Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Move This" by Technotronic

In 1989, Technotronic became popular with two hit singles, Pump Up the Jam, and Get Up.  They sounded virtually identical; it was a pretty similar situation to what was going on with C + C Music Factory.  But for me, their crowning achievement came three years later, with the release of Move This in 1992.



I remember debating with my friends in middle school as to whether or not the singer was male or female.  Funny what life was like without the internet.  It's nice having the answers to everything at your fingertips.  I can't imagine how much easier it must be for kids in school to write research papers now.  But that's another blog for another day... Oh yeah, it's a woman.

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That Wakefield/Varitek first pitch ceremony should have been better

First of all, I have to give credit to my mom, who emailed me that idea the day Varitek retired.  But I don't think the Sox executed it as well as they could have.  They tried to do too much with it.  There was no need for Dwight Evans and Jim Rice to be involved.  And this is going to sound cruel and heartless, but I didn't like those kids being on the field either.  I'm not saying don't honor the kids, let them say "Play ball!" instead.  I don't think Johnny Pesky would have minded.

Here's what should have happened: They announce Wakefield is going to throw the first pitch as he steps out from behind the Monster with the ball in hand, and walks to the mound while the crowd goes wild.  Then they say "And catching the first pitch, Jason Varitek..." as he comes out from the dugout to his own standing ovation.  Then Wake throws it, 'Tek catches it, and they meet half way between the mound and home plate for a hug.  That's a way better moment.
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I have unlimited faith in the Celtics right now

If you've ever been to a Celtics game with me, you may already know that the one thing I pay more attention to than any other is Rajon Rondo's stat line, and whether or not he has a chance for a triple double.  Mid-way through the game last night the scoreboard at the Garden inexplicably stopped working, so I had to keep track myself.  Late in the 4th quarter I had a feeling he'd done it, so I texted my buddy and asked him what Rondo's numbers were.  He wrote back "10-10-16."  Rajon finished the game with 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 20 assists, which allowed ESPN to give us this graphic:

Rondo now has 6 triple doubles on the season; all the other players in the league combined have a total of 9.  That means the Boston point guard has 40% of all triple doubles recorded in the NBA this year.  He's coming dangerously close to Tebometer level numbers.  On Sunday morning I wrote that the Celtics were an even better team than they appeared to be.  That evening they proceeded to blow out Philly, a team that had led the Atlantic Division all year, and run Boston out of the building the first two times they met.  On Tuesday the C's handed Lebron and Co. just their 4th home loss of the year, only 9 days after humiliating them in Boston.  The Celtics also managed to put together the best back to back shooting performances the league has seen in two years.

And then last night they traveled home with no rest, to play an Atlanta team a game ahead of them in the standings who'd been idle since Saturday night.  Ray Allen was inactive with a sore ankle, but Mickael Pietrus magically returned from his concussion, even though earlier in the day there was "no timetable for his return."  Somehow Boston had enough in the tank to gut out an overtime win, despite three questionable offensive foul calls on their final five possessions.  It was the 15th consecutive game they've had a better shooting percentage than their opponents.  The C's 34th win of the season also guarantees them a winning record, and the 20th in a row for the four major sports teams in Boston. 

There is no good reason for why the Celtics won that game last night.  And with as angry and motivated as the Heat were, Boston shouldn't have been able to win in Miami the night before either.  I'm not questioning them anymore, from here on out I have complete faith in this Celtics team.  They are better than everyone else they'll play the rest of the regular season.  And come playoff time nothing they do will surprise me.  It feels just like when they shocked the Cleveland Lebrons in the second round of the playoffs two years ago.  Nobody saw that coming, and from then on they battled to within a few minutes (or a Perk knee injury) of winning the title.

