October 12, 2007

FIRST PITCH:

"For Boston, For Boston..." If you are a fight song aficionado you would know that those are the first words in the Boston College fight song and if you are a contestant on The Singing Bee starring N'Sync's finest Joey Fatone you could have won money for knowing the next line is "We sing our proud refrain." However, the point of me referencing the first line of BC's fight song is that this coming weekend in sports it is all about the city of Boston. It starts today with the Red Sox taking on the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the ALCS, continues tomorrow when the 4th ranked Boston College Eagles travel to South Bend to take on Notre Dame, and it concludes Sunday with the "Duel in Dallas," between the 5-0 Patriots and Cowboys. Also, in case you were wondering BC has their first hockey game of the season tonight against Michigan and BC basketball also begins practices this weekend. Needless to say the sports epicenter for this weekend is Boston.

MLB:

My rant this week will be in chronological order of when the events occur and because of that I will begin with the Red Sox and Indians. Last week I gave my MLB playoff predictions and although I was totally off in the NL, as I had both the Phillies and Cubs winning their series', I did predict that the Indians and Red Sox would take on each other in the ALCS. My only blemish in my AL prediction was that I had the Indians winning it in five games instead of four.

Although Fox is probably mad that the ALCS is not the Red Sox vs Yankees, I still think that the Red Sox vs Indians has the potential to be a very exciting series. The reason for this is that both teams have tremendous starting pitching. As fun as it is to watch balls fly out of the park, come playoff time I believe there is nothing better than watching a great pitching duel. Last week for instance, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Indians' Fausto Carmona battle the Yankees' Andy Pettite in a 2-1 eleven inning thriller. This year's ALCS is filled with great pitching match ups and it begins tonight when the two leading American League Cy Young Award candidates in Josh Beckett and C.C. Sabathia clash in what should be an epic Game 1, and it continues in Game 2 tomorrow when Curt Schilling takes on Fausto Carmona.

Although I would like to commend Indians manager Eric Wedge and General Manager Mark Shapiro on rebuilding the organization and bringing them back to prominence, I still think the Red Sox have the upper hand in the series. The reason for this is the Red Sox have a lot more playoff experienced veterans than the Indians. The Indians are indeed very talented and have a bright future ahead of them but, the Sox roster is filled with players that know what it takes to win it all, whereas many of the Indians are in the League Championship Series for the first time.

Another reason why I think the Red Sox should win this series is that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez are finally clicking on all cylinders. For Manny and Ortiz standards they each had a sub par regular season, but in their ALDS series against the Angles they turned on the switch and showed why they are one of baseball's best 1-2 punch. This was best seen in Game 2 of the ALDS when Angles reliever Francisco Rodriguez intentionally walked Ortiz in the ninth to take his chances with Manny. Manny responded to this by hitting a walk off bomb to win the game. In Game 3 they continued their hot streaks when they hit back to back homers. If these two can continue their hot streak throughout the rest of the playoffs I don't know if any of the remaining teams have a chance of knocking the Red Sox off.

A final reason why I think the Sox have the upper hand is because of their closer situation. If you look at both of these teams pitching staffs they are almost as equal as you can get in terms of both starting and relief pitching with the exception being their respective closers. Yes, Cleveland closer Joe Borowski had 8 more saves on the season with 45 than Jonathan Papelbon of the Red Sox, but Borowski also had an ERA of 5.07 compared to the minuscule 1.85 of Papelbon. Teams have been able to get hits off Borowski and this was best seen in the 9th inning of Game 4 of the ALDS against the Yankees when he gave up a homer to Bobby Abreu and was inches away from also giving up one to Jorge Posada in the same inning. Papelbon on the other hand with the exception of a few off nights has been completely lights out all season. This ability to sustain a lead in the late innings will prove to be a very vital asset for the Sox, in what should be a very close series where the smallest of mistakes could affect the outcome of the whole series.

