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It wasn’t a bad week for your favorite prognosticators last week. We didn’t set the world on fire, but 11-5 (by Eagle One) and 10-6 (by myself) are good opening performances.

This week we’ve got some awesome games on the docket, starting tonight in Chi Town and all the way into Monday Night. Ol’ Matty and I see the slate similarly, for the most part, but there’s a few games that we differ on.
Last week was a great one for our friend Mr. Unmarked Car. He not only beat me here, but also won his fantasy football game in our league, while I lost my opener. He’s feeling pretty good about himself right now, sitting really high on that horse. I’m hoping he’s knocked down a little bit, although I admit, his fantasy team looks pretty good. Mine’s okay, if they ever score any touchdowns. Onto the week 2 slate, while we dream of giving tickets to troopers.

Rich’s Record: 10-6 (.625)
Matt’s Record: 11-5 (.687)

Tonight’s Game

• Packers at Bears: At this writing, game time is close, and me and old Eagle One are going opposite directions on this one. Matty Boy is taking the Packers, me I’m leaning towards the Bears, and here’s why. One, the game’s in Chicago, and that’s a tough place to play on the road. Two, no Greg Jennings means that Aaron Rodgers is without one of his favorite targets. Three, the Packers can’t run the ball at all, which means that the Bears, a good defensive team, don’t have to respect that aspect of the offense and can put pressure on Rodgers at will. Would you respect the play-action game with Ced Benson doing the heavy lifting from the RB spot? I wouldn’t.

Rich’s pick: Bears, 31-24
Matt’s Pick: Packers

Sunday, 1 PM Games

• Chiefs at Bills: For two quarters the Chiefs looked pretty good against the Falcons last week, but they weren’t built to play a shootout. The Bills, on the other hand, couldn’t do anything at all against the Jets when it mattered and ended up getting trounced. Fred Jackson and David Nelson are out, which doesn’t bode well for the Bills, and Ryan Fitzpatrick’s Harvard degree is looking like it might come in handy sooner rather than later the way he’s been throwing the football. I respect the Buffalo home field advantage, but the Bills looked clueless last week and KC looked okay. Even though they’re on the road, and not a ton better, I’m going with the Chiefs.

Rich’s Pick: Chiefs, 21-16
Matt’s Pick: Chiefs

• New Orleans at Carolina: Are the Saints really that bad? They open up, at home, and get beaten up by a rookie QB making his first-ever start. Each year it seems that at least one playoff team falls from grace, and it looks like this year it might be the Saints. SuperCam was grounded last week on the road, but I think he’ll be better this week against the Saints, whose defense is not nearly as good as Tampa’s. I’m hesitant, but taking the Panthers.

Rich’s Pick: Panthers, 33-31
Matt’s Pick: Saints

• Cleveland at Cincy: Branden Weeden’s highlight last week against the Eagles was getting stuck under the oversized American Flag before the start of the game. After that he went out and threw four picks and looked laughable. The Bengals are better than they looked against Baltimore, and I expect a big game from the Law Firm here. Cincy gets on the board with their first win.

Rich’s Pick: Bengals, 27-14
Matt’s Pick: Bengals

• Minnesota at Indianapolis: The Andrew Luck era did not get off to a smashing start, but he should be better at home this week. I harken back to the first year of Peyton Manning, though, and remember that even though he was regarded as one of the best quarterback prospects of all-time, those Colts were horrendous that first season. This is that all over.

Rich’s Pick: Vikings, 24-10
Matt’s Pick: Vikings

• Houston at Jacksonville: Oh so close the Jags came to pulling it off last week in OT. What a fun game that was to watch, down to the wire, overtime, the whole kit and kaboodle. Yeah, none of that this week. The Texans are darn good, and they’ll win with ease.

Rich’s Pick: Texans, 34-17
Matt’s Pick: Texans

• Oakland at Miami: Normally I don’t like the whole west coast team going east to play at 1 PM. Then again, the Dolphins are probably the 31st best team in the league, ahead of just the Colts. Miami is hapless and the Raiders will pull out an ugly one, despite any snapping problems.

Rich’s Pick: Raiders, 20-10
Matt’s Pick: Raiders

• Arizona at New England: Not going to waste a lot of time here. The Pats will win, and win big.

Rich’s Pick: Patriots, 37-17
Matt’s Pick: Patriots

• Tampa Bay at New York Giants: Josh Freeman could be back, maybe. Still, the defending Super Bowl champs are not going to start out 0-2 with a pair of home losses. It’s hard to call any game a must-win this early, but the Giants desperately need this one and I’m taking them to get it done.

Rich’s Pick: Giants, 24-20
Matt’s Pick: Giants

• Baltimore at Philadelphia: This is the game of the week if you ask me. It’s a marquee matchup and we’re going to learn a lot here. Philly should have lost last week and looked sloppy as heck. I think they’ll clean things up, but not nearly enough. Baltimore might be the best AFC team, it’s a 3-team race between them, NE and Houston. Joe Flacco might be the player that makes The Leap this year and I’m banking on him getting it done in Philly.

Rich’s Pick: Ravens, 23-20
Matt’s Pick: Ravens

• Dallas at Seattle: The Seahawks should have won their opener last week, but Doug Baldwin dropped the game-winning TD. The Cowboys played a superb road game, but they won’t do it two weeks in a row. Seattle is one of the toughest places to play, period. The Seahawks, believe it or not, were 7-1 at home last season. That trend continues and we have a mild upset.

