Boston Sports Then and Now

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The Red Sox playoff hopes are dimming. The Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics are about to embark on another season and it’s almost time for Boston Sports Blogapalooza II!

Your favorite networking event where social media and Beantown Sports collide is back!

Can you believe it’s been almost four months since ‘Palooza I?

It was a smashing success with over 80 sports bloggers, fans, and Boston media members from WEEI, NESN, The Boston Herald, and Comcast SportsNet New England congregating at the Baseball Tavern for day of sports talk. It didn’t matter if you wrote for your own website or blogged for a major media outlet, everyone shared one thing…..there undying passion for Boston sports.

Friendships were forged.

Business deals were made.

Jobs were found.

These were just a few of great things that came out of Boston Sports Blogapalooza I.

Very few sequels match the success of the original but Boston Sports Blogapalooza II is ready to break the mold!

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Hanging with my new old friends, Jon Fucile and Ryan Durling. We all write for BST&N.

I don’t have children, but this may be the closest thing to it.

You give birth to an idea.

It grows.

It crawls.

It walks.

It runs.

It does things that amaze you.

Sunday May 2, 2010 is the first birthday of a dream that became a reality.

Boston Sports Blogapalooza made me feel like a proud papa.

All my hard work paid off.

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Are You Ready to Get Your Blog On?

As a wise man once said, things happen for a reason.

I completely buy that.

Blogapalooza has had it’s share of obstacles, but what doesn’t kill Palooza only makes it stronger!

All of this holds true to the evolution of Boston Sports Blogapalooza.

What is Blogapalooza you ask?

Boston Sports Blogapalooza is an event where social media and Beantown sports collide. Bloggers, their fans, and Boston Media members will have the opportunity to meet, network, trade social media tips and of course talk sports.

Now that you know what it is, your next question is who is going?

Boston Bloggers spanning all five major sports will be attendance. The Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Bruins, and even the Revolution will be represented on May 2^nd at the Baseball Tavern. If you would like to view the list of participating bloggers, please visit the Boston Sports Blogapalooza website.

As I mentioned earlier, Good things happen to those who wait.

Since March, NESN and Lenovo have joined Swing Juice and The Baseball Tavern as event sponsors.

Our participating company list has grown to the Elite Eight. We have two minor league baseball teams, three apparel companies, a western Mass brewery, a charity marketing agency, and an online directory joining the Palooza party. For a complete list of partners, please visit the Blogapalooza event page.

All of our sponsors and partners have contributed wicked awesome merchandise for our event raffle. Also sprinkle in some sports oriented artistic works and you have the recipe for a fantastic variety of giveaways.

Are you excited yet?

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The season’s still mighty young,  but this Red Sox squad has been inconsistent in the early going.  The thought all offseason was that if  a lot of things went right for the team, it could be quite good; we’re yet to see said things go right, though.  All the same, we’re still less than a sixteenth of the way through the year.  There’s a whole lot of baseball left to be played; it’s better for Sox fans and the club at large that it struggles now rather than later.  Here are some of this week’s talking points.

• David Ortiz remains the talk of the town.  Last week I called fans
  

  Jeremy Hermida is off to a great start in Boston.

  to task for jumping on him too early, but I’m a bit more sympathetic to the views that Big Papi is toast now.  His head clearly is not straight and he doesn’t look at all comfortable at the plate.  This still would not be enough to convince me that it’s time to sit him after nine games, but the early performance of Jeremy Hermida has inspired a lot of optimism regarding the potential replacement DH.  Hermida is a highly touted left-handed hitter who never came through in a small market but is getting an opportunity to earn playing time in Boston just as the peak of his career begins.  Sound familiar?

• How about the home run output of Dustin Pedroia thus far?  The four home runs he’s posted in the early going equal his total at last year’s All Star break.  Considering that he put up 11 in the second half of 2009, perhaps the second baseman will be able to post a total in the twenties this season.  Of course, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.  But such a total would certainly help to make up for some of the offensive worries that the team has faced since Jason Bay signed with the New York Mets.
• As I type, the Sox are locked in a 1-1 tie with the Rays.  The bottom of the ninth will start at 7:10 PM.  I know that practicality forces this to be the only option, but it’s got to be a bit disappointing to fans who attended last night’s game that they won’t be able to see its conclusion (but what a nice bonus for tonight’s patrons!). Read the rest of this entry →

Spinning A Yarn With The Lowell Spinners

The Media Relations Manager of the Lowell Spinners, Jon Boswell took some time out to talk about the teams’ upcoming 2010 season.

The minor league affiliate of the Red Sox begins home play on June 21st versus Tri-City.

BST&N: What is new and exciting for the Spinners in 2010?

Jon Boswell: Each off-season the front office staff will take a two-day get-away for nothing but brainstorming. We’ll go over our previous year’s schedule and take the fan feedback we’ve received to come up with a plan of action for the coming season. This year we’ve aimed to add as much value as we can to the fan’s experience. We have an exciting line-up of bobble heads scheduled, including NESN’s Heidi Watney, Lou Merloni and Johnny Pesky who are all expected to attend on the night of their bobble heads as well as Mike Eruzione, Jacoby Ellsbury, Scott Brown, John Kerry and more!

On the field it is too early to tell what type of team we will field, but we are always confident in the Red Sox Player Development and Scouting Departments to provide us with some of the most talented players available.

BST&N: What players are the next rising stars for Lowell? Who should fans look out for?

JB: We won’t know for sure who to expect on the field this summer, as a large portion of our roster will be filled by 2010 Draft Picks, guys who aren’t even a part of the organization yet. If past history holds true, three 2009 high school draft picks currently in extended spring training should have a chance to break camp with the Spinners in June including David Renfroe, Madison Younginger and Brandon Jacobs, all highly touted prospects.

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Yawkey Way had an August feel in April.

I never imagined in my wildest dreams that the temperature for an early season Red Sox game would break 50 degrees.

But 92 degrees with no humidity on April 7^th?

Can you say GLO-BAL WARM-ING?

Damn did I luck out or what? Not only did I get Red Sox-Yankees tickets, but the weather was more like August than April!

I still didn’t trust the New England weather. It may be 92 at 5pm but it could drop down to 58 degrees in the drop of a Red Sox hat, so I wore jeans and a Sox polo with a t-shirt underneath.

Big Mistake!

I picked up my friend in town after fighting traffic, but I didn’t care. Not even traffic could rain on this perfect night.

My friend jumped in my car like he was headed to the beach or a Buffett concert minus the parrot.

After zig zagging through the narrow streets of Boston, we arrived at our pre game destination, the Baseball Tavern.

After paying $30 for parking which wasn’t bad at all for a Sox game, we entered the BB Tavern with ease. No line like that corporate bar across the street that will go nameless.

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