In all I like the Red Sox in six.

Before moving onto talk about BC and Notre Dame, I will give my brief thoughts on the NLCS. First off, if FOX is mad about their ALCS match up, imagine being TBS having to show two un-sexy West Coast teams from Colorado and Arizona, who aren't even that popular in their respective cities (there were 4,000 unsold tickets for last night's Game 1 in Arizona). I would like to note that I did not think either the Rockies or the Diamondbacks would advance from the NLDS, but after watching both teams play in the playoffs thus far I would give the edge to the Rockies. As I write this the rant the Rockies are currently up 1-0 in the series and have won 18 out of their last 19 games, which is truly unbelievable to think about. The reason why I like the Rockies is that they already beat the D'Backs ace Brandon Webb, and their momentum is so high right now that I do not know if they will ever lose again. It would not shock me if the Rockies end up sweeping the D'Backs in this series, but I still firmly believe that they will quickly be brought down to earth by either the Red Sox or Indians in the World Series.

My final prediction for the NLCS is Rockies in five.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL:

Moving on to college football, this is a BIG week for the now fourth ranked Boston College Eagles. Some people maybe asking why? since they are talking on a 1-5 Notre Dame team. The reason is this is the first weekend where the Eagles can truly validate their ranking and propel Matt Ryan into the Heisman race, by playing a big game on national television. The last few weeks BC went pretty much unnoticed having played the cupcake portion of their schedule, but from now on the Eagles will be under the microscope every week as they enter a difficult final stretch.

Besides gaining credibility, another reason why this is a BIG game for BC is because it is a rivalry game known as the "Holy War." For ND it may not be that much of a rivalry game since they have already had long standing rivalries with other programs such as USC and Michigan, but for BC this is the game they circle when the schedule first comes out. The reason for this is that besides Notre Dame being one, if not the most storied program in college football history, the schools are so similar. BC and ND are the only two Division 1 Catholic schools and there are many families across America who have parents who attended or sent kids to both schools, and because of that annual bragging rights are always on the line.

The part of the rivalry that is unique to this year is usually Notre Dame is the team that enters the game undefeated and in the National Title hunt, but this year the roles are reversed as BC seeks to become 7-0. I remember like it was yesterday being at CYO basketball tryouts and listening to the radio as David Gordon hit a 41 yard field goal to give BC the victory over then #1 Notre Dame in 1993. I also remember sneaking a radio onto the sidelines when I was a manager of my high school football team in 2002 as BC linebacker Josh Ott ran back an interception for 71 yards to give BC a 14-7 win over then 8-0 Notre Dame. Some analysts, most notably delusional Lou Holtz and Beano Cook, now think this is the time when Notre Dame will finally have their chance of redemption and be able to spoil BC's dream season. In the words of "College Gameday's" Lee Corso I tell all those people who think ND will pull off the upset "Not so fast my friends."

I will admit Notre Dame has improved from the beginning of the season, but despite their victory over UCLA last week there is still much to be concerned about if you are an Irish fan. The ND defense played great last week, BUT UCLA was playing the majority of the game with a walk-on quarterback. This week however will be a lot different as the ND defense will be facing one of the best, if not the best signal caller in all of college football right now in Heisman candidate Matt Ryan. Also, the ND offense only had a total of 140 yards last week, which is not going to get them far against BC's swarming defense. BC has the third ranked run defense in the nation in only allowing 49.7 yards a game, which means ND will be forced to have to pass it a lot more, but the Irish have yet to show any semblance of a passing game. It is for these reasons why I like BC to win this game 38-17, and to move their winning streak against the Irish to five games.