Rich’s Pick: Seahawks, 17-13
Matt’s Pick: Cowboys

• Washington at St. Louis: RG3 is 1-0 on the road in domes, that’s a fact Jack. He’ll be 2-0 after this week, because of his defense. The Skins kept New Orleans in check for most of the game, until the fourth quarter, and the St. Louis O-line is beat up. I like the Redskins to have sole possession of first place in the NFC East on Monday morning.

Rich’s Pick: Redskins, 30-20
Matt’s Pick: Redskins

• NY Jets at Pittsburgh: Like the Giants, the Steelers have a must-win game here against the Jets. I still don’t know who the Jets are. Were they playing possum in the preseason, and actually have an offensive clue? Or, were the Bills just that bad? The Steelers D is good enough to limit Sanchez/Tebow and Big Ben will keep enough plays alive to put some points on the board at home.

Rich’s Pick: Steelers, 23-17
Matt’s Pick: Steelers

• Tennessee at San Diego: I just don’t like the Titans chances here. They’re going with a backup QB, albeit a good one, and Chris Johnson looks like he’s running behind a bad high school offensive line. The Chargers are a good home team and that’s enough for me.

Rich’s Pick: Chargers, 31-17
Matt’s Pick: Chargers

Night Games

• Detroit at San Francisco: Whoa, the 49ers looked pretty legit last week against the Pack. This week they’re playing a team with a similar style, only this time at home. I still don’t love Alex Smith, but he finds a way week-in and week-out and that defense is awesome. San Fran is the NFC favorite in my eyes right now, and somewhere my boy Easy E is nodding his head in agreement.

Rich’s Pick: 49ers, 27-21
Matt’s Pick: 49ers

• Denver at Atlanta: I bought into the hype and was rooting on Peyton to have a big game last Sunday night, because who doesn’t love a good comeback story? Truthfully, though, his defense won that game. They were on the field constantly, but didn’t let the Steelers pull away, and then Demarius Thomas turned a quick out into 80-something yards and a TD and then Porter had a pick-six and the rest is history. Peyton was just okay, border line good, but really nothing too special. This week he’ll have to be better, and I don’t think he’ll have enough. The Falcons are rock solid at home and will turn this into a track meet. It’s going to be a fun game to watch, but America’s sweetheart will go home with a heartache.

Rich’s Pick: Falcons, 38-31
Matt’s Pick: Broncos

Some people will open up a column like this and say they can’t believe that NFL season is already here. Not me. It took too long to get here for my liking. I love me some NFL, and am stoked for the 2012 season to get going.

In this space I will pick the winners weekly for each game. Last year I was correct 72-percent of the time, which is pretty darned good for the league if I do say so myself.

My best friend Eagle One will be back in on the action as well. He’s a bit of a pain sometimes, but like me, he loves pro football and does pretty okay with his picks.

Early on it’s important to realize that these aren’t the same teams they were last year. The league is always in motion, and things change all the time. Teams that used to be really good will go downhill and vice versa. Our job is to try to be ahead of the curve in recognizing this year’s trends and jump on those bandwagons while they’re still filling up, and to jump off of bandwagons that are hurtling toward disaster, sort of like the Eagles last year.

Both Eagle One and I are on vacation this week, he’s at the beach with Mrs. One and I’m with Mrs. Mac and the kiddos in the mountains. We’ll officially start picking against one another next week if I do not hear from him before kickoff on Wednesday. On to the picks, and another great season of football…it’s about time.

Wednesday Night Kickoff Game

Dallas at New York Giants: The last time the Giants won the Super Bowl, in the game that shalt not be mentioned, New York rebounded to have a very strong regular season. I think they’re going to do that again this year. I don’t like that Manningham and Ballard are no longer on the roster for Eli to throw to, but Hicks and Cruz are a great 1-2 punch and the Giants’ defense is going to be strong once again. Dallas, in my opinion, is looking at 8-8 once again. They never can stay healthy, and DeMarco Murray hasn’t really proven himself yet over a full season.

There’s just too much going for NY here anyways. It’s Opening Night, they’ll be raising the banner and the crowd will be jacked up in the Meadowlands. I’m taking New York, 31-17.

The Pick: Giants

Sunday, 1 PM Games

Indy at Chicago: Over the course of the season I see the Colts emerging as a fun team to watch that will improve. Andrew Luck looks like the real deal. Still, he aint winning in his NFL debut against a solid defensive team like Chicago. The Bears have a lot of weapons offensively and if Cutler can stay healthy I think they’re playoff-bound. Bears, 33-14.

Philly at Cleveland: A year removed from the Super Team title hoisted upon the Eagles, Philly enters this season looking to rebound and prove that they are actually pretty good. They were the most frustrating team in the league to watch last season, for sure. When they’re good, they’re really good, but they struggled against teams that they should have beaten. I think they’ll open well here, and that Vick and Co. will win a close one in a tough place to play. Iggles, 20-16.

The Pick: Philly

New England at Tennessee: Once again the Patriots look like the team to beat in the AFC. Tommy Boy has a new weapon to unleash, in Brandon Lloyd, and I think he’s going to launch a few deep ones right out of the gate. The Pats’ starters haven’t played a lot of football in the preseason, so it could take a while to get things going, but they’re obviously the superior team and will win, 27-17.

The Pick: Patriots

Atlanta at Kansas City: So much intrigue in this game. Matt Ryan is hoping to reach elite level this year, and with Julio Jones and Roddy White he could. The Chiefs get Jamaal Charles back and had a sneaky good defense a year ago. The Chiefs have one of the best home field advantages, but in week one I usually go with the team that I just think is better, and I think the Falcons are better and will win a close one, 17-14.

