Schilling Retires

After 20 years in the MLB, playing the last four in Boston, Curt Schilling is retiring. He made the announcement on his blog, "38 pitches" this morning:

"This party has officially ended. After being blessed to experience 23 years of playing professional baseball in front of the world's best fans in so many different places, it is with zero regrets that I am making my retirement official."

Big Schill will end his career with an overall record of 216-146 and 3.46 ERA. As a fan of the Red Sox, I'm very happy for Schilling and glad that he didn't suffer more shoulder injuries, but most of all, glad that he went out in a classy, non-Favre way. Schilling tried to come back for one more season last year, but due to his nagging shoulder injuries, he was unable to. Instead of trying to squeeze in one more season, the three-time World Champion bowed out gracefully, and will hopefully enjoy the next several years with his family and friends. Thanks for a great four seasons, Schill! We definitely couldn't have won the World Series twice without you.

Photo courtesy of MLBlogsNetwork

Bye Bye Bardie

After signing a one-year contract with the Red Sox for $1.7 million, as well as a team option for a second year, Josh Bard was released from the Sox this morning. His contract wasn't guaranteed, but the Sox will still end up paying him one-sixth of his 2009 salary at $283,333. Not bad for only playing with the team three months this year.

Last year, Bard played in 7 games as Varitek's backup, but struggled when trying to catch Tim Wakefield's knuckleball. George Kottaras will now be on the roster for Opening Day. Kottaras is a 25-year-old swich-hitter who is "out of minor league options" according to the Boston Globe's Chad Finn.

Women are top picks for TV anchor desk - The Boston Globe

Women are top picks for TV anchor desk - The Boston Globe

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BU Basketball

After going 16-0 in the regular season and being America East Conference Champs, the BU Terriers lost to the University of Vermont in the finals on Sunday night at the Chase Reich Family Pavilion at the University of Hartford. Despite their loss on Sunday, the girls still have several reasons to be proud of.

Jesyka Burks-Wiley received America East Player of the Year, Amarachi Umez-Eronini earned herself Defensive Player of the Year, Christine Kinneary was voted Fans' Choice Player of the Year, and Coach Kelly Greenberg earned Coach of the Year. Burks-Wiley, Umez-Eronini, and Kinneary were also named to the America East All-Conference First Team, while senior Kristi Dini was named to the America East All-Conference Third Team.

In addition to an unbelievable season, this squad will also leave their marks in BU history. Kinneary holds the record for dishing out the most assists 543, crushing the previous record held by Debbie Miller '81 at 477. Known for her clutch 3-point shot Dini is the all-time 3-point scorer with 197 made, 25 more than Katie Terhune '04.

The Terriers are now making their debut in the WNIT and will host Central Connecticut on Thursday at Case Gym, 7 p.m. The winner of Thursday's game will face Boston College in Chestnut Hill on Monday, March 23rd.

Baseball is Back!

The snow is melting, the green in the grass is slowly reappearing, and the Red Sox caps are back on display.  With less than a month away from Opening Day at Fenway, the Sox are tying up all the contracts and making sure they have the best players remaining in Boston. 

Jon Lester, in addition to 18 other Red Sox, including Manny Delcarmen and Clay Buchholz, are guaranteed to be on the roster for at least another year.  On Sunday, Yahoo! Sports reported that Lester had already agreed to a 5-year, $30 million extension, but the left-hander said on Monday that the deal had still not be completed.  

Boston's former friend, Manny Ramirez will be making his 2009 season debut for the LA Dodgers when they play South Korea's World Baseball Classic team tomorrow.  Last week, Ramirez agreed to a 2-year $45 million deal.  Reporters covering the Dodgers spring training have said that Ramirez has been showing up at 6 a.m. every morning ready to lift and work out.  I still don't miss him and am looking forward to a drama-free winning season in Boston.

Canseco Speaks the Truth

Well who would have thought that Jose Canseco would turn out to be a honest guy? After all the name calling and being labeled as "money hungry" when he published his two books, Canseco is now seeking an apology from the MLB according to his attorney, Dennis Holahan.

In both of his books, "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big," and "Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and The Battle to Save Baseball" Canseco vividly described how he injected teammates with illegal anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH). Among the names of several major league stars in his second book was none other then Mr. Rodriguez. Canseco even claimed that he was the one who introduced A-Rod to steroids. In an interview on February 9th, Rodriguez denies this from occurring, according to The Canadian Press.

"Jose Canseco deserves to be brought back in from the cold," Holahan said. "He was the guy that blew the whistle...There's not another book, there's no more names," he said. "It's done. It's over. He's got to get on with his life."

West Wins, 146-119

From the very beginning of last night's NBA All-Star game, it was inevitable that the West squad had a much deeper bench than the East. After the starting five for the East sat down, Kobe and the rest of the West began to dominate.

What is even more impressive than how talented the West is this year, is the fact that old teammates/enemies Shaq and Kobe both won MVP! It was nice to see them get along last night, whether for media purposes, or hopefully, because their disagreements are a thing of the past. "I tell you what, those two guys together, that's a deadly combination," East coach Mike Brown said of Bryant and O'Neal. "They are where they are right now but if they were to stay together, no telling how many more rings they would have had on their fingers and toes."
Boston's own Big Three did their usual damage as well last night and made the C's proud. With 7:47 left in the game, all three stars were done for the night. (Garnett was benched even sooner with 17:53 left in the game. We like keeping Doc happy.) Garnett netted 12 points going 5-5, Allen contributed 8 points, but Pierce was the star of the reserves earning 18 points, scoring 12 of those points in only 2 minutes and 22 seconds.

Floundering Phelps

Lately, Michael Phelps hasn't been in the news quite the same way he was back in August when he had the entire world's attention focused on his record-breaking Olympics in Beijing. His legacy began to grow instantaneously and "phans" were starting to emerge out of nowhere. It didn't matter if you didn't know anything about US Swimming - everyone knew that they were witnessing history and something far beyond average.

After a picture of him smoking from a large bong was posted in the papers and all over the Internet, Phelps was finally portrayed as average. He's a 23-year-old guy who hasn't lead a typical adolescence and young adulthood and had a huge lapse of judgment that may cost him his medals, but it's really hard for me to not like the guy anymore. If anything, I feel terrible for him. Here's a good American kid who has dedicated his life to becoming an elite swimmer, swimming up to 9 hours a day sometimes, and having to sacrifice his entire life. When training for the Olympics, there were zero days of for the 20-year-old to be normal. Clearly his sacrifices paid off and didn't seem to bother him when he draped his 8 medals around his neck for Sports Illustrated.

The most recent reports say that the actual bong that he smoked out of his going for $100,000 on eBay, and around the same time the picture was taken, Phelps was found gambling $4K over a game of beer pong. Even with this recent addition of gambling to Phelps' drama, I'm still not convinced that what he accomplished at the Olympics should be taken away. Is it slightly tainted and not as magnificent? To some, yes, but these acts of pure stupidity all occurred in November 2007. Marijuana isn't a performance enhancement steroid either! It's a relaxant that a fair number of 20-year-olds have experimented.

Let's face it. It could be way worse....He could be A-Roid! Who in the MLB hasn't taken steroids now? Should any record set or broken from 1990 count for anything anymore? America's old pastime is such a disgrace now and always has to be viewed as a game with many flaws and problems. Now, I'm a huge Sox fan and wouldn't be surprised if some of our beloved Sox players are on the same list that A-Rod is on from 2003. It just saddens me that one of America's greatest traditions of watching a ballgame in the summer and fall has been stained forever.