As for the rest of college football, last week continued in the trend of upsets among highly ranked teams. Last week USC, who many including myself, predicted to play in the BCS National Title game lost to 40 point underdog Stanford in what could be the upset of the season. Number five ranked Wisconsin also lost to quickly improving Illinois who all of a sudden has made themselves contenders in the Big 10. Staying in the Big 10, Ohio State continued to improve as their defense held the potent Purdue offense to just seven points. The Buckeye defense is now only giving up 7.2 points per game, and they should at least keep that average for another week as they take on the Golden Flashes of Kent State this weekend. LSU on the other hand validated their number one ranking this past weekend when they came back to beat the defending National Champion Florida Gators to give them their second straight loss. Although there aren't too many marquee match ups this upcoming weekend here are my top 5 games nonetheless:

1) LSU vs Kentucky
2) Missouri vs Oklahoma
3) Boston College vs Notre Dame

4) Wisconsin vs Penn State
5) Auburn vs Arkansas

NFL:

Now finally moving onto the "Duel in Dallas," between the undefeated Patriots and Cowboys. Without question this is the game of the week in the NFL, and with the possible exception with the game between the Colts and Patriots later on in the season, this could potentially be the best game of the entire regular season. On paper these two teams are basically equal. If you look at the various team offensive statistics across the entire league the Cowboys and Patriots are basically either number one or number two in every category. The reason for this is both teams have great quarterbacks in Tony Romo and Tom Brady and both have been able to successfully establish a running game to set up their very potent passing games. Both of these teams also each have one of the top receivers in the game with Terrel Owens being on the Cowboys and Randy Moss being on the Patriots. However it is for the very same reasons why I like the Red Sox over the Indians that I like the Patriots over the Cowboys in this game.

I think the Cowboys are a great team, and I believe they will be representing the NFC in the Super Bowl this year, but this game against the Patriots is their first real BIG game against a top notch opponent that they have faced since they have ascended into of the NFL elite teams. The Patriots on the other hand through their numerous battles with the Colts and trips to the Super Bowl over the past six years are very used to preparing for such highly anticipated showdowns. Another reason why I like the Patriots in this game is because of head coach Bill Belichick. Although Tony Romo has the makings to be great quarterback, as long as you disregard his five interception performance last week against the Buffalo Bills in one of the great Monday Night Football games of all time, Belichick has a storied history of shutting down great quarterbacks the first time that they go against one of his defenses. Belichick has the amazing ability to hide his blitzes which in turn flusters the quarterback. Look at Peyton Manning for instance. He is one of the best quarterbacks of all time and it took him years to finally defeat a Belichick coached Patriots team.

A final reason why I like the Patriots is because of Terrell Owens. In a recent rant I mentioned that one of the reasons for the Cowboys success thus far this season is that TO is making more noise on the field than off. This however changed this past week when not only did he have countless drops against the Bills, but he left a note on his locker in which he referred to Randy Moss as "The Other 81." Now I know this note was left in good fun, and the point of the whole note was that Owens would not talk to the media so he could focus on the big game this week, but to call Moss "The Other 81," I am sure gave Moss some extra bulletin material and motivation to go out and put on one his best performances, in a stadium where he has already had some of his best games in his career.

My Prediction is Patriots win 34-24.

As for the rest of the NFL, the jury is still out on many teams. There are a lot of teams who look great one week then bad the next so it is still tough to tell who are the contenders and pretenders. Now here are my top 5 games of the week:

1) Patriots vs Cowboys
2) Redskins vs Packers
3) Titans vs Buccaneers
4) Texans vs Jaguars
5) Panthers vs Cardinals

CLOSING THOUHGT:

My closing thought this week is focusing on Penn State coach Joe Paterno and Florida State head football coach Bobby Bowden. Both of these coaches are two of the most winning coaches in college football history and have won multiple National Titles. However after reading about JoPa's traffic incident this past week along with reading about yet another one of his players getting in trouble in an off the field incident I am starting to truly feel that he should retire at the end of the season. I also think Bobby Bowden should do the same. The reason for this is that they have simply become figureheads and I think that because of their age they can no longer have relationships with their players the way they used to. I do not doubt that they know their x's and o's as good as any other coach in football, but it appears now they have become a lot more distanced from their teams and as a result it has hurt them not only on the field, as both Penn State and Florida State are no longer the National Title contenders that they once were, but it has also hurt them off the field with their players getting in trouble. If you look at the top teams in the country now they are for the most part coached by guys who are young and energetic like a Pete Carroll from USC, Les Miles from LSU and Urban Meyer from Florida and I think one of the main reasons for this besides their coaching intellect is because they are young and can relate to the players a lot better than a JoPa or a Bobby Bowden. I respect both JoPa and Bowden enough that I think it would be best for them to walk away now while they are still competitive programs than to wait until their programs have completely fallen off the map as one of the elite programs in all of college football.

That's about it for this week, but thanks once again for reading this edition of "Boyce's Weekly Rant," and remember if you have any comments to please post them, and if you have friends or family members who might be interested in reading my rant to pass on the link to them. Thanks.

Brendan Boyce

October 4, 2007

First Pitch:

Well it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Now I am sure many of you maybe scratching your heads over my first sentence since it's October in New England and the trees are still green and the temperature is approaching 80 degrees, but the reason I am so giddy on this day is that the NHL season kicked off last night. Alright, I am just kidding, I don't give a flying hoot that the NHL regular season started, in fact I am still channel surfing trying to find Versus on my television. All joking aside though, this past week was an amazing week in sports. Baseball concluded a very exciting September and are now into the playoffs and College Football this past weekend was full of more upsets than I can ever remember happening in one weekend. I usually start my rants with my thoughts on College Football but with baseball now being in the playoffs, I will start off with a trip around the Majors.


MLB:

As a lifelong Red Sox fan, this past week was one of great joy. For the first time since 1995 the Red Sox won the American League East. Now I know the Red Sox have been to the playoffs numerous times since 1995 as a Wild Card, but there is something very satisfying about getting the "Wild Card Monkey" off our backs, after holding the title for so long. It was also nice to know that the Sox will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Sox may have stumbled in August and September and almost had a Mets like collapse, although I don't know if any team could ever have a collapse like the Mets did in the final two weeks of the season, by blowing their huge lead to the Yankees, but they finished strong and built up some much needed momentum as they head into the playoffs.

Now I know the MLB playoffs started yesterday, so it is a little late to be giving my predictions on what I think may happen, but I promise all the predictions that I am about to give are what I thought since the match-ups were first put out.

I would also like to start off by saying that if you did not see the play-in game between the Padres and Rockies on Monday night you missed out on what I think was the best baseball game of the whole season. Moving on however here are my predictions for the playoffs.

NL:

Rockies vs Phillies: I think it's fair to say that no two teams are hotter going into the playoffs than the Phillies and Rockies. The Rockies finished their season winning an astonishing 14 out 15 games to basically come out of nowhere to win the Wild Card. For a team that usually gets criticized for their lack of pitching, largely due to the thin air in Denver, their pitching staff has had an amazing second half of the season. Besides their pitching though, the Rockies wouldn't be where they are without the stellar play of MVP candidate Matt Holliday, potential rookie of the year in Troy Tulowitzki and the veteran leadership from Todd Helton. With that being said however I still think the Phillies have the edge. The Phillies like the Rockies played an amazing final month of baseball and overcame a once perceived insurmountable deficit to the Mets to win the NL East. The reasons I like the Phillies in this series is that I think the Rockies could be fatigued by having to play a play-in game on Monday and then having to travel cross country and play the early game on Wednesday. Also, in a short series it is my thought that the team with home field has a distinct advantage. A final reason why I like the Phillies is that the heart of their line-up, led by another MVP candidate in Jimmy Rollins, along with Ryan Howard and Chase Utley have been as hot as any line-up coming into the playoffs. Final prediction is Phillies in five.