The pick: Falcons

Jacksonville at Minnesota: Chris Johnson held out last season during the preseason, came back for week one and was mediocre at best all year long. Maurice Jones-Drew followed suit this year and has not played a snap of football in a year. MoJ0 is the Jags’ best weapon, but he’s not going to be sharp yet and that is going to hurt Jacksonville for a few weeks. The Vikes aren’t very good, but they do have some weapons. When two sub-par teams battle, take the home team. Vikings, 24-17.

The Pick: Vikings.

Washington at New Orleans: RG3 makes his debut against players that will not be looking to cash in any bounties that have been placed on his head, that we know of. It’s been a difficult offseason for the Saints, and it will be good for them to just be playing football and not dealing with all of the distractions. Until Bob Griffin proves otherwise, I’m not taking a rookie QB on the road, so give me the Saints in a shootout, 41-28.

The Pick: Saints

Buffalo at New York Jets: The Jets have not yet scored a touchdown in 2012. The Bills just might be good. Remember, before Ryan Fitzpatrick went down with an injury, the Bills were one of the best AFC teams during the first half of the year. Buffalo wins, 20-13, and Mark Sanchez’s person hell begins to heat up as 90-percent of WFAN is dominated by Tebow talk all week.

The pick: Bills

St. Louis at Detroit: The Lions are going to pass, pass, pass this year, and they’re going to be fun to watch. St. Louis can’t be as bad as they were a year ago, but they’re not good enough to top Megatron and company here as the Lions win, 38-21.

The pick: Lions

Miami at Houston: The Dolphins were not that bad with Matt Moore at QB last year, they were officially feisty and played some good games. So of course the Fish aren’t using him behind center to start the season. Houston would have probably been the AFC rep in the Super Bowl if injuries hadn’t railroaded their year. They’re healthy now, and they’ll roll, 32-10.

The Pick: Texans.

Sunday, 4:25 PM Games

San Francisco at Green Bay: The best game of the weekend here, and it’s going to be a blast. Aaron Rodgers doesn’t lose home games often, and he won’t drop the opener. Give me the discount double checks, 24-17.

The pick: Packers

Carolina at Tampa Bay: Cam Newton was very good in the first half of last season, but once the NFL defensive gurus began to get a read on him, he became a bit mediocre. The Bucs have the look of a team that is going to surprise people and be better than they were. I said we need to jump on those opportunities and identify the teams that are better, so let’s jump on this bandwagon right now as Tampa wins, 27-20.

The Pick: Buccaneers

Seattle at Arizona:  I’m going against one of my own mantras here and taking a rookie QB on the road. Russell Wilson could be a force of nature and the Cardinals just are awful, perhaps the worst team in the NFL. Wilson keeps building his legend, and leads the Hawks to a 27-21 win on the road.

The Pick: Seahawks

Night Games

Pittsburgh at Denver (Sunday Night, 8:20): Peyton Manning’s return will be interesting to watch. I expect a shootout and a lot of fun. Give me the Mannings, 33-28.

The Pick: Broncos

Cincinnati at Baltimore (MNF, 7 PM): Billy Cundiff is gone, replaced by someone named Justin Tucker, and the Ravens look to move on from wide left in New England. Our boy Benjarvus Green-Ellis is in the fold for the Bengals, and could be in for a long night against a very good defense. I see Baltimore shaking off the demons from their last game and winning a defensive battle, 20-17.

The pick: Ravens

San Diego at Oakland (MNF, 10:15): I wish there were doubleheaders every Monday Night, it would be awesome, especially since I work late on Mondays and would have most of a game to come home to to watch. Phil Rivers doesn’t have as many weapons as he did a year ago and the Chargers just don’t look as good. The Raiders, on the other hand, look good offensively and with Run DMC back, I see an Oakland win, 28-21.

The Pick: Raiders

Perhaps more than any other pastime, I love going to the movies. There’s nothing more fun for me than to plan a midnight screening of the big movie that I am counting the days to see.

This summer there were two such movies. The first was The Avengers, which I didn’t see at the break of a new day because my kids wanted to go too, as did my wife. The four of us waited until noon the next day and had a blast. We actually ended up seeing it twice on the big screen, taking them to the drive-in in Wellfleet to see it paired with Brave.

The other one was the The Dark Knight Rises. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Chris Nolan’s run through the franchise, and haven’t been as excited for this since The Phantom Menace. Thankfully this experience was a lot better than that one.

But, this movie will forever be tainted because of what happened in Aurora, Colorado. Roughly two hours after I sat down to watch Batman take on Bane in the final chapter of the trilogy, a group did the same thing that I was doing in Mashpee out there. They were excited, just as I was.

I don’t know the exact timing, but roughly as my movie was ending, and I was chatting with other moviegoers about the ending of the story, the whacko out there opened fire.

I cannot imagine the pain that the parents, spouses, friends and the community at large must have felt, and is still feeling. It’s surreal to think that someone would choose that setting to unleash their sickness.

Tens of thousands of people, just like me, endured the midnight debut to be amongst the first to see the movie. A handful had their lives altered forever, and a dozen had their lives ended.

We are left to ask the obvious question. Why?

There’s no good answer.

What makes someone insane? What makes someone believe that he will benefit from becoming infamous by committing a heinous act?

Alfred The Butler told Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight “some men just want to watch (the world) burn.” He was right.

There will be those that leap to their pulpit to decry violence in movies and claim that the shooting is the logical end result of glorifying the Batman mythology.

