Boston Fans are the toughest fans in the world..

I wish I was Boston Strong.. I dont mean to trivialize the entire Boston Strong movement. I am extremely sensitive to what happened on Boston Marathon day. I am only using the phrase to try and understand  what you guys have been through. Heartbreak after heartbreak. 86 Mets. Aaron Freaking Boone. Bucky Freaking Dent. The New york Giants David Tyree. Eli Manning in both Super Bowls when you clearly have had better teams. The Stanley Cup against Edmonton with the messed up ice and fog in the arena. And of course the the other night. 1 minute from forcing a game a 7. Yes you have redemptive moments. Beating the Lakers and giving Garnett and Pierce their one and only title. Beating heavily  favored Vancouver in 7 games in Vancouver ( which caused a riot) was awesome. The Red Sox down 3-0 to the Yankees and sweeping the next 4 games and then sweeping the Cardinals in the World series was the stuff of legend. How do you keep sane? When I went to the University of Massachusetts I used to argue/debate with my fellow classmates about what city had better sports or better teams. At that time the Celtics were supreme. The Giants and Mets were filled with super players so the debates was quite heated. i was at UMASS when the riot happened after the Mets defeated the Red Sox in '86. The wave of passion even went racial. The combatants were on Donahue of all shows in the 80's.
What I love about Boston fans is no matter how good or bad their teams are their fans show up and support their players. I am sure Celtic fans are mad at Doc rivers for bolting to the Clippers in Los Angeles of all places but I am sure they will applaud him for what he accomplished while the Celtics coach. They never booed Larry Bird when he coached the Pacers so I don't expect Doc to get a bad reception as the Celtics re-build. The Bruin loss was tough to see because i felt they had the better team and had the proper strategy to beat the upstart Blackhawks. The Bruins had several opportunities to score in the first period and exuberance caused them to miss out. Bergeron is a super hero. He has my respect forever. The Red sox are currently in first place in baseball. No one expects to finish there. The Blue Jays have just won 11 straight and are preparing for a huge run in the second half.  The Yankees have not had their team all season. Jeter and A-Rod have yet to play this season. Chris Davis is "crushing" the ball everywhere and Baltimore is here to stay. I don't want to jinx the Sox but things could get tough for them in the second half. The fans will still be there.  That is why Boston Strong is more than just a slogan, it is a way of life. You have my respect...

I love homers..

Before the invention of the satellite dish I never knew what a "homer" meant. A "homer" could be short for a home run in baseball but today I am using the colloquial meaning of the word. A "homer" is someone who roots for his/her team so blindly and blatantly that it makes you nauseated just listening to them. The interesting part of the is rant to me is how every city has a "homer" but New York. When you listen to the White Sox announcer Ken Harrelson he does not hide who he roots for. He refers to the opposing team as the bad guys and the White Sox as the good guys. He is complimentary to opponents which allows me to listen to him but he does not do the same home run call for visiting players. He may say the same phrase every once in a while but he will not do it with any enthusiasm. It actually sounds like he is at a funeral if the White Sox lose. Contrast that with Gary Cohen who is the voice of the Mets and he seems to give the opponent and Met player the same courtesy. So does Micheal Kay from the Yankees. They speak glowingly of the opponents and don't have a problem interviewing them before or after the games. If you listen to a Red Sox, Patriot, or Celtic announcer you not only hear their passion for their teams but you all feel the pain when something does not go right. Johnny Most, Tommy Heihnson would go way over the top in the calls of the Celtic games. Tommy is great though. He does not hold his tongue for nobody. The late great Johnny Most was the same way. Chick Hearn was that way for the Lakers too. The interesting thing is that Vin Scully is not that way with the Dodgers. He bleeds Dodger blue don't get me wrong but he treats the opposing team with the same respect. He is a New Yorker after all. Johnny Most is from New york too which I find surprising that he became a such a homer for the Celtics.I remember during the Bonds home run chase, him calling several Bonds home runs and being impressed that he did the calls pretty enthusiastically.
There is nothing wrong with a "homer". I think that if you bleed a certain color then bleed it baby. What I don't like are people who are fans of teams from several different states in different sports. For example. Half of my friends are Dallas Cowboy fans, but like the Lakers in basketball and the Yankees in baseball. I have a friend here in L.A. who is a Cowboy fan, Yankee and Celtic fan. What the heck is that? How can you be a fan of Yankees and Celtics? Now I know why half the country is Cowboy fans. They have been forced down our throats since 1974 and the Thanksgiving Day Games and they were always on television when I was a kid. The Raiders were on a lot too, but the style they played forced them off of the mainstream t.v. Detroit is always on Thanksgiving day too but since they haven't been consistently good, very few fans outside of Michigan care.
Now the reason for the rant today is Mack Brown of the University of Texas. A few years ago, Urban Meyer did a press conference and was asked several questions about the B.C.S. title game and he answered by saying that an S.E.C. team will be in the game, I guarantee it. He was right and Florida beat Ohio St. in the big game. Then the next year, L.S.U. did the same thing. Mack Brown is so pro University of Texas, that i want to get him a tissue every time he is on the air. He has been interviewed by ESPN every week since the season has started. He talks only about his team and even if they win by a fluke play and someone else loses by a bad call or fluke he only talks about Texas. He wont comment about any other team no matter how many times he is asked. He reminds me of George Bush. He talks like and even looks like him. He is funny. He is a walking sound bite about his team. He does not even talk about preparing hi players for life, or for the NFL. He wants that championship. He beat USC in 2005 and wants to end Tim Tebows' legacy in Florida. And you know what, I love IT!!!
I wish more coaches would come out and say that their program is the best in the world and if you don't like it tough. I would love for Pete Carroll or Urban Meyer to stand at the podium and say we are better than you and we expect to be playing for it all at the end. I am still waiting for Mack Brown to say "don't mess with Texas". I will wet my pants if he does it. By the way the worse "homer" fans in the world are from the lovely state of Massachusetts. They will literally fight you over their teams. It does not matter what sport either. They know everything about their players. Remember that movie Celtic Pride? that was no embellishment... I have never seen anything like them.

