Sports of Boston » Pete Rampino

New York Giants Declared Super Bowl XLVI Champions One Day Early

Pete Rampino — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:58:57 +0000

The New York Giants official website has committed this generation’s version of “Dewey Defeats Truman” by prematurely declaring the Giants as Super Bowl XLVI champions. The official site not only posted a celebratory ad, but they also put in a link to let fans purchase official Super Bowl champion merchandise. The website staff quickly realized their mistake and immediately took the ad down.

Suddenly Tom Brady expecting a bigger crowd at the next pep rally and Gisele’s email prayers don’t look so bad now.

Philadelphia Phillies to Sign Jonathan Papelbon

Pete Rampino — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:53:34 +0000

The Red Sox have officially said goodbye to their All-Star closer this offseason. The Philadelphia Phillies have reportedly reached a deal with Jonathan Papelbon for 4 years/$50 million, pending a physical.

Papelbon put together another stellar season in 2011 with a 2.94 ERA in 64.1 IP with 31 saves and a 12.20 K/9. The Phillies reached the deal with Papelbon after talks with their closer from last season, Ryan Madson, fell through. As a result of this deal, Boston will receive Philadelphia’s first round draft pick in 2012.

With this news, Boston will need to either sign another anchor for their bullpen next season, or prepare to hand the job over to Daniel Bard in 2012.

John Lackey to Have Tommy John Surgery

Pete Rampino — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:03:14 +0000

At today’s Red Sox press conference, new GM Ben Cherington made his first big announcement in his new position as he announced that SP John Lackey will undergo Tommy John surgery and will most likely miss the entire 2012 season.

Lackey put together one of the worst seasons in baseball history with a 12-12 record and 6.41 ERA over 160 IP. He has also been one of the focal points this offseason in one of Boston’s biggest clubhouse scandals involving fellow pitchers Josh Beckett and Jon Lester, who drank beer, ate fried chicken and played videogames on their off days.

It is noteworthy that Lackey spent time on the disabled list in May with an elbow strain, so maybe Sox fans can cut him a little slack. However, fans wanted Lackey gone this offseason, but this is now how they envisioned it. Sorry folks, he is here to stay for at least one more year, even though he won’t be pitching.

Done Deal: Theo Epstein Leaves Red Sox and Joins Cubs

Pete Rampino — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 03:33:00 +0000

Ok, so it isn’t the most shocking news in Boston, but now we can finally say it is official. The Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs announced Friday night that (former) Red Sox GM, Theo Epstein, will step down as General Manager in Boston to take the job as President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs.

A news conference will take place this Tuesday (the next day off in the World Series) to announce the deal.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but we do know that Boston will not receive SP Matt Garza, SS Starlin Castro, or cash considerations. The compensation for Epstein appears to be made up solely of minor league players. I am sorry to also announce that John Lackey will not be making the trip to Chicago with Epstein.

Epstein leaves the organization with one year remaining on his deal and less than a month after Boston’s historic collapse in the month of September that caused them to miss the 2011 postseason. The move is effective immediately. Sox assistant GM, Ben Cherington, is expected to be named the new General Manager.

Report: Theo Epstein Agrees to Deal with Chicago Cubs

Pete Rampino — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:52:36 +0000

UPDATE: ESPN’s Buster Olney is reporting that Theo Epstein has agreed to a 5-year deal for nearly $20 million. The deal is expected to be finalized later this week.

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Chicago’s biggest offseason acquisition could be finalized within the next couple of days as the Cubs are reportedly very close to luring Red Sox GM Theo Epstein away from Boston. While Boston is hopeful to retain Epstein for the final year of his contract, the Sox would demand considerable compensation if Chicago were to sign Epstein as their new GM.

Under Epstein, the Red Sox have won two World Series (2004, 2007) and made the playoffs six times since 2002. With Boston’s monumental collapse this past September, some would prefer Epstein to ride out the remaining year on his deal and fix what is broken before he departs. Manager Terry Francona has already said goodbye, and if Epstein leaves, Boston loses arguably the two most important reasons that brought two World Series titles to this city.