I wholeheartedly disagree with that. What Batman is about is a normal man, albeit a Billionaire, who wants to protect what is good by standing up to what is evil. Batman eschews killing, and does not use a handgun in combat. Justice is his aim.

The joker, lowercase J, that opened fire in that movie house twisted the message to his own means. He, unfortunately, identified with the bad guys and there was no caped crusader to stop him because in the real world there are no superheroes, just the real heroes that had to respond to that carnage, the cops and EMTs.

Movies allow us to enter a world where reality is suspended, and alternate universes are created and embraced for a few hours. The sicko accomplished his goal of making those worlds collide.

In the comics The Joker escapes Arkham Asylum time and again and continues to wreak havoc on Gotham City. This joker, though, will never see the light of day again, and I’m thankful for that. Whether he’s given the death penalty or life in prison, at least he will never be able to ruin another day.

I will continue to go to the movies at midnight when something huge I want to see comes out. Perhaps it will be the next Hunger Games movie, or The Hobbit, or The Man of Steel. Whatever it is, I refuse to allow the actions of a twisted individual to change the way I live my life. Unfortunately that could have happened the next day, or tomorrow, at a different theater, in a different state. It just as well could have happened at an opera, or a concert.

Mayhem does not make a reservation. We can’t truly live if we’re worried that he may RSVP.

Who doesn’t love a good, old-fashioned tournament. Draw up some brackets, rank a bunch of teams and let the best one stand at the end.

I consider myself a football and baseball fan first and foremost. The National Football League is my passion, partly based on playing fantasy football, and partly because the game is such a fantastic television spectacle. When it comes to baseball, I’m simply a baseball guy. Right now my view of the Red Sox is hardly what I’d consider glowing, but the game itself has always been my favorite to play and something that I love to coach. I could spend all day shagging flys, hitting grounders and throwing BP. Actually that sums up last Sunday pretty succinctly.

But when it comes to the playoffs, both of those sports are wanting. They pale in comparison to the spectacle that is the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. I’ve been glued to the TV just about every night the past week watching playoff pucks, and not just our beloved Stanley Cup champions. Vancouver-LA, Pittsburgh-Philly, New York-Ottawa, and so on. It’s been awesome.

It got me to thinking, what are the best championship tournaments out there. Why don’t we rank them. I’ve only included one that I actually pay attention to so don’t email me saying that the Premier League’s format is the best because I don’t care, and wouldn’t know because I don’t watch soccer.

7. MLB Postseason

I love baseball, but the MLB playoffs are boring. The games are way too long, and baseball already moves at a leisurely pace. Throw in that the announcers for the most important games make you want to throw a fastball through your flat screen and you’ve got a product in need of fixing, or at least tinkering.

This changes greatly if you’re emotionally invested. When the Red Sox are playing I live and die with every pitch, and it just gets worse as the playoffs get deeper and deeper. I’m pretty sure that October 2004 shaved at least 3 years off the end of my life, but having the 86-year drought end made it worthwhile. Hey, I’m still going to live to be 97, that’s pretty good.

But if you’re not emotionally invested it’s hard to tune in and watch. I’m just as likely to watch reruns of “Seinfeld” for the 20^th time as last 4 innings of Tampa-Anaheim.

6. NBA Playoffs

Like the NHL they have a best-of-seven format, which is nice, but basketball is so different from hockey because there are so few upsets. Right now we all know that either Chicago or Miami will represent the East in the Finals. No matter how much you love the Celtics, who is the team no one wants to play, the fact of the matter is that they won’t go all the way without a billion things breaking just so. Out west it will be either San Antonio, OKC or the Lakers, it just will.

Having so much of the drama ripped out of the tournament before it even starts hurts the overall product. The other thing that hurts it is that the games slow down so much and become more like skirmishes than basketball games during the playoffs.

5. Frozen Four, NCAA

If you’ve never been to one of these then you don’t really understand how cool they can be. I’ve been to two Frozen Fours in person and never miss the championship game.

It’s not quite as exciting as the basketball tournament, because the best teams almost always win. Because college hockey gets so little coverage, there’s very little familiarity with the teams unless you’re the most diehard of college puckheads.

Still, the most exciting game I’ve ever seen in person was the 2004 Frozen Four championship game at the FleetCenter (that’s what it was called back then). Denver survived a 1-0 game over UMaine. Denver was called for a penalty late and had to skate the final minute-plus shorthanded, and Maine pulled the goalie. It was a shooting gallery for a minute straight, but Denver’s goalie stood on his head and the Pioneers escaped with the trophy. It was awesome.

4. NFL Playoffs

I love the National Football League, and the playoffs are fun, but let’s be honest, they’re not perfect. When the field of 12 postseason teams is set we know going in that only a couple actually have a chance to win it all and that some of those teams don’t really belong there in the first place.

The Super Bowl has been very competitive the past few years, but historically you’re just as likely to get a stinker of a game as you are a classic.

Helping to get it into the top five is the fact that the league is so TV friendly and the games are so watchable. Since so many of us do in fact play fantasy football we have emotional investments in some of the players. During the NFC playoffs I smiled every time Hakeem Nicks made a catch because he’s been so huge for me the past two years in fantasy. Of course I booed him lustily during the Super Bowl.

3. World Series of Poker Main Event

Alright, I’m a poker nerd, and if you’re not you think that I’m crazy for putting the WSOP this high. I’m not, though.

Almost everyone that traverses that field to get to the November Nine is a Cinderella Story. Most of them are amateur players that got wicked lucky several times along the way and dodged countless bad beats to have a shot at both immortality and millions of dollars.

