I’ve had occasion to see some Chicago White Sox games, as they hosted Pittsburgh last week and then went across town to play the Cubs over the weekend and I was interested in seeing some NL Central contenders play. Instead, my main impression was just how awful this White Sox team really is. It doesn’t […]
The conference finals have arrived in both the NHL & NBA. The hockey starts tonight and basketball will resume on Sunday. For our weekend report, we’ll take a look at all four series—Celts-Cavs and Rockets-Warriors in the NBA, along with Lightning-Capitals and Jets-Golden Knights in the NHL. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS Start reading today. CELTICS-CAVLIERS I’m […]
The best postseason award in sports is the Conn Smythe Award in the NHL. It goes to the player who is best for the entire four-round playoff run, not just a single series. With the bracket now narrowed to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights, here’s a look at […]
As I watched the Toronto Raptors dream season unravel against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a four-game sweep, I was thinking what a long offseason it would be for this Raptors franchise. After the 59 wins in the regular season, the Cavs’ seeming vulnerability and the Celtics injuries, it looked like the path was clear for […]
The Boston Bruins go into the offseason with a lot of optimism for the future. This was a young team that arrived ahead of schedule this year. In early November, I recall being at a wedding reception here in New England and talking about the B’s prospects with a friend whose hockey knowledge I particularly […]
No series in the NHL’s second round proved to be as anticlimactic as the Tampa Bay Lightning’s five-game dispatching of the Boston Bruins. After spotting the Bruins the opener, the Lightning simply took over —the one exception being Game 4 where it took a horrid officials’ no-call to bail them out and as a New […]
The Pittsburgh Pirates went into full-scale rebuilding mode this offseason when they traded Andrew McCutcheon to San Francisco and Gerrit Cole to Houston. But the Pirates have done an admirable job in the early part of this baseball season. Their 19-16 record has them amidst a four-team logjam in the NL Central with expected contenders […]
The Kentucky Derby goes at 6:45 PM ET on NBC and is the highlight of the sports weekend. Earlier this week, I posted about the five favored horses in the 2018 Kentucky Derby field. But the fun of horse racing is the longshot. So with that in mind, here’s a look at the rest of […]
Boston Red Sox rightfielder Mookie Betts has already emerged as one of the brightest stars in the wave of young talent that has crashed on the shores of major league baseball (I know, mixed geological metaphors going there). But in the first several weeks of the season, Mookie has gone to a higher plateau and […]
The Kentucky Derby has a reputation for being the race that’s good for the longshots. With it’s 20-horse field—roughly double of what will run in the Preakness and Belmont in the coming weeks, the potential for unpredictability is much higher. That reputation was solidified in a stretch from 2001-05 when four of five winners had […]
The Minnesota Twins have been as difficult to figure out as any team in baseball in the three-plus years of Paul Molitor’s tenure. Nothing was expected in 2015, but the Twins won 83 games and contended to the very end for a wild-card spot. With expectations up in 2016, the Twins had a disastrous April […]
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s season ended on Friday night when they lost a six-game series to the Utah Jazz. The defeat wasn’t a huge shock, given the teams had identical 48-34 records in the regular season, but it put the finishing touches on a disappointing year in OkC and sent the franchise—along with its individual […]
