Obama Wouldn't Believe his Eyes

President Barack Obama would not believe his eyes if he were to log-in to the moderately liberal web log that is TerryLyons.Blogspot.com - and see .... Oh My!  Ads for O-Mitt Romney and Scott Brown.

The ad system utilized spews the material according to the guys with the Ad Budgets and it seems like O-Mitt is outspending the Democratic incumbents.  We'll see in November.

Just don't click on their ads. I don't need the Ad Revenue that much.  

Oh, yes I do...

Bobby V: Managing with those Mind Games

By TERRY LYONS

(Special to DigitalSportsDesk.com)

BOSTON, MAY 1, 2012 - What are the inexorable rights of a New Englander?  Since the turn of the century, meaning the 21st century, the seemingly God-given rights include all of the following activities:

- The right to bear arms

- The right to bitch about the weather changing by the minute

- The right to imbibe Dunkin' Donuts coffee every 30 minutes

- The right to botch-up a Senatorial election to replace the late Ted Kennedy

- The right to great, make that Championship-level sports teams - including the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox; the 2001, 2003 and 2004 New England Patriots, the 2008 Boston Celtics and, even, the 2011 Boston Cannons of lacrosse.  Boston has had its share of winners since father time partied 1999 away with Prince and shuttled in the year 2000.

Darnell McDonald of the Boston Red Sox

Despite all of that winning, if there is one sure-fire right of a Bostonian, it is the right to second-guess.  And, second-guess they do.  They quibble with the  coaches, the managers, the players, the politicians, the dogs, the cats.  Hell, they even second guess NE Patriots QB Tom Brady, and he might be one of the greatest New England players of all-time, along with Bill Russell, Ted Williams, Bobby Orr and Larry Bird.

If there were to be a second-guesser's Hall of Fame, it would be situated somewhere near Fenway Park, maybe at the corner of Lansdowne Street and Yawkey Way.  The halls would be extra wide, so as to allow the patrons to walk three or six abreast. If they were to build it, people would come.

They would come to to reminisce about their favorite second guessing moments involving Grady Little.  Back on October 16, 2003, the Red Sox manager decided to leave his ace, Pedro Martinez, on the hill against the New York Yankees. The Sox had a 5-2 lead in the eighth, but ole Pedro tired and let up three runs before Yankees' journeyman Aaron Boone belted a Home Run off Tim Wakefield in the 11th.  The rest was history.

The faithful will second guess the great Bill Belichick, too.  The same man that's presided over three Super Bowl championships and a pair of AFC title that cowboy-up with two stunning Super Bowl losses was second-guessed beyond your wildest dreams for a 4th down and 2 call against the hated Indianapolis Colts.  The play failed, the Patriots lost 35-34 in a mid-November game and you'd thought the sky fell when the team returned from Naptown to Patriot Place.

The second-guessing works in politics, too.  Democratic Senatorial hopeful Martha Coakley started to do the backstroke after gaining her party's nomination in a special election to replace the late Ted Kennedy, only to have Republican Scott Brown, he of barn jackets and GMC trucks, walk-away with the 2010 Commonwealth of Massachusetts Senatorial election. In doing so, it upended the life's work by his Senatorial predecessor in regard to universal healthcare and it ignited a flurry of second-guessing that hasn't been seen nor heard since Michael Dukakis ran into a juggernaut named Ronald Reagan in 1988. But, we digress and prefer to stick with sports.

On the parquet and the ice at TD Garden, Celtics coach Doc Rivers and the Bruins main-man, Claude Julien, do not escape the seasonal sport of second-guessing to the ummph degree, however, in the sports of basketball and hockey, New Englanders seem to like to blame the players and the GMs rather than the coaches.  So, in NBA lore the second-guessers mock Boston GM Danny Ainge for shipping center Kendrick Perkins outbound while Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli is being whipped like a rare persian rug on a dusty day in Baghdad for his stand-still approach with the 2011 Stanley Cup champions who were ousted by the Washington Capitals in the first-round of the 2012 Cup playoffs, amidst mockery of an inefficient offense.

Now and then, New Englanders like to second-guess other coaches, too.  Case in point this week, one former Celtics assistant coach, Tom Thibodeau of the Chicago Bulls who decided to run 2011 MVP guard Derrick Rose with the Bulls while the team was trouncing the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of their first round NBA playoff series.  Rose took a clumsy two-step and crushed his ACL, ending his season and, possibly the longterm playoff hopes of a (still) deep Chicago Bulls basketball team.  Boston sports talk-show radio lit up with disdain directed at Rivers' former aide and defensive wizard.  Second-guessing has no boundaries.

David "Big Papi" Ortiz of Boston off to hot start.

And, that brings us to the 2012 Boston Red Sox.  After a rough start at the Detroit Tigers (0-3), at the Toronto Blue Jays (1-2), then a slight reprieve by winning three of four at home against the highly rated Tampa Bay Rays, the Sox and Manager Bobby Valentine caught the wrath of the Kenmore Square faithful when the Sox dropped two-straight to both the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees before a rain-out saved the day on April 22.  

