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thepatriotsandwe · 7 years

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Three Up, Three Down: Titans at Patriots, Divisional Round

The New England Patriots are going back to the AFC Championship for the seventh straight year. The Titans proved to be completely outclassed by the Patriots in just about every area of the game as New England rolled to a 35-14 victory on a cold night in Foxborough. This was a particularly difficult list to make as the Patriots executed the game plan well all night long, but nonetheless let’s take a look at three top performances and three areas that could use improvement.

Three Up

The Trenches

This is largest blanket statement made all season in these articles, but it cannot be understated just how well the Pats played at the line of scrimmage against the Titans. It often comes down to line play to determine games, and this is an immensely positive sign for the Patriots moving forward.

In terms of pass protection, the unit had their best night all season. The Titans were no slouch at rushing the passer posting the fifth highest sack total in the NFL, and that’s while having a poor secondary. Brady wasn’t sacked at any point in the affair, and the future hall of famer made the most of this opportunity by delivering one of his most efficient games of the season. The group will continue to face staunch pass rushes as the playoffs advance, and performances like this one will increases New England’s chances of bring home Lombardi number 6 drastically.

Speaking of pass rush, the subject of nearly every criticism article about the Patriots in the last nine years broke out into a monstrous game. In a historic effort, the defensive line of the Patriots put together eight sacks on mobile quarterback Marcus Mariota and set the new franchise record. Multi-sack outings for rookie Deatrich Wise and the perennial practice squad player Geneo Grissom are encouraging as the Pats show that impact can come from anywhere on the field.

Finally, the Patriots had to shut down Tennessee running back Derrick Henry in order to fully lay siege to the Titans offense, and the guys in the front seven demolished the 6′3 back. Henry was held to just 28 yards on 12 attempts with his longest rush of the day going for a putrid four yards. The Titans could not find any momentum at all on offense and quickly became one dimensional. The Patriots defense often tries to take away a team’s biggest weapon, and this game was an example of that strategy being executed on the highest level imaginable to fantastic results.

Rob Gronkowski

Robert Gronkowski is the greatest tight end to ever grace a football field, and can be completely unstoppable if the chemistry between him and Brady is on point. Unfortunately for the Titans, the two players were practically reading each others’ minds.

Gronk was targeted nine times for six receptions and 81 yards with a touchdown. There really isn’t much to say about the effort than it was another dominant performance from the 6′6 tight end. Every jump ball seemed to go his way, and he offers stability in the Patriots offense which was sorely lacking after the preseason injury to Julian Edelman.

Gronk very well could be the MVP of this team when it’s all said and done. Teams are forced to respect him which can open up options that may not be reliable under base defense conditions. His ability to continue to justify why teams must focus on him will be crucial in the AFC Championship and possibly beyond.

Danny Amendola

Gronk isn’t the only one to deliver on stability, and how could I leave out Mr. Danny “Playoff” Amendola after this occurred during the game:

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Amendola showed up once again, as he always does when the calendar switches to January and February. The 32 year old has certainly not been Julian Edelman this season, but on Saturday night he looked the part. He was the most targeted receiver as Brady tried to go to him 13 times and he hauled in 11 of those balls for 112 yards. ‘Dola just always seems to come down with that hotly contested catch when he needs to on critical downs.

Giving Brady these shorter options in the passing game will allow him to get the ball out quicker. This will be crucial as the Pats continue to play against some of the top defenses the league has to offer. Look for Amendola to be an expansive target in the weeks to come.

Three Down

Malcolm Butler

Patriots fans decided an early scapegoat for defensive struggles would be Stephon Gilmore. Since then, however, it’s clear who the weakest player in the starting secondary is. Butler has not had a good 2017 campaign, and that continued with another brutal night against the Titans.

The Titans did not have much to celebrate on Saturday night, but Butler allowed the fans something to cling to. Both of the Tennessee touchdowns came with Butler in coverage, and he allowed seven catches for 83 yards. This is a very disappointing outing for the Super Bowl 49 hero especially when it’s considered just how weak the Tennessee receiving core had been this season.

Butler is on a contract year, and he’ll almost assuredly not be a Patriot next season due to the Stephon Gilmore five year contract the Patriots offered this off-season. It very well may be a good thing as something seems off with Butler, and the magic of his last two seasons appears to have fully vanished. Butler will always live in Boston sports history and be a Patriot legend, but with performances like this one it only cements that he’ll be in a different uniform next season.

Brandin Cooks

Again, Brandin Cooks continues to be targeted often by Brady, but the production from the high speed receiver has dropped off a cliff since his early season dominance.

The Patriots did make more of an effort to include Cooks in the shorter passing game, but it largely did not come to fruition. Brady’s completion percentage when targeting Cooks was a terrible 33% with just three receptions on nine targets for 32 yards. One of these incomplete passes came on a deeper throw from Brady which appeared to be within arms reach of Cooks, but it fell harmlessly to the ground. While it’s not totally clear who was at fault for the incompletion it just furthers shows the mercurial nature of the chemistry between Cooks and Brady.

The Patriots will obviously hope to see more from Cooks next week, and one would hope the connection will improve after a full off-season in the 2018 season. Regardless, Cooks has been one of the few rare success stories of the Patriots reaching out for bigger name receivers in recent years. Cooks is certainly not another Brandon Lloyd or Chad Ochocinco, but he’s also definitely not quite a Randy Moss.

Chris Hogan

Please put down the pitchforks. Chris Hogan had a touchdown in the affair which would often render someone exempt from the negative list, but the Patriots really did not have many negatives in the game. The touchdown was definitely a positive sign of the receiver’s health after missing a number of games and a clearly unhealthy showing in Miami.

Hogan is one of the receivers the Patriots would lean on to fill the Edelman role to some extent (although Hogan is not thought of a short threat, his medium yardage routes can lead to quicker completion than someone like Cooks), and he was not providing consistent production for Brady in the game. This includes a pass that he allowed to go right between his hands early on in the game. Hogan was targeted four times for only one completion (his touchdown) for four yards.

While this selection is still a bit of a reach, one would hope Hogan will emerge as a bigger threat next week when the Patriots will be looking for any openings at all against a ferocious Jacksonville secondary and pass rush. The hope is that the Titans game will have served as a bit of a “tune up” for Hogan, and he’ll become more comfortable as he gets further time to get back in sync with the offensive unit.

There were many players that could fit into the positive section of this list, and I don’t believe they should go unmentioned. So, honorable mentions go to: Dion Lewis, James White, Tom Brady, and Stephon Gilmore. Hopefully Brady will not be too furious with me leaving him off the unofficial “Patriot of the Week” award list.

Next week the Patriots will be hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars in Foxborough. The winner will be going off to Minnesota to represent the AFC, and, unlike another AFC team, the Pats will be totally focused on getting it done this week.

Until we convene again on Friday for the preview,

Go Pats

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pirceu-blog · 4 years

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Glee was at comic con last year

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yeskhanzadame11 · 5 years

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NFL Fan or Bandwagoner

Growing up in New England as a football fan had its ups and downs. Mostly downs through the years until a glimmer of hope came in the 90's when the Patriots signed Drew Bledsoe making him a one hundred-million-dollar man. He brought us to a super bowl, but unfortunately it didn't end well. In 2000, The Patriots had a 6th. sense so to speak, to draft a quarterback in the 6th. round using their 199th. pick in a player from Michigan named Tom Brady. He became their 4th. string in the depth chart and for some reason the new coach, Bill Belichick, had the sense to hang on to him to eventually, at the right time, become the number 2 Quarterback in 2001. When Drew Bledsoe fell to injury, that unknown Michigan Wolverine stepped up. It was an up and down first few games for Tom Brady, but in the end, helped lead the team from being a 14-point underdog against the Rams, (who were known as the Greatest show on turf at the time with a Hall of Fame Quarterback named Kurt Warner through the 1999, 2000 and 2001 seasons winning the big game in 1999 and expected to win in 2001), to coming from behind to pull off a miracle victory in Super bowl XXXVI. Was it a fluke? As it turned out... hardly. With Bill Belichick as the head coach, now choosing to stick with Tom Brady over Drew Bledsoe, having 6 more Super Bowl appearances that would garner the Patriots 4 more Lombardi trophies for a total of 5 for New England with all of them at the hands of what's being called the greatest coach/QB tandem in NFL the history.

With all the teams in the NFL, no team can get away with being on top for very long stretches of seasons without fans from other teams coming up with excuses as to why that team is better than others. Like Green bay, Pittsburg, San Francisco, Dallas and now New England. All these teams found ways to be good and stay good for several years while many others had no success and some, one and done. The real fan talks about what their team did wrong and what should be done to fix it. Bandwagoners can only find excuses as to what the other team did illegally to get an advantage, or that the referees were somehow involved in the outcome of the game and who should win. Yes, I am from New England and I'm sure there is some bias here, but as a real NFL fan through the good and bad times steelers hat , I can give credit where it's due regardless of the team and how I feel about them. A real fan knows the facts that surrounded the "spy-gate" and "deflate-gate" scandals and can realize they were not the huge issues that sports networks and some others made it out to be. As far as cheating in concerned, the Patriots have a much smaller record than most other teams. In fact, their record of any disciplinary actions due to breaking the rules fall within the top 5 teams with the least number of incidents involving questionable practices. In general, all sports teams and individuals over time, since the inception of sports in our daily lives have done things to gain the edge over their opponents. In many ways by legal means, while other ways... not so much. Like the time Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin attempted to trip Baltimore Ravens Jacoby Jones while returning a kickoff. He made it 73 yards from the end zone when it could have possibly gone all the way for a touchdown if not for the interference. I talk to many in the sports world and I can spot the bandwagoners very easily compared with the real fans. Especially now that I live in the Seattle area. Most fans here seem to be mostly bandwagoners now, which is a far cry from when I first came to Seattle in 1992 when the Seahawks went 2-14 on the season and the Monday night game I went to see against the Denver Broncos had the stadium packed and the fans celebrating as if they just won the Super bowl rather than it being that they just won only their 2nd. And final game of that season. What happened to those fans? Many of the fans these days give me such a hard time about the accusations against the Patriots, finding excuses as to why the Patriots beat them in SB XLIX and never giving any credit for their accomplishments. It was all about the "bad" call made by coach Pete Carroll and not the great play in the end zone by an unknown cornerback named Malcolm Butler. Or that the Patriots are cheaters and that's why they won the game without giving any examples as to what they could have done that illegally gained them enough of an edge to win the game. When asked, they simply say, "They are cheaters" with no knowledge of anything to back up the claim.

Then some news hits the Seattle sports world with shock waves of grievance when it was announced that Seattle Seahawks former defensive tackle #96 Cortez Kennedy, a 2012 inductee to the NFL Hall of Fame, one of the greatest Seahawk and NFL players of all time in general, suddenly passed away. I had a hard time finding a single person who would share the grief-stricken sentiments with me until I talked to my brother, who also is from New England and now lives in Seattle. All the Seahawks fans I first talked with about it could only say... " Who?" This came as a big surprise to me. To me and to the rest of any real fan base and for pretty much any team in the NFL. Not knowing who Cortez Kennedy is would be the same as not knowing who Steve Largent is. Not only was Kennedy an 8-time pro bowler, but his entire 11 year NFL career was solely with the Seahawks. How can anyone call themselves a real diehard Seahawks fan and not know who Cortez Kennedy is? Unless you are a young fan to the NFL, there is no real excuse other than, you are a bandwagoner. Even some real young fans know who he is and what he meant to the city of Seattle. When you can have a conversation with a 10-year-old about the greatness of Cortez Kennedy, you know he grew up in a house raised by real Seahawks fans. Then have a conversation with someone in their 50's who does nothing but bash the Patriots about winning the Super bowl who doesn't have a clue who Kennedy is, and you know you are in the presence of a real bandwagoner.

Before Super bowl XLIX, I had many heated conversations with Seahawks fans about who would win. Some were great, typical back and forth banter, while others were down right vile and as offensive as they could be. It even went so far as to have "friends" take me off their friends list on social media sites for the simple reason that I am a Patriots fan. For one thing, I was born and raised in Massachusetts with my entire family as Boston/New England sports fans, so being a Patriots fan was inevitable. Even so, I don't, nor would I ever apologize for being a Patriots fan. I am very proud to be a Patriots fan and I enjoy wearing my Pat's attire wherever I go. By simply wearing my Patriots hats or shirts, I find it a great way to interact with other NFL fans and can easily spot the real from the bandwagoner. The real fans usually throw a jab, which is expected and usually turns to fun banter, but then moves on to compliment the team and their success under the leadership of Bill Belichick with Tom Brady at the helm. The bandwagoners can't pass up the opportunity to throw jabs, but these jabs don't end with laughs and fun followed by compliments. They usually move into pure hate for the team and insults towards me for being a Patriots fan. Looking at the Super bowl following the 2016 NFL season, I don't think anyone will forget that game any time soon, or rather ever, especially if you are Matt Ryan and the rest of the Atlanta Falcons. However, when the Patriots were down but seeming to begin a push to come from behind, there were Falcons on the sidelines commenting that "it is Tom Brady" showing the respect they have for him for all his accomplishments. I don't care who you are, the success the Patriots have had over the last 16 years, post salary cap to boot, could not possibly continue if it was some fluke or even if they did cheat at any time throughout. Think about it. Since 2001, the Patriots have been to 7 out of 16 Super bowls. It almost comes out to them going every other year. That is insane. The two losses were hard, even being to the same team. Every team has their Lex Luther team and the Giants are the Lex to the Patriots. That doesn't take anything away from the Giants success and two Super bowl victories over that Patriots by any means. They continued on after the two losses, to gain two more victories with a good chance, on paper so far, to go back and snag another after the 2017 season. In fact, they are favored to repeat based on off season acquisitions and new contract negotiations. Whether they repeat or not, it's hard to argue about the New England Dynasty and where they will land in sports history. This is all accomplished post salary cap era as well, where it was supposed to be designed to not have stacked teams like the Steelers and 49ers did during their reign of success.

