Alex Rodriguez has been looked upon as one of the players who will most definitely go into the baseball hall of fame….until now. No matter what people think about him, he will never be voted into the hall after his admission of steroid use. No matter who the player is, no matter what team they play for, I will lose respect for them. If we come to find out years down the road that Curt Schilling or Jason Varitek used steroids, every bit of respect for them would be lost. What are they teaching the youth around the country about sports? Especially in professional sports, it is important that they remember that they are role models and not just someone playing a game trying to win.

I heard some people call him courageous to admit to it, but that is not courage. Courage is going across the world to fight for your country and possibly die for your country. Courage is the single mother/father who are working their way through life on a pay check by pay check basis and still manage to better themselves by going back to school. Courage is not taking steroids to be a better baseball player and receive a 10-year-$252 million contract and then a 10-year-$275 million contract. If he wanted to be the best baseball player in history, he should have worked at it like everyone else.

A-Rod (A-Roid as people are calling him) went on “60 minutes” and lied to Katie Curic. If no one ever asked him and he chose not to speak up, not AS many people would be as mad/disappointed. If you knowingly went on TV and lied about not taking steroids, that is wrong.

In my opinion, the only way that the Sox will have a chance at winning the division and the World Series is with Mark Teixeira in the lineup. I know the Sox can do it without him, but I think it will be so much easier with him.

Tommy Davidson, from “In Living Color”, was the host for the night. He not only made the crowd including Kristin and I laugh, but he made himself laugh a couple of times. He kept interrupting the stage manager when he was trying to countdown to taping and each time it was even funnier.

Iliza Shlesinger was one of the comedians that performed last night and she was awesome. In case you were wondering, she was the “Last Comic Standing” winner of season 6. She has two major qualities, she’s extremely hot and VERY funny.

The live taping of the show was really interesting. In one night, they taped three shows and made it seem like they were actually three different nights. Tommy Davidson was wearing different shirts and they closed out every third comic with saying goodnight and then they introduced him again two minutes later. There is one section of the show where they play something that is pre-recorded and they asked us not to clap after Tommy introduced it.

Overall the night was great and we had a lot of fun. Watch for season 2 of “NESN’s Comedy All Stars” which airs I believe Friday nights after Red Sox games (next season obviously).

“I’ve had no doubts that our guys will do it. But in any case I feel greatly relieved that it’s over now and we can celebrate our success,” said one fan after learning the news.

Meanwhile, Armenia’s women finished outside the top six, but scored a number of memorable victories during the tournament, among them the demolition of the Azerbaijani team 4-0.

Congratulations to the Armenian chess team.

In addition, the Boston BBWAA announced it has named second baseman Dustin Pedroia as its 2008 Red Sox Most Valuable Player. Left-handed pitcher Jon Lester was chosen as the Chapter’s 2008 Red Sox Pitcher of the Year.

Other award recipients at the Boston Baseball Dinner are: Jacoby Ellsbury – Red Sox Rookie of the Year; Jonathan Papelbon – Red Sox Fireman of the Year; Sean Casey – Good Guy Award; Jeff Bailey – Red Sox Minor League Award. Other award winners will be announced in the future.

Tickets for the dinner are priced at $150.00 each. Tickets can be purchased by making checks payable to Boston Chapter BBWAA and mailing to: Boston Chapter BBWAA, P.O. Box 7346, Nashua, NH, 03060. Proceeds from the event will help the Chapter to continue supporting charitable causes.

Pedroia led the majors with 54 doubles and led the AL in runs with 118 and multihit games with 61. Backed by a .326 average, Pedroia lost the batting title by just four points to Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer. Pedroia finished fourth in total bases with 322 and seventh in extra-base hits at 73. Dustin also chipped in with power (17 homers, 83 RBIs) and speed (20 stolen bases).

He deserves it even though everyone seems to think that A-Rod is actually better. Apparently he isn’t and this award proves it. Congratulations Dustin Pedroia!!

