It’s not officially an oxymoron or an imaginary concept, such as “political transparency” or “Maine spring,” but “baseball etiquette” is equally silly. Do I really need to explain this? Baseball is still the purest and most beautiful game ever created. It isn’t a wedding or a debutante ball. The rulebook is sufficient. When we start […]
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Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Hernandez’s death not a tragedy
The longer the sordid, tawdry, far-more-than-cautionary tale of Aaron Hernandez gets dragged out, the more I wonder if I was the only one sick of him. He had already lost my interest while he rotted in prison and the New England Patriots embellished their trophy case with two more trophy cases as if he never […]
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The Hot Corner: Let’s review the need for replay
The problem’s plain to see. Too much technology. At the risk of channeling Chris Berman’s penchant for tagging sports with tired, old song lyrics — and surely sounding like an even more tired, old man — I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that “Mr. Roboto” is ruining the games I know and […]
Posted inLocal Sports, sj-web, Uncategorized
The Hot Corner: Will Maine ever know March's Madness?
There aren’t many “take-me-now, Lord” experiences left for a sports fan born and raised near the 45th parallel. If you think any of the New England professional teams owe us a thing at this point, you’re just an entitled jerk. All I ever wanted was for the Patriots to celebrate a status greater than laughingstock, […]
Posted inLocal Sports, sj-web
The Hot Corner: I miss the tournament; I don't miss the tournament
Another Maine high school basketball tournament week has come and gone. Credit (or blame) technology, if you will, but I don’t feel as if I missed much. Yes, that statement is open to multiple interpretations. Maybe it’s an accurate depiction of my emotions on multiple levels. I get the impression from some of the dedicated […]
Posted inLocal Sports, sj-web
The Hot Corner: Longtime Patriots fans have earned the right to be proud
If you didn’t live through it, you can’t fully appreciate or understand it. That is true of most seismic shifts in society, and it is the phenomenon that a geezer such as I encounters when attempting to adequately put the New England Patriots’ greatness into perspective for somebody who is either much younger or a […]
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The Hot Corner: Patriots so good that Texans win looked bad
The New England Patriots are prisoners to their own ridiculousness. Only the Patriots could cover a silly spread of more than two touchdowns, against the team purported to have the No. 1 defense in the National Football League, in a game two steps away from the Super Bowl, and have it perceived as a sign […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: New England sports Christmas wish list
Surely it will not shock anybody who has digested my work in this space for a substantial length of time that my cynicism developed far ahead of my years. Take Santa Claus, for example. By the time I reached kindergarten, I was a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic. How was a fat dude at the North Pole getting […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Red Sox fans should sit back and enjoy World Series
Lordy, doesn’t this week’s World Series test that theory? You could play Six Degrees of Lou Merloni with the Chicago Cubs’ and Cleveland Indians’ rosters and unearth nary a player, manager or front-office guru who isn’t somehow linked to 2004, 2007 or 2013. Let’s just focus on the obvious ones. Cleveland’s journey to the doorstep […]
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The Hot Corner: It’s fantasy to think Tom Brady is expendable
I dislike fantasy football. Not merely because I ended my seven-year retirement from it this NFL season and acquired Adrian Peterson, Keenan Allen and Corey Coleman in advance of their debilitating injuries. What I hate, more than the dumb-luck aspect that makes filling out a March Madness bracket look like skilled labor by comparison, is […]