April 9, 2012
– 12:15am
30,000 miles
above South Carolina
Funny baseball
story about Josh Gibson, one of the greatest to ever play, the legendary
slugging catcher and all-time Negro League homerun champion.
His home
runs, in the pre-television age, were the stuff of the-fish-was-this-big
hyperbolic yarn. The story goes that one
day in Pittsburgh he hit a ball so far out of the ballpark, no one ever saw it
come down. So the next day, with his
team playing another game hundreds of miles away, let’s say Harrisburg for the
sake of the story, Gibson hits a towering pop fly that takes so long to come
down, everyone loses it for a few seconds.
When it finally reappears and eventually lands in an infielder’s glove,
the umpire turns to Gibson and says “You’re out…yesterday…in Pittsburgh.”
Point is, it’s
been kind of a long day. I was in Tampa
at the Frozen Four last night and left there this morning, I’m about to land in
Miami and head to the hotel to sleep.
That wouldn’t seem like much of a thing until I add that in between, there
was a Celtics game in Boston and about 94 minutes of sleep.
So right now,
I feel like that Josh Gibson home run from Pittsburgh, about to crash down
after a long day’s journey that will only end up as something like 250 miles of
net yardage.
And the point
is, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. That’s how much I love the Frozen Four.
But let’s
save that for last, since it’s so 27
hours ago and start with the Celtics, who in six weeks have gone from two games
under .500 and four games out of first, to a three game division lead with now
just ten games to play.
The stories
in my hockey-related absence this week were two, Ray Allen’s removal from the starting
lineup, and Doc Rivers verbal beat-down of his squad. Both of which came on
Thursday.
I’ll reserve judgment
on Doc’s tirade, other than to say coaches have the most impact doing it when
they don’t make a habit of it. And I think there was at least a little method
to that particular madness. With the
calendar growing short, 19 days until the playoff opener, and the very clear
understanding that the Celtics can compete with anybody, but no longer with
anything less than meticulous effort.
The Ray Allen-to-the-bench
decision to me, was if not a no-brainer, pretty close. The dilemma to me was
whether to do it to put Avery Bradley in the lineup. When Mickael Pietrus went
down with that gruesome concussion in Philadelphia 16 days ago, I’m convinced he was headed for the starting lineup in
place of Ray, maybe as early as the next game.
I’m not going to bash Ray’s defense. He’s battled hard the last few
years the likes of Dwayne Wade and Kobe Bryant (hello…6-for-24 in Game 7
anyone? The Celtics win that game, and Ray’s defense that night becomes part of
NBA lore). But it was time for the move, not to mention now you have a hall of
famer coming off the bench, he’ll still get the key crunch-time minutes and
mid-game minutes against other bench players. He will thrive in this role, and
it could end up extending a career that doesn’t appear close to winding down
anyway. Mentioned this on the broadcast a few months ago, but Reggie Miller
retired with 2,560 threes. Ray, sitting at 2,711, heading into the Miami game
Tuesday, has a shot at becoming the NBA’s first Mr. 3,000. Perspective? Yeah, that would be like someone
hitting 900 home runs.
(Someone say,
like Josh Gibson**, who might have had they let him play in the majors from the
time he was 19. John Gibson rant coming
on soon…can’t stop it….)
But first,
the fun stuff…the numbers. One of the
added features of the New Big Three Era has been documenting their final, wet
cement steps into the concrete of the all-time records en route to the hall of
fame. It was inevitable, they’d get a
little tangled along the way and now they have.
Tonight, Paul Pierce became one of the NBA’s all-time top 25 scorers.
Twice.
But by the
end of the night, he ended up falling back to 26th. Twice.
He began the
night seven points behind the 25th spot. Easy enough. But that 25th
spot at the start of the night, was held by Tim Duncan whose Spurs (after a
visit to Boston on Wednesday), were set to tip off at home about an hour after
the Celtics. 11 first-quarter points put
Pierce into the Top 25. But with the Celtics’ captain on the bench in the
second, Duncan scored five early points to leap-frog back in front. A Pierce
three in the 3rd quarter flipped them again…and you get the
point. Heading into Tuesday, Duncan sits
at 22,426, Pierce at 22,423.
The Celtics
remaining schedule is not easy. Seven of the ten games are against teams in the
playoff race, the other three are the back-to-back-to-back set everyone else
has already gone through. Right now, the
C’s are in the early stages of a ridiculous 12-game-in-17-night-stretch. Eight of
the 12 on the road, and none of the home games consecutive. Meaning, they have
to travel to each game. But a three-game lead with ten to play means 5-5 should
be enough to get Boston the more desirable 4-seed and what they wanted, to
avoid Miami and Chicago in the opening round.
