A High Level Defection and Jaws

Here’s Johnny!

The Yankees somewhat quiet off-season just became more interesting with the acquisition of Johnny Damon on Tuesday evening. It appears that the Red Sox were too complacent in their dealings with Damon and that gave the Yankees an opening to aggressively pursue the self-proclaimed “best lead-off hitter in baseball”.

Overall, I like this deal for the Yankees because it is a balance of power shifting transaction; it helps the Yanks and hurts the Red Sox. In my opinion, New York’s batting lineup improves with Damon at lead-off and Jeter batting second because of Jeter’s ability to hit to the opposite field and move runners. Damon’s speed on the bases will immediately become a factor, and with Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui following in the order, the Yankees offense should be in great shape.

Defensively, Damon’s presence in Center Field is pretty much a wash with Bernie Williams. Damon may have slightly more range, but his arm is just as dead or maybe even worse than Williams’. Detractors of the signing will point to Damon’s defensive deficiencies and possibly the financial terms of the deal, but as I said, he’s no worse in Center than Williams and the dollars may be justified because the Red Sox are not as good without Damon. That fact alone makes this a good signing in my mind and forces Boston to fill another hole in their lineup. Dan Shaughnessy has already skewered Sox management in his column today and I love it. It’s “Shank” at his best.

Patriots Thoughts

Cue the theme music from Jaws; the Patriots are collectively healing and are beginning to prey on opponents just as they had in previous championship seasons. The whipping of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday should serve as a signal to the rest of the league that the reigning Super Bowl Champions will be a force in the playoffs. While Tampa is probably not as good as its record indicates, the drubbing was exactly what Patriots fans have come to expect when their team faces a mediocre to good opponent.

The most positive aspect of the team’s performance was the ability to pressure Bucs Quarterback Chris Simms. Simms was harassed all afternoon and that made the secondary’s job much easier. Pressure on the quarterback is the key to good defense and anyone who watched the San Diego – Indianapolis game realizes that pressuring Peyton Manning is vital in game planning for the Colts.

I tend to be a cautious optimist so I won’t say that the Pats will beat the Colts or win the Super Bowl (perhaps I’m still smarting from my declaration that the White Sox were “frauds”), but I’m definitely looking forward to the playoffs in January. Wouldn’t we all like to see Peyton Manning shaking his head in frustration after another playoff loss?

Rhody Versus The World

This column isn’t sports related, but instead is an answer to a question posed on another site: Sheriff Sully. To set the context, Sheriff Sully was in the midst of a fund raising campaign last week and one of his promotions was to engage in a blogging marathon: 20 posts in 48 hours. That’s a tough assignment and the Sheriff was looking for some ideas from readers and one of the suggestions was to describe the differences between RI and Eastern Massachusetts. The Sheriff didn’t tackle that subject during the marathon (postponed until next week), but did say something to the effect of “RI and west of Worcester is basically the same place”. I had to disagree and at the behest of the Sheriff, I’m providing an explanation here.

First, here’s some background on why I’m somewhat qualified to comment on the topic. I grew up in RI and lived there for 23 years. I have lived in Eastern Massachusetts for the last 15 years, and I have a sister who lives in Western Mass., thus giving me some exposure to the 3 regions in question. Now, just because I grew up in Rhode Island doesn’t mean that this will be some sort of Rhody love-in. On the contrary, I’m fairly objective about the qualities of my home state.

So, are RI and Western Mass. essentially the same place? The Sheriff didn’t elaborate on his point so I don’t know if I’ll be able to refute his statement specifically. However, to begin to answer that question, let’s consider the State of Rhode Island. When RI comes to mind, what do you think of? Here’s my list, both good and bad:

Vinny Paz
Buddy Cianci
Corruption (see Ron Silver as Alan Dershowitz in Reversal of Fortune)
Mafia
Newport
PC Basketball (a.k.a., RI’s pro sport)
Ernie DiGregorio
Italians / Guidos
RI Accent
Cranston (Rhody’s version of Revere without the beach)
Mount St. Charles Hockey
PawSox
Roger Williams
Twin Oaks
Brown University
Lupo’s
The ProJo
The Foxy Lady
No one drives more than 15 minutes

I could go on, but I think that’s enough for now. Rhode Island is full of character and characters. It’s a world unto itself; a world in which few people leave and even fewer see beyond the state borders. Its almost in-bred nature has created this separate world that is so different from the rest of the country. Trust me – I’m one of the few escapees. It’s like a little neighborhood, yet it’s on a state-wide level. Many people don't see the need to ever leave the state.

When I think of where I live now in comparison with where I came from, I’m drawn to a baseball analogy. Boston / Eastern MA is the major league level; RI is Triple A. If you bring Western MA into the analogy, then surely it is Single A or Double A at best.

Western Mass. lacks character as a region. While there are some nice places there (Northampton, the Berkshires, Tanglewood, etc.), there are no characters that truly define that portion of the state. Please help me name someone interesting from that part of Mass. in the last 30 years. Also, the percentage of hicks that live out there is fairly high. My sister has a neighbor who doesn’t have a car, but instead has a horse! That’s hick or redneck or whatever you want to call it. RI has some of this element, but the vast majority of people reside in Providence and the immediately adjacent towns and suburbs. And that’s the environment in which WEEI’s Pete Sheppard was raised. Do you really think Western Mass. could have produced the bombastic, goombah idiocy of the Meat Man? I severely doubt it. For better or worse, that guy is Rhody through and through.