It's obvious I am using the Seahawks and Patriots to make my point about real vs. bandwagon fans, but this goes on in every sports areas, however, it's more prominent in some areas compared to others. I was definitely one of the lucky ones to grow up in such a strong professional sports area with so many championships. Although it took the Red Sox 86 years to accomplish another World series title in 2004, they brought two more to Boston after that in 2007 and 2013. And with the early Bruins and Celtics, how could anyone complain? Well, real fans, that's how. Real fans will always complain, bandwagoners will just rant and rave, moan and groan while finding excuses for their team's downfalls by blaming other organizations. Real fans start looking at the rosters, coaches, management etc. and begin to look at their own teams to see what is wrong and what can be done to fix it. Being from Chicago, LA, SF, Dallas, Pittsburgh and a few other multi championship towns are fortunate areas to be from as a sports fan. Especially the recent Cubs of Chicago who finally won a world series after waiting 108 years. If Boston thought they had a long wait, talk to a Cubs fan.

Fans from the sports towns like the 49ers of San Francisco, Steelers of Pittsburgh and Cowboys of Dallas in most cases, know what Patriot fans are going through. There are definitely exceptions, but in general, they know. The Steelers of the 70's with Bradshaw, Swan, Harris etc. as well as the incredible "Steel Curtain" with the likes of Mean Joe Green and company are blamed for the start of steroids in the NFL. Some say an asterisk should be next to their titles just as they do with the Patriots. Are there any merits to those claims? Personally, I don't feel that at all steelers hat . Not because I am a Patriots fan, but because I am an NFL fan. There was no team that could have possibly gone through the Steel Curtain on a consistent basis during that period and there is a record number of players from that same time period that have gone on to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio. Can there be arguments made that some may not have been as good if not for steroid use? Sure, but the bottom line is if these players had no talent, there are not enough steroids around to give someone talent. Either you have talent or you don't. Sure it can enhance some talents in the area of endurance and strength, but if you can't throw, catch, run with a ball or watch a ball while watching the player you are designated to cover at the same time, it doesn't matter how strong you are or how fast you can run.

So, the main point here is simple. Are you a real NFL fan or are you just a bandwagoner? There is nothing wrong with being a bandwagoner in some ways. There are definitely those who can only get into their team and get excited when they are winning. Many will even admit this with no shame and it's nothing really to be ashamed about if you're willing to admit and accept it, but most won't and like to pretend to be fans while frustrating everyone around them with know it all ignorance. Personally, as a lifelong fan of Boston area sports, no real fan is a bandwagoner. If you want to support the team when they are doing good, you should have been there when they needed you the most. Sure, it's frustrating, but as a real fan, it's part of the excitement to get involved as if you actually have some influence that can help your team win. Obviously being a Boston fan, we have the privilege to be part of the greatest rivalry in sports history. The classic Red Sox / Yankees rivalry. Here it gets a bit complicated. This rivalry can get downright dirty. The language shared between these two fan bases geared towards getting the lowest you can possibly go in order to shred the opposing fans better than they can shred you. However, unlike the newly developed rivalry with the Seahawks / Patriots, in the end, New York and Boston fans know when to show respect and when to carry on. With this rivalry, it's fun, and in a strange way, respectful even at its worst. When "friends" un-friend me on social media just because I am a Red Sox fan, that borders on pathetic, but in reality, it's sad. This is a game, not some life or death situation that affects our lives.

When I meet a Yankee fan, in most cases, it's a fun exchange and I have become friends with some people because of it. When a player with the stature of those like Jeter and Ortiz, both teams honor those as if they were part of their own respective organizations. That my friends, is what real true sports fans are and should be in every city in every situation.

Now it's time to search inside yourself and ask these simple questions. Do you dislike a particular player from a rival team that is an obvious star, and treat it like that player is not that good, or do you dislike them because they are that good and don't play for your team? The obvious one is the Tom Brady debates. For any fan from any team to claim Brady isn't that good after looking at his stats and records, then you may be a bandwagoner. Sounds like something from Jeff Foxworthy but it fits. There are some who claim Peyton Manning wasn't that good. But 10-1 those are fans from teams that rival the Bronco's and/or the Colts. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is this. If you think you're a real fan as opposed to a bandwagoner, start to do some personal research on matters that you feel are things that upset you. Things such as the biggest issue these days. The controversy surrounding the Patriots. Read from as many sources as possible including the facts involving "spy-gate" and "deflate-gate". What you'll find is technicalities in spy-gate that show the Patriots didn't even break an official rule and they did what every other team has done, just at a different time, and that rule they supposedly broke to start the whole cheaters controversy wasn't even in the rule books as an official rule until the following year. As for deflate-gate, if you were to read the Wells report, you'll find no real evidence that any rules were broken and that the phone incident with Brady and throwing it away should never have come into the conversation in the first place since Brady had been informed that his phone wasn't needed by Wells himself before he destroyed it and the fact that he destroyed it is nothing more than what he does with every old phone. Like many celebrities, phones can contain delicate, private info they don't want others to gain access to and sell to some news or entertainment magazine so their private lives can be splashed all over the place. It makes sense and it wasn't something he just decided to start doing. It's something he's always done in the past and had no reason to change once he was told that his phone wasn't needed anymore for the investigation. After his phone was gone, it was then plastered all over as if it was done in an attempt to hide something.

This just shows what information can be gained by being a real fan and educating yourself while also realizing that this is only a game that is intended to be fun to watch and follow. If it consumes you with hatred towards someone or some teams as a whole steelers hat, then you should think about leaving the band, jumping off the wagon all together and just take a train instead to the loony bin for help.

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travelcafemt-blog · 5 years

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Fun Cities for Bleisure Travelers

New Post has been published on https://www.montanastravelagency.com/fun-cities-for-bleisure-travelers/

Fun Cities for Bleisure Travelers

Denver, Colorado

While the actual label “bleisure travel” might not be top of mind for business travelers, the concept of combining business and leisure time in one trip is becoming an increasingly popular idea. In fact, in its 2018 Bleisure Trends Report, the travel management company Egencia noted that 68 percent of travelers mix business with pleasure between one and three times a year. That study also reports that a whopping 74 percent of North American business travelers are either planning or considering a bleisure trip in the next six months.

To that end, here are some of the best cities to enjoy a bleisure trip:

Chicago, Illinois:

Chicago-style: The adjective seems to attach itself to everything in Chicago—from the vibrant downtown, stunning architecture and political machines to deep-dish pizza, hot dogs, the arts and blues music. Chicago residents do things with their own distinctive flair, creating innovations that resound far beyond the city’s borders.

The result is a world-class city with an internationally acclaimed symphony, champion sports teams such as the Bears and Cubs, a host of renowned museums such as the Field Museum, great hotels and miles/kilometers of gorgeous beaches and lakefront paths that many use for bicycling, rollerblading and jogging. Most first-time visitors are surprised by the city’s cleanliness and the profusion of plants and flowers.

Dallas, Texas

With Dallas’ concentration of technology companies, corporate headquarters, and wholesale trade markets, the nation’s ninth-largest city is a Texas metropolis devoted to business. Residents of Dallas, Texas, seem to enjoy spending money with the same passion with which they earn it. The result is a mercantile mecca that appeals to visitors: The metropolitan area of Dallas affords shopping opportunities that rival those in New York City.

Dallas is also known for the arts; spanning 19 city blocks in the heart of downtown, the Dallas Arts District is the largest urban cultural district in the country. The AT&T Performing Arts Center, a multi-venue center for music, opera, theater, and dance, is the most significant performing arts complex built since the Lincoln Center in New York.

Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado, is often associated with the Old West, but the New West has left a more visible mark. Modern Denver is the financial, business, administrative and transportation center of the Rocky Mountain region. The Denver area is a major livestock market and headquarters to mining companies. Denver’s leading manufacturers produce aeronautic, telecommunication, electronic and other high-technology products.

Thanks to its wealth of nearby ski and mountain resorts, national parks and frontier historical sites, Denver is also an important tourist center. Denver attractions draw numerous visitors every year. Sports fans also flock to Denver to watch its many professional teams.

A skyline of gleaming glass graces downtown, and even the historic areas shine with fresh varnish. Nowhere is this clearer than in LoDo—Denver’s Lower Downtown District—where run-down warehouses have been renovated into classy Denver attractions such as jazz clubs, bookstores, restaurants and art galleries. High-rises offer chic downtown living alongside historic buildings that have been transformed into lofts. It all takes place against the glorious backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia, is a bustling, world-class city, with a skyline full of impressive architectural designs that complement rolling hills and abundant foliage. Atlanta is consistently ranked as one of the best places to do business in the U.S., and more than 750 of Fortune’s Top 1,000 businesses have offices there. The Atlanta airport (Hartsfield-Jackson) is usually ranked as the world’s busiest, and its airport code, ATL, has become the city’s nickname among locals.

Atlanta’s fast-paced, ready-for-the-future attitude is evident in its booming convention business. Other Atlanta attractions include pulsing nightlife, showplace museums, sophisticated fine-arts facilities, and painstakingly restored historical landmarks.

Miami, Florida

Miami, Florida, has always billed itself as a travel destination. Warm weather, sandy beaches and bright sunshine were selling points more than 100 years ago, just as they are today. But Miami’s allure extends beyond its shores. People from all over the Caribbean and Latin America have settled in Miami, giving the city its distinctive, lively international character.

The warm-weather fun is still a big attraction, but the biggest draw is the cosmopolitan flavor coupled with all the great restaurants, sports teams (Dolphins, Heat, Hurricanes and Marlins) and upscale sheen—plus a long list of TV shows that have “Miami” in their titles.

South Beach, with its cheerful, sherbet-colored art-deco buildings and palm-tree-lined avenues, is the center of Miami’s trendy dining and nightlife scene. Other corners of Miami, including Coconut Grove and Coral Gables, offer their own versions of fine living and colorful happenings.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Old City, a hip neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is today much as it was when Benjamin Franklin walked its streets. One of the most progressive citizens of his time, city-father Franklin would surely approve of the many art galleries, trendy shops and vibrant restaurants that dot the downtown Philadelphia landscape.

Philadelphia’s rich history is still visible today in the superb Historic District: That is where you’ll find Independence Hall, where the nation’s Constitution was hotly debated, and the Liberty Bell, which became a symbol of the new government. The city’s museums—more than a dozen, including the excellent Franklin Institute and the Philadelphia Museum of Art—are world-class institutions that mix old and new in surprising ways.

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona, is a truly modern city—it didn’t really boom until after World War II. Nonetheless, mixed among Phoenix’s office towers and the abundance of resorts, spas and restaurants are museums dedicated to pre-Columbian, Native American and pioneer history. Though Phoenix proper is just one of several cities in the Valley of the Sun, it’s the largest by far and serves as the center of the metropolitan area. The explosive, sprawling growth of the Phoenix metropolitan area—which includes Glendale, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, Peoria and Tempe—is due in part to its attractive desert location (cacti and mountains are never far from view) and in part to the city’s refusal to respect the limitations a desert imposes.

San Diego, California

San Diego, California, is sunny and mild—not just in weather, but in personality, as well. This is a place where the people are friendly and the sun shines more than 300 days a year. To top it off, San Diego is blessed with considerable natural beauty: broad, gorgeous beaches on its west side, creviced canyons in the east, and sweet-smelling tropical flowers everywhere.

A quintessential U.S. Navy town, San Diego has also boomed in recent years. The trendy downtown and Gaslamp Quarter, plus such nearby attractions as Balboa Park, continue to pull in locals and tourists alike.

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston, Massachusetts, is inundated with visitors every year and for good reason: It’s partly a walkable historic park (especially the Freedom Trail) and partly a modern waterfront metropolis (the “Hub of New England”) with no lack of things to do once darkness descends. Fenway Park—one of the nation’s most hallowed baseball stadiums—is a destination in itself.

Although the city has never stopped reaching for the future and now welcomes leading-edge financial services and high-tech companies, it has lovingly preserved the treasures of its past. Boston cherishes its patriotic connections with the Boston Tea Party and Bunker Hill. It is a living symbol of the melting pot early residents fought to create, including lively ethnic neighborhoods, sophisticated centers of academia and sedate sanctuaries of old wealth. Each seems a world unto itself, yet each is an integral part of Boston’s urban identity.

Seattle, Washington

The combination of water, hills and lush greenery in a mountain setting on the shores of Puget Sound make Seattle, Washington, one of the most beautiful urban areas in the U.S. With its efficient bus system and compact downtown district, Seattle is also user-friendly.

Seattleites have plenty to brag about: There’s the Space Needle and Pike Place Market, plus the Mariners, Seahawks and Sounders FC sports teams. There are fine restaurants, good museums and a vigorous arts scene.

Even Seattle’s infamous rainy winter weather has a good side. All that rain helps make Seattle the evergreen “Emerald City” and produces wonderful flowers. And Seattle is where Starbucks got its start, in 1971, at Pike Place Market

New York, New York

New York City has always been a city of superlatives: largest, tallest, trendiest, best. It’s also one of the world’s most dynamic places. The skyline seems to be ever-changing, and exciting new restaurants and shops continue to pop up in unexpected neighborhoods. First-time visitors and natives alike will experience variety at every turn.

New York offers more to see and do than you can manage in one visit. You’ll find the finest selection of entertainment, museums and restaurants in the world. Some stunning new attractions have opened, and some old favorites have been rebuilt and refurbished like an old Broadway musical. But the New York City skyline is still the awe-inspiring star. Two amazing icons are still mourned, but the new Freedom Tower has already taken its place among the city’s other world-famous landmarks: the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Lincoln Center, the Flatiron Building and the bridges—Brooklyn, Queensboro, Verrazano—to name just a few. Most reassuring of all: The Statue of Liberty is still there, waiting to say hello.

