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July 4, 2009
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What a trip we have had the last 9 days. We started in Washington D.C, went down to Atlanta and then finished our time off in Baltimore. Why we did not just play the first and last series one after the other, I do not know. I guess we needed a little breather or a little extra heat so we went down to Atlanta in-between. We did a great job of winning each series. Any time that you go on the road it is a plus to be able to win a few series.
I spoke with Bill Stickland, the agent for Rasheed Wallace moments ago . He told me…
Danny Ainge wanted to show up on Rasheed’s doorstep Wed. Night at midnight…which is when the free agent signing period began. Wallace told Danny that was not necessary so team green flew out Thursday instead.
Danny, Coach Doc Rivers, managing partner Wyc Grousbeck along with KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce were in the meeting with Strickland, Rasheed and his wife Fatima. Without question the Celtics increased their chances of obtaining Rasheed by making this trip. The effort put forth by the Celtics impressed Rasheed, Fatima and Strickland.
The fact that Rasheed has never played on a team with the likes of KG, Paul and Ray works in favor of the Celtics.
Fatima and Rasheed will make this decision together. She is very important in this process. Civil activities are very important to her. Ray Allen, because of his work with juvenile diabetes, was able to connect with her on this matter.
The way Doc handled the three egos of the big three has not gone unnoticed by Rasheed. Doc is well respected by players throughout the NBA.
Despite his reputation in Boston Rasheed is an unselfish teammate and would fit great with the big three.
Welcome back, folks. Let’s get right into it…
On Wednesday afternoon, the Boston Business Journal announced that David Ortiz has purchased the Metro 9 Steakhouse in Framingham, and will change the name to Big Papi’s. One of the highlights of the menu will be a special Dominican single malt scotch. It’s only aged 32 years, but you’ll swear it’s been at least 36.
Thursday afternoon in Faneuil Hall, Jason Bay was one of 360 people to be sworn in as an U.S. citizen. Bay said that his first act as an official American would be to "start hating soccer."
In this week’s MLB All-Star news, Kevin Youkilis has leap frogged Mark Teixiera and now holds a 40,000 vote lead. Although Teixiera has already said that his wife will only let him him play if the game takes place close to Baltimore.
On the field, it was a week of ups and downs for the Sox.
On Tuesday night, the team had a 10-1 lead in the eighth inning but ended up losing 11-10 in extras.
John Smoltz went the first four innings, but was unable to return after the rain delay, when Terry Francona found the elder Smoltz snoring shirtless in a clubhouse recliner with the remote in his hand.
When I first read Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game six years ago, I remember wondering repeatedly how all those young players highlighted in the book would turn out. At the time, of course, those players were all still mere prospects working their way up through the minors. Readers were therefore left to rely upon author Michael Lewis’s claims of genius bestowed upon Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane. In the meantime, we’d have to wait and see for ourselves.
Of course, in these parts, we all know how the much discussed Kevin Youkilis turned out. In the book, Youkilis was described as “a fat third baseman who couldn’t run, throw or field”. Regardless, Beane coveted Youk as an on-base machine and famously nicknamed him “the Greek God of Walks” (after which Youkilis was famously derided by Terry Francona, who said, “I’ve seen him in the shower and he’s not the Greek God of anything”).
Looking back at the book, I had a hard time getting past Lewis’s frequent man-crush descriptions of Beane peppered throughout. According to Lewis’s portrayal, Beane was (among other things) a skilled ladies man, a no-nonsense genius and a conniving baseball visionary capable of brutal feats of strength (which comes in handy around Festivus). Honestly, Lewis’s fawning reached such a level of idolatry at times that one could easily slip in a few paraphrased “Chuck Norris Facts” into the Moneyball text and it would be difficult to sift them out:
Comcast SportsNet revealed it’s "Top 20 Under 25" list on Monday, highlighting the wealth of young talent the 4 major Boston teams have developed and continue to grow. The "Top 20 Under 25" was assembled by a panel of Comcast SportsNet’s staff, who were then asked to predict the career path of each player, based on the following 1-10 scoring system. 10 = future Hall of Famer, 7 = All Star Level, 5 = consistent starter, 3 = role player, and 1 = won’t pan out.
Panelists included producer Kevin Miller, on-air personalities Lou Merloni, Gary Tanguay and Michael Felger; bloggers Cam Martin, Rich Levine, Sean Jamieson, Justin Poulin, and Kevin Henkin; and cyber gurus Jason Levine and Chief Web Kahuna.
Here is the list Comcast SportsNet compiled, along with the results of the fans’ votes since Monday, June 29th.
| NAME | AGE | CSN SCORE | FAN’S SCORE | |
| JEROD MAYO | PATRIOTS LINEBACKER | 23 | 7.9 | 7.8 |
| Mayo certainly didn’t disappoint in his rookie season. The 10th pick in the 2008 Draft recorded 128 tackles (100 solo) and was voted as the NFL Rookie Defensive player of the Year. He should anchor Coach Belichick’s defense for years to come (and inspire boat loads of cheesy condiment puns in the process.) |
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| RAJON RONDO | CELTICS POINT GUARD | 23 | 7.7 | 7.7 |
If you are a Celtics fan and are on Twitter, make sure you are following me, @Gary_Tanguay, today as I am tweeting all the developments of the possible Rasheed Wallace signing.
If you are not on Twitter, you can follow all the happenings in my blog "Tanguay’s Take."
Wallace is meeting with the Celts as reported on Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight over the last few days. I am hot on the trail and will keep you update throughout the day.
We do know that KG, Danny, Doc and Wyc are all making the trip to Michigan.
LATEST: Rasheed not interested in just money. Team has to have a shot at winning a title. (11:07 AM)
At a Celtics presser this morning to talk about last week’s NBA entry draft, I chatted one-on-one with Danny Ainge regarding the start of free agency.
Danny confirmed that the Celtics do have interest in free agent forward Rasheed Wallace and that the team will be meeting with him soon. Ainge would not commit to a firm timeline, but said Wallace is not visiting today. My sources indicate that Wallace was in Dallas on Monday and will be visiting the Boston area with his family soon.
My full interview with Danny will run tonight at 6:30 on Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight.
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