Cubs vs Diamondbacks: On paper I think the Cubs are a far superior team, but I think the Diamondbacks are proof that games are not won on paper. The Diamondbacks to me are one of the great mysteries in baseball. Yes, they do have one of the great pitchers in baseball in Brandon Webb, but besides that no one on their roster sticks out to me. When Tony Clark, the same Tony Clark who I may add was a total bust with Boston in 2002, is the D'backs' cleanup hitter with only 17 home runs on the season, that usually is not a good thing. Despite a lack of power, the D'backs have been able to scratch and claw for runs all season, and combined with their ability to win close games, they could be a very dangerous team in the playoffs. Despite all of that however I do like the Cubs in this series. The Cubs, although they limped into the playoffs, have the makings of a very dangerous team. They have a good 1-2 punch in Zambrano and Lilly at pitching, they have have fairly powerful team led by Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee, and they have a veteran manager in Lou Piniella who has great playoff and championship experience. It is for these reasons that I think the Cubs will win this series in four despite the fact that the D'backs have home field advantage.

AL:

Yankees vs Indians: To me this is the most intriguing match-up of all the divisional series'. The reason for this, is that every time I think about who is going to win this series I always come up with a different answer. The logical winner would be the Yankees. They have the most potent offense in all of baseball, they have Derek Jeter who always seems to elevate his game to new heights in October and they are the Yankees, they are supposed to win. Despite all this however I am still not sold on the Yankees. Yes, I think the Yankees could win it all, but at the same time I can easily see them losing this series. The Yankees have had a roller coaster of a season. They go on winning streaks where they look like no one in all of baseball can compete with them, and then they go into slumps where you start asking yourself "Is this the same team that just won 9 out of 10 games two weeks ago?" If the Yankees team that wins 9 out of 10 shows up then to me they are the clear favorite in my mind to win it all, but if not then I can see the Indians winning this series. The reason why the Indians could very easily win this series is because of their starting pitching. In playoffs the old adage is pitching wins titles, and the Indians have two of the top pitchers in the majors in C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. If both these pitchers can play like they have all season I can see the Indians winning this series. Finally, the one wild card in this series is Alex Rodriguez. Without question A-Rod is the AL MVP this year. He put up remarkable numbers, but the big question is will the A-Rod of the regular season show up or will the A-Rod of playoffs past show up. For those of you who don't know, the A-Rod of playoffs past is not a good thing. Well enough debating here, I am going out on the limb here and saying the Indians will win in 5.

Red Sox vs Angles: As a die hard Red Sox fan I am going to try to be unbiased as possible. With my allegiances put aside and looking at this series in an objective manner I still like the Red Sox to win this series and it would not shock me if they end up sweeping the Angles. The reason for this is Pitching. Josh Beckett, whom I think will end up being the AL Cy Young award winner this year, has not only had a tremendous regular season, but he also has had great success in the playoffs, as was best seen in his performances in the 2003 Playoffs when he led the Marlins to a World Series victory. Also, although Curt Schilling has transformed himself this season from a power pitcher to a finesse pitcher, he is still one of the great pitchers in playoff history. I love how Francona is starting him in game three instead of two, because he knows Schilling has had great success in Anaheim in the past and he knows no opposing crowd can rattle him. The one wild card of the Red Sox lineup is Daisuke Matsuzaka. Daisuke, like the Yankees, has had a roller coaster of a season. If the dominant Daisuke shows up, to me there is no better 1-2-3 punch in the playoffs than the Red Sox, and this will prove to be a lot more important once the series go from five to seven games. Another reason why I like the Red Sox is they are finally healthy again with Manny and Kevin Youkilis back in the line-up and they also have one of the most clutch players in October in David Ortiz. Finally, the Red Sox have had great success against the Angles number one pitcher in John Lackey. With the Red Sox superior pitching and hitting I like them in three.

