breaking news: heat continue to be exactly what they are

despite what you may have heard, yesterday was just another average day for the miami heat, in which they did everything they normally do:

1. lose to a good team:  miami is now 10-18 vs teams with winning records, 0-9 vs the top 4 teams in the NBA, and 0-6 vs chicago and boston, the 2 teams ahead of them in the east

2. lose a close game:  the heat are now 5-13 in games decided by 5 pts or less (0 for their last 5), and 1-16 in games decided on the last possession.  wait, ONE AND SIXTEEN?!? wow.
3. blow a lead because they don't know what to do on offense in the 4th quarter: maimi has lost 4 of their last 6 games despite double digit leads
4.  miss big shots: in just the last 11 days alone lebron has missed 4 times with a chance to win or tie the game in the last 10 seconds.  and here is the craziest stat of all; for the season the heat as a team are 1 for 18 in that situation with the game on the line.  THAT'S NOT EVEN 6%!  i think i could shoot 6% from half court with my eyes closed (seriously. give me 18 tries and i'll make at least one.  i know it.)

P.S.  i really didn't intend for this blog to be so heat-cetric, but this past week has just been like one long marathon monday

NYC restaurants that only do what they want to do

i really like this article a lot: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/nyregion/05puritans.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=general  if you don't feel like taking the time to read it, the gist of it is that there are a number of restaurants in manhattan that don't always accommodate their guest's requests, sometimes they only serve things the way they want to (which has basically been my dream for the past ten years that i have been working in restaurants.  my manhattan bar would only serve grey goose and bud light, but that's a whole different blog for another time).  generally accepted principles of hospitality would suggest you can't do this and be successful.  but here's why you can in new york.  there's about 2 million people on the 23 square mile island of manhattan.  when i lived there the thing that most amazed me about it is that it has EVERYTHING.  there is so much variety there that no matter what you're selling, there is somebody who wants to buy it.  in NYC you could open a restaurant that only served peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, and if you did it well, people would come.

miami point guard quits because team is underachieving, decides to play for boston instead

carlos arroyo, the former starting point guard of the miami heat, is pictured earlier this season asking rondo for permission to come to boston and be his backup.  ok, so that's probably not really what he said.  and yeah, i made up the headline too.  but it's pretty funny that the heat cut arroyo just a few days ago, and now he's on his way to boston. http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nba/news/story?id=6184793  even though it will most likely have little to no impact, and he may not even make the playoff roster, it does add more drama.

bartolo colon might not be dead?

last night in a grapefruit league game he started, went 3 innings, gave up 2 hits, no runs, and struck out 5.  unless you paid close attention this off season, you probably don't know who he pitched for.  after winning the cy young for the angels in 2005, colon's career fell off the table.  he had 2 more bad years in anaheim, and it looked like he might retire after posting a 6.34 era in 2007.  the red sox gave him a shot in 2008, but he only managed to pitch 39 innings.  then the white sox dug him up and signed him for 2009, where he went 3-6 in 62 innings.  last year i honestly have no idea what he did, other than not pitch for an MLB team.  well now he's back, on the yankees.  at least for the time being.  as a sox fan, i do love the look of their starting pitching.

miller lite ad execs are either total idiots or sneaky brilliant

so i'm sure everybody knows the commercials where some d-bag guy doesn't care how his beer tastes, and the hot chick bartender gives him a generic crappy beer instead of miller lite (to me that in itself is the funny part of the commercial).  there's sunglasses at night guy, guy in a skirt, guy in a speedo, guy in dragon clothes, etc.  but the ad i hate is the one with skinny jeans guy.  skinny jeans guy gets his beer, then goes back to his friends and says "is the score still 21-32?"  his buddy then delivers the punch line "yeah, just like you jean size."  in the history of guys sitting around in a bar watching football, nobody has EVER said "is the score still 21-32?"  anyone who is even the slightest bit of a sports fan knows you always say the leading score first.  always.  assuming the target demographic is guys like me who watch sports and drink beer, then this ad is stupid and annoying.  on the other hand, if this add is actually targeting the girlfriends/wives of beer drinking/sports watching guys, it may be genius.

perk's got a hurt knee, now nate has knee surgery? what???

espn is reporting nate robinson is out 4-6 weeks after having arthroscopic knee surgery. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6181370  wow, this trade is looking better and better for boston every day.  and they say he first felt pain after practice on monday, but that's not true.  he was playing with a gimpy knee in boston 3 weeks ago.  hmm, why would a team make a trade for 2 injured players?  maybe cause CCHS patriot sam presti is still a celtics fan at heart?

i still can't get over this BYU honor code

i legitimately can't believe this is real life in the US in 2011.  i keep expecting this story to be a joke.  no booze?  crazy but whatever, i can see that.  no sex?  again, crazy, but i can understand the religious reasons for that.  no coffee, tea, or anything with caffeine?  what's the point of that?  um, if you can't go to a bar, and you can't go to a coffee shop, where can you hang out?  the soda shop on main st in pleasantville?

how tall do you have to be to guarantee you can play in the NBA?