Time can change everything but some things will always remain the same and I’m not talking about Fenway. I am talking about when a fan of a game walks into “that” (any) park and something comes over them. It is something about that place that makes me feel like a kid again. Back to when my father used to take me to baseball games and it was so magical. I lost out on that 4 months ago today when he passed away of cancer (Red Sox have been partnered with the Jimmy Fund since 1953). 100 years is not just another number, it is how there are some memories that can be passed along through generations.

Last year, Youk won the gold glove last year, but this year, Rays first baseman Carlos Pena won it this year. Pedroia definitely deserves the Gold Glove because of how amazing he played this year. He prides himself on his defense and ranked #1 in all categories in the AL.

Hopefully next week, they announce that he is the AL MVP!

I just hope it works this year.

NOTE: Dixville Notch, NH will vote at midnight (a few minutes)

The Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavilers 90-85 at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston and it was a very interesting game. The Celtics were behind the whole 1st half of the game. They came out in the 3rd and 4th pounding away at the Cavilers and took over the lead. They went back and forth for a while, but finally the Celtics finished the game strong.

Can the Celtics repeat as champions this year? Can they regain the dynasty status? Only time will tell, but it will be a fun year to watch.

GO CELTICS!!!!!!

Youk was up and hit a ball in the infield, but the 1st baseman couldn’t get the ball and it soared over his head into the stands. With Youk on second and Jason Bay at first after a BB, J.D. Drew hit a fly ball to right field over the OF’s head to bring Youk home and extend the Red Sox season at least 2 more days.

Game 6 is on Saturday night at 8:07pm EST. GO RED SOX!!!!

Hopefully next week, we will play better.

Game 2 is tonight at 8pm EST on TBS. GO SOX!!!

The Red Sox will start the ALCS down in Tampa on October 10th. GO SOX!!!

Going into the last 5 minutes in the game, the score was 27-10 Houston. However, the tides changed once Houston quarterback Sage Rosenfels decided to try and fly over the hit and he lost the ball. The Colts recovered the ball and ran it back for a touchdown. (27-17 Houston) The Colts tried to onside kick the ball and knocked it out of the receiving teams hand and followed it by running it into the end zone for a touchdown (27-24 Houston). Finally Rosenfels was sacked again and the ball was stripped out on the 19 yard line. Manning threw it in for a touchdown to make the game 31-27 Colts. The Texans tried one more time to win the game, but failed again when the Colts intercepted the ball to close the game.

It was the worst meltdowns in the history of the young franchise!

All of the people who’s tickets in are their name will have their names sent to the baseball hall of fame as part of the historic record. My name is a part of it. Unfortuneately they spelt my name wrong on the tickets, so it will go in wrong.

Hope everyone enjoyed the game.

The Patriots thought the game was won until the Chiefs caught the secondary off guard and brought it to the 10 yard line with about 2 minutes to go. Even though the Patriots almost gave up a touchdown, they were able to stand off the Chiefs for 5 plays and take the game 17-10.

I am going to take pictures (hopefully I get there in enough time) and then I will blog them.

Awesome Birthday Gift!!!! GO RED SOX

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Update: not only did the Red Sox beat the Orioles 7-4, but Dustin Pedroia broke the Red Sox record for number of hits in a single season for a second baseman.

Also the Olympians that are originally/curently live(d) in the New England area. This list included Alicia Sacramone, silver medalist women’s gymnastics all around, who lives in Winchester, MA.

* GB: Games Behind
** E#: Elimination Number

This has been a very interesting year. A month ago, Jason Bay was playing for the Pirates who just got eliminated and now he is on the Red Sox playing to try and win the division. The division that is being destroyed by the Tampa Bay Rays. A team that this exact date last year, was three games away from elimination. When all the other teams were at least 10-15 games from being eliminated. (except the Red Sox who won the division on September 29th…I was inside “Game On” watching the Yankees lose giving us the title).

Currently the Red Sox are 4.5 games behind the Rays and the Yankees are 11 1/2 with 17 games as their E#. The Red Sox need to get JD Drew, Sean Casey and Josh Beckett back in so that we can finish the season off with another Division Title.

GO RED SOX!!!!!!