Red Sox Lose to Baltimore 6-3, Now Tied with Rays for Wild Card Lead

Pete Rampino — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:25:21 +0000

Well, things could be worse. Oh wait, I said that yesterday. The Red Sox continued their epic slide into the dark side of the history books by dropping the opening game in their three-game series with Baltimore by a score of 6-3. Combined with Tampa Bay’s 5-2 win over the Yankees, this puts the Rays and Sox in a tie for the Wild Card with just two games left to go in the season.

It was deja vu all over again as Boston put forth another horrific pitching performance. In the lead role tonight was Josh Beckett, who allowed 6 ER in 6.0 IP. On the flip side was Baltimore’s Tommy Hunter who surrendered only one run in his 5.0 IP.

Boston jumped out to an early 1-0 lead thanks to an RBI double by MVP candidate Jacoby Ellsbury. After Baltimore tied it with a solo home run in the bottom of the 2nd by catcher Matt Wieters, The Sox answered back in the 4th with a solo shot of their own by Jed Lowrie.

It was all tied up 2-2 in the bottom of the 6th and that’s when things took a turn for the worse. The Orioles offense came to life with four runs that were highlighted by a three-run inside-the-park home run by Robert Andino that put Baltimore up 6-2. Beckett finished the inning, but the damage was done.

The O’s bullpen was lights out until the 9th when Jacoby Ellsbury was first to the plate and was hit by a Jim Johnson pitch. A Johnson balk let Ellsbury advance to 2nd and a Carl Crawford groundout put Ellsbury at 3rd with one out. Dustin Pedroia drove him in to put the score at 6-3. David Ortiz singled to put two on with one out and Adrian Gonzalez coming to the plate. Gonzalez promptly flied out to left and Jed Lowrie followed that by striking out to end the game and put Boston in a tie for the Wild Card with Tampa Bay.

Game Notes

W: Troy Patton (2-1)
L: Josh Beckett (13-7)

Jarrod Saltalamacchia left the game in the 8th inning after taking a foul ball off his right shoulder. He was in incredible pain while being helped off the field.
Boston has now lost 17 of their last 22 games to put themselves into a tie with the Rays.
Orioles OF Vladimir Guerrero became the MLB career leader in hits by a Dominican-born player with a single in the 6th inning. This put him at 2,587 hits, breaking a tie with Julio Franco.

“Great” Moments in Sports Cinema: Fever Pitch (2005)

Pete Rampino — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:12:45 +0000

I think all Red Sox fans can remember every single moment of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS. Mariano Rivera comes in with a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the 9th and the Yankees up 3-0 in the series. All hope seemed lost with the greatest closer in MLB history getting ready to shut the door on Boston’s World Series dreams. Kevin Millar drew the leadoff walk and midseason acquisition, Dave Roberts, pinch runs and steals 2nd base in what is one of this city’s most iconic sports moments. Roberts scores on the Bill Mueller single and Boston eventually won the game and the series.

Now, do you remember during that inning when Drew Barrymore jumped off the centerfield wall and ran across the field while assaulting security officers along the way?

Have you ever seen “Deliverance”? Four friends decide to canoe down a river in Georgia and the end up meeting up with a band of local, inbred, banjo-playing, gun-toting lunatics who want nothing more than to make sure the “city boys” don’t stick around. This leads to the four friends running from danger and praying to make it out alive.

Why is this relevant to a movie about an obsessed Red Sox fan trying to make a relationship work with his girlfriend? Excellent question. After you watch “Deliverance” (great movie), you get a permanent impression of the south. Without even taking a trip down south, you already have a preconceived notion of who the people are and what they act like. After seeing the film, nobody would ever dare go rafting in Georgia ever again or else the locals will sodomize and kill you.