While these are some the most popular bleisure destinations, most cities offer attractions that business travelers can enjoy. On your next business trip, why not take a little extra time to take advantage of your time there for some R&R too?

Check out our travel guides for the 25 most popular US destinations to learn all of the activities you can tack onto your next business trip.

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torentialtribute · 5 years

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Data experts and Klopp’s charisma turn Liverpool into kings of Europe

In the canteen at Liverpool the training ground in Melwood, two tables stand next to each other. At one, sit the players and coaches. Mo Salah munches breakfast alongside Jordan Henderson and Jurgen Klopp .

At the other, a group of non-descript people tuck into their morning poached eggs. They look nothing like the superstars their backs are pressed against. Yet the work of these geniuses, housed in a white office, a few strides down the corridor from the cafeteria, has helped gain Knock an edge in their pursuit of European glory.

They are known as the 'laptop guys' and without these individuals trawling through data, analysis and theorizing, Liverpool could have been left clinging to hopes of reclining the glories of former years.

Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in the final of the Champions League on Saturday night

They are led by Ian Graham, the club's director of research. His bond with Klopp was forged early on when he provided the new Liverpool manager with an analysis of two defeats from his time at Borussia Dortmund.

"You saw it! We destroyed them, "blurted Klopp. Graham explained he had not seen the game, he had simply analyzed the underlying data. It had been Graham, too, whose statistical model had scrutinized Klopp's under-performing Dortmund side in a 2014-15 season that saw the German club in the relegation zone.

His conclusion was that Dortmund had leg unlucky instead of incompetent. Liverpool were looking for a manager to replace Brendan Rodgers. Graham knew Klopp was their man.

When Klopp decided he needed a rest after Dortmund in the summer of 2015, Liverpool did not look elsewhere. They waited until the German was ready and brought him in the following October.

Tim Waskett works next to Graham. Waskett studied astrophysics before life as a football analyst. Then there’s Dafydd Steele, a maths graduate and former junior chess champion.

Perhaps the most fascinating member of the team is Will Spearman, one of the more recent additions. A Texan son of a professor, Spearman studied for a PhD in high-energy physics at Harvard before going on to work at CERN, searching for the Higgs boson particle. It was his dissertation that first provided a width for the "God Particle."

A lot of credit has to go to the 'laptop guys' behind the scenes, who are crunching the numbers

Here is a man who spent years searching for the most minute measurement in physics, now trying to give Liverpool an advantage, no matter how small. His insight has proved crucial.

Of course, these boffins do not take all of the credit, but Liverpool have embraced the marginal gains more than any other club. It was Klopp who hired Thomas Gronnemark to coach his team's throw-ins.

The analytics of Graham's team helped not only with Klopp's appointment and tactical observations that the manager may want to pass on to his team, but also with the transfer scouting that helped Liverpool thrive.

Graham's formula, among many things, looks not simply at percentage of completed passes but at whether each pass makes a player leaves his team more or less likely to score a goal because of it. It is through this that Graham urged the club to sign Naby Keita.

Liverpool's early transfer policy based on statistics and resale value did have flaws. The £ 16million purchase of Mario Balotelli in 2014 was hailed by the renowned Swiss CIES Football Observatory as the best value-for-money signing of that year, but turned out to be a disaster.

However, Liverpool have made three astonishing signings under Fenway that have been laid for their current success.

Luis Suarez was signed as damaged goods from Ajax in 2011 and turned out to be a superstar, almost single-handedly turning Liverpool into genuine title contenders

More recently, Mo Salah was signed from Roma for £ 34m in 2017 and has been the Premier League's top scorer for two seasons.

It was also such an analysis that encouraged the club to sign Philippe Coutinho for £ 8.5m in 2013. They sold him to Barcelona for £ 145m last year. The profit helped bring in Virgil van Dijk and Alisson, who have tasks Liverpool to the next level. How far this club has come in less than a decade. Forty-eight hours after buying Liverpool in October 2010, John W Henry and Tom Werner watched their new club lose 2-0 at Everton to stay rooted in the relegation zone.

As owners of baseball's Boston Red Sox, Henry and the Fenway Sports Group value the importance of harmony and smooth running off the pitch. Liverpool have it now.

The football side of affairs is run by sporting director Michael Edwards, who has been working at Anfield since 2011 for Portsmouth and Tottenham. Edwards heads a team of data and analyst specialists, with Klopp very much involved.

Sporting director Michael Edwards heads a team of data and analyst specialists

When Klopp arrived in 2015, he had a very good idea of what he wanted, with Sadio Mane and Gini Wijnaldum signed the following summer. In time, Klopp has begun to admire and appreciate the input of Edwards's team – it was they who convinced the German that Salah was ready for the Premier League.

Chief executive Peter Moore is from Liverpool and a boyhood Red but has an American-based business background. Regarding his predecessor Ian Ayre got involved in football and commercial work, there is a clear division now. Moore concentrates on sponsorship, ticketing and finance, rather than recruitment.

Both men report to Fenway's 'man in England' Mike Gordon, who is based in London.

Key to Liverpool's revival has been the redevelopment of Anfield that could lead to a final capacity of 61,000. Not just the stage but the whole area has been transformed to give fans an experience akin to watching a major sports event across the Atlantic.

Liverpool's owners never pretended to know it all. "If they made mistakes, they listened, worked it out and fixed them," says a source.

Klopp is eager to praise his staff as well. Or 36-year-old assistant coach Pep Lijnders, he says: "I could write a book about him, about his influence, his optimism and his lively presence."

Besides the data, Klopp still relies on his old friend from Mainz, assistant manager Peter Krawietz, who is nicknamed 'The Eye' for his ability to spot a potential signing and also strengths and weaknesses or opponents.

A leading agent says: 'A lot of clubs go fishing for players. You always feel you're one of a number. Liverpool seem clearer about what they want. If they speak to you, they genuinely want to do a deal. "

Jurgen Klopp relations on Peter Krawietz, who is nicknamed 'The Eye' as he can spot a signing

The tactic may not always work in the short term but over several years, it's been a key to Liverpool's success. The best example is Van Dijk. Every phone-in show and pundit was screaming at Klopp to sign a center back after he missed out on the Dutchman in the summer of 2017.

Liverpool ignored the clamor and eventually got their man in the January 2018 window, even paying a premium fee.

The impact of Van Dijk has been extraordinary and gives an insight that Klopp will not panic buy or accept second order.

Liverpool have also been ruthless when they have needed to be. Rodgers, who gallantly led them to a thrilling second place in the 2014 Premier League title race, was fired barely a year later, his fate decided before he took the team into a final Merseyside derby at Goodison. Rodgers himself had given the job in 2012 after Henry had fired Kenny Dalglish, despite "The King" reaching two cup finals.

There has been no room for sentiment. Players such as Roberto Firmino, who fitted the Klopp philosophy, were signed before he arrived.

Liverpool also proved to be tough negotiators in the transfer market. Besides squeezing Barcelona for the huge Coutinho fee, they also successfully heroed out for £ 26m for defender Mamadou Sakho when there was no hope of him playing again under Klopp.

Crystal Palace ended up coughing up after Liverpool made it clear they would stick Sakho in the reserves for another year rather than accept a penny less.

It is a high risk strategy but it has allowed the club to gain maximum revenue for players which has been re-invested. Since 2014, Liverpool have assembled a world-class team at a net spend of £ 164m. In contrast, Chelsea have spent £ 205m, Arsenal £ 261m, Manchester United £ 488m and Manchester City £ 570m.

When Henry with the media soon after his takeover, he earnestly wrote down the words 'pass and move' on a notepad when a local hack tried to explain the philosophy of Liverpool's teamwork, dating back to Bill Shankly.

It was a sham on Henry's part, he already thought he knew best and had already lined up Damien Comolli as sporting director, the appointment confirmed three weeks later. Comolli was later sacked with a mixed record – Suarez and Jordan Henderson were signed under his watch but so, too, £ 35m Andy Carroll, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing – and an imported communications director, Jen Chang from America, left in disgrace after he threatened a supporter.

To Henry's credit – and that of FSG president Gordon who was the company's eyes and ears in the UK – they worked hard to adapt their New England philosophy to a part of England with its own characteristics so unique it is sometimes dubbed "The People's Republic of Merseyside."

Dalglish, arguably the greatest figure in the club's history, was brought back into the fold as a club ambassador. Full-time appointments were made to liaise with supporters and fans' groups, both local and international.

There will always be the odd conflict between a hard-headed business and a community asset like Liverpool – local residents are currently unhappy the club are selling the famed Melwood training ground to property developers – but no club tries to engage harder with their fans than Liverpool.

No club tried to engage harder with their fans than Liverpool, with plenty of local heroes

Trent Alexander-Arnold's young local hero is active in supporting important campaigns such as reducing gang involvement in nearby schools.

What for the future, then? Can Liverpool be bigger than Manchester United? Can they become English football's driving force again?

United and Liverpool are traditionally English football's biggest and best-supported clubs – at home and all over the planet.

If Liverpool can build on this season while United continued to miss out on the Champions League, the balance of power could swing back again after years of dominance at Old Trafford.

Premier League research from 2017 put Liverpool's global support at 1.1billion.

Their social media audience is 66 million and they have 288 official supporters' clubs in 94 different countries.

While they are not ready yet to take United in pure figures, Liverpool believe their fan base is more active than at any other club.

Ultimately, their continued growth depends on what Klopp and his players manage to do on the pitch.

So far, they are delivering in spectacular fashion.

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mayramoss-blog1 · 6 years

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Transfer Talk Real Madrid to smash world transfer record for Neymar

The transfer window is open, and Transfer Talk has the latest rumours making the rounds. Follow live with our daily blog throughout the summer.

TOP STORY: Real Madrid to break bank for Neymar

The Sun claims to have a source close to Real Madrid that says Florentino Perez is willing to pay £307 million to bring Neymar to the Bernabeu this summer before a £263m release clause kicks in with PSG as soon as the window closes at the start of September.

The report claims that "Real are unwilling to wait until January for their Galactico" and that the "free-spending suitors would break the current transfer record by £109m to get him before the new season begins."

PSG reportedly put the Sept. 1 release clause in place to prevent Neymar leaving before 2019, but the rumour mill continues to swirl around the Brazilian's future after returning from injury with the whispers surrounding a move to Madrid refusing to go away.

LIVE BLOG

14:56 BST: Patrick Kluivert learned that leaving Ajax early in his career wasn't that simple and he hopes his son Justin won't make the same mistake.

Kluivert said he has advised Justin to stay with the Dutch club for another year even though the winger closes in on a reported €18m (£15.8m) move to Roma.

"If he's got the feeling to leave then he's got to do that, but he needs to know what things are coming on his way," Kluivert said.

14:42 BST: The Nabil Fekir saga has drawn on long enough for many people -- and the wife of Liverpool owner John Henry seems to be among them.

Linda Pezzuti Henry, the managing director of the Boston Globe, had a bit of a laugh with Liverpool fans on Twitter when a user replied to a post about an honour for Globe reporters:

Same.

— Linda Pizzuti Henry (@Linda_Pizzuti) June 9, 2018

Of course, this means the Liverpool communications team will really have to step up with their announcement should it ever arrive.

14:18 BST: Developing the Top Story, Marca is reporting that Neymar met with a Madrid representative in Liverpool while Brazil were training there last week.

According to the newspaper, Neymar reiterated that he is interested in joining the club to the official, who was in the city to make progress on the signing of Santos forward Rodrygo.

13:44 BST: Wayne Rooney's move to D.C. United has taken another step forward as the Everton midfielder and former England captain has applied for his United States visa.

According to The Sun, Rooney flew to Belfast on Friday to visit the U.S. Consulate and fill out paperwork that would allow him to complete the transfer.

Sources told ESPN FC on Friday that Rooney remains open regarding his future and still hasn't ruled out a return to Everton despite meeting with the United club hierarchy last month.

13:18 BST: Jack Wilshere may not just be leaving Arsenal this summer but possibly England altogether.

That's according to Tuttomercatoweb, who report that Wilshere will be offered a salary of €4.5m a season by the Serie A champions.

New Arsenal manager Unai Emery wants to keep the 26-year-old with the club, but Wilshere could potentially seek a fresh start abroad.

ESCLUSIVA TMW - Juventus, accelerata su Wilshere: ecco l'offerta per l'inglese https://t.co/zYDK51VrTa

— Tuttomercatoweb (@TuttoMercatoWeb) June 9, 2018

13:04 BST: West Bromwich Albion have made a £7m bid for Bristol City forward Bobby Reid, according to Sky Sports.

Reid, 25, scored 19 goals in 44 appearances this past season, and City have the option of exercising a third year on the two-year contract he signed after the 2015-16 season.

He may not be the only City player heading to West Brom, as the Bristol Post reports they are in on defender Aden Flint after Jonny Evans finalised a move to Leicester City on Friday.

12:48 BST: Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini has been linked to a number of clubs in recent months and now Robert Pires hopes the Belgium international will make the move to Arsenal.

Fellaini is out of contract this summer and with Arsenal's recruitment budget limited, a move to north London would make sense, according to Pires.

"If he wants to join Arsenal, I think it would be good news," Pires, the former Arsenal defender, told Sky Sports. "He needs a new start and I think, with his quality, I think he can help Unai Emery and he can help the Arsenal players in the squad."

12:37 BST: Could Everton be looking to add competition for Jordan Pickford this summer?

Finding someone capable of challenging the expected England No. 1 may be difficult, but that's what new manager Marco Silva intends to do, according to the Liverpool Echo.

Silva said he wants two players competing for every starting place, and with Joel Robles set to leave as he is out of contract this summer, 35-year-old Maarten Stekelenburg is currently Pickford's only challenger at the club.

12:28 BST: Liverpool's move for Lyon captain and France international Nabil Fekir has stalled, a source has told ESPN FC Liverpool correspondent Glenn Price.

