Boston Sports Then and Now

Beltre has turned around his career in Boston this season.

Adrian Beltre and his agent Scott Boras took a gamble this off-season; a big gamble. They turned down three guaranteed years from the Oakland Athletics to sign a one year deal (with a player option that escalated based on plate appearances) with the Red Sox.

This gamble is paying off.

Through 98 games Beltre has amassed stellar line: .332 average, 17 home runs, and 64 RBIs. Coming off a very average five-year stint in Seattle, many questioned the signing of the third baseman. Beltre has responded to the criticism and speculators while putting together his best season since his gaudy 2004 campaign.

He has been one of the few constants (Youkilis, Ortiz, and Scutaro being the others) in Terry Francona’s line-up card day in and day out. Batting anywhere in the line-up from 5th-7th, he has produced despite the protection around him.

The offensive production has been a huge surprise. In his five season in Seattle Beltre batted .266 and averaged 21 homers and 79 RBIs in 143 games per year. Why turnaround? Perhaps it is his increased line drive rate (and decreased ground ball rate). Or maybe playing on a contending team in a hitting ballpark has him more focused. Regardless, he has turned it around.

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Seguin is selling tickets already.

Before Tyler Seguin has even played a single NHL game, pre-season or otherwise, the Boston fan base is already clamoring to see their potential superstar in action. Boston Bruins President Cam Neely announced that all season ticket packages have been sold out for the upcoming 2010-2011 season.

There is certainly no guarantee Seguin will make the Bruins opening day roster and Boston management has done their best to temper expectations regarding their hottest commodity in years. Bruins management keeps repeating the mantra that nothing is guaranteed for Seguin based on his draft position but based on ticket sales, are the Bruins under any pressure or obligation to keep Seguin around anyway?

Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli and the rest of Boston’s brass have made it known that there is certainly an opportunity for Seguin to stick with the big club and they have no intention of sending him back to the OHL for seasoning if they feel he is ready to go. While they do their best to tell Bruins fans there’s a chance he will not be around come September, the excitement over his arrival has perhaps led to management’s words falling on deaf ears.

Seguin-mania has quite clearly taken hold of Bruins fans, as indicated by Neely’s announcement. Seguin did his best at the Bruins prospect camp to give fans hope that he would be around come September, displaying great speed, instincts and a better than advertised shot. The young forward is certainly saying all the right things, but one has to assume he has no intention of going back to the OHL.

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Brady will lead the well oiled machine of an offense.

There is much talk about Tom Brady as Patriots training camp approaches.

Yes, his contract is up at the end of the season.

Yes, there has been  talk of an extension. That’s neither here nor there though.

New contract or not, Brady will have a super year.

Rewind to 2007.

The record setting Patriots offense was led by their dynamic quarterback who posted a video game-like 50/8 TD/INT ratio and threw for over 4800 yards. Entering his 11th NFL season at the age of 33, can Brady ever get close to those gaudy numbers again?

There are reasons to believe he may.

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January is really a terrible time for the New Year. It’s always cold, often snowy, the days are short and nobody really enjoys champagne that much.

No, July 4th is a much better time to celebrate a new year. There’s grilling, fireworks, some of the longest days of the year, beach weather, beer, summer vacations – it’s just a much happier time.

But whether you choose to celebrate your changing of the calendars in January with the rest of the world or July with those a little more inclined to sanity, you agree on one thing: a new year means two things. The first is a fresh slate, a tabula raza, if you will, in which anything can happen – as Bill Watterson once aptly put it, “It’s a Magical World.”

The second, of course, is a chance to learn from your mistakes in the years prior.

Flashback: Monday, September 14th, 2009. Foxboro, Massachusetts. The Patriots, riding a consecutive-wins streak of 11 over the lowly Buffalo Bills found themselves trailing, 24-13 with 5:32 to go. Tom Brady looked unsure of himself in the pocket, thanks in large part to Bills’ DE Aaron Schobel spending more time in the Pats’ offensive backfield than any of Brady’s teammates.

The Bills were going to beat the Patriots for the first time at Gillette Stadium. On Monday night. On national television. In Week One. Trent Edwards was going to beat Tom Brady – who, by the way, hadn’t lost a regular-season game since December. Not of last year or the year before, but December of 2006. Could it really be?

Brady and Moss will need to be on the same page at all times if the Patriots have any hope of ascending to NFL greatness again.

Naw, of course not. This was Tom Brady’s team.

This was homo-undecuple perfection. They wouldn’t lose at home in Week One. Definitely not to the Bills. Brady wouldn’t let them.

And he didn’t; in the game’s last 2:06, Tom Terrific twice found Ben Watson in the end zone for Pats’ touchdowns, giving the Patriots a hard-earned (but maybe not hard-fought) victory over a once-proud AFC East patsy.

As the season wore on, however, something became painfully evident: these weren’t your now-18 month old cousin’s Patriots.

Perfection was not their forte – petulance, perhaps, or maybe even pitiful was more like it.

And by the time Ray Rice went MAC Truck on their front seven in the first round of the playoffs the next January, something Pats fans had feared since the Week 2 loss to The Sanchize’s New York Jets had become a painful reality: they just weren’t that good.

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Gotta love beans and birthday cake!

Boston Sports Then And Now is celebrating it’s first anniversary/birthday this month. We want to thank you,the fans!

Without you, none of this could be possible!

I personally want to thank Dean Hybl for giving me this incredible opportunity to untap a passion and skill I never knew I had.

Being out of work for nine months was a great learning experience for me. Between job searches, I was fueled by my passion for writing and building BST&N into a website which delivered great content about today’s Boston sports scene but also remembering the region’s rich history.

Through this site, I have met incredibly passionate fans and sports bloggers like myself. By networking I was able to successfully execute Boston Sports Blogapalooza this past May. It was perfect venue for bloggers to finally meet and collaborate.

And Blogapalooza II is coming this November, so stay tuned!

To say this past year was a fantastic journey, wouldn’t do it justice. It was a life changing moment for me. Even though I was in a bad situation, I made the best of it and found something I truly love.

So thanks again!

To Dean Hybl.

To my BST&N staff.

And to my new friends and fans, it’s been a gift to have met you all!

The Brawl that changed it all.

Sometimes one play, one moment defines a season for a team.

For the 2001 Patriots, it was the game versus the New York Jets when starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe was injured by a thunderous hit administered by Mo Lewis.

Out comes Bledsoe, in goes Brady.

And the rest is history.

Brady became a three time NFL champion and Bledsoe was thrown on the scrap heap.

The Boston Red Sox had their own defining moment on July 24, 2004.

The “Curse” was now 86 years old and no thanks to the NY Yankees.

The season before , the Sox pushed the Bronx Bombers to Game Seven of the ALCS.  However, they lost in heartbreaking fashion yet again. It wasn’t the ’46, ‘67’, ’75 or ’86 World Series kind of pain and sorrow, but Aaron “Bleeping” Boone still broke the heart and perhaps will of Red Sox Nation.

Every tormented and tortured Red Sox fan asked, “Will we ever win a World Series?”

In 2004, the Red Sox front office was very active in building a team that could compete with the Yankees in the A.L. East. They picked up workhorse and World Series champion, Curt Schilling to shore up the pitching staff.

They also pursued highly talented, Alex “A-Rod” Rodriquez. However, yet again the Yankees found a way to swoop down and acquire A-Rod right from under the Red Sox brass’ noses.

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