Now, for people and baseball fans outside of Massachusetts, “Fever Pitch” was their window into Red Sox nation and oh man did they screw it up.

The Long and Short of It

The Farrelly Brothers have been known for such comedy hits as “Dumb and Dumber”, “Kingpin” and “There’s Something About Mary”. The Farrellys are Rhode Island natives so putting them in the directing chair for a film based around the Red Sox seemed like a natural fit.

The film is loosely based on the book “Fever Pitch” by Nick Hornby, which chronicles his following of the Arsenal Football Club of the English Premier League. In relation to the 2005 film, we have our main character Ben Wrightman played by SNL alum Jimmy Fallon. Fallon’s biggest claim to fame on SNL was his recurring character who was an obsessed Red Sox fan and walking Boston stereotype. File footage seen here:

Instead of just making a direct SNL movie (like we needed another “Night at the Roxbury”), the Farrelly’s pretty much just took the SNL character and toned it down. What we have left is a retahded Red Sox fan with an apartment full of Sox memorabilia.

The film starts with Ben at 7-years-old being taken to his first Sox game by his Uncle (played by Boston comic Lenny Clarke). It’s here where we get to see a CGI attempt at the old Fenway minus the Monster seats and complete with 1980′s players such as Dennis Eckersley and Jim Rice. Eckersley and Rice are their 50-yr-old selves, but are playing themselves in their 20′s. Having someone play themselves, but only 25 years younger, doesn’t fool the audience. We skip ahead to present day where Ben is a schoolteacher and has inherited his late Uncle’s season tickets.

On a class trip he is chaperoning, Ben meets his love interest Lindsey played by Drew Barrymore. They date and fall in love over the course of a few months, but Lindsey is ok with Ben’s obsession with the Red Sox. This of course happens during the offseason, then when the 2004 season starts, Ben’s true rabid obsession comes out. Lindsey soon grows tired of Ben’s immaturity and the relationship nearly falls apart.

Things change one night when Ben misses his first Sox game ever in order to attend a party with Lindsey. Seeing this as an act of true commitment and dedication to her, Lindsey and Ben are better than ever. It doesn’t stay that way for too long when Ben’s friend calls him that night and tells him that the Sox have completed a miracle come-from-behind win against the Yankees by scoring 7 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning to win the game. Upon hearing this, Ben is mad as all hell and after a huge argument, he and Lindsey break up.

After a period of depression, Ben realizes he misses Lindsey and attempts to show how much he loves her by selling his season tickets. Lindsey gets wind of this and races to Fenway during game 4 of the ALCS to find Ben. After purchasing scalped tickets, she enters the park and spots Ben sitting behind the Sox dugout. The only problem is that she is in centerfield. So, she runs onto the field and outruns security to meet Ben at his seat where she doesn’t let him sell his tickets and they lovingly embrace. After a brief montage with Dropkick Murphys’ “Tessie” blaring in the background, we see the Sox beat New York and then St. Louis to win the World Series. The End.

My Two Cents

In addition to making Boston sports fans look like obsessive douches, the film has so many inaccuracies that it makes your head spin, but I want to point out my two favorites.

That 7-run comeback game against the Yankees never happened. If we’re supposed to try and portray the 2004 season in its natural state against the backdrop of a love story, can we at least not b.s. the fans. Fearing that I may have missed this epic game, I exhausted all resources to find out that I had been fooled by the Farrelly Brothers. Jerks.
The big climactic scene at game 4 of the 2004 ALCS should have been a thing of beauty. What Sox fan doesn’t recall every agonizing moment of that game? So when we got to see it on the big screen, we are supposed to swallow this big pill. I know this is a movie and we are supposed to check our brain at the door and just enjoy a good time, but come on. We’re supposed to pretend that Drew Barrymore lept off the centerfield wall, hid behind Johnny Damon, assaulted a security officer, ran all the way across the field and then had a full conversation with her boyfriend while security sat idly by instead of taking her ass to baseball jail? Give me a break.