Liverpool were hopeful that they would be in a position to announce the completed transfer on Friday after positive discussions with Lyon, and an image of Fekir's introductory interview with Liverpool's TV channel was leaked on social media.

But, amid reports of Liverpool having reservations about the 24-year-old potentially possessing an underlying knee issue, a source said the club are not expected to confirm any incoming transfers for the time being.

11:58 BST: There are plenty of reports in Spain on Saturday that Barcelona have decided to sign Clement Lenglet. Mundo Deportivo lead with it on their front page and say the 22-year-old will come in as back-up to Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti, with Thomas Vermaelen and Yerry Mina's places in doubt.

ESPN FC reported on Thursday that Sevilla defender Lenglet will take a decision regarding his future by the end of the month.

Las portadas del sábado 9 de juniohttps://t.co/HY39dmdRBU pic.twitter.com/Sxy0QHHrYT

— Mundo Deportivo (@mundodeportivo) June 9, 2018

11:32 BST: Tottenham are weighing up a move for Aston Villa star Jack Grealish, sources close to the Premier League club have told ESPN FC.

Leicester City are also keeping tabs on Grealish's situation, but Tottenham are the front runners, with Pochettino viewing the 22-year-old as the type of player he can help develop into a better player while also strengthening the core of young English talents at the club.

11:10 BST: In case you missed this one on Friday, Manchester United and Tottenham are around £20 million apart in their valuations of Toby Alderweireld, sources have told ESPN FC.

United have been quick to move in the transfer market this summer, already snapping up Fred and Diogo Dalot.

Sources have told ESPN FC that United are willing to pay around £50m for Alderweireld, but negotiations have hit a sticking point with Tottenham valuing the 29-year-old at closer to £70m.

10:29 BST: When Mario Gotze left Bayern Munich to rejoin Borussia Dortmund in 2016 there was plenty of speculation that he could move to the Premier League. Now, he has revealed how close a move to Liverpool was.

"I decided to leave Bayern and Jurgen Klopp was interested in getting me to Liverpool. And I was also interested in working with him again," he told DAZN as part of a four-part documentary about his career so far.

" still exists. He is a world-class coach and that's why it's always an option. I decided to join Borussia Dortmund, but it was not a decision against Liverpool or Jurgen Klopp."

10:05 BST: While there is still the chance that these players may be offered a new deal, here are 10 players who are available on a free transfer, including Marouane Fellaini, Jack Wilshere and Emre Can.

09:30 BST: In Italy, Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Inter Milan are set to offer Mauro Icardi a bumper pay-rise so they can keep him at the club.

Under the terms of the new deal the striker will get €6.3m basic annually and the potential to earn up to €8m with bonuses.

Sulla #Gazzetta in edicola oggi ⚽ Icardi, safari d'oro. Ma Wanda... ⚽ Milan, 21 giorni per il nuovo socio ⚽ Nazionale, le ragazze al Mondiale! E molto altro... pic.twitter.com/sN9clPstEv

— LaGazzettadelloSport (@Gazzetta_it) June 9, 2018

09:00 BST: Danny Murphy has told ESPN FC that Liverpool's fast start to the transfer window will help Jurgen Klopp build on this season's success. The Reds have already signed Fabinho from Monaco and Naby Keita is incoming from RB Leipzig, meanwhile Lyon's Nabil Fekir is rumoured to be joining.

"I like the fact they're getting their business done early," said Murphy. "I still think the keeper thing needs addressing and I think it will be, and maybe another centre-back. But in terms of attacking areas, I think they're alright. Strength in depth is a question mark maybe, in terms of when you look at the benches of United and City. If you look at United's front six it's incredible really. But I'm pleased. They're close."

Herrera set for Bilbao return?

Ander Herrera could be headed back to the club he joined Manchester United from, with AS suggesting Athletic Bilbao are ready to make their former midfielder the team's highest-paid player to lure him back to La Liga.

The 28-year-old was United's player of the year two seasons ago, but was in and out of the lineup in the latest campaign and his place could be further complicated by the arrival of Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk.

But even if Herrera were surplus to requirements in Jose Mourinho's midfield, the story says that the Portuguese boss is hesitant to let him go without a like-for-like replacement in the team.

Finances could further complicate the move as "Bilbao are also unlikely to be able to have the money to tempt United to sell," meaning both club and player might have to wait until Herrera's contract expires at the end of next season to be reunited.

Fekir deal hits roadblock

Just when it seemed like a deal to bring Nabil Fekir from Lyon to Liverpool was all but done, the Reds have pulled back following the player's medical evaluation in France, reports the Telegraph.

With the clubs in agreement on a £53 million fee and Fekir ready to sign off on contract details, the outlet says "enough concerns have materialised over the last 24 hours to ensure the signing has not gone ahead as planned" and "Liverpool are offering no indication as to the nature of the problem."

The France international, who is ready to head to Russia to take part in the World Cup next week, was meant to be the third piece of high-profile business for Jurgen Klopp's side this summer along with Naby Keita and Fabinho. Instead, it might be a case of Liverpool having to "switch to alternative targets as they continue the hunt for a new No. 10," says the report.

Tap-ins

- Harry Kane has penned a new deal with Tottenham and, according to the Mirror, that will have a knock-on effect and persuade both Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen to follow suit. The England frontman has committed himself to the club until 2024 and the Mirror says his two teammates "are the next in line to get bumper new pay deals."

- Benfica forward Anderson Talisca has opted to join Chinese Super League club Guangzhou Evergrande on a six-month loan following links to Manchester United.

The Brazil youth international had been linked to a move to the Premier League, with Portuguese outlet O Jogo claiming last month that United submitted a £35 million offer for the 24-year-old.

- Juventus have signed Italian goalkeeper Mattia Perin from Serie A rivals Genoa for an initial fee of €12 million after he successfully passed a medical on Friday.

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#madrid #neymar #real #record #smash #talk #transfer #world #mainposts

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jodyedgarus · 7 years

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No City Needs A Championship As Badly As Philadelphia

The sports fans of Philadelphia are known for their unique brand of bottle-throwing, Santa Claus-attacking, expletive-laced rowdiness. But is this reputation deserved? Are they actually any different from other fiery fan bases in, say, Buffalo or Oakland? I asked my colleague Rob Arthur to look at citywide crime rates, and he couldn’t find any significant uptick on game days. Then again, multiple Eagles fans are alleged to have punched horses (!?!) during these playoffs alone:

Another Eagles fan punched a police horse outside Lincoln Financial Field https://t.co/RMeXZemhf1

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 22, 2018

The tug of war between Philadelphia’s view of itself as a combative underdog and the greater prestige to which it sometimes aspires will be on full display Sunday night, when the Eagles take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII. Between the city’s sports heartbreaks and hooliganism, its perpetual inferiority complex and recent civic resurgence, this Super Bowl could be a turning point for Philly or another way for its fans to double down on their notoriety.

“You can’t deny that there is coarse [fan] behavior,” New York Times reporter Jeré Longman told me in a phone interview. Longman would know — he wrote a book about the neuroses of the city’s fans the last time the Eagles made the Super Bowl, back in 2005. But he also made a case that Philly deserves a better image. “It’s the founding city of the United States; it has these great institutions,” Longman said. “And now it has a vibrant art and music scene, great food, lots of young professionals living downtown.” In Longman’s view, Philadelphia too often sells itself short of what it could be (and already is) when its fans live down to their boorish reputation.

“The city’s slogan actually used to be, ‘Philadelphia: Not as bad as Philadelphians say it is,’” he said. “Maybe this Super Bowl will be a chance for people in Philadelphia to realize what a great city they have.”1

The roots of the Fairmount Park-sized chip on Philly fans’ collective shoulders go back decades — the infamous Santa snowball incident happened in 1968, less than three years into the Super Bowl’s existence. But they have seemed to grow deeper as the years went on without a championship in the sport Philadelphia embraces the most. The Eagles, which have been around since 1933, are one of 13 NFL franchises that have never won a Super Bowl, and nobody has won more total ballgames among the Super Bowl oh-fers.2

Making matters worse, the Eagles’ rivals in the NFC East — the hated Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Washington Redskins — have won a combined 12 championships in the Super Bowl era. Six times a year, Eagles fans are forced to contrast themselves against fan bases whose historical résumés have been weaponized for the taunting.

There’s a cultural component to the frustration as well. “Football represents Philadelphia’s ideal view of itself: a tough, blue-collar sport,” Longman said. Both he and Glen Macnow, a longtime host at the local sports-talk radio station WIP, agreed that the Eagles are the one team in the city whose rabid support stretches across demographic and societal lines. Indeed, over the past five years, the Eagles have dominated the search-traffic battle against the city’s other pro teams to a greater degree than the national average.3

“It’s a football town,” Macnow said. “The Eagles bring together everybody in the city.” If so, that also puts the team squarely at the emotional epicenter of Philadelphia angst.

The city’s general lack of sports success over the years hasn’t helped matters. Philly teams went more than 25 years without a title, between the 1982-83 76ers’ NBA crown and the Phillies’ World Series victory in 2008. And it hasn’t been for lack of trying. In the 34 years starting in 1984 — the year after the Sixers won their title — through 2017, no other city in pro sports has underachieved more on the championship front, based on the number of actual titles won and the number we’d expect from how many teams they had in each sport.4

Which sports cities have overachieved the most (and least)?

Actual vs. expected championships in the big 4 North American sports for cities, 1984-2017

Championships vs. Expected Top 10 NFL NBA MLB NHL Total Boston +4.38 +1.78 +1.84 -0.27 +7.73 Chicago -0.12 +4.78 -0.31 +1.73 +6.08 Los Angeles -0.88 +5.60 -0.59 +0.73 +4.86 San Francisco +2.88 +0.00 +1.84 +0.00 +4.72 San Antonio +0.00 +3.78 +0.00 +0.00 +3.78 Edmonton +0.00 +0.00 +0.00 +3.73 +3.73 Pittsburgh +0.88 +0.00 -1.16 +3.73 +3.45 Detroit -1.12 +1.78 -0.16 +2.73 +3.23 New York City +1.75 -2.45 +3.69 +0.20 +3.20 Miami -1.12 +1.99 +1.19 -0.80 +1.26 Championships vs. Expected Bottom 10 NFL NBA MLB NHL Total Washington, D.C. +0.88 -1.22 -0.43 -1.27 -2.05 Seattle -0.12 -0.92 -1.16 +0.00 -2.20 Minneapolis -1.12 -0.97 +0.84 -1.00 -2.25 San Diego -1.09 -0.04 -1.16 +0.00 -2.29 Milwaukee +0.00 -1.22 -1.16 +0.00 -2.38 Buffalo -1.12 +0.00 +0.00 -1.27 -2.39 Cleveland -1.02 -0.22 -1.16 +0.00 -2.40 Phoenix -0.98 -1.22 +0.33 -0.68 -2.55 Atlanta -1.12 -1.22 -0.16 -0.37 -2.87 Philadelphia -0.62 -1.22 -0.16 -1.27 -3.27

This assigns Boston and Philadelphia a “half-championship” for the 2017 NFL season, since Super Bowl LII’s winner isn’t known yet.

Expected championships are calculated by assigning each team in a league equal odds of winning the title in a given season and then adding up those title chances over time.

Source: Sports-Reference sites

(And that’s after assigning Philly and Boston a “half-championship” each for the upcoming Super Bowl, assuming that each team has roughly 50-50 odds. If we didn’t do that, Philadelphia teams would be running a collective 3.7 championships below expectation since 1983.)

Here’s another way this data helps illustrate why Philadelphia fans are so emotionally overwrought when it comes to sports: In terms of expected titles — which measures the sheer number of cracks a city has had at championship glory — Philly trails only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago (and it’s tied with Boston and Detroit). Justifiably, it thinks of itself as belonging among that group of towns. But collectively, those five cities have won 57.5 championships — 25.1 more than expected — since 1983, with each exceeding their expectation by at least 3.2 titles. Philly, meanwhile, is running 3.3 titles below expectations. Add in the fact that Philadelphia ranks only 25th in championships won since 1983 despite being a top-eight U.S. metro area by both population and economic might, and it makes sense why Philly fandom is often a powder keg waiting to explode.

“It’s like a permanent wedgie,” Macnow said of Philadelphia’s sports inferiority complex. “You look up the East Coast at New York and see their championships and at Boston’s smug fans — we call them ‘Massholes.’ There’s an element of envy there as well.”

That’s one reason the Patriots might be the ultimate opponent for the Eagles as they try to end their Super Bowl drought. Since 1983, Boston teams have won 7.7 more titles than expected — in exactly the same number of chances as Philly had. The cities are similar in many ways, from population to their shared importance in the early history of the country, a common insular attitude and their parallel rivalries with the behemoth situated between them — New York City. It isn’t difficult to envision an alternate universe in which the fates of Boston and Philadelphia sports had switched places several decades ago.

Everyone agrees that an Eagles win on Sunday would set off something approaching total pandemonium in the Philadelphia. “It would be by far the largest sports celebration ever,” Longman told me. “There aren’t enough cans of Crisco in the world to keep people from climbing every [street] pole in Philadelphia.” Longman thought the potential crowds would dwarf the Phillies’ championship parade in 2008 and be more akin to when the pope visited the city in 2015.

Whether the long-awaited Super Bowl victory would mark the beginning of a change in fans’ behavior, however, is another question, given that so much of Philly fandom — for good and bad — is wrapped up in the feelings of being overlooked and misunderstood.

“It would require a change in a mindset that has prevailed for many generations,” Longman said. “It’d be fascinating to see if Philly is comfortable with being the overdog instead of the underdog.”