Right smack in the middle of the near nuclear fall-out was a Patriot's Day/Boston Marathon Day lyric-reading of John Lennon's "Mind Games," as Valentine questioned the emotional status of veteran third-baseman Kevin Youkilis and the Sox clubhouse came to "Youk's" emotional rescue when veteran second baseman and annual MVP candidate Dustin Pedroia chastised his new boss, stating, "that's not the way we go about our stuff here.  I'm sure he'll (Valentine) will figure it out soon."

Alas, since the marathon day Dustin dust-up, the Boston Red Sox have won seven of eight, including tonight's 11-6 cropping of the Oakland A's.  Boston scored 11 runs over the course of the 2nd through 5th innings and held on after starting pitcher Clay Buchholz melted down to allow five runs in the top of the seventh, but still managing to gain his third win in four early season outings for the 11-11 Bostonians, as of Monday night.

Valentine has his team playing .500 ball and with the American League schedule coming in like a soft summer breeze on the Cape, the Sox might remain well over the .500 mark through the Ides of May after a few more A's games, then series against Baltimore, Kansas City, Cleveland and Seattle with only a three-game stretch in KC away from the comfy confines of Fenway.

Taking the second-guessing game aside, is it possible that Bobby Valentine's intuition as a manager called for him to speak his peace against Youkilis to see if he could light the fire of camaraderie under the fannies of "Youk's" teammates?  Is it at all possible that Valentine wanted to perform a Kentucky Fried (or Popeye's) seance against a locker air that still stunk of September's past?  Was it a challenge?  Was it managing by Mind Games?

We'll just have to listen, wait and see.

Game Notes:  The Boston Red Sox have won seven of their last eight and evened their record at 11-11 (.500).  DH David Ortiz recorded his 36th multi-home run game as a member of the Red Sox and his 38th overall.  Ortiz moved past Jim Rice in the team lead of multi-HR games and trails legendary ted Williams by only one 2x HR outing.  Ortiz is batting .448 (13-of-29) on the season. Manager Bobby Valentine praised the efforts of Darnell McDonald who went 3-for-4 with a 2B, HR, two RBIs and a career-high three runs scored.  Oakland A's starter Tommy Milone reminded many of the Boston faithful of Sam Malone of Cheers fame.  Milone went 4.2 innings, allowing eight runs, seven earned, on eight hits while giving up three HRs.  No truth to the rumor that Milone was heading to Bull & Finch Pub.

Ramble On ...

While most of Boston and New England provide for postcard perfect settings during all four seasons of the year, there are a few - 'circa 1970 - buildings that leave a lot to be desired in terms of architectural decency.  I sarcastically refer to one of the buildings, near Government Center, as the "Berlin Wall."

Boston has plans to tear down the "Berlin Wall" which stands as the government center parking structure to open up the skies of the West End much the way the city did by tearing down the old "Elevated" train tracks above Causeway Street, adjacent to Boston Garden to form Rose Kennedy GreenWay.

The Boston Globe posted this photo essay to show the "ugly" buildings -  See:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/in_praise_of_ugly_buildings/#/1

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A noted Boston veteran of politics, mostly local and not national, had this to say about last Tuesday's Senate election of Scott Brown:

"Yesterday was much more about really well run campaign prevailing over a horribly bungled campaign and a charismatic candidate who believeably articulated a message over a boring, complacent candidate who tried to coast to victory until it was too latethan the earth shaking political statement many are making it out to be. Losing almost 40 seats in... See More Congess and the White House over the course of just 2 years is a call for change, the better candidate winning a single seat is not no matter what party they represent. Politics by it's very nature is to play and spin every small victory as a monumental one and that will be the case with this special election victory for a while but I'm going to wait for some more movement in that direction, maybe another 10 seats or so to start predicting a Republican rise from the ashes of 14 month ago." - he posted earlier in the week on FB.

I thought it was pretty well put.  I would add:  The national media attention on the "lone" and "slow" media day on the special election added to the frenzy.  All networks sent reporters and dedicated their shows to the single election result and it magnified the outcome.  That, combined with the AMAZING result, upset, "Teddy's" seat and the obvious Democratic stronghold on prior Senate seats, then added to the media blitz.

Martha Coakley did nothing for me and that is a fact.  That was the prevailing viewpoint statewide.

Mike Capuano was a much better candidate but fell short in the primary.  I wish Steve Pagliuca had put his $ towards Capuano's campaign fund, rather than running for the seat himself.  It would have been money well spent.

Too late.

I wish Scott Brown the very best and I look forward to his proposal to fix a health care system that has been and continues to be broken.  Let's hear the better ideas.

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Marc Spears of Yahoo reports:

The 1992 Olympic Dream Team is expected to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Aug. 13. Two of its members, Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen, are also expected to be inducted individually, but if the Hall gets its wish, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and the rest of the original Dream Team will be in attendance.

“It was an honor to represent your country in one of the greatest times of your life,” Charles Barkley said.

The current U.S. national team will be training in New York for the upcoming World Championships and USA Basketball officials are hoping the players can take a break to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony.

“It has the makings of an incredible night,” said Jerry Colangelo, who is chairman of both USA Basketball and the Hall of Fame. It’s way too early to talk about it, but to get that history and legend together for both teams … it could be really big.”

USA Basketball is expected to name a pool of 20 to 25 candidates for its roster before the All-Star game. Colangelo is expected to meet with potential members during the All-Star break. He’s already met with some players to assess their interest and has a meeting with Kobe Bryant scheduled in New York.

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