east coast bias??? what is that?

What I love most about being out here on the West Coast is listening to the bitterness people have about the east coast in sports. Can we help it? All of the major sports teams that matter most are located on the east coast. The NBA sucks if the Celtics aren't good. The Major League Baseball sucks if the Yankees or Red Sox stink in baseball. Even if the Mets suck baseball sucks for me. In football, when the Giants matter, the NFL is better. Despite what all of the Cowboy and Patriot fans think. In hockey, the 1994 playoff run by the Rangers put hockey on the map in this country. Detroit may win every year, but I guarantee you that if the Rangers win the cup this season, ESPN will buy the hockey package back because it will be devastated that it allowed their championship run go uncovered. The Lakers and the USC Trojans are the only show out here. Every year USC loses a winnable game and takes them out of the national championship picture. Kobe Bryant keeps the Lakers relevant out here even if he doesn't win championships because he is compelling t.v. He is the closest person to emulate Micheal Jordan so people enjoy watching his rise and fall. A month ago, the Red Sox and Angels played a game in Boston and the umpire seemed to be intimidated to make a call and it cost the Angels the game. Right after the game someone from the Angels said that the know of two parks where umpires wouldn't make that call. He didn't specify but we know he meant Boston and New York. Though he may right and based on what we have seen in the post season with bad calls helping the Yankees win a couple of games, what can we say. When the Bulls were winning championships, most people felt that they got a lot of calls that benefited them. Micheal Jordan only fouled out of one playoff game to my knowledge. Nowadays, people are saying that the university of Florida is getting that treatment. The two bogus calls against Arkansas that helped put Florida in position to win Saturday have people talking down south.
I guess the lesson here is win championships or have the media centers in the country located on your neck of the woods and then you can dictate to the world what you want. The fact that A-rod is delivering really shuts up people all over he country. When Mark Sanchez was winning for the Jets, he was the second coming of Joe Namath. In fact CBS out here has aired every New York Jet game this season. I know Sanchez went to USC, but the Chargers and Raiders play out here too. I know most of you think that I am biased being from New york and basically just trumpeted the New york area teams like a cheerleader, but you know what i say to be true. Even right now as the New york Knicks are struggling, the NBA is wishing that somehow some way that the Knicks can somehow win enough games to make the playoff. Or They are hoping that next season the Knicks could sign either Lebron James or Dwanye Wade. Amare Stoudamire would look great in a Knick uniform. The papers in New York would have a field day. The old joke about the east coast bias was based on the fact that many of the newspaper reporters would not stay up and watch the ends of games on the west coast so they seemed only interested in sports on the east side. Then Earvin "Magic" Johnson took over the west coast in basketball. Wayne Gretzky became a King and people began caring about west coast hockey Ken Griffey Jr. made me care about the west coast sports scene in baseball. Joe Montana and Jerry Rice made the west coast relevant in football after the Raiders started to flounder. Great players have been out here and have made the west coast relevant but i will take the energy and passion of the east coast any day of the week..