I have a theory that anyone who is 7 ft tall can play in the NBA.  The reason I think this is that you just don't see random 7 foot tall guys walking around.  I mean never.  Well tonight a guy walked into my bar and I thought to myself "holy crap, that guy is legit 7 feet tall."  For a second I thought my theory was shot.  I told all this to the other bartender, and she laughed at me and said "I know him, he actually did play in the NBA."  I just looked it up, Paul Grant, first went to BC, transferred to Wisconsin, drafted #20 overall by Minnesota in 1997.  Theory confirmed.  On another note, I went to a Bullets game once where Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues stood next to each other during the national anthem, ridiculous.  I also ran into Manute at a blackjack table at Mohegan Sun a few years back.  He didn't really think it was funny when I tried to get him to stand back-to-back with my buddy Cliffy to see who was taller.

lebron does what lebron does: brick 3's with the game on the line

last night i watched from the garden as phoenix went on an 18-0 run before the celtics starters came back in and held on for the W.  well, it didn't work out that way tonight for the heat in miami.  they led 73-49 with 8:56 to go in the third.  the magic then went on a ridiculous 40-9 run over the next 14+ minutes, and ended up winning by 3.  miami is now a sub par 14-16 vs teams with winning records, and a borderline pathetic 5-12 in close games decided by 5 pts or less.  oh, and nice spike bosh.

chris webber, jalen rose, juwan howard, jimmy king, and ray jackson

i can't wait for this.  i loved that team.  when i was 14 years old in the fall of '91 my dad took me to a BC-michigan football game, and desmond howard went nuts (if i remember right he had a kick return td and two others).  then that winter these guys came along and i've been a michigan fan ever since.  the two years they played together are to this day still my favorite college hoops seasons ever.

twitter

i'm so on the fence about this.  up to this point i have held out.  i really don't need another reason to constantly play with my phone/mini supercomputer.  it's like that stupid windows phone commercial that implies you'll be on your phone less because it's easier to use. um no, it's the opposite.  but if i'm going to keep writing this blog i probably have to tweet as well.  and in terms of sports news and up to date (or the minute or second) information, it is definitely starting to dominate.  i guess it's not even the future anymore it's just how it is.

ncaa bubble watch

so the tournament is different this year.  with 68 teams in, 8 teams will be involved in pre-tourney play in games.  but the way they are doing it is weird, it's not just the 8 worst teams.  the 4 worst teams (16 seeds who won their crappy conference tourneys) will play each other.  but then also the 4 last "at large" teams to get in will play each other, probably a mix of 11 and 12 seeds.  but the reason i'm writing this is that as of right now espn's/joe lunardi's bracketology lists richmond, boston college, and michigan as 3 of the last 4 in. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology  those are the 3 teams i follow/care about.  if the spiders draw a play in game against michigan or bc, i'm gonna be pissed.  and yeah, those are my hats.

BYU honor code

if you don't know the basics of this story, click here: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6175090  anyway, espn sportsnation has a poll out right now, "could you live under the BYU honor code for one year?"  interestingly the western half of the country mostly said yes, the eastern half no (results here: http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/6173649/could-live-byu-honor-code).  but i think they asked the wrong question.  i'm pretty should i COULD do it for a year, but why?  i think the real question is "would you consider yourself better off if you did?"  to me it's crazy and reminiscent of some sort of third world dictatorship.  the fact that any cognizant person, let alone a college student, would voluntarily agree to it blows my mind.  the kid got kicked off the team for having sex with his girlfriend, not a hooker.  mormons, wow.

perkins

i'm totally blown away by the national media's (mostly espn tv people) view of kendrick perkins.  i get why boston fans would be pissed he's gone, he was tough, mean, a fan favorite, one of our guys.  but seriously, he's not bill russell.  all over the place i hear how the thunder are contenders to win the west now that they have perkins.  they might well be, but not cause of this trade.  if OKC is any better now then they we're before, i'll be shocked (part of me also wants to think that my former jv hoops teammate and current OKC gm sam presti is still a celtic's fan at heart).  on the other end of this trade, after watching 3 games, i'm not convinced the celts are any worse off with nenad kristic at center instead of perk.  maybe kristic isn't as tough on D and doesn't rebound as well, but he hits jumpers, stretches the defense, and makes free throws.  and everybody seems to forget that perk always got pulled for big baby in crunch time.

celtics tonight

so we're at the game and the c's are cruising along to a 28 point lead, up 91-63 with 2 min to go in the third after a ray ray breakaway dunk.  the starters go out and we figure they're done for the night.  amazingly phoenix, without 3 starters of their own (nash on the bench, carter and frye out after banging heads), then goes on an 18-0 run over the next 5:43 to cut the lead to ten.  the celtics went 7:04 without making a field goal till all the starters came back and rondo hit a jumper.  i don't think you can really blame the bench though, on the floor during the run were baby, wafer, green, bradley, and troy murphy.  3 of those guys had never been on the floor together before, and if troy murphy even knew avery bradly's name i'd be shocked.  so no big deal.

first entry

hmm. we'll see how this goes.  some people have told me they like the sports analysis i post on facebook.  but that's only a sentence or two at a time.  this will be more.