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I'll give away my Celtics tickets tonight

I'm going to try something wild today.  Hopefully it will bring my site some good exposure, and maybe increase my readership in the long run.  I have no idea if it will work or not.  But I'm becoming more and more dedicated to trying to make this my livelihood, and worst case all it'll cost me is one pair of tickets.  I'm going to give away my season tix for tonight's game against Atlanta at 8 pm. They're great seats; in the lower level, about 25 rows back from the court.  All you have to do is go to my twitter page and retweet my tweet linking to this post, then tell me why I should give them to you (and it definitely can't hurt your chances to follow me on twitter, or "like" LucidSportsFan on facebook if you haven't already).  If 100 people or more do it by 6 pm, I'll give the tickets to whoever has the best response.  Then all you have to do is pick them up in Beacon Hill on your way to the game tonight.
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There is a new "Total Recall" coming out

When I first saw this trailer last week I was a little confused.  Why would they make a new movie of something that just came out a few years ago?  So I looked it up, and the original was released in 1990.  And then it occurred to me that 1990 was 22 years ago.  Whoa.  I'm not ready for this at all.  I have to say it does look pretty cool though.  I'm a little on the fence about Colin Farrell as Arnold; but Kate Beckinsale AND Jessica Biel?  Well done new Total Recall.

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NCAA "recruiting violations" happen everywhere all the time

There's a story on ESPN today about the Baylor men's and women's basketball programs facing possible sanctions due to phone calls and text messages that are deemed "recruiting violations" by the NCAA.  This brings two things to mind: One, given the fact that it's getting pretty hard theses days to keep track of which past Finals Fours allegedly did and didn't happen (two of my favorite teams ever, '92 Michigan and '96 UMass, have been "vacated" by the NCAA, along with several others), it comes as no surprise that there may be suspicious things going on with a 40-0 women's team led by a 6'8" two hundred pound basketball player unlike any women the world has ever seen.

And two, the timing of this story adds validity to the very popular theory that there is no such thing as a "clean" program.  Every big time school does things that are illegal in the eyes of the NCAA.  It's a joke.  The reason this is coming out now is probably because some reporter started investigating Baylor after they won a title with a suspiciously dominant player reminiscent of The Predator.  I'm sure right at this very moment there are tons of Kentucky haters digging into their recruiting process, and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to find out in the near future that John Calipari might have a third Final Four appearance (and a championship) taken away.

I have no idea what the solution is, but the NCAA's attempt to maintain that their athletes are "students first" is failing miserably.
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Celtics are looking good, but they're even better than they look

The Celtics are 16-7 since the All-Star break, and 6-2 in the last eight.  Their only two recent losses were by one point to the Spurs (who are on a 10 game winning streak and now have the best record in the West) in a game in which Boston's defense held San Antonio to just 28 points in the second half; and in Chicago (the team with the best overall record in the NBA) on the second night of a back to back when the C's were too tired to hold on to an early first half lead.

But also in their past four Boston has beaten Miami and Indiana (who have the second and third best records in the East, respectively), holding them each to just 72 points, season lows for both teams.  The only top team the Celtics haven't played this week is Oklahoma City, who used to be the #1 seed in the West until losing back to back games to the Heat and the Pacers, the two teams Boston just beat.

Last night in Indiana Rajon Rondo had 12 assists, giving him 10 or more for the 16th consecutive game. It's the longest such streak in the NBA in 20 years (John Stockton had a 29 game streak in 1992).  Greg Stiemsma played maybe his best overall game as a Celtic, making all six of his shots (4-4 FG, 2-2 FT) in 27 minutes of action, while posting a line of 10 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 5 blocks, as many as the entire Pacers team.  Boston's defense also held Indiana to 11 total assists, one fewer than Rondo had himself.

Tonight the C's head back home to face the Sixers for the third time in the past month.  The first two didn't go so well, but now the teams are each heading in different directions.  At the moment Philly is closer to missing the playoffs than they are to leading the Atlantic Division (2 back of Boston, 1.5 ahead of Milwaukee), and last night they lost at home to an Orlando team that's in complete disarray.  If the Celtics can get over the hump and finally beat the Sixers this time, they'll have a three game lead with just ten left to play.

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