You may not consider this a sport, and it’s probably not, but there’s no greater test of endurance, discipline, and guts than the road through the Main Event. Only 9 of 6,500-plus people make it to the biggest stage, and just one of those wins it all. It also gains points in my rankings because it’s the only one that I, personally, or any of my readers probably ever have an actual chance in participating in. It’s the longest of long shots, but there’s always a chance.

2. March Madness

The NCAA gets so many things wrong, and they’ve even messed up the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament by adding those extra teams and screwing up the look of our brackets, but it is one of the best months of sports going.

We love March Madness because of gambling, first and foremost. You may not be betting over-unders and teasing games together every March, but if you’re reading this you’ve at least thrown a 10 spot into an office pool for the pure joy of hoping that this is the year you nail all of the upsets and score all of the Final Four teams. It rarely happens, but the fun is still there annually even if it’s usually the old lady in the far cubicle that picked her winners based on colors and state birds that wins the whole thing.

Pulling for upsets is my favorite part, even though they usually make fill my bracket with more red ink than my ninth grade science tests. Watching the bench riders jump up and down in excitement as prayerful 15-footers swish through the twine is fantastic.

Helping to push this higher up the list is “One Shining Moment,” at the end of the tourney. That horn section, those schmaltzy lyrics, how do you not love it as you watch the highlights? It’s awesome.

1. Stanley Cup Playoffs

The format is perfect. It’s a best-of-seven, so the best team should win. That many games between familiar foes breeds contempt, which has been in abundance over the last week. NHL discipline czar Brendan Shanahan can’t find time for a coffee break because of the never-ending series of dangerous plays during this year’s playoffs, which is a good thing for the hockey fan.

I’m not saying that goonery and thuggery is a good thing, because it’s not, in general. But the underlying reason for the dirty play is just how much this stuff matters to the players. They’re willing to lay everything on the line for a chance to have their names engraved on that cup, which is also the greatest trophy in all of sports.

What’s not to love about the NHL playoffs? You’ve got so many subplots, personal vendettas, hot goalies (a la Tim Thomas last year), horrible goalies (Hello Mr. Bryzgalov and Mr. Luongo), brilliant individual efforts, and best of all, overtime.

There is nothing on earth that compares to the excitement that is overtime playoff hockey. Will it end in 90 seconds, like Game 1 of the Bruins-Capitals series, or go on and on and on and on. I’m a bit sadistic when it comes to these OT’s, the more the better in my eyes. I keep wondering what it would take for the officials to deem that the game must be suspended until the next day. Would it take 6 OTs? 7? 10? One day we’ll find out.

And the celebration at the end is perfection. No matter who wins it, you have to smile when the Cup is handed over to the winning team’s captain and he lifts that thing over his head. The pure joy is unbridled and beautiful. It gets dusty at my house almost every year when I see that thing being handed off to teary-eyed toothless Canadians that have just fulfilled their boyhood dreams.

As a sports fan, I try not to be overly reactionary. That’s part of the reason that I’ve basically given up on sports radio. Sports, especially pro sports, are not about just one game. They’re about seasons and one particular game, win or lose, is only a small part of a whole. The exception to that rule is football, where every game does carry with it a ton of importance, but even there you can afford to have one or two bad days and still be successful.

Because of that point of view I didn’t panic when the Sox got off to a slow start. People were ready to line up at the Bourne Bridge and weren’t considering that they happened to be swept by a pretty good baseball team in Detroit. In Toronto they could have easily won 2 of 3 rather than lost 2 of 3.

Wouldn’t you know it, the Sox came home and won their series with Tampa and are headed back in the right direction.

Unfortunately the skipper of the ship that is the Red Sox seems hellbent on steering the thing into a jetty.

I have never been a Bobby Valentine fan. The guy rubs me the wrong way. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but I do know that a part of it is that everything that comes out of his mouth makes him sound like a know-it-all who thinks a little too highly of his own opinion on matters. He also likes to hear his own voice and doesn’t think before he speaks. He’s basically the polar opposite of the former manager, Tito Francona, whom I’m a big fan of. Francona did things the right way, he kept most matters in-house and stood up for his players. At the end, maybe he did that too much, or maybe it was just time for a change overall, but you can’t deny that he was good at what he did and knew what he was doing.

Today Valentine made everyone wonder if he has a clue about what he’s doing, both on and off the field.

While most of New England was asleep on Sunday night, the new manager he threw his workhorse of a third baseman under the bus on Sports Xtra. Kevin Youkilis isn’t off to a very good start, but the guy goes out and gives his all when he’s on the field. If anything the dude has shown that he cares too much and he obviously puts a lot of pressure on himself to perform, which would explain the helmet throwing and post-strikeout rants that he’s had in the past.

“I don’t think he’s as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason.”

If that’s what the guy truly believes, he should talk to the player first. Throwing that out into the media before talking to the player is just Bush League. It’s also a good way to lose a guy. Way to go Bob.

Then, this afternoon, during a 1-0 loss to the Rays Valentine showed that he’s not that adept at managing his pitching staff.

Daniel Bard was having a quality start, but certainly starting to run on fumes. The pitcher retired the first two batters of the seventh, but then the converted reliever — whose pitch count was approaching 100 — hit a batter and then walked a guy.

No trip to the mound.

He walked another batter, to load the bases and bring up all-star Evan Longoria. By this time the relievers were ready to go, but Valentine decided to allow Bard to throw pitches 112, 113, 114 and 115. They were all balls. The walk forced in the game’s only run and only then did Bobby V get out his hook and bring in a relief pitcher to put out the fire.

