oh... i see

didn't know apartment buildings had sections

funny though... you type with multiple commas...



anyway... yay boston

Nascar vehicles don't have blinkers either, so Boston should rock the house in that sport.

how the fuck did we do a boston sports thread, 5 pages, and no one asked a very important question

what nascar drivers represent boston??

because, how the fuck can you claim to be the sports capital of the world without breeding a earnhardt or a gordon in your town

Every day, I wake up with the same look on my face that George Clooney has when he awakens in his gorgeous Italian villa next to some supermodel, looks around, gathers his bearings, checks out the beauty next to him, smells his own morning breath and thinks to himself, "Oh, yeah, I'm George Clooney." My three favorite teams (the Pats, Red Sox and Celts) have odds of 7-to-5, 6-to-5 and 7-to-1 to win their respective championships. It's an embarrassment of riches. I'm embarrassed. Any Boston sports fan in 2007 feels vindicated as hell (for keeping the faith for 15 unhappy years from October '86 to October '01) and lucky as hell (for everything that's happened since).

And it can't possibly last. We know this. By nature, following a sports team will almost always end up being painful. After all, sports are cyclical -- in professional leagues with 30 teams or more, it's impossible for one team to stay on top for too long and only one team can win a championship every year. Everyone else has to lose. For every moment like the Colts rallying from 18 points down to topple the Patriots, there seem to be 20 moments like Buffalo blowing Monday night's potential monster upset over Dallas. That's the reason I've written a "Levels of Losing" column but never a "Levels of Winning" column. Losing hurts more than winning feels good, and a great loss happens more often than a great win. It's that simple.

So these past few years have been surreal for Boston fans: Three Super Bowl titles and a World Series title, the transformation of the Sox-Yankees feud into a full-fledged rivalry, and the evolution of the Patriots from a perennial black sheep to the undisputed villain of the NFL. Back in 1999, when the fortunes of our sports teams had sunk so low that Gerry Callahan dubbed Boston "Loserville," I would have happily settled for one contender to watch ... and I probably would have chopped off a pinky like Ronnie Lott to make it happen. Eight years later, we have three legitimate contenders. It's amazing.

Three weeks from now, there's a genuine chance that the Red Sox could be playing a deciding World Series game on Oct. 30, Oct. 31 or Nov. 1, followed by Kevin Garnett's home debut for the Celtics on Nov. 2, followed by a potential bloodbath between the undefeated Colts and Patriots on Nov. 4. If everything plays out that way (and that's a big "if"), that would have to be the craziest week for a single city in the history of sports, right? How could that ever be topped? A World Series appearance, followed by a famous NBA franchise debuting the Hall of Famer who's about to make them relevant again, followed by the most anticipated NFL regular-season game in 22 years? And this could all happen in a five- or six-day span?

(Note: In the irony of ironies, my second child is due right in the middle of this swirling storm of Boston sports craziness. You couldn't make this stuff up. I almost feel bad for him -- he's going to peak as a Boston fan before he even gets circumcised.)


Although the Sox could lose to the Indians, or the Pats could lose at any point before Week 9 ... the mere fact that this week-long stretch of monster Boston sports moments could happen is more incredible than anything. See, the best thing about following sports isn't the winning itself. It's everything that comes with the winning, namely, nationally televised games, extra playoff series to watch, extra phone calls and e-mails, extra tickets to try to get, and those mornings when you wake up and think, "Game day!!!!" (This explains why it's always slightly more agonizing when your team blows a conference championship -- they didn't just squander a chance to win the title, but you were so close to clinching another two-week stretch of being alive and everything that comes with it.) When the Celtics sucked for almost all of the past 14 years, it wasn't the losing as much as the meaninglessness of it all. The team wasn't going anywhere. Nothing was happening. Nobody cared. Nobody could stop what was happening. Every day was more lackluster than the last one.

