Boston Sports-break Hill

With all the articles being written about how Boston is a title town, we are like the economy and we are in the midst of a slight recession. After having 5 parades in six years, there has only been 2 since then,

Please consider the last decade divided into two parts and you'll see that the losses in recent years have been downright painful and historic.

(OCTOBER 29, 2007 - PRESENT)

Patriots

2007 Super Bowl XLII loss to New York Giants (End season at 18-1)

2008 Did not make playoffs

2009 AFC Wild Card loss to Baltimore Ravens

2010 AFC Divisional Playoff loss to New York Jets (1st Seed)

Bruins

2008 First Round loss to Montreal Canadiens (Lost Game #7)

2009 Conference Semifinals loss to Carolina Hurricanes (Lost Game #7, 1st Seed)

2010 Conference Semifinals loss to Philadelphia Flyers (Lost Game #7 after being up 3-0)

2011 Won Stanley Cup over Vancouver Canucks

Celtics

2008 Won NBA Championship over Los Angeles Lakers

2009 Conference Semifinal loss to Orlando Magic (Lost Game #7, 1st time losing series after leading 3-2)

2010 NBA Finals loss to Los Angeles Lakers (Lost in Game #7, 2nd time losing series after leading 3-2, 1st ever NBA Finals Game #7 loss)

2011 Conference Semifinal loss to Miami Heat

Red Sox

2008 ALCS loss to Tampa Bay Rays (Lost Game #7 after coming back from 3 games to 1)

2009 ADLS loss to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (Lost Game #3 when leading in the ninth inning)

2010 Did not make playoffs

2011 Did not make playoffs (Leading 3-2 into the 8th, lost 4-3 on Papelbon's Double-Double-Single. Tampa Bay overturned New York 8-7 in 12 after being down 7-0 in the 8th inning.)

FEBRUARY 3, 2002 - OCTOBER 28, 2007

Patriots

2001 Super Bowl XXXVI win over St. Louis Rams

2002 Did not make playoffs

2003 Super Bowl XXXVIII win over Carolina Panthers

2004 Super Bowl XXXIX win over Philadelphia Eagles

2005 AFC Divisional Playoff loss to Denver Broncos

2006 AFC Conference Final loss to Indianapolis Colts (Lose 38-34 after leading 21-6 at halftime)

Bruins

2002 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals loss to Montreal Canadiens in 6

2003 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals loss to New Jersey Devils in 5

2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals loss to Montreal Canadiens in 7

2005 Did not make playoffs

2006 Did not make playoffs

2007 Did not make playoffs

Celtics

2002 Conference Final loss to New Jersey Nets (Game #4 largest comeback in NBA playoff history)

2003 Conference Semifinal loss to New Jersey Nets (Swept)

2004 First Round loss to Indiana Pacers (Swept)

2005 First Round loss to Indiana Pacers (Game #7 loss after being Atlantic Division Champions)

2006 Did not make playoffs

2007 Did not make playoffs

Red Sox

2002 Did not make playoffs

2003 ALCS loss to New York Yankees (Lost Game #7 in Extra Innings after leading 5-3 in the middle of the eighth.)

2004 Won World Series over St. Louis Cardinals

2005 ALDS loss Chicago White Sox (Swept in 3 Games)

2006 Did not make playoffs

2007 Won World Series over Colorado Rockies

Seven (7) Years Ago Today Cornerback Earthwind Moreland was signed onto the New England Patriots Practice Squad

Earthwind Moreland is being interviewed during Super Bowl week in 2005.

Yea, I know it's been seven (7) years but I still think this is a funny story.

CB Earthwind Moreland, named after the group Earth, Wind and Fire was signed onto the New England Patriots practice squad on September 21.

Here is the New England Patriots Printer Friendly Document from their website the day after...

Boston Red Sox 2012 Regular Season Schedule

Not to look ahead towards next season but the Red Sox just released their 2012 Regular Season Schedule.

Looks like Wave One Tickets will go one sale on Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 10AM based on previous years. Make sure all your computers will be ready with multiple browsers open

HBK! What a nice gift for the kid today.