Although it would only begin to make a slight dent in the city’s championship shortfall of the past three and a half decades, winning Sunday would be a good start.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/no-city-needs-a-championship-as-badly-as-philadelphia/

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garycarlin-blog · 7 years

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Local inns a great way to explore Boston

Visitors flock to Boston to see where it all began—the history of our country is in the buildings, the pavements, the monuments and cemeteries. Much happened here or nearby—the Boston Tea Party, the plotting and first shots of the Revolution, the Boston Massacre. Many of these sites are lined along a walkable 3-mile Freedom Trail, with re-enactors and markers along the way.

One of the first things you notice about Boston is its architecture. In the Back Bay, South End, Roxbury and other neighborhoods, the prevalence of lovely, old Victorian townhouses give major parts of the central city a genuine Old World feel, and some of these old homes have been converted into inns and airbnbs. These can be accessed through their websites, or at airbnb.com.

Staying in an inn or airbnb is a great way to experience the city like the locals do, and like they did more than 100 years ago, and to get friendly, personal service. Hosts at such inns are usually knowledgeable about the area and helpful, anxious to offer any advice you seek about best places to shop and dine, and how to navigate the city. Hosts can also guide you toward special sites to visit for art, music, history, and architecture, as well as to the homes of your favorite sports teams.

These inns with historical connections and architecture are often less expensive than more impersonal, pricey downtown or chain hotels. Glitzy newer towers near Copley Square and downtown hold offices, shops, and condos, giving the city a contemporary, international flare.

Located in the former home of Haffenreffer Brewery foremen and their families during Boston’s brewery heydays, the c.1860 Fort Hill Inn is a typical historic inn, on a quiet private way near the Orange Line on the T/subway. This inn is a short walk to universities, medical centers, the Museum of Fine Arts, and Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. Check forthillinn.com for photos, prices and amenities.

People come from all over the world to see the city’s architecture and art, read its books and listen to its world-class symphony and the many other orchestras performing classical music and jazz, often for free. They come to stroll its many parks, beautiful in any season, smell its roses and revel in its many Monets and Picassos, at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Gardner Museum, and numerous other art museums around the city. Knowledgeable hosts at inns like the Fort Hill can guide you to favorite museums, concerts, restaurants, events, shopping and more.

Boston has more to do than one could do in a lifetime, yet it is compressed into a small enough space that one can walk most anyplace—or, take its easy-to-manage, color-coded subway (the “T”), or hail a cab, Uber or Lyft.

The Boston Public Library (BPL), Symphony Hall, and the Museum of Fine Arts are all cultural institutions housed in architectural gems that are critical stops on your Boston trip. All have shopping and in-house or nearby dining. The BPL fronts onto Copley Square, across the park from the H.H. Richardson-designed Trinity Church, opened in 1870.

Of course, no discussion of Boston is complete without the Red Sox, New England Patriots, Boston Celtics, and the Bruins hockey team. The city’s sports fans are at least as rabid as its arts fans. Fenway Park, in particular, is of historical value, being the oldest baseball park in the major leagues. If you can’t snag tickets to a game, you can tour the park, near Kenmore Square.

Boston’s famous Marathon on Patriot’s Day in April is the country’s oldest such running race, and the city hosts the world’s largest two-day rowing event, Head of the Charles Regatta, in October. At Marathon time, the city is usually in full bloom, with magnolias, daffodils, and other spring beauties; for the Head of the Charles, river banks are in full autumn regalia.

The city has a lively theatre scene, with elegant old theatres and new homes for classic and contemporary plays. Shopping, along Newbury and Boylston Streets in the Back Bay, and at Copley Square and Downtown Crossing, is always fun, and restaurants range from coffee shops and pubs to outdoor luncheon spots and fine dining of every type. Hosts at Fort Hill Inn or wherever you stay can point out good dining for your needs.

Education is one major reason visitors come to Boston, and Harvard University at Harvard Square in Cambridge is particularly worth seeing, along with MIT, Boston University, and many other colleges of note.

All in all, a visit to Boston offers so much to experience that it’s wise to spend several days in the city. Ask your hosts to point you toward special

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flauntpage · 7 years

Text

Rejoice: The New England Patriots Suck

The sports world is going to hell, one dementia-fueled tweet about proper posture at stadiums during a country's theme song at a time. We covet the sanctuary of cell provider dead zones but know in our hearts that peace will never come.

There is good news, though—the New England Patriots, at long last, suck.

The Donald Trump-lovin', cheatin'-ass Patriots with the quarterback that sells magic pajamas and beet salads like a poor man's Dr. Oz have been reduced to rubble after nearly two decades of deflating and videoing. It's wonderful. It should be savored. When the Patriots miss the playoffs this year, the following Monday should be a national holiday everywhere except New England.

Our long national nightmare is over. At least one of them.

You're probably saying, "You sound like a hater." That's because I am. I hate the Patriots. How do you not hate them? If you don't hate them, you're the weird one. Hell, Patriots fans hate the Patriots. They're your rich, racist in-laws that make you uncomfortable at family gatherings but you don't say a word because they help with bills while you're out of work. And you just learned they have three months to live and you have to pretend part of you isn't happy that you will soon no longer have to defend them to your friends.

The Patriots aren't just 2-2; they're a shitty 2-2. They should be 1-3 and trailing the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets in the AFC East. Instead, they're tied with a team that has been actively trying to sabotage their season since the summer. The franchise that was once the NFL's gold standard has been unable to create any distance in the standings between themselves and the Jets, which is embarrassing in most years but particularly so this year.

When it's definitely not your fault. Photo: © Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

The Patriots should be 0-3 at home but thanks to poor clock management from a coach that lost 29-7 to the Jaguars and a miracle last-minute drive, they are 1-2. Normally, you could chalk this up to small sample size, but when you've hidden microphones in the other team's locker room you should be no worse than 2-2.

We live in a post-Patriots-are-good world. The air smells sweeter. There's something fitting about a team that's happy to be associated with the Trump name collapsing after helping put him in power. It won't be long before Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick declare bankruptcy and have to sell stadium seats and unwashed sleeveless hoodies to pay off creditors. Brady will be in the parking lot hocking game-worn jerseys and Himalayan salt to rubes in Aaron Hernandez jerseys.

How can you not smile when you realize the Patriots are allowing 32 points per game? Holy shit. That's Big 12 football. But look, that number will always be skewed when you allow 42 points against the likes of [rubs eyes, rapidly blinks] Alex Smith? A guy who receives condescending pats on the head when he cracks 200 yards dropped 368 yards on the Patriots in Foxboro. That was our first clue the Patriots were the new Bills.

The Carolina Panthers had 45 points in three games before Cam Newton dropped 33 on them Sunday without Greg Olsen. Newton had seven incompletions and four touchdowns; the AFC East's new overlords — the Bills — held the Panthers to nine points in Carolina. Against the Patriots, Kelvin Benjamin, who could barely walk a few days ago, needed just four catches to get over 100 yards.

The Patriots are allowing 457 yards per game; Rutgers has allowed 364 yards per game. The Patriots are worse than Rutgers. That's math talking, not me. The only D with more holes in the Boston area is that guy Sandra Bullock shot twice in the dick at the end of The Heat.

It's all over, man. Brady doesn't have the drive anymore. He's 40 and cares more about selling an overpriced cookbook that will allow you to "eat clean" or some shit than doing what it takes to win. He's a guy who thinks water prevents sunburns. He [looks up Brady's stats through four games] OK, fine, that 121.5 rating and 8:0 TD:INT ratio looks good now but you know he will derail the season by hiding an injury because he thinks he can cure a concussion by wrapping his head with a MAGA hat and soaking it in TB12 water.

Then again, your completion percentage would be north of 70 percent too if your offensive coordinator's galaxy-brain scheme was Dunk It To James White, Dion Lewis, and Rex Burkhead 10 Times Every Game And Ignore Brandin Cooks. Maybe Brady resents him because "Brandin Cooks" sounds like someone who grills meat and Brady's body violently rejects everything except organic vegetables and quinoa.

Look at the Patriots remaining schedule; how do they get to nine wins? Two games with Buffalo? Two losses. Raiders? Broncos? Steelers? Falcons? Loss, loss, loss, loss. The best-case scenario for this once proud organization is 8-8, and that's assuming Brady's carbohydrate-free body doesn't collapse in November or Rob Gronkowski doesn't jam on his brakes on the Mass Turnpike, jump out of his car, and chase a deer into the woods because "she was sparkly."

The defense isn't getting any better and the offense is bound to hit a wall. And you know Belichick will only be too happy to throw new running back Mike Gillislee under the bus because that dude just got there so he must be the problem. Dummies will call the hit Boston sports talk radio show Sully and The Guinness wondering why Gillislee replaced LeGarrette Blount while mispronouncing both their names during the call.

And this is it for a long time. The Yankees dynasty ended for like 15 minutes before they restocked by throwing money at free agents. The Patriots are old, untalented, injury-prone and playing under a salary cap. The Patriot Way means nothing when you can't doctor footballs or steal signals with impunity and don't have anyone that can cover Devin Funchess. One of the Patriots' slow-ass linebackers should try shouting "THE PATRIOT WAY" as opponents stroll toward the goal line and see if that makes them stop.

Let the light of the Patriots sucking warm your cold and weary existence. Nurture the emotion. Open your heart to the idea of the Patriots losing to Tampa on Thursday because that's what humanity needs more than anything now.

Rejoice: The New England Patriots Suck published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 7 years

Text

Rejoice: The New England Patriots Suck

The sports world is going to hell, one dementia-fueled tweet about proper posture at stadiums during a country’s theme song at a time. We covet the sanctuary of cell provider dead zones but know in our hearts that peace will never come.

There is good news, though—the New England Patriots, at long last, suck.

The Donald Trump-lovin’, cheatin’-ass Patriots with the quarterback that sells magic pajamas and beet salads like a poor man’s Dr. Oz have been reduced to rubble after nearly two decades of deflating and videoing. It’s wonderful. It should be savored. When the Patriots miss the playoffs this year, the following Monday should be a national holiday everywhere except New England.

Our long national nightmare is over. At least one of them.

You’re probably saying, “You sound like a hater.” That’s because I am. I hate the Patriots. How do you not hate them? If you don’t hate them, you’re the weird one. Hell, Patriots fans hate the Patriots. They’re your rich, racist in-laws that make you uncomfortable at family gatherings but you don’t say a word because they help with bills while you’re out of work. And you just learned they have three months to live and you have to pretend part of you isn’t happy that you will soon no longer have to defend them to your friends.

The Patriots aren’t just 2-2; they’re a shitty 2-2. They should be 1-3 and trailing the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets in the AFC East. Instead, they’re tied with a team that has been actively trying to sabotage their season since the summer. The franchise that was once the NFL’s gold standard has been unable to create any distance in the standings between themselves and the Jets, which is embarrassing in most years but particularly so this year.

When it’s definitely not your fault. Photo: © Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

The Patriots should be 0-3 at home but thanks to poor clock management from a coach that lost 29-7 to the Jaguars and a miracle last-minute drive, they are 1-2. Normally, you could chalk this up to small sample size, but when you’ve hidden microphones in the other team’s locker room you should be no worse than 2-2.

We live in a post-Patriots-are-good world. The air smells sweeter. There’s something fitting about a team that’s happy to be associated with the Trump name collapsing after helping put him in power. It won’t be long before Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick declare bankruptcy and have to sell stadium seats and unwashed sleeveless hoodies to pay off creditors. Brady will be in the parking lot hocking game-worn jerseys and Himalayan salt to rubes in Aaron Hernandez jerseys.

How can you not smile when you realize the Patriots are allowing 32 points per game? Holy shit. That’s Big 12 football. But look, that number will always be skewed when you allow 42 points against the likes of [rubs eyes, rapidly blinks] Alex Smith? A guy who receives condescending pats on the head when he cracks 200 yards dropped 368 yards on the Patriots in Foxboro. That was our first clue the Patriots were the new Bills.

The Carolina Panthers had 45 points in three games before Cam Newton dropped 33 on them Sunday without Greg Olsen. Newton had seven incompletions and four touchdowns; the AFC East’s new overlords — the Bills — held the Panthers to nine points in Carolina. Against the Patriots, Kelvin Benjamin, who could barely walk a few days ago, needed just four catches to get over 100 yards.

The Patriots are allowing 457 yards per game; Rutgers has allowed 364 yards per game. The Patriots are worse than Rutgers. That’s math talking, not me. The only D with more holes in the Boston area is that guy Sandra Bullock shot twice in the dick at the end of The Heat.

It’s all over, man. Brady doesn’t have the drive anymore. He’s 40 and cares more about selling an overpriced cookbook that will allow you to “eat clean” or some shit than doing what it takes to win. He’s a guy who thinks water prevents sunburns. He [looks up Brady’s stats through four games] OK, fine, that 121.5 rating and 8:0 TD:INT ratio looks good now but you know he will derail the season by hiding an injury because he thinks he can cure a concussion by wrapping his head with a MAGA hat and soaking it in TB12 water.

Then again, your completion percentage would be north of 70 percent too if your offensive coordinator’s galaxy-brain scheme was Dunk It To James White, Dion Lewis, and Rex Burkhead 10 Times Every Game And Ignore Brandin Cooks. Maybe Brady resents him because “Brandin Cooks” sounds like someone who grills meat and Brady’s body violently rejects everything except organic vegetables and quinoa.

Look at the Patriots remaining schedule; how do they get to nine wins? Two games with Buffalo? Two losses. Raiders? Broncos? Steelers? Falcons? Loss, loss, loss, loss. The best-case scenario for this once proud organization is 8-8, and that’s assuming Brady’s carbohydrate-free body doesn’t collapse in November or Rob Gronkowski doesn’t jam on his brakes on the Mass Turnpike, jump out of his car, and chase a deer into the woods because “she was sparkly.”

The defense isn’t getting any better and the offense is bound to hit a wall. And you know Belichick will only be too happy to throw new running back Mike Gillislee under the bus because that dude just got there so he must be the problem. Dummies will call the hit Boston sports talk radio show Sully and The Guinness wondering why Gillislee replaced LeGarrette Blount while mispronouncing both their names during the call.