I don’t know if I really proved my point, but I still contend that RI and Western MA are not even remotely similar when you consider the people and the places. If the Sheriff had asserted that most of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts are the same place, I would have been on board with that. In the early 90’s, I split time on a project between Hartford and Springfield for about six months, and the people and cities were almost carbon copies of each other. Springfield was just a little more irrelevant than Hartford, but both cities were devoid of life. I couldn’t wait to get out of there and back to Boston. Today, I still consider Boston to be the top shelf of New England, and Rhody ranks higher than the 413 area code.

Sports Broadcasters - Part I

Since the advent of sports broadcasting, there have been a number of professional broadcasters that have influenced our thoughts, our beliefs, and our feelings about our favorite teams and favorite players. I’ve always been interested in the world of sports broadcasting; anyone who knows me realizes this. So I decided to come up with a list of broadcasters that have affected me and my enjoyment of sports in some way, both positively and negatively. Some of these people will be obscure to the reader while others will be well known. The list will be fairly random and will contain my thoughts on each person. I’ll probably have to break this up into several parts because I keep thinking of more people to write about. Also, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email at bdlomax@yahoo.com to give me some feedback on the list.

Dick Enberg – I have never been a Dick Enberg fan and that goes back to 1979. That was the year that NBC first started providing live coverage of the Men’s Singles Final at Wimbledon (Breakfast at Wimbledon). It was also Enberg’s first tennis assignment, and it was glaringly obvious even to an 11 year old that he was clueless. His lack of knowledge on the sport butchered the broadcast and soured my opinion of him for years to come. During the 80’s, I felt he was a good play-by-play guy for football, but I think he’s lost his fastball in the last few years. His sense of humor is completely out of touch with today’s viewer and pairing him with Dan Dierdorf is a mistake as Dierdorf totally buys into the corny humor that Enberg provides. Much to my chagrin, in the last year, Enberg has worked a deal with CBS and ESPN that allows him to work the French Open, Wimbledon and the Australian Open for ESPN2. Ugh!

Fred Cusick – Growing up as a kid in New England in the 70’s meant watching the Bruins on Channel 38. For as much as the Red Sox own the region now, the Bruins owned it back then and Fred Cusick was the team’s top notch television play-by-play man (radio play-by-play was handled by Bob Wilson who was an awesome talent in his own right). Cusick was always on top of the play and rarely made mistakes in a sport that has to be one of the most difficult to describe because of the quick pace. Cusick is probably in my top 3 of hockey broadcasters.

Toby Charles – Who? If you’re not a soccer fan from way back, you may not know who this guy is, but I was introduced to his work via a television show that was broadcast on PBS called Soccer Made in Germany. The show was on weekly and often showed top flight games from the German Bundesliga. Other weeks, he presented some real gems like World Cup Qualifiers from Europe, international tournaments and in 1982, a daily show with World Cup matches from Spain. This show made me a soccer fan, and in particular the games from the 1980 Gold Cup in Uruguay. I was so captivated with the tournament that I wanted to move to Uruguay. Also, 1982 was my first World Cup and it was described to me through the eyes of Toby Charles. In many ways, that has made the 1982 World Cup my favorite of them all.

Howard Cosell – Ah Howard! For those that remember him, Howard was one of those individuals that you either loved or hated. For me, I flip-flopped. I started out hating him and being disgusted with 95% of what he said until I was about12. Then I read his autobiography Cosell, and I was turned. I began to appreciate his role in the evolution of sports broadcasting and of sport itself. I felt like I got to know the man and that helped me appreciate his style and his role. Now, I crave to hear his description of events on the field, yet realizing there will never be another like him. I also love his cameos in Woody Allen films.

Bob Costas – When Bob Costas first started working for NBC, I thought he was great. He was young, smart and I identified with his sense of humor. If I could have molded myself into a broadcaster back then, he would have been my model. While I was in college, his late night show Later was must watch television for me and I think it showed a level of depth that helped him move beyond the sports label. Today, he’s still one of the top talents around, but I’ve lost my connection with him. More often than not these days, his humor lands in a thud with me rather than in laughter. I find it difficult to listen to him doing baseball play-by-play now because of multiple inane references that I doubt hardly anyone cares about. Even though I have grown out of Bob Costas, I will always have positive memories of him from the 80’s.

Chris Berman – Here’s another guy that I have mixed feelings about. When we first got cable in our house in 1981, Chris Berman was ESPN. His SportsCenter shows with Tom Mees in those days were some of the best. In my opinion, they invented the “Big Show” long before Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann came along and used the title. I think Berman and ESPN are like mirrors of each other. In the early days, ESPN represented what was great about the new frontier of cable television. It often looked like a fly-by-night operation and Berman was the flagship talent. Nowadays, ESPN is a behemoth and often represents what is wrong with sports today. As ESPN is a bloated version of its roots, so is Berman. With a heavier set frame and a more gravelly voice, Berman is still quite good in the studio (NFL Primetime), but is completely unwatchable when doing baseball play-by-play. Like a lot of the people at ESPN, his job has made him a personality and sometimes I think he uses that too much.