Bring on the Finals Hype

Great game last night, and once again it was the Celtics role players who came up big.  Posey with the epic last minute steal.  Perkins with the seven boards and two blocked shots.  Rondo actually pulling up for a jump shot rather than passing off every time he had an open look.  Even the international man of mystery Leon Powe got some high impact playing time, making a nice defensive play to force a 24 second violation in his first series on the floor.

The emotional highlight was seeing Celtics great John Havlicek presenting the championship trophy and then helping Paul Pierce to lead a "Beat LA!  Beat LA!" chant.  Priceless.

The big story, of course, is that the Lakers and Celtics are meeting in the NBA finals for the first time since the glory days of the 1980s.  I am sure I will be sick of the hype by sometime tomorrow afternoon, but as a someone who grew up on Bird versus Magic, I am looking forward to the endless video montages of sky hooks, clotheslines, short shorts, and bedlam at the Garden that we will be inundated with over the next few days.

As is historian of the game Kobe Bryant, who was quoted back in November:  "I hated those [expletives]...I couldn't stand them man.  Are you kidding me?  Bird.  McHale.  Ainge.  Ainge was like a little pest, man.  I couldn't stand that guy."

Tickets go on sale Monday.

Obligatory Fan Hubris Post

Rasheed Wallace goes cuss crazy and is slammed with a $25,000 fine by the NBA.  One more technical and Sheed will be suspended for game seven.

Rip Hamilton's "golden arm" is a tender.  His return is questionable for Game 6.

Ray Allen is heating up; a couple more big three and he'll be on fire.

Grab your legwarmers and roll up your pastel sleeves dudes and dudettes, its time for the 80s Flashback Finals!  Nothing could go wrong?  This is in the bag, right?

The Return of the Speedy Sox

As MLB.com highlighted the other day, Jacoby Ellsbury is currently on pace to steal 58 bases this season, which would set a Boston Red Sox record by passing Tommy Harper's 1974 mark of 54 bags.  The 2008 Sox have already stolen a total of 42 bases.  Compare this with 2005 and 2006, where the Sox stole 45 and 51 bags over the course of the entire season.

This speediness is out of the ordinary for the Red Sox.   Aside from Harper, the only recent Red Sox to tear up the base paths was Otis Nixon, who stole 42 bases during the strike shortened 1994 season.  

Most of the remaining single season stolen base records were set in the dead ball era by the "Million Dollar Outfield".  The Sox speedster during this period was the famous Tris Speaker.  The "Grey Eagle" holds the 2nd through 4th spots on the all time Sox list having stole 52 bags in his 1912 MVP season, 46 in 1913, and 42 in 1914.  Speaker's teammate Harry Hooper holds the all time Red Sox record for total stolen bases with 300 stolen bases.

Its important to remember, of course, that stolen bases are not as valuable today as they were in the dead ball era and that teams that are effective at stealing bases are not necessarily effective at generating runs, but it is still entertaining to watch a team with some collective speed on the base paths.

Superstitions

According to the media, Boston sports fans are a very superstitious lot.  We believe in curses.  We hex our rivals by burying baseball jerseys in concrete.  We think Brazilian supermodels jinx our teams.

Normally, I dismiss all of this as silly coincidence.  But Cursed to First noticed an interesting numerical coincidence involving Manny Ramirez's chase for 500 home runs:

when Manny hits that 500th homer, he will become the 24th member of that club. He is also currently ranked 24th on the all time homers list. Finally, if he breaks Gehrig's grand-slam record, it will be by hitting a 24th granny. Meanwhile the man's been playing for years with a huge 24 on his back.

Maybe Manny will do it tomorrow night against Daniel Cabrera who has given up 24 earned runs in his last ten games.  Coincidence?  The tingling in my right knee tells me its DESTINY!

In Flagrante

During last nights Celtics game, ESPN announcers Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy had a lengthy discussion of what constitutes a flagrant foul.  They then went on to debate how many angels dance on the head of a pin.

I am tempted to join in the bellyaching because the Celtics have been victims of a couple of dubious flagrant foul calls this post season.  Last night, it was P.J. Browns supposed push on Jason Maxiell as he was in mid-air.  In the Cleveland series, Sam Cassell was whistled for wrapping up LeBron James.   The call prompted our favorite Extra Terrestrial to complain to the Globe:  "It's just different right now...Back in the day, a flagrant-1 was bloodshed.  Now, you can just grab somebody."

This might be so.  Celtics fan all remember the  infamous Bill Laimbeer cheapshot on Larry Bird - now that was a flagrant foul!  But I did some checking and the number of flagrant fouls called his year does not seem to be out of the ordinary: 

                               2005-2006   2006-2007   2007-2008

First Round            14                  6                  12

Conference Semis   1                     6                  4

Conference Finals   3                     1                    1

NBA Finals             1                    1                   tbd

So while it is easy to moan about how flagrant fouls allow the refs to "take the game out of the hands of the players", there appears to be (on average) about 1.5 of these calls per series.  This is hardly enough to make a huge difference (unless, of course, you leave the bench during a brawl).

Batshit Update

Julian Tavarez pitched a scoreless eight inning Tuesday night for the Brewers.   Said Batshit:  "It doesn't matter if I'm a long man, a setup man, a closer. As long as we play ball, I don't care what role that I am."  

Apparently, this enthusiasm for the game doesn't apply to his post-season accomplishments.  Tavarez reportedly left his $20,000 World Series Ring "somewhere" back at Fenway.   Batshit clarified:  "They are going to mail to me, I'm sure."  

Assuming Gagne ever recovers from rotator cuff tendinitis, there is the distinct possibility that the Brewers could sending the one-two punch of  Batshit and Captain Blownsavebeard out of the pen.

Expandicate Your Vocabulary

From Joe Posnanski:

"Jeterate" (verb) meaning:  "to praise someone for something of which he or she is entirely unworthy of praise."