that the White House official press secretary questioned his integrity at a press conference when asked to comment on deflate gate.

    I think Reiss is on to something. I do believe that Brady had a family engagement. Could he have missed it or rescheduled…who knows. That is not the issue. The issue as I see it is Tanguay making a blanket personal attack without taking the time to understand the situation. To me this is no different than those that rushed to judgement on deflate gate or any other of the made for media gates du jour. To be honest I do not think that whether Brady was offended and then chose to skip the visit is the story. I think the story should be the shoddy journalism that keeps occurring at the hands of certain people around this team and the fact that they still get a forum.

    I found the 45 minutes on Friday morning where Callahan, Tanguay and Minihane were talking about being fired from jobs to be one of most interesting segments I have ever listened to on sports radio. I thought that Callahan and Minihane politely but directly told Tanguay that the way he is approaching his craft is not helping him win new employment or keep that which he has. In the discussion was direct criticism of the fact that since he was fired from the Pats broadcasts he has been very anti-patriots. Tanguay is ill equipped to talk off the cuff on any topic and that is doubly true when he tries to defend himself. You may not like Callahan because of his politics but if you go back and listen to that segment you’ll find that he was quite good at exposing Tanguay.

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    1. Talk radio, cable tv and twitter hot takes are not examples of journalism. Writing colums isn’t either. Those are all forms of infotainment. Hot Takers will continue to have a forum as long as they draw viewers and clicks and advertisers buy space that surrounds their content.

      Reiss is a sports journalist.

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    2. Given that it centers around something political, it’s about the cheapest way to get every LCD listener to call in. Everyone wants to have an opinion because it deals with politics.

      I sometimes wonder if he does it because he looks at how Felger rose to prominence in the market. Have some crazy takes, no matter how “HOT”, and just run with it, even if you look like an ass in the end.

      I heard the segment and thought the same. It’s definitely an art to be able to talk about what the fans are talking about, but without getting yourself fired. That’s the whole game of most media. Execs want you on the edge, producing whatever that yields the highest PPM/share, but all without “going over the line”, where you get the Twitterazi and Social Media Mafias after you.

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      1. BSM, just one comment because I otherwise agree with you. Felger is successful because he is wicked smarhrt and able to be self deprecating while he makes trolling comments. Tanguay, if he is trying to emulate Felger misses the whole part about being able to laugh at himself…so he comes off as just a fool.

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        1. Agree.

          Felger knows where to keep it right at or around that invisible “redline”. I don’t think Tanguay gets that at all.

          I’ve stated before that I don’t listen but I’ll never deny the smarts there. He had the “radio” gift and does it well, as the ratings show.

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  21. No Pats fan should care about any of these photo-ops. If Brady were missing practices or games without an explanation then we’d have reason to care (but that’s never happening). It is a big deal to the sports media because they can pretend to be big-boy reporters for the day and take selfies at the presidential podium.
    The difference with Tim Thomas is that he made his rationale for not attending a public, political issue and forced his teammates to deal with it. That said, i didn’t care about that either.

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    1. Best “rationalization” I heard via Ordway: He’s just sick of going. Part might also be taking names on the Deflategate stuff.

      Yeah, there’s a huge distinction. Thomas made it known and then made it a distraction. So far, he hasn’t

      I suspect the issue will die down and he might be asked about it, by one or two in the future, but he’s not going to bring it up.

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      1. I just think the whole thing is kinda stupid. It’s one thing to show up at Fenway or with the mayor…but going to the White House? Why? Obama is a Chicagoan. Invite a team from Chicago if they win. At least it would make sense on some level. The whole White House visit circus is dumb.

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