Halloween II: 30th Anniversary on Blu Ray Disc. Includes Bonus Out of Print Documentary!

Amazing...

X-Men: First Class (September 9th), Thor (September 13th), Star Wars Blu-Ray (September 16th), Bridesmaids (September 20th) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (September 30th) are all coming out this month and the one I am most excited about is a less heralded Blu Ray Disc. It's also a movie wasn't even made this century.

It's Halloween II: 30th Anniversary Edition (September 13th). Why? Well other than the fact you think I have terrible taste in movies, it's because of this below...

Terror in the Aisles was horror documentary made in 1984 and hosted by the two most known genre actors at the time. Donald Pleasence (Escape from New York, Halloween) and Nancy Allen (Carrie, Dressed to Kill) hosted this fete of splices from prominent horror films of that day by asking 'What Scares You?'

This production was bypassed on DVD and only existed in a VHS and a Japanese import laserdisc. During my seven years at Big Emma's New and Used Laserdiscs, I never came across the latter. For only $14.99 + tax, I can finally retire the VHS and that transferred-onto-DVD copy copy I own.

This two movie pack have a combined age of 57 and oddly enough, the horror films featured in Terror in Aisles used a lot of fake Ketchup of the Heinz variety, I assume.

Red Sox Local Affiliates Baseball Road Trip - Part I. The Schedules

When I took my first baseball road trip last year, I never realized how much more I would appreciate America's pastime. This was on the "Dew List" (my bucket list) and I heard fantastic stories involving friends or friends of friends that did this while never knowing where their next meal would be or where they would be sleeping next.

I am actually glad that I waited this long to embark on this trip. We were at a stage in our life where all could afford reasonable lodging and food. And with the advent of social media, I was able to share my experiences. Plus there was Baseball Road Trip website that made planning this way too easy. Guys, I would easily recommend this for a get together for old buddies as the schedule is clear cut. This is a great equalizer to the 'let me get back to you about the trip' as you are either in or not on those days. And believe me, if you wanted to go, you made it happen.

We traveled to Miller Park, Wrigley Field and US Cellular Field in a 4 day trip and watched the Brewers, Nationals, Cubs, Cardinals, White Sox and Mariners play. The games were great but what was most memorable were the enormity of these baseball cathedrals. The trip not only renewed my passion with Major League baseball but I had a greater appreciation of what these teams mean to their fans. Whether it was tailgating with brats outside Miller Park to seeing a sea of red Cardinals jerseys in Wrigley, I saw first hand what baseball means to people outside of Boston and New York.

This year, one of my compadres from the trip entered the lottery and won the opportunity to purchase Major League Baseball All Star Tickets in Phoenix, Arizona. I convinced him to purchase eight and was excited about continuing a tradition that started just last year. Unfortunately the commitment to my other love, Fusion String Ensemble was already in works. Needless to say, I will be missing out on seeing my very first All Star game.

So left without a Major League Baseball Road Trip this year, I decided to check out schedules for the Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA) [wikipedia], Portland Sea Dogs (AA) [wikipedia] and Lowell Spinners (Short Season A) [wikipedia] and make a Red Sox Local Affiliates Baseball Road Trip this summer. The other affiliates that would have to wait included Salem (VA) Red Sox (Advanced A) [wikipedia], Greenville (SC) Drive (A) [wikipedia], Gulf Coast League (GCL) Red Sox (Rookie) and Dominican Summer League (DSL) Red Sox (Rookie).

(Red Sox Minor League Affiliates: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/minorleagues/affiliates/index.jsp?c_id=bos)

The local affiliates would be feasible without the small time frame (unless I really wanted but as of now, I may embark on a 3 game 4 day tour) and I would have the opportunity to include my young son on part of this adventure.

I had already purchased the Brewer Pack from the Boston Red Sox during my annual morning ritual before our Holiday party. The Right Field Roof Box is my favorite place to watch the game for the price in my opinion. With construction less five years old, the area boasts short concession & bathroom lines, new restroom facilities and quick access to the nearby Budweiser bar in right field.