And this is it for a long time. The Yankees dynasty ended for like 15 minutes before they restocked by throwing money at free agents. The Patriots are old, untalented, injury-prone and playing under a salary cap. The Patriot Way means nothing when you can’t doctor footballs or steal signals with impunity and don’t have anyone that can cover Devin Funchess. One of the Patriots’ slow-ass linebackers should try shouting “THE PATRIOT WAY” as opponents stroll toward the goal line and see if that makes them stop.

Let the light of the Patriots sucking warm your cold and weary existence. Nurture the emotion. Open your heart to the idea of the Patriots losing to Tampa on Thursday because that’s what humanity needs more than anything now.

Rejoice: The New England Patriots Suck syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

0 notes

edgysocial · 7 years

Photo

New Post has been published on http://edgysocial.com/wtf-happened-to-curt-schilling/

WTF Happened To Curt Schilling?

The sign appeared in a window above Boylston Street as the Red Sox paraded through downtown Boston to celebrate the team’s first World Series title in 86 years.

Schilling/Bush ‘04.

It was a tribute to Curt Schilling, the pitcher who’d been brought to Boston to boost a team that hadn’t won baseball’s biggest prize since 1918 and that had choked away yet another shot at the World Series the year before.

He’d delivered immediately, winning 21 games in the regular season. But it was in the postseason that Schilling became a hero.

The Red Sox had trailed the New York Yankees, their hated rivals, three games to two in the American League Championship Series that October. Although he needed sutures to hold his right ankle together, Schilling took the mound in Game 6. He was built for these moments ― he’d never lost a playoff game when his team was facing elimination. Even as he winced in pain, even as the blood soaked through his white sock, he threw seven innings of one-run ball, and the Red Sox won. A night later, they’d win again. A week later, they were World Series champs.

Sox fans embraced Schilling, the man who had gutted it out. He may just have been popular enough to win a few votes for President George W. Bush that year, even in the Democratic stronghold of Boston.

That sign linked him to Bush ― not the Democratic candidate, Massachusetts’ own Sen. John Kerry ― because Schilling was already an outspoken Republican. While the sign might have been a joke, the idea of him running for office someday didn’t seem that far-fetched ― to him or a lot of people who knew about politics. Baseball had taught him there was nothing he couldn’t do if the rest of the world would just get out of his damn way.

@arthutchinson2 There is NO other option. Killary is the most despicable, corrupt, felonious, lying evil human to ever run for President.

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) September 10, 2016

By the time, more than a decade later, that Schilling floated the idea he might challenge another Massachusetts senator, Elizabeth Warren, in 2018, he’d become a laughingstock, a guy who was fired by ESPN for not shutting up and who shared the sort of idiotic memes once relegated to chain emails. He’d thrown himself behind Donald Trump, who was heading toward certain defeat in the Bay State. He’d taken to referring to Hillary Clinton as “Killary” and to her party as “the Demokkkrats.” And he’d landed a daily radio show on Breitbart News Network, the right-wing outlet that welcomed white supremacists and other angry men.

So in October, when Schilling held a rally for Trump outside Boston city hall, perhaps a dozen people bothered to show up. Schilling, arms crossed, hat pulled down over his brow, stood there in the rain. He’d lost his grip on Boston and the world ― and it didn’t make sense.

The chances of a high school baseball player being drafted by Major League Baseball are about 0.5 percent, according to Bleacher Report. The great majority of those drafted after the first round will never get out of the minor leagues. The number of players honored in the Hall of Fame is less than half the number who played in the majors just last season. Becoming a potential Hall of Famer requires a loose focus on reality, a stubborn refusal to consider the math that says success is virtually impossible.

Schilling built his reputation on overcoming those odds. He didn’t make his high school varsity team until his senior year, and his next stop was junior college. He was drafted in the second round in 1986 and then spent several years bouncing between the minors and the majors as a reliever. He was traded three times early in his career and only broke through as a starter for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1992, when he was 25. Then he overcame a mid-career lull to lead the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks to the World Series in 2001. By the time he left Boston, he was a 200-game winner with three World Series championships and an outside shot at enshrinement in Cooperstown.

Schilling arrived in Boston with a reputation as a no-nonsense pitcher who did whatever it took to win, and some saw his willingness to pitch through pain — see the Bloody Sock — as reminiscent of baseball’s old-timers. “You simply put their names in the lineup, and then sat back and watched the game,” a Boston Herald columnist wrote.

There’s a sort of coded language in sportswriting, where praise about “grit” and “scrappiness” is often reserved for white athletes. The words draw a contrast, wittingly or not, with black and Latino players, who are described as flashier and more reliant on natural ability. The same code has long had a home in America’s political discourse. So while sports columnists saw Schilling’s pugnacious drive as an asset on the field, politicians like Bush saw his “blue-collar” approach to baseball as an asset on the campaign trail ― primarily by helping them appeal to white, working-class voters.

President Bush’s advisers “shared high-fives,” the Boston Globe reported, when Schilling went on “Good Morning America” a few days after the 2004 World Series victory and urged viewers to “Vote Bush!” The Bush team immediately invited the pitcher to campaign with the president in New Hampshire, where Schilling could bolster the president’s efforts to paint himself as a man of the people. Meanwhile, they were pushing an elitist critique of Kerry, the man who windsurfed off Nantucket. Schilling appeared with Bush in Pennsylvania during the campaign’s final days. He cut radio ads that ran across New England.

Three years later, Schilling hit the campaign trail for another Republican presidential candidate with the same goal in mind. A month after the Red Sox won the 2007 World Series — Schilling went 3-0 that postseason — Arizona Sen. John McCain, the leading candidate for the GOP nomination, brought Schilling on stage in New Hampshire. McCain’s team believed Schilling “personifies the Arizona senator’s grit and determination,” the Globe wrote.

They’re up in the ivory tower and they’re trying to pass judgment. They said things … that made me realize that they never gave a shit about me. Curt Schilling

Schilling, who had signed a new contract with the Red Sox that October, hoped to pitch one more season in Boston. But he’d already thrown his last Major League pitch. His throwing shoulder began to act up during spring training in 2008. He wanted to have surgery; the team thought rehab would do the trick. Top brass also floated the idea of voiding his $ 8 million deal if he went under the knife against their wishes. In Schilling’s version of the tale, which he has recounted in multiple radio appearances since, the team accused him of hiding the shoulder injury to get that final contract.

Schilling missed the entire 2008 season and ultimately retired early in 2009. He’s still mad about how his career ended and believes Red Sox management essentially gave up on him.

“They’re up in the ivory tower and they’re trying to pass judgment,” Schilling said of how the team approached his injury in a 2016 interview. “They said things … that made me realize that they never gave a shit about me.”

Schilling and Red Sox owner John W. Henry, according to the pitcher, battled over politics as well. Henry, who endorsed and campaigned with Kerry in 2004, “went nuts” when Schilling endorsed Bush, he said in that same interview.

When Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) died six months into Schilling’s retirement, rumors began to circulate that Schilling was being recruited to run for the open seat. McCain told reporters that he had called Schilling to urge him to jump in the race.

Schilling routinely stoked the rumor mill too ― and why not? Politics were a natural fit for the former pitcher. As a player, he’d always craved the sort of attention, positive or negative, that comes with being high-profile. His teammates in Philadelphia had dubbed him “Top Step Schill” and “Red Light Curt,” nods to his knack for finding the camera even when he wasn’t pitching. When the Globe asked Red Sox players about the election in 2004, another pitcher pointed the reporter straight to Schilling’s locker.

“Curt had a large personality and a lot of opinions on a variety of subjects,” Pedro Martinez, Schilling’s co-ace in Boston’s pitching rotation, wrote in his 2016 autobiography, “but I didn’t spend any time listening or reading up on what he was saying to the media. I cared about him as a pitcher.”

Schilling found a reliable sparring partner in Democratic outfielder Gabe Kapler. “Gabe Kapler and I used to have a ton of debates, he’s very liberal,” Schilling said during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session in 2016. Kapler was a “top 5 teammate of ALL TIME…even though politically he’s a bit ‘short,’” Schilling tweeted last year.

The person that works 9-to-5 for crap dollars gets spat on, and [Massachusetts is] becoming a state that’s next to impossible to live and prosper in. Curt Schilling

As his baseball career neared its end, Schilling had increasingly filled his time by airing his political opinions ― through regular segments on Boston-area radio shows and posts on 38 Pitches, the blog that he’d launched to connect with fans and where he began to closely follow the 2008 election. (Thirty-eight was the number he wore throughout his career.)

Schilling often engaged his critics on the blog, but he was not yet a firebrand. He was an “independent” and “will always be,” he wrote in a Sept. 5, 2009, blog post. He had voted for Bush twice and Bill Clinton before that, he said. He wanted lower taxes but was happy to pay his share. He opposed abortion and gay marriage but believed both were “so far beyond the scope or responsibility of one person to legislate it’s laughable.” He was “absolutely for the 2nd Amendment,” he wrote. “But I also think this country has become so beholden to special interest and lobbyists that we have completely sacrificed the safety and well being of the individual American citizen.”

Schilling’s main political position was that “the status quo is not working” for ordinary people. “The person that works 9-to-5 for crap dollars gets spat on,” Schilling said in one interview about his potential candidacy, “and [Massachusetts is] becoming a state that’s next to impossible to live and prosper in, and I think it was anything but when it was founded.”

But Schilling had little patience for far-right theories. In one post, he brushed aside right-wing concerns about Barack Obama’s supposed ties to Bill Ayers, the college professor who had co-founded the violent revolutionary group Weather Underground. The day after Obama won, Schilling congratulated the new president with a hint of admiration for the way he’d campaigned, if not for his politics.

Schilling still seemed, in short, like the sort of Republican who might be able to pull off an upset in deep-blue Massachusetts. Newspapers and their columnists all but asked him to run for the Senate. A poll or two even showed he had an outside shot. And as he outlined his views ahead of a potential campaign, he painted himself the way Bush or McCain might have: as a moderate Republican willing to fight against a broken establishment.

Politics, though, weren’t yet Schilling’s passion, and he ultimately chose not to run for Kennedy’s seat. Instead, he went on the campaign trail again as a surrogate for state Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican choice to pursue the opportunity he’d passed up. Just as Bush and McCain had before, Brown thought Schilling would bolster the working-class, anti-establishment image he’d crafted for himself (Brown made a show of driving a pickup truck and often draped a barn jacket over his suit).

Schilling remained a baseball hero, and his exploits played into the race when the Democratic candidate, state Attorney General Martha Coakley, failed to grasp what the sport means to Bostonians. First, she sneered at the idea of “standing outside Fenway Park … in the cold … shaking hands” with voters. Later, she awkwardly suggested that Schilling was a Yankees fan.

Schilling played it perfectly, with a diplomatic tone that still twisted the knife. “It’s not really that big of a deal,” he told reporters in January 2010. “But again, I think it’s another sign of her aloofness, or just the fact that she’s very out of touch with the people.”

Brown pulled off the upset a few days later.

After passing on the Senate race, Schilling turned his focus back to 38 Studios, a video game company he’d launched in 2007. A relentless work ethic and boundless confidence (plus his share of good luck) had earned him more than $ 90 million in 20 years of baseball. Now he dreamed his gaming startup would take him to the next level, making him “Bill Gates rich,” Boston Magazine wrote in 2012.

Schilling was able to attract top-name talent, in part because of his money ― he pledged to finance much of the company himself ― and in part because he was Curt Schilling. His persistence didn’t hurt, either. In 2006, he called Todd McFarlane, an artist known for his work on Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man series and for creating Spawn, among the most popular comic characters ever. He wanted to share his business plan. He even flew McFarlane to Kansas City during a Red Sox road trip to discuss it in person. Schilling offered McFarlane a job as the company’s art director, but the designer didn’t commit on the spot.

A few nights later, McFarlane’s phone rang for what felt like the hundredth time since the meeting. It was Schilling again, and he was whispering.

“Todd, I’m in the locker room,” Schilling said, as McFarlane remembers now. “It’s the fifth inning. I’m not supposed to be making a call.” But he needed to know if McFarlane would take the job.

McFarlane would eventually say yes.

To achieve 38 Studios’ ambitious goal ― the creation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game ― Schilling would also need more money. In July 2010, the state of Rhode Island agreed to help, giving 38 Studios a $ 75 million, taxpayer-backed loan guarantee. In return, Schilling moved the company to Providence and promised to create 450 jobs by the end of 2012.

Alas, money, talent and Curt Schilling would not be enough. By 2012, 38 Studios was on the fast track to collapse, bleeding cash with little hope that it could actually produce a game. The company filed for bankruptcy in June of that year.

Schilling had failed, and as he’d done when his pitching days ended, he pointed fingers. He blamed the government of Rhode Island, at least in part. If they’d just given him more time. He turned on Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who had begun to re-evaluate the loan guarantee deal.

“They did everything in their power to make sure this went the way it went,’’ Schilling said later.

They have been screwed, betrayed by the country they love, discarded like trash on the side of the information superhighway. Michael Kimmel, a sociologist who has studied how angry white men see the world

As 38 Studios collapsed, a presidential election was heating up, once again featuring a Massachusetts politician, former Gov. Mitt Romney. Under different circumstances, Schilling might have made an effective campaign surrogate. Romney, a wealthy Republican venture capitalist, certainly needed help bolstering his connections to the working class, as the Obama campaign hammered him with devastating ads about people who’d lost jobs when Romney’s firm re-organized their companies.

But Schilling’s shine had begun to tarnish. He’d left dozens of people out of work and cost Rhode Island taxpayers more than $ 100 million ― a fact that had soured much of New England on the former pitcher. His public fights with former employees and with Chafee, as well as the endless media examinations of 38 Studios’ downfall, didn’t help. The Romney campaign didn’t embrace him.