OK, I need to
do this and then we’re on to the Frozen Four, I promise.
(** I’ve
gotten myself in trouble before, which I often do, talking about Josh
Gibson. As I bring his name up every
time Major League Baseball, or society, tries to celebrate the anniversary of
Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.
That lonely struggle remains and always will, one of the great
accomplishments of the 20th century. Not in sport, but in humanity. But when it’s anniversary is celebrated, it always hits me as asinine and utterly
lacking self-awareness. As if to say,
“hooray, it’s only been 50 years since we escaped from a backwards, race-driven
culture of fear and hate.” So when the
anniversary is celebrated over the accomplishment, I like to point out that two
months before Jackie’s debut with the Dodgers, Josh Gibson died. At 35. And he died a
delusional, alcoholic, one of the greatest to ever play driven to it by his
exclusion from the majors. We are proudest of sports when they lead society
rather than follow it. When they set an
example for it, rather than merely reflect and perpetuate its greatest fault lines. But while Jackie will always remind us what
is possible, Josh Gibson reminds me of what happens when fear of change
overcomes not just the better angles of our nature, but our nature itself.)
Not sure what
got me thinking about that. Any idea,
Augusta National? Exclusion, archaic
thinking…any idea at all? No?
Look, I love
the Masters, we all do. But the reality is, I don’t get ever get to see much of
it because of the weekend on which it falls. It’s Masters weekend to most
people. To me, it’s Frozen Four weekend.
I’m long
since over the idea of winning people over to the things I love. You learn as
you get older that’s really something of a wasted exercise in most cases. Mostly, because in the Twitter age, the
natural evolution of the “how’s my driving” joke. (You know, the one where no
one ever calls that number to say “I just saw your driver back across two lanes
into that loading dock perfectly and I just wanted to say great job”), tearing
down beats lifting up by a pretty healthy margin.
I think it’s
cool if you’re into NASCAR, or the Premiere League. Honestly, if I had more
time, I’d like to learn then both, try to understand what makes it great, but I’ve
got at least 20 channels on my cable system that are all-sports, there’s only
so much you can soak in before it’s time to switch to Cartoon Network for
Family Guy at 2:30. I’ve never strayed
too far from the “big six” (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, College Football, College
Hoops). Golf, tennis, boxing have all
their share of my attention at times over the years, and since my outing last
year, most of you know of my life-long passion for the pro wrestling industry.
I’m not here
to recruit you, I’m not even going to push it on you if you don’t want to try
it. But in my
world, college hockey will always have a very special place.
It’s an honor
to be the “Voice of the Frozen Four”. I was told last week , and this surprised
me, that I’ve now called more NCAA Championship Games (12) than anyone else.
And I will keep my promise to go back every single year they’ll have me.
I’ve gotten a
ton of hockey questions the last few days, and I didn’t want to blow up my
Twitter with some Frozen Four blowout 140 characters at a time, so this seemed like
a better place. The questions ranged from how hard is it to not to do hockey
now all year then jump into a championship weekend? (It’s complicated, and challenging, but
mining is hard, construction is hard, a job you do for money, with no sense of passion
or accomplishment, that’s hard. I’m one of the lucky people in the world and I
know it, the few employable skills I have, are doing what I love, that’s a
blessing). Do you feel weird having to
miss Celtics games every April? (A little, but I got my start in college hockey
and I will never forget that, that’s reason number one why I’ll always go back.
It’s how I pay my respect to the game). Is this year’s BC team the best you’ve
ever seen? (Ah, now that’s a meaty one…)
I’ve been
around the game for a quarter-century now. (Please hang on while I process how
freaking old that last sentence makes me seem.
Maybe I should spend less time blogging and more scheduling prostate
exams. I don’t know.) And it’s hard to say the 2012 Boston College team is the
best I’ve ever seen. Not when you saw
Maine in 1993, or some of the BU or Michigan teams of the 90’s. The
back-to-back championships of Denver and Minnesota from 2002-2005.
But not only is
Boston College putting up dynasty numbers, the one common thread of this BC run
that no one else can claim in the modern era, is that when the games get
tougher, and the stakes get higher, they get better. Think about that. Since 1998, BC is 79-17…in the playoffs. Say
that again with the Jim Mora voice…in the playoffs!
The
once-in-a-lifetime Maine team in ’93 was life-and-death in the Frozen Four.