With Fenway secured, I went to the websites of Pawtucket, Portland and Lowell to track my itinerary and this is what I found.

Pawtucket's schedule was provided on a PDF. The schedule in color but way oversized for the PDF so it was missing games. I even tried to change paper size and rotating it 90 degrees but no luck.

Portland's schedule was the best by far of the affiliates. All games were viewable and formatted perfectly in Landscape.

Lowell's schedule was unable to provide a full schedule so I was regulated to printing out each month separately. June | July | August | September

Here are the remaining Sox affiliate schedules.

Salem's schedule was in full color but was pixelated when printed. Side note: I did find a channel on ustream.tv that provided a live webcam of their games on the internet.

Greenville's calendar was so small and pixelated that it was rendered unreadable. Although I slightly amused of an ad on PDF of a local hospital with the Pillsbury dough boy dressed up in a nurse outfit and baseball glove catching a fly ball.

Gulf Coast League's & Dominican Summer League schedules are embedded text in the browser for you to print.

Once I integrate the Pawtucket, Portland and Lowell schedules I will be able to lock in dates.

To be continued.

Living without Cable or Satellite Television

After reading an article on Yahoo! about someone who was unsuccessful living without cable television, I looked back at being an OTA (over-the-air) TV household since January 2007.

When I was growing up, my family never had cable television. In high school, there were channels that tried to simulate having cable. TV 38's (now UPN) Movie Loft would air movies in their full theatrical running time. The magic phrase of "viewer discretion is advised" made sure that I would be home for their unedited broadcasts of the Michael Cimino's Deer Hunter and and Brian DePalma's Dressed to Kill. Boston also had a station that capitalized on the advent of music videos with V66. And even with those serviceable substitutes for cable channels, I still missed out on original cable series programming such as "Dream On" and early days of ESPN.

My parents took in a college student while I was away as an undergrad and he paid to install cable television in our house of which I took advantage of after moving home. And for the next 12 years, where ever I lived, I had cable television. During that span cable television added sister channels to their more popular stations, high definition, on-demand programming and Music Choice stations. They were even instructional videos on-demand where I improved my softball swing.

When we left our Cambridge condo and settled into our one month sublet in Brookline, we lived without cable television with limited over-the-air television because the thickly settled area. After we moved to Newton, we never made that phone call for the 9AM - 3PM window to be home for installation.

And months before the analog conversion to all digital, I purchased a High Definition tuner. At that time, OTA provided nine high definition stations, more than half of what cable provided. Over the next year or so, cable television technology grew with more high definition stations, DVRs, and multi-room networking.

There was a point where the allure of cable television lured me back in but I weighed my options below.

Television Programming

Series, miniseries, reality shows and documentaries can be now viewed on sites such as hulu.com or borrowed from your local libraries for free. Even when "Lost" aired for its seven seasons, it was not enough for me to watch even when it was not on a cable station.

Gone are the days when everyone talked about Melrose Place or Seinfeld the next day. And even though the shows are more intricate than others in the past, the variety has given to a diluted following. You can always find someone who didn't watch last night's "True Blood", either because they don't follow it or they are waiting to watch it on their DVR. And because of that television shows are not a needed for a conversation piece during a night out.

Live Programming

Between news and sports, the latter was the most difficult to adjust without cable television. News can be read on the internet through many outlets. Red Sox schedules used to come out with key maps with of broadcasts denoted by: = WSBK, = NESN and = FOX. Shortly after TV38's branded Friday night broadcasts of "Sox in the City," it disappeared and OTA television was limited to the handful of Saturday mid-afternoon broadcasts on Fox. So I broke it down to what I would be missing. (Please keep in mind that Boston sports has hit a bit of a crest and the phrase "subject to blackout" is rarely heard.)

Here is a list of what is available OTA this past year.