Goodbye, pitching career. Goodbye, gaming empire. Goodbye, establishment camaraderie. Goodbye, fan worship. What had happened to the world as Curt Schilling understood it?

After Obama was elected the nation’s first black president in 2008, social scientists and journalists noted a growing counter-phenomenon: “angry white men” who feel “they have been screwed, betrayed by the country they love, discarded like trash on the side of the information superhighway,” as sociologist Michael Kimmel wrote in his 2015 book.

The defining characteristic of angry white men ― aside from being white and male ― is that they suffer from what Kimmel called “aggrieved entitlement”: the belief that America is “their country” and that it is being taken away from them. Although they’re angry at politicians, bureaucrats and the system writ large, the primary targets of their ire are women, minority groups and immigrants ― the people they perceive as the undeserving beneficiaries of their troubles. Seeking validation of their worth, they turned to “unapologetically ‘politically incorrect’ magazines, radio hosts, and television shows,” Kimmel wrote. And their rage only intensified when Obama was re-elected in 2012. That contest represented “the demise of the white American male voter as a dominant force in the political landscape,” Kimmel wrote. (They showed otherwise in 2016, when Trump won in part because of his strength with white men.)

@glenn_carswell think about that a second. Our first black president divided this country more than the last 6 combined, by a wide margin

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) September 21, 2016

Schilling fits the pattern almost perfectly. It didn’t matter that baseball had made him a far richer and more privileged man than the middle-class subjects of Kimmel’s studies. Over the two years following the collapse of 38 Studios, Schilling sought out and found answers in the angrier and more paranoid corners of political thought. He started talking more about politics on the radio and social media. His views, at least those he expressed publicly, began to shift further right. He latched on to the Benghazi “scandal” that found fault with every Obama administration decision leading up to and following the deadly attack on that U.S. mission in Libya. His pet cause ― proving that climate change was a fraudulent hoax foisted on the American public ― became an even bigger passion.

@MoRings42 And no one on the planet ever called Barack Obama Humble OR Brilliantly smart, and certainly no one said he loves America.

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) November 7, 2014

Schilling regularly called local radio shows during his playing days to urge fans not to trust sports reporters. After 38 collapsed, he moved on to the idea that news reporters were also peddling “fake news.” Judging from the links he shared, he was reading right-wing sites further and further from the mainstream. And he was isolating himself: “I don’t seek out people I disagree with,” he said in a 2016 interview. “I don’t seek out the content they create. It’s a waste of my time.”

Kapler, Schilling’s old sparring partner in the Boston clubhouse, noticed the shift in 2013, when Schilling posted a link to a story on InfoWars.com, the conspiracy-driven site run by Alex Jones:

@gehrig38 info wars dot com? Reputable publications you're reading these days, Schill. Enquirer at the gas station unavailable this morning?

— gabe kapler (@gabekapler) March 14, 2013

As Schilling descended into the fever swamps of right-wing politics, one vestige of the old sports hero remained: his job as a baseball analyst at ESPN. He was good at it.

The cable sports network had warned its talent about sharing political views online. Schilling earned his first suspension from ESPN in August 2015 for posting a meme comparing Muslims to Nazis. He kept posting controversial memes even after the suspension, railing against “illegals” and other immigrants and pondering a looming apocalypse. He told a Kansas City radio show that Clinton “should be buried under a jail somewhere” for keeping her emails on a private server.

Then, in April 2016, Schilling crossed ESPN’s line for good. North Carolina’s GOP-controlled legislature had passed a law to bar transgender people from using the public bathrooms that match their gender identity, a move that sparked a nationwide backlash. Schilling chose to repost an image on Facebook that showed a portly man dressed in drag. “LET HIM IN,” it read.

He was widely criticized on sports news sites. ESPN fired him two days later.

Schilling blamed what he saw as the growing scourge of political correctness and ESPN’s alleged turn toward liberal politics. Never mind that two years earlier, the network had suspended baseball writer Keith Law for defending evolution in a debate with Schilling. Sarah Palin rushed to Schilling’s defense. “ESPN continues to screw up,” she said on Facebook.

Untethered from the Red Sox, 38 Studios and now ESPN, Schilling grew louder and louder. He suggested he was planning to run for public office “soon” and laid out an ambitious path: “… state office first, white house in 8 years … or 4 if by some amazing illegal event this country elects another clinton.”

Schilling initially backed neurosurgeon Ben Carson in the 2016 Republican primary. But soon he threw his weight behind Trump, the candidate who best matched his own bombastic approach and in whom Schilling perhaps saw something of himself. “I realized very quickly this was a man decisive in action and confident in his ability,” Schilling wrote in a blog post announcing his endorsement. “I also realized that regardless of his net worth, he worked his ass off.”

Although Trump never brought the former pitcher on the campaign trail, Schilling became something of a faux surrogate, appearing occasionally on cable to defend the candidate’s positions ― a role he seemed to earn for no other reason than that some viewers might remember him as a ballplayer.

In October, Schilling landed a daily morning show at Breitbart, which had grown into an online behemoth by stoking the fears of the same white voters that politicians had once used the pitcher to reach. Schilling had long believed that someone else ― Red Sox management, the media, Chafee, ESPN ― was standing in the way of his ultimate success. Breitbart was the place where that kind of belief is a founding principle.

Voters in Amarillo are saying their votes are being changed. Just another day in America, boys. Gosh dang. Curt Schilling, speaking last year on his Breitbart radio show

The site, which was practically a house organ for the Trump campaign, pushed the idea that the American system was broken, especially for white working men, and it blamed immigrants, Muslims, feminists and Obama. In the words of its former chief Steve Bannon, Breitbart was “a platform for the alt-right” ― the white nationalist and racist movements that were supporting Trump.

From the earliest days of his show, which he named “Whatever It Takes,” Schilling espoused the conspiracy theories and racial resentment that fed Trump’s base. The polls that showed Clinton ahead were cooked, he said. Early votes in favor of Trump were being destroyed. “Voters in Amarillo are saying their votes are being changed,” Schilling claimed during the show’s first week. “Just another day in America, boys. Gosh dang.”

If Clinton were to win, he warned there could be “an IRS retaliation, an FBI retaliation” against conservative media. “You’re talking about Russia. Soviet-era KGB type stuff. I don’t think we’re that far from it.”

Democratic immigration policies, he insisted, were an underhanded way to collapse the health care system in order to institute a full government takeover of the industry. He railed against “open borders.” At one point, he suggested a Clinton presidency could lead to an American apocalypse.

“I’m not an Armageddon guy,” Schilling said. “But I don’t think this country can survive on this trajectory for four more years. And she’s going to be worse.”

The Black Lives Matter movement was “founded on a complete lie” perpetrated by the media, he said. If the KKK is racist, he said, so is Black Lives Matter.

“I’m tired of being made to feel bad about the history of my country,” Schilling told one caller. “I am being made to feel wrong when I stand for the Pledge of Allegiance or put my hand over my heart for the national anthem,” he blared. “I don’t care what you think.”

Listen to the show, and it’s as if Schilling is back on the mound again, and the criticism he receives for his increasingly outlandish opinions is no different than the boos that once rained down on him in Yankee Stadium. They’re all proof that he’s right. “Yankee fans,” Schilling reminds his listeners now and again, “never booed a player who sucked.”

Since October, when Schilling first told a Boston radio host that he planned to run for Warren’s seat, I’ve immersed myself in Schilling’s world – listened to his radio show, dug through his Twitter feed and blog posts, read old news clippings, and called former associates and Massachusetts political observers. Nearly everyone I spoke to agreed that Schilling’s extreme approach to politics had almost erased the joyous memories of his triumph in October 2004 and all but killed his Hall of Fame chances. It was ridiculous to think he could win a Senate race in Massachusetts, they said.

“Curt’s not running,” one state GOP official told me bluntly this past winter. Schilling “doesn’t fit the mold of the kind of Republican that historically can be competitive here,” said Matthew Baron, a longtime Massachusetts political consultant. “If this were Alabama, maybe he’d have a shot,” said Dan Payne, a Democratic consultant. “But not in Massachusetts.”

The polls and pundits both say Schilling doesn’t have a chance against Warren. They said that about Trump, as Schilling would surely remind you. But Schilling is less skilled as a provocateur than Trump. No matter your political views, his radio show isn’t any good. He’d proved himself a compelling contributor when he analyzed baseball at ESPN and called in to other people’s programs. He’s less capable when it comes to carrying a broadcast, so his show lacks the raw entertainment value of, say, a Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck production. He just sounds like what he is: a bitter man with a microphone.

Schilling refused multiple interview requests made through Breitbart and his lawyer, who told me that the pitcher had “no interest” in talking. So in late February, I went to the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside the nation’s capital to make one last effort.

CPAC is an annual gathering of conservative luminaries, lawmakers, media pundits and prospective politicians, a place where stars are born. There Schilling hardly fit the mold of a future candidate. He hunkered behind his microphone at Breitbart’s booth on radio row in a black button-down shirt, baggy jeans and leather flip-flops. At times, he drew the attention (and even admiration) of some bright lights of the right ― people like radio host Mark Levin, Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke and Trump deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka. But most people barely seemed to notice his presence.

On the second afternoon of CPAC, Schilling stepped from behind radio row to mingle in the crowd, and I caught up with him for a brief moment. At first he was cordial. But when he realized I was a reporter, he took off through the crowd, the slap of his flip-flops audible for a few steps before he disappeared.

The next day, back at the Breitbart booth, he decided he would entertain my central question. How had he gone from a standard-issue Republican to a conspiracy-mongering Breitbart host? How had a man to whom the world had given so much become so … angry?

“It’s a natural progression,” he said.

Then he turned and walked away.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Sports – The Huffington Post

#Curt #Happened #Schilling #Sports & Fitness

0 notes

pat78701 · 7 years

Text

WTF Happened To Curt Schilling?

The sign appeared in a window above Boylston Street as the Red Sox paraded through downtown Boston to celebrate the team’s first World Series title in 86 years.

Schilling/Bush ‘04.

He’d delivered immediately, winning 21 games in the regular season. But it was in the postseason that Schilling became a hero.

@arthutchinson2 There is NO other option. Killary is the most despicable, corrupt, felonious, lying evil human to ever run for President.

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) September 10, 2016

They’re up in the ivory tower and they’re trying to pass judgment. They said things … that made me realize that they never gave a shit about me. Curt Schilling

Schilling, who had signed a new contract with the Red Sox that October, hoped to pitch one more season in Boston. But he’d already thrown his last Major League pitch. His throwing shoulder began to act up during spring training in 2008. He wanted to have surgery; the team thought rehab would do the trick. Top brass also floated the idea of voiding his $8 million deal if he went under the knife against their wishes. In Schilling’s version of the tale, which he has recounted in multiple radio appearances since, the team accused him of hiding the shoulder injury to get that final contract.

Schilling missed the entire 2008 season and ultimately retired early in 2009. He’s still mad about how his career ended and believes Red Sox management essentially gave up on him.

Schilling found a reliable sparring partner in Democratic outfielder Gabe Kapler. “Gabe Kapler and I used to have a ton of debates, he’s very liberal,” Schilling said during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session in 2016. Kapler was a “top 5 teammate of ALL TIME...even though politically he’s a bit ‘short,’” Schilling tweeted last year.

The person that works 9-to-5 for crap dollars gets spat on, and [Massachusetts is] becoming a state that’s next to impossible to live and prosper in. Curt Schilling

Brown pulled off the upset a few days later.

After passing on the Senate race, Schilling turned his focus back to 38 Studios, a video game company he’d launched in 2007. A relentless work ethic and boundless confidence (plus his share of good luck) had earned him more than $90 million in 20 years of baseball. Now he dreamed his gaming startup would take him to the next level, making him “Bill Gates rich,” Boston Magazine wrote in 2012.

A few nights later, McFarlane’s phone rang for what felt like the hundredth time since the meeting. It was Schilling again, and he was whispering.

McFarlane would eventually say yes.

To achieve 38 Studios’ ambitious goal ― the creation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game ― Schilling would also need more money. In July 2010, the state of Rhode Island agreed to help, giving 38 Studios a $75 million, taxpayer-backed loan guarantee. In return, Schilling moved the company to Providence and promised to create 450 jobs by the end of 2012.

“They did everything in their power to make sure this went the way it went,’’ Schilling said later.

As 38 Studios collapsed, a presidential election was heating up, once again featuring a Massachusetts politician, former Gov. Mitt Romney. Under different circumstances, Schilling might have made an effective campaign surrogate. Romney, a billionaire Republican venture capitalist, certainly needed help bolstering his connections to the working class, as the Obama campaign hammered him with devastating ads about people who’d lost jobs when Romney’s firm re-organized their companies.

But Schilling’s shine had begun to tarnish. He’d left dozens of people out of work and cost Rhode Island taxpayers more than $100 million ― a fact that had soured much of New England on the former pitcher. His public fights with former employees and with Chafee, as well as the endless media examinations of 38 Studios’ downfall, didn’t help. The Romney campaign didn’t embrace him.

Goodbye, pitching career. Goodbye, gaming empire. Goodbye, establishment camaraderie. Goodbye, fan worship. What had happened to the world as Curt Schilling understood it?

@glenn_carswell think about that a second. Our first black president divided this country more than the last 6 combined, by a wide margin

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) September 21, 2016

Schilling fits the pattern almost perfectly. It didn’t matter that baseball had made him a far richer and more privileged man than the middle-class subjects of Kimmel’s studies. Over the two years following the collapse of 38 Studios, Schilling sought out and found answers in the angrier and more paranoid corners of political thought. He started talking more about politics on the radio and social media. His views, at least those he expressed publicly, began to shift further right. He latched on to the Benghazi “scandal” that found fault with every Obama administration decision leading up to and following the deadly attack on that U.S. mission in Libya. His pet cause ― proving that climate change was a fraudulent hoax hoisted on the American public ― became an even bigger passion.