Bard never should have been in that situation. The guy obviously did not have pinpoint control today. He had walked four men before the seventh began. His pitch count was already high to start the inning and with this being just Bard’s second start of the year, after several years of relief pitching, it should have been obvious that the leash needed to be very short in the seventh.

But Bobby V is smarter than us. I’m sure he had his reasons.

Dear NCAA,

The first round of the tournament begins on Thursday, not Tuesday. It always has, it always will. Calling the play-in games the first round is confusing to the millions that fill in their brackets each year. Most bracket commissioners in offices do not even concern themselves with the play-in games. They’re just there, and they are ignored by the public at large. Just look in the stands for these games and you know this to be true, the contests are being played in front of a couple dozen basketball junkies, some cheerleaders and the pep bands. Any actual cheering that is being done is completely drowned out by second rate versions of “Hey Baby.”

In Harvard’s school newspaper on Friday it said that the Crimson had been eliminated in the second round. That makes it sound like they had advanced a round before being knocked out. It is misleading to call it the second round. The Crimson, God love them the rest of the field will be employed by them later on, lost their first game to Vanderbilt. Let’s call it what it actually was, a first round loss.

Call your “first round” what it is, preliminary games or play-in games. That’s what they are. Those teams are not in the field of 64, they have to earn their way in to the actual tournament.

You cannot call these prelims a separate round because they are not a part of an actual round. A round in  tournament is participated in by the entire field, not just a part of it.

And while I’m on my soap box, thanks so much for making it more difficult to follow the games from our cubicles NCAA. You make billions, with a ‘B’, off of the tournament each year. It is your cash cow, so thanks for bleeding us for another $4 to watch the games this year rather than allowing the boss-evading minions at their depressing desks from being able to stream the games for free anymore. Nothing makes your fan base more excited than an obvious cash grab by the 1-percent to us lowly 99-percenters that just want to see a buzzer-beater while putting off an annoying task.

Signed,

Rich Maclone … and countless others

I’ve had this piece of paper sitting with my notes for four years now. Whenever I needed a quick laugh I’d glance at it, for the utter absurdity of it all, and get that needed grin out of the way. I owe Mansfield High School a ‘thank you.’

The piece of paper that I’ve been clinging to is a cheat sheet on how to cheer at a high school basketball game that was handed out to the student section at Mansfield High 4 years ago. That night I witnessed one of the greatest high school games I’ve ever seen in person, with a young Nelson Baptiste — a sophomore then, who graduated last year — hitting a heave from about 40-feet away at the buzzer to beat the Hornets. It was excellent (check it out below).

The piece of paper reads: CHANT LIST FOR THE HORNETS NEST. MAKE CONSTANT NOISE!!!

(thanks for the all caps guys, and in 14-point font, we needed that, and three exclamation marks, wow.)

NO Swearing (including sucks & sh**), opponent names, noise makers, signs, horns, no chants about officials.

(not an absurd request, but why can’t I reference my shoe? Also, what’s so bad about signs? How will the hearing impaired know what we’re saying?)

———–

What really cracks me up about what follows are not just the suggested chants, but the explanations they give that follow.

1. “Let’s GO Hornets” 5 claps (start after each quarter/time out)

You know what, I feel that one. However, why do we need to remind the student body to chant the most relied upon chant in sports history. Were they really going to get home and say “I can’t believe we didn’t chant “Let’s go Hornets.” If we had maybe Baptiste wouldn’t have hit that heave.”

2. “DEFENSE” 2 claps (Random times during each quarter)

It really surprises me  that the person that put this together didn’t remind the Hornets fans to chant for the defense when they were playing defense. By this time I’ve come to figure that with the MHS student body you can’t presume that they’ll know the right time to do it. Also, where’s the obligatory hyphen between the DE and the FENSE? Are we making too much of a leap that they’ll insert the syllables in the proper places?

3. “AIR BALL” (Any time a guy touches the ball after shooting the air ball)

Okay, I’m splitting hairs, but what is “the air ball.” It really should’ve read “an air ball.” The air ball sounds like a mystical part of the game that follows the free throw and the jump ball.

4. “You Can’t do that” (After travel or violation)

That chant used to make me laugh, but it’s been played out. I really want kids to start chanting “stop cheating” every time someone travels or is called for 3 seconds, it is infinitely funnier.

5. “AHAHAHAHAH” while jumping (Just like Duke fans to start the game)

Now, I know what they’re referring to is this

But, what it sounds like is that they want their fans to laugh uncontrollably and obnoxiously, more like this

6. “We have _________ (player name)” (After a big shot)

By now I’m beginning to come to the conclusion that this fan section really needs a director because I can’t see the group coming to a quorum on whether or not to use a first name or a last name or nickname. Let’s not even get into the cadence to use.

7. “WINNER TEAM, LOSING TEAM” (Point at each bench, and get faster an faster)

And what time during this pointing and shouting fit do you realize that your tense is completely off. Shouldn’t it be “winning team, losing team” or “winner team, loser team?” Pick a tense and stick with it please. Also, the use of all caps sporadically through this really started to get on my nerves, almost as much as the fact that someone thought a group of high school kids actually needed a piece of paper to tell them how to chant at a basketball game. I’ve been to Mansfield over the years, they’re not a bandwagon group. It’s one of the best athletic programs in the state, I think the kids would have been alright without the assist from a “helper” in the athletics office.

8. Count to 10 quickly while the opponent is at the foul line.

I’ve never seen this done at a game. I want to see if that actually works, I think it would be better in Spanish though.

