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