So referring back to “Deliverance”, we can assume that anyone who has never been to Boston has now made some hefty assumptions about the city and its fans. Hell, even I think that 98% of Red Sox Nation is running around screaming “NO-MAH!!!!” at the top of their lungs. This city has an incredibly rich sports history with very classy and intelligent fans. In less than two hours, Hollywood dragged us down to the lowest common denominator. We’re being treated like we live in Vancouver or something.

The film, in addition to labeling Red Sox fans as idiots (I swear Kevin Millar had a hand in the script), also takes several liberties with the 2004 season from who the Sox played on what day to making up games, to changing the events of the ALCS. The Farrelly Brothers seem to think that this is an accurate representation of the long tradition of the team and its fans and I hope to see their take on the Bruins Stanley Cup Championship of the 2010-’11 season complete with Zooey Deschanel leaping from her seat to stop Aaron Rome from blindsiding Nathan Horton in Game 3.

Or they can just give us all collective kick in the nuts to save us $10 and 90 minutes.

Marc Savard Will Not Play in 2011-’12 Season, Career Likely Over

Pete Rampino — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:12:24 +0000

The news does not come as a complete shock, but it is still sad to hear. Bruins center Marc Savard is going to be shut down for not just the 2011-’12 season, but possibly for the rest of his career due to post-concussion syndrome. Savard received his second concussion within one year’s time back on January 22nd against the Colorado Avalanche which sidelined him for the remainder of Boston’s Stanley Cup-winning season.

Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli confirmed reports earlier today:

“Marc Savard won’t play this year. Nothing has changed in our monitoring. He’ll be examined and he’ll be declared unfit to play.”

Savard’s battle with post-concussion syndrome has been well documented here in Boston starting back in March of 2010 when Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke delivered a blindsided hit to the head of Savard. As we all know, Cooke was not punished at all for his hit and Savard did not play for the remainder of the regular season. He did however return for the conference semi-finals against the Philadelphia Flyers where Boston lost the series 4-3.

Savard did not return to action until December of the 2010-’11 season and made his last appearance on January 22nd where he was hit into the boards face first and left the game with another concussion.

While there is a slight possibility of his condition getting better, it looks like the Savard has played his last game in the NHL.

Great Moments in Sports Cinema: Rudy (1993)

Pete Rampino — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:00:18 +0000

Rally sons of Notre Dame, sing her glory and sound her name. Raise her gold and blue and cheer with voices true: rah, rah for Notre Dame. We will fight in ev-ry game.

When you were a child, what was your dream? To be a pro athlete? Become a doctor and cure diseases? Or maybe learn guitar and tour the world as a rock star? Well, Daniel Ruettiger’s dream was to play football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The Long and Short of It

“Rudy” is based on the real life story of the aforementioned Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger. Rudy has been told his whole life that he is too small to be an athlete (yes, we all know where this is going), but his dream is to play college football at Notre Dame. The love for the Irish runs in his family, especially through Rudy’s father, who is a huge Notre Dame fan. As a teen, Rudy plays football for his high school team, but he lacks the grades and athletic ability to attend Notre Dame, so he works for his father at the local steel mill after graduation and that seems to be the path his life will take him on.

One day a tragic accident at the mill claims the life of his best friend, Pete. To honor the only person in his life who believed in his “silly” dream, Rudy decides to take that first step at attending his dream school.

Rudy of course fails to gain admittance to Notre Dame, but with the help of a local priest, he is admitted to Holy Cross junior college where he can work hard to get his grades up and hopefully be accepted to Notre Dame. To make this short and simple, we fast forward two years and Rudy’s dream has come true; he has been accepted to Notre Dame. Now that the academic affairs are in order, he now has to execute phase two of his dream: making the football team.

