While We’re Young (Ideas) | Time Flies for Patriots and Sox
By TERRY LYONS
BOSTON – Glance over your shoulder and 2018 doesn’t seem all that long ago. But five years in the NFL equates to a player’s career counted in dog years and Blake Bortles, Leonard Fournette and the Jacksonville Jags laying a 28-14 whoopin’ on the Pittsburgh Steelers is a long way back.
The Steelers battled back that January and Jaguars squeaked by to face the vaunted Patriots defeated Jacksonville, 24-20 to win the AFC Championship on January 21, 2018. The National Football League “Goliaths” somehow lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 41-33, that February but would bounce back a year later to win their second Super Bowl title in three years, their sixth title in the Tom Brady–Bill Belichick era.
Since then, the Jags built, re-built, sucked and re-built again with two of the best young players in the game today. Tanking a la carte.
How fragile it can be in the NFL.
Over at the old ballpark, the Boston Red Sox won four World Series titles from 2004 to 2018, that magical year at Fenway. Steve Pearce was the World Series and Mookie Betts was the MVP of the American League just five years ago.
A lifetime ago in Major League Baseball years, free agency and all. Old Dog years.
We have just 22 days until Pitchers & Catchers report to spring training and the scouting reports for the Sox project another possible last place finish in the AL East, a division loaded with talent, from the 99-win New York Yankees seemingly on the way up to the Wild Card holders Tampa Bay and Toronto to the immensely talented Baltimore Orioles, winners of 83 games last season.
The 2023 Sox?
One can predict ahead to the strength of a baseball team by looking straight up the middle. For Boston, because of the loss of SS Xander Bogaerts to free agency to the oft-injured Trevor Story, the men-in-the-middle will be challenged. Take a quick look at the depth chart:
- Catcher: Reese McGuire
- 2B: Christian Arroyo
- SS: Kiké Hernandez
- CF: Rob Refsnyder
- SP: Chris Sale; Corey Kluber, Nick Pivetta and – maybe – James Paxton
Suspect, at best. Cellar-dwellers, at worst.
So what do those stubborn and spoiled New Englanders do for their sports fix in 2023?
The Boston Bruins of the NHL are a league leading 36-5-4 with a whopping 76 points through 45 games (not including Saturday night). The Bruins are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and an astonishing 21-1-3 at TD Garden, never a fortress of Ws.
Bruins goalkeeper Linus Ullmark of Sweden is the favorite for the league’s Vezina Trophy for best goaltending with his 1.89 goals against average and his .937 save percentage, both figures topping NHL goaltenders.
Forward David Pastrnak leads Boston in scoring with 63 points, good enough to rank T-4th in the NHL. Pastrnak has 35 goals and seems to be warming up after a bit of a slow start to the 2022-23 season. Forwards Brad Marchand and team captain Patrice Bergeron returned for injuries, Bergeron was considering retirement as his longtime goalkeep Tuukka Raskhad decided to hang-up the skates in ‘22.
Forwards David Krejci (1,000 games into his career) and left wings Taylor Hall and Jake DeBrusk have picked up the scoring to round-out a very consistent offense – both home and on the road.
Some of this might be news to out-of-towners, but for Bostonians the buzz for a busy April-May-and possibly-June surround the Garden.
Across the Hall, the same goes for the Boston Celtics, league leaders in W-Ls, winners of nine-of-ten and nine in a row after gutting out a 121-118 OT win over the visiting Golden State Warriors on Thursday and a 106-104 win over Toronto on Saturday, January 21st, in a game that stayed locked at the final score for the final 1:13.
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum is in a four player race for league MVP, along with international stars Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Luka Doncic, an amazing stat considering only 25% of the NBA player rosters consist of international players. Joel Embiid of Philly by way of Cameroon, might be a distant fifth in the race.
The Celtics, after a 2022 NBA Finals loss to Golden State last summer, are primed, deep and ready for the next step. Only injuries might stand in their way and they are coming quite often. Of late, guard Marcus Smart, last season’s Defensive Player of the Year, and Robert Williams are both sidelined as of Saturday. Smart left the Cs game against the Raptors with an injured ankle while Williams Saturday hyperextended the same left knee he had surgery upon last March. Tatum has been playing through a sore left wrist and might skip some time as he did against the Raptors.