The Sox will never play there again, because the Yankees are obviously not making the playoffs this year and if they do, they will be out in the first round which we won’t play them.

GO SOX!!!

Maria Sharapova (left) has been one of the best tennis stars in the world since she won Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 17. Now at 21, she is ranked 6th on the WTA listings, but she has been in the top position numerous times. I try to watch her play every time because not only is she one of the best in the world, but she is smokin’ hot. 6’2” Russian superstar who has been in tons of commercials for Cannon as well as the “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition“.

She is said to be the highest paid female athlete at $26 million, but according to her, she loves money, so the more the better. Maria has won 3 of the 4 Grad Slam titles and won the WTA Championship in 2004. In 2007, she was named the “ESPN Hottest Female Athlete” and “Best Female Athlete” in 2008.

Nicole Vaidišová (right) is currently ranked 21 on the list, but was in the top 10 ranking 7th in 2007. Nicole is only 19 years old and is from the Czech Republic and is also smokin’ hot.

However, Vaidišová can in no way compare to Maria Sharapova in beauty or in skills. Maybe in a few years, Nicole can make a better run for the title, but it will go to Maria Sharapova.

Jon Lester went 7 innings giving up 1 run and apparently that is all Jon Lester needed to get his 12th win of the season and winning 9 of the last 10 games. He has been very consitant for Boston and he just seems to get better through each start.

Papelbon came in the 9th to close the game out at Fenway Park Camden Yards in Baltimore. The crowd is very pro-Red Sox that it feels like home. Papelbon moves into 2nd place for total career saves in Red Sox history with 105. The career leader is at 132 saves.

Yesterday I wrote an article about my experience in San Francisco and how awful it was for my friend Vasken and I. Now, I am going to explain how the West Coast ruined one of the biggest Olympic moments ever.

We got to the place we were staying in Santa Clara and we were looking for the Olympics on the TV. We realized that the West Coast had a 3 hour time delay on the Olympics and we switched to the pre-season football Green Bay vs. San Francisco. While watching the game, they panned to the jumbotron where they announced the results of the race where Micheal Phelps won his 8th Gold Medal in 8 possible opportunities. But the West Coast had not seen it yet.

I think I am very bitter about the entire situation and this just made it so much worse. Everything else on TV is announced as 9/8 central, meaning that in the Eastern time zone, it is on at 9pm in the EST and 8pm in the Central. Now the Olympics men’s swimming started at 10:58pm in Eastern timezone, so you would think that in Central timezone it is on at 9:58pm and Pacific timezone would be on at 7:58pm. Now, you would also think that the “LIVE” Olympics would actually be live, but the “LIVE” in the corner wasn’t really live.

However, no one has ever accomplished this feat in Olympic history and now Phelps stands alone. Congratulations Micheal Phelps.

His first Olympic race was in Sydney and the 2000 Olympics and in the last 2 Olympics (this one’s not over), he has become the face of swimming since. I watched him swim in Athens and I have watched each of these golds.

GO USA!

The swimmer from France was in the lead prior to the last leg. Even with less than 50 meters to go, France was in the lead, but Jason Lezak of the US came from nowhere to split the 100m at 46.06 seconds shattering the former world record by 4 seconds.

Phelps already won one the day before, this made two. At the time of this post, Phelps won another gold medal, tying the record for most medals of all time. Tomorrow he is scheduled for two races, both for medals. Tomorrow he might be the best Olympian ever with 12 medals and 10 gold.

GO USA

I DVRed the opening ceremonies and I want to write about each part of it, hopefully I will get around to it in the next few days.

The torch lighting ceremony was very creative. All eight were Chinese Olympic champions including the final carrier who they hoisted up to the top of the stadium and he “ran” around a projection that went around in 360 degrees culminating in the lighting of the cauldron followed by fireworks.

Good Luck Team USA!!!!!

Matt Cassel didn’t do well at all in his first start, but Matt Gutierrez and rookie Kevin O’Connell played decent in comparison. Even though the Patriots lost to the Ravens 16-15, it was the first time we have seen the Patriots play a game since the Super Bowl.

GO PATS!!!!