9. “Any phrase” with 5 claps (say 3 times and stop NO NAMES, NO SWEARS)

I picture Eagle One sitting in his cruiser on Route 3, sipping his tea while clocking speeders chanting “Write your blog, write your blog, write your blog.” He has a hard time with the no names and swearing part though.

10. “Who was that to” (after a bad pass out of bounds)

Well, we’re going out on a whimper. Which seems fitting with this list of suggested chants. I’d still like to know what Mansfield has against shoes though.

The Patriots losing was always a possibility. It didn’t come out of nowhere like Super Bowl 42, where Patriots fans were so overconfident that we all felt like the Captain of the Titanic. “What do you mean the boat is sinking? It’s unsinkable.”

Unfortunately this Patriots team had pretty evident holes in the hull and they leaked in the fourth quarter. They lost, it sucked, we move on. It’s all you can do.

Don’t blame Wes Welker, the throw wasn’t that good. Don’t blame Tom Brady, he got us there. Don’t blame the defense, they performed better than expected. Don’t blame Coach Belichick, well except maybe for poor drafting.

Let’s not forget, the Pats were on borrowed time to begin with. It took 3 consecutive miracles to get to the Super Bowl, 2 by Sterling Moore (everyone forgets the great deflection after he knocked the ball out of Lee Evans’ grip), and one by poor Billy Cundiff.

It was a fun season. A flawed team lost to another flawed team.

I’m moving on, and I can deal with it.

What’s harder to deal with is not having football in our lives for the next 6 months. Sure we’ve got March Madness on the horizon, The Masters, Opening Day, the NHL and NBA playoffs. There’s a lot of stuff that’s coming up, but none of them are as much fun as professional football.

I used to be a baseball first guy. The Red Sox have always been my first love, but as I’ve gotten older the Patriots have become more and more important to me and they now possess the No. 1 spot in my heart. The Sox are a close second, but the Patriots lead the way.

Part of the reason that the Pats are at the top is because the NFL is so much fun to follow. Thanks to fantasy football and the once-a-week scheduling, I feel like I have a good grasp on every team. I know the most important players for each club. It’s an easier league to follow.

The baseball season is a grind. Once we reach August the games all kind of blend into one. By that time you know who most of the playoff teams are going to be and which teams are awful. Heck I can sit down and watch a Cleveland-Arizona NFL game and get lost in it. I wouldn’t even stop flipping the channels to watch the Indians play the D-Backs.

The Giants are proof positive that a team can get hot late and win it all in football. Yes the Cardinals did something similar in baseball this year, but to watch them rally from 11 games back late in the season, plus play all of those playoff games you would have had to have devoted something like 60 hours watching baseball over three weeks.

Who’s got that kind of time? I wish I did, but this 99-percenter has other commitments too.

With football, to follow your team, its a 3 or 4 hour block once a week. It’s manageable. It’s usually on Sundays, a day of rest for most of us. It’s perfect.

Over the next 6 months there will be plenty of other stuff to fill our time. Soon the grass will turn green and I will be coaching Little League and watching my daughter play softball games. We’ll be able to go the beach, take the dogs to the park and grill cheeseburgers on the deck. The warm weather is a great distraction, and it’s the best time of year to do stuff.

But a part of me will long for the cooler weather that follows and sitting on my couch with a bag of chips and the Patriots on the tube. Football, I will miss you.

The Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl. Okay, I gave away the big payoff at the end, but there you have it. I’m taking the Pats to take down the Giants.

Surprised? Me neither. Yes, I’m a homer. I root for the Patriots and always have. I was made fun of as a kid by the others in my neighborhood because the Patriots sucked (I grew up on Cape Cod mind you, and I was made fun of for rooting for the home team). I latched on to the Seahawks, and later the Eagles, as a kid just so that I had someone to root for that seemed “cool.” It was stupid, but I never wavered as a Pats fan. I just had to hide it from others.

That seems laughable now. Kids growing up around here have never seen anything but success. My son’s surprised when someone other than the Pats is in the Super Bowl.  I tell him to enjoy it while it lasts, but youth is wasted on the young. He doesn’t get it. To him this is just the way things are, to those of us a little more wiser because of years, and the pain of losing, we know better.

That’s why I’m having fun with this run. I don’t for a second believe that the Patriots are the best team in the NFL this year. Heck, neither of these teams are. The best team this year is back in Wisconsin watching, and in my eyes the second best is buying up all the beads they can find for Mardi Gras. The fourthbest is wondering why its punt returner called in sick two Sundays ago.

I thought that the Pats were the third best team in the league, and when the playoffs started I had the Giants somewhere around six or seven. That’s the beauty of the tournament, though. You just have to get there. Both teams survived and advanced. They each got lucky in a lot of ways, but that’s the way it is and here we are

Where we are is a funny place because somehow the Patriots are favored by Las Vegas by 3 points, yet everywhere you look the media’s talking heads are blabbering like the Giants are a 7 point favorite. The Giants have been acting like they’re huge favorites. I’m all for a little swagger, but someone needs to tell Jason Pierre-Paul and Antrelle Rolle to take it down a few notches.

So the G-Men are confident and the “experts” are confident in the G-Men. Is any of this starting to sound familiar? Remember Super Bowl 36, New England v. St. Louis? The Patriots were the lost cause, the Rams were unbeatable. Pats by 3.

I hate to bring it up, but how about Super Bowl 42? David Tyree? Asante Samuel? Anyone? I know, it’s painful, but the roles were reversed. The Pats were the juggernaut uber-team without a chance of losing and the Giants were the to-be whipping boys. But it didn’t work out that way, unfortunately.