Looking back, following the Celtics was almost like being in prison -- the experience made you so bored and disgruntled, you started talking yourself into strange things just to keep yourself interested, even if it was stuff like "That chef shot me a nasty look, I'm gonna shank him in the yard later" and "Maybe I'll climb into my roommate's bed tonight and see what happens." You almost become delusional. Just four months ago, I was steadfastly against the Celtics trading Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff's contract, the No. 5 pick and cap fodder for Kevin Garnett. Why? Because Jefferson was a gifted low-post scorer who had played maybe 35 good games in his entire career. That was good enough for me. Remember, I was in prison mode. I actually wrote the sentence, "Big Al gives us 85 percent of KG's stats at 1/10th of the price."

When the deal happened in a different form two months later, it took a while to fully dawn on me that they acquired one of the 30 greatest players ever, someone who legitimized the franchise and would be rejuvenated playing in a new city with better teammates. It started with his "Welcome to Boston" news conference, when everyone was taken aback by how he handled himself. The best word to describe KG is this one: "Famous." There's something inherently famous about him. It's like having your favorite team acquire Will Smith or Denzel Washington. A few other superstars possess this trait as well, but Garnett's height, looks and intensity push him over the top -- he's always the most intimidating, substantial guy in the room unless Shaq happens to be around.

(Note: KG is so intense, NBA TV should have a reality show just so we could see him doing everyday things like buying clothes or pumping gas. A friend of mine watched a Pats game in the same suite as KG and reported that Garnett got so wound up during the game that he'd stand up every time Randy Moss was being single covered and start muttering, "Here we go ... here we go ..." Multiple people have described being in the same room with him when he gets like that as "being in the same room with a force of nature." Sounds like someone you'd want on your basketball team, right?)

Once the KG deal happened, everything else fell in line. Quality veterans started taking discounts to play in Boston, which hadn't happened since Larry Bird was playing. The entire roster was scrimmaging in Waltham (where the team's practice facility is located) before the Patriots' season had even started. Garnett played the first two exhibition games like they were Game 7 of the NBA Finals, screaming after dunks, diving for loose balls, making perfect decisions on every double team, even standing on the bench to holler crunch-time instructions to the likes of Gabe Pruitt and Dahntay Jones. Everything about this team has been transformed. You can see it. Guys are hugging before the opening tap, cheerleading during games, making extra passes and everything else. They even have a mantra for the season, the African phrase "ubundu" that means unity. Doc Rivers came up with it, which was great, although I wish he'd also come up with a plan to defend the high screen. Regardless, this team is loaded with ubundu.

And maybe they can't win the title with the Ceatles (KG's temporary nickname for himself, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, which definitely needs some work), at least not until next year, once they find a better point guard and a better coach. But they'll definitely contend, play hard every night, pull for one another and be entertaining and, really, that's all you can ask for from your favorite NBA team. I don't care about another title nearly as much as I care that I'm going to enjoy watching the Celtics again.

Which brings me back to my original point. If you're a fan of the Boston teams, you feel blessed. That's the best way to put it. Blessed. You get to watch three championship contenders. You get to watch Brady and Moss, Big Papi and Manny, KG and Pierce, Papelbon and Beckett, Ray Allen and Adalius Thomas. ... And if you have to endure a few Belichick/cheating jokes, so be it. Boston fans learned the hard way that these runs end abruptly. You're always one Cam Neely injury or Larry Bird back flare-up away from being irrelevant again, and you find yourself wishing you had enjoyed the good times more when they were happening.

This time around, I'm commemorating the moment. It's not every year that you get to wake up every day feeling like George Clooney. And if everything peaks over these next four weeks, so be it.

BC #2. Red Sox three away from second title in four years and Pats on their way to fourth title in seven years. Yeah, this isn't the sports capital of the world or anything.

I'm loving all the New England jealousy/hatred

you didn't even mention the celtics being relevant again. and i know its only preseason but the new big 3 looks to be about as good as advertised. that is why this is even better than 2004.

I thought about including the C's. Should have mentioned that.

And what about BC?

I bet the Cowboys, Yankees and Indians fans teamed up to shut down the forum so they wouldn't have to hear it from us.

Just for that we're going to be even MORE obnoxious now!

That was a close call boys......

That's what I was thinking.