New England Patriots - All games are broadcast in High Definition with local area coverage applied through the National television outlets. (http://www.patriots.com/schedule/index.cfm?ac=schedule&season=2009)

Boston Red Sox - Games are only available in High Definition on Fox with local area coverage applied through the National television outlets. The number of 2010 games the Red Sox on Fox (http://static.foxsports.com/content/fscom//binary/2010/02/03/MLB1265228749414.pdf) have is 7

Boston Celtics - Before the 2007 playoffs, it was zero games. The 2009-2010 season garnered six (6) High Definition games on ABC (http://www.nba.com/schedules/national_tv_schedule/ABC/).

Boston Bruins - Six (6) games were televised on NBC (http://www.hdsportsguide.com/news/2009/nhl-on-nbc-for-2009-10-season/) beginning with the Winter Classic on New Year's Day 2010.

Patriots Super Bowl, Celtics & Bruins Conference Semis and Red Sox ALDS

As we embark on the 2010 postseason this Sunday, I took some time to reflect on playoff outcome of the last four majors Boston. Argurably, there hasn't been a time in the history of our sports that had all four major professional teams that are simultaneously reeling from combined losses of this magnitude. This is coming off six titles within six years earning Boston the moniker Title Town of the Decade. Had it not been for those championships, Massachusetts' ranking of #46 Happiest State in Country would surely dip to dead last below Connecticut and New York.

I'll start from the worst to the least painful.

1. Super Bowl XLII, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona, Sunday, February 3, 2008 - The playoffs that year seemed more a blur to me than any of the other Patriots postseason.

The Ben Watson touchdown saving tackle on Champ Bailey's 100-yard interception before the half in Denver on January 14, 2006 is what I can remember. The image of the Patriots D lineman sitting on the sidelines keeping their legs from cramping in Indianapolis in 2007 is what I remember. Those games though painful losses are burned into my sports section of my brain.

But the two playoffs games in 2008 including Super Bowl XLII are non-existent to me, almost as if they reside next to the asterisk of the UMass Minutemen run in the 1994 NCAA tournamnent. The rout over a hurt David Rivers & LaDanian Tomlinson (that's LDT, not LT as there is only one LT) squad was text book and should have been filed into the vaults and the clinic put on Jacksonville was just amazing.

That game will forever be erased as was my 1986 World Series Game 6 extra inning game that had St. Elsewhere's When You Wish Upon a Scar* episode that first aired that following Thursday on October 1, 1986 taped over it.

Apparently the Boston media thinks so too. Not even a inkling of footage or breakdown from any of those games from that season.

2. NBA Conference Semifinals Game 7, TDBank Garden, Boston, MA, Thursday, May 17, 2009 - Two storied Celtics streaks are broken when they lost last year: Losing a Game 7 at home and losing a series after leading 3-2 in a best-of-7.

With Kevin Garnett out of the playoffs, there was little chance that a repeat could happen but could you predict a Game 7 collapse after being up a game with a possible two to go. But we knew the series wasn't going to end with a prophetic guarantee after an away loss in Game 6. These weren't the 1988 Atlanta Hawks (of which current Celtic coach Doc Rivers was a member) we were talking about and these weren't the Larry Bird led Celtics.

Larry Bird is not going to walk through that door, Kevin McHale is not going to walk through that door...

3. NHL Conference Semifinals Game 7, TDBank Garden, Boston, MA, Sunday, May 21, 2009 - After falling to 3-1 to the Hurricanes, only a Bruins tsunami could overcome this deficit.

4. American League Divisional Series Game 3, Fenway Park, Boston, MA, Sunday October 10, 2009 - 1986, 2004, 2007, 2008 and The End. 12 out of their last 13.

Okay, it's been three months since the Red Sox were eliminated from the playoffs and almost two months since the Yankees won their 27th title, the most in Major League Baseball. So after thinking about the Red Sox and their late inning collapse when closer Jonathan Papelbon gave up three runs in the top of the ninth inning to succumb to a 7-6 defeat, I thought about the state of the Boston Sports Playoff Scene.

Regardless of what happens on Sunday the 10th, it will mark the beginning of a new era and the end of this one which I hope we never see again.

* Wow, you can really find everything on the internet!