Needing OT to beat Michigan in the semis and trailing 4-2 in the 3rd
period of the title game before the epic Jim Montgomery hat trick (all assisted
by Paul Kariya) to win it. The BU team
in 2009 was a wire-to-wire #1. But we all know, and by we I mean those that
follow our beloved game, that the Terriers trailed 3-1 in the final minute of
regulation before the miracle finish at the OT championship in Washington D.C. There were teams that could have been on the
best-ever list, like Michigan in ’97, BU in ’94, Michigan State in ’91, BC in ’07.
But they either couldn’t win the final game, or didn’t even get there.
In fact,
Saturday BC became just the 5th top overall seed since the Hrkac
Circus/Ed Belfour North Dakota tram of 1987 to actually win the title.
In this epic run for Boston College, 10 Frozen Fours in 15
years, it’s just the second time they entered the tournament as the top overall
seed. The other, 2005, they were knocked out by North Dakota in the regional
finals. It fits the pattern. If they win twice this weekend, they’ll become
just the 5th overll top seed in the last quarter-century to win it
all. (In the previous 11 years since the
tournament expanded from four teams (1977-1987), the top-seed winning was far
more common. It happened five times in those 11 years (’77 Wisconsin, ’80 North
Dakota, ’83 Wisconsin, ’85 RPI and ’87 North Dakota)
OVERALL
#1 SEEDS WINNING NCAA TITLE (Since
1988)
1993 Maine
1995 Boston Univ.
2006 Wisconsin
2009 Boston Univ.
2012
Boston College
But the thing
is, BC isn't just winning the tournament, they’re dominating. Two years ago at Ford Field in Detroit, they
faced the nation’s top two teams, Miami and Wisconsin, and went all Steffi Graf
on them, 7-1, 5-love. To further
illustrate, in the ten years since you had to win four games to win the title,
BC’s three title teams in the last five years are three of the four most
dominant.
NCAA
TOURNEY SCORING AGGREGATE (Since 16-team format
began 2003)
2010 Boston College +15
2003 Minnesota +15
2012 Boston College +14
2008 Boston College +12
2005 Denver +10
For 48 hours
before the title, game, we had to listen to people not terribly familiar with
the game, play up the David-versus-Goliath storyline. Yeah, Ferris State was David. David Freese.
David Robinson. David Tua. They were the #1 team in the country for most
of February, and they entered the NCAA’s ranked #6. This was no colossal
underdog and that’s how the game played out. In 2003, Ferris had Chris Kunitz,
now of the NHL MVP-favorite Evgeni Malkin’s line. And they didn’t make the
Frozen Four. This was a special year for Ferris and I’m glad people got to
spend some time in the world of Bob Daniels, one the most enjoyable, congenial,
delightful guys and an increasingly teeth-bearing and ornery hockey coaching
world.
My favorite stat
of the Frozen Four this year, by the way, was that Union goaltender and Hobey finalist
Troy Grosenick had more shutouts at Fenway this year than Red Sox pitchers did
all of last year. And the way things
have started, his might be the only one for a while. (The Celtics started 0-3 by the way, and now
53 games later have a three-game lead in their division, so you know, let’s
chill for a bit.)
But as the
plane starts its descent into the Sunshine State I left 17 hours ago, seems
like an interesting time to think about full circle, and different parts of my
strange life overlapping. And no, I don’t mean the once-in-who-knows-how-long
chance to bring two of my buddies from opposite ends of the world together for
dinner in Tampa the other night. Barry
Melrose to my right, Jim Ross to my left. Clearly the beginning of a beautiful friendship
between two icons in their worlds. That’s
an entirely different blog. I’m talking
about this one;
As the
championship game approached, BC coach Jerry York talked about a speech his
team had gotten a few weeks earlier from another coach. About how while not everyone can be a star, everyone can be a star in their role. He talked about how it resonated with his
players as they made their run towards last night’s championship.
The author of
that speech?
Doc Rivers.
We often don’t
think about how the different elements of sports, or our own lives can
intertwine. But sometimes, you can be sleep-deprived, jet-lagged and not know
if you’re looking at a power play or a flagrant foul, it’s still impossible to
miss.
As we arrived
at Hanscom Air Force base for our flight to Miami tonight, Doc Rivers was handed
a gift. A few hours earlier, the national champion Boston College Eagles’
charter flight had touched down at the same terminal. The coaches and players he inspired had saved
him one of the championship hats they were given on the ice moments after the
final horn. Knowing the Celtics were
about to pass through the same halls a few hours later, since they couldn’t
offer him a tip of the cap. They just
left him his own.
And now that
hat, like Josh Gibson’s legendary home run, is about to touch down just a few
hundred miles from where it originated.
One final
reminder that the journey, is always more interesting than the destination.
(Although
since this destination includes a king size bed, in this case I’m making a
personal exception.)