Through a series of montages and inspirational music, Rudy ends up making the prep team as a walk-on. During this time, Rudy spends everyday getting his head crushed in at practices and eventually gets on a lot of people’s nerves because the coaches complain that nobody on the team has as much heart as Rudy. Rudy even manages to piss off a young Vince Vaughn during one particular practice. Vaughn didn’t think to tell Ruettiger to “lock it up”.

Naturally, being on the prep team means you never actually get to play. Rudy convinces the coach to let him dress for one game during the upcoming season. However, our dramatic turn takes place when said head coach leaves the school and they bring in new head coach Dan Devine. As the season goes on (Rudy’s senior year/last season on the team), it is clear Devine will not let Rudy dress. Led by their team captain, the Irish players take a stand against the evil head coach and in an act of defiance, they offer to let Rudy dress in their place by laying their jersey’s down on Devine’s desk. With his heart melted by this act of comradery, Devine let’s Rudy dress for the team’s final home game of the season.

Rudy’s friends and family are in attendance at the game for his big moment, but once again, we have a problem. Rudy has gotten to dress, but he is going to be riding the bench the whole game. Rudy’s teammates plead with Coach Devine to let Rudy in for just one play, but he refuses. One teammate starts a “Rudy” chant which eventually catches on with the 60,000 plus fans at the stadium. With the Irish leading with less than a minute left, Devine orders the offense to take a knee to run the clock out, but they launch the ball downfield instead and score a TD. Devine finally gives in and Rudy runs onto the field for the kickoff. With one play left, Rudy lines up at DE and in the final play of the game, he sacks the QB and is carried off the field on his teammates’ shoulders. The audience cries and everyone is happy.

My Two Cents

Ok, we get it. This is one of those million-to-one shot stories with the underdog rising up and accomplishing what everyone said would be impossible. But you know what? It works. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s based on a true story that gets us to really somehow connect with the main character. The fact that this was a real person not only makes the audience sympathize with him even more, but it sends us all the message: “If he can do it, so can I”.

Sean Astin plays the title character, and since he is naturally an undersized hobbit (intended), he fit (not intended) into the role quite well. It is weird to see a still photo of the actual Rudy at the end of the film and compare it to the actor playing him. They really look nothing alike. However, Astin is small and scrappy and was looking for work since “Goonies 2: Return of Sloth” wasn’t going to be greenlighted any time soon. In all seriousness, he portrays the character well and gives the role that much needed emotion that resonates with the audience so positively. Nicely done, Samwise.

One of my biggest gripes with the film is in the form of the character Frank Ruettiger. He is Rudy’s older brother and the most negative man on the planet. Frank spends the entire movie telling Rudy that he is an idiot for having big dreams and that he will never accomplish anything in life. Now, I understand that the film needed a solid antagonist to oppose Rudy, but frankly, this guy is a huge douchebag. Not only that, but he acts this way for no good reason. Rudy never does one bad thing towards Frank, but he feels the need to crap all over him for 90 minutes. I know a part of the plot is that Frank used to be a highly decorated football player in high school and now Rudy is doing what Frank never did and Frank has a lot of resentment towards his little brother, but come on, tone it down a bit and hand out a compliment or two.

In summation: Rudy is a good film. It has aged nicely over the last 18 years and never leaves a dry eye in the house. Seriously, I’ve witnessed grown men crying over this movie. You might be sick of the same old cliches that are prevalent throughout the film, but it never feels old and tired. At its heart, “Rudy” is an inspirational film and one of the best in the sports genre. Life is all about the pursuit of your dreams and a big screen adaptation of one man’s actual personal achievement is something we should all take part in. I defintely recommend this one.

Video: Red Sox Turn Triple Play Against Rays

Pete Rampino — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:21:51 +0000

In the 4th inning of Game 2 of the doubleheader against Tampa Bay tonight at Fenway Park, the Red Sox turned an around-the-horn triple play. Rays SS Sean Rodriguez grounded out to 3rd where Jed Lowrie threw to Dustin Pedroia who then completed the play with a throw to Adrian Gonzalez. Pretty awesome stuff!