@MoRings42 And no one on the planet ever called Barack Obama Humble OR Brilliantly smart, and certainly no one said he loves America.

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) November 7, 2014

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2pmIcAZ

#DIYS

0 notes

junker-town · 7 years

Text

College football at Fenway Park is a crass, silly money grab

(and it’s beautiful)

It's the second quarter of the Brown vs. Dartmouth football game at Fenway Park and the Celtics are losing. I’m in the reception area that leads to the press box with some of the ballpark’s quality specialists, and we’re watching basketball on TV. It’s a better game than the one taking place outside, and besides, it's warmer in here.

Outside these walls, the baseball diamond has been turned into a football field for the Gridiron Series, where college football teams from New England will play this weekend and next. Fenway has flirted with football since World War II, when an enterprising guy named Ted Collins tried to start a team called the Boston Yanks and make Fenway their home field (it didn’t work). A few years ago the park hosted a Boston College game against Notre Dame.

When I first saw field goals on the third-base line of America's oldest ballpark this afternoon, it was like walking into my favorite pizza place and discovering it had started serving bagels instead. There was some serious cognitive dissonance, but, at the same time, Fenway is Fenway. Standing on the field sent the same electricity down my spine that I felt as a 7-year-old when I went to my first Red Sox game.

Tickets were selling during the week, but very few people showed up on this 26-degree Friday night thanks to the windchill that feels like negative bajillion. There are probably only 7,000 people in the 37,000-capacity stadium. Next week, when Boston College plays UConn, the turnout will probably be higher, but who knows by how much.

Pat, one of the guys who works at Fenway on the weekends and teaches high school physics during the week, sits down on a chair next to me. He’s wearing a Patriots winter hat and his official Red Sox jacket. An older man named Sean sits behind the receptionist’s desk. The two work together now, but Sean was once Pat’s high school teacher in Medford. He scolds his former student for not wearing a Sox hat at Fenway. Pat laughs and tells Sean to buy him one if he wants him to wear it so badly.

Then Pat asks me why I’m here. I tell him I’m writing about college football at Fenway, and he rolls his eyes.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he says, gesturing out toward the field where Dartmouth is destroying Brown.

“UMass-UMaine will be better than this,” he continues, his Boston accent softening better to bettah. “But college football around here, who are we gonna root for? BC? And then BC gets trampled? Nah. Fenway just didn’t wanna have hockey here this year.”

“Why do they have to have anything here besides baseball?” I ask.

“Money,” Pat says, shrugging.

A few hours before l meet Pat and Sean and a few minutes after kickoff, I’m standing on the sidelines behind legendary ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman. He’s wearing his famous khaki slacks and leather loafers, watching each play with intense focus. Berman went to Brown, and the school made him an honorary captain for this, the final “home” game of the season. As far as I can tell, the crowd is made up mostly of alumni who live in Boston and families of players. It doesn’t seem like many current students showed up for the game.

To say Brown’s season has been tough is an understatement. They've lost to every other Ivy they’ve played. Berman wanted to speak to the team to pump them up before they took the field tonight, but he somehow got stuck talking to the boosters instead.

“This is playing at Fenway. This they remember. Even if they aren't from here.” — Chris Berman

“And what good does that do?” he asks an old classmate who’s come down from his seat to say hello. The two chat for a bit, and Berman tells him he made a bet with a different friend, someone who went to Dartmouth. If Dartmouth wins, Berman owes the guy a seafood dinner. If Brown wins, the friend has to send Berman a case of maple syrup. A proper mayor’s bet.

I ask him why playing at Fenway matters.

“It’s something [players] didn't think they'd get,” Berman says. “Playing Ivy League football is good enough, but this is playing at Fenway. This they remember. Even if they aren't from here. They haven’t won an Ivy game yet. But if they win this one ...”

He trails off as he watches one of Brown’s players get tackled. He shakes his head.

“This is one will be in their pocket for 60 years,” he continues, looking back at me. “If they get it at 20, they keep it at 80.”

Brown won't win — Dartmouth will beat them 33-10. There will be hardly anyone left in the stands by 10:30 to watch them lose.

It’s the next afternoon, about an hour before kickoff, and I’m talking to Maine offensive coordinator Liam Coen on the field. He’s very polite and soft-spoken, but he walks away in the middle of a sentence when he spots his old UMass roommate walking toward him. To be fair, so would a lot of other people; Coen’s college buddy is Victor Cruz, the wide receiver who played for the Giants for seven years and is now a free agent.

“Vic!” Coen says, and the two give each other one of those long, genuine, wow-it’s-so-good-to-see-you-I’ve-missed-you-so-much hugs. They’re obviously still close.

“You’re just like, what is this?” Cruz says to me after he and Coen catch up for a bit. Cruz laughs as he looks around the football-ified Fenway. “It’s almost like when you go to London and play on rugby fields. I played in London last year, and I was blown away by how they transformed these places. Initially it’s weird, but once you start playing, I mean, football is football. Draw those lines on the field, get those ticks on the sidelines.”

Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images

Josh Mack

Josh Mack comes up to say hi to Cruz. Mack is a freshman running back for Maine from Rochester, N.Y., who’s quietly posting impressive numbers; he’s rushed for over 100 yards in six straight games. Mack asks to take a picture with Cruz for his Snapchat, and Cruz gladly agrees. I take it for them. Mack grins when I show him the photo. Then he tells me how excited he is to be here.

“This is my first time being in a major league stadium,” Mack says. He seems a little shy.

"I’ve never been to a basketball game, a football game, a baseball game, or hockey," he continues. "It’s very exciting, even though it’s a football field right now, just being here. Seeing it. My family’s going to be here, too. It’s amazing. If you asked me this last year, I wouldn’t have thought that would be me.”

Coen’s strategy for the game is basically just to give the ball the Mack. The offensive coordinator has been turning the team around, and knows what he’s doing; he has roots in college football that go about as deep as they can in this part of America. His father started the football program at Salve Regina college in Rhode Island, and Coen played quarterback for UMass from ’04 to ’08. He coached there for a few years, too, before joining the staff of the Black Bears last fall.

“I don’t want to say there’s a lack of respect for the game around here,” Coen says. “But maybe there’s a lack of importance at times. Our kids love the game as much as anybody else. Being at Fenway is unbelievable. I grew up going to games here.”

He pauses, looks around.

“Some kids understand what it is, some don’t,” he continues. “I mean, one of our kids just called the Green Monster the Big Green Wall.”

The game starts. UMass scores a touchdown immediately, and then UMaine scores on the next drive. The game is sloppy but fun. The seats have filled up a bit, and people in Minutemen and Black Bear gear roam the concourses, buying beers and hot dogs. The expansive UMass marching band, with its intricate choreography, makes the game feel celebratory, but it also kind of just highlights the emptiness. There are as many band members in the outfield stands as there are fans behind where home plate should be.

“New England has never been about college sports,” says Tom Tasker, a middle-aged guy in a Patriots hat sitting by the Sox dugout from Boylston, Mass. “If this were a Big Ten, SEC, even ACC game — it’d be sold out. I'd say there are 10,000 people here, tops. And we're freezing our asses off.”

We are freezing our asses off. I can’t feel mine, and half of my toes have gone numb. Tasker’s son is supposed to be sitting next to him, but Gillian’s, a bar down the street, is warmer and has cheaper booze, so he’s there instead. Tasker shrugs; this is normal. When UMass has played at Gillette in past seasons, hardly any students went. No one wanted to be stuck watching a bad team two hours away from campus.

“You got the Pats, the Celtics, the Sox, the Bruins. I mean, it's always been that way,” Tasker says. “UMass isn’t good; if they were good, people would rally. But I'll admit, I didn't give a rat’s ass about them ’til my son went there and his friend from high school was on the team. There are only so many hours a sports fan’s day, and only so many dollars in their wallet. If you ask me, this is about the Red Sox making money. I don't mean to be a cynic, but there are no students here.”

By the fourth quarter, Tasker is gone, and I’ve made my way up to the press box to try to seek out any bit of warmth. I’d be surprised if there are even 1,000 people remaining in the stands as the game ends. Those who did stay are mostly families of players.

These games are gimmicks, sure, but many college football games are. Take any random bowl game that doesn’t matter: It’s designed to pull in a profit for the school, venue, and the city. These Gridiron Series games ostensibly are too, though I’m not sure if the ballpark made any money on it. Fenway wouldn’t disclose figures, but in the media dining center earlier today an employee told me that while all the suites sold out for last night’s Ivy League game, hardly any did for UMass-UMaine. Regular ticket sales weren’t great across the board.

Playing not-great college football at a baseball stadium in a part of the country that cares more about professional teams makes no sense. But here we are, and for one game — even if it’s freezing cold and the crowd is small — the stage is bigger than these players are used to. The stage is Fenway, the wooden anchor in Boston’s sea of new glass and steel. We’re in the rickety, beating heart of a city, a state, a region. Whether you’re a player like Mack, who’s never been in a stadium before, or Chris Berman, who’s been in all of them, it’s exciting.

Sure, you can wine and dine alumni here. But these games this weekend have ended up mostly being gifts for college athletes who will never hear the roar of an entire state’s fan base fill a stadium, because that fan base doesn’t exist. Whether they’re from an exclusive institution or part of a public education system, these guys now all share the memory of celebrating a touchdown in Fenway’s outfield. For kids who grew up idolizing the players who smashed home runs over the Green Monster, this is the most home a game can get, and even kids who think it’s called the Big Green Wall can still recognize that today is special. And that it’s theirs forever.

0 notes

repwinpril9y0a1 · 7 years

Text

WTF Happened To Curt Schilling?

The sign appeared in a window above Boylston Street as the Red Sox paraded through downtown Boston to celebrate the team’s first World Series title in 86 years.

Schilling/Bush ‘04.

He’d delivered immediately, winning 21 games in the regular season. But it was in the postseason that Schilling became a hero.

@arthutchinson2 There is NO other option. Killary is the most despicable, corrupt, felonious, lying evil human to ever run for President.

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) September 10, 2016

They’re up in the ivory tower and they’re trying to pass judgment. They said things … that made me realize that they never gave a shit about me. Curt Schilling

Schilling, who had signed a new contract with the Red Sox that October, hoped to pitch one more season in Boston. But he’d already thrown his last Major League pitch. His throwing shoulder began to act up during spring training in 2008. He wanted to have surgery; the team thought rehab would do the trick. Top brass also floated the idea of voiding his $8 million deal if he went under the knife against their wishes. In Schilling’s version of the tale, which he has recounted in multiple radio appearances since, the team accused him of hiding the shoulder injury to get that final contract.

Schilling missed the entire 2008 season and ultimately retired early in 2009. He’s still mad about how his career ended and believes Red Sox management essentially gave up on him.

Schilling found a reliable sparring partner in Democratic outfielder Gabe Kapler. “Gabe Kapler and I used to have a ton of debates, he’s very liberal,” Schilling said during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session in 2016. Kapler was a “top 5 teammate of ALL TIME...even though politically he’s a bit ‘short,’” Schilling tweeted last year.

The person that works 9-to-5 for crap dollars gets spat on, and [Massachusetts is] becoming a state that’s next to impossible to live and prosper in. Curt Schilling

Brown pulled off the upset a few days later.

After passing on the Senate race, Schilling turned his focus back to 38 Studios, a video game company he’d launched in 2007. A relentless work ethic and boundless confidence (plus his share of good luck) had earned him more than $90 million in 20 years of baseball. Now he dreamed his gaming startup would take him to the next level, making him “Bill Gates rich,” Boston Magazine wrote in 2012.

A few nights later, McFarlane’s phone rang for what felt like the hundredth time since the meeting. It was Schilling again, and he was whispering.

McFarlane would eventually say yes.

To achieve 38 Studios’ ambitious goal ― the creation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game ― Schilling would also need more money. In July 2010, the state of Rhode Island agreed to help, giving 38 Studios a $75 million, taxpayer-backed loan guarantee. In return, Schilling moved the company to Providence and promised to create 450 jobs by the end of 2012.

“They did everything in their power to make sure this went the way it went,’’ Schilling said later.

As 38 Studios collapsed, a presidential election was heating up, once again featuring a Massachusetts politician, former Gov. Mitt Romney. Under different circumstances, Schilling might have made an effective campaign surrogate. Romney, a billionaire Republican venture capitalist, certainly needed help bolstering his connections to the working class, as the Obama campaign hammered him with devastating ads about people who’d lost jobs when Romney’s firm re-organized their companies.

But Schilling’s shine had begun to tarnish. He’d left dozens of people out of work and cost Rhode Island taxpayers more than $100 million ― a fact that had soured much of New England on the former pitcher. His public fights with former employees and with Chafee, as well as the endless media examinations of 38 Studios’ downfall, didn’t help. The Romney campaign didn’t embrace him.

Goodbye, pitching career. Goodbye, gaming empire. Goodbye, establishment camaraderie. Goodbye, fan worship. What had happened to the world as Curt Schilling understood it?

@glenn_carswell think about that a second. Our first black president divided this country more than the last 6 combined, by a wide margin

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) September 21, 2016

Schilling fits the pattern almost perfectly. It didn’t matter that baseball had made him a far richer and more privileged man than the middle-class subjects of Kimmel’s studies. Over the two years following the collapse of 38 Studios, Schilling sought out and found answers in the angrier and more paranoid corners of political thought. He started talking more about politics on the radio and social media. His views, at least those he expressed publicly, began to shift further right. He latched on to the Benghazi “scandal” that found fault with every Obama administration decision leading up to and following the deadly attack on that U.S. mission in Libya. His pet cause ― proving that climate change was a fraudulent hoax hoisted on the American public ― became an even bigger passion.

@MoRings42 And no one on the planet ever called Barack Obama Humble OR Brilliantly smart, and certainly no one said he loves America.

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) November 7, 2014

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