Not only have the Giants seemed a bit too pleased with themselves this week, but the Patriots are back to doing Patriots things. They’ve been lying low — well except for Rob Gronkowski’s family — and keeping their mouths shut. They haven’t said a disparaging word about New York, they’ve had fun with one another (Wes Welker’s breakdown of Tom Brady’s hair was outstanding) and they’ve focused on football. Even Gronk, who is just a 6-7 teenager with freakish talent, has kept things quiet and never boasted. He could have easily said “Of course I’m going to play, and I’m going to be awesome,” but instead he just towed the company line.

They haven’t grabbed for headlines. They haven’t been flamboyant. They’ve just been a football team.

Hmmm.

More than any X’s and O’s, this is what I’m hanging my hat on for Sunday at 6:29. The Patriots have gone about their business and seem focused on winning this game. They are relaxed (have you ever seen Coach Belichick look so at ease during Super Bowl week?) and excited to play football. The Giants have been acting like they’re trying to prove to themselves that they belong on this stage and can be the top dogs again. The Pats know they belong here.

Listen, if the Giants win the Super Bowl I won’t be that surprised. Both teams are good. Both teams are flawed. It really is going to come down to which one plays better on Sunday, one game for all the marbles.

I just feel pretty good about casting my lot with the team that is acting like they know how to handle the moment.

I saw a countdown on ESPN today that told me that it was only 5 days, 7 hours until kickoff of the Super Bowl. That tells me we’ve been enduring hype for only 8 days, 17 hours. We’re more than halfway there, but it’s painful isn’t it. Here are some things that are running through my mind as wait … and wait … and wait … and

** This game has to come down to the wire again, doesn’t it. We all remember Super Bowl 42 and the Velcro Helmet Catch and Asante Samuel’s gaffe and then Plaxico’s game-winner. Do you remember when the Pats played the Giants back on November 6?

That day the Pats rallied from behind to take the lead with 1:36 to go, a touchdown pass from Brady to Gronk for 14-yards. Eli got the ball back and drove down the field, and threw a 1-yarder to Jake Ballard with 15 seconds left to win it, 24-20.

** Turnovers are going to be the big difference in this one, I think. The Pats coughed it up 4 times in that loss to New York, a season-high. In the AFC championship game — the Cundiff Bowl — they committed 3, and probably should have lost. Taking care of the football is paramount. If the Patriots win the turnover battle, they can win the game. It’s simplistic, but so true.

** Non-football. Staying eligible to play on a high school team is not that hard. If you don’t do it, you let your team down, and yourself. You can read between the lines here, but I can’t really say any more than that.

** Blake Griffin’s dunk last night was pretty awesome, but was it really the greatest dunk ever? It was something to see, but we live in such a now-now-now society that the superlatives fly a little fast and loose. It was awesome, but I’m not ready to crown it the best ever.

** Rob Gronkowski is going to play. You know it, I know it, he knows it, his dad knows it. That said, I really think Aaron Hernandez is going to have a huge day. He’s more of the speed guy of the pair, and look what Vernon Davis did against the Giants in the NFC title game.

** I’m not an MMA guy by any means. That said, you should go out and rent The Warrior. It was awesome, and I can’t wait to see Tom Hardy play Bane in the new Batman movie now.

** Falmouth High School is having a fantastic winter right now, the boys’ hockey is 9-2-3, girls hockey is 7-4-1, girls hoop is 12-2 and boys hoop is 12-1. That’s a combined record of 40-9-4. I don’t think many high schools in the state can stack up to that.

** Those 4 teams have so many players that are fun to watch. I have a lot of favorites, but a quick list would have to include: Andrew McGill, Maddie Scavotto, Cy Wickersham and Nick Lineaweaver and Elizabeth Knox and Grace Geary. I’m also a fan of: Damien Reid, Devon Soares, Kyle Kasprzyk, Brenna Callahan, Durham Ghelfi, The Taylor Bros, The Cardeiro twins, Cody Murray, Zack Zaino.

** It’s the year of the freshman at FHS. The Class of 2015 is ridonkulous already. Scavotto, Brian Jeffrey, Ben Taylor, the litany of talented rooks on the girls’ hockey team (too many to name), Alexa Johnson, Tommi Gans. All 4 of those varsity clubs have big-time first-year players.

** Speaking of high school kids, I love how many of them are following my Twitter feed, both from Mashpee and Falmouth, and even some from D-Y and beyond. That said, here’s an important piece of advice to all of the Twitterati. What you say on your feed, unless you have a private account, is public record. People can, and will, check up on you. If you are out doing stupid things, and you post it, people will see that.

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again. When I was younger, when your parents were younger, when your coaches were younger, they too did stupid things. The big difference was and is, we did not document our idiocy for the world to see on Facebook and Twitter. If you post photos and status updates that are against the rules of what athletes/students are allowed to do, you will get noticed by someone that you don’t want to see it. Maybe a parent, maybe a coach, or maybe someone from another school that would love for you to miss a couple of games due to a suspension.

One of these days I’m going to hold a social media symposium at one of the schools.

** Mashpee deserves some love too. Who is filling up my notebook there? Zak Orcutt, Cody Bingham-Hendricks, Kevin Frye, Taylor Nickerson, Kyle Murray, The Conaways, Summer Fierro, Morgen Morris (when she’s healthy), Riley Taylor and Romeo Grey jump to mind. That’s just a quick list. Oh, and Jared Taylor may be playing mostly JV minutes, but he’s hard to miss with the shock blonde hairdo.