It’s a ways until the NBA All-Star Week in Salt Lake City and the NHL All-Star Game in sunny Sunrise, Florida. Until the mid-season classics are in the book and the dog-days of March play-out, the NBA and NHL playoff seedings are very much up for grabs. Only the health of the players can determine success come springtime.
HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Front Office Sports delved into the wonderful world of Pickleball after Major League Pickleball (we’re not joking) unveiled its A-list team of investors for its 24-team league. KC Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is in on the action as are tennis stars Naomi Osaka and Chris Evert, nevermind supermodel and adidas influencer Heidi Klum.
Other investors include Major League Baseball pitcher Justin Verlander and his wife, the model and actress Kate Upton, German soccer star Mesut Ӧzil, former National Basketball Association stars Jeremy Lin and Dirk Nowitzki, and former NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald
Major League Pickleball also unveiled its final two franchises to be added to the league, with the St. Louis Shock and Orlando Squeeze joining ahead of the 2023 tournament/season starting this month.
The addition of the two new teams completes the expansion to 24 teams that the league announced in December. The Shock’s ownership group will be headed by Richard Chaifetz and his son Ross, while Ryan DeVos will front he new ownersship group of the Squeeze.
The DeVos family, who own the NBA’s Orlando Magic and Major League Soccer’s Orlando City, invested in the newly formed Pro Volleyball Federation through an ownership group for a new franchise in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
TID-BITS: New York-based venture capital firm Courtside Ventures is now launching its third fund, focusing on early-stage companies involved in sports, digital media, fitness and gaming. Courtside announced a new raise of $100m – much from current NBA team ownership groups.
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NBA POWER RATINGS: This listing should probably await the NBA All-Star break, but here’s an early look as the second half of the season fast approaches:
- Boston Celtics
- Denver Nuggets
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Philadelphia 76ers
- Brooklyn Nets (injuries a factor)
- Sacramento Kings (winners of six straight)
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Dallas Mavericks
Perennial NBA playoff qualifiers, like the Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, LA Clippers and Lakers, Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz, might be in trouble.
The upcoming NBA Trading Deadline (Thursday, February 9) could put some intrigue in the air around stalled franchises, like hot-start Portland (10-4 start, now sitting at 21-24).
NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL POWER: The men’s college basketball conference championships and “March Madness” are on the horizon. Teams in the BIG 10, ACC, BIG EAST, Big 12 & Pac 12, SEC, American Athletic (just Houston, really), and the West Coast Conference (figuring Gonzaga will be there in the long haul) are all battling it out within conference. Here’s a short list of the teams to watch through the end of February
- Purdue
- Houston
- Kansas
- Alabama
- UCLA
- Xavier
- Texas
- Gonzaga
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- Arizona
- Iowa State
- Kansas State
- UConn
- TCU
- Auburn
There’s still a VERY long way to go. Don’t turn your backs on Duke, North Carolina, Marquette, Miami, Clemson and Providence. It’s 49 days until Selection Sunday.
NHL POWER RATINGS: Lastly, a quick look at the NHL’s best:
- Boston Bruins
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- New Jersey Devils
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Dallas Stars
- Winnipeg Jets
- Seattle Kraken
- Vegas Golden Knights
- New York Rangers
Look out for those Rangers, while the Kings, Oilers, Caps, Wild, Penguins, Calgary and Avalanche are all within the realm of Stanley Cup Playoffs contenders in 2023.
While We’re Young (Ideas) is a weekly Sunday Sports Notebook & Column, written by Terry Lyons. Each notebook harkens back to the days when you’d walk over to the city newsstand on Saturday night around 10pm to pick-up a copy of the Sunday papers. Inside, just waiting, was a sports-filled compilation of interesting notes, news, quotes and quips. TL’s Sunday Sports Notes – brought to you by Digital Sports Desk.
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