ALCS:

Sox over Indians

NLCS:

Cubs over Phillies

World Series:

Red Sox over Cubs


COLLEGE FOOTBALL:

Due to the fact that I spent so much time on the baseball playoffs I am going to be brief this week on my college football and NFL thoughts.

If you were to tell me there would be a day when Kentucky, South Florida and my beloved Boston College Eagles were all in the top 10, I would have asked you how many beers have you had that night? But the reality is all three of those teams are in fact in the top 10, and the main reason for that is this past week saw so many upsets of top 10 teams. Oklahoma lost to Colorado, Florida lost to Auburn, West Virginia lost to South Florida, Texas lost to Kansas State and Rutgers lost to Maryland. I am still a believer that by the end of the season the teams that lost with the exception of Texas and Rutgers will rebound and find themselves in the top 10 again, but it was still a thrill to see the huge shakeup in the polls.

The reason why I love college football so much is one loss can totally change a team's season. Last week I wrote about how Florida, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Clemson all had shots at making National Title runs, but with their one loss now those hopes for the most part are completely diminished. USC, LSU, Ohio State and I will now put Cal in this category, based on their victories over Tennessee and their win this past weekend at Oregon, have separated themselves from the rest of the pack as the favorites to go to the BCS National Title game. LSU has a huge game this week against Florida but if they can get over that hurdle, which I predict they will since they are at home, they should control their destiny for the rest of the season. I also predict that the winner of the Cal vs USC game later in the season will also go to National Title game.

Even though some games this coming week have lost a lot of their luster with so many teams losing last week, there is still a great slate of games this coming weekend and here are my top 5 games to watch:

1) Kentucky vs South Carolina
2) Florida vs LSU
3) Ohio State vs Purdue
4) Oklahoma vs Texas
5) Georgia vs Tennessee

NFL:

Now shifting gears to the pro game. I would like to start off this week by congratulating the Bengals defense for holding the Patriots to a season low 34 points. Four weeks have passed and each week I still am in awe of the Brady to Moss connection. I also don't want to sound like a broken record but each week the same teams thus far have continued to impress me with those teams being the Patriots, Colts and Cowboys. I would like to say though that the Titans, Packers and Buccaneers are swiftly moving up the charts as the best teams in the second tier of the NFL.

One final NFL note that I would like to mention is about Chargers coach Norv Turner. Way back in the beginning of the calendar year I made a comment on my weekly radio show "Tuesday's with Boyceee," about the stupidity of the Chargers front office for firing Marty Schotenheimer and replacing him with Norv Turner. The Chargers fired Marty Schotenheimer after a 14-2 regular season and a loss to the Patriots in the playoffs, which is nothing to be ashamed of. In most instances coaches would be getting a raise after such a season, but instead Marty got fired and replaced by Norv Turner, who has been known as the consament loser as a head coach. Turner thus far has lived up to his reputation and has the Chargers off to a 1-3 start and has fantasy hero LT well below his career averages. I knew the Chargers made a huge mistake with the hiring of Turner and I hope the Chargers front office are men enough to stand up and admit that they indeed made a mistake. I am sure wherever Schotenheimer is now he is having a real good laugh over the horrid start by the Chargers and I am sure he found their loss to the lowly Chiefs this past week to be particularly amusing. Now here are my 5 top games of the week:

1) Jets vs Giants
2) Seahawks vs Steelers
3) Buccaneers vs Colts
4) Bears vs Packers
5) Lions vs Redskins

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

I am going to keep my closing thoughts brief this week, and basically bash TBS for their broadcasting thus far of the MLB playoffs. I find comedian Frank Caliendo to be very funny, especially with his impersonation of John Madden, but the amount of advertising that went on yesterday promoting his new show "Frank TV," was way over the top. Playoff baseball is baseball at it's finest , and too me it is getting greatly diminished by the constant bombardment of "Frank TV" advertisements. I thought Id never see the day that I